Late flight after disembarkation

[LeicesterTigers]

Our flight does not leave until after 10pm on the day we disembark. Do Viking take us to the airport first thing in the morning and leave us there for the day, or do they put on an excursion in the morning before dropping you at the airport?

[bookbabe]

2 hours ago, LeicesterTigers said:

Our flight does not leave until after 10pm on the day we disembark. Do Viking take us to the airport first thing in the morning and leave us there for the day, or do they put on an excursion in the morning before dropping you at the airport?

We had a 9:30pm flight out of San Juan on our recent West Indies Explorer cruise and we had Viking’s transfers.  They arranged for a meeting/hospitality room at the hotel across from the port, and walked us all across the street at around 7:30am.  They loaded all of our large luggage into a truck, to travel to the airport separately.  The hospitality room had some light snacks and drinks, but was very crowded. They ran two buses to the airport, one at 11am and one at 1pm.  
 

You had no choice of bus, and because they had your luggage that had to be claimed when the bus arrived at the airport, you couldn’t opt to stay longer and make your own way to the airport later.  A few people had their luggage with them, but I wouldn’t have wanted to be trying to deal with mine in the crowds.

 

It was cheaper and easier than getting a day room at a hotel somewhere, but I think in retrospect we should have just gone with the day room.  It was a long day of waiting around, we had to be up way earlier than if we’d been DIY-ing to the airport, and SJU’s airport lounges are really crappy.  If you go with the Viking transfers route, bring a book, electronics and chargers, etc. and a lot of patience.

Edited March 10, 2023 by bookbabe

[millybess]

20 minutes ago, bookbabe said:

We had a 9:30pm flight out of San Juan on our recent West Indies Explorer cruise and we had Viking’s transfers.  

bookbabe, did you have Viking Air as well as the transfers?  What flights did you take to San Juan from TO.  San Juan has become a rather difficult place to get to from here.

 

We are looking at an early flight with a stop in Charlotte and a return flight with a stop in Chicago which gets us back here late afternoon.

[Clay Clayton]

We had a slightly difference experience in the before times. We had an 11pm flight from Hong Kong. Everyone who had flights that left at 2pm  or later left the ship about the same time 9am.
 

Those who had flights that departed after 6pm were offered a day room at the airport hotel. Those who had flights earlier than that had a large conference room (and the hotel lobby) to hang out in. Refreshments were offered throughout the day for those folks and ranged from pastries in the morning to salty snacks and cookies in the afternoon. 
 

We were very pleased to have the day room which allowed us to nap in the afternoon and start resetting our internal clocks. 

[bookbabe]

1 minute ago, millybess said:

bookbabe, did you have Viking Air as well as the transfers?  What flights did you take to San Juan from TO.  San Juan has become a rather difficult place to get to from here.

 

We are looking at an early flight with a stop in Charlotte and a return flight with a stop in Chicago which gets us back here late afternoon.

We did not use Viking Air, we paid for their transfers separately, $49pp each way.  And we did a few days in Orlando pre and post cruise, so did WestJet round trip YYZ to MCO then added a Spirit round trip MCO to SJU in the middle.  Would not recommend Spirit, but the MCO-SJU flights are all with low cost carriers so I’m not sure it would make a difference.  
 

I think both WJ and AC have at least one direct flight a week to SJU from YYZ, so if you plan on extra days in San Juan it might be worth watching for seat sales on those and then adjusting your pre/post stay accordingly.

[millybess]

3 minutes ago, bookbabe said:

We did not use Viking Air, we paid for their transfers separately, $49pp each way.  And we did a few days in Orlando pre and post cruise, so did WestJet round trip YYZ to MCO then added a Spirit round trip MCO to SJU in the middle.  Would not recommend Spirit, but the MCO-SJU flights are all with low cost carriers so I’m not sure it would make a difference.  
 

I think both WJ and AC have at least one direct flight a week to SJU from YYZ, so if you plan on extra days in San Juan it might be worth watching for seat sales on those and then adjusting your pre/post stay accordingly.

Thanks.  We've spent time in San Juan on a few occasions so we are flying in the day of embarkation and out the day of disembarkation.  We were going to go with Viking Air for the first time ever, but we found a better deal and for only a few $$$ more,  we can fly first class.  

[shadowlover]

we had viking air and they dumped us at the san juan airport even prior to any gate agents.  The airport had no seating at all in this area.  We were never given the option of any day room... Had we known this would happen we would have made arrangements elsewhere but communication was lacking.

[DesertCruiser2000]

Our flight will be leaving at 1 AM the NEXT DAY.  So not happy at all.  When asked what Viking would do, they said nothing.  We have Viking Air and transfers.  So instead of sitting we opted for a tour for the day with Tours by Locals.  He will then take us to airport, luggage and all.  We are hoping the pictures and info of the business class lounges at the airports are accurate and plan to crash there till we leave.  

Anyone been to the airport lounges?

[millybess]

2 minutes ago, DesertCruiser2000 said:

 

Anyone been to the airport lounges?

At which airport?

[MSEm]

We did the South American cruise in Feb 2023.  Our flight from Santiago was 11:10 pm. We did not use Viking Air but purchased transfers for $59 per person.  I could not find out any information about arrangements for late night flights.

When we were on board Viking told us that they were working to arrange something for late night flights.

On day 3 of the cruise, we received a notice on the arrangements. Viking had a tour of Santiago City with a visit to an Artist sales village.  All items were made by Chilean artist such as jewelry, knit and leather goods, painting, etc.

We departed the ship about 9 AM. Drive to Santiago was about 1 1/2 hours.  We arrived at the Marriott about 2 pm. There was a ball room for Viking guest with pastries, water, tea, coffee. Marriott was selling hot sandwichs with chips and 1 bottle of cold water. Also there was a Marriott restaurant that some people. Also Viking had a luggage hold area in the room.

We departed the hotel about 7:30 pm. When we arrived at the airport all luggage was in a holding area with luggage carts.

We had made a reservation at the airport hotel.  We cancelled the hotel reservation, Holiday Inn Express. We could not get into the room until 3 pm without paying another $225. Decided that $500 to use a room for 5 hours was more than we were willing to pay. Viking did a very good job making arrangements for all of the guest on the late night flights.

[Mich3554]

We had a late flight leaving Buenos Aires, sometime after 11pm.  Viking had scheduled a hospitality room in a hotel, but we wound up getting a room for the day.  We were not flying on Viking scheduled flights, so had to deal with our own luggage.  
We booked a room for the day, dropped our luggage and went sightseeing.  We had a fabulous dinner, went back to the hotel to shower and change, checked out and had the hotel call us a taxi for the airport.  Best $70 ever spent.