Carnival Port of Miami Question

[teeredi2cruise]

I'd like to hear anyone's experience who has sailed out of Port of Miami since the new facility opened. Do they have a better process of retrieving your luggage there for debarking? The facility pics look great for embarking.

[Patneeds2cruise]

We thought it was great. We may have been among the first to use the new facility on our Sept. 22 Triumph cruise. Embarkation was absolutely the fastest I have ever gotten on a ship. We arrived at the port around noon. I'm not sure exactly how long it took but no more than 30 minutes from being dropped off by the shuttle till we were standing in the ship's lobby ordering a drink.

Debarkation seemed a little chaotic but we were in no hurry to get off anyway. I liked the luggage carousel. We grabbed a porter and were out of there quickly. The porter bypassed the long lines waiting to go through customs so that's probably the way to go especially if you have a lot of luggage.

Have a good one.

[teeredi2cruise]

We thought it was great. We may have been among the first to use the new facility on our Sept. 22 Triumph cruise. Embarkation was absolutely the fastest I have ever gotten on a ship. We arrived at the port around noon. I'm not sure exactly how long it took but no more than 30 minutes from being dropped off by the shuttle till we were standing in the ship's lobby ordering a drink.

Debarkation seemed a little chaotic but we were in no hurry to get off anyway. I liked the luggage carousel. We grabbed a porter and were out of there quickly. The porter bypassed the long lines waiting to go through customs so that's probably the way to go especially if you have a lot of luggage.

Have a good one.

 

That sounds awesome. I was wondering if they had a luggage carousel similar to RCL and it sounds like they do. I really never liked the hide-n-go-seek method in the storage room before.:) Thanks

[triciaa]

We thought the embarkation was very easy and smooth. We arrived about 11:45. The line was short. Once we got our paperwork done, we waited about 10 minutes and they let us on the ship! It really was easy.

 

Debarkation was a little rough. Getting off the ship was great. They let us stay in our cabin until about 8:30 am. (late in our experience) Then we went to the buffet for breakfast (It was surprisingly EMPTY!! We're used to the buffet area being so crowded on debark morning!!). Once they called our number (about 9:45ish) we got off the ship and waited in line upstairs inside the terminal for 20 minutes before they even would let us into the baggage area. We found our baggage easily enough, but the wait for the Customs line was another 30 minutes. It's weird, you get your luggage, then stand in a long line to go through Customs with all your luggage....it's a hard to manuever all your luggage through the lines... there's a lot of people, and everyone has their heavy luggage in tow. We saw luggage porters, but they, too waited in line with the passengers.

 

I heard some people were waiting for their luggage to come around the turning belts for a long time. Again, we got our luggage easily....but I saw some people sitting and waiting. My husband heard they were waiting for one last peice of their luggage. Not sure if this is true, but we "heard through the grapevine" the luggage belts were so full, they could not put more luggage on them until some luggage came off...but...lots of passengers were still on the ship...they wouldn't let pax off the ship until the terminal was less crowded...catch 22 type of situation...

 

All in all it wasn't terrible, but not as easy as it could be. It would be so much easier to go through Customs first, then get your luggage....like all the other ports we've been to. I think San Diego is the easiest.

 

We rented a car in Miami. When we were finally ready to get the rental car shuttle bus we waited another 45 minutes....We reserved a car through Budget. Budget and Thrifty are in the same building so the same shuttle bus is used. It seemed like we waited forever in the sun, but it was only 45 minutes... but still too long in my opinon. I called them twice and they said "a shuttle bus comes every 30 minutes". It may just have been a very busy day/time for them. I think there were 4 ships in port that morning. FYI, I saw an Alamo shuttle 3 times. I think their rates are higher, but may be easier!

[RizzoLee]

Triciaa, do you know what time they called self-assist? We have a 12:20pm flight, and your accounting of time puts us in the danger zone, thanks!

[triciaa]

I'm sorry! I really did not pay attention to that...I think it was about 8:30.

I do know they were calling self assist by floors....I thought that was weird...I thought all self-assist got off at the same time. Must have been a lot of pax doing self assist.

 

They did announce if anyone had a flight that left before Noon they would give them the earliest debark luggage tags......so if some pax flights leave before noon, I would think your flight time will be ok.

Sorry I can't be more help.

[JustMom]

Apparently, some things have not changed.

 

We were there in March 2007. Getting on the ship was flawless.

 

Getting off..........was a nightmare.

 

From posts, I guess they have put in luggage carousels...........but, finding your luggage was not a problem...........

 

Dragging it in the LONG lines through customs..............THAT was the problem!!

 

I think it is something that Port of Miami needs to address. I don't think it is the cruise line's problem.

[RizzoLee]

We got off in Miami back in February, were off by 9:30am and on our way, just got a little worried since I've been seeing reports of lines at the port of Miami terminals lately!