Fly in day of, or day before?

[fendersrule]

Super generic question. I've cruised before. The first cruise was a 7-8 hour flight, plus a 1 hour drive to port. The answer is easy - you should absolutely get a hotel.

 

Curious about my second cruise. My second cruise in April as a 1.5 hour flight time including time zone differences. I can get into LAX at 9:02am. Cruise won't leave until 4-5PM. Am I correct that in this case that flying in the night before is unnecessary?

[sanger727]

Flying in the day before is never unnecessary IMO. Not to say that you can’t fly in the day of in your circumstances and almost always make it just fine. But going the day before gives you that wiggle room for a major delay - weather that grounds all flights, a computer bug in the airlines servers that cause many flights to be cancelled, you missing that flight due to a highway shut down for a major acc, etc. it’s personal comfort, you will almost certainly make it if you are landing at 9 am. But I prefer to eliminate that stress and rush on the day of by flying in the day before no matter what.

[Tapi]

As an airline pilot, and knowing everything that can possibly go wrong, I would never recommend flying in on the day of the cruise. Don’t let a short flight or frequency give you a false sense of security. If you flight is canceled, do you have enough time to drive to the port? 

[ShipsandDipper]

I've done this a couple of times with no problem.  But I weighed the risks and did it only because it was a short cruise and I wouldn't have been devastated to miss it if something went wrong and I didn't get to the port on time.

[navybankerteacher]

49 minutes ago, fendersrule said:

Super generic question. I've cruised before. The first cruise was a 7-8 hour flight, plus a 1 hour drive to port. The answer is easy - you should absolutely get a hotel.

 

Curious about my second cruise. My second cruise in April as a 1.5 hour flight time including time zone differences. I can get into LAX at 9:02am. Cruise won't leave until 4-5PM. Am I correct that in this case that flying in the night before is unnecessary?

A 1.5 hour flight getting in at 9:02 must have taken off at 7:32 - call it 8:02 with the time change - which means you must have boarded by 7:32 - which means you must have arrived at the airport by 6:45 at the latest to allow for check-in, TSA, etc. which means you probabably must have left your house by about 6:00 at the latest (unless you live under the approach), which probably means you got up by 5:00 at the latest - all of which means you will probably be too tired to really enjoy your first evening on board.

 

Of course - you most probably will make the cruise — but why would you want to ruin your first evening on board?

[sprint180]

I would go in the morning, wouldn’t bother me. 

[bonsai3s]

When we were younger, we took a lot of risk. We didn't have much vacation time. Yes, we flew in the day of the cruise...all the time...heck, even ted-eye flights from LAX to FLL. 

We were lucky...never had a problem.

Now much older, we always fly a day or more before our cruises. If you decide to fly in the morning, just make sure you have a plan B. Happy sailing.

[Slugsta]

3 hours ago, bonsai3s said:

If you decide to fly in the morning, just make sure you have a plan B. Happy sailing.

 

This. Are you near enough to drive to the port if necessary? Could you embark at the next port without running foul of the PSV act (sorry, am not American so can't remember exact name of the act)? If there is no possible plan B, or nothing that would suit you, then I would say don't take the chance.

[zauberflote]

I'm neither a frequent nor an international flyer, but living on the east coast guarantees weather disruptions All The Time. And on the second (of two) cruise I took, our homeward flight out of Seattle was delayed about 8 hours. That could so easily have been the flight going TO Seattle....


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[Joebucks]

I always, always fly in the night before. Spending at least 1 night at the port is part of the vacation! Enjoy a night out on the town and relax. The next morning, things are way more relaxed than traveling in. Plus, you greatly reduce the chance of missing your cruise. The chance of you missing your cruise is honestly low, but if I can lower it and enjoy a longer vacation, I'm picking that option!

[Cruiser_1977]

As someone else mentioned, only you can determine cost v. benefit v. risk. I have and will fly in the day of for short, inexpensive East Coast or Gulf Departures. For longer, more expensive and West Coast, etc. I'll go the day before. 

[George C]

We fly day before even when flying to Houston for Galveston cruise , flight is about a hour and could drive it in about 5 hours.

[LoriPhil]

Regardless of flight time it’s the day (or two) before, always.  We want the cruise vacation to be enjoyable and as stress-free as possible, and recognize that there are many variables out of our control that could delay a flight or cause our luggage to go astray.  Day(s) prior to boarding let’s us unwind, enjoy the departure city a bit and purchase those little things for the cruise that we don’t elect to bring from home.

 

 

[pacruise804]

16 hours ago, fendersrule said:

Super generic question. I've cruised before. The first cruise was a 7-8 hour flight, plus a 1 hour drive to port. The answer is easy - you should absolutely get a hotel.

 

Curious about my second cruise. My second cruise in April as a 1.5 hour flight time including time zone differences. I can get into LAX at 9:02am. Cruise won't leave until 4-5PM. Am I correct that in this case that flying in the night before is unnecessary?

 

Every situation is different, but generally I agree flying a day before is better.  That said we will fly day of for our cruise this November because the line is paying air fare and transfers if we do it on their schedule.  We are fine paying $100 extra for a little more choice, but not $500 or more extra to book hotel, transfers, and others fees - on top of already having travel insurance.

 

While I get the wisdom of flying in early, it sounds like if there is a delay it often takes more than 1 day to get a replacement flight.  Has anyone had a delay or cancelation when booking the day before (or day of) that kept them from their cruise?

[fendersrule]

I made the decision to fly the day of. Actually, a bunch of us made that decision last night.

 

Boise in April has very good weather, much like everywhere on the west coast. I can't see weather making any impact.

