I almost missed my cruise!

[ontheweb]

7 hours ago, freewilly said:

Go to Canterberry  whilst in Dover area. It is a wonderful little place to see.

When we had a cruise from Dover, we booked the excursion back to Heathrow that had a walking tour of Dover and then went to Canterberry. I agree with you about Canterberry, plus it made it seem like we were still on our cruise vacation as we headed back to the airport.

[vnyislesv]

This is why I fly 3-4 days early and fly home 1-2 days after.  I used to live 10 min away from the port in Fort Lauderdale and 40 minutes away from Miami but now that I moved, I won’t put myself in your situation!  Especially with a vacation pending?????  Cmon!  Not sure what you do for work but you gotta figure it out next time!!

[rodndonna]

3 hours ago, vnyislesv said:

This is why I fly 3-4 days early and fly home 1-2 days after.  I used to live 10 min away from the port in Fort Lauderdale and 40 minutes away from Miami but now that I moved, I won’t put myself in your situation!  Especially with a vacation pending?????  Cmon!  Not sure what you do for work but you gotta figure it out next time!!

 

As a person who  generally flies  in day of, the difference for us is although we really enjoy my cruises, we don't put anywhere near the  same level of importance on them that you appear to. If we miss one (has not happened yet for cruise holidays), yeah it would suck, but would not be a life altering event or even rank anywhere in the difficult moments of  our lives.

 

 

[jsglow]

On 2/18/2024 at 5:09 PM, Ferry_Watcher said:

LOL.  As embarkation winds down, check-in agents are gradually sent home.  The IT guys from the ship begin to pack up the handheld tablets and start closing down the laptops. All the equipment is packed up and returned to the ship.  Finally, as the 'hard close' approaches, different areas are asked if there are any passengers still in the terminal.  Hearing the answer 'no',  the ship's IT crew members literally cluster around the remaining operating check-in devices, waiting for the terminal mangers to say 'doors are closed'.  The IT crew members pack up the couple remaining tablets and laptops. The Documentation Officer secures all the foreign passports that have been collected and transports them to the ship, and the final people who walk across the gangway before it is pulled are the crew members who support the check-in staff.  The ship sails minutes later.

 

Then, seven days later, we do again.

 

@ontheweb, your concert roadie analogy was a clever one, my friend.  Thanks!

 

"And get up and do it again..."

So @Ferry_Watcher, I'm just getting caught up here. Amazing stories. My question... Are super late arrivers a frequent occurrence? And by that I mean the equivalent of 'pier runners'? I just can't imagine the stress. I guess my risk tolerance is lower. For an overseas cruise: a couple days early. For a domestic with a flight: night before. If I could drive: wee hours of the cruise morning.

[jsglow]

On 2/18/2024 at 7:05 PM, jerseygirlinAZ said:

We're going out on the Legend from Southampton this summer.  We are flying straight from Phoenix two days before (technically, we get at 11 a.m. on Wednesday and our cruise leaves on Friday).  My sister wanted to see London and I made sure to tack on a day and a half before the cruise, just in case something happens.  

Just read this. Be careful as what you typed is incorrect. I'll chalk it up to the 'slip of a keyboard'! Legend will be sailing out of Dover; England's CARNIVAL homeport. Other lines like Princess sail from Southampton. Enjoy. We really enjoyed it last year.

 

Edit: Sorry. I see other folks already corrected you. We're all just trying to help. THAT would have sucked. 😁

Edited February 25 by jsglow

[ninjacat123]

8 minutes ago, jsglow said:

So @Ferry_Watcher, I'm just getting caught up here. Amazing stories. My question... Are super late arrivers a frequent occurrence? And by that I mean the equivalent of 'pier runners'? I just can't imagine the stress. I guess my risk tolerance is lower. For an overseas cruise: a couple days early. For a domestic with a flight: night before. If I could drive: wee hours of the cruise morning.

For me, the farthest I would drive on embarkation day (or have DH drive😉) is six hours from home.  Any farther and we would drive the day before and spend the night at port.  How far would you drive jsglow?  Just curious😃

Edited February 25 by ninjacat123

[jsglow]

9 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

For me, the farthest I would drive (or have DH drive😉) is six hours from home.  Any farther and we would drive the day before and spend the night at port.  How far would you drive jsglow?  Just curious😃

Yeah, right around that time frame. My thought process is that if we were to leave at 5:00 am could we survive the 'flat tire'. I try not to worry about the true 1 in a million scenario. So I'd certainly drive from Tampa to Miami morning of but not from Atlanta if that makes sense. In that case, if I were still working, we'd likely leave in the evening and bite off some miles toward our overnight motel maybe 3/4 of the way.

