Ft Lauderdale Terminal #29 NOS

[SAILONNOW]

Torture! No matter what ship goes out of this terminal, do not book it!

 

It took 2hrs to board the ship and that was with an arrival time of 12:45pm.

Extremely long lines to just get through security, then more long lines to get checked in. It was more of an empty wharehouse than an inviting terminal.

 

We noticed no special treatment of the special needs passengers or the Crown and Anchor passengers. People with wheelchairs were corralled outside and waited. Crown and Anchor members did get into a special line, that pretty much ended up right alongside the rest of us.

 

We were concerned with the parking and that was no problem what so ever. The shuttles were right there to take us to and from.

 

Debarkation. They were running 1 & 1/2 hours behind because there were not enough Customs Agents, so the terminal quickly filled up to capacity and they could not send any more passengers off the ship.

 

I'm not blaming RCI, they just got the short stick when Ft Lauderdale put NOS at that terminal. It did however give us a bad impression right off the bat. :mad:

[Clarea]

...

We were concerned with the parking and that was no problem what so ever. The shuttles were right there to take us to and from.

...

Sorry to hear about the delays at terminal 29.

 

Do you recall what parking lot you used? Was it Midport?

[HeidiHo]

Torture! No matter what ship goes out of this terminal, do not book it!

 

It took 2hrs to board the ship and that was with an arrival time of 12:45pm.

Extremely long lines to just get through security, then more long lines to get checked in. It was more of an empty wharehouse than an inviting terminal.

 

We noticed no special treatment of the special needs passengers or the Crown and Anchor passengers. People with wheelchairs were corralled outside and waited. Crown and Anchor members did get into a special line, that pretty much ended up right alongside the rest of us.

 

We were concerned with the parking and that was no problem what so ever. The shuttles were right there to take us to and from.

 

Debarkation. They were running 1 & 1/2 hours behind because there were not enough Customs Agents, so the terminal quickly filled up to capacity and they could not send any more passengers off the ship.

 

I'm not blaming RCI, they just got the short stick when Ft Lauderdale put NOS at that terminal. It did however give us a bad impression right off the bat. :mad:

 

Which sailing were you on? We were on the Feb. 6th sailing. For us, embarkation was ok because we got there pretty early (maybe 11:00 am) and since we were in a Jr Suite we had priority embarkation). There were delays at security though. They would only let a few people through the scanners at a time and then they would hold up the line for several more minutes. I thought this was kind of odd and they almost separated my husband and me. Apparently, I was supposed to be the last person through the scanner but my husband was behind me. They were going to stop him to hold up the line again but then one of the agents realized we were together so they let him through but no one else.

 

Debarkation was nightmare however. We had a flight at 11:52. I figured that would be fine because I had sailed from FLL 3 times before and always got to the airport by about 9:00/9:30ish. We were supposed to get off the ship about 8:15 which should have ben fine but they were at least an hour behind so we didn't get off until about 9:15. Then we got in the terminal, grabbed our bags (no problems there, at least) and got in line for customs. There are 2 huge rooms in the terminal and the customs line was winding through both of them. It probably took us another hour there. When we got to the agents we saw that there were only 3 there. Really only 2 because I think the 3rd agent was taking care of special people like Diamonds or something because he didn't seem to be handling the general population.

 

We had originally purchased a shuttle ride from the same shuttle company that took us from our hotel to the pier. Our instructions were to wear a sticker that they had given us and stand in the shuttle area. They would then see us when they were dropping off other passengers, and would pick us up then for our ride to the airport. We didn't want to take a chance on having to wait for the shuttle so we decided to eat the money we had spent on it and go right to the taxi area. There we were able to get in a taxi that left immediately. Good thing too because the security line at the airport was long too. However, there was a gentleman at security at the airport that was checking peoples flight times and sending them to different lines depending on when their flights were. Since we had gotten a Taxi right away we were still ok on time so we got sent to the long line. We made our flight in time but we might not have if we had waited on that shuttle.

