Cruise Transfers — Port of Charleston Cruise Terminal

Embarkation: the right terminal, at the right hour

At Union Pier on the peninsula, twenty minutes from the airport and walking distance from the historic district.

Worth knowing. The terminal is on the historic peninsula, so the approach is through narrow one-way streets. Allow more time than the distance suggests.

A cruise port is not one address. Your boarding pass names a terminal that changes between sailings, and a chauffeur who takes you to the wrong one costs you an hour in a queue of taxis. We match the terminal to the ship and the sail date at booking, then schedule the drop-off inside your assigned boarding window rather than at the earliest possible moment — arriving three hours early at a cruise terminal buys a longer queue, not a better cabin.

Disembarkation: pier pickup without the scrum

Disembarkation mornings are chaotic and the published times are optimistic. We hold the car and give you ninety minutes of complimentary wait from your stated pier time. You text when you clear customs and the vehicle is in the pickup lane within minutes. For groups we stage several vehicles and load them in sequence, which is the difference between a party of thirty reaching the airport together and reaching it over four hours.

Lines calling here

Carnival.

Before and after the sailing

Charleston has become one of the busiest destination wedding markets in the country, and spring and autumn weekends here are booked out months ahead. The historic peninsula is twenty minutes from the airport; Kiawah and Seabrook are about an hour south.

A pre-cruise hotel night, a gap-day city tour or a provisioning stop on the way to the pier are all added to the same booking. The Travel Center books the hotel and the flight alongside the car if you want a single itinerary.

Get a pier transfer fare All cruise ports