If my cruise arrives back to port at 7am, what time will I be in my car driving?
I am leaving my car in the port parking lot. I will carry my bags out with me. I am on level Z. Royal Carribean from Port Canaveral 7am listed arrival, what time will I be out of the port parking lot driving on the main road? 8am? 10am? I have no idea and need to guage what I can do the rest of that day.
Please only respond if you’ve actually been on a cruise…
On each cruise I’ve been on, the departure time has been all over the board. Some ships are great at it and some are terrible.
It also depends on how big a ship, how big the departure terminal is, and how many people opt for the self check out option. It also depends on customs. Usually the ship will dock at something closer to 5am and then customs comes onboard and clears people for departure. If it takes them a long time, that can slow you down. My last cruise (April with Holland America) getting off the ship was easy but getting through customs was the biggest free-for-all I’ve ever seen. It does seem like it’s getting faster though. My first couple cruises (over 5 years ago) we didn’t get out til more like 11. My last 2 we were at the car (which involves a shuttle back to the Hampton) by 10am.
They call people to get off the ship by categories. If you are Cat 1 you would be off first but if your deck is one of the last to be called, it may be 930 before you even get off the ship. Unfortunately people with early flights (before 1pm) are always first off the ship. If you are driving you will be later.
I would say a good average is that you would be at your car at 930-10am.
7 am.
That depends on if the sniper has good aim.
When you get in your car silly. That’s what time. No I’m just kidding. I would say 10am.
Thats hard to say b/c its going to depend on how long it takes to get thru customes. I wouldn’t say no later than 10am-11am at most.
Absolutely the worst part of the cruise. Carrying your luggage will speed things up, but I would plan on getting off the ship at about 8:30, getting through customs by about 9:15, getting to your car by about 9:30 and getting out of the parking lot by about 10:00. Not only is it going to take you about 3 hours, but it’s going to feel like about 10. It’s reaaly a pain.
With the cruise industry being so huge and having hundreds of ships porting across the world daily, it seems they would have figured out way to have you to your car in less than 3 hours by now. Hopefully it’s a long cruise to make it more worth it.
8:00ish
On Royal Caribbean, if you carry your bags off, you’re the second group to leave. Make sure you get the luggage tags for that tho or they could stop you. (seriously) The first group is the diamond and up members and there are probably a dozen or less of them on that particular ship. You would be in the next group. I have found that the issue in that port is when you’re able to dock. If there are more than one other ship coming in that morning, you could be late to dock if you’re the one waiting for the pilot boat offshore. If you tie up by 6 am, you could be ready to leave by 7 or 7:30 AM.
RCCL usually has customs past the point of pick-up for the bags in the cruise terminal. In the last two years, I have found that as long as you arent’ claiming alot or have to pay, you should breeze thru customs with a quick scan of your claim form. So if you want to make that quick, don’t buy more than your allowance for duty-free.
Now, because you will likely be one of the first peeps off the ship, you should be able to get to your car fairly quickly, as long as you didn’t park waaay out there. The hardest part is gonna be getting out of the port itself. You want to do this BEFORE the buses full of peeps start leaving for the airport and Disney. If you’re coming in on a weekend, you’ve lucked out a bit cause the highway will less congested once you get out. If not, you’re gonna hit rush hour traffic and want to slit your own throat.
If you tie up by 6, on a weekend, get in that second group of walk off peeps, don’t buy too much, and make it out before the busses, you could be out and onto the highway by 9, and poss before if you’re really lucky.
Hope that helps!
Last month the passengers on the ship I had cruised on were really being checked by customs. Was almost noon before everyone was off board.
Once the ship has arrived at the dock, it still needs to be cleared by US Customs before anybody can leave the ship, and that can take a while. Cruise companies try to get people off the ship and on their way as quickly as possible, but sometimes it takes longer than other times, and there really isn’t anything you can do but be patient. I think you can figure on being off the ship anywhere from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
The cruise line will ask you how early you want to embark and your bags get marked with that time.
There are lots of procedures and so on before you can get off so you should reckon at least an hour and a half before getting off. Then you have to get through customs and so on so hard to say but you should be away by 9 – 9:30.
I would say that you will be sitting in your car by 10:00 am
Wow, looking at these estimated times seems like a killer. I actually just came back from Port Canaveral on Carnival Cruise on May 28th from the Bahamas. I don’t know how your cruise is planning but we docked at 7:00a.m. My fiance, his father, and my Mother along with me would have been off the boat at 7:30 but instead because he over slept he got up and was ready at 7:30a.m. then we gathered our things. The thing with this cruise is they served breakfast still until 10-11, so we skipped breakfast while some people chose to eat it. Which is even better because the lines won’t be so crowded and the same for them. We made it off the boat and through customs at 8:00, walked to the car and was in by 8:15a.m.
So to be honest the time has a lot of different variables as to when you will get off the boat and be in your car… it depends on so much. How crowded is it? Is there people holding up the lines and needing to turn around? If anything depending on the people and if you are up and ready at 7, then I say you can make it to your car by 8, Customs is not a hard part. All they did for us is get the slip we had to fill out, then they asked if we had food or beverages being alcohol, etc… We answered them since our answer was no, we walked with no problem.