Carnival Freedom’s upcoming sailing to the Bahamas, which embarks on September 5, 2024, will see a change of plans at its conclusion.
The 4-night sailing, which is a round-trip out of Port Canaveral (Orlando), Florida, will call on Nassau, Bahamas, and Princess Cays, the cruise line’s private island destination in the Bahamas, before returning to the Conquest-class vessel’s homeport.
This is where things will be a bit different from what guests may have been anticipating. Instead of disembarking from Terminal 6, which is where Carnival Freedom and Carnival Vista are based, disembarkation will conclude next door at Terminal 5.
While Port Canaveral is rather large with six cruise terminals shared across the mainstream cruise lines, the distance between Terminals 5 and 6 is short. At less than a half mile, it should only be a five to 10-minute walk for guests who need to move between the buildings.
“We will be docking at Terminal 6 for your embarkation, but upon your return, we will be docking at Terminal 5 for debarkation,” the cruise line wrote in a memo to impacted guests.
Indeed, there is no impact to embarkation on September 5, 2024, with passengers asked to arrive at Terminal 6 during their pre-selected Terminal Arrival Appointments as planned.
As usual, guests who arrive too early may be asked to return at their assigned time – and all guests must be on board no later than an hour before departure, which is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. EST per cruise tracking data.
What Should Impacted Guests Do?
While the change is relatively minor considering the close proximity between Port Canaveral’s Terminal 5 and Terminal 6, guests disembarking on September 9 may need to make some tweaks to their travel plans for convenience.
“Although the two locations are within walking distance of each other, please make your travel arrangements for embarkation and debarkation with the terminal change in mind,” Carnival advised guests.
For example, guests who are being picked up by pre-scheduled private drivers or pre-scheduled hotel or airline shuttles will want to notify the appropriate vendors of their new location.
Local guests who are commuting to the cruise terminal may also want to reconsider where they park – perhaps opting to leave their car closer to the disembarkation terminal so they don’t have to walk as far when they’re tired at the end of their vacation.
While Carnival did not specify the reason for the minor change, it could be for a plethora of reasons, ranging from maintenance or repair work being done on the dock to overlapping schedules with other ships coming and going on the same day.
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In addition to the 2,974-passenger Carnival Freedom, Carnival Glory, Disney Cruise Line’s Disney Wish, and Royal Caribbean’s Utopia of the Seas will also be in the port.
But on average, ten ships enter the port each day from major players in the cruise industry, so things can get quite busy and necessitate the occasional game of cruise ship Tetris to accommodate everyone.
Regardless of the reason, the shift to Terminal 5 seems to be a one-time necessity. Carnival Freedom is scheduled to homeport out of the Orlando-based port well into 2026 – with the official port schedule assigning the 110,000-gross ton ship to Terminal 6 on every visit through the end of the year.
