POLL: Do you fly in the day of embarkation or before?

[Giorgi-one]

Always fly in one day early. For January 2005 cruise, we will arrive two days early. Tough choice on whether I would rather be in Ft. Lauderdale or Philadelphia on January 14th.

Only one time we traveled on embarkation day for cruise leaving out of San Juan. My wife's bag did not make the plane (made mistake of booking thru cruise line with transfer in New York) and showed up three days later in Aruba.

Recently heard of a Southwest Airline flight to Florida which was overbooked by 47 people, many of which were cruisers who literally "missed the boat".

[reader2]

[quote name='flagger']Just a simple little poll.[/QUOTE]
I always try to fly in the day before the cruise. One can never depend on the flying weather in the winter months so don't want to take a chance of not arriving on time.

[stanjj111]

We do not want to be harried by potential weather problems. We go the day before to avoid rushing.

[sink]

Just to play it safe, we have flown at least a day prior. However, we've also done two "red-eye" flights as well. Actually, we did have a scare on one of our red-eye flight, as two of our family's luggage did not make our flight. Fortunately, it took the next flight over and arrived at noon.

[JNLROSE]

[font=Comic Sans MS][size=3][color=red]Don't know why someone brought this thread back, but we always fly in at least 1 day prior to any cruise!!![/color][/size][/font]

[Cruise Cat]

Don't know why someone brought this thread back, but we always fly in at least 1 day prior to any cruise!!!

 

It wasn't me! (....this time;) :D :D :D )

[JNLROSE]

Cat, I KNEW THAT!!! Love your new avatar!!! When do we M & M again????

[bubbie617]

A number of years ago, when we took our first cruise from the west coast, I learned that it was smarter to fly in at least one day before embarkation. By the time we got to dinner the first night (@ 8:30), our bodies were at 11:30 p.m. and we had gotten up at 5 a.m. for the flight. Not a good way to start!

 

If we're cruising from the west coast, I like to fly in 2-4 days early. I don't want to lose any valuable time on the ship because I'm too tired to enjoy it. Even when we cruise from Florida we fly in one day ahead of embarkation. Rather than getting to the ship harried and hassled and hot because we're in winter clothes, we get up, have breakfast, read the paper and go to the ship. It's a much more sensible way to start.

[alpal1993]

We have only cruised out of our home port twice once to New York and flew in day before.This year we did Alaska and did 5 day land tour prior to crusing.I think it probably is a good idea to fly in the day before.It gives you better odds of making your cruise.Have heard of too many people missimg their cruises due to things happening beyond their control

[Giorgi-one]

I believe there is a bigger problem with losing luggage than missing the ship. It happended to us once and my wife's luggage caught up with the ship 3 days later and only because the cruise line tracked it down and made arrangements to have it delivered. Imagine what this would cost if you had to do it yourself using the satellite phone at $5 per minute. Also, on this same cruise we met a whole group of people from a DELTA flight whose luggage did not make the ship. They told us that DELTA was an acronym for Don't Expect Luggage To Arrive. On our last cruise, we met two people with missing luggage. My understanding is that this occurs on almost every cruise.

Leaving a day early gives your luggage time to catch up before the ship leaves.

[bubbie617]

You're right about the luggage problem. On our last cruise, we flew to Ft. Lauderdale the day before the ship sailed. That was very fortunate because our suitcases were not there when we landed at FLL. US Airways finally located them and told us they would send them out on the next flight. To make an aggravating story short, our luggage did not arrive at our hotel until 10:30 p.m. If it were the day of the cruise, we would would have been SOL and naked.

[Giorgi-one]

bubbie617:

 

US Air has had some major problems with luggage in Philadelphia. You probably remember when their main luggage system broke down and they had to truch bags to Charolotte and them fly them to other destinations. Some people did not get luggage for three days. No way to guard against this but going one day early eliminates most luggage and flight cancellation problems.

[adegner]

And here is just a reminder to please overlook and forgive people that wear shorts or jeans to dinner the first night. You do not know their circumstances. It is very possible that their luggage did not arrive.

 

I am arriving a day early in San Diego for my Hawaii cruise on 12-5. It will certainly be worth it.

[kokonut]

We will always fly in the day before the cruise. Only once did we fly in the day of......... talk about sheer exhaustion!! Not to mention worries over missing/delayed flights, etc!!

 

It is nice to arrive early, have a relaxing evening, a good night's sleep and wake up fresh and ready to begin the cruise!

