Port Tampa Bay Cruise Terminal - 2 — Attraction in Tampa

Our first experience with Carvinal was terrible!!!! I & my cabin mate were scheduled to cruise on PARADISE, porting from Tampa, Fl on JUNE 5TH. We traveled with a group by van for 5 & 1/2 hours. We were really looking forward to it. Unfortunately it all went downhill at check in. All of my documentation was fine. My traveling companion was not so lucky. He presented his I.D & birth certificate. However because it was not 'state issued' he was denied. I was told it was a matter of customs. His birth certificate, the only one he has ever had, & used for other business information, was from the hospital. Keep in mind that the hospital that issued the certificate is in the state from which he was born. AND it had a seal on it. We were given a number to call to try to retrieve a copy from the state. To our surprise, it was a state holiday so no department would be avaliable to help us until the next day. Even though we guaranteed we would be able to get documentation the following morning, he still was denied. I tried speaking with the supervisor, who was no help at all.  He just reiterated it was a matter of customs & he would not allow him on the ship. I have cruised with Royal Caribbean many times & NEVER have had an issue. I have never had to show a birth certificate when coming on & off the ship. Even if it was a matter of customs, we would not have ported until Weds, which would have been plenty of time to get the birth certifcate emailed to us on the ship. Again, the supervisor had no sympathy in trying to help us or resolve the situation. I did not feel right leaving my cabin mate alone, 5.5 hours away, with no way of getting home. I decided to not sail myself. I was given a card with contact information about getting our money refunded back to us. When I called the first time, I was directed to another department & the phone hung up after 3 rings. I called again & spoke with someone just to be told to write an email. Then the email on the card that I was given, was not the email I needed to write to get this resolved. THEN when I was able to email the right address, I was given another NO. They would not refund our money because it would be considered a late cancellation. What made matters worse is that we were not even offered to sail at a later date!! But they did make a suggestion to buy their 'insurance' in case this might happen again....????....There WILL NOT be an again. I will never give my money/business to CARNIVAL ever again. I am beyond frustrated and disappointed in how the whole situation played out. Their efforts to amend the issue was piss-poor. We have lost out on alot because of this. We weren't allowed to board on the cruise we paid for. We also had to pay travel expenses to get home. We also have used & lost vacation time that we were not able fulfil because we were not able to board. So Facebookers, if you may have to cancel....running late, car accident, sickness, etc, know that CARNIVAL will CARELESS about  that. & your money will...

There was utter chaos at Terminal 2 on Sunday November 24, 2019. Passengers were not able to disembark from Norwegian Dawn at 7:45 and were delayed because the immigration systems were down. We left the ship at 9:40 and finally left the terminal at 11:30. We then could not get picked up from the port until 12:30 as the surrounding area was designated drop-off only. Under normal circumstances, I expect that all disembarking passengers would usually have left the port by 11:30.

The baggage reclaim for the NCL cruise was chaotic. Placing baggage in colour-coded areas does not work, as everyone disembarking at the same time is heading for the same small area. The overcrowding, pushing and shoving is dangerous and created a free for all.

After baggage reclaim, there were two lines - one for US citizens and the other was for non-US people. We are not US citizens, so we joined the huge line which took over an hour to reach the desk. Immigration officers were asking non-US people 5-6 questions questions and this created a huge line.

The member of staff controlling the line before the immigration desks told us to to go to desks by household, however when I got there the official barked at me and told me to get back! Possibly because I am a different race from my partner? Either way I was not treated fairly or with any respect, as other couples were not told to go separately.

The extra questioning led to port staff having to control large crowds; lining up passengers in different areas, creating a double line and then accidentally letting passengers who had arrived later to proceed first. This led to passengers shouting at each other.

Outside the terminal the new passengers waiting to board started arriving by car before passengers could actually leave the terminal. Most nearby roads were designated drop-off only, so it took us an extra hour to leave the area, as we could not get picked up nearby.

NCL's website states that left luggage is available at thee port for USD 7 in total, however this was not clear at the port. There was no signage or anyone to ask for help, so presumably it's not at terminal 2? Instead we had to pay Florida Aquarium USD 12 (USD 4 per bag) to store our suitcases.

After this experience, I would not recommend Tampa Port. The US is supposed to be a developed country but I have experienced better organisation in the developing world. The immigration officials were rude and hostile and the port staff were not able to cope with the crowds. They acted like they had never expected so many people to be there. Port staff require more training to deal with situations like this. More time is required in between cruises to prevent dangerous overcrowding...

This was the worst experience I’ve ever encountered. My family and I just left from our incredible Carnival vacation. We chose to bring our own luggage and get off the ship. We were traveling with 7 minor children. The line to the elevators were very long. So we chose to use the escalators. We were told that we could not use the escalators if we had a baby in a baby carrier or small children. We also had 9 suitcases and several smaller bags. I was carrying a baby in a carrier on the front of me. I was also wearing a backpack. I had a suitcase in one hand and 2 bags in the other hand. I walked down the flight of stairs. When I got to the bottom, my daughter that I was wearing told me she lost her shoe. I had to set my bags down and find the shoe at the bottom of the stairs. Security started yelling at us to keep moving. I was trying to explain that we lost a shoe. Meanwhile some of my children used the escalators but could only carry one bag down it per security request. So we had to set luggage at the bottom of the stairs and go back up for our last 2 bags because we were required to hold on to our minor children’s hands. This happened for 2 flights of stairs. All while being yelled at and herded like cattle to move along. Not one person offered to help us if they didn’t think we were doing it right. The way they were yelling was threatening to separate our family and our minor children from us or from my husband who had all the passports. But we were treated terribly by the security and they had zero compassion or understanding for our large family that we were trying to get out of the port as quickly and safely as possible with all of luggage. Airports never treat people like this. Ship ports and airports shouldn’t be any different. We travel often and have our family and luggage down to a pretty...