Carnival Cruise Line has contacted visitors booked on weekend sailings from PortMiami to alert them about probably heavy site visitors in downtown Miami because of the Ultra Music Festival, happening from March 24-26.
This can probably influence quite a lot of Carnival cruises over the weekend, in addition to different cruise traces crusing from Miami throughout the pageant dates.
Heavy Traffic Expected
Guests crusing on Carnival ships from PortMiami this weekend might even see important site visitors congestion via the downtown space, and the cruise line has reached out through e mail to alert vacationers concerning the potential difficulties.
“While you prepare for your cruise, we’d like to inform you that the City of Miami will be hosting Ultra Music Festival in the downtown area from Friday, March 24 through Sunday, March 26, 2023,” the e-mail defined. “As a result, there will be numerous street closures and heavier than normal traffic in and around the city.”
Guests are urged to permit ample time to commute to the cruise terminal in order to reach inside their pre-selected arrival home windows, as redirected site visitors, congestion, and street closures will doubtless trigger delays.
If driving, Carnival suggests visitors use the PortMiami tunnel to keep away from the downtown space. Guests utilizing rideshare companies may additionally recommend that path to their drivers for essentially the most environment friendly service.
Travelers who’ve bought airport transfers from Carnival Cruise Line will likely be contacted individually, as their switch occasions can also be affected by the surplus site visitors. “We will remain in close contact with our transportation provider throughout embarkation day,” the e-mail stated.
Impacted Ships
With PortMiami the second busiest passenger cruise port on the earth, a number of Carnival ships will doubtless be impacted by the elevated site visitors via the pageant weekend.
While solely Carnival Conquest will likely be in PortMiami when the pageant opens on Friday, March 24, Saturday and Sunday are each busier days. Carnival Sunrise and Carnival Spirit are each docked on Saturday, whereas Carnival Horizon and the cruise line’s latest ship, Carnival Celebration, will likely be in port on Sunday, March 25.
In addition to Carnival ships, vessels from Royal Caribbean International, MSC Cruises, Virgin Voyages, Norwegian Cruise Line, and Seabourn are additionally scheduled all through the weekend.
Sunday will doubtless be essentially the most difficult day for port site visitors, as eight totally different cruise ships will likely be in port, together with the Oasis-class Oasis of the Seas and Carnival Celebration, in addition to Norwegian Encore, the most important ship by gross tonnage in Norwegian Cruise Line’s fleet.
Options to Avoid Traffic
Cruise vacationers can use a number of choices to keep away from the worst of the Miami site visitors throughout the pageant weekend.
Taking shuttle companies, public transportation, or carpooling with different cruise visitors can assist reduce site visitors, or visitors can modify their route for arriving to the cruise port to keep away from the worst congestion. Extra time will likely be essential to navigate via street closures and account for site visitors delays as properly.
To make arriving on the port as simple as potential, vacationers ought to test which terminal their ship will likely be docked at earlier than arriving on the port, to allow them to higher modify which site visitors lanes to make use of and study which parking constructions or heaps are most handy.
It is essential to notice, nevertheless, that ships don’t at all times return to the identical terminal on the finish of a cruise that they might have used for embarkation.
Above all, will probably be crucial for visitors to be affected person with the site visitors difficulties, and never take out frustrations on both port personnel or cruise ship crew members. While the arrival could also be tougher, visitors are positive to nonetheless have a wonderful cruise trip to get pleasure from!
About the Festival
The Ultra Music Festival is an out of doors digital music pageant that started in 1999. The occasion is held yearly in Bayfront Park, simply on the base of Port Boulevard in downtown Miami and fewer than a mile from the cruise terminals.
The three-day pageant drew 165,000 whole attendees in 2022, and together with the bands themselves – usually greater than 100 teams or performers all through the occasion – in addition to distributors and repair personnel, can convey important crowds to downtown Miami.
The pageant has been so profitable that worldwide festivals have additionally been debuted, and the occasion has been nominated for quite a few awards, and gained for “Best Festival” from the International Dance Music Awards in 2018.