I think my husband is crazy

[Grumpella]

We are booked on the Epic leaving out of San Juan at 7pm in January.

 

We are buying our plane tickets tomorrow.  He wants to fly in that day.  4 hr direct flight, from Hartford, CT, we would land at 3:30 if all goes well.  I think this is crazy.

 

We did fly to San Juan last month for a cruise the day before and spent $500 more between hotel, food, extra cab rides.  We arrived on time, is his point. 

 

We did buy the insurance so we would get back 90% fcc if we miss the boat.

 

Help me.  lol

[ColeThornton]

Flying in the same day from the Northeast in January.  What could possibly go wrong?

 

[jbcallender]

You and my DW should chat.

[CWMixer]

“If all goes well”

Flying out of the northeast in winter?
Reasonable chance it won’t “go well”. 
If saving $500 to minimize the risks of missing the cruise outweighs the risks (aggravation, inconvenience, your time, 10% loss, etc) of trying to fly in the same day and hoping everything “ goes well”, that’s a personal choice. 
While I’m not sure what your overall trip cost is, $500 seems like a reasonable ‘insurance’ cost to me.

 

 

[ChiefMateJRK]

15 minutes ago, Grumpella said:

4 hr direct flight, from Hartford, CT, we would land at 3:30 if all goes well.  I think this is crazy.

Go with that thought.  Trying stunts like that works for everybody but me.  Don't be me!!

 

But seriously, is front loading a vacation with that kind of crazy the right way to plan?

[eileeshb]

Ohh no… I cruised out of San Juan at the end of February and the roll call for that cruise had folks scurrying to get alternate flights as a big storm was coming in the days they were due to fly. There were folks who rented u-haul trucks to drive to their connecting airports as their original origin airport was going to be shutdown. I was travelling trans-Atlantic so I flew in a couple of days early and even then a few flights after my connection in jfk got cancelled. 

at least one batch of folks who had booked their air through NCL missed the ship and couldn’t catch-up to the cruise until our 2nd port due to lack of flight availability to the first port. 
another flight group were lucky they decided to hold ship for them as they were only a couple of hours delayed.

[YVRteacher]

You win for best ever topic title on Cruise Critic!

[Buford T Justiice]

YOU should fly in early and tell your husband ... you hope to see him onboard.

[Grumpella]

Thank you for the replies and the laughs. I will be showing these to my husband.

[www3traveler]

Show your husband YVR's thread about her adventure yesterday about flying from Vancouver, British Columbia to San Diego, Caifornia from a cruise on the Jewel on Saturday.

[PATRLR]

@GrumpellaSo you are looking at that Frontier non-stop?  No way I'd do it.

 

This may be a situation where you (or more accurately, your husband) have to be screwed once to appreciate the importance.  Hopefully that doesn't happen to you.

[FLAHAM]

And yet, you remain married to him.

[mjkacmom]

My niece is here right now scheduled to fly out of Newark airport (10 miles away) to Chicago tomorrow afternoon. What are the chances she’ll get on that flight?

[brookie848]

Your flight isn't canceled. By you are flying out of the NE -- in January. You are going to have to be de-iced. That's going to add time to your flight.

 

Okay, by some miracle you land at 3:30. I'm assuming you have to be on board no later than 5 if the ship leaves at 7 (we're on this same cruise in February, but I haven't checked what time we have to be there yet).

 

It's going to take you 30 minutes to get off the plane, walk through the airport, and get a taxi. If you have to pick up luggage, add another who knows how long. It's about a 15-minute ride from the airport to the port, but that's if all goes well.

 

The earliest you are going to make it to the port is 4:15. Just no. Suck it up and pay for the hotel. If the hotel costs in San Juan are too much, at least consider flying as far as Florida the day before and staying somewhere cheap there -- and then take the first flight out the morning of the cruise. Still not the best situation, but it's better than trying to make it from the northeast.

[Babr]

2 hours ago, Grumpella said:

We are booked on the Epic leaving out of San Juan at 7pm in January.

 

We are buying our plane tickets tomorrow.  He wants to fly in that day.  4 hr direct flight, from Hartford, CT, we would land at 3:30 if all goes well.  I think this is crazy.

 

We did fly to San Juan last month for a cruise the day before and spent $500 more between hotel, food, extra cab rides.  We arrived on time, is his point. 