 

Usually when stuff is delayed, it's only delayed for a short period of time. Being that we've booked a flight that arrives at 9:02AM, we have lots of buffer room if we allow 2 hours to get to Long Beach port. So that serves as a semi-decent backup plan. Funny we talk about this, as my girlfriend's flight that she's on RIGHT NOW just got delayed.....for 30 minutes. That would be nothing based on the amount of buffer time we have for cruise day.

 

It's a calculated risk that has an extremely high probability to succeed. The whole point of this cruise was to "go for cheap". So that's what we're doing.

 

I managed to get 2 other groups, all first time cruisers, to go as well. Two of them are flying from Seattle, and Two of them are flying from PDX.

Edited February 7, 2020 by fendersrule

[obnurse]

We ALWAYS fly in at least one day early, and recommend to anyone else to do the same. DooDoo happens. It really does. It's not worth your resort sailing away without you. 

[sanger727]

1 hour ago, fendersrule said:

I made the decision to fly the day of. Actually, a bunch of us made that decision last night.

 

Boise in April has very good weather, much like everywhere on the west coast. I can't see weather making any impact.

 

Usually when stuff is delayed, it's only delayed for a short period of time. Being that we've booked a flight that arrives at 9:02AM, we have lots of buffer room if we allow 2 hours to get to Long Beach port. So that serves as a semi-decent backup plan. Funny we talk about this, as my girlfriend's flight that she's on RIGHT NOW just got delayed.....for 30 minutes. That would be nothing based on the amount of buffer time we have for cruise day.

 

It's a calculated risk that has an extremely high probability to succeed. The whole point of this cruise was to "go for cheap". So that's what we're doing.

 

I managed to get 2 other groups, all first time cruisers, to go as well. Two of them are flying from Seattle, and Two of them are flying from PDX.

 

That's true and it is likely to be fine. On my last trip we had a major delay. No weather issues. Just the airline having mechanical issues. Now, we did have a connection and I would never fly in the same day with a connection. But the first flight was delayed 5 hours and they couldn't have gotten us to our destination until the next day after that. (we ended up moving our flights to a different airlines). But lengthy delays for no apparent reason can and do occassionally pop up out of the blue. But yes, statistically there is a an excellent chance you'll make the ship just fine.

[davekathy]

For us, we always fly in the day before. Multiple reasons why. 

[BSR]

We fly in the day before.

[honumaui]

Years ago, our first several Caribbean cruises we flew from the west coast to Florida. We had our air booked by the cruise lines ( RCCL and HAL when they were around 1000-1500 passengers. ) They flew us to Florida the day before and INCLUDED a hotel room and transfers..  AH..the good old days ! 

Now we pay extra for a hotel room the day before even if it is a short flight. I consider it part of the vacation cost.  But if you are confident to go the same day good luck. Odds are all will be fine. But I know if we tried it something would go wrong or I would be miserable worrying until we got aboard.  We have experienced cancelled flights and it was not fun.

Edited February 8, 2020 by honumaui
grammar errors

[Ava79]

I think it's better to fly the day before. You never know what can happen, and extra time you'll have before departure can sometimes save your cruise. Have a good trip!

[ldubs]

We have done many many same day flights.  But I agree there is no guarantee.  While I don't consider the risk high and I don't obsess about what can go wrong, unless your propensity for risk is the same as mine I don't recommend it.  

 

I'm not sure of your location, but if you are traveling from distances like SF or Sacto, driving is a backup plan.  Not a great plan B but doable.    

[Jeter02]

On 2/6/2020 at 8:18 PM, fendersrule said:

Super generic question. I've cruised before. The first cruise was a 7-8 hour flight, plus a 1 hour drive to port. The answer is easy - you should absolutely get a hotel.

 

Curious about my second cruise. My second cruise in April as a 1.5 hour flight time including time zone differences. I can get into LAX at 9:02am. Cruise won't leave until 4-5PM. Am I correct that in this case that flying in the night before is unnecessary?

my theory is if you can find a flight that will land exceptionally early in the morning I see no problem flying day of. I've done it in Seattle la and now I'm looking at doing the same for when I go to Barcelona. My flights always come in no later than 10 ish I think I might have had one that arrived at 11 in the morning. anything to help cut costs of having to spend money on a hotel is the way I try to go

[isosika]

We used to fly the day of the cruise and thought nothing of it, then one day we walked into the airport and upon check in were notified that our flight had been cancelled.

 

The airport staff worked hard at finding flights for us and we actually made it to the ship before sailing.  However, literally, if we had been 5-10 minutes later we would not have.

 

Ever since then we fly in at least the day before.

[TNcruising02]

I would never fly in the same day of a cruise that I really wanted to take.  That's too big of a risk.  I've experienced flight cancellations and delays too many times.  The last time I flew out of LAX, which was last December, some guy decided he wanted off of the plane after the door was shut.  This caused a huge delay and we missed our layover flight.  What a pain.  

Another time the weather caused a flight delay and we missed our layover flight.  We were able to rebook the last Southwest flight out and make it to the port city.  This all happened the day before our cruise.  We would have missed our cruise had we flown the same day.

Another time my son's direct, first flight of the morning, flight was cancelled.  Thankfully, we found out the night before.  No other flights could get him there in time to make his connection out of the country, so my husband spent the night driving him to that airport.  Another time we spent the night in Dallas.  Another time we sat on the tarmac for an hour as we missed out next flight.  The list goes on and on.  Anyway, it's like travel insurance.  By not doing it, you take a risk.

Edited February 9, 2020 by TNcruising02