Does anyone habitually fly to the home port on the day of the cruise?

[cruisecritiquer]

I was just wondering if anyone routinely flies in the day of their cruise, if possible?

 

It is a lot less expensive to fly in the day of our cruise than the day before although I realize that comes with some risk - a risk that probably would not offset the savings if we ended up with flight delay. Still, does anyone do this or is this a cruise no-no?

 

We generally fly in the day before when we cruise but this time I'm thinking otherwise. It would be a non-stop flight right into Miami landing a few minutes before noon.

[mollyanne]

I was just wondering if anyone routinely flies in the day of their cruise, if possible?

 

It is a lot less expensive to fly in the day of our cruise than the day before although I realize that comes with some risk - a risk that probably would not offset the savings if we ended up with flight delay. Still, does anyone do this or is this a cruise no-no?

 

We generally fly in the day before when we cruise but this time I'm thinking otherwise. It would be a non-stop flight right into Miami landing a few minutes before noon.

 

On our first couple of cruises we flew in "day of" but the last time it was fairly stressfull and we said never again. We always go a day early. I suppose it matters the time of year weatherwise if you should chance day of. And with so few seats these days if you run into any mechanical problems it could be tough to be re-booked on another carrier. Personally, I wouldn't risk it.

[CruiserBruce]

If you read the boards this is discussed regularly. I think you will find it hard to find any one that recommends flying in the day of your sailing. But people, for a variety of reasons, still do it all the time. And yes, some people miss their cruise due to missed flights and connections.

[calliopecruiser]

Amazingly, my travel agent suggested it (flying in the day of the cruise), but I think I'm going to fly in the day before anyway.

[Love the beach]

Years ago we always flew in the day of the cruise but in recent years with all the airline cutbacks & problems we now fly in the day before. Awhile back on cc someone who lived in Denver was going on a cruise out of Seattle...booked a 7:30 am flight--it was cancelled; next flight at 10:30 had mechanical problems--long story short, they missed the ship! That was enough to convince me!

Marge

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

90% of the time ...

[hallasm]

Very much depending on the risk of being delayed!

If no alternative ways in case of delay or canceling, I always fly in the day before - do not want to miss the cruise or the first days of the cruise - and also the additional cost og catching up with the ship..

[cruisecritiquer]

If you read the boards this is discussed regularly. I think you will find it hard to find any one that recommends flying in the day of your sailing. But people, for a variety of reasons, still do it all the time. And yes, some people miss their cruise due to missed flights and connections.

 

I looked for a conversation about this but there are so many subforums, I wasn't sure where to find it. The keys words I put in search turned up nothing. Thanks for your input.

[mondello]

Weather changes can effect flight schedules any time of year; not just snow/ice in winter, but also rain/wind and thunder/lightning storms at other times of year. Not to mention mechanical delays.

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

Flew in the day of in January once... Don't know what I was thinking. :) On the way home, we were stranded at a closed down airport tarmac for hours and then had to be bussed to our original airport. If that had happened on the way, we would have been out of luck, especially as we didn't know to put out the extra expense for the insurance. Now, that I have been cruising more and know what I am doing, we try to go in at least a day early. Though I might chance it if it meant the difference between going on the cruise and not being able to, for example, have to work.

[pammycakes]

I did that only once (my very first cruise) and well lesson learned never ever again to dang stressful now always at least one day before.

[DanJ]

We flew in the day of for our first cruise, but that was a group thing so we didn't have much choice in it anyway. It was an early flight so we were in FLL by 10am and had lots of time to kill before going to the ship. All subsequent cruises that we have flown to, we have gone a day early. Aside from the comfort factor in having a time cushion for things that may go wrong, it's just more fun to extend the trip by a day. Especially if coming from a cold climate like we do.

 

Perhaps if I lived near an airport within 60-90 minute flight time of the port, that also had lots of service, I might consider pocketing the hotel costs and flying in the day of. But it still makes for a long day, being at the airport early in the morning. I would still prefer to wake up at my own schedule in the port city, and not be exhausted by the time dinner is finished on the ship. Besides, if I was catching an early flight, I might be inclined to stay at an airport area hotel the night before, just to make sure I'm there and able to catch that flight. So all I've really done is transferred the hotel cost to the airport city instead of the port city. If I'm paying for a hotel, it might as well be in Florida LOL.

[wrigley80]

NO WAY!!!!! I would never fly in the day of the cruise.....it would be stressful and too much running around to make deadlines. Besides I wanna get the most out of the first day onboard :p

 

For our cruises in December we are flying in a day early and staying in Orlando before driving out to Port Canaveral the morning of the cruise :)

[SusieCruises]

:oI have been on seven cruises and have ALWAYS flown in the morning of the cruise. Never had an issue. However, for our cruise coming up in Dec. we have decided to fly in the night before. We kinda' figured we have been pushing our luck and now that we are older and wiser and know you can never depend on Michigan's weather, we had better stop taking chances. LOL:o

[eandj]

We have done both, all depends on the time of year, how early we can get out, non-stop availibility, number of flights avail daily to the port and where the first port of call is.

 

When cruising in the winter months, for sure we add day/s at the front. On our upcoming cruise out of New York in a couple weeks, we are flying in the day of. We have the first nonstop out at 6 A.M. Arrive at 9:30. There are four other non stops before 11. Now if all flights were canceled for some reason, and we had to fly out late, we don't have far to "catch" the ship in Newport. We are adding days at the end of the cruise as we have just recently spent several days in N.Y.

