Fort Lauderdale Departures -- 2011/2012- earlier departure time (edited title)

[Dietemann]

Emerald TA, April 26, 2012 & Grand to Buenos Aires, January 26, 2013 also changed to

4 pm departures.

[Pia1913]

You know, this thread is really interesting, since I have never paid attention to the time a ship departs. I'm already on it, so it doesn't matter. An hour one way or the other shouldn't make a difference if you've planned ahead and arrived (when using air) at least one day prior.

[PescadoAmarillo]

Taking a ride on the Idle Speculation Bus, about why this has changed:

 

DH thinks it's a fuel savings thing. Might be, but since often Princess Cays is the next scheduled port, and it's the very next day and not very far away, I'm not certain the ships would be required to leave an hour early to achieve fuel savings on that run. Fuel savings is more likely when the next port is not Princess Cays, so maybe 50% of the time on FLL Caribbean departures.

 

I think they've found a way to streamline their off-loading/loading process in Fort Lauderdale on turnaround day, shaving an hour off the time required to complete the process. Since they're renting pier side space, an hour times the number of turnarounds Princess has in Fort Lauderdale amounts to huge savings.

 

We often do B2B(2Bs) out of Fort Lauderdale, and always arrive a day early for the first one. However, we do enjoy sightseeing on turnaround days, and this will shave an hour off of the time available to do that. Not a big deal.

[Infi]

Maybe it's a way to save money on port charges. Docking fees at Port Everglades can't possibly be cheap. Shaving an unnecessary hour off that time could mean thousands in savings back to Princess.

 

I can't help wondering if this decision will come back to bite them, at least on some sailings. We have taken a few December cruises out of Port Everglades and almost always left after our scheduled 5pm time, waiting for winter weather-delayed flights. They might say they're leaving at 4pm, but will that actually happen in practice?

[Vexorg]

Having spent an incredibly bored evening reading the Port Everglades Tariff once, there would be no cost savings in dockage charges from leaving an hour earlier, as dockage fees are assessed on a daily rather than hourly basis, and wharfage charges are assessed per passenger, thus the port charges would be the same for a 4pm or a 5pm departure. The cost savings would most likely be in fuel usage, if anywhere.

 

PDF link, the relevant section is item 325, on page 55

[PescadoAmarillo]

The cost savings would most likely be in fuel usage, if anywhere.

So DH is probably right? Darn, I hate it when that happens! ;)

[cruzgryphon]

Just got notified by my TA - considering how many ships are impacted (seems like all Princess ships are impacted).

I can't see it being driven by/ within Princess' control (consider all the flight and other arrangements they will need to change and the cost and manpower to make those changes).

 

I wonder if other cruise lines/ shipping using the port (non cruise line) are making similar adjustments. If they are maybe there is some work being done in/around the Port or Port mandated changes (e.g. reduced speed when leaving port, availability of tugs/ pilots, scheduling of Port personnel relating to recent budget cuts)?? Fun to think of the what if scenarios though...

 

CG

[suzyed]

Altho we are not cruising until April, 2012 I figued I would take a look at the Cruise Personalizer and yes, our cruise was moved up to 4PM also.

 

Thanks Pescado for posting this. Altho we are planning being in FLL a few days ahead of time, others on our cruise will be coming in the same day.

Lets hope that they did not make plane ressies just yet.:eek:

Same with us...ours is April 7, 2012 and we leave at 4PM.

[suzyed]

Maybe they are cutting the hours of the employees who work the cruise terminals, to save money? So if they get us all on the ship an hour earlier, the employees can get off work and hour earlier. ;)

[Stevesan]

Maybe they are cutting the hours of the employees who work the cruise terminals, to save money? So if they get us all on the ship an hour earlier, the employees can get off work and hour earlier. ;)

 

That was my guess. Need to find out if only Princess is changing schedules.

[Host CJSKIDS]

That was my guess. Need to find out if only Princess is changing schedules.

 

I went to the various cruise websites that are leaving the day we are. I can see that we are 4PM of course, Liberty of the Seas is 4:30 PM, HAL Eurodam is 5 PM.

 

Oasis of the Seas shows it is leaving on Nov. 12 on various sites, including theirs, but then shows the 15 if you go to book it. They are still departing at 5 pm on their sailings.

[scumbers]

we have also had our ruby sailed changed from 5pm to 4pm. We are sailing on 19th Feb though and had no email etc.

 

Could this be due to any time changes e.g. daylight savings / clocks going forward etc

[kendon]

I posted this on our roll call, but it's not an active thread:

 

"due to operational considerations" the Ruby Princess will be departing Ft. Lauderdale at 4 pm instead of 5 pm.

 

Thought some of you may need to know if your TA hasn't already contacted you. I received this email several days ago from my agent.

[simcoeguy]

This has nothing to do with port costs, nor port operations. Plain and simple this is to cut back on fuel costs rather impose "fuel surcharges" which put potential passengers off. We would all be amazed at how much fuel savings there are in just adding a single hour more sailng time into a sector. I've heard that just between Princess Cays and Fort Lauderdale the savings can be as much as $15,000 dollars! Even more when the next port of call in in the Virgin Islands or beyond. On the TV series Mega Ships we heard the Captain of NCL Epic state that sailing 1 hour late from Cozumel to Miami would cost over $25,000 in added fuel to make up the time, and the special on Oasis of the Seas that Captain had to burn $50,000 more fuel between St Martin and Nassau in order to make up a lost hour.

