Port Everglades boarding and PAT

[ruadisneyfan2]

Interesting, we almost never try to get off before 9, so maybe Disney is better for early risers/self-assist but worse for people who don’t want to be up and off before dawn?

I used to feel that way too and that worked well sailing out of PC we'd get a noon flight home, but besides breakfast, there's really not much else to do and nowadays I take care of my father on weekends so I'd rather just get home sooner & unpack asap. The next non-stop from Miami isn't until 2 or 3 pm which means an extra hour or 2 of sleep results in several hours of sitting at MIA.

 

[RedHead0186]

I honestly don't understand why this is allowed to continue especially at a new port. Pre-covid, my daughter and I had continual embarkation/disembarkation issues every single time we cruised with DCL. I love cruising with them and so I tolerate this long, standing in lines forever process. However, my daughter is not a big Disney fan, so last year she tried Celebrity's new ship out of Fort Lauderdale. She braced herself for the chaos and interminable waits of a Disney terminal.......and was stunned/thrilled to report that it took her about five minutes to check in and then was immediately permitted entry to her room (she got there about 11:30 with a 12:30 PAT; she wasn't sure how long to the port.) She said disembarkation was the same - you were given a time to disembark and it was orderly without the hours-long lines present on DCL. The older I get, the more I hate starting and ending a cruise this way, so I will probably try Celebrity with her soon.

I agree. I'm on a Princess cruise right now; we left last week out of Port Everglades. As we got closer, I started 'freaking out' because we didn't have a specific PAT. Then I realized we just show up whenever we want during the boarding window. It was super easy-dropped off luggage, went to return the rental car, came back, and literally walked right through security, document check, etc. and right on to the ship. I think the longest time we stood in one place during the entire thing was to get our pictures taken. It was really refreshing after the stress of DCL.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Maybe some of the big wigs at DCL need to sail on another cruise line and see how others handle things.

 

[mmouse37]

We sailed the Dream on January 7th out of FLL and our boarding was fine. I am Pearl so I know having an early PAT and boarding group 1 or 2 did make it easier. I think the people working the lines outside are not DCL personnel but local port workers. Some of their actions/words were definitely not Disney.

We had an 11:15 PAT arrived at about 10:50. We had rented a car from Avis at the airport 2 days early and returned it to the Avis location on Miami Road which provides a shuttle to the port.....BUT.....when we arrived to return the car there were about 75 people milling around waiting for the shuttle. I knew it would be quite awhile before we got on a shuttle and there didn't seem to be any order and did not want to get in a shoving match when shuttle arrived. We opted to Uber from the Avis location. The port is only a few minutes from that Avis location. When we arrived at the terminal they had no corrals set up yet for PAT times. After about 15 minutes of waiting outside someone came out and told Concierge guests to line up in the front and 11:15 PAT to wait in a corral they set up. There were so few people waiting behind Concierge that my husband and I thought they must be holding other PATs around the corner or somewhere else.

We had no problem checking in and everything seemed to be working. I asked when boarding might start and they told me about 11:45. They were letting concierge in through the ears right away and they were waiting in an area up above that we could see from the main terminal seating. About 11:50 they called boarding group 1 and then soon after boarding group 2. We were onboard before noon and I went down to Enchanted Garden to see if I could get a Palo (we only booked the cruise the week before). We were the first ones there and we got a Palo reservation with no issue. Hint....I was told dining changes and Palo reservation would open at 12:30 but I wanted to wait in line early so when we went down to Deck 2 we were pleasantly surprised that they took us right away.

We were staying another night in FLL after the cruise so I think that is why we got Orange Goofy luggage tags at the end of the cruise. They called Express Walk off at 7:05 am but we did not disembark until 10:00 am. Luckily we had nowhere to be except the hotel so it was fine for us. We found a bench and just waited. We never go to the MDR on debark morning and went to Cabanas instead. Cabanas was very crowded! The most people I have seen there on debark morning.

We stayed at the Hilton Marina for 2 nights pre cruise and the Marriot Dania Point post cruise. If you want info on the hotels let me know.



MJ

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

We sailed the Dream on January 7th out of FLL and our boarding was fine. I am Pearl so I know having an early PAT and boarding group 1 or 2 did make it easier. I think the people working the lines outside are not DCL personnel but local port workers. Some of their actions/words were definitely not Disney.

