Early Departure

[dale88fan]

Can anyone tell me how early departure works on R.C. and how I can ensure I will be able to get off early to catch my flight.

We have an 11:25 a.m. flight out of Ft. Lauderdale airport, and our cruise (Freedom of the Seas) is at the Miami port.

Thanks!

[Dave]

There can always be a glitch, but on our Freedom cruise they called "express departure" promptly at 6:30am, which was the time posted in the debarkation flyer they handed out the day before. These passengers had to carry all of their luggage with them - no exceptions. I know a few people who managed to get on earlier flights out of MIA and were airborne by 8:30 or so. These were the lucky ones on our particular debarkation day.

If you need to have your luggage moved ashore in the usual manner, then you will need to get beige, lavender, or gray tags. These colors are scheduled for 7:30am, but can be called earlier. Of course, on our cruise they screwed it up terribly and called colors over an hour before the schedule and as a result our luggage didn't show up for over an hour.

[Sandy]

Dave, for folks getting off the ship at 6:30am, were there transfer buses ready to take them to the airports at that hour, or were they on their own?

We got off the Sovereign early a couple of weeks ago, and then sat on the transfer bus for 45 minutes until the bus driver thought it was full enough to leave.

Sandy

[Dave]

Sandy,

I don't know the answer to that. The people I cruised with took taxis. One actually managed to get on a 8:15 flight to ATL and was sitting in his house by 10:30am.

[Sonny V]

The last time I when from the Port of Miami to the Ft. Lauderdale airport I bought a transfer On the ship. I had a porter take my luggage from the terminal to the bus. We were on our way in just 20 minutes. At the airport we had a porter take our luggage. We never touched our luggage, it was great. The bus was a Greyhound. I though it was better that taking a taxi, which are usually vans that are packed and uncomfortable.