A BIG MESS AT PORT EVERGLADES 4-21-2025

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SuperFan0001

New Member
Original Poster
Was anyone else caught up in the utter confusion when both Disney Ships arrive at Port Everglades? I have seen nothing posted about this but when both ships are in port, one has to go somewhere else which is 2 miles away from where we parked our cars at terminal 4. So, they shuttled 50 of us at a time and ALL of our luggage back to terminal 4. When we got there the Dream was parked there but so where tons of empty buses to haul the new cruisers for the Magic (and ALL of their luggage) back to terminal 26 where the Magic was. It was bad enough ending a cruise like this, but to start this way! OH MY!
I sure hope they fix things before the bigger Destiny arrives.
 
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JaxFLBear

JaxFLBear

Well-Known Member
RememberWhen said:
Oof. We’re sailing in the Dream out of Port Everglades in June.
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From the DCL website:
Disney Magic sailings on April 4 and 18, 2025 will embark in Terminal #4 and debark from Terminal #26.
Disney Magic sailings on April 7 and 21, 2025 will embark in Terminal #26 and debark from Terminal #4.

The Magic cruise that left yesterday is the last cruise that will use two different terminals (per DCL website).

All other DCL sailings out of Port Everglades will embark and debark at Terminal #4.

 
RememberWhen

RememberWhen

Well-Known Member
JaxFLBear said:
From the DCL website:
Disney Magic sailings on April 4 and 18, 2025 will embark in Terminal #4 and debark from Terminal #26.
Disney Magic sailings on April 7 and 21, 2025 will embark in Terminal #26 and debark from Terminal #4.

The Magic cruise that left yesterday is the last cruise that will use two different terminals (per DCL website).

All other DCL sailings out of Port Everglades will embark and debark at Terminal #4.

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Excellent. Shouldn’t have anything weird then.
 
ChuckElias

ChuckElias

Well-Known Member
DisneyDreamer08

DisneyDreamer08

Well-Known Member
I can’t believe this port is still having issues. We sailed on the Dream back in February 2024 and our arrival day was so stressful and chaotic. The Disney shuttle from the Fort Lauderdale airport was one of my worst Disney experiences. And when we arrived, there were no porters to take our suitcases so we had to drag them onto the ship and into the restaurant with us for lunch. I had hoped the chaos was due to being newly opened. Crazy it’s still happening.
 
peter11435

peter11435

Well-Known Member
DisneyDreamer08 said:
I can’t believe this port is still having issues. We sailed on the Dream back in February 2024 and our arrival day was so stressful and chaotic. The Disney shuttle from the Fort Lauderdale airport was one of my worst Disney experiences. And when we arrived, there were no porters to take our suitcases so we had to drag them onto the ship and into the restaurant with us for lunch. I had hoped the chaos was due to being newly opened. Crazy it’s still happening.
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I’ve had no issues any of the times I’ve sailed out of Fort Lauderdale. On both the Magic and Dream. I think they’ve worked out the kinks and have a decent operation at terminal 4 now. The issues the OP experienced were because of them having two Disney ships in port on the same day. That’s a very rare event.
 
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Tigger&Pooh

Well-Known Member
DisneyDreamer08 said:
And when we arrived, there were no porters to take our suitcases so we had to drag them onto the ship and into the restaurant with us for lunch.
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Do you mean the checked luggage had to be hand-carried onto the ship? Was there no security check - because the scanners where passengers and carry-ons enter aren't big enough for larger suitcases.

Or do you mean there were no porters to take your carry-ons for you? That is always true -- anything you choose to "carry-on" will need to be lugged around the ship with you until staterooms are available.
 
DisneyDreamer08

DisneyDreamer08

Well-Known Member
Tigger&Pooh said:
Do you mean the checked luggage had to be hand-carried onto the ship? Was there no security check - because the scanners where passengers and carry-ons enter aren't big enough for larger suitcases.

