NCL Pearl out of Miami- have a messed up my return air flight

[pauldixon]

We are taking the Pearl out of Miami on March 28th which returns on April 4.

Our last port of call is Key West which looks like a mere 160 nautical miles between Key West and Miami.

Our scheduled arrival time on April 4 is 8:00 am, although I imagine we will be in Miami earlier.

I have an 11:30 am flight booked back to our home in icebox known as the mid-west.

Is this return flight time overly optimistic?

When I went online with Delta to look at changing to a later flight, the expenses almost doubled the original cost of the tickets.

 

Advice and thoughts appreciated.

 

Paul

[garycarla]

Not sure why the title says flight messed up. What you have is a somewhat early flight.

 

Folks post here all the time about getting to airport by 9am and making late morning flights. Tight but you should be just fine.

 

To get to there the quickest, do a self disembark. Roll your own bags off the ship. Then do not use a shuttle. Just grab a cab - about $20 and 15 minutes.

 

Easy stuff.

[david_sobe]

This should not be a problem if everything is normal and there are no custom or port issues with you getting off the ship. The airport is about 20 minutes from the port with NO TRAFFIC. I noticed April 4 is a Friday so there will be rush hour traffic. While most of it will be coming east (and you will be going west), there is always a chance for a back up or accident. It is a close call but I think you should be able to make it. Fridays are also a VERY busy day at M.I.A. Please try to coordinate to be one of the first groups off the ship.

Edited January 30, 2014 by david_sobe

[deladypilot]

You should be fine. NCL would not have booked that flight if they did not think it is possible. As they booked the flight, if you do not make it because of something they do, then they are responsible for finding you another flight and paying any fees.

 

I have been on 3 cruises with NCL so far and all of them were in port way before the posted time and people were walking off the boat by 8 am. If you have booked a transfer with NCL you will be given a time to exit the ship and catch the bus.

[rvsullivan]

I didn't see anything saying NCL booked the flight. NCL recommends no earlier than noon or so, doesn't seem right they would book an early flight?

If it is booked by NCL they will get you there on time. If booked by the OP, make sure you do early walk off with all your bags and take a cab. You have to be at the airport and checked in one hour before flight time, 10 am.

[JohnIreland]

All going well that shouldn't be a problem.

[che5904]

Not sure why the title says flight messed up.

 

Actually the title says "have a messed up my return air flight", I think it was suppose to read "have I messed up".

 

Otherwise it probably would have been worded "have messed up..."

[che5904]

Like everyone says OP. Shouldn't be a problem. As long as everything goes as planned. Late arrival of ship, problems with customs etc.

 

I personally wouldn't book one that early because I wouldn't want the stress of the possibility of one thing going wrong. But if you are comfortable with everything should go as planned. A lot of people book early flights home, with no issues.

[pauldixon]

I gratefully appreciate all the comments- I can put down the jar of Tums now.

I made the flight arrangements and then got concerned about the times.

 

I will self-disembark and take my own luggage. It looks tight but if everything works, we should make our flight.

 

Again- the collective wisdom on this board is a great resource.

 

Paul

[DevCruise]

I gratefully appreciate all the comments- I can put down the jar of Tums now.

I made the flight arrangements and then got concerned about the times.

 

I will self-disembark and take my own luggage. It looks tight but if everything works, we should make our flight.

 

Again- the collective wisdom on this board is a great resource.

 

Paul

 

Not the Pearl, but we did a self-disembark from the Sky about mid-way through the debark time and took a cab to the airport. Made it with enough time to sit around bored at the airport for awhile. This was with everything going right (ship arrived on time, breezed off the ship and right through customs barely stopping, no traffic, etc).

[Pappion]

If it makes you feel any better, our Pearl cruise in December we did walk off and made it to FLL with time to spare for our 11:30am flight, so much time to spare we actually were able to get Delta to put us on the 9:40 flight out.

 

I know a million people on here will poo poo and tell you it can't be done, but it can if the ship doesn't have issues clearing customs. Have a good trip!