Future of my cruising for rest of year

[njkate]

So after a fiasco trying to fly home from Costa Rica my thoughts on future cruising this was a land based vacation but made me think about cruising where you must fly:
I have an Alaskan cruise booked for July on The Bliss after that I'm going to stick to cruises out of Miami or Orlando where I can drive from to the port until airlines get their acts together
All though my flight was cancelled due to an engine failure on runway many canceled flights are due to NO CREW. The airlines continue to sell routes not knowing if they have the crew.
It's not the fault of the cruise line when flights are delayed or cancelled, imagine the air dept dealing with 100's of these at one time.
If you are able to,fly in to your cruise port one to two days prior.
Have patience.
If you booked your own flights and it gets cancelled at gate, don't stand in line with 100 other people, get on the phone to your carrier, that's what my daughter did and AA booked us next day on Delta. Many let AA reschedule them for next day and the words of gate agent was “we are going to try and get you out tomorrow “and that AA flight was cancelled.
Have a credit card with enough open credit to pay for extra nights hotels, transportation and meals.
If you are outside the US and your flight is cancelled and they can't get you out until next day or thereafter you need another Covid test, it has to be one day before you fly back to US.
It's not NCL or any other cruise line it's the airlines, they are a mess right now and it probably won't ease until after summer

Edited May 30, 2022 by njkate

[tallnthensome]

You should post this in the Cruise Air forum instead as, like you said, has nothing to do with NCL. 

[njkate]

5 minutes ago, tallnthensome said:

You should post this in the Cruise Air forum instead as, like you said, has nothing to do with NCL. 

Imo it does considering the amounts of complaint posts on air provided by NCL

Just giving my perspective it’s not NCL it’s the airlines 

[wil e coyote]

While there does seem to be a lot of chatter on the NCL board about flight delays, it's worth looking at the data. According to the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics, domestic carriers are at 76% on-time flights year-to-date. This is the lowest in several years, but 2014 and 2015 were worse. 2019 was only a little better at 78%. The best-ever in a non-pandemic year was 82%.  https://www.transtats.bts.gov/HomeDrillChart.asp

Of course, if you're on that late flight, then it doesn't matter how many are on time. The advice given in lots of places to travel early to make your sailing is sound.

My point is, this isn't an NCL problem. The whole airline industry seems to hover at around 80% on-time, depending on the year and the conditions.

[dexddd]

Good info for folks and it has been going on for long time.  Our September trip we were coming in day early to Miami and had early morning flight.  Like OP, AA engine failure.  Best AA could do was next day at 1:30.  Too close.  Would not book us on Delta flight one gate over that had room.  Had to be with AA.  Would not cover Delta fare we paid.  To add insult, AA refund after requested never arrived after months.  Had to contact them with documents that we had refund coming.

[njkate]

32 minutes ago, dexddd said:

Good info for folks and it has been going on for long time.  Our September trip we were coming in day early to Miami and had early morning flight.  Like OP, AA engine failure.  Best AA could do was next day at 1:30.  Too close.  Would not book us on Delta flight one gate over that had room.  Had to be with AA.  Would not cover Delta fare we paid.  To add insult, AA refund after requested never arrived after months.  Had to contact them with documents that we had refund coming.

And I thought I would be proactive and book my own flights for my Alaska cruise on Bliss paying a fortune but having control lol Alaska Air who may be facing a pilots strike, can't win with the air carriers anymore

[phillygwm]

1 hour ago, njkate said:

So after a fiasco trying to fly home from Costa Rica my thoughts on future cruising this was a land based vacation but made me think about cruising where you must fly:

I've flown both domestically and internationally this year.  While one of my domestic flights was delayed for weather, that could happen at any time. For cruises, I always fly in the day before just in case.  But another thing to consider is the cost of airfare: it's through the roof now, so much that it's a significant line in my cruise budget.

 

Flying internationally was exponentially more stressful, especially on the return to the US, where there's a COVID test involved.  I'll think twice before traveling internationally for the foreseeable future.

 

All that said, my next cruise is purposely out of NYC, which is an easy Amtrak ride.  

 

[megr1125]

1 hour ago, phillygwm said:

I've flown both domestically and internationally this year.  While one of my domestic flights was delayed for weather, that could happen at any time. For cruises, I always fly in the day before just in case.  But another thing to consider is the cost of airfare: it's through the roof now, so much that it's a significant line in my cruise budget.

 

Flying internationally was exponentially more stressful, especially on the return to the US, where there's a COVID test involved.  I'll think twice before traveling internationally for the foreseeable future.

 

All that said, my next cruise is purposely out of NYC, which is an easy Amtrak ride.  

 

 

Same for me re: Amtrak or NJ Transit to NYC. That said, one tree limb on the catenary or one trespasser and you're SOL.  Hence, even though I'm an hour from the port, I'm going a day ahead when I sail from NYC or Cape Liberty.  

[FlyerTalker]

3 hours ago, njkate said:

Imo it does considering the amounts of complaint posts on air provided by NCL

Just giving my perspective it’s not NCL it’s the airlines 

 

3 hours ago, wil e coyote said:

My point is, this isn't an NCL problem.

 

3 hours ago, dexddd said:

Best AA could do was next day at 1:30.  Too close.  Would not book us on Delta flight one gate over that had room.  Had to be with AA.  Would not cover Delta fare we paid.

 

 

No one here has specified if they bought their ticket through the cruiseline.  Because if they had, THAT could be a source of the rebooking problems.

 

Cruiseline air can have significant restrictions on the tickets issued - they are not the same as the tickets bought directly from the airline.  Many are only good on the original carrier, or cannot be rebooked onto a different routing.  They can also only be valid for specific flights at specific times.  So please remember that buying a ticket from the cruiseline can come with significant pitfalls during irregular operations (irops).