 

We did buy the insurance so we would get back 90% fcc if we miss the boat.

 

Help me.  lol

 

If you plan to use the CFAR provision, remember that you have to cancel before the ship departs. If the ship leaves without you, it is too late to cancel.

[uneamie]

 I'd fly in the day before myself and tell hubby you will send pics of "sail away" and get him some souvenirs. 

[Cruiseingbug]

So if your cruise was this Saturday, how would he feel about leaving Saturday morning?

[ColeThornton]

Tell hubby to simply turn on the news to see what can happen.  Currently there are over 10,000 flights either delayed or completely cancelled across the country.  In my area right now the current temp is minus 5 with a wind chill of minus 30.

 

Yea, I think I'll skip my morning walk.   🙂

 

[skeeter195]

When we travel, I am in charge of all the getting there and returning from details, no questions asked.  I am a planner and my wife or travelling companions have little say. 

 

With that being said and reading this thread I am now going to write up a contract stating that if I EVER  tried to fly in day of and land in the afternoon that I will be immediately removed from my planning duties.  

 

I know things are not cheap anymore flying in the day before but make the best of it and just think of it as extending the vacation.  

[Keksie]

I think of the day or two before as just part of my vacation.  A time to see something of the area the ship is leaving from.  Rent a car for a day or two and look around.  Do a little research to find interesting sites for instance in Galveston there is the Strand, the beaches the pyramids etc.  Find some interesting/good restaurants.  Yes, it adds to the cost, but it can start the vacation off to a relaxing start.

[European_CruiseGirl]

No no no no no. Please tell your husband that a cruising time of 7PM does not mean you’ll need to be at port around that time. It means you need to be there preferably after noon or latest at 4PM to avoid being late (ok the official latest would be 5PM but nobody should go so late). Any kind of delay and you are in a big trouble. 
 

Men usually tend to believe in hard cold facts. If you give me the flight number I could check from flighradar the last 3 month statistics of that flight. Perhaps that would help too. I am quite positive the flights are almost always delayed nowadays…

 

Perhaps also ”but then we lose on eating lunch on she ship and sipping cocktails/beer/add here DH’s favourite drink during the afternoon and we have kind of already paid for it on the cruise fare” might help 😁

Edited December 23, 2022 by European_CruiseGirl

[cruiseny4life]

I'm with everyone else....but you say you're flying out of BDL. They are the best equipped airport in the region for crappy weather. You have raised your chances of getting to San Juan in time. 

 

Good luck and best wishes! 

[European_CruiseGirl]

4 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

I'm with everyone else....but you say you're flying out of BDL. They are the best equipped airport in the region for crappy weather. You have raised your chances of getting to San Juan in time. 

 

Good luck and best wishes! 

Thanks cruiseny4life: with you mentioning the airport code I was able to locate the flight which seems to be a frontier flight. See below a screenshot. All flights marked with a red dot have been late for over 20mins. There are too many of those in the last weeks already. 
 

On 12/22 the flight arrived at 7:47PM. 

 

On 12/21 the flight arrived at 4:30PM.

 

On 12/18 the flight arrived at 3:52AM the next morning! 

 

On 12/15 the flight arrived at 6:04PM.

 

On 12/12 the flight was completely cancelled.

[ColeThornton]

19 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

I'm with everyone else....but you say you're flying out of BDL. They are the best equipped airport in the region for crappy weather. You have raised your chances of getting to San Juan in time. 

 

Good luck and best wishes! 

 

 

Doesn't necessarily matter how much they are well equipped for crappy weather.  Plane delays like what is happening right now will affect even warm weather airports.  Domino effect for travel.

 

January flight?   Fly out at least a day before.

[graphicguy]

Well…I have a lot of experience with flying in the “day of”.  But, I have my own personal qualifiers.

 

1.  Flight has to get me into the city I’m sailing from at least 4 hours before sailaway

2.  It has to be a direct flight, with at least one later flight as back up that gets me to the pier on time for SAILAWAY

3.  No Frontier, Sprit or any other of these fringe airlines who are notorious for cancellations and/or late departures/arrivals

4.  No crossing West to East time zones

6.  No checked baggage (don’t want to get hung up with baggage handlers who lost my bags)

7.  There must be another different airport within 90 minutes from the embarkation pier

 

OP….your cruise does not qualify!