We had an 11:15 PAT arrived at about 10:50. We had rented a car from Avis at the airport 2 days early and returned it to the Avis location on Miami Road which provides a shuttle to the port.....BUT.....when we arrived to return the car there were about 75 people milling around waiting for the shuttle. I knew it would be quite awhile before we got on a shuttle and there didn't seem to be any order and did not want to get in a shoving match when shuttle arrived. We opted to Uber from the Avis location. The port is only a few minutes from that Avis location. When we arrived at the terminal they had no corrals set up yet for PAT times. After about 15 minutes of waiting outside someone came out and told Concierge guests to line up in the front and 11:15 PAT to wait in a corral they set up. There were so few people waiting behind Concierge that my husband and I thought they must be holding other PATs around the corner or somewhere else.

We had no problem checking in and everything seemed to be working. I asked when boarding might start and they told me about 11:45. They were letting concierge in through the ears right away and they were waiting in an area up above that we could see from the main terminal seating. About 11:50 they called boarding group 1 and then soon after boarding group 2. We were onboard before noon and I went down to Enchanted Garden to see if I could get a Palo (we only booked the cruise the week before). We were the first ones there and we got a Palo reservation with no issue. Hint....I was told dining changes and Palo reservation would open at 12:30 but I wanted to wait in line early so when we went down to Deck 2 we were pleasantly surprised that they took us right away.

We were staying another night in FLL after the cruise so I think that is why we got Orange Goofy luggage tags at the end of the cruise. They called Express Walk off at 7:05 am but we did not disembark until 10:00 am. Luckily we had nowhere to be except the hotel so it was fine for us. We found a bench and just waited. We never go to the MDR on debark morning and went to Cabanas instead. Cabanas was very crowded! The most people I have seen there on debark morning.

We stayed at the Hilton Marina for 2 nights pre cruise and the Marriot Dania Point post cruise. If you want info on the hotels let me know.



MJ

We may be spoiled by other lines but having a PAT of 11:15 and not making it on the ship until 11:50 still sounds like a disaster to me.

We have a PAT of 11:45 on the Dream in the next month and it sounds like we may be lucky to be on board much before 1.

 

[mmouse37]

We may be spoiled by other lines but having a PAT of 11:15 and not making it on the ship until 11:50 still sounds like a disaster to me.

We have a PAT of 11:45 on the Dream in the next month and it sounds like we may be lucky to be on board much before 1.

To each their own but it was not a problem for us at all. We waited in a beautiful terminal with plenty of seating and people watched until they called our boarding group.

MJ

 

[Doingitagain]

We stayed at the Hilton Marina for 2 nights pre cruise and the Marriot Dania Point post cruise. If you want info on the hotels let me know.



MJ

Thank you for all this great information! I was 50/50 on renting a car and I think the shuttle situation has me leaning toward going directly from hotel to port.

i would love to know more in the Hilton Marina, we are staying there one night before the cruise. Did you book on your own or through DCL? We booked on our own. We have a party of five adults, a six year old, and a two year old.

Thank you!

 

[JulieBeeRN]

We sailed the Dream on January 7th out of FLL and our boarding was fine. I am Pearl so I know having an early PAT and boarding group 1 or 2 did make it easier. I think the people working the lines outside are not DCL personnel but local port workers. Some of their actions/words were definitely not Disney.

We had an 11:15 PAT arrived at about 10:50. We had rented a car from Avis at the airport 2 days early and returned it to the Avis location on Miami Road which provides a shuttle to the port.....BUT.....when we arrived to return the car there were about 75 people milling around waiting for the shuttle. I knew it would be quite awhile before we got on a shuttle and there didn't seem to be any order and did not want to get in a shoving match when shuttle arrived. We opted to Uber from the Avis location. The port is only a few minutes from that Avis location. When we arrived at the terminal they had no corrals set up yet for PAT times. After about 15 minutes of waiting outside someone came out and told Concierge guests to line up in the front and 11:15 PAT to wait in a corral they set up. There were so few people waiting behind Concierge that my husband and I thought they must be holding other PATs around the corner or somewhere else.

