When scheduling flights for your Celebrity cruises...

[NorthStarStateCruiser]

Feel free add your comments in response to the questions.

 

I feel like there's a huge stigma against flying in the day of the cruise, and I'd like to hear people's thoughts.

[NutsAboutGolf]

For 1 & 2, I think a lot would say “it depends”.  1 depends on distance, 2 do you want do explore out the country at all and again distance; flying from the east coast to Europe isn’t that bad, yet flying to Singapore or even to Australia from anywhere in the US is pretty brutal and it would be wise to book an extra night to get acclimated to the new time zone

[RTShaker]

Since most of my cruising takes place during our winter months, the probability of weather delays dictates at least a day early. Direct flights are risky enough, but ending up with a connection in Denver, Minneapolis or Toronto can easily spell disaster.

[AmberCascades]

We are doing same day for our upcoming cruise because it is a relatively short flight and weather shouldn't be a factor.  We are using Flights by Celebrity.  We used them once before to fly same day from Toronto to Vancouver.  There was a mechanical problem and that plane was sent off somewhere.  We had to wait a while for a new (unfortunately smaller) plane and that flight left a couple of hours later than scheduled.  We made the cruise okay but that was a bit stressful.

 

The day before one of our cruises leaving from Southampton we were on the bus from Heathrow.  The driver told us that traffic was really bad that day (I forget why) so it would take longer than usual.  For us, no problem.  However, the Princess cruisers who had to be at the port in 2 hours were freaking out the whole time.  It was a reminder of why we always fly in at least one day before sailing.

[amevola]

10 hours ago, NorthStarStateCruiser said:

Feel free add your comments in response to the questions.

 

I feel like there's a huge stigma against flying in the day of the cruise, and I'd like to hear people's thoughts.

We live in the northeast and have no problem with same-day flights.  We have, however, realized how much more relaxed we are when we come down the day before.  ☺️

[mahdnc]

Our first cruise was in July 1991.  My wife and I bought an air/cruise package through Carnival and we flew from Philadelphia to Los Angeles on embarkation day.  It did not occur to us that there were any risks to missing the cruise.  On the other hand we were very young and didn't have that much vacation time available to us from work.

 

Our next set of cruises (all with Celebrity) we started to fly in several days early to explore the area and/or to get rid of the jet lag from an international trip.  We also had 2 young kids in tow back then.

 

As the years have gone by (a lot of them), we've become more risk adverse and we are more "educated" about the things that can go wrong.  We also have accrued more vacation time from our employers by then.  And so now we choose to fly in usually a minimum of 2 nights in advance.  For a while, we had a few cruises where we forgot to bring something important such as prescription drugs (needed Imitrex in Chile in 2016), a dive mask with prescription lenses (Ft Lauderdale in 2013), and even a missing gasket on a CPAP machine (Sydney in 2019),   We were thankful that we had several pre-cruise days to fix those problems because not having them would have impacted the enjoyment of the cruise.

 

I had one work friend who shared his story of missing his Horizon cruise because their same day flight was delayed because of a big and infamous security breach at ATL.  He and his girlfriend arrived at the pier just in time to see Horizon on the horizon.  That story always made an impression on me.

 

Of the 16 total cruises that we have taken so far, we only had one problem with flights and it was just a near miss.  We almost missed our LAX-SYD connection because our plane was delayed leaving ORD due to snow and the lack of de-icing trucks (we were supposed to have a 4 hour layover at LAX).  But since we were planning on being in Sydney for 3 nights, it would have only cut into our pre-cruise time if we had actually missed our flight.

 

So now I look back at our first cruise where we flew across the country on embarkation day and I chuckle at how care free I was back then.  It was a cruise that was scheduled to see a total solar eclipse while at Mazatlan and it would have been a shame to miss it.

 

Edited February 11, 2023 by mahdnc

[Silkroad]

We live in the DC metro area & we always have travel insurance. We have usually flown to FLL or MIA at least one day before the cruise. Ditto for driving to Cape Liberty. Outside of winter months, we’d consider flying to east coast ports the same day if we had no connections. We would fly to west coast ports at least one day early. We fly to European ports at least two days early. We’d rather not have to feel stressed by travel delays. That said, for a fantastic last minute cruise deal, I’d buy a travel policy and take the risk of  arriving anywhere the same day😜 I think the only people who feel stigma are those who take the risk and then whine incessantly when they miss their cruise. 

Edited February 11, 2023 by Silkroad

[1Virgo]

10 hours ago, NorthStarStateCruiser said:

Feel free add your comments in response to the questions.

 

I feel like there's a huge stigma against flying in the day of the cruise, and I'd like to hear people's thoughts.

I wouldnt say stigma, but risk of not making it on time.   ie. we were booked on a flight to Dublin. After 1 hr, the plane returned to origin due to a mechanical.   No more flights til the next day.  However, the ship had moved to Belfast.   One just never knows. inclement weather, mechanicals happen

[smtcan]

We never fly on the day of the cruise, too risky for us.

For places we haven't been before, or particularly want to see again, we could go a week or more ahead.  Sydney, Singapore and Shanghai come to mind (not because they begin with S).  European ports generally a couple of days early, but for us Florida doesn't warrant extra time, so the night before is fine.