Royal Caribbean hardly present at Port of Miami

[A6cruiser]

Sorry if this has been discussed but I could not find anything on this topic in my search.

 

With Miami still being called the Cruising Capital of the world how come Royal Carribean, Headquartered at the Port of Miami, only has the Majesty of the seas sailing from this port?

 

Ft Lauderdale just 40 minutes North on I-95 has a lot of Royal Cruise Line presence. Does anybody know the reason why? Does it cost them more to Cruise out of Miami than ft Lauderdale?

 

NCL and CCL both have their newest and Larges ships sailing from Miami. Even Disney cruises out of Miami part of the year.

 

 

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[Clarea]

Majesty has been the only Royal ship in Miami for several years now, I think since Oasis arrived in 2009. Occasionally, other Royal ships may have a cruise or two out of Miami. Just guessing that Port Everglades made Royal a better offer than the Port of Miami.

[DarthGrady]

I'm totally fine with them having less presence at POM, I greatly prefer cruising out of Port Everglades.

 

Unfortunately this is all part of a larger trend wherein RCI is basing fewer and fewer ships in the US. I hope that is a trend that comes to an end very soon, I'd like more RCI options available.

[Tapi]

It's my understanding that the shift to Port Everglades started when Royal needed to build a new cruise terminal that could handle Oasis class ships. Port Everglades won the bid and ever since, Royal has focused on this port instead of Miami.

 

Personally, I prefer Port Everglades.

 

 

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[leaveitallbehind]

It's my understanding that the shift to Port Everglades started when Royal needed to build a new cruise terminal that could handle Oasis class ships. Port Everglades won the bid and ever since, Royal has focused on this port instead of Miami.

 

Personally, I prefer Port Everglades.

 

 

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Agree - Port Everglades is a far better port and pier facilities. Miami was always slower in our experience on and off (particularly off through customs) and would likely not have supported the Oasis class ships as well without a major revitalization.

 

The FLL airport serving Port everglades as also much more convenient and faster access than MIA. (We often chose FLL over MIA when sailing out of Miami). Having sailed from both ports a number of times I prefer Port Everglades hands down over Miami.

Edited July 5, 2014 by leaveitallbehind

[A6cruiser]

Thank you for the replies. They make sense. Happy Cruising!

 

 

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[LissyTx]

Agree with all but I will say the sail away from Miami was the prettiest / had the most interesting things to look at.

 

 

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[Ashland]

Like all other decisions RCI makes ...it's based on $$'s ;)

[celly]

Agree with all but I will say the sail away from Miami was the prettiest / had the most interesting things to look at.

 

 

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You are absolutely right, we too loved the sailaway from Miami. For us leaving from Port Everglades means increased costs as we always fly in a few days in advance to MIA from Europe. We used to pay less than 10$ from Miami downtown to POM and nowadays it costs us $ 80-90 each way from the Intercontinental to Port Everglades and back to Miami or MIA. We really miss sailing from POM.

[rummenroman]

I think FLL was promised a big number of passengers when it agreed to build facilities for the O sisters.

 

Also the US market wasn't the greatest for a number of years, and Royal sensed they could make more money by pulling a large number of ship out of the US market. Maybe with the US market coming back, the ships will too, including more at POM.

[Joe12]

I'm totally fine with them having less presence at POM, I greatly prefer cruising out of Port Everglades.

 

Unfortunately this is all part of a larger trend wherein RCI is basing fewer and fewer ships in the US. I hope that is a trend that comes to an end very soon, I'd like more RCI options available.

 

Hi DarthGrady,

I am a fan of your reviews but however, Florida is not the only place in the world and places like China and Europe and Australia want ships too, You live in Florida and take several cruises a year but many others (including myself) can only cruise once a year due to airfare.

In Florida this winter you have Brilliance/Vision at Tampa, Freedom/Explorer/Enchantment at PC, Oasis/Allure/Indy/Liberty/Legend from FLL and Majesty from Miami

Compare that to Voyager/Quantum/Mariner in Asia, Voyager/Radiance/Rhapsody in Australia and next summer in Europe, Allure/Anthem/Explorer/Brilliance/Serenade/Vision/Rhapsody/Splendour and no ships in either Australia or Europe year round.

Get the point?

[Big_G]

Not a fan of Miami or their airport. Decent hotels fill up quick so you need to book way in advance. Never had a problem booking last minute rooms in Fort Lauderdale. We'd rather fly to FLL and then use SAS for transportation to the port.

[FLACRUISER99]

Does anyone know if they opened the tunnel yet, It looked ready to open a couple of weeks ago.

 

 

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[A6cruiser]

Does anyone know if they opened the tunnel yet, It looked ready to open a couple of weeks ago.

 

 

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Not yet

 

We just came back from a cruise and it was still not open. It should be soon though

 

 

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[Cruising89143]

Thank you for the replies. They make sense. Happy Cruising!

 

 

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RCCL has moved two Celebrity S class ships to Miami seasonally. The Eclipse and Reflection. We have cruised the last two years out of a Miami on the Reflection and the embarkation and debarkation process was very good. Add to that the sail away from Miami is much nicer than FLL IMHO.

