Oct 15

Oct 15 Day 19 - Disembarkation

Ship: Princess Cruises’ Sun Princess
Itinerary: 16 18-Night Transatlantic - Southampton to Fort Lauderdale

Disembarkation from Sun Princess at Port Everglades was a mixed bag. We were originally placed into a group scheduled to disembark the ship at 9:00am, but since our flight did not depart Miami until 7:00pm, we requested a later disembarkation time. We were granted the latest time of 11:00am (Brown 4 luggage tags).

We met at our designated disembarkation spot on time, which for us was Princess Arena. The crew was in the middle of an emergency drill which was being observed by the US Coast Guard, since this was Sun Princess’ first visit to the USA.

Corinne, the Cruise Director, made announcements throughout the morning and warned us that US Customs in the terminal was experiencing long lines and this would delay our disembarkation. I think we finally disembarked the ship about 11:40.

Once we were in the cruise terminal, we gathered our large luggage and it took about 10 minutes to get through Customs. They did not have the facial recognition screens set up in the terminal which is probably what was causing the delays.

We exited the terminal to line up for the transfer to the Miami airport, which Princess did provide for guests on a complimentary basis because of the two extra days onboard and all of the re-booking of flights. We stood in line for at least 30 minutes before boarding the motor coach.

As we drove through town to get to the highway leading from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami, we could see some streets flooded as a result of the hurricane. It was also raining heavily.

The drive to the Miami airport took about an hour-and-a-half because of the pouring rain and the very heavy traffic on the highway. Once we neared the exit for the Miami airport, the fun begins.

As we entered the Miami Airport area, Rickee and I noticed that the driver drove right past the Departures exit for the airport terminal. It was soon after this that the driver admitted he had no idea where to go because he had never been to the Miami airport.

The bus driver ended up driving a couple of miles past the airport terminal. Some of the passengers on the bus were trying to tell the driver that he needed to turn around and go back to the actual airport. The driver was obviously frustrated. At one point, he stopped the bus in a parking lot to ask the driver of another parked bus where to go. This was some sort of city bus that probably had no idea what our driver was even trying to ask.

When the driver got back into the bus, he drove us about a half-a-mile to an Amtrak station/Greyhound bus terminal to drop us off. The airport terminal was nowhere in sight! We continued to try to tell him that this was not the place to drop airline passengers, but he kept arguing that he was not allowed to enter the airport. He just started unloading our luggage.

Even the security guard on duty at this terminal tried to tell him he was unloading at the wrong place. Turns out, it was a Greyhound bus terminal (I think). There were no porters, no signs, no luggage carts, etc. The driver said all we had to do was go up an elevator and walk to a train that would take us to the aiport. However, one elderly couple had several large pieces of luggage without wheels. How were they supposed to get their luggage to the elevator?

Fortunately, all of our luggage has wheels and we were able to transport all of our luggage to the elevator.

Once we exited the elevator, we could then see signs directing us to the train/tram that would eventually take us to the airport terminal. BUT, this was a 500+ yard walk just to get to the train! So, without a luggage cart, I don’t know how the elderly couple was able to manage. While standing outside of the bus, arguing with the bus driver, I finally suggested to the elderly man that he simply call for an Uber or a taxi and have them take them and their luggage to the airport.

This was a COMPLETE screw-up and Princess needs to talk with the transfer company about this issue. All of the guests on board our bus were very upset by how this transfer ended. I kept trying to argue with the bus driver using logic. I asked him, “If we are in the right place, like you say we are, where are all of the other cruise ship transfer buses?” Of course, there were no other buses. The other transfer buses dropped their guests at the proper airport departure area.