[pianoboy]

We'd prefer to fly the day before sailing, but work schedules have made it impossible (sadly!) to do so, so it's an early morning flight the day of departure. The good news? We used frequent flier miles! :D

 

j

[cruisepest]

We try to book out of San Francisco, that way we are just a limo ride away and you never can sail out under the Golden Gate to many times. On the cruises we have done leaving on the East coast we fly out a day in advance.

[Kathie44]

I couldn't vote because sometimes we have and sometimes we haven't flown in a day early. First time we flew in the day of and had flight delays which got us to the Miami airport at 2 instead of 10:30. Our luggage was still in the air and we didn't get it till the next day.

Second time we flew in the day of and everything was OK.

Third time was the Alaska cruise/tour and we flew in the night before since the tour started the next morning.

Fourth time the cruise left from San Juan and we left a day early, had flight delays and got there 3 hrs late, but we had our luggage and it wasn't snowing, so we were happy. lol

Next cruise is Feb. 3 out of Galveston. We can't fly out early due to our basketball schedule and a game the night before. But we have a direct flight which is supposed to get us to Huston at 8:13 AM and we are booked on the Celebrity shuttle. The ship leaves at 6 so we should be OK, unless a super blizzard hits. ; )

 

Explorer E. Carib.1/12/02

Explorer W. Carib. 1/18/03

Summit Alaska cruise/tour 8/3/03

Adventure S. Carib. 2/8/04

Galaxy Panama Canal 2/3/05

[JJPNYC]

Just a simple little poll.

 

I think that it all depends. Being that I live in NYC, if I'm flying out of Florida, I'll fly down that morning on one of the first flights. If I'm flying out of the west coast, I still might fly in the day-of, only because of the time changes being in my favor (I can get a 6:30AM flight out of JFK and be anywhere on the west coast by 9:30AM PST that same morning).

 

So ultimately it all comes down to "it depends".

 

jeff

[bulldogatl]

just to take the edge off the trip ... this year we leave on the INFINITY tomorrow .. been in SD for three nights ... its been wonderful.

[Bethwte]

We'd always flown in from NY the day of, and never had a problem, so we didnt see the use in spending the money for a hotel to overnight it. Then last feb on our way to the Millenium, we had a huge delay on our connection in cleveland. We sweated the whole flight that we were not going to make it, and sure enough, we ended up holding the ship up 15 minutes! We felt soooo guilty. Luckily for us we were on plane with bout 10 passangers, and we were in one of those two rediculously huge suites at the aft of the ship, so they held up the ship for us... but we learned our lesson. We're flying out to Cali two days early, and Florida the day before this year!

[sdgary]

We were flying in the day of embarkation for our Hawaii cruise in April, until someone set me straight. We called our travel agent this morning and had it changed and are going in a day early.

[Bisous3]

Many ,many people missed the Century on Christmas Eve. Play it safe and leave the day before!!

[geoherb]

We flew down the day before Christmas Eve for our Century cruise. I'm glad we did. Although we left 58-degree weather at home, the snow up north caused lots of delays and cancellations. Our flight left four hours late because the plane was delayed taking off from New Hampshire. Our luggage did not make it when we changed planes in Tampa. The airline delivered it to our hotel late that night. I would have hated being at sea for two days with just our carry-on luggage.

[AFT_LOVER]

for all our cruises so far. Transatlantic we left home at 7:30PM on the non-stop to Gatwick landing at 7AM. On the ship at 10AM in the buffet after we dropped off carry-on in the closet of 9140 as they were cleaning.

 

Again they are flying us into LAX at 6AM via Houston on CO, getting us to LA at 8AM, so do we sit for 4 hours for the bus??? We'd be on the ship by 9AM? I inquired with my TA on flying the day before & hotel stay with transfers & was told $133 PP at Hyatt or Intercontinental. Hotels are not PP, it is per room. I CHOKED! So I may just do our own air with our own hotel & cab it getting in on 11/19 (evening).

[jezzdogg]

We always left the day of the cruise until we almost missed the ship, We had one of the first flights out of Newark( and this was in July) flight was delayd 4 hours waiting for the plane to come up from Florida that was experiencing terrible thunderstorms. Finally on the plane and heading south.....Captain announces that the Orlando Airpot is closed and we will circle for an hour and see if it opens. We called the cruiseline with one of those satellite phones and let them know our dilemmia, as we had purchased transfers from them. When we finallly landed at 4:30, they meet us at the luggage pick-up and rushed us to a waiting car.....they had held the ship for us for almost an hour. No sooner than we had stepped on the ship the Captain announced that The Sheers had finally arrived and they could sail......never again the same day!!!!!