Is disembarking at Port everglades chaos for all

[bogofman]

Reading the other thread on the chaos of the returning Reflection cruise, we are concerned about missing our flight home to the UK.

 

It's suggested that all non US passengers, have to wait in line until all US passengers have left.

 

Is that really the case, if we elect to get off early, would we really have to wait until all US passengers have cleared, maybe -10 am?

 

Can those who have arrived back on other ships recently report the best option for Non US passengers, 

Or was it just an issue with the recent Reflection cruise, was it a transatlantic crossing, if so I can understand the delay, it took until 1.30 pm to get off after arriving in Boston a couple of years ago.

 

We recently got off in Honolulu and just walked straight off, similarly in Miami last December

 

 

Edited December 10, 2018 by bogofman
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[leaveitallbehind]

Are you referring to a closed loop cruise originating in Port Everglades?  We've never experienced - nor have seen - any issues with anyone disembarking there and none of our US based closed loop cruises ever disembarked US passengers first or ahead of anyone else.  Perhaps as you suggest delays would occur on trans-Atlantic or other re-positioning cruises from a non-US originating port as it does tend to take longer to clear customs on those itineraries.  But have never seen or heard of anything like that on any of our US based closed loop cruises.

[digital_curator]

I have never heard of having to wait but there are separate lines in the terminal for immigration: US and Non-US citizens. These lines can be quite long and the Non-US one is often very slow- make sure to have early tags (or even better, carry your luggage off) and consider using a porter (they seem to get through the lines quickly) and you should be fine. 

 

 

[keesar]

Let's say that the entry in Port Everglades. has been the most challenging in any of the ports we have been to.  Others we have just walked right through.  Also, the airport is not our favorite as well.

[Denny01]

Disembarking can be an issue in many ports. I’ve had it easy and also time consuming there. One speed up I noticed was those that used baggage handlers using rollers got into a shorter line and went through quicker. Tipping required but quicker. I’ve never seen non-US passengers who had to wait beyond just normal lines. I’ve seen longer lines just as I’ve seen huge lines of non-EU’s getting into Heathrow and into Dublin. Both a pain, but just due to many more of us in line, not held up for any other reason.  

 

Den

[ghstudio]

We were on the reflection TA and were in group 18, as I recall. Customs/Immigration was actually the fastest and easiest we've ever encountered....they didn't even ask what we brought back with us.  I guess it's hit or miss...we were just lucky.  Now if you want bad...I vote for arriving at Heathrow Airport from the US in the morning....an hour minimum every time.

[chemmo]

Bogofman, as fellow U.K. citizens we have cruised in and out of Fort Lauderdale many times. As quoted on that other thread we had one awful wait and others about an hour slowly plodding forward. Our waits were always after baggage collection, we have never experienced anything like the other poster. We now always tend to either book flights after lunchtime or the next day then at the end of our cruises we wait in Michael’s until the concierge tells us it is all clear.

 

The snag is you never know which cruises are going to take longer.... Our poorer experiences don’t seem to be itinerary linked but more a consequence of lots of non US passengers on board and fewer staff processing them.

 

What time is your flight? If it is early I would suggest you self disembark and head for a taxi (long queue but moves fast) or prebook a transfer. If it isn’t that early just request a low number. Planning for a bad disembarkation and being pleasantly surprised is much better than risking it...

 

 

[bogofman]

Its an afternoon , flight , but we do have to get to Miami.

 

[chemmo]

8 hours ago, bogofman said:

Its an afternoon , flight , but we do have to get to Miami.

 

 

You should be fine...Taxi/transfer to Miami doesn’t take too long. If I were you I would still choose an earlier rather than an later disembarkation time as the airport security can get backed up too....Oh, the joys of modern travel.....

 

By having booked an afternoon flight you should be fine. You, honestly, may be really lucky and just walk off the ship, pick up a taxi immediately and then breeze through security at Miami...The snag is, as posted earlier, it is hard to predict....If you disembark early worst case scenario is you have a boring hour or two at the gate before your flight...much better than a frantic couple of hours queuing and worrying...

 

Hope you have a fantastic cruise and stress free return home. Please post on return your experiences to help us to decide our strategy for our next Fort Lauderdale visit in September.

