Call from Seattle. I gave my two cents.

[Tampa Girl]

On 8/17/2024 at 6:18 PM, Mary229 said:

I appreciate that the OP wants to sail from close to home but I am fairly certain that embarkation port desires of the customer are pretty low on the list of priorities.  If you consider any sailing I would imagine no more than 5% of the pax are from that specific home port. 

 

I am not sure where you got that 5%.  You may remember that Tampa was a HAL port for 30+ years and has only stopped since the pandemic.  Tampa is an easier city to get around and a less expensive city for cruisers; not to mention the view of the Skyway bridge from the vantage of what seems like only a couple of feet below it.  Aside from the fog, which does occur on occasion, Tampa was a favorite of many fellow cruisers, some of which were actually not from this area!  Wish HAL would reconsider their decision, but I think that Celebrity may have put the nail in the coffin.  

[Petronillus]

On 8/17/2024 at 6:56 PM, coaster said:

Florida residents help fill up ships departing from here. We tend to just cruise from our nearest Port also. It is a lazy Florida thing for sure. 

Not confined to Floridians. Our Midnight Sun cruise last summer up and down the Norwegian coast was r/t Amesterdam. I think the Dutch made up the plurality of pax. Apparently, HAL filled the gaps in the manifest in the run-up to the sailaway with a promotion aimed specifically at the Netherlands.

[sambamama]

I sailed out of Tampa twice. It was great. I've sailed out of Miami, NYC, Bayonne, Fort Lauderdale, Vancouver, San Diego, Boston, Singapore,  Auckland and Barcelona. I had to fly to all but Boston, NYC and Bayonne. The easiest to board was Boston. Obviously it's easier not to fly, but I like warm weather. So I'd rather fly than cruise in the cold.