Miami: Same day flight, worth biting the bullet for port transfer?

[soggychicken]

We are flying into Miami the morning of March 9 for our cruise.  The flight is landing at 10:50am and the check-in cutoff time at the port is 2:30pm.  Unfortunately we're not able to get time off and fly in the day before.

 

I was planning to take a cab or an uber, but now I am worried that we are cutting it a bit too close with the timing.  If we get hit by the kind of snow we had over the last few weeks, I am pretty sure our flight will be delayed.

 

Given our situation, is it worth paying the premium to use Celebrity's transfer?  Is it true that they will guarantee we get onto the ship?  

 

 

[NCHPcruiser]

I think the guarantee comes into play when you book airfare through Celebrity not just a transfer (but I could be wrong).    I actually think you would get to the ship faster using a taxi, Uber or Lyft.   Hopefully you won't be delayed much (or at all) and you'll be at the port well before noon!  

[4774Papa]

Taxi fares to the Miami airport have a set fee that is very reasonable.  

[Tommy3putts]

For early March, depending on where you are coming from, you should be okay.  Taxis are usually plentiful at Miami and agree would be a far faster mode of transportation.  Your issue will be the timing of the arrival of your flight.  If your plane suffers a lengthy delay or worse yet, cancelled, you could miss the cruise.  I hope you have trip insurance.

 

Have a great cruise.  

[mfs2k]

Next month I’m taking a 930 pm flight the night before arriving at 1230am,  and staying in an airport hotel so I can avoid the stress of flying in same day. Taxi to port will be quickest for you. 

[hcat]

The stress is whether or not the flight will be delayed!

Flying night before would be better...March weather can be iffy!

[vickykay]

That’s cutting it close especially if you have to wait for luggage and if your plane is delayed at all arriving at the airport your leaving from.  Going late the night before is a good suggestion.

[floridatravelersforlife]

Mar 9 is a Saturday so traffic should not be a factor. It's a 15 min ride under best conditions.

[Sonoma fans]

We are on the same cruise and arrive Miami at 0944. With your flight you have plenty of time for the 20 minute ride to the port, no worries. Taxi or Uber no problem. I would not bother with the transfer. 

[cangelmd]

10 hours ago, soggychicken said:

We are flying into Miami the morning of March 9 for our cruise.  The flight is landing at 10:50am and the check-in cutoff time at the port is 2:30pm.  Unfortunately we're not able to get time off and fly in the day before.

 

I was planning to take a cab or an uber, but now I am worried that we are cutting it a bit too close with the timing.  If we get hit by the kind of snow we had over the last few weeks, I am pretty sure our flight will be delayed.

 

Given our situation, is it worth paying the premium to use Celebrity's transfer?  Is it true that they will guarantee we get onto the ship?  

 

 

Cab or Uber will be fine, I would consider trying to minimize luggage - can you manage with a carry-on? I can't so I feel your pain. Your real worry is the flight, that's stress enough, don't stress over the ride from airport to the ship.

 

I read on here about someone who monitored weather closely and got their flight changed in the last few days before to miss the bad weather - don't remember which airline, but the airline did it wiht no charge, because it was to the point they knew many flights would be cancelled. Maybe a red-eye the night before, then get a day pass at a hotel for a nap?

 

We don't have snow where we live, but have other issues that lead to many cancelled and delayed flights. We have to make elaborate plans to avoid missing the ship OR the international flight for that matter - one day it will catch up with us and we will miss our ship - we've already missed an international flight once and had to spend an unscheduled night in Rome, which was great in some ways, not so much in others.

[PelicanLvr]

My understanding (always subject to correction) is that even with X airfare, they guarantee that in the event of a flight delay, they will get you to the ship at no extra cost, even if the ship leaves for the first port.

 

 I don't believe there is any guarantee ever that the ship will wait for you (like an X shore excursion).  That would be so far beyond their control.  

[schiff1997]

On our cruise in January we flew into Ft Lauderdale the day before our Miami cruise, there was another couple who got on our shuttle who were cruising on Celebrity that day they said the flight was delayed at origin, we didn't leave the Ft Lauderdale airport till around 230 PM . When we arrived at the port to drop them off, Celebrity staff came over and advised them they were closed!    They exited the shuttle anyway not sure if they got on or not and they were panicking.  I would never fly the day of the cruise hell I am suppose to be on vacation so no stress!

[charlielinda]

If there is anyway to fly in the night before I would do it.  I would never chance flying in the day of even when weather is good.  There are too many things that can go wrong.  Last winter we met a group of ten people who flew in the day of their cruise and missed the ship because of flight delays.  It’s worth a late night flight and hotel room.   

