Taxi vs Ship transfers
 

My wife and I are foing on the Sensation next month leaving out of Tampa. Carnival will provide round trip transfers to/from airport for $26/person. Is this a good deal or would we save money (enough) and take a taxi?<BR><BR>Have any of you done the Taxi at Tampa and know what they charge?<BR><BR>John

You would save both money and time. The transfer buses at the airport will wait until they are full before they leave for the port. Taxi's will leave when you close the trunk!<BR><BR>Paul and others will try to tell you that there are separate lines at the port terminal for those on transfer buses - this is baloney and should be disregarded. It used to be that once your luggage was on the transfer bus, you didn't have to worry about it again until it appeared in you cabin. After 9/11 this isn't true anymore and you have to present your luggage yourself at the terminal.

last January, we arrived in Tampa a day ahead by car. We stayed at the Days Inn on Courtney Campbell Causeway., nice place on the water with a restaurant. The next A.M., their shuttle bus took us to the pier and we left our car there for 14 days, no charge. Upon our return, we could have called the hotel for pickup but decided to take a cab, with tip it cost $25 for both of us. The hotel is west of the airport so you should not spend anymore than we did for a taxi from the airport.

Peter, will you listen to some common sense for a change. When you take a taxi, granted you are at the ship very fast but then you stand in line to have your luggage checked manually. If you go by bus you identify your luggage when it comes off the carousel. You admittted to this. It gets loaded onto the bus and then goes from the bus that you are riding in directly into the ship. Passengers that have oversized luggage that does not fit on the ship's security belt have to wait for special processing. Am I making sense here? <BR><BR>I would rather have the time on the air-conditioned ship then waiting in line. <BR><BR>I'll take the transfers. Hang the expense. You do it your way since Peter's way is the best way.<BR><BR>Paul

Last cruise - took taxi from FLL airport to the Celebrity terminal at Port Everglades, unloaded eight pieces of luggage, showed picture ID to porter, gave him ten bucks, walked into the terminal, checked in and was in my cabin twenty minutes after I closed the taxi door.<BR><BR>Are you saying that once you claim your luggage at the carousel at the airport and identify it for the bus driver or whomever, you don't need to handle it again until you're on the ship if you take the ship's transfer bus?? Is that what you're saying? And it sounds like you're also saying if you choose to carry-on a piece of luggage and you use the ship's transfers, you don't have to take it thru the scanner at the terminal and stand in line with the rest of the passengers?? Is that what you're saying?? Are you sure you aren't really in a coma in a hospital somewhere dreaming this stuff!

Ship transfers are a lot easier, Peter is an idiot.

Either your reputation has preceeded you Peter and they were afraid of repercussions or the US Marshall posing as a union pier worker that asked for your ID (duh) wanted to go home early and spend his ten bucks.<BR><BR>I do not know why am I replying to you. I guess I am ready for the looney bin.<BR><BR>Paul

What exactly are you saying Paul? What part of the facts of my last cruise don't you believe. Come on, lets have it. I've got about 2,000 other passengers on that cruise that did exactly the same thing I did. Come on, make an idiot out yourself again.

Don't know who Peter and Paul are but I don't think you can believe either one. I can tell you that my wife and I have been on 27 cruises over the past 16 years and we've never taken the transfers. We always take a taxi from the airport or hotel if we go a day earlier and we have never had any long waits to get on the ship. For the cost, it seems to us that the taxis are the most economical. I don't think there is a separate line for the bus people.

Message to Maryann regarding the arrangements for parking at the Days Inn.<BR><BR>We are planning a cruise out of Tampa also. Please advise on how the parking was arranged as we intend to arrive a day early and will stay overnight at a motel. <BR><BR>Thanks for your information.

Out of 12 cruises we have only taken the cruise line's transfers once. We find that it's almost always less expensive and quicker to take a taxi (no waiting for the bus to fill up). I'm not quite sure what Paul means when he says "When you take a taxi, granted you are at the ship very fast but then you stand in line to have your luggage checked manually". When we arrive at the pier, we just check our big pieces of luggage with the porters (never had to wait and we've cruised 5 times since 9/11), and every passenger's carry-on luggage has to be either x-rayed or hand searched regardless of whether you're a transfer passenger. Finally, the check-in line you use is usually determined by one of the following criteria - citizenship, cabin category (i.e. suites), and whether or not you are a repeat guest. I've never witnessed separate lines for transfer passengers.

Take a taxi, boy.

Well said Patty and John Doe. What say you now Paul?

I say "Get a life!". I personally prefer to take the cruise line transfers but I've done both and it winds up being a personal preference. If time is tight (due to flight schedules), I lean towards the transfer. If I have a lot of time, taxis work just fine!

Johnny - sorry, we probably lost sight of your original question. Take a taxi, its faster and cheaper.

We are a family of 4 and find that taxi's are usually the best route, you seem to get to the line ahead of the group. Have done the transfer thing also, but seems to me that when travelling by taxi it's never close to the $40.00 that the ship would cost.