 

Obviously it is less stressful flying into the departure city a day early. AND.. I am not looking forward to getting up at 3:30 A.M. to catch our early flight out. Too long a day for me.:eek:

[Ashland]

We have cruised the eastern caribbean several times during March (spring break)...We fly on a non-stop redeye from LAX-FLL arriving morning of cruise usually around 6:30am...on occasion we have connected through ATL then arriving around 9:00am...Not everyone has the option of flying in a day or more early...and it can work :)

[Keith1010]

I was just wondering if anyone routinely flies in the day of their cruise, if possible?

 

It is a lot less expensive to fly in the day of our cruise than the day before although I realize that comes with some risk - a risk that probably would not offset the savings if we ended up with flight delay. Still, does anyone do this or is this a cruise no-no?

 

We generally fly in the day before when we cruise but this time I'm thinking otherwise. It would be a non-stop flight right into Miami landing a few minutes before noon.

 

Don't fly in the day of the cruise.

 

I don't care if someone does and has not had a problem.

 

You increase your odds of missing the ship if you fly in the day of the cruise as too many things can go wrong.

 

Let's say the odds are 5% you will miss the ship. In the end it doesn't matter what the odds were if you were in the 5% who missed the ship. Your vacation can be ruined.

 

During my years of flying almost weekly for business I saw just about everything you can think of that can easily cause you to miss the ship.

 

Keith

[nhraformula00]

We always fly in a day early and on our last 3 cruises we have had airport and plane delays making for some long delays. No way we would fly in on the same day.

[Happy ks]

We have cruised the eastern caribbean several times during March (spring break)...We fly on a non-stop redeye from LAX-FLL arriving morning of cruise usually around 6:30am...on occasion we have connected through ATL then arriving around 9:00am...Not everyone has the option of flying in a day or more early...and it can work :)

 

We thought about doing that...for about 30 seconds. Then I remembered ;) that I cannot sleep on a plane, ever. So the tradeoff would be catching up on sleep and feeling lousy the first couple of days. It seems once I lose a nights sleep I can't sleep the next night either.

 

So, we're flying in the day before to FLL. When we did our Med cruise, we flew in 3 days early. When we have cruised out of Vancouver we love the city and plan a day or two there even though the flight is only 2.5 hours. When we drive to port, we don't like to get there early and wait, but we do plan on being to the parking lot at least 2 hours before the deadline. We've been stuck in traffic on the 405 a few times.

 

We'll even extend it most of the time and stay over an extra day. Uses up vacation days, but it sure feels good to not have to rush off, or sit in an airport for hours after a nice cruise.

[CruiserBruce]

Don't fly in the day of the cruise.

 

I don't care if someone does and has not had a problem.

 

You increase your odds of missing the ship if you fly in the day of the cruise as too many things can go wrong.

 

Let's say the odds are 5% you will miss the ship. In the end it doesn't matter what the odds were if you were in the 5% who missed the ship. Your vacation can be ruined.

 

During my years of flying almost weekly for business I saw just about everything you can think of that can easily cause you to miss the ship.

 

Keith

 

Very well put, as always. Agree totally.

[DoubleAA]

I've been on 5 cruises and I always fly in the morning of the cruise. But I find the earliest possible flight so if there is a problem time is on my side. I also usually cruise in October so weather isn't an issue. I've run into a couple of fog delays but they were minor and the delay amounted to a half hour or so.Do whatever makes you comfortable and keeps your stress to a minimum.

[cruisecritiquer]

Don't fly in the day of the cruise.

 

I don't care if someone does and has not had a problem.

 

You increase your odds of missing the ship if you fly in the day of the cruise as too many things can go wrong.

 

Let's say the odds are 5% you will miss the ship. In the end it doesn't matter what the odds were if you were in the 5% who missed the ship. Your vacation can be ruined.

 

During my years of flying almost weekly for business I saw just about everything you can think of that can easily cause you to miss the ship.

 

Keith

 

Yes sir! :)

[Suitcasefull]

Although don't have as many trips as many others on CC, another vote for coming in early....especially since it looks like your trip is mid-November. We were on one escorted tour where the TA had convinced the escort we could all make it fine by flying out early that morning. We made it in the nick of time and not even sure but what technically we should have been on board (35 of us) but the ship sailed on time. No bad weather, just the usual airline junk. Poor escort aged ten years. Besides, we consider the night pre-cruise part of the celebration...enjoying a nice dinner and, hopefully, a view of the ship from the hotel the next morning....all stress left behind.

[GradUT]

We have done both, all depends on the time of year, how early we can get out, non-stop availibility, number of flights avail daily to the port and where the first port of call is.

 

Those are the factors you need to consider. On my last cruise, we flew in on the day of the cruise because: 1) it was in May and the likelihood of bad weather between our home city and the port was small, 2) we were able to get a non-stop flight at 8am, and 3) there were several other non-stop flights on this airline that would have gotten us to the port in time to board.

 

I would definitely do it again if the situation arose and I was able to meet the above conditions.

[shevais]

It depends where we are leaving out of and what time of year it is. For example when we left out of Vancouver we flew into Seattle the day before. That's a long flight for us and we wanted to make sure there was wiggle room if something went wrong. When we leave out of Florida we typically book the earliest flight we can the morning of the cruise and book a direct flight. Typically the first flights of the day are on time and we still have wiggle room if there's something that goes wrong. The first time we left out of San Juan we flew in day of and will never do that again. Now we will fly in there the day before as well. We also make sure the connecting flights don't go through northern hubs such as JFK or places like that since we typically cruise in the winter months. So I guess you can say it just depends on where you live, when you cruise and where you cruise out of. We live near a large airport with multiple carriers flying direct flights to FLL and ORD, so we feel comfortable leaving the morning of. But anywhere else that we can't drive to within 6 hours we leave day before.