Equinox Departs Miami at 3:30, how late can someone embark?

[The Fun Researcher]

We always fly down the night before our cruise just to be safe, but due to schedules, friends of ours that are going with need to fly down the day of the cruise.

 

If the Equinox is set to depart Miami at 3:30pm, what is the latest that they can arrive at the cruise terminal?

 

Thanks,

Dan

[debshomespun]

They must check in before 90 minutes of sailing. That would make it by 2:00PM!

[The Fun Researcher]

Very good. Thank you for the quick reply!

 

Dan

[Gonzo70]

I think you have to actually have COMPLETED the check in process 90 minutes prior to schedule sail-away time. As such one would have to arrive at the port a bit earlier than 90 minutes to complete the process. I wouldn't cut it any closer than 1:30.

[dgparent]

We always fly down the night before our cruise just to be safe, but due to schedules, friends of ours that are going with need to fly down the day of the cruise.

 

If the Equinox is set to depart Miami at 3:30pm, what is the latest that they can arrive at the cruise terminal?

 

Thanks,

Dan

 

 

Are your friends coming from MI too ? Is this a cruise in Feb/Mar ? If so I would do everything possible to fly down the day before. 90% of the time everything works out OK - but there is always that possibility that there are delays with aircraft, especially if the flight is coming from somewhere else 1st.

For example say they book a 9 AM out of Detroit but the plane is coming from ORD, any weather at all in Chicago will delay and possibly cancel the flight and you do not have elite status with that airline they could be SOL.

[The Fun Researcher]

Are your friends coming from MI too ? Is this a cruise in Feb/Mar ? If so I would do everything possible to fly down the day before. 90% of the time everything works out OK - but there is always that possibility that there are delays with aircraft, especially if the flight is coming from somewhere else 1st.

 

For example say they book a 9 AM out of Detroit but the plane is coming from ORD, any weather at all in Chicago will delay and possibly cancel the flight and you do not have elite status with that airline they could be SOL.

 

 

We are going in August and their flight arrives to Fort Lauderdale at 10 am. We are arriving the night before to Fort Lauderdale. They will have no checked bags and my wife and I will be picking them up with our rental car immediately after their flight lands. I will then drive us all to the Miami cruise terminal and drop them off and return the rental and taxi/uber back to ship.

 

So we basically have a little under 4 hours from the time their flight lands to get from FLL to the Miami cruise terminal, drop them off, return the car and taxi back to the cruise terminal.

 

Dan

 

 

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[dgparent]

We are going in August and their flight arrives to Fort Lauderdale at 10 am. We are arriving the night before to Fort Lauderdale. They will have no checked bags and my wife and I will be picking them up with our rental car immediately after their flight lands. I will then drive us all to the Miami cruise terminal and drop them off and return the rental and taxi/uber back to ship.

 

So we basically have a little under 4 hours from the time their flight lands to get from FLL to the Miami cruise terminal, drop them off, return the car and taxi back to the cruise terminal.

 

Dan

 

 

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August should not be too bad, unless there are thunderstorms, good luck !!

[The Fun Researcher]

Thanks

 

 

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[dgparent]

A couple more suggestions

 

1. Do NOT use a LCC like frontier etc, if the flight is cancelled they do not usually have the routes to get you there on time and frankly do not care

 

2. Have them take the earliest direct flight on a mainstream carrier, American, Delta or UA. That way the plane is already in place in the morning, and a mainstream carrier has way more options to reroute if there is a problem, it might suck to leave at 6 AM but that is the safest bet.

 

I fly about 120 segments a year so I sorta know how these things work.

Edited January 22, 2017 by dgparent

[fielddreamer]

So the bottom line is you would rather worry all the way down there and hope every minute that there are no problems. Is it worth it !

[The Fun Researcher]

So the bottom line is you would rather worry all the way down there and hope every minute that there are no problems. Is it worth it !

 

 

Really??

 

We are flying down the day before, but our friends absolutely cannot. We have cruised with them twice before, and we have always flown down the day before. (For all 5 of our previous cruises) .

 

We may let them find their own transportation from FLL to the Miami cruise terminal. Bottom line is that my wife and I will NOT have any chance of missing our cruise. We're just doing everything we can to help our friends do the same.