[Vexorg]

When I was on the ship tour back in March, the Commodore talked a little bit about this, and said that fuel costs for a typical 7-day Eastern Caribbean cruise ran somewhere in the neighborhood of about $750,000, so you'll take fuel savings wherever you can. When the Grand went in for its big drydock, it was estimated that the removal of Skywalkers and the new hull coating would be good for about a 3% reduction in fuel costs, which comes out to close to $25,000 per week in savings (or, in other words, probably a heck of a lot more money than Skywalkers would have been making.)

[CruisinChris]

There have always been ships that leave Lauderdale earlier than others. They are "slotted" in. For whatever reason Princess, which always had a 5 pm departure has been re-slotted at 4. Perhaps because RCI wanted 5 for the behemoth. I have noticed over the years that sailaway times in FL are pretty consistent by line, not necessarily by pier.

 

IO wouldn't read too much into it. One extra hour of sail time 0 in daylight as previously mentioned is cool by me.

[Posaune]

I think Curisin'Chris may have the answer. I am certainly happy with a 4:00 on my Ruby cruise in January.

[Molly's Mum]

The departure time from Fort Lauderdale on embarkation day for all Emerald Princess cruises from 11/8 until 1/27 has been changed from 5pm to 4pm. This may also affect cruises prior to 11/8, but as we didn't have those booked, we were not notified about those. It also appears to not affect cruises from 2/6 onwards; at least, we were not notified about those either.

 

If you are flying to FLL the day of the cruise, it might be worthwhile to check with your TA about this.

 

Interesting. My TA rang me yesterday to say that our cruise will be

Departing an hour earlier too. The Island on the 19 th December.

[iriemon]

Just got an email from Princess, our ship the Grand leaving on Feb 11, 2012 is leaving port an hour early at 4:00 rather than 5:00. It does not say why just that you need to adjust your reservations. This doesn't affect us as we always go in the day before, but wanted to give a heads up to people to watch their email for notices. Would hate to miss the ship!

 

ITINERARY CHANGE

Please be advised that due to operational considerations, your ship will now now depart Ft. Lauderdale at 4:00 pm and not 5:00 pm as originally

scheduled. As a result of this change, our flight guidelines have been amended. Passengers with Princess eZAir will be rescheduled on earlier

flights as needed and a new confirmation will be sent. Passengers with independent air arrangements will need to reschedule their flights to

arrive in Ft. Lauderdale at or prior to 2:30 pm (domestic) and 1:45 pm (international). If you are flying into Miami, you will need to reschedule

your flights to arrive at or prior to 1:30 pm (domestic) and 12:30 pm (international). Please contact Customer Relations at 1-800-PRINCESS

(1-800-774-6237) if you have any questions regarding air change fees. The revised itinerary displays in full at the end of this notification.

Thank you for your attention to this notification.

[boulders]

I wonder how they expect people who land at 2:30 pm (as per their suggestion) to be able to board for a 4 pm sailing. :confused:

[Dietemann]

I wonder how they expect people who land at 2:30 pm (as per their suggestion) to be able to board for a 4 pm sailing. :confused:

This change has been noted before and appears to affect all Princess sailings from Ft. Lauderdale starting in November 2011. We sail next April and also January 2013 and have had this change, no notice yet from Princess, but it shows in our itinerary.

[iriemon]

This change has been noted before and appears to affect all Princess sailings from Ft. Lauderdale starting in November 2011. We sail next April and also January 2013 and have had this change, no notice yet from Princess, but it shows in our itinerary.

 

Our original itinerary did not show us leaving at 4:00 but at 5:00. We made the reservations a while ago so maybe it had not gone into effect yet.

[Pilot70D]

I wonder how they expect people who land at 2:30 pm (as per their suggestion) to be able to board for a 4 pm sailing. :confused:

I am not defending their time change BUT assuming that there are no flight delays and a flight lands at 2:30 it should be no problem to make a 4:00 P.M. sail away time.

First, Ft. Lauderdale International Airport is no more than two and a half miles from the port. That translates to 8-10 minutes by cab. Second, the overwhelming majority of the passengers will have boarded the ship already consequently the check lines (and the time to complete check in) will be nonexistant.

It is cutting it close but it is possible. This is of course one reason why we always plan to arrive the day before our sail date even though we live in Georgia.

Hope this info is helpful. Everyone have a great day.

:);):)

[cherylandtk]

Our original itinerary did not show us leaving at 4:00 but at 5:00. We made the reservations a while ago so maybe it had not gone into effect yet.

What the previous poster was saying is that this change in departure times out of of FLL was posted on the boards a couple of weeks ago.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1457724

You just may not have seen the earlier posts is all.;)

[caribill]

I am not defending their time change BUT assuming that there are no flight delays and a flight lands at 2:30 it should be no problem to make a 4:00 P.M. sail away time.

 

:);):)

 

as long as:

o Luggage is retrieved within 15 minutes, usually a 30 minute or more experience

 

o There is no line for cabs

 

o You really do not have to be there until 4 when usually you need to be board by 3 or 3:30 for a 4 PM sailing.