Tampa Cruise Terminal opening time (Carnival Miracle)

[Alan & Lin]

Hi,

We are cruising on the Carnival Miracle in mid May.  Our flight arrives at TPA around 8 am.  If we go to the port early will we have to wait outside?  Until what time?

Still searching for best transportation to and from the Tampa Airport...

 

Thanks!

 

Lin

[finoky]

We arrived at 10 and being platinum was allowed to walk right in. There were others that were already inside as well. We used Uber at the airport and our driver was there within minutes. He had a Dodge Durango which easily fit the four of us including luggage.

[Alan & Lin]

Thanks for the reply.  Looking now at transportation options...was Uber reasonable?  We are Platinum also, just never cruised out of Tampa

 

[finoky]

Total cost for the 4 of us was $21.

[RobJenn]

You’d probably have to wait outside, because the terminal wouldn’t be open yet. Tampa is a very easy airport to navigate, absolutely awesome facility if you have never been there before.  Baggage claim is very quick, and it’s not unusual to be out of the airport completely within 25-30 minutes of your plane touching down on the ground.  

 

Your best bet to get to the cruise port is going to be Uber or Lyft, $20-25, It’s a pretty quick ride, the terminal isn’t too far from the airport.  

 

 Maybe stop somewhere and get a nice breakfast in Tampa on the way to the port to kill a little time?

[MistyRo76]

We just cruised from Tampa on our cruise last week on the Paradise. We flew in the day before and stayed in Ybor City so we didn't have to kill time necessarily. I can tell you that we arrived to the port area around 10:45 the morning of our cruise and were able to basically walk right through screening and check-in. And there was already a pretty large group in the waiting area. We had priority boarding and were heading on the ship by 11:00AM or so. It was the easiest embarkation of any of my 18 cruises! 

 

As far as getting around Tampa, I would recommend that you use Lyft or Uber. We used Lyft everyone (my company has a special deal with them for work travel so they've become my go-to company). Some other members of our group had flights arriving earlier than ours. They took a taxi from the airport to our hotel and it was $40. Our Lyft was $30 after tip was included ($25 before tip). So Lyft was quite a bit cheaper than a taxi!