Flying the day of

[karfest]

Shari-

 

Don't worry- what's done is done and can't be changed. MOST LIKELY you will be fine. We always go the day before and have never had flying issues- I like to go the day before JUST IN CASE. We almost always connect at ORD and have been very lucky with connections- even in the winter.

 

Relax and enjoy:)

[Shari25]

Thanks everyone. I guess I just needed to hear we would be fine. I will try not to let it ruin our trip. You guys are wonderful and I LOVE this board. Now I know so much!!!!

[trish1c]

Shari --

 

Most people on these boards fly in the day before. Thousands of other people fly the day of with no problems. It's expensive & sometimes not practical with work schedules to fly in the day before. Relax, breathe & if you are so inclined, pray.

 

Are there any direct flights from your area? If so, can you fly standby? That's what I did last time I flew the day of & it was fine. BTW, there's no cost to fly standby.

 

Have a great cruise. We'll keep our fingers crossed for you. :)

[DonLou]

Shari,

 

Didn't mean to sound like you were being scolded. I guess it's just like a bunch of cackling hens fussing over the newborn. But the fact that you are already considering alternatives is a wonderful sign of your growing travel wisdom. You're there! Shrug off your worries and have fun.

[Margie1983us]

Shari,

I am tossing around the idea of flying in the same day of our cruise, and everyone on this board has advised me against it.

 

With that said, Do you have travel insurance? If you do it will take care of the expense you will incur if you miss the ship. Try insuremytrip.com it will give you the piece of mind you need even if you do miss it. Have a great time, cruising is the best vacation a person can take. :)

[charleyb]

Hey you all take it from the voice of experience. In the spring of 2003 there were ten of us flying out of Dayton at 7AM to catch a transfer in Cincinnati to get to Miami by 1 PM. Well we never got off the ground in Dayton due to weather (lightning) until nearly 9 Am and by then Delta could not get us on a transfer to get us to Miami by 4 PM. Well with a group of ten we were very lucky that Delta was able to change us to arrive Nassau that afternoon and RCCL allowed us to embark from there the next day. The cost to us was the overnight stay in Nassau. But what an experience it was.

 

Guess who ALWAYS flies the day before and guess who always buys insurance now?:)

 

Now I have a question. Would a 11:40 flight out of Ft Lauderdale the day of disembarkation be doable? Opinions on that please.

[TrentS]

Now I have a question. Would a 11:40 flight out of Ft Lauderdale the day of disembarkation be doable? Opinions on that please.

FLL is an absolute ZOO on weekends. With all the Port Everglades ships, plus all the people from the Miami ships who use FLL, it's not uncommon to have in excess of 20,000 people dumped on that airport in a 3 hour period creating incredibly long lines for both check-in and security. You would have to be first off the ship, and everything would have to go flawlessly in order to make it okay. IMO it's not worth taking the chance. I've seen too many people still standing in line while their flights were leaving without them!

[cincicruisers]

As far as leaving early.. I posted this before. We were scheduled the day of the cruise in March last year. After reading the boards I changed to the day before. All was going well with no issues until we arrived on a sunny day in Cincinnati only to find that our flight was cancelled due to weather in Atlanta. We made it to Orlando, but not until 4pm. (cruise teminal is an hour away) I am forever gratefull to the folks here who told me to change my flight or I never would have made the cruise. Too much stress at the start of vacation.

As far as ending the vacation, normal rule of thumb is no flight before noon. Why end a great vacation with stress and missed flights.

[MrsPete]

I would never fly the day of a cruise because there are soooo many variables that can take place.

Ditto for me. Even if everything goes smoothly, you'll still arrive tired from travel. I much prefer to drive down the night before, stay in an inexpensive hotel, have a nice dinner, then sleep late the next morning. This allows us to arrive at the port well-rested and completly ready for the cruise.

[SWEETNLOW2005]

You should be okay. I take it you are flying from Midway. on Airtran.(could be wrong). I think I had that flight schedule. Just look for other airlines that would put you in Fll around the same time just in case something goes wrong. Have the airline and flight numbers . i always fly day o fthe cruise ,1st flight of the day and havent had a problem. Depending on where you are flying from and the time of the year.

[charleyb]

FLL is an absolute ZOO on weekends.................... I've seen too many people still standing in line while their flights were leaving without them!

 

Thanks Trent for the advice. We have decided to stay over and catch a flight home on Monday out of MIA with a non stop flight I don't need to be worrying about getting in a hurry to get to FLL by noon......Also it is a little bit cheaper on Monday from MIA.....

[essgee_ca]

FLL is an absolute ZOO on weekends. With all the Port Everglades ships, plus all the people from the Miami ships who use FLL, it's not uncommon to have in excess of 20,000 people dumped on that airport in a 3 hour period creating incredibly long lines for both check-in and security. You would have to be first off the ship, and everything would have to go flawlessly in order to make it okay. IMO it's not worth taking the chance. I've seen too many people still standing in line while their flights were leaving without them!

