godspoetry

Yes you can generally get on and off as much as you want, but since we're still in COVID times I would check if the places you're going require a cruise sponsored tour to get off the boat because then you might not be able to walk off the boat on your own.

I was just thinking about my first cruise that I purchased/went on as an adult so this is funny timing to see this post. It involved flying from DC to Orlando for a cruise and a major regional FAA station went down and 95% of flights on the eastern seaboard were cancelled, and those that weren't were severely delayed. Luckily, because I scoured the first time cruiser board here and took people's advice, my flight was a day before the cruise. I was one of the extremely lucky ones and my flight was just extremely delayed (like more than 6 hours). There we were in the Southwest airport line with thousands of other stranded people staring at the flight board and watching the time our flight took off get later and later but still feeling lucky that it wasn't cancelled, and we were making emergency plans for if it changed to cancel to drive overnight to Orlando on zero sleep. Our flight ended up happening and we got to Orlando in the wee hours of the morning the day of the cruise and were VERY tired when we boarded but we made it! And that was precovid times where flights are so much more unpredictable! As a bare minimum a multiple flight buffer between your flight and the last possible flight that would get you there before the cruise left. So if you're at a really busy hub and flying to a busy hub like I do, afternoon/evening the night before the cruise should be fine and that's what I usually do. They could at least consider a crazy early morning flight that got in at 8am or something like that if there's lots of flights after that flight. But personally, I won't ever book a flight to a cruise that was the same day. And my buffer time that I choose is based on how long it would take me to get there on alternate transportation. That's why the couple day buffer that other people are saying they do makes sense, if the cruise is across the country or in another country. I can sometimes be a last minute person in life in general, so I'm not judging your parents as that rarely has caused me problems. But they need to understand that the consequences are HUGE to missing a cruise departure. Even if you can manage get on the cruise at a later port you might be missing full days of your vacation, and you're almost definitely doing a last second flight to a small and probably very expensive airport. It's just not worth the risk. $1-200 for a night at a hotel is 1000% worth the peace of mind of not ruining a several thousand dollar vacation and the potential thousands of dollars it might cost to be able to fly to and enjoy a lesser portion of that several thousand dollar vacation. Even if nothing happens and your flights go as planned, all that happens is that you're going to start your cruise better rested and more able to take advantage of the activities on the first day. it's 100% win win. That was really long but hopefully it helps!

Thanks so much for the input everyone! I can probably handle 11 start time and 10:30-11ish for stopping times. There's plenty of time in there to get some sleep. The fact that they mess up the serenity of the balcony does sound annoying though!

Hello! I am thinking of booking a cruise on the Summit to Bermuda and the rooms I'm looking at are on Deck 11 and would be below the movie theater on deck 12, and I'm wondering how early/late these movies are shown on average and how disruptive this this would be to my sleep. I can't find a recent daily schedule anywhere, I assume cause people are just using the app. Is anyone able to help a girl out? Thank you in advance for any help/advice you can give!