 

We are back to FLL in March and I am not looking forward to the process. Other than Oasis terminal 18 we have had really bad experiences with the other smaller outdated terminals. We are using terminal 25 again and our last three times using this terminal was not fun.

Edited July 14, 2014 by cruisingator2

[CruiseAwesome]

I think also it's important to look at market shares and who they're looking to board on their ships. First, Carnival has a heavy presence in POM and little presence in FLL. Whereas RC has little presence in POM and very heavy in FLL. So maybe one company or the other wanted to avoid over saturation of a port and maybe the port couldn't contain both of them. Also, I think there is more of a party "fun-ship" crowd in Miami and that's what Carnival is geared for. RC seems less like the fun ships with its little more mature aged crowds.

 

 

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[notsomadhatter]

We are back to FLL in March and I am not looking forward to the process. Other than Oasis terminal 18 we have had really bad experiences with the other smaller outdated terminals. We are using terminal 25 again and our last three times using this terminal was not fun.

 

Interesting. I sailed out of FLL on Liberty in January and on Celebrity Constellation in April and it was an easy process both times.

 

My sailings of out POM in the last three years have been a nightmare, specifically with debarkation. I have a distinct memory of looking at my partner during one and saying "#*&$ I miss Port Canaveral!" PC is the smoothest of the Florida ports in our experience.

Edited July 14, 2014 by notsomadhatter

[Cruising89143]

I think also it's important to look at market shares and who they're looking to board on their ships. First, Carnival has a heavy presence in POM and little presence in FLL. Whereas RC has little presence in POM and very heavy in FLL. So maybe one company or the other wanted to avoid over saturation of a port and maybe the port couldn't contain both of them. Also, I think there is more of a party "fun-ship" crowd in Miami and that's what Carnival is geared for. RC seems less like the fun ships with its little more mature aged crowds.

 

 

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The main reason that RCCL has so many ships based in FLL is due to a contract signed with the port for the Oasis terminal. RCCL had to guarantee a certain amount of passengers over a ten year period in order for the new 75 million dollar terminal to be built. The only way to get those huge numbers was to have most of the RCCL fleet including Celebrity ships cruising out of FLL.

Edited July 14, 2014 by cruisingator2

[John&LaLa]

Agree with all but I will say the sail away from Miami was the prettiest / had the most interesting things to look at.

 

 

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Yep, Miami sail a ways are nice. Been a long time since we did one

 

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[UCF_Knight]

Agree with all but I will say the sail away from Miami was the prettiest / had the most interesting things to look at.

 

Definitely.

Standing on a port side balcony for sail away from Miami is a great experience.

[FLACRUISER99]

Not yet

 

We just came back from a cruise and it was still not open. It should be soon though

 

 

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Thanks, but soon in Miami could be months.:eek:

[A6cruiser]

I think also it's important to look at market shares and who they're looking to board on their ships. First, Carnival has a heavy presence in POM and little presence in FLL. Whereas RC has little presence in POM and very heavy in FLL. So maybe one company or the other wanted to avoid over saturation of a port and maybe the port couldn't contain both of them. Also, I think there is more of a party "fun-ship" crowd in Miami and that's what Carnival is geared for. RC seems less like the fun ships with its little more mature aged crowds.

 

 

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Well said. This probably led to the 10 year passenger commitment to Ft Lauderdale for port upgrades

 

 

 

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[BillOh]

Majesty has been the only Royal ship in Miami for several years now, I think since Oasis arrived in 2009. Occasionally, other Royal ships may have a cruise or two out of Miami. Just guessing that Port Everglades made Royal a better offer than the Port of Miami.

 

That timing seems right. We took Freedom out of Miami in 2008 and that was the last I saw RC have two regularly scheduled ships out of Miami. In 2010 I was on Majesty and Liberty was behind us, but that was just because Liberty had just come into the fleet and was doing an inaugural from there. Since then I haven't seen two Royal ships there the same day and when Royal isn't using that western most terminal, i have seen an occasional Carnival ship there.

[cooncat]

I drive to the port from the Tampa area, so I find Fort Lauderdale much better than Miami. There are market priced gas stations very close to both entrances of the port, many places to stay and places to eat. There are no gas stations anywhere near the Port of Miami. I cruised out of Port Canaveral several times and found the same problem as Miami even though it's only a two hour drive from where I live. I just thought I would give a different viewpoint on this discussion.

[Clarea]

I drive to the port from the Tampa area, so I find Fort Lauderdale much better than Miami. There are market priced gas stations very close to both entrances of the port, many places to stay and places to eat. There are no gas stations anywhere near the Port of Miami. I cruised out of Port Canaveral several times and found the same problem as Miami even though it's only a two hour drive from where I live. I just thought I would give a different viewpoint on this discussion.

We cruise Port Canaveral quite often, and always use a rental car. We find reasonably priced gas stations all along Atlantic Blvd. The closest to the port is very near the Residence Inn, less than a mile south of the causeway.