 

Thanks for your helpful comments. [emoji849]

 

Dan

 

 

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[The Fun Researcher]

Found our friends a direct flight on American Airlines that arrives into Miami at 8:31am the morning of the cruise . They will book that through the cruise line (Choice Air) as a little extra assurance of getting to the ship on time. I think that is their best bet.

 

 

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[MichaelCMTX]

Found our friends a direct flight on American Airlines that arrives into Miami at 8:31am the morning of the cruise . They will book that through the cruise line (Choice Air) as a little extra assurance of getting to the ship on time. I think that is their best bet.

 

Looks promising. If there's one little bit I can contribute, we've made it a habit to enjoy the local color a little while and not hit the port the second they start boarding people. I mean, you basically eat, walk the ship and wait for your cabin. Two of those you can do plenty of over the next few days, and the third is really nobody's favorite. On several occasions we'd get to the port with hours to spare before boarding closed and the terminal is practically deserted. We'd just breeze right on through.

 

So here's hoping the 8:31am arrival works like a charm, but if the arrival is a little delayed things should still work out. A lot delayed... let's not even go there. We're with you on the "always fly down the day before" plan, but we do the "Drive to Galveston the morning of" plan and usually end up having to kill a couple hours.

[griffy116]

I would worry more about delays when returning the rental car and then getting them to transport you to the port. We had a ridiculous delay when returning our rental. This, in turn, caused us to miss the shuttle leaving and we had to wait on another one.

[oreilln]

We are interested in advice on this topic too, not because we are just arriving on the day of departure but because we would prefer to spend some of the day in our departure port, Singapore. Our cruise is departing 8pm from Singapore on February 19, any advice on how late we can board?

(Bearing in mind that my husband will not want to cut it tight, hes always too early for everything!)

[marieps]

We took the rare risk of flying day of for January 7th's Reflection cruise. It was the day of the ice in Atlanta. Due to a flight attendant not getting to work on time, 2 1/2 of the 3 hours wiggle room we had got eaten up. We were on board around 2:00 for a 3:00 all aboard. Never again!! Hope things work out for the OP's friends.

[The Fun Researcher]

I would worry more about delays when returning the rental car and then getting them to transport you to the port. We had a ridiculous delay when returning our rental. This, in turn, caused us to miss the shuttle leaving and we had to wait on another one.

 

Yeah, been there. I agree. We've mostly sailed out of Ft. Lauderdale and when I return our rental to the Avis location near the port I don't even use the shuttle anymore, but rather grab a cab. The $20 or less is worth the immediate return to the ship.

 

We took the rare risk of flying day of for January 7th's Reflection cruise. It was the day of the ice in Atlanta. Due to a flight attendant not getting to work on time, 2 1/2 of the 3 hours wiggle room we had got eaten up. We were on board around 2:00 for a 3:00 all aboard. Never again!! Hope things work out for the OP's friends.

 

Thanks. With an 8:30 am arrival into MIA, they now have close to 5 1/2 hours of wiggle room.

 

We no longer plan to pick them up on our way from Ft. Lauderdale (where we're staying the night before) to the Miami cruise terminal. They will grab a cab or Uber. I will be heading straight to the ship and the Avis cruise port location, and grabbing a cab from there to the ship.

 

...and glad it worked out for you. That stress must have been a pretty crappy way to start your vacation!

 

Dan

[The Fun Researcher]

Looks promising. If there's one little bit I can contribute, we've made it a habit to enjoy the local color a little while and not hit the port the second they start boarding people. I mean, you basically eat, walk the ship and wait for your cabin. Two of those you can do plenty of over the next few days, and the third is really nobody's favorite. On several occasions we'd get to the port with hours to spare before boarding closed and the terminal is practically deserted. We'd just breeze right on through.

 

So here's hoping the 8:31am arrival works like a charm, but if the arrival is a little delayed things should still work out. A lot delayed... let's not even go there. We're with you on the "always fly down the day before" plan, but we do the "Drive to Galveston the morning of" plan and usually end up having to kill a couple hours.

 

Thank you.

 

Dan