[2+2]

Flew home from Miami a few days ago. Flight on American Airlines was delayed to our connection in Dallas 40 minutes late. Then our connection home was delayed 45 minutes.  They acted like it was normal.The pilot announced that he had no idea why the delay because the weather was so nice. It even made passengers panicky trying  to get off the plane while at the gate. There is no way to get around people. You have to wait if you are in coach. On a good note,  Uber was great in Miami. The airplane ride used to be a fun part of the trip. Now it is the worst part.

[ghstudio]

If your flight is delayed due to weather, rest assured that you are not alone and Celebrity will wait for as many flights as possible.  Once off your flight, you will get to the pier faster using a local taxi than if you book with Celebrity.  Whether or not YOU book the transfer with Celebrity, some/many of those on those other delayed flights will have booked the transfer, so again, celebrity will wait.

 

The problem you have is when the flight is delayed due to mechanical or non weather related issues...which is why so many of us always fly in the day before.  You don't have that luxury of time...so just keep your current reservations (assuming they are the earliest flight you can take) and take a taxi in Miami.  

[tfred]

i would never take a flight the day of the cruise.  I fly about 75k miles a year for business and there are always problems  - even with the mainline airlines.  WX and MX and miss connect issues happen

[pa-annie]

Did this once and had more time than you do (7 hr's from landing to boarding cut-off).  We were direct out of BUF, it was mid November so no real snow issues anticipated out of NY.  There was a "mechanical" issue with our Southwest flight (go figure), so had to take a much later connecting flight thru BWI with just 20 min to make the connection.  If we made the flight, would our luggage?  This is just the beginning of what all went wrong, so I'll cut to the chase ...

 

We were in constant contact with Azamara, our TA, and fortunately we had friends and family onboard who were begging them not to leave without us, "we were on the way, almost there, give them just a few more minutes". We got to the cruise terminal just before the "drop-dead" time to board was.  An agent met us at the only gate that was still left open and escorted us through the check-in process and on to the ship.  She told us we were the last peeps to get on the ship, and if we were 10 min. later and the gates were closed we would have not been allowed onboard.  .

 

It was one of the most stressful days for us ever, divorce was bantered around because I chose to fly out the same day our ship is due to depart. Needless to say we will never ever try this again. On the upside we drank our moneys worth of our drink package the first night.

 

Good luck ... Bill Z.

Edited February 20, 2019 by pa-annie
typo

[mfs2k]

4 minutes ago, pa-annie said:

Did this once and had more time than you do (7 hr's from landing to boarding cut-off).  We were direct out of BUF, it was mid November so no real snow issues anticipated out of NY.  There was a "mechanical" issue with our Southwest flight (go figure), so had to take a much later connecting flight thru BWI with just 20 min to make the connection.  If we made the flight, would our luggage?  This is just the beginning of what all went wrong, so I'll cut to the chase ...

 

We were in constant contact with Azamara, our TA, and fortunately we had friends and family onboard who were begging them not to leave without us, "we were on the way, almost there, give them just a few more minutes". We got to the cruise terminal just before the "drop-dead" time to board was.  An agent met us at the only gate that was still left open and escorted us through the check-in process and on to the ship.  She told us if we were the last peeps to get on the ship, and if we were 10 min. later and the gates were closed we would have not been allowed onboard.  .

 

It was one of the most stressful days for us ever, divorce was bantered around because I chose to fly out the same day our ship is due to depart. Needless to say we will never ever try this again. On the upside we drank our moneys worth of our drink package the first night.

 

Good luck ... Bill Z.

 

Your story stresses ME out, and I wasn't even there.  Glad you made your cruise.  Makes me think of the time we were flying to Europe for vacation.  I packed my passport inside a leather passport holder and didn't bother to confirm my passport was actually inside the holder.  We got to the airport and it wasn't there.  Had to go home, get my passport, missed our flights, and missed part of our vacation.  My wife was understanding and is quite confident this will NEVER happen again.  It won't.  

[2+2]

13 hours ago, soggychicken said:

We are flying into Miami the morning of March 9 for our cruise.  The flight is landing at 10:50am and the check-in cutoff time at the port is 2:30pm.  Unfortunately we're not able to get time off and fly in the day before.

 

I was planning to take a cab or an uber, but now I am worried that we are cutting it a bit too close with the timing.  If we get hit by the kind of snow we had over the last few weeks, I am pretty sure our flight will be delayed.