 

Our reality is that airplanes are necessary however. The riskiest we ever got was a flight to San Juan. In the months after Maria there were literally no hotels in SJ. So we flew to Orlando, overnighted, and then flew to San Juan at o'dark 30 the next morning. Our Windstar ship wasn't leaving until 10p so we literally had all day.

Edited February 25 by jsglow

[ninjacat123]

2 minutes ago, jsglow said:

Yeah, right around that time frame. My thought process is that if we were to leave at 5:00 am could we survive the 'flat tire'. I try not to worry about the true 1 in a million scenario. So I'd certainly drive from Tampa to Miami morning of but not from Atlanta if that makes sense. In that case, if I were still working, we'd likely leave in the evening and bite off some miles toward our overnight motel maybe 3/4 of the way.

We have done the 6 hour drive, spend the night, then next morning (embarkation day) drive the remaining 3-4 hours.  More comfortable for everyone (especially the driver) but I still feel a bit of anxiety being 3-4 hours away.  It's that "flat tire" thing rearing it's ugly head.  Our next cruise is out of Baltimore which is a 7.5 hour drive from home.  We are planning on driving there the night before and spending the night.  DH's main concern is that Baltimore is the "murder capital" of at least the US so we need a bulletproof hotel.😉

[jsglow]

And just to add to this math, we've had 2-3 flights since the Covid re-start alone on our way to cruises that were sufficiently disrupted that we would have missed the cruise had we attempted a 'morning of' flight. Call that a 5-10% failure rate. Those extra 12-24 hours means everything as there comes a point where airlines run out of time and can't help you anymore. In both cases we were 100% fine via re-routes or simple extended delays into the wee overnight hours. People can certainly make their own choices but we know what ours are.

[jsglow]

So @Ferry_Watcher, if and when we sail Alaska out of Seattle I'll reach out to you directly. It would be fun to meet! 🙂

[ninjacat123]

1 minute ago, jsglow said:

So @Ferry_Watcher, if and when we sail Alaska out of Seattle I'll reach out to you directly. It would be fun to meet! 🙂

Ditto!! We are booked till June 2025, but who knows...there may be a special running for Alaska😺

Edited February 25 by ninjacat123

[tscoffey]

8 hours ago, vnyislesv said:

This is why I fly 3-4 days early and fly home 1-2 days after.  I used to live 10 min away from the port in Fort Lauderdale and 40 minutes away from Miami but now that I moved, I won’t put myself in your situation!  Especially with a vacation pending?????  Cmon!  Not sure what you do for work but you gotta figure it out next time!!

3-4 days early for  cruise is a very conservative plan -  unless the goal is to have time to explore the embarkation port, or if said port is so far away that jet lag recovery is a must, or you lose a day with the international dateline (like when my wife and I travel to Sydney next April - we are leaving 5 days early for all the reasons above).

Otherwise, 1 day is sufficient for US travelers leaving from a US port (but a case could be made for midwinter to add an extra day). 
Two days for US travelers leaving from a European port (jet lag).

Three days for US travelers leaving from an Asian or Australian/New Zealand port (jet lag and dateline).

 

Edited February 25 by tscoffey

[Ferry_Watcher]

1 hour ago, jsglow said:

So @Ferry_Watcher, I'm just getting caught up here. Amazing stories. My question... Are super late arrivers a frequent occurrence? And by that I mean the equivalent of 'pier runners'? I just can't imagine the stress. I guess my risk tolerance is lower. For an overseas cruise: a couple days early. For a domestic with a flight: night before. If I could drive: wee hours of the cruise morning.

 

Generally speaking, we have very few last minute arrivals.  In one of the past seasons, maybe 2022, the airlines were a mess and there were a lot of flight operational disruptions, which caused more than average a lot of passengers not getting to Seattle in time to board their cruise. I think of one of these posts/threads that I mentioned that if we know of a late arriving passenger, who called the terminal contact phone number, and had a chance to board, then the pier-side management really would reach out to the ship and see if they would delay asking for the gangway to be pulled - that is the best that they could do.  The actual casting off the lines to ensure the 4 PM sail-a-way would occur regardless, as they would not delay an on time sailing for a couple of late passengers (probably for a busload, but not for a couple).

