jakers Posted July 21 #26 Share Posted July 21 When we are flying domestically, we always fly in as early as it would take us to drive there. We live near Los Angeles and even if we are leaving out of San Diego (3 1/2 Hours by car) we drive in a day early. In Dec. 2022 we flew into Buenos Aries for a South America Antarctica cruise a week early. Almost every flight from the USA is a red eye. We spent the first day after arrival resting and then spent the rest of the week exploring Buenos Aries. We were lucky to be in town when Argentina won the World Cup. The celebration went on for days. The parade was scheduled for embarkation day of our cruise. Those poor folks who took the redeye couldn't get out of the airport, let alone across town. Many arrived around 7 pm, some not till the next day. Luckily our first night was an overnight in BA. If you have the time, go early. If you don't have the time pick a different cruise. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Gail & Marty sailing away Posted July 21 #27 Share Posted July 21 Only using Holland Air program. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare sambamama Posted July 21 #28 Share Posted July 21 There is absolutely no way I would fly a red eye in the morning of a cruise unless it was a day or two before the cruise. Very few flights are nonstop now. Even when you book one, airlines change them to add a stop. I fly in at least 2 days early now, and try to book nonstop. What good is saving money if you miss your cruise??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodndonna Posted July 22 #29 Share Posted July 22 We are those crazy outliers who do on cruises fly in "day of" depending on the circumstances. Actually our next HAL cruise is out of Boston in September and we are flying in day of. That being said - it's not a cruise that our life would be impacted if we missed it - we did the same cruise last year (reverse order) and have spent lots of time previously in most of the ports (husband is from one of them originally and went to University at another). We're in an inside GTY at a Casino discount cruise rate so it's not a big chunk of change at risk. If we miss the cruise, we would be bummed for a bit, but then figure out what's next (since our dog would be boarded for the week), get to the next port? look for some other cheap last minute holiday??? It's really a matter of assessing your own risk tolerance for the worst case - i,.e., potentially missing the cruise entirely. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emme1233 Posted July 22 #30 Share Posted July 22 We always fly in at least one day ahead. Don’t take chances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petronillus Posted July 23 #31 Share Posted July 23 For peace of mind we always book our flights to fly in a day ahead. It would have to be an exceptional situation for us to fly in the morning of -- and never in the winter months. Our home airport is ORD (O'Hare) and we would be hyper-nervous if we didn't get our one-day cushion. On our most recent cruise, 28 days in Asia r/t Hong Kong, we were fortunate to get nonstop flights in each direction. The outbound flight took 16 hours and because of the day & time difference we didn't land in HK until 8:30 pm local time. In effect we lost our planned cushion. (The lavatories had an effective useful life of about perhaps 12 hours.) On the return trip, which was somewhat shorter, we got back the lost day and time; we departed HK at 11:30 am and landed at ORD at noon! (Even so, the cabin crew made every effort to make us believe it was an overnight flight -- closing the sliding window covers and dimming the lights for most of the duration. Weird.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmjnh Posted July 23 #32 Share Posted July 23 Funny , we were just having this discussion. We have friends who took a red eye from the west coast just last weekend to catch a cruise in Boston the next day...we cringed when they told us this,..especially with the Global tech issues going on. They got really, really lucky and made the sailing. We would never take that risk. Option 1 only...2 nights in port pre-board, ideally. Cruising is designed to be stress-free. why risk that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnlcruise Posted July 24 #33 Share Posted July 24 I have done it a few times. Depending on where the ship is sailing from. Six weeks ago, I had a cruise out of Brooklyn NY. No way we were going to pay for an overpriced hotel room for one night. (Been to NYC a lot) So, we took the Red Eye from Denver leaving at 12:10AM arriving in Newark at 5:45AM. I took the NJ Transit from the airport to Pen Station NY and got there around 7ish. I had a nice breakfast and grabbed a Lyft around 9ish. Was on the ship by 11 and unpack by 11:30AM Yes, we have done this a few times and yes, it's a drain on you on the first night of the cruise. But it's so chaotic on the first day of any cruise. We just eat early, and we are in bed by 8ish. And all refreshed and ready to enjoy our cruise on the next day. Yes. It's a crap game but so far so good. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare 3rdGenCunarder Posted July 24 #34 Share Posted July 24 Years ago, when flying was more reliable, we did the red-eye to London to get on QE2 for Europe cruises twice. Both times we were traveling with friends who didn't have extra time off. We were lucky, all was fine. And we had booked through Cunard, so they would have arranged for us to get to the first port. But the way airlines are now, I wouldn't chance it. I figure I've used my quota of airline luck and I won't do that any more. Plus, I enjoy some time to see my departure city, or just rest up from jet lag. And if I can do a day flight, I much prefer that over a red-eye. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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