Horrible experience in taxi line off Indy in Port Everglades!

[wintersmybaby]

I spent so much time reading this forum before our cruise - how did I not know how terrible it would be trying to get a taxi at disembarkation? The Port 'security' people had absolutely NO organization to the taxi line and it just snaked all over the place. I'm sure people were just getting in line whereever they wanted to or thought they should, so the people actually trying to be where they were told weren't hardly even moving. We waited over an hour and a half and still had no idea how long it would be. Finally my husband had to pull the baby card so we wouldn't miss our 1pm flight. Ridiculous. And of course we couldn't buy a bus transfer because we were off the boat.

 

Does anyone else think RCCL could be a little more proactive in advising their cruisers how few bus transfers had been sold in order to avoid this clusterf*ck? The only other cruise we were on was out of Miami and the minute we walked out of the terminal, we had a taxi offering a ride. Is this just because of where the Indy docks, is it like the farthest for the taxis to go so they don't come often and the line just gets outrageous?

 

We will probably never cruise out of FLL because of this and how crazy the airport security was. Such a big Spring Break destination and the facillities didn't seem to come close to accomadating. Am I the only one who has experieced this?

 

Sorry to vent, just need to warn others so they can make an educated decision on buying the bus transfers - taxis were few and far between where the Indy docks.

[emen822]

That sounds so stressful. :eek: We cruised out of FLL only once and basically experienced the same thing. Totally unorganized and I was hoping it would be different this time, especially since we have to get to Miami to fly home. We might be better off carrying our own bags off. I'm wondering if I should arrange a ride to the airport?

 

Thanks for the heads up! Hope your cruise was great otherwise. :o

 

Mary

[spammie]

I spent so much time reading this forum before our cruise - how did I not know how terrible it would be trying to get a taxi at disembarkation? The Port 'security' people had absolutely NO organization to the taxi line and it just snaked all over the place. I'm sure people were just getting in line whereever they wanted to or thought they should, so the people actually trying to be where they were told weren't hardly even moving. We waited over an hour and a half and still had no idea how long it would be. Finally my husband had to pull the baby card so we wouldn't miss our 1pm flight. Ridiculous. And of course we couldn't buy a bus transfer because we were off the boat.

 

Does anyone else think RCCL could be a little more proactive in advising their cruisers how few bus transfers had been sold in order to avoid this clusterf*ck? The only other cruise we were on was out of Miami and the minute we walked out of the terminal, we had a taxi offering a ride. Is this just because of where the Indy docks, is it like the farthest for the taxis to go so they don't come often and the line just gets outrageous?

 

We will probably never cruise out of FLL because of this and how crazy the airport security was. Such a big Spring Break destination and the facillities didn't seem to come close to accomadating. Am I the only one who has experieced this?

 

Sorry to vent, just need to warn others so they can make an educated decision on buying the bus transfers - taxis were few and far between where the Indy docks.

 

We just got off the Indy yesterday and we experienced the same exact thing. It took us 1 1/2 hours from the time we got off the ship to get a taxi after standing in that LONG...line. Thank God it wasn't raining. We will NEVER cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale again unless we have private transportation arranged. Miami is so much more organized and easier to cruise from.

[pomgo]

Will it be the same finishing a cruise at Lauderdale. We need to get to Miami Airpot but will have plenty time before our flight to San Fransisco. Heres hoping!! Thanks for the info.

[Moeve]

Some weekends are terrible apparently last Saterday the port of FLL had a total of 52.000 guests. That sort of passenger number can mess around with every port reguardless. If you got caught up in that then I don't wonder you were having problems.

[mysparky]

We disembarked on 2/20 and could not believe how insane the taxi line was!! I didn't realize it at the time, but Oasis had also disembarked that same morning.

 

Fortunately, we had arranged for a private pickup and we did not have to wait in that line. We didn't do that because of any advance knowledge of the chaos, but rather because we had a party of 5 w/ a decent amount of luggage and knew we wouldn't fit into a standard yellow cab. We were lucky because if we didn't have this, I don't know how we would have ever made our 12:40 flight. That line HAD to be 90 mins.

 

To anyone disembarking from Ft Lauderdale I'd strongly suggest that you arrange for private transportation. Get the card of the person that drops you off, or look online prior to your trip and make arrangements. For us, this option was no more expensive.

[LynneL]

Encountered the same problem as the OP when we cruised out of Port Everglades on the Carnival Freedom a little over a year ago. Extremely long cab line, no order, inefficient port security (if fact they were directing groups of people to sit on the curb at the front of the line as we all stood waiting our turn on the line), and cabs which were dropping people off for the departing cruise were not allowed to just continue over to the line of people who had disembarked. During a half hour wait I saw one or possibly two cabs pull up to pick up people off the huge line. I envisioned a couple of hours of waiting for cabs. I wound up asking some man with a van who was dropping people off for their cruise could I just pay him to take us to the airport. Not my usual style to hire random people off the street but with 8 people in our party, the ride situation did not look good! The guy turned out to be such a nice person that I paid him more than he even said he would charge us. It was an aggrevating & stressful way to end a cruise.

 

As others have said, make sure you have arrangments made for your pick-up prior to going on your cruise. I have never had this type of problem with any other port. Long lines, yes, especially at NYC port but port security in Manhattan gave out ticket stubs with #s and those assigned to handling the cab line took it very seriously...not the case with Port Everglade!

[JSR]

WOW We were on the Solstice in January and disembarked on a Sunday. We were meet by a porter getting off the elevator, he gathered our bags and had us loaded in a wheelchair accessible taxi. The whole process barely took 10 minutes. Will it be totally different when we disembark in June from the Oasis?

 

Thanks for the help

[lovevacadays]

Wow,all that sounds horrible. We cruised out of Fort Lauderdale last November on the Crown (the week before Oasis started cruising) and had no problems. We were off the ship, through immigration and in a taxi in very short order. I guess when I'm there in December I will now arrange for private transportation.

[ricktwo]

The issue is actually two fold- first is how many ships are in port on a particular Saturday or Sunday. Second is where the ships are docked.

 

Yesterday, the Indy was at 25, the Crown was at 21, and the Eurodam was at 26. Basically the cabs were stuck in a big line at this "horseshoe" and the Indy was the middle ship in the mess - there are a lot of people to move in that small area but I'm still shocked the wait was that long. A "shared ride" van/shuttle area is usually setup at each ship, and it makes a lot of sense to go talk to these guys when the line gets horrendous.

 

Normally, Port Everglades is jammed with taxi cabs to the point where the traffic is clogged up simply because there are too many of them! Coupled with the fact that there are alot of people that come to port early on cruise day (Indy is notorious for being the last ship to empty everyone off) and you have a nasty combo.

 

Bottom line, if you're on a schedule of any kind, you don't want to be disembarking on a 7 ship day!