Princess disembarkation

[Grego]

One of the reasons we moved to Florida and within little over an hour of the cruise port is to avoid any of these anxious issue. 

 

Seems like it's always a crap shoot regarding how soon after the ship arrives as to when to book a flight out home.  A lot depends on the availability of flights to begin with, but the big issue is how long to get to the airport and the time to get through the check in process and boarding the plane.  The airport in Fort Lauderdale is very close to the cruise port so once in a vehicle that's no problem.  Checking bags and the rest is the concern.

 

I guess if I had to do all this again, I would book the return flight through Princess and use their transfers so the worry is on them.  I have never done this so I don't know if it works, but the alternative is to move here and walk off to your car and be home before most folks on even on the gangway off the ship.

[jondfk]

I'll add my experience terminating in FLL.  We've done 3 TA's and 3 PC's that ended in Florida.  Our experiences have been highly variable.  One PC and one TA we didn't do self disembarkation but were still off the ship and through customs by about 9:15, at the time we were Princess Platinum which basically means in the main herd to disembark.  The other 4 times, 3 as Elite's, we were still stuck in the customs hall past 10:30, twice past 11:00.  Those last two times we'd have surely missed an 11:XX flight.  

 

So, IMHO your only real option is carrying everything yourself and doing self disembarkation though it's not usual to see many hundreds of people lined up to do so - which may not be an option post COVID.   

[antmaril]

7 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Since this was the day before the Super Bowl, the crowd there has nothing to do with that event unless people were fleeing town to avoid it.

 

But imagine what it would be like the day after the Super Bowl.

Of course, that’s true.  It just seemed to be extraordinarily busy and it was Super Bowl weekend.  I can’t imagine what that airport would have been like the day after the game since the day before the big game was chaos.  

[franktown]

I have never seen  FLL airport not total chaos even when taking a land vacation and flying mid week.  Just no place to sit while waiting for your flight.  Someday they will finish all the interior construction. 

[Grego]

22 hours ago, jondfk said:

I'll add my experience terminating in FLL.  We've done 3 TA's and 3 PC's that ended in Florida.  Our experiences have been highly variable.  One PC and one TA we didn't do self disembarkation but were still off the ship and through customs by about 9:15, at the time we were Princess Platinum which basically means in the main herd to disembark.  The other 4 times, 3 as Elite's, we were still stuck in the customs hall past 10:30, twice past 11:00.  Those last two times we'd have surely missed an 11:XX flight.  

 

So, IMHO your only real option is carrying everything yourself and doing self disembarkation though it's not usual to see many hundreds of people lined up to do so - which may not be an option post COVID.   

Like I said above, it's always a crap shoot as to what the best option is.  The "perfect storm" situation is when the Princess arrives in port to join a port full of ships and of those you have one of the mega ships in as well.  Customs is overwhelmed and transfer methods to the airport are tied up with the number of people trying to get to their flights.

I know folks are really eager to get home, but I wonder if it might be a better option to have booked a room at one of the local hotels and then have a flight early the next day when the ships have left the port.

[skynight]

On 6/24/2021 at 9:46 AM, rsail203 said:

Thank you everyone. We always do self disembarkation. I'm only concerned about the possibility about late arrival to the port. Does Princess have any history of late arrivals or slow customs agents at the piers?

Our experience. 7am is when the first passengers begin to disembark. It is when immigration is ready to accept them. The ship usually docks an hour or two before that time. I can't remember any cruise where the ship was late arriving to the port.

In your case if you disembark with the first groups, wheeling all your luggage, and take a taxi to the airport you should be at the airport waiting 3+ hours before your flight. At pier 2 taxis are lined up directly across the road from the pier exit underneath the parking deck. At other piers taxis are lined up close by. Taxi fare used to be around $20 to the airport, could be a little higher now. In your case your sailing is from US port to US port and should not incur any immigration delays. Princess guidelines: "Earliest Domestic Flight Departure for Ft. Lauderdale: 4 hours and 30 minutes after ship's arrival." Your flight is 21 minutes later and within the guidelines. DHS agents are not cruise line connected. They are usually very efficient. Even if they are slower that day you still have plenty of time. There are lines for US passport holders. Those with other passports may have slower lines. We have global entry. Easy to obtain and comes with the Trusted Traveler program. You may want to look into this. If I remember correctly there is a faster immigration lane at Port Everglades for Global Entry holders. 

 

Edited June 26, 2021 by skynight

[Steelers36]

21 hours ago, franktown said:

I have never seen  FLL airport not total chaos even when taking a land vacation and flying mid week.  Just no place to sit while waiting for your flight.  Someday they will finish all the interior construction. 

It is just too small period IMO.  I have not been in all of the terminal buildings, but when in #1 for SW, I don't recall it being too bad - but that was only once or twice.  Most of our trips have used #2, and that one is terrible IMO (and also has construction going on so IDK if it will help the space or not). 

Was in #3 or #4 once and I don't even remember it.

[Steelers36]

11 minutes ago, skynight said:

Our experience. 7am is when the first passengers begin to disembark. It is when immigration is ready to accept them. The ship usually docks an hour or two before that time. I can't remember any cruise we have been on where the ship was late arriving to the port.

In your case if you disembark with the first groups, wheeling all your luggage, and take a taxi to the airport you should be at the airport waiting 3+ hours before your flight. At pier 2 taxis are lined up directly across the road from the pier exit underneath the parking deck. At other piers taxis are lined up close by. Taxi fare used to be around $20 to the airport, could be a little higher now. In your case your sailing is from US port to US port and should not incur any immigration delays. Princess guidelines: "Earliest Domestic Flight Departure for Ft. Lauderdale: 4 hours and 30 minutes after ship's arrival." Your flight is 21 minutes later and within the guidelines.

 

Not sure where that time came from, but the EZ-Air flight booking in Cruise Personalizer is set to allow flights 4 hours after official ship arrival time.  The limit used to be 3.5 hrs not all that long ago and nothing much particularly changed from my observations when Princess bumped that up maybe 3 yrs ago.  I recall one time we had an extremely reasonable 10:55am departure to Toronto available with a 7:00am arrival and couldn't book it in EZ-Air.  Pretty rigid and nuts IMO for 5 minutes (I even called and asked if EZ-Air could override at the time).  So, booked it independently (wasn't much price difference as a domestic N.A. route).

 

Yes, agree - ships are "always" back to PE and docked well-before the official 6:00am (Royal Class) or 7:00am (all smaller ships) dock times.  Never had a situation where Princess was not ready to disembark on time.  With the plentiful supply of taxis on standby, there is no issue getting whisked off to the airport in plenty of time.

 

While Princess is overly conservative IMO at this port, they allow as little as 2 hours for an arriving flight time ahead of the sail-away - let alone 1.5 hrs for the all-aboard.  This is the opposite thinking by Princess IMO (high-risk as opposed to over-conservative) as the busiest PE port season is winter and I would never remotely consider flying in day of cruise to arrive only 2 hours prior to sail-away.  (We don't fly in "day-of" in any case, but a mid-afternoon arrival is just asking for trouble, so I don't understand their thinking on that one).