Tampa cruise terminal question

[JR&EM]

We are cruising this September on the Serenade of the Seas eastbound Panama Canal cruise. Our flight home from Tampa airport was scheduled for 4:30pm, we just received notification that the time has been switched to 11:05am. We are scheduled to dock at 7am. Will we be able to make our flight on time or will we need to reschedule the flight time?

Thank you in advance for any information.

[twangster]

That's borderline.  If there are no delays and everything runs perfectly to schedule you can make it if you self assist off the ship and go like crazy.

If there are any hiccups such as weather or a medical event the day before you will possibly miss your flight.

[bryresangel]

1 hour ago, JR&EM said:

We are cruising this September on the Serenade of the Seas eastbound Panama Canal cruise. Our flight home from Tampa airport was scheduled for 4:30pm, we just received notification that the time has been switched to 11:05am. We are scheduled to dock at 7am. Will we be able to make our flight on time or will we need to reschedule the flight time?

Thank you in advance for any information.

That happened to us before. I would just call them and say that time will not work for your return flight. They should be able to book you on something closer to your original time. Typically, they put you on whatever flight and hope it works out, but sometimes it doesn't. But definitely call!

 

[ChessE4]

17 hours ago, JR&EM said:

We are cruising this September on the Serenade of the Seas eastbound Panama Canal cruise. Our flight home from Tampa airport was scheduled for 4:30pm, we just received notification that the time has been switched to 11:05am. We are scheduled to dock at 7am. Will we be able to make our flight on time or will we need to reschedule the flight time?

Thank you in advance for any information.

Let me give you an Air2Sea example.  They have us on a 10:05 AM flight in Barcelona with the ship due to dock at 6 AM.  My agent says Air2Sea wouldn't provide the option if we couldn't make it.  So you arrive one hour later and depart one hour later.  I am thinking you will be OK if you try self-assist.  It seems like flights are more likely to be delayed than moved up (your chance an exception).  Just my 2 cents worth.

[JR&EM]

I would like to thank everyone for your quick responses. Unfortunately, we are flying Jet Blue out of Tampa and they only have two flights that day to our home airport and both are early morning flights. So, at this time we are debating taking a chance on making the flight or staying the night in Tampa and fly out the next morning. Again, thank you.

[twangster]

Tampa has small terminals and the luggage offloading process really requires guests to pay attention and follow the times that luggage tag numbers are called.  Avoid putting your luggage out the night before for the fastest debarking process. 

The biggest factor will be the ship arriving on time.  Tampa Bay looks big and broad.  It has the appearance of a big body of water but it is shallow.  There are narrow shipping channels that ships must stay within and their transit through the channels is impacted by other shipping.  Some of the channels are not very wide and in places two ships can't pass each other so movement is carefully choreographed between the local pilots.    Other forms of shipping use the same channels, cargo, container and tankers.  Certain times of year are prone to fog.  During inclement weather or fog they won't let ships navigate some parts of the Bay including at times the transit under the bridge.

That all sounds a lot worse than it actually is.  It is a nice port to sail from and the transit through the Bay and under the bridge can be very enjoyable.  On the way back to port much of that occurs in the dark.  It usually goes pretty smoothly and the local pilots are pros at this.  However when weather is off or another ship is delayed or has an issue it can impact all other ships in ways you don't tend to experience in other ports.

In February a few years ago the fog was bad.  We were held outside of the Bay all day waiting for the fog to dissipate.  When it finally did there was a cruise ship that was stuck in port just as we were stuck out of the port.  We then had to wait for that ship to transit the shipping channels on it's way out before were allowed to start our way in as two ships can't use the channels at the same time.  We finally docked at 6pm.  As it turns out I had a 7pm flight and thought I was going to be sitting in the airport all day.  Instead I just made my flight.  At check in they warned my my luggage might not make the plane but it did.   I got to the gate as the flight was boarding.  It was a lot of stress and go, go, go race for a taxi.  But I made it.  Everyone else who had earlier flight times had to spend an extra day in Tampa and fly out the next day.

Other cruises from Tampa have gone perfectly on schedule.  If it's your only option it is doable if everything goes right.  Just be prepared for an extra day in Tampa in case it doesn't go as planned.

[PPPJJ-GCVAB]

18 hours ago, JR&EM said:

We are cruising this September on the Serenade of the Seas eastbound Panama Canal cruise. Our flight home from Tampa airport was scheduled for 4:30pm, we just received notification that the time has been switched to 11:05am. We are scheduled to dock at 7am. Will we be able to make our flight on time or will we need to reschedule the flight time?

Thank you in advance for any information.

Not sure what airline you are flying on but whenever SWA changes a flight they allow you to change to any other flight that day without  having to pay the difference in airfares.  If you can’t pick a later flight I would suggest flying home next day.  You never know if there will be issues with the ship arriving at port on time.

[Allen2]

Tampa has had some serious delays with immigration/customs clearances, plus all the luggage issues mentioned by Matt.  Better safe than sorry, IMO.

[Moby Dick]

2 hours ago, twangster said:

The biggest factor will be the ship arriving on time.  Tampa Bay looks big and broad.  It has the appearance of a big body of water but it is shallow.  There are narrow shipping channels that ships must stay within and their transit through the channels is impacted by other shipping.  Some of the channels are not very wide and in places two ships can't pass each other so movement is carefully choreographed between the local pilots.    Other forms of shipping use the same channels, cargo, container and tankers.  Certain times of year are prone to fog.  During inclement weather or fog they won't let ships navigate some parts of the Bay including at times the transit under the bridge.

But, on the bright side, you can usually see a lot of dolphins dancing around in the bay.  

[JR&EM]

Thanks to everyone for their responses. We decided to spend the night in Tampa and fly out the next morning which will make our life less stressful. Thank you again.

[Ubiquitous Cruiser]

Great opportunity to head over to Ybor City for the day. Grab some Cuban coffee and pastries and recommend the Ybor City Museum. It's right downtown and gives a great history of the construction and culture of the city. Cigar City brewing is good landing spot too. There's also a free trolly with a stop not too far from the cruise port. A ride share to the airport area will run about $35.

[Ryan79]

4 hours ago, JR&EM said:

Thanks to everyone for their responses. We decided to spend the night in Tampa and fly out the next morning which will make our life less stressful. Thank you again.

That is exactly what I was about to recommend you do. Spend the night and have a 100% stress free disembarkation process. I am doing the same thing on my December cruise where our outbound flight was going to be at 11:30am. Probably would be OK, but spending $150 on a hotel is worth the peace of mind alone.