Tampa is limited by the Sunshine bridge to having mostly older and mid-sized cruise ships, so there would likely be a lot more cruise passengers leaving there for the megaships out of Miami and Fort Lauderdale, than the other way around…
While that may be so it's speculation. What's not speculation is that VacationsToGo shows 9 of 11 sailings out of Tampa the rest of this month are sold out: https://www.vacationstogo.com/ticker.cfm?incCT=y&d=315&sm=20245&tm=202412&pdm=1Tampa is limited by the Sunshine bridge to having mostly older and mid-sized cruise ships, so there would likely be a lot more cruise passengers leaving there for the megaships out of Miami and Fort Lauderdale, than the other way around…
The last two cruises I took out of Florida, I got to via the Silver service to FTL and MIA. The terminals are as close or closer than the airports....
Of course, Miami and Ft. Lauderdale have more dock space to handle more ships at the same time, but Tampa's big advantage over most other cruise ports is the proximity of the Amtrak Station.
Neither the Miami nor Ft Lauderdale Amtrak stations are closer to the cruise ports than the respective airports.The last two cruises I took out of Florida, I got to via the Silver service to FTL and MIA. The terminals are as close or closer than the airports.
And one may learn the hard way, you don't want to depend on arriving on-time the day of departure. So arrive day before, take an Uber to an overnight stay, and board the ship the next day
One of the worse air travel episodes to the area, was a canceled flight first thing in the morning (already on the bus to the airport) which we spent the day waiting for an afternoon flight.
There is also the factor that cruise lines generally provide an airport to cruise port transfer (for a price) whereas they rarely serve train stations, except maybe Penn Station NYC, do you are on your own if you arrive by train.Neither the Miami nor Ft Lauderdale Amtrak stations are closer to the cruise ports than the respective airports.
Sorry, I stand corrected. I should know better as I've actually done trips out of both. As cocojacoby comments, the trains don't arrive early enough. In each case, we arrived by train and took an Uber to an overnight stay. Usually a hotel with shuttle service to the cruise port. On the return, only the Star leaves late enough to catch same day. We did that last time, the only inconvenience is on the NYP end. On the other trip, we stayed over and caught the Meteor first thing in the morning.Neither the Miami nor Ft Lauderdale Amtrak stations are closer to the cruise ports than the respective airports.
Also, the trolley would have to go somewhere meaningful to be useful. Just ferrying passengers a few blocks and dropping them there is not going to make it an attractive alternative to driving.Tampa has no rail transit, other than the trolley which is mostly single-tracked. Even if they replaced the current replica historic cars with modern trams, there's no way it could move the crowd exiting from a ball game to the Channelside parking garages in a reasonable time.
I agree. However Brightline seem to be working quite hard to tap into the cruise market and want to provide connections at the various ports they serve. This might spark a broader change in attitudes, affecting also the ports not served by Brightline.There is also the factor that cruise lines generally provide an airport to cruise port transfer (for a price) whereas they rarely serve train stations, except maybe Penn Station NYC, do you are on your own if you arrive by train.
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