Port Canaveral Question.

[karensj]

For those of you who have cruised out of Port Canaveral what time did you leave the ship? How is debarkation handled? Do they call by deck or by flight time? What time should I expect to get back to Orlando International Airport? I am taking the cruiselines shuttle and not flying out until the next day. I was trying to plan our Saturday and was wondering how much time we would have. Thanks for any information you may have.

 

Karen

[Arubalisa]

Debarkation on Dec. 28 was miserable. Everyone was assigned a letter, having filled out a questionairre earlier in the cruise (hate that, you are just beginning to relax and they are already worried about shoving you off the ship :rolleyes: ).

Our group had did not have flights to catch so didn't get off until almost 10:30 am. The first numbers were called about 9:30 am. We had arrived at the Port in time, but they kept paging the same passengers over and over and over. Assume they did not report for immigration :confused:

The good news was that if you did NOT require a porter it was very easy to claim your luggage and get out of the terminal.

[elmorejj]

If you don`t turn in an airline time you will be among the last to leave the ship. We were on the same cruise as Arubalisa and she is correct with the times. We had a 3.20pm flight and debarked around 10.30 also. The cruise before the Dec11th cruise was late getting in and it was about 11.30am before everyone was off.......jean :cool:

[Jeal]

We disembarked on Jan 8th from the Zaandam and also had people who did not report to immigration. It is so inconsiderate! The first people off the ship were the ones with early flights - they were able to leave at 9:40. We got off at about 10:30. Since they allowed us to wait in our room we didn't find it to be a problem.

[grannynurse]

We almost missed our 1pm flight from Orlando as the debarkation process was so slow, And we had # 1. The shuttle (we were first directed to the wrong one) sat for 45 minutes waiting to fill. We arrived at MOC at 11:50, and the lines were to the curb. We finally got to the gate and they were boarding. Thank Goodness the flight was oversold and they were bargaining for volunteers to change flights or it would have left without us.

 

I will never again choose a flight from Florida that leaves earlier than 2pm.

GN

[arzz]

We heard that the immigration officials were late boarding on the 28th which is why we left so late. No real problem for us as we were scheduled for an 8:30 pm flight (the airline, however, let us leave at 3:20 instead since we were at the airport early -- so it really all did work out)

 

Have done HAL at Port Canaveral twice now and my impression is that you should not book a flight out of Orlando any earlier than 2:00. Even if all else worked and was equal, you would still have to deal with what I believe to be the poorest organized security in the country. For an airport that processes as many passengers as Orlando I cannot get used to how disorganized the lines at the counters and the lines for security are. Not only are they long but people seem to cut in and out of line at will.

 

We left the ship between 10:15 and 10:30 and were not done with all of the lines and through security until almost 1:30. An ordeal -- but then it was worth it to have enjoyed those incredible ten days at sea.