Direct flight day of?

[Elaine5715]

Last 8 flights to Florida, I have been delayed on three..

One mechanical, one because of hard rain flooded streets and the flight crew didn't make it, and once, connecting airport had a runway closed

On all of them, I was on the 6am flight out and should have been there before noon. Didn't make it until early to late evening.

Edited February 1, 2014 by Elaine5715
grammar

[Butterbean1000]

You will probably be just fine, but I am a true believer in Murphy's law...if it can go wrong, it will. We always fly in the day before.

 

We live in north GA. We flew out the morning of our first cruise. The plane was delayed for 4 hours due to severe thunder storms. This is common in the south. We made it in plenty of time, but it scared us enough that we fly out the day before from then on.

Edited February 1, 2014 by Butterbean1000

[cruizinisthebest]

We flew in the day before once- on our second cruise. Don't think I would opt well in advance to do that again. Just not worth the risk. Insurance or not, I would just be devastated if I missed my trip behind flight delays. Maybe there are better options with neighboring airports. Good luck whatever you decide.

[JustCruiseMe]

We are doing the exact same type of flight. First of the day and leaves RDU at 7am so if something comes up we have options. I think we'll be fine. BTW arrives FLL at 9am.

[D4]

We will be hiring a shuttle van, its about $13 per person. We have a large group so the taxis would not be our best option.

 

How big is your group? Your backup plan assumes the later flight has space for all of you which is unlikely.

 

Are you paying for the entire group? If not, I recommend telling everyone to the possible downsides of flying in the day of and then let everyone book their own flights based on their own risk tolerance and preferences.

 

Does everyone have a passport so they can fly to the first port?

[riclop]

Ok I know this has been discussed all over cruise critic. Please have an open mind and tell me what you think.

 

Flying direct to FLL arriving at 9:30 am for a cruise out of POM. The flight starts in Buffalo. The cruise is in July. The back up plan is another flight that leaves an hour later, has a connection, and gets in to FLL at 1230 pm.

We will have our transportation from FLL to POM booked.

 

We could do the night before but I hate the flight times and no direct. We would spend all day traveling and get in to FLL late. We could not go earlier than the night before.

 

If it were winter I would not risk it. I would take the lousy flights the day before. Because it is an early am direct flight in July I am leaning toward it.

Its all very confusing just do what you like best.

[Buffalofirsttimer4]

Ok I know this has been discussed all over cruise critic. Please have an open mind and tell me what you think.

 

Flying direct to FLL arriving at 9:30 am for a cruise out of POM. The flight starts in Buffalo. The cruise is in July. The back up plan is another flight that leaves an hour later, has a connection, and gets in to FLL at 1230 pm.

We will have our transportation from FLL to POM booked.

 

We could do the night before but I hate the flight times and no direct. We would spend all day traveling and get in to FLL late. We could not go earlier than the night before.

 

If it were winter I would not risk it. I would take the lousy flights the day before. Because it is an early am direct flight in July I am leaning toward it.

 

Direct flight, as long as we don't have thunder you should be ok. I fly to Vegas from Bflo (direct) and that has been the only problem I have ever encountered during July. As you stated if it was Oct-April I would say fly in a day early.

 

Happy Sailing!!!

 

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[PoofCat99]

I flew Newark, NJ to Cleveland on Christmas day, first or second flight leaving at @9. The plane was grounded in Ontario for a mechanical. They had to fly a part from Chicago to fix it, fix it, then it continued to Newark. We finally boarded after 1:30. For an easy, nonstop, 2 hour flight, I could've driven in the same time by the time I actually got to Ohio.

Luckily, other than that I missed a lot of Christmas with my 94 y.o. Grandma, I didn't have anything pressing that day.

Don't think weather is the only thing that can ground a flight.

[kmarie10531]

We usually cruise during April/May . This last time we just sailed on the Dream on Jan 18th . Had a flight the day of with an 830 departure out of DTW with an arrival at MCO at 1110am At 530am I received a text stating our flight was delayed . Slightly panicked at this time . Get to the airport wait what seems like forever , told that there was major engine problems with the plane and it was coming from ATL. Finally plane arrives ( had to de-ice as well) plane is finally up in the air at 1145am ... Yes I'm in full on panic mode at this point . We finally land at MCO at 230pm, we need to be at the ship in 1 hour . Thankfully we had a private company driving us to port and our driver got us there in no time . My party was literally one of the last 20 people on the ship .we even missed our embarkation photo :-( ... But we made it and had an awesome time

 

Moral of the story I wouldn't fly in the day of the cruise ever again no matter what time of the year it is . Because weather isn't just a factor it could be mechanical issues as well.. Funny thing was while we were waiting for our return flight home the SAME plane was delayed once again coming from ATL to DTW . So was there really ever an engine problem or was it just a "band-aid " just placed ?

[PoofCat99]

The one and only time my parents flew the day of a cruise, they almost missed it. For some reason they flew out of Pittsburgh to Seattle (Pitt is about 2.5 hours from them) and I forget exactly what happened but they barely made it. This was on Linbland Cruises around Pacific NW. Their luggage didn't make the flight, so my dad stayed at SeaTac and waited for it while my mom went on ahead (she was not a happy camper, either). Once he got the luggage, my dad had to take a taxi out to a certain point and the ship arranged a zodiac to pick him and the bags up to bring him out in the bay. It was quite a day and he still almost missed it because the directions were something like "Go to Bob's seafood and wait at the dock." First, the taxi had to find Bob's!

 

My mother would never fly the same day after that. Even the day before is pushing it for her. Oh, she also had to buy a sweatshirt because all her warm clothes were in her checked bag, with my dad and it was cold when the ship left port.