 

In absolute agreement with the zoo comment! I thought it was just because it was March Break! Our flight was 11:40 am. We got the white debarksion tickets (first off the ship) to make our flight. The check in agent we had (when we finally got to her an hour after arriving at the airport) didn't know what she was doing making for more delays. After checking in, we then went to another looooong line to get to our departure gate. We continuously checked our watches while we crawled forward in line. However we did wait as patiently as possible. This paid off as we were escorted to our gate, bypassing the rest of the line, a mere 20 minutes before the scheduled departure. We did not wait at the gate but promptly were directed to board the plane. Then the useless check agent's errors caught up with us. My sister was held back at the gate while I was forced to continue on. Thankfully the error was easy to solve and my sister soon joined me on the plane.

Sadly, this was a situation of hurry up and wait. Ten minutes after boarding the plane we began to taxi to the runway. We were advised that we had a 15 minute wait for a runway. Twenty minutes later we were told another 15 minutes. Finally after an hour of waiting on the tarmac we were told there were weather problems and they shut down the engines while we waited another hour. And we thought we were going to miss our flight!

Hope this doesn't happen for my next cruise, because with a Sunday return, it doesn't leave me with any buffer zone and I have to be at work the next day! Oh well.... guess it will be a good excuse not to be at work! :)

S.G.

[Strawberry]

I would like to say that one of the worst delay problems I ever had was in Chicago in the summer time because of thunderstorms. I ended up sleeping on the floor of a friend's hotel room because everything was booked up. Fortunately this was NOT a flight to catch a cruise.

For cruises I always fly in at least one day before and sometimes two days before. Even doing this, I ended up being separated from my luggage for the ENTIRE week of a caribbean cruise.

However, I think this issue of traveling before or the same day really depends on your personality and whether you are a worrier -- I am a worrier and try to minimize my stress by going every where early.

[airlink diva]

I have to get on the wagon with everyone else, always fly in a day ahead. I make it a point to do so. However, my family had their reunion on a cruise this past summer and 90% few in the day of the cruise. Over half of their flights had delays and everyone was stress when they arrive on the boat. Not the right way to start a cruise. My parents stated that from now on, they will book their own airfare and arrive a day early.

[lojill]

Anybody have any ideas on getting a good flight out of Columbus,oh. We are cruising in Feb 2006. We are flying to ft lauderdale and the prices are out of this world. 400+. Should we wait until we get closer to the date or will the prices go up because of gas.

[charleyb]

We are also flying out of Columbus in spring and through the airline we got much better price than the $400.00. We are going on Costa and the advertised price is $299 to FLL then add the $34 taxes and fees.....I guess it is ok to speak about the price since it is public knowledge in their brochure.....Still I have seen better deals on some of the discount websites but we did not want to chance it during spring break timeframe.....

[gambit57]

My family's always flown in on the day of. Never had a problem.

 

For my upcoming cruise, I booked it myself and also am flying in the day of. Arriving around 11am as well. I'm not that worried. Even with a few hours of delay, you still have time. The port is like 10 min from the airport.

 

Yes, to be safe, I would have preferred to fly in a day early (and get to enjoy Ft. Lauderdale), but due to a wedding, I gotta leave the day of.

[gambit57]

double post for some reason

[ahoymatey3]

After a very close, half-hour, call due to mechanical problems I've learned to fly in the day before. It is much more relaxing.

[juliew]

Departing Chicago at 6 am, arriving in Ft.Lau airport at 11:00 am, (Change over in Atlanta.) Plenty of time......right? Starting to worry, first cruise.

Thanks:)

 

Shari, like others on this board I have done both flying in the day of the cruise and flying in the day before. I guess I have gotten to the point where if I can I prefer to fly in the day before for a couple of reasons: One, because it does give a buffer for delayed or cancelled flights. Two, is because I just plain am more relaxed on the day of embarkation. They day of travel is hectic because you are generally up very early in the morning and by the time you travel, transfer to the pier, check in and get settled, you are exhausted.

 

But, I have traveled to at least 3 or 4 cruises on the day of and have never missed the ship.

 

If you have purchased your air through the cruiseline there is a contract between the cruiseline and the air carrier, so they carrier is more apt to try to get you to the port in case of delay because you are a cruise passenger. Booking the air separately, although in some cases cheaper, does not afford that same assurance. Doesn't mean you will make the ship, but certainly more can be done to help you and many time the cruiseline will hold the ship because they have manifests and they know exactly how many people have still not arrived yet and make those decisions sometimes based on the numbers of people delayed.

 

Try not to worry and just be sure to get to the airport early and know what your options are (on other carriers) just in case there is a problem so you can act quickly to have the carrier reaccommodate you on something else.

 

Have a great time!

[megessey]

I think the original poster has gone on the trip months ago :p I would have liked to hear how it went.... if you're out there Shari? How'd it go?