Caribbean Cruise question

My wife and I will be doing a Caribbean Cruise (our first cruise!) in Jan/Feb 2017. This Cruise starts and finishes in Tampa, USA. We are cruising with Norwegian Cruise Liners, and our ship is Jade. When we finish our cruise, on Feb 6th, we land at Tampa at 8am. Our flight back to the airport takes off at 7.45pm that day. There is an option to have a tour of Tampa and then to be dropped off at the Airport. This will probably be at midday which is too early for us.

Does anyone have any recommendations for what we can do in Tampa on that day, ensuring we get to the Airport no later than 4.45pm?

Have not been there (yet) but Lowry park Zoo is on my short list of Zoos to visit.

Wikipedia Lowry Park

LowryParkzoo.org

Typical of regional zoos they have a section for Florida specific critters. I like these type because they have unique local species that I won't see at other zoos. No crocodiles in Puget Sound! :eek: Pretty close to the airport so check-in and leave luggage then cab to the zoo for a few hours might work.

Ebor City is a good option, as well. We went there a few years ago pre-cruise. Your ship may also offer a "tour" at the end of the cruise that end's up back at the airport. If you check the excursions offered for your cruise on line, something like that may be described now.

Some airports won't allow you to check your bags more than 3 hrs. beforehand. That's going to be the biggest problem - what to do with your bags.

Roz

Thanks for your helpful replies. Yes, the Liner does offer a tour of Tampa but it will end up at the Airport at about midday - far too early. As has been said, what to do with our luggage seems to be the problem?

Are you staying at a hotel nearby before the cruise? Ask if you can leave the bags there for a while on departure. We did this on a cruise out of Miami and the hotel where we stayed before the cruise was fine with leaving the bags there before the flight. Turned out to be a icky, cold day when we got back, so we didn't take advantage of this.

Another option is to spend a day at a hotel pool. We had also found a Miami hotel that would do this. The Four Seasons, as I recall. There was a charge. Again, though, the bad weather put a damper on this.

Yet another option is to rent a car. Throw the bags in the trunk and do whatever you want.

With the bad weather and bad traffic caused by a foot race on the causeway, we ended up just going to the airport. Unfortunately, couldn't check out bags until two hours before flight time. So we, and a number of others from the ship, were just sitting around outside security. That was no fun. On the upcoming trip, we're going to stay one night in town after the cruise and fly home the next day.

Unless you can't get an earlier flight, I would skip that excursion and get a "day room" at a hotel near the port. Use the pool, watch tv..shower, nap, eat..whatever. You will be killing about 12 hours...that's insane.

Compare the cost of excursions, day rooms, car rentals, to getting an earlier flight out!