[Marelaine]

I've only had one bad disembark in Port Everglades. Listen to Denny01.

The last disembark in Port Everglades was great. We flagged down a porter, handed him $20. He loaded our luggage onto his cart, brought us to the custom's agent, hailed a cab for us, all in less 10 minutes. Well worth it.

Edited December 12, 2018 by Marelaine

[villauk]

We’ve had a long wait a couple of times returning to FL on a closed loop sailing. A couple of years ago, we did an Equinox cruise where it took 1.5hrs to get to the front of the queue. They do let the US citizens go in separate lines (very speedy disembarkation for them),  only 1 or 2 immigration officers on duty seeing to the rest of the world cruisers. It’s hit or miss whether it affects you, but the lines to self disembark early wrapped around the ship (many drive to FL and want to disembark ASAP to get back on the road). Luckily, our transfer was still waiting for us outside...phew.

[zanderblue]

Apologies for hijacking thread......

 

just off off the Eclipse this past weekend. Disembarkation was chaos. We had booked group 20 to give ourselves an hour to get shoreside to meet a private tour. Immigration had been done onboard and we reckoned an hour to be plenty. 

As it turned out we were called 90 minutes late and made it to meet point 60 minutes late. Unfortunately, the tour had already left. 

No real reason given, other than the gangway was steep. Go figure???

[ROYALBOY]

Our last arrival at Port Everglades was fantastic. We were number 28, but had a nice breakfast. We sat in sushion 5 which was near the gangplank, walked off the ship...got a porter with our luggage...no line at customs and we were outside waiting for our ride in about 15 min. Sometimes if there are a lot of ships coming in, and your trying to get off early, you can hit the crowd...but since we live near Port Everglades we are in no hurry.

[Turtles06]

1 hour ago, ROYALBOY said:

Our last arrival at Port Everglades was fantastic. We were number 28, but had a nice breakfast. We sat in sushion 5 which was near the gangplank, walked off the ship...got a porter with our luggage...no line at customs and we were outside waiting for our ride in about 15 min. Sometimes if there are a lot of ships coming in, and your trying to get off early, you can hit the crowd...but since we live near Port Everglades we are in no hurry.

 

We were on the same Silhouette TA with you, and, like you, we are Americans.  Our disembarkation at Port Everglades that day, like yours, was quick and easy.   But the OP is not an American and is concerned about how non-Americans aboard a recent Reflection cruise were treated and delayed by the immigration authorities.

Edited December 13, 2018 by Turtles06

[govanguy]

 

I`m a UK national

We disembarked from Reflection last Friday. We had a Celebrity Tour arranged. Hop On Hop Off with MIA transfer. Rubbish tour . 

However, we were luggage tag 2 and disembarked and through border patrol in 45 mins. Unusually, were photographed and fingerprinted having already completed this in Miami after flying in. This will be a big problem if it continues at Port Everglades as it seems to be the reason for the queues. 

Miami airport has kiosks that do this function but they are a bit of a hit or miss but still make a contribution to reducing waiting times at Border Patrol.

I`ll be monitoring the boards in future and may well reconsider future departures from Port Everglades if these delays persist.

[bogofman]

I'll update you on our experience.

 

Boarding, standing in line we were told boarding was suspended due to problems with the ramp. It was chaos at the checkin with those checked in mixed with the lines trying to checkin.

 

We were stood in line about 2 hrs from joining the queue to getting to the front.

 

Disembarking.

 

We decided to use the ships transfer, as we assumed they would get us to the airport in time.

 

We were given ticket 28 9am 

 

The queues were wrapped around the deck at 8am when we came down to Al bacio

 

Disembarkation did not seem to start until after 8 

Around 9am disembarkation was stopped and everyone was told to wait in the lounges

 

It was quite stressful waiting not knowing what was going on

Word came around that there were limited staff at immigration and they did not want people queuing in the terminal

 

We eventually got called after 10am  and managed to get to baggage reclamation and imigration in about 30 mins, 

 

Immigration did not take finger prints or photos, just a quick look at the passport, no stamp for our uk passport

 

We then walked to the bus and we're at MIA checking in just after 12pm, stress levels back to normal.

 

When we first arrived at MIA from London were were not finger printed either or have the passports stamped. For a change we got through quite quickly