advice on Port Canaveral departure fight

[RRCRUISE]

I'm looking for any advice from anyone that has recently sailed out of Port Canaveral. My wife and I are booked on the Glory in January and our departing flight leaves Orlando at 12:10pm. We chose this flight as the next flight for us wouldn't have left until about 3PM. What's the latest time that you've got to the airport? I'm undecided on trying to move our flight back or who to use to get back to the airport the quickest as I've seen good reviews for Arts and some pros and cons for the CCL transfers. In all of our past cruises, we've usually departed the ship between 8:45-9:30. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Cruisedogs2]

We're on the Glory for the Jan 29th cruise and also have a noon flight out of Orlando. Last year we took the same cruise and were off the ship by 9:30 am but we were just taking our time and probably could have been off much sooner. I believe if you have a flight before 1:00 pm that they will allow you to debark first. Which cruise are you going on?

 

CRUISEDOGS

[KarlaC]

If it was me, I would try to take the 3pm flight. You never know what may happen. On my Carnival cruise, the ship arrived in Miami late and it only gave us 1 hour to get to the airport. Upon arriving at the airport only 45 min before our flight, the lines at the counter were long as hell. Almost missed our flight. The airport knew the counter lines were long and were calling passengers out of the lines by out flight. Anyway, we had to run to the damn plane. I was just happy our luggage made it.

 

IMHO, after I get off the ship I am in a very relaxed mood. I don't want anything to spoil that. I will always make sure I have plenty of time before I have to catch a flight.

 

Keep in mind that my experience relates to Miami Int'l which is a very busy airport, but will all the added security and such since 9/11 why chance it.

 

Happy Cruising.

[RRCRUISE]

Cruisedogs, my wife and I are also sailing on the Glory on Jan 29th. This will be our 8th cruise (6th with CCL). Were leaving the kids at home for this one as we just got done doing the "family" vacation and need a vacation from that vacation.LOL Karla, I know what you mean. We usually play it safe and book the later flight, however, we've always made it to the airports in plenty of time to take the earlier flight and only have been able to do stayd-by once. Sucks to be sitting in the airport all day knowing you could've been home before the later flight even leaves.

[Krooze Family]

Just got off the Glory last week. We had a choice of return flights at 11:50 am or 6:55 pm. You can bet that we wanted that early one to get home faster, but we opted for the later. (we wasted time by going to a movie...saw The Incredibles and it is FANTASTIC!). Glad we made that decision because we would not have made the earlier flight.

 

We did not get off the ship early because of our flight time, however, they also did not call for people with early flights this time either. If you do have an early flight, make sure you go to the pursers desk BEFORE disembarking day to be sure they let you off early. If they do, I see no problem in making that flight pending all goes well with customs.

 

HAVE FUN!

[CaribbeanCrazy]

I think you will really have to rush! We are going on the Glory in Feb. and our departing flight is at 1:30...and I thought this time would be cutting it close.

The following is why I think you would be better off with a later flight.

1. Although normally you would be off the ship by 9:00 or 9:30....there has been those times where disembarkment had been delayed either from the ship arriving in port late...or a problem with customs (passengers not showing up when they call there name...this seems to happen on every cruise)!

2.You are suppose to arrive at the airport 1.5 to 2 hours before your flight is scheduled to leave. Which means in your case you should be there no later than 10:30.

3.It takes 45 mins to drive from the port to the airport. Any transportation is going to take a few minutes to load passengers and their luggage. Once were one of the first ones off the ship...only to sit for one hour in the bus waiting for who knows what. It was mass confusion and none of the employees seem to know what was going on!

4.Then there's the possibility of an accident (someone else not you). I sure you know how that could mess things up even if everything else is running smoothly.

If everything DOES run smoothly you might be alright...but are you will to take that gamble...and possibly miss your flight? Like I mentioned...I am a little worried about my 1:30 flight...which gives me 1:20 more that you have.

This is of course is just my opinion...whatever you decide Good Luck!

CaribbeanCrazy

[TakeMeAway1001]

We just came back last Sat on the same ship as Krooze. We opted for the take your own luggage route and we were off and heading to the airport before 9am. We were on Deck 7 and they start calling self servers at 730 am. We liked it so much better than searching for your luggage but nothing is a sure bet. We had the 1pm flight and sat around the airport for 3 hours. Its a hard call~ Kristen

[DEL67]

I agree with Caribbean Crazy. We were on the Glory last April and did not get off and through immigration until almost 10:30 even though we were one of the first groups to be called. Then several of our bags were not on the carousel so we had to wait about about 20 minutes for them to appear. As a result, we did not leave the pier area until at least 11:00 which would be cutting it way to close for a 12:10 flight.