Or do you mean there were no porters to take your carry-ons for you? That is always true -- anything you choose to "carry-on" will need to be lugged around the ship with you until staterooms are available.
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Yes, our checked luggage. We did not have luggage tags due to a last minute change. So people with luggage tags just got off the bus and walked away. We hung around with our bags for awhile but there was no one around to take them. So we brought our luggage and our backpacks onto the ship with us.
 
DisneyDreamer08

DisneyDreamer08

Well-Known Member
peter11435 said:
I’ve had no issues any of the times I’ve sailed out of Fort Lauderdale. On both the Magic and Dream. I think they’ve worked out the kinks and have a decent operation at terminal 4 now. The issues the OP experienced were because of them having two Disney ships in port on the same day. That’s a very rare event.
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HauntedPirate said:
Our Port Everglades experience in September 2024 couldn't have been better. Slight delay in boarding that was never explained, but everything else was, pardon the pun, smooth sailing.
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This is good to know thanks. I’ve been avoiding sailing, and suggesting others sail, out of Fort Lauderdale because of the bad experience we had.
 
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Tigger&Pooh

Well-Known Member
DisneyDreamer08 said:
Yes, our checked luggage. We did not have luggage tags due to a last minute change. So people with luggage tags just got off the bus and walked away. We hung around with our bags for awhile but there was no one around to take them. So we brought our luggage and our backpacks onto the ship with us.
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Interesting. How did you manage to get through Security into the terminal or were your checked bags small enough for the luggage scan? Something got confused in there, not sure where. At MCO (for Port Canaveral) guests don't bring "checked bags" onto the Disney shuttles -- it gets "checked" right at the airport shuttle location and is transported separately from the bus; thus there are no porters available where the DCL shuttle lets off. I haven't done it in PE but would expect it to be similar.

In the future, even if with a "last-minute change" to the reservation you can use the luggage tags with the old info. Use a sharpie to cross off/change room number or whatever. Plus the barcode on the tag would provide the updated information when scanned. And if taking DCL transfers, you should be able to get blank luggage tags from the check-in person (airport or hotel).
 
DisneyDreamer08

DisneyDreamer08

Well-Known Member
Tigger&Pooh said:
Interesting. How did you manage to get through Security into the terminal or were your checked bags small enough for the luggage scan? Something got confused in there, not sure where. At MCO (for Port Canaveral) guests don't bring "checked bags" onto the Disney shuttles -- it gets "checked" right at the airport shuttle location and is transported separately from the bus; thus there are no porters available where the DCL shuttle lets off. I haven't done it in PE but would expect it to be similar.

In the future, even if with a "last-minute change" to the reservation you can use the luggage tags with the old info. Use a sharpie to cross off/change room number or whatever. Plus the barcode on the tag would provide the updated information when scanned. And if taking DCL transfers, you should be able to get blank luggage tags from the check-in person (airport or hotel).
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Good info thank you! We stayed at a hotel the night prior that had free transportation to and from the airport. So the morning of our cruise, we took the free shuttle back to the Fort Lauderdale airport and from there took the Disney transport. We thought this would be the easier, quickest, most efficient option. It ended up being a nightmare and it took several hours. Our PAT was 11:45, we left our hotel at 10am and we didn’t get to the port until 1pm even though the port is only a few minutes away from the airport. The picture below shows the check in area. We checked in here and then sat and waited for about an hour. Then a staff member walked us and a big group of people outside. We walked down a very crowded sidewalk pulling our luggage for about 5 minutes. We waited another 10-15 outside and then boarded the bus. Our luggage was stored underneath. We then sat on the bus for another 15/20 minutes until it finally left.
When we arrived at the port, everyone just got off the bus and got in line to check in. We couldn’t though as we didn’t have luggage tags. We had to switch cruises at the last minute because of a death in the family. So our luggage tags were for a totally different cruise. We hung around for awhile but there were no workers in sight so we ended up just getting in line with our luggage.

IMG_2170.jpeg
 

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