We had no problem checking in and everything seemed to be working. I asked when boarding might start and they told me about 11:45. They were letting concierge in through the ears right away and they were waiting in an area up above that we could see from the main terminal seating. About 11:50 they called boarding group 1 and then soon after boarding group 2. We were onboard before noon and I went down to Enchanted Garden to see if I could get a Palo (we only booked the cruise the week before). We were the first ones there and we got a Palo reservation with no issue. Hint....I was told dining changes and Palo reservation would open at 12:30 but I wanted to wait in line early so when we went down to Deck 2 we were pleasantly surprised that they took us right away.

We were staying another night in FLL after the cruise so I think that is why we got Orange Goofy luggage tags at the end of the cruise. They called Express Walk off at 7:05 am but we did not disembark until 10:00 am. Luckily we had nowhere to be except the hotel so it was fine for us. We found a bench and just waited. We never go to the MDR on debark morning and went to Cabanas instead. Cabanas was very crowded! The most people I have seen there on debark morning.

We stayed at the Hilton Marina for 2 nights pre cruise and the Marriot Dania Point post cruise. If you want info on the hotels let me know.



MJ

We leave for our cruise next Friday. How expensive was your Uber?

 

[Alicatt]

Is 10 am normal or 2nd seating debarkation? My cousin is picking us up and I'm trying to estimate a good time.

 

[lanejudy]

Is 10 am normal or 2nd seating debarkation? My cousin is picking us up and I'm trying to estimate a good time.

For debarkation? DCL typically wants everyone off the ship by 9:00/9:30am. There is nothing to do onboard that morning other than breakfast so no reason to linger; CMs will start strongly encouraging debarkation if you are still hanging around at 9am. I suppose if you are 2nd seating, breakfast in the MDR, take your time so you are one of the last off the ship, and if there's a bit of a backlog getting through Customs it might be 10am. We do 1st seating and are usually off before 8am.

 

[Alicatt]

Thank you.

 

[jba2]

We boarded the Dream today, January 17. We had a PAT of 2:15. Open boarding started at 1:00. We were in our cabin by 1:30.

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

We boarded the Dream today, January 17. We had a PAT of 2:15. Open boarding started at 1:00. We were in our cabin by 1:30.

Awesome— thanks for letting us know and have a great cruise!

 

[Alicatt]

When you get a chance can you tell me when your luggage arrived?

Also can anyone tell me about how long the main dining room sit down embarkation lunch takes?

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

When you get a chance can you tell me when your luggage arrived?

Also can anyone tell me about how long the main dining room sit down embarkation lunch takes?

We’ve done 6 cruises with Disney and luggage delivery can vary wildly. I’d try to make sure anything need before 8pm is in your carryon bags. If the weather is nice, we will board in swimsuits and coverup and pack dry underwear and a change of clothes on one bag we keep with us.

 

[Calantha]

When you get a chance can you tell me when your luggage arrived?

Also can anyone tell me about how long the main dining room sit down embarkation lunch takes?

We just got off the Dream (1/12 sailing). Our luggage was all in the room before 4PM except one bag, which we didn't get until after dinner.

Depends on a few things including how much you order and what time you get there. I'd say we were there about an hour. Our PAT was 11:45, and we arrived a few min early, but boarding had started as we got into the waiting area. I think we were seated in AP just after 12 and then loitering in the hallway waiting for rooms to open at about 1:15 (they didn't open until 1:30). We each had 1 appetizer, entree, and a dessert.

 

[Kbmas0n]

We boarded the Dream today, January 17. We had a PAT of 2:15. Open boarding started at 1:00. We were in our cabin by 1:30.

What time did you arrive at the port? We have a PAT of 2pm, so just trying to plan ahead!

 

[Calantha]

We leave for our cruise next Friday. How expensive was your Uber?

We Uber'ed to and from PE this week. Our Uber to the Port from the Homewood Suites was 36 before tip. Port to airport was 45 - and we did an XL both ways.

 

[SteveMouse]

We Uber'ed to and from PE this week. Our Uber to the Port from the Homewood Suites was 36 before tip. Port to airport was 45 - and we did an XL both ways.

The return should have been leas unless there was surge pricing.

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

The return should have been leas unless there was surge pricing.

I think Uber tends to jack up fares when ships arrive in port.