 

At Pier 91, we tend to have very generous "hard close" times.  A hard close means that the doors to the building are secured and locked, and that no late arriving passenger is allowed inside to begin the check-in process.  The 2024 season hasn't begun yet, so I can't confirm this season's times, but the post pandemic years (2021-23) the hard close for Carnival has been 3:20 PM for a 4 PM sailing, and for Royal and Celebrity it has been 3:30 PM for a 4 PM sailing.

 

Best advice is -  Arrive the Day Before Your Cruise to ensure not delays in getting to the pier in time.

Edited February 25 by Ferry_Watcher

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, jsglow said:

Just read this. Be careful as what you typed is incorrect. I'll chalk it up to the 'slip of a keyboard'! Legend will be sailing out of Dover; England's CARNIVAL homeport. Other lines like Princess sail from Southampton. Enjoy. We really enjoyed it last year.

 

Edit: Sorry. I see other folks already corrected you. We're all just trying to help. THAT would have sucked. 😁

Princess actually sails from both Dover and Southampton. We sailed Princess from Dover for a British Isles cruise in 2014. We had a Princess cruise to the Norwegian fjords that was supposed to sail from Southampton in 2020 that was lost to Covid.

[vnyislesv]

5 hours ago, rodndonna said:

 

As a person who  generally flies  in day of, the difference for us is although we really enjoy my cruises, we don't put anywhere near the  same level of importance on them that you appear to. If we miss one (has not happened yet for cruise holidays), yeah it would suck, but would not be a life altering event or even rank anywhere in the difficult moments of  our lives.

 

 

A few things… I only get 1-2 “vacations” a year so yeah, it’s extremely important I get where I’m going to make sure we’re set when it’s time.  As i mentioned earlier, I used to live 10 minutes from the port so it was easier but now that I’m in Vegas, have you seen the airport?  I LOVE it here but any time there’s anything going on, it impacts the entire city.

 

I live a few miles away from the strip.  With construction, with F1, with the Super Bowl, with some marathon they have today, doing ANYTHING can add an insane amount of time to your daily activities.  They had hundreds of thousands of people fly in.  Imagine the stress the airlines are under.  So i understand 3 days might be excessive but (I get to see my friends and family at home) I still won’t take the chance.  Cancelled and delayed flights are so common now it’s just not worth risking IMO.  Getting to the port with 5 minutes left?  Bonkers.  Give yourself time to relax, it’s vacation right?

Edited February 25 by vnyislesv

[staceyglow]

5 hours ago, vnyislesv said:

A few things… I only get 1-2 “vacations” a year so yeah, it’s extremely important I get where I’m going to make sure we’re set when it’s time.  As i mentioned earlier, I used to live 10 minutes from the port so it was easier but now that I’m in Vegas, have you seen the airport?  I LOVE it here but any time there’s anything going on, it impacts the entire city.

 

I live a few miles away from the strip.  With construction, with F1, with the Super Bowl, with some marathon they have today, doing ANYTHING can add an insane amount of time to your daily activities.  They had hundreds of thousands of people fly in.  Imagine the stress the airlines are under.  So i understand 3 days might be excessive but (I get to see my friends and family at home) I still won’t take the chance.  Cancelled and delayed flights are so common now it’s just not worth risking IMO.  Getting to the port with 5 minutes left?  Bonkers.  Give yourself time to relax, it’s vacation right?

I live in Las Vegas, too, and the good news is that there seems to be many, many flights to most places that Carnival cruises out of.  So if your early morning day-before flight is late/cancelled, you usually have several alternatives to get on a flight that gets you to the ship on time.  

[jerseygirlinAZ]

8 hours ago, jsglow said:

Just read this. Be careful as what you typed is incorrect. I'll chalk it up to the 'slip of a keyboard'! Legend will be sailing out of Dover; England's CARNIVAL homeport. Other lines like Princess sail from Southampton. Enjoy. We really enjoyed it last year.

 

Edit: Sorry. I see other folks already corrected you. We're all just trying to help. THAT would have sucked. 😁

 

Appreciate the help!  🙂

[FTLCruiseGal]

@Ferry_Watcher, thanks so much for all the helpful info!

