fastest way to get off the ship?

[Bella29]

After our upcoming cruise ends in Port Canaveral, we are continuing our vacation with relatives in the Florida Keys. Our plan is to rent a car and drive down to meet them there. We may need to pick someone up at the Miami airport en route.

I've never been in a rush to leave before (quite the opposite actually!), what is the most efficient way to get ourselves and our luggage off and through customs and get to a car rental pick up? Which rental agency would be fastest?

The last Disney cruise I was on was in Miami, I remember it took at least an hour to get off the ship and there was a huge, slow-moving line in the luggage/customs area. I don't remember Port Canaveral being nearly that bad though?

 

[phinz]

Port Canaveral is usually much faster, but there are no promises.

 

[Capt_BJ]

self debark and carry your bags is typically the quickest

but be aware there will be a LARGE number of folks wanting to do the same thing so this can be crazy too

AND a fair number of these 'in a hurry folks' are heading to get a rental car where the desk is already full of the car returns of the folks arriving early for the next cruise ......

consider this - it assumes you have two cell phones to work with - ONE person do self off and go get the car and then call when you have it and tell the others to begin the get off process and get picked up ..... there are details that must be done (like two customs forms if they are still doing these)

it is also important to consider the day of your return, specifically how many ships are turning around on that day. If Disney is the only one you should not have a big problem ... if it is a 4 ship day ...... prepare to be patient.

and wrt to Miami ..... avoid rush hours at all cost!!!!! and be aware that once off I-95, Miami is crisscrossed with toll roads where there is NO option to pay with cash ... you MUST use the rental company electronic toll program unless you have your own SUNPASS. (which will override the rental's system)

rental office locations

 

[apathetic]

Port Canaveral is highly efficient. The only thing that can slow you there is if the ship is late. You can line up to run off with your bags, but I bet you will save a whole 10 minutes or so. Not to mention losing your last 'free' breakfast. If you are first seating, you can eat breakfast and walk off a few minutes after those carrying their bags. I don't think we ever spent more than 10 minutes going from the ship, getting bags and then clearing customs in PC. They have shuttle areas for rental companies. Just make sure the company has a shuttle coming for you. The shuttle will probably take longer than anything else.

 

[JPTexan82]

Jump

 

[Debbie Torres]

I agree totally PC was very quick getting off even with our late breakfast time . Don't compare it to Port of Miami because that took forever on our last Disney cruise just to get off the ship. Not to mention the ship was the Magic and not the Dream

 

[phinz]

and wrt to Miami ..... avoid rush hours at all cost!!!!! and be aware that once off I-95, Miami is crisscrossed with toll roads where there is NO option to pay with cash ... you MUST use the rental company electronic toll program unless you have your own SUNPASS. (which will override the rental's system)

And also be aware that just because you have a SunPass doesn't mean you'll not get charged an outrageous toll and admin fee if SunPass makes a mistake and bills your license plate *and* your SunPass. You'll be on the phone or computer with numerous company drones who won't give you a refund. Then you'll have to contact your credit card company and get the money refunded because the company that admins the tolls for the rental companies is a crooked racket. You'll spend hours, and I mean *hours*, trying to get your money back, even if it was just one toll for, say, $1.25 and there's a $40+ admin fee racked up.

Ask me how I know. I'll never, ever use Hertz again after the fiasco that was last year's rental and toll issues.

 

[Capt_BJ]

sounds like you had a SUNPASS but failed to register the rental's tag in the SUNPASS system .... which is done specifically to prevent the 'error' you describe.

You register the rental's tag to YOUR account which will always be checked b4 passing the rental tag to the 'fleet registered' account .....

With the SUNPASS app (and the portable transponder) registering the rental's tag takes about 1 minute.

Have used my SUNPASS with rentals for years and have never had a problem (I routinely loan a transponder to folks visiting for use in their rentals)

***************
the fees charged by rental companies for use of their fleet toll system varies WIDELY. Most company policies are outlined on the SUNPASS site https://www.sunpass.com/rentalcar

A booboo can cost $4 or $40 depending on the company you pick, altho the $40 rip offs are pretty much gone as the rental companies stopped using the fleet system that imposed this crazy fee - the fee was NOT imposed by SUNPASS or FL.

 

[phinz]

sounds like you had a SUNPASS but failed to register the rental's tag in the SUNPASS system

Nope, because I was able to provide copies of my SunPass invoice showing my SunPass was charged in the same lane at the same gantry one second before the license plate was charged. I was also able to provide evidence of every single gantry I passed under/through from just south of Ocala all the way to Port Canaveral and back for the two weeks we were in Florida as well as screen shots showing that I had registered the rental with SunPass. This was *one* error, which resulted in a single toll at the gantry leading to the south entrance of the airport and "admin" charges for 10 straight days. It still wasn't enough for Hertz or their third party to refund me. After spending more than 5 hours in chat, writing emails (with documentation) and on the phone with both Hertz and their third party "service" (how much is *your* time worth?) I had to petition Amex and they refunded everything. Hertz and PlatePass *refused* to fix the issue, even going so far as telling me I needed to contact SunPass for a refund. Hertz - and any of their affiliate companies - just lost my business.

I've been using SunPass for almost a decade, as I have family who live in North Key Largo, thus I have to either use SunPass or pay exorbitant fees to a rental company for passing through a couple of toll lanes on the way south. I'm well aware of the steps to take to use the app or website to register my license plate on rentals. I loan it to friends who travel (and register their cars for the period they are gone), use it on my own cars and use it on rentals as well.

The whole thing was a mess and I'll never use Hertz again. If I rent in Orlando (or any other city they serve) it will be Silvercar. They have no admin fees on tolls. Just the toll.

 

[mcgluvint]

After our upcoming cruise ends in Port Canaveral, we are continuing our vacation with relatives in the Florida Keys. Our plan is to rent a car and drive down to meet them there. We may need to pick someone up at the Miami airport en route.

I've never been in a rush to leave before (quite the opposite actually!), what is the most efficient way to get ourselves and our luggage off and through customs and get to a car rental pick up? Which rental agency would be fastest?

The last Disney cruise I was on was in Miami, I remember it took at least an hour to get off the ship and there was a huge, slow-moving line in the luggage/customs area. I don't remember Port Canaveral being nearly that bad though?

What kind of cruise is it? I have found that the ones with an at sea day after castaway cay tend to get back earlier than the ones that have no sea day in between. Up to a 1 hour difference sometimes actually. I always can't sleep the night before the cruise so I was staying at the raddison pre cruise and looked from the balcony with my phone on marine traffic app and computer on the web cam. The ship didn't pull into to port until 6:20 isn. Our 4 night cruise with an at sea day in between got in port around 5:15-5:30.

 

[lorimay]

Usually in Port Canaveral, we can be getting into our car by 7:45 with the express walk off

 

[Bella29]

thanks all for your help!

 

[Anchors Away 2016]

Jump

Dang! I was SO TEMPTED to say this, but I didn't want to sound insensitive. I'm glad you said it instead!

 

[kiford]

I don't remember Port Canaveral being nearly that bad though?

It depends. On our last cruise, which was on the Fantasy, I went down to the atrium to collect my bottles of rum before breakfast (we had the late breakfast). People were lined up to disembark early and they were lined up from the exit all the way down the hall, past AP almost to the elevators, all with their luggage. I'd never seen so many people wanting to disembark early. By the time we left the ship, it was easy to find our luggage since there were so few bags left and we went through very quickly. Even getting out of the parking lot was quick. Seems like most of the ship wanted off well before the deadline. I don't recall that being the norm on prior cruises, even when we sailed on the Dream.