Carnival Transportation from airport to ship

[csm5986142]

We purchased Carnival transportation from the airport to the ship.  How do we know when/where to meet and details like that?  I was expecting an email or details in our account, but we leave in a few days and haven't heard anything yet.

[1025cruise]

There will be a person in baggage claim holding a sign that says "Carnival".

[fozzy]

www.carnival.com/airport-transfers  it has all the ports listed as you weren't specific about what port you needed. Just click on the port it will tell you where to meet up. 

[Mike45LC]

The person with the Carnival sign will usually be by the baggage claim area.  

[bg2310]

Use the link someone shared above and search for your airport/city.

 

Generally, it's in the baggage claim area after deplaning and you will want to look for a worker holding or standing next to a Carnival sign. They will get you signed in and direct you what to do/where to go.

[csm5986142]

Well we won't be doing that again - it was nothing but confusion.

We arrived at the meeting location (specified on the website) at about 10:30 for our 11:00 shuttle.

We started to get concerned when we could only find a large group of Princess cruisers along with their rep. Finally, I happened to see another passenger had a Carnival boarding pass, so we asked if they were looking for the carnival shuttle. It turned out there were 8 of us (4 couples) looking for the Carnival shuttle. Finally at 10:58 a Carnival rep approached us and told us we were in the wrong location (completely wrong terminal) and asked who told us to meet there, and we all replied, "your website".

Then we found out my husband and I were not on the list for the shuttle. I showed him the screenshot confirmation from when I purchased the transportation, along with the charge to our credit card, so they agreed to let us on. He then took us on a 25 minute walk and train ride  through JFK and out to a bus full of passengers who had been waiting for us. At 11:40 we finally departed JFK.

It's ironic because in over 35 cruises we almost always do uber/lyft but I chose carnival transportation this time because I'm not familiar with JFK/New York at all, and I thought it would be easier. 😄  Lesson learned.

Edited August 31 by csm5986142

[DeniseTr]

1 hour ago, csm5986142 said:

Well we won't be doing that again - it was nothing but confusion.

We arrived at the meeting location (specified on the website) at about 10:30 for our 11:00 shuttle.

We started to get concerned when we could only find a large group of Princess cruisers along with their rep. Finally, I happened to see another passenger had a Carnival boarding pass, so we asked if they were looking for the carnival shuttle. It turned out there were 8 of us (4 couples) looking for the Carnival shuttle. Finally at 10:58 a Carnival rep approached us and told us we were in the wrong location (completely wrong terminal) and asked who told us to meet there, and we all replied, "your website".

Then we found out my husband and I were not on the list for the shuttle. I showed him the screenshot confirmation from when I purchased the transportation, along with the charge to our credit card, so they agreed to let us on. He then took us on a 25 minute walk and train ride  through JFK and out to a bus full of passengers who had been waiting for us. At 11:40 we finally departed JFK.

It's ironic because in over 35 cruises we almost always do uber/lyft but I chose carnival transportation this time because I'm not familiar with JFK/New York at all, and I thought it would be easier. 😄  Lesson learned.

Sorry for your bad experience and thanks for the update.

I've seen tons of reviews of this sort on the ship to airport transfer, so will be training it myself, gave myself extra timme.

[teknoge3k]

19 hours ago, csm5986142 said:

It's ironic because in over 35 cruises we almost always do uber/lyft but I chose carnival transportation this time because I'm not familiar with JFK/New York at all, and I thought it would be easier. 😄  Lesson learned.

 

Yep, just chalk it up as lesson learned. Generally speaking, Carnival shuttle is the slowest and most expensive, where Uber and Lyft is usually the cheapest and fastest. 

[nc762shooter]

I think the main appeal of the Carnival transfer is like with a ship sponsored excursion the ship is aware of delays from traffic and the like and would wait, but in the OP's case not even being on the list for some reason would negate that.

[elainmir]

Our first Alaskan cruise was like this- CHAOS at SEATAC.  The person for Carnival was late..20 minute parade from baggage claim to the buses. Now we know where to go , our last Alaskan cruise was great because we bypassed the "meet at baggage claim" business and went straight to the bus area. Our Hawaiian Journey's cruise is out of SeaTac also...and nope I'm not meeting anyone by baggage...going straight to the buses!