Overnight flight to Fort Lauderdale

[luvcruisn']

I'm wondering about taking an overnight flight to Fort Lauderdale, arriving at 10:30am on the morning of departure, with one stop in Portland, Oregon, and the other stop in Houston. The ship departs at 4:00pm with 6 days at sea.

 

Is this a bad idea?

[GeriatricNurse]

I'm wondering about taking an overnight flight to Fort Lauderdale' date=' arriving at 10:30am on the morning of departure, with one stop in Portland, Oregon, and the other stop in Houston. The ship departs at 4:00pm with 6 days at sea.

 

Is this a bad idea?[/quote']

 

Yes, in my view, it is a bad idea! ;) It is a better idea to fly, with any/all connections, the day BEFORE the ship departs so that you spend the one overnight, precruise in Ft. Lauderdale, when you will, no doubt awake refreshed, eager to head to the cruise port at around 1015 to 1030! And I would recommend staying at either Embassy Suites, (where a full hot/cold breakfast is included), or at Renaissance Fort Lauderdale Cruise Port Hotel, both located on 17th. Street; both hotels being located within a 10 minute shuttle/taxi ride to the cruise port! :)

[Krazy Kruizers]

Agree -- it is very bad idea.

Seeing as you have 2 layovers, you have a good chance of one of them being delayed and you may not make it to Ft Lauderdale in time to catch the ship. And the ship will not wait for you.

You are better to fly in 1 or 2 days before the cruise. This way you will also have time to adjust to the time change and be ready to cruise.

[horseymike]

come a day before if possible, you will enjoy your cruise much more.

 

no stress of making it to the ship on time, 1 day to get over the jet lag.

 

fresh to enjoy all of your cruise.:D

[sail7seas]

Another vote for come the day before if you can. Too many reasons flights are cancelled, delayed, unreliable these days.

 

[NMLady]

I agree that it's a bad idea, especially with connecting flights where anything could go wrong.

[DaveOKC]

One more for bad idea. COme in the night before and board the ship well rested - it will make the cruise seem a bit longer.

 

The way I look at these things is a risk/reward. What are you saving by taking the red-eye instead of coming in the night before? $100, 200, 300?

 

Is that amount worth the risk of missing your cruise departure? Sure its probably a 95% chance that everything will work out fine, but what will it cost you if it does not?

 

DaveOKC

[Stelladoro]

We're near Toronto and can book direct flights to Fort Lauderdale, but still fly in one day prior to the cruise. Flights can be cancelled due to weather/mechanical problems, etc. - you just never know. It's really not worth the extra stress.

[luvcruisn']

One more for bad idea. COme in the night before and board the ship well rested - it will make the cruise seem a bit longer. The way I look at these things is a risk/reward. What are you saving by taking the red-eye instead of coming in the night before? $100, 200, 300? Is that amount worth the risk of missing your cruise departure? Sure its probably a 95% chance that everything will work out fine, but what will it cost you if it does not? DaveOKC

 

I'm not saving any money at all by doing the overnight flight - it's actually $100.00 more expensive than a flight during the day. I was trying to save one vacation day from work, as my cruise is so long I will have used most of them up, and won't have very many left for unexpected visitors for the rest of the year.

[Globaliser]

I'm wondering about taking an overnight flight to Fort Lauderdale' date=' arriving at 10:30am on the morning of departure, with one stop in Portland, Oregon, and the other stop in Houston. The ship departs at 4:00pm with 6 days at sea.

 

Is this a bad idea?[/quote']First question: When you say "stop", do you mean that it's the same aircraft that takes you on to the next "stop", or are you actually connecting at each "stop"? If you are, there's added risk at every connection - both of you not making the next flight and also of your luggage not making the next flight.

 

Second question: Do you mean that the 6 sea days follow immediately after sailing? So that if you miss the ship, you will have to find your own way to the ship's next port and wait almost a week for it? And presumably the next stop is somewhere on the other side of the Atlantic?

 

When you weigh up the magnitude of the risk, and the seriousness of the consequences if the risk materialises, are you still prepared to gamble on everything going right?

[cruz chic]

Another vote for bad idea. I'm still working so I get the trying to save days but it's just not worth it.

[CruiserBruce]

Definitely agree. Not a good idea.

