San Diego Early Flights?

[PM Cruisers]

We have a return flight in San Diego at 10:45 following the 3/18 Mercury cruise. We are starting to worry that it's too early and that we may not make it. Does anyone have any experience with this? I think the ship docks at 8am. Several sites show docking at 7am... not quite sure!

 

We've made tight connections before at Ft Lauderdale but have never been to San Diego.

 

Thanks

[JLC@SD]

We have a return flight in San Diego at 10:45 following the 3/18 Mercury cruise. We are starting to worry that it's too early and that we may not make it. Does anyone have any experience with this? I think the ship docks at 8am. Several sites show docking at 7am... not quite sure!

 

We've made tight connections before at Ft Lauderdale but have never been to San Diego.

 

Thanks

 

one of the advantages to San Diego is that the airport is so close......not a long cab ride. If you dock at 8 or earlier.......you can make a 10:45 flight.

[hammybee]

I have, in the past, made a 9:30 flight out of San Diego and probably would not hesitate to go for a 10:45. The big if is if the ships arrives on time. Weather, seas and mechanical issues can slow things down. So create a back-up plan. Know when the next flight leaves and call and get yourself on stand-bye as soon as it becomes obvious you will not make it. Don't- DO NOT- wait until you get to the air port, as then your window of opportunity may be gone. Good luck to you.

[STUR]

I Think You May Be Cutting It Close You Need At Least 1 To 2 Hr At The Airport B/4 Flight

 

We Are On The Mexican Riviere Cruise Arriving Back On Friday February 9th Spending Extra Night And Flying Home Saturday The 10th.

Better Safe Than Sorry

 

Stur Dayton,ohio

[excitedofharpenden]

Get yourself off the ship early (you should have an early debarkation with that flight time) and you should be fine. It was so easy to get to the airport from the ship that I managed an earlier flight time back up to San Francisco for the journey home. There were taxis right outside the terminal and it's just a short trip to Lindbergh Airport. As hammybee says though, have a plan B.

 

Phil

[cookie1961]

PM Cruisers,

 

I don't want to scare you but we disembarked from Mercury on January 8, 2007 VERY LATE. I would say they started calling different colours at about 10 am. Some Non-US residents had not reported to Immigration and the ship could not be cleared because of that.

 

Many people missed their flights. Thankfully we got to the airport at 11:30 and they fast tracked us for our 12:15 flights. Talk about stress. People who booked cruise air were put up in a hotel for the night.

 

We weren't the first colour to be called and we patiently (some more than others LOL) waited for our colours. Next time, if they are that far behind and I have a 12 pm flight, I would leave as soon as they called the first colour.

 

Good luck,

 

Teri

[MTemple212]

If the ship arrives ontime I don't think you will have aproblem making the flight. The airport in SD is so close to the cruise terminal, I mean like 10 minutes away. Im not sure about how their processing is at the SD airport but I know here in Providence that it takes way less than 1hr to get thru security. Maybe the day before you get into SD go on the internet and print out your boarding passes and that way you only have to go strait to the security area and not the counter.

[MTemple212]

If the ship arrives ontime I don't think you will have aproblem making the flight. The airport in SD is so close to the cruise terminal, I mean like 10 minutes away. Im not sure about how their processing is at the SD airport but I know here in Providence that it takes way less than 1hr to get thru security. Maybe the day before you get into SD go on the internet and print out your boarding passes and that way you only have to go strait to the security area and not the counter.

[Rev22:17]

PM Cruisers,

 

We have a return flight in San Diego at 10:45 following the 3/18 Mercury cruise. We are starting to worry that it's too early and that we may not make it. Does anyone have any experience with this? I think the ship docks at 8am. Several sites show docking at 7am... not quite sure!

 

We've made tight connections before at Ft Lauderdale but have never been to San Diego.

 

If there's any port of disembarkation where you can make a flight this early on disembarkation day, assuming that everything goes smoothly, San Diego is the one. The airport terminal is about a major block from the cruise terminal. It's actually almost walkable.

 

That said, I absolutely do not recommend booking flights any earlier than the earliest permissible time that your cruise line prescribes for their transfer service. There's plenty that can go wrong, and you may need the extra time to make your flight if it does. Here are some examples.

 

>> 1. The ship may arrive at the port late due to the obligation to respond to a distress call en route.

 

>> 2. The ship may arrive at the entrance to the harbor on time, but not be able to enter the port due to fog or other conditions of weather and/or tide.

 

>> 3. The process of clearing immigration and customs may proceed very slowly. On my last cruise, for example, the immigration inspectors apparently arrived late and decided to be very thorough. As a result, many passengers stood in line for two hours or longer awaiting their turn -- and they still had to clear customs when they finally did leave the ship. They did allow each passengers to disembark after clearing immigration, but they are not required to allow any disembarkation until the whole ship completes immigration inspection.

 

>> 4. An accident or other emergency that blocks the direct road would require a much longer route around not only the airport, but also the Navy's Recruit Training Center and the Marine Corps Recruit Depot situated directly behind the airport, via fairly congested city streets.

 

The cruise line's policy on times of flights allow plenty of time for recovery in such situations.

 

Norm.

[dutchess43]

We are on the Infinity & we booked our flight departing SD for 12:25 this April. The last time we stayed 2 days after the cruise so we had no problem. One other problem with an earlier flight is how many ships are also docking that day. If you go to http://www.cruisecal.com you can put in your date & it will pull up all of the ships docking & at what time. Yes the airport is close to the docking port but I look at it as a crape shoot. My opinion is I would never book a flight that early, & I would have a back up plan.

Hope this helps.