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

[soggychicken]

Thanks for your input everyone.  I hope my experience won't be like the worst case scenarios that some of you posted.  In the future I will try my best to fly out early, but one of us has to work the evening before so that's not a possibility this time.  

 

I guess there isn't much more to do now than to stick with my original plans and hope that the weather cooperates.  Anyone knows the dance to keep the snow and ice away?  🙂 

 

 

[2+2]

3 hours ago, soggychicken said:

Thanks for your input everyone.  I hope my experience won't be like the worst case scenarios that some of you posted.  In the future I will try my best to fly out early, but one of us has to work the evening before so that's not a possibility this time.  

 

I guess there isn't much more to do now than to stick with my original plans and hope that the weather cooperates.  Anyone knows the dance to keep the snow and ice away?  🙂 

 

 

Many will be doing the same as you. Be an optimist. I was worried about Uber in Miami, but i had good luck and they were easy to find.   

   The dance is just like the chicken dance, only soggy.

[Hlitner]

10 hours ago, drakes2 said:

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.

Nobody wants to see your Passport in some kind of holder.  The purpose of any holder is for your own convenience and many have neck or waist straps so you can carry your Passport securely under your clothes.   The issue for those of us who do a lot of International travel is how to keep our Passports very safe (losing or having one stolen is a major travel crisis with very expensive ramifications).  Personally, with over fifty years of extensive international travel experience, I prefer not to carry my Passport unless it is absolutely necessary.  When I must carry the document (such as when in transit) it will usually be under my shirt in a secure holder with a strap around my neck.  Otherwise it is locked securely in a safe...be it in my cabin or a hotel.

 

Hank

[waterbug123]

On 2/19/2019 at 10:26 PM, soggychicken said:

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? 

 

Read the "guarantee" carefully.  Nothing is absolutely guaranteed.  What they say is they will "work with" the airlines, do whatever is "reasonable" etc.  I believe most of this refers to if you booked air through Celebrity, but there might be some help from them even if you just book the transfer.  Either way though, while they might hold the ship for a bit, they are not going to hold a ship all night if your flight is delayed or canceled and you can't get another flight quickly.  They might help you to get to the next port, but even that could be 2+ days later if there are sea days at the beginning of your cruise, or even later if flying you to the first port is a violation of the PVSA.  You would also need to make sure you have passport if it means an international flight.

 

22 hours ago, cangelmd said:

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.

 

It is called a "weather waiver."   Airlines will issue weather waivers when they anticipate severe weather impacting a lot of flights to/from a particular airport or region of the country.   When a waiver is issued, you can go to the airline's website and see a list of exactly what airports are included and what dates the waiver covers.  You generally have a limited period of time in which to reschedule your travel, or you can opt for a refund of your ticket.  If you are covered by the waiver, then the airline will generally do whatever they can to re-book you and get you to your destination, but in these situations re-booking can sometimes be difficult due to the number of flights and passengers affected.  It can easily be the next day or even a day or two after that before you can get an available seat, and /or you may have to be flexible enough to change either your departure or arrival airport, which in turn could mean figuring out new ground transportation logistics. 

 

19 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

 Choice Air.    They contacted the airline and since the ticket was written on AA Paper it could not be transferred to any other airline.  

 

It likely wasn't simply that the ticket was issued by AA.   It most likely had to do with the exact fare class of the ticket they happened to sell you.  Heavily discounted tickets, including some of the consolidator fares or "specially negotiated fares" may have a "non-endorsable" restriction, meaning the ticket cannot be endorsed over to another airline.

[miched]

My wife tends to be on the safe side.  She always wanted to use transfers, air  and etc that came with the cruise line.

 

We booked air and transfers thru the cruise line.   Had a 1 pm flight out of Ft Laudrrdale. We got off the ship at 9.  We told to go to the bus for the transfer.   Sat there on that bus at the port until 11:30 and than had to wait for them to unpack all of our luggage before we could get off.  We got into the air terminal at 12:10.   The line to get thru the scanners was unbelievable.   There was no way that we would make our flight.  A worker came thru the line asking if anyone had a flight before 1:30 and took us out yelling at us all the time that we needed to get there earlier.   I told her to tell that to the cruise line.  The bus going to the terminal besides waiting to get filled up ( it was full at 10 ) didn’t want to get to the airport too early as it was also the same shuttle bringing passengers in for the next cruise.  So they also made those passengers wait in the terminal  until after noon that we also did on the way there even though our flight arrived at 9:00 am 

 

We never took their transportation again because of that and also the taxi fare would have only been around $10 instead of the $40 we paid.

 

Judge for yourself.

 

happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

[mfs2k]

 

I don't mind booking flights through the airline, but I'm going to select flights I feel will give me enough time in case sh*t happens. Also, only direct flights where possible, even if it costs a little more. 