 

Given our situation, is it worth paying the premium to use Celebrity's transfer?  Is it true that they will guarantee we get onto the ship?  

 

 

My opinion is. If you book the flight time, it is on you. If Celebrity books the flight time, it is on them and may try to make it right so to speak. I know when I just used Celebrity to book my flights, they had timetables they used to choose flight times.

      Now here is what I think if your flight is on time at 10:50. You should have your luggage and be outside for Uber pickup by 11:50. Everthing goes well and you are at the port at 12:30.  If you take the ship transfer i would add another 45 minutes, but they know your coming. Now saying that, once you made on to the last transfer bus, they would wait. Your decision is based on weather you think you  make it to the bus on time. If you chose the flight time, the bus won't wait. Just sayin. 

[Jim_Iain]

I should point out that the Celebrity "Guarantee" is now worth the paper it is worth on.   The only thing they guarantee is to get you to the ship.   They don't guarantee what port.     I had a problem missing a flight and called Choice Air.    They contacted the airline and since the ticket was written on AA Paper it could not be transferred to any other airline.   The next available AA flight in any class could not get me to Rome until a day after the cruise left.     They told me they could book me on another carrier but I would have to pay for it and file it against my insurance.   Yea they Guarantee to get you to the ship but at your cost. 

 

I ended up Grabbing a MileagePlus ticket.  

 

I would definitely just grab a Taxi or Uber/Lyft. 

[chemmo]

Having had our flights cancelled at 9pm when we were flying out at 9am next day owing to bad weather on the full East Coast of the USA last March we would consider every option other than fly from anywhere the day of flight. AA were fantastic, they knew were were going on a cruise and tried every possible route for us....their options were just so limited owing to the weather.

 

We were flying across the pond with a two day margin. The pond wasn’t the issue it was the US  internal flights that were the problem.

 

We were lucky we arrived in Miami (not our original airport destination) stressed but with a day before our cruise...our luggage arrived much later. We had bought clothes, cosmetics etc before we got a phone call that our luggage was at Fort Lauderdale airport. To ensure we got it before the ship left we had to collect ourselves and later claim back. Less lucky guests were only  boarding and/or receiving luggage at the second port of the cruise.

 

Your call...

 

Can’t you book an extra day off? Honestly you are possibly going to board so stressed you may need the full cruise to recover...

[drakes2]

35 minutes ago, mfs2k said:

 

Your story stresses ME out, and I wasn't even there.  Glad you made your cruise.  Makes me think of the time we were flying to Europe for vacation.  I packed my passport inside a leather passport holder and didn't bother to confirm my passport was actually inside the holder.  We got to the airport and it wasn't there.  Had to go home, get my passport, missed our flights, and missed part of our vacation.  My wife was understanding and is quite confident this will NEVER happen again.  It won't.  

I made the mistake of buying a passport holder. So useless. When I got to ticket counter they made me take it out to present passport. They won't do it. Prior to boarding I counted four times I had to remove the passport. What a pain. This was many years ago and the passport holder has been in a drawer ever since.

[mek]

If you don't have any delays you will be fine - take a cab.  If you have any kind of delay then you might miss the ship.  Getting a Celebrity transfer is not a guarantee that they will get you to the ship on time.

 

Personally, I would look to see if there is a very late flight you could take the day before that wouldn't require you to miss work.

 

From which city are you flying?

Edited February 20, 2019 by mek

[yorky]

As others have said if you have anyway of flying the night before do so. We cruised Cunard out of New York on our honeymoon. A LOT of people missed that cruise because they flew in the same day and had delays, that was in April and if I remember rightly weather related, they actually had to clear the snow off our plane before we took off.  We actually also flew in the same day from a different airport and were lucky. We learned a huge lesson, never fly the same day, you just never know.

[mfs2k]

53 minutes ago, yorky said:

As others have said if you have anyway of flying the night before do so. We cruised Cunard out of New York on our honeymoon. A LOT of people missed that cruise because they flew in the same day and had delays, that was in April and if I remember rightly weather related, they actually had to clear the snow off our plane before we took off.  We actually also flew in the same day from a different airport and were lucky. We learned a huge lesson, never fly the same day, you just never know.

 

Fortunately I've never had bad enough delays to miss a cruise, but I've had the stress and fear of delays and it's just not a good way to start a vacation. I'm the type to worry a lot  If you're delayed getting to a land based vacation, it's usually not a big deal.  If you miss your ship, it's a big deal.  I fly in the day before.  One less thing for me to worry about