 

There were 6 ships in port that day so maybe the customs agents were spread a little too thin. I suppose it's also possible that they were also short handed due to people calling in sick, etc. Who knows but I learned a lesson here. I will go back to booking later flights even if it means most of the time we will have to sit in the airport longer than we'd like.

[bobbie0253]

Torture! No matter what ship goes out of this terminal, do not book it!

 

If only it were that easy. No way of knowing what terminal will be used when booking the cruise :( Hoping when we sail the Indy in April we don't have to deal with this. Sounds like a nightmare every time I read about it.

[Clarea]

If only it were that easy. No way of knowing what terminal will be used when booking the cruise :( Hoping when we sail the Indy in April we don't have to deal with this. Sounds like a nightmare every time I read about it.

Our experience is that terminal 24/25 can also be very slow to disembark. No problems getting on the ship though.

 

In the last few years, only terminal 18 has been a consistently smooth running operation.

[minn0315]

On Navigator in December, same terminal. Being in the "suites" lines offered very, very fast luggage scan, no wait lines and special registration for seapass card. Met by concierge and went right on ship.

 

From drop off to first step on ship was 14 minutes.

 

Disembarkation was quite speedy with luggage in the suites location, bright red luggage tags, and then a suites line to go through customs ahead of those without suites designation.

[SAILONNOW]

Yes it was the Midport Garage. We dropped off our luggage, went to the garage and there was a shuttle waiting to take right back to the terminal.

 

Yes Heidi, it was Feb 6th sailing.

 

I understand they are building or remodeling that terminal. It's just that we have never encountered such a mess of an embarkation. If they are going to have 6-8 cruise ships in port at one time, maybe they should have more customs agents? Just a thought.

[molsonschooner]

If only it were that easy. No way of knowing what terminal will be used when booking the cruise :( Hoping when we sail the Indy in April we don't have to deal with this. Sounds like a nightmare every time I read about it.

 

I have only seen Indy using 18 or 25 lately. You might get lucky and have 18 as I have read reports of slow going at 25.

[bobbie0253]

My worry is the Allure ( I think) is supposed to be in port when we return. I am hoping to take Bob's advice of the earlier you get off the less risk of a mess. Problem is some of our sailing group are SLOW on their own "time" type of people. Good to hear the problems seems to be more related to getting off the ship vs. getting on. We have hotels booked so we may even just plan on being in the last group off if the group won't get moving in the morning.

[Clarea]

Yes it was the Midport Garage. We dropped off our luggage, went to the garage and there was a shuttle waiting to take right back to the terminal....

Thanks for the info.

[Toddcan]

I looked up on the Port Everglades calendar, and there were 8 ships in port on the day you disembarked. This would likely explain the shortage of customs staff. There were 7 in port on your embarkation day.

 

I've sailed out of terminal 29 three times, and it was decent every time. The latest we were in our car was 8:30, if I remember correctly. But, I'm aware we could have been very lucky.

 

Our Navigator sailing arrives back in port on the 19th of March this year. There are only 5 ships in port that day - with no Oasis class - so fingers crossed on that one.

[crazycatlady82]

I looked up on the Port Everglades calendar, and there were 8 ships in port on the day you disembarked. This would likely explain the shortage of customs staff. There were 7 in port on your embarkation day.

 

 

 

I've sailed out of terminal 29 three times, and it was decent every time. The latest we were in our car was 8:30, if I remember correctly. But, I'm aware we could have been very lucky.

 

 

 

Our Navigator sailing arrives back in port on the 19th of March this year. There are only 5 ships in port that day - with no Oasis class - so fingers crossed on that one.

 

 

I only see 3? Navigator, celebrity constellation (which I'll be debarking!) and the emerald princess?

 

(The website I view might have the wrong info, who knows!)

[jules815]

I looked up on the Port Everglades calendar, and there were 8 ships in port on the day you disembarked. This would likely explain the shortage of customs staff. There were 7 in port on your embarkation day.