[rajkr74]

It looks like we are taking that same flight out of Portland thru Houston to FLL in Feb. for our cruise. It gets into FLL about the same time as your flight, however we are coming 2 days ahead of the cruise.

 

Why, just for the same reasons everyone has brought up in the above prior posts. It gives us a cushion for problems and if things work well we will see some of the Everglades before the cruise.

[bcnvcanada]

There are late flights out of Sea (Seattle) if you can get there. non stop. Though you must way one days work vs. six missed days of vaction. You are better served to take the day off work, and take a cheaper day flight to Fort Lauderdale. You might look at fares from Seattle as we find them to be much cheaper.

[innlady1]

I would call that "flying by the seat of your pants"! We are flying out of Boston this Thursday for a cruise that departs on Sunday.

We always allow 3 days so that if the weather forecast predicts a storm, we'll drive to Florida. We did a b2b one year and that actually happened to someone on the 2nd leg of the cruise...retiredmustang, I believe. They ended up driving to the port from VA.

[cabinluvn]

We also are arriving in Ft. Lauderdale prior to a cruise where the first days are 6 sea days(maybe same cruise in March?). Since the first chance to catch up with the ship would be the Azores, it was too big a risk to arrive same day. Even tho we are coming from Chicago nonstop, we are arriving one day early. We did not do that prior to a cruise leaving from Rome and it caused a lot of anxiety, even thought we made the ship with plenty of time to spare. In fact we made it to the Mariner's lunch. Never will we do that again!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[PathfinderEss]

If it was a 'red eye' with no stops, I'd say go for it, but with two layover, not a good idea.

[luvcruisn']

Thank you all for your responses. I can't find any non-stop flights out of Seattle to Fort Lauderdale, there is at least one stop on every flight. I will have to keep looking a little longer.

[Typhoon1]

Get there a day or more early.

 

There are too many variables that can affect your arrival time. i.e. weather. mechanical problems. The ship waits for no one.

[luvcruisn']

I did find one non-stop from Seattle to Fort Lauderdale on Alaska Airlines, getting in at 6:45am Saturday morning. That might work. I'll have to think about it as I didn't really like my last flying experience with them.

[djhsolara]

We have flown in the day of once or twice and when we've done it we never had a connecting flight...it had to be direct. Honestly, when we've done this I'm an absolute nervous wreck until I have my feet on the ground in FLL...and now we only fly in the day before. It just isn't worth the aggravation to me to start our vacation this way.

 

I know you've probably thought of this as well, but if for some reason you would miss the ship, not only will you need to pay to catch up to the ship but are you prepared to pay for a hotel and meals somewhere for the six days/nights that you've missed on the cruise?

 

Just some additional food for thought...

 

 

Douglas...Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bcnvcanada]

Try Alaska Air, they had one a while back.

[midgecruiser]

We just did this (week before last) and I would not do it again. We only had one stop (would never do two) and we started out with a delay out of Seattle (start of the trip). We were lucky and had a long layover in Dallas but this could had been a bust for us. We left 1 1/2 hours late. I looked at options in case the flight cancelled and we would have been screwed. Meaning....missing the cruise. All worked out fine. We got into FLL on time and boarded the Westerdam on time. But, having not slept all night we were all exausted and felt the first day was a waste. Will not do the red eye the night before again. Not worth it. Stressful and just too darn tired to enjoy the first day.

 

Wendy

[Globaliser]

I'll have to think about it as I didn't really like my last flying experience with them.

Really' date=' I think that given your parameters this should be a long way down your list of considerations.

 

But if you're prepared to fly from Seattle, there's also an American Airlines non-stop, departing Seattle at 2130 and arriving at [u']Miami[/u] at 0630. It's not difficult to get from Miami to Port Everglades.

[xitappers2bx]

I'm not saving any money at all by doing the overnight flight - it's actually $100.00 more expensive than a flight during the day. I was trying to save one vacation day from work' date=' as my cruise is so long I will have used most of them up, and won't have very many left for unexpected visitors for the rest of the year.[/quote']

 

Then why not do what my dad's doing for our alaska cruise... he's working thursday and leaving a bit earlier, and then taking a late flight from the east coast to seattle, it gets in late, but he's not using another vacation day, and it'll be that much more relaxing to get there a full day early with none of the stress of missing a flight.