[pe4all]

One can never count on flight delays/cancellations, traffic, accidents, etc.  We were just in Miami for our Magic cruise - Miami Marathon 2024 weekend, which we knew about.  Cruised same weekend last year 2023.  Last year - no problem getting to the port.  We stay at Holiday Inn Port of Miami - literally a 10 min. drive away from cruise terminal.  This year - due to construction - it took us 40 min. to get to terminal.  Had to literally circle around the whole area. Luckily our Uber driver was fantastic, and knew all the little ins and outs of that area, but even he was getting frustrated as roads were closed.   Now - if you had a flight delay on top of the traffic, or were driving in and did not know the area - not sure what would happen.  We always come in a day early "just in case." 

[kew1031]

we have a 4 hour drive to Galveston, and we go the day before. Traffic can be terrible and I am not willing to take that chance! 

[natefish95]

Always, always, always fly in the day before (or multiple if feasible). Here's a quick rundown of what happened before my 2023 cruises

 

April 2023-flying to San Diego from DC for the NCL Jewel. Flight from BWI-ATL was cancelled the day before. Rebooked IAD-DTW-SAN arriving into SAN the night before the cruise. Make it to DTW and the connecting flight to SAN is cancelled. Booked a $600 last minute ticket on American Airlines. Stayed in a crappy DTW airport hotel (avoid the Wyndham Garden Romulus at ALL COSTS). On the day the cruise leaves, I fly from DTW and make it to DFW for the connection, but the connection is delayed 2 hours due to a bird strike. Finally made it to SAN at 11am and made the ship!

 

September 2023-flying to Anchorage from DC for the Jewel 2 days early. First flight IAD-SEA is delayed 6 hours for maintenance and then cancelled. Rebooked on a later Delta flight to SEA, but that gets cancelled due to weather. I got rebooked on Alaska Airlines via San Francisco and made it to Anchorage 27 hours later than originally planned

 

October 2023-flying to NYC from DC for the Venezia. Booked a flight the day of sailing only because there are tons of flight options between the two cities. My 6am flight was delayed 2 hours because a pilot called out sick. Thankfully DC is a United hub and they were able to call someone in. 

 

I've had some reallyyyyyyyy bad flight luck in 2023 (and already into 2024...). My next cruise is in April and i'm flying to Tokyo a week early to travel around Japan haha. 

[skywalkr2]

OMG I would have died of a heart attack.

[jsglow]

WOW @natefish95. Do us a solid and keep us updated here regarding your future flight plans so we can all avoid them! 🫣

[ninjacat123]

20 hours ago, natefish95 said:

Always, always, always fly in the day before (or multiple if feasible). Here's a quick rundown of what happened before my 2023 cruises

 

April 2023-flying to San Diego from DC for the NCL Jewel. Flight from BWI-ATL was cancelled the day before. Rebooked IAD-DTW-SAN arriving into SAN the night before the cruise. Make it to DTW and the connecting flight to SAN is cancelled. Booked a $600 last minute ticket on American Airlines. Stayed in a crappy DTW airport hotel (avoid the Wyndham Garden Romulus at ALL COSTS). On the day the cruise leaves, I fly from DTW and make it to DFW for the connection, but the connection is delayed 2 hours due to a bird strike. Finally made it to SAN at 11am and made the ship!

 

September 2023-flying to Anchorage from DC for the Jewel 2 days early. First flight IAD-SEA is delayed 6 hours for maintenance and then cancelled. Rebooked on a later Delta flight to SEA, but that gets cancelled due to weather. I got rebooked on Alaska Airlines via San Francisco and made it to Anchorage 27 hours later than originally planned

 

October 2023-flying to NYC from DC for the Venezia. Booked a flight the day of sailing only because there are tons of flight options between the two cities. My 6am flight was delayed 2 hours because a pilot called out sick. Thankfully DC is a United hub and they were able to call someone in. 

 

I've had some reallyyyyyyyy bad flight luck in 2023 (and already into 2024...). My next cruise is in April and i'm flying to Tokyo a week early to travel around Japan haha. 

DH and I booked flights to Rome 5 days before our cruise knowing flights can screw you over and bottom line we wanted to make our cruise. Fortunately all went well and we were able to travel around Italy ahead of our cruise. Now we are flying to Tokyo in July for a  CB land trip. So far, so good!👍😁

[Butterbean1000]

We flew to Miami on the morning of our first cruise from Atlanta.  We really didn't know any better.  Our flight was around 9am.  The weather turned ugly.  There were tornado watches for most of the state.  Our plane was over 2 hours late leaving.  We made it in time, but we learned our lesson.   You just never know what could happen.  Thankfully the ride to the port was noneventful. We learned our lesson, we always leave a day or two early.