 

I've sailed out of terminal 29 three times, and it was decent every time. The latest we were in our car was 8:30, if I remember correctly. But, I'm aware we could have been very lucky.

 

Our Navigator sailing arrives back in port on the 19th of March this year. There are only 5 ships in port that day - with no Oasis class - so fingers crossed on that one.

 

Can you post a link to the cruise calendar? I'll be sailing on X Constellation next month, and just went through my docs and no mention of which terminal we'll be using.

[molsonschooner]

I only see 3? Navigator, celebrity constellation (which I'll be debarking!) and the emerald princess?

 

(The website I view might have the wrong info, who knows!)

 

The site I use show 4 ships. The ones you mention plus Carnival Conquest

[Toddcan]

I only see 3? Navigator, celebrity constellation (which I'll be debarking!) and the emerald princess?

 

(The website I view might have the wrong info, who knows!)

 

Which date?

 

My original source of information was the Annual Calendar- put out by the port authority sometime in 2015, I'm guessing. When I went to the "live" online version, it shows 4 ships now on Sat Mar 19.

 

Link: http://portevergladeswebcam.com/calendar.html

 

Carnival Conquest

Celebrity Constellation

Emerald Princess

Navigator of the Seas

 

The annual one originally showed a 5th ship: Pinar Del Rio

[Clarea]

Can you post a link to the cruise calendar? I'll be sailing on X Constellation next month, and just went through my docs and no mention of which terminal we'll be using.

 

This works about 5 days in advance:

 

https://pevvesseltraffic.broward.org/webclient/public/PublicMovements.aspx

Edited February 21, 2016 by clarea

[gritsnc]

Ugh. There are 7 in Port the day we leave (March 27). What is the earliest that we can board if we don't have any kind of priority status?

[WaveSplasher]

The key to terminal 29 is that you arrive early. On our cruise on the Indy, i heard many problems with that terminal so we came at 10am instead, one of the early bird lines. They let us in and we were on the ship by 11.30am. When we were going to the ship, we noticed a huge crowd of people outside waiting to check in.

[Clarea]

Ugh. There are 7 in Port the day we leave (March 27). What is the earliest that we can board if we don't have any kind of priority status?

If there are no arrival or disembarkation delays, boarding usually starts between 11am and 11:30am.

[Noomi]

The number of ships in port on the day you disembark isn't necessarily an indicator of how smoothly the process will go. We were on the 2/13 Indy sailing and the only ship in port when we got back, yet it still took us over three hours disembark.

[Noomi]

*to disembark*

[HeidiHo]

I only see 3? Navigator, celebrity constellation (which I'll be debarking!) and the emerald princess?

 

(The website I view might have the wrong info, who knows!)

 

Some of the websites that show the ships are not accurate. One site I looked at showed the Nieuw Amsterdam in port tomorrow but I know they are there today because I have a friend sailing on her.

 

I'll bet it's a crap shoot and to how your disembarkation goes. Lets say for example, there are 6 ships in port the day you disembark so they schedule 24 customs agents. That would be 4 per ship. Then another day there are only 2 ships in port so they only schedule 8 customs agents. That's still only 4 per ship. Who knows how they do their scheduling and then there's always the chance that they have a couple of people calling in sick or whatever. T

 

There's also the possibility that they are just short handed right now. Could be they've had a bunch of people quit recently and it's taking time to replace them. This kind of thing happens at my job all the time and then the rest of us either have to work extra shifts we don't normally work or we work short handed. Overtime isn't allowed so even if we are willing to work the extra shift so there is coverage, you can't if you will go over 40 hours. I am in no way defending the customs agents, I'm just listing some possibilities as to why things are so bad right now. And while I don't really blame Royal Caribbean, when I did the survey after my cruise, I gave a very poor rating to the disembarkation process. Even though the customs agents are not RCI employees, they still represent the company and RCI needs to work with customs to improve the situation.

Edited February 21, 2016 by HeidiHo

[cincicruisers]

Yikes! The website says 7 ships on Sunday.