[Canuker]

I find the trouble with airport to ship transfers run by the cruise line is "hurry up and wait".
Unless you are quite fortunate, expect to wait up to 30 minutes or more before you get on their bus. Then wait while they fill it. 
Take a cab and be on board much sooner. It's your vacation. 

[Hlitner]

7 hours ago, miched said:

My wife tends to be on the safe side.  She always wanted to use transfers, air  and etc that came with the cruise line.

 

We booked air and transfers thru the cruise line.   Had a 1 pm flight out of Ft Laudrrdale. We got off the ship at 9.  We told to go to the bus for the transfer.   Sat there on that bus at the port until 11:30 and than had to wait for them to unpack all of our luggage before we could get off.  We got into the air terminal at 12:10.   The line to get thru the scanners was unbelievable.   There was no way that we would make our flight.  A worker came thru the line asking if anyone had a flight before 1:30 and took us out yelling at us all the time that we needed to get there earlier.   I told her to tell that to the cruise line.  The bus going to the terminal besides waiting to get filled up ( it was full at 10 ) didn’t want to get to the airport too early as it was also the same shuttle bringing passengers in for the next cruise.  So they also made those passengers wait in the terminal  until after noon that we also did on the way there even though our flight arrived at 9:00 am 

 

We never took their transportation again because of that and also the taxi fare would have only been around $10 instead of the $40 we paid.

 

Judge for yourself.

 

happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

Not only do you save money by just using a taxi, but you really save lots of time.   But our worst transfer experience happened on a Celebrity cruise out of Buenos Aires, which is the last time we ever used a Celebrity transfer or package.  We arrived at BA's airport around 7am, after a long overnight flight from MIA.  We were immediately met by the transfer folks who informed us that their bus was waiting for another flight that was running very late.  They suggested we spend our time waiting in the airport's small coffee shop.  I just walked over to the taxi desk and asked what it would cost to get a taxi to our hotel and I think it was around $20.  We told the transfer folks we were taking a taxi and off we went.  Got to our hotel, checked-in, and went right up to our room (which was ready).   After a few minutes in our room we went downstairs and out to find a nice restaurant for breakfast.  Enjoyed a great breakfast, took a walk, and finally returned to our hotel around 10.  And that was when our "transfer bus" was just arriving :(.    To make matters worse we had a post cruise package including hotels and transfers.  Somehow, Celebrity managed to lose everyone's luggage during the 8 block transfer from port to hotel.  The hotel's concierge worked hard to located our luggage (and had no help from Celebrity) and nearly 12 hours later all our luggage (for about 40 cruisers) was located at the airport!  The Concierge could not get the transfer company (who had a contract with Celebrity) to transfer the luggage that time of night so our hotel sent out their own truck!  To add insult to this experience, Celebrity refused to refund any money for our unused transfer since their attitude was "you would have been transferred if you had just waited 2+ hours."

 

It is not really about Celebrity or any other cruise line.  They all use contractors to handle shore-side transfers, packages, etc.  Those contractors vary in quality.  But when it comes to transfer buses, they general rule is that they will normally wait until they have a full load.  If that takes 5 minutes then its OK.  But if it takes 2 hours.....Oh Well.

 

Hank

[Jim_Iain]

I haven't taken a Celebrity Shuttle in years - mostly because of the delays mentioned above and also the cost.   If 2 or more are in your party the price of Uber / Lyft generally run 1/2 the price of 2 transfer tickets.  

[mek]

On 2/20/2019 at 6:07 PM, soggychicken said:

Thanks for your input everyone.  I hope my experience won't be like the worst case scenarios that some of you posted.  In the future I will try my best to fly out early, but one of us has to work the evening before so that's not a possibility this time.  

 

I guess there isn't much more to do now than to stick with my original plans and hope that the weather cooperates.  Anyone knows the dance to keep the snow and ice away?  🙂 

 

 

In the future try taking a Sunday departure so you can fly in on Saturday.

[varoo]

On 2/19/2019 at 9:26 PM, 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?  

 

 

 

Having Celebrity's transfers may or may not help you.  The advantage is that as long as your flight is scheduled to arrive before their cut off time, they are more likely to hold the shuttle bus to wait for you if your incoming flight is late.  

They have a list of names of the people they are supposed to pick up and they do keep track of flight arrivals for the passengers they are meeting and transporting to the pier.

 

(However, if your incoming flight gets cancelled or re-routed, that is a different scenario.)

 

Whether or not you like this policy depends on your point of view.  It can be quite annoying if your plane landed early and you are kept sitting on the bus waiting for the late arrivals.  However, you really appreciate it if you yourself are the late arrival.

 

But if you absolutely must fly in the day of the cruise, at least have backup plans and know what your options are for catching up with the ship at the next allowable port if necessary,  for your own peace of mind.

 

They are more likely to hold the ship for a large number of late arriving passengers than they are for individuals (unless perhaps your initials are LLP ).

 

Edited February 22, 2019 by varoo