6 pm flight home!

hoopsielv · #1 (**permalink**) March 13th, 2006, 04:13 PM

Hi! We are cruising for the first time in August. The only flight we could get back from Tampa is at 6 pm. Any suggestions of what we can do during the day- esp with luggage?? Do we all have to disembark right away at 8 am?

Thanks for the help- and for the patience with us newbies- I'm sure many of you answer the same question over and over!

Donna · #2 (**permalink**) March 13th, 2006, 04:48 PM

My suggestion would be to see what post excursions they offer in Tampa. The tour is for people that do have later flights and they end at the airport, luggage is stored in the bus, so its an easy way to kill a few hours and not be sitting in the airport. Another alternative is to rent a car and see the town...

LisaK · #3 (**permalink**) March 14th, 2006, 10:00 AM

See what the ship offers as a post-cruise excursion.
Look into renting a car and touring the area
Hire a cab for a few hours to tour the area
Book a day room at a local hotel, have a nice lunch and veg out at the pool.
Get a late disembarkation.

Darcy · #4 (**permalink**) March 15th, 2006, 05:03 PM

The Aquarium (right next door to the port) has luggage storage. Also, they will store your luggage in the port until 4:00 p.m. You could do that and wander around the port. There are shops, restaurants, movie theater, etc.. I always book a late flight out of Tampa. If there is any kind of weather you may not be able to get into the channel. Our last cruise out of Tampa we were supposed to dock at 8:00 a.m. but due to fog/weather we couldn't get into the channel. We didn't dock until around noon and then it was almost 2:00 p.m. before we cleared customs and were off the ship. Our flight wasn't until 4:00 p.m. so we were fine but a lot of people missed their flights and as it was a school vacation week a lot of them couldn't get flights out until two or three days later.

jenischmeni · #5 (**permalink**) April 10th, 2006, 10:51 AM

I had no idea there was so much to do at the port! Is this true of the Miami port too?

I have a 5:30 flight home. (I, like the OP, didn't want my flight too close to docking.) I checked out the Miami excursions and none of them sounded very interesting - at least for the amount of money it was going to cost. But a movie or shopping would be nice.

Paul Motter · #6 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 07:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jenischmeni

I had no idea there was so much to do at the port! Is this true of the Miami port too?

Miami has a very nice shopping area called Bayside you can easily spend many hours at, right outside the cruise terminal: Here is our article:

http://www.cruisemates.com/articles/ports/bayside.cfm

jenischmeni · #7 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 08:47 AM

Thanks for the article, it was very interesting.

This is a stupid question...but...what would we do w/ our luggage while we are shopping. I'm looking for something to do until our flight leaves. Our flight doesn't leave until 6:00 p.m., but obviously we'll be getting off the ship much earlier.

Is there a way to 'check' luggage at the port?

Thanks again!