Thread: Do you like to cruise on round trips out of Tampa?

It's a POLL so please vote!

Do you like to cruise on round trips out of Tampa?

Originally Posted by LuLu

It's a POLL so please vote!

Do you like to cruise on round trips out of Tampa?

I haven't had the chance, but I looked up some of the ships running roundtrip cruises from Tampa.

They include:

Carnival Paradise
Carnival Inspiration
Norwegian Star
Royal Caribbean's Jewel of the Seas
Holland America's Ryndam

Am I missing some? (Thanks Lulu!)

We very much like Tampa! Same as Port Canerval, we can drive to Tampa, spend the night, and have no more driving the next day!

HAL sometimes offers good round trip itineraries from Tampa!

Originally Posted by timwilloughby

I haven't had the chance, but I looked up some of the ships running roundtrip cruises from Tampa.

They include:

Carnival Paradise
Carnival Inspiration
Norwegian Star
Royal Caribbean's Jewel of the Seas
Holland America's Ryndam

Am I missing some? (Thanks Lulu!)

While researching cruises I found the Norwegian Star had a three-day cruise to nowhere on March 23. But it apparently doesn't repeat throughout the year because I found no other dates for that itinerary.

Originally Posted by LuLu

We very much like Tampa! Same as Port Canerval, we can drive to Tampa, spend the night, and have no more driving the next day!

HAL sometimes offers good round trip itineraries from Tampa!

I got you beat. The drive from my condo to Terminal 2 is only two hours.

The only problem is I have absolutely no interest in Mobile, New Orleans, Galveston, Cancun, Cozumel, or the western Caribbean. If I sail out of Tampa someday, it would be a short cruise to nowhere.

Originally Posted by Smart Traveler

I got you beat. The drive from my condo to Terminal 2 is only two hours.

The only problem is I have absolutely no interest in Mobile, New Orleans, Galveston, Cancun, Cozumel, or the western Caribbean. If I sail out of Tampa someday, it would be a short cruise to nowhere.

Have to ask; why do you not have any interest in Cozumel or the Western Caribbean? We've been to Cozumel probably a dozen times, even spent a week there at a lovely hotel. Always enjoyed the great food, wonderful people, and awesome scuba diving.

And there are also some other great places to visit in the Western Caribbean, such as Roatan, Belize, and especially Grand Cayman, which is one of our favorite ports.

While ships don't dock in Cancun, we've also been there many many times and have always had absolutely wonderful visits there. They have some awesome all-inclusive resorts that we thoroughly enjoy and would go back anytime. Our kids have also gone there and love it.

In fact, when we lived in Albuquerque, we use to drive down to San Carlos, Mexico, which is about 5-1/2 hours south of Tucson or about 4 hours south of the Mexican border, and spend 2 to 3 weeks in a very nice 3 bedroom condo right on the Sea of Cortez. They have some amazing restaurants, the people were wonderful, the golf and scuba diving was great, and we never had any problems whatsoever.

As for the American ports you mentioned, those are also some wonderful cities to visit.

Personally, I would never not want to visit anywhere. Never know, it may turn out to be another favorite place. And I would never listen to what others have to say as what one person hates, another may love. I can honestly say in our travels around the world that we've never been anywhere we didn't like and have found some amazing places and met some wonderful people.

So never say you don't want to visit someplace, you might miss out on an incredible experience.

Just saying....

Pete

For those who live in Florida and can easily reach multiple ports within driving distance, It's great to be able to take advantage of last minute cruise fares. We've gone of Tampa, and we've had no problems. But the same ports within their limited area can be repetitious, and one must take a longer cruise to go further away. Also, for those of us who live in the midwest, it sometimes can boil down to the possibility of air fare wars to reduce the cost of getting to the port. If vacation time per year is limited, it's not feasible to drive. If we had enough time to combine a driving trip, such as going to our time share at Cocoa Beach, then taking a cruise out of Port Canaveral within the same time frame, that might work. But just to drive to Tampa, or wait for air fares to go down, it might not be as desirable.

We've driven to Tampa for a cruise on 3 occasions now. For us it's a very nice port to cruise from. Since we drive we do look for longer cruises of 10 days or more. The first two cruises were on Celebrity ships, Horizon and Zenith and were New Year cruises of 11 days each. Our most recent one was on the Ryndam for this past New Year. Since no extended cruises were offered we did a B2B for 13 days. We drive in the day before and stay at hotels with free cruise parking and shuttle service.

I voted for the 'other' option. I've never cruised from Tampa, but have just committed to an itinerary aboard the Ryndam sailing 03/03/ - 03/10/13.

I'm Vice President of an active support group for folks challenged with COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease], many of whom use supplemental oxygen. We have taken an annual cruise, arranged by our favorite Respiratory Therapists and travel agents who operate as members of Cruise Planners, and are available at either:
1] www.seapuffers.com, or
2] Cruise Planners - Cruise Planners - Get Up and Go2

Besides being eminently qualified to serve as personal guides, these gals know what's happening in their port of call, whether that be in the Caribbean or in Europe.

SWR

Have to say I love cruising from Tampa. It's a nice port, lots of great restaurants on the pier and there is definitely a shift in the type of people who cruise from Tampa. They do tend to be more mature, more relaxed and from a Purser experience much easier to manage. As for the ports, I loved it. Cozumel, we were doing Costa Maya, Belize too which was a favourite one to lay around it beautiful tropical warm waters and just really enjoy being outside in an incredibly beautiful place!