Cruising Caribbean weekend after Thanksgiving

[lovevacadays]

We've booked the Emerald Princess for Nov 29th, 09. It leaves the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We are now wondering if we should switch dates. Does anyone know how crowded airlines are and what might be a good day to travel Thanksgiving weekend? We don't want to fly in on Sunday so would be looking at Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving. Any thoughts?

 

If we don't do that weekend we would have to do the week before Thanksgiving as the Emerald is going into drydock the 1st two weeks in December and then sails two holiday cruises. Anyone know if mid-November is still hurricane season? What might be the chance of rain, etc for the Eastern Caribbean. Any info would be much appreicated.

[Toto2Kansas]

We've booked the Emerald Princess for Nov 29th, 09. It leaves the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We are now wondering if we should switch dates. Does anyone know how crowded airlines are and what might be a good day to travel Thanksgiving weekend? We don't want to fly in on Sunday so would be looking at Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving. Any thoughts?

 

If we don't do that weekend we would have to do the week before Thanksgiving as the Emerald is going into drydock the 1st two weeks in December and then sails two holiday cruises. Anyone know if mid-November is still hurricane season? What might be the chance of rain, etc for the Eastern Caribbean. Any info would be much appreicated.

 

They say that flying just before or just after Thanksgiving is the busiest time for airports everywhere in the U.S. And that is what we have found during that time of year.

Personally, if it were me, there is no way I would take a cruise where I had to fly on those dates, especially if I could make alternate plans for a different date. IMHO!

[Cruise Junky]

We've done two cruises the week after thanksgiving. We were flying from a Canadian airport into a US and didn't have any problem at all. The last one was the Sea Princess in 2006, we flew actually on the Thursday, US Thanksgiving and sailed on the Saturday.

[Hoosier Cruise]

we love cruising the week after Thanksgiving - very few kids on board! Believe we had less than 150 this year. This year we flew in on Sunday since the departure was at 11:00pm - taking a chance, I know, but it worked out. We have flown in on Thursday and Friday often without any problems - especially if we are just flying to Miami/Ft Lauderdale.

If you are looking for a quiet, not-so-crowded, less expensive cruise, the week after Thanksgiving is great.

[rdsqrl]

I definitely wouldn't fly on the Sunday after Thanksgiving! Friday or Saturday should be okay, though -- Friday obviously being quieter than Saturday. I've often flown on the Friday after Thanksgiving when spending turkey day with relatives, because I had to get back to my part-time retail job on Black Friday, and the airports were almost always dead quiet. People just don't start traveling for home that early.

[caa]

Yes, November is hurricane season. We cruised on NCL Sun during Thanksgiving week in 2005. We booked in Sept, just after hurricane Katrina, when NCL announced the ship would be leaving from Houston instead of New Orleans and there were good deals to be had. Between booking and sailing, Houston got hit by Rita and the Yucatan got hit by Wilma. We missed one port in Mexico due to damage from Wilma, and we were one of the first ships to get into Cozumel. While we were aboard, storms Gamma and Delta were both active, although not near us. 2005 was an exceptionally bad year though, and hopefully 2009 will be much less severe.

 

As for flying, you should be o.k. on the Friday after Thanksgiving. The main problem with flying on those holiday weekends is if any flight is canceled for any reason, there's no empty space for you to get on another plane. Friday should be early enough that you'll have time to find alternate flights.

[Nebr.cruiser]

We flew to San Juan to board the CB Princess on the Saturday after Thanksgiving this year. All the flights were very full, but we had no problems at all--even got upgraded to business class all flights with our AA Gold card. All flights were ontime. We used FF miles for the trip. Airports (Dallas, San Juan) seemed just normally busy.

[Colo Cruiser]

We've booked the Emerald Princess for Nov 29th, 09. It leaves the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We are now wondering if we should switch dates. Does anyone know how crowded airlines are and what might be a good day to travel Thanksgiving weekend? We don't want to fly in on Sunday so would be looking at Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving. Any thoughts?

 

If we don't do that weekend we would have to do the week before Thanksgiving as the Emerald is going into drydock the 1st two weeks in December and then sails two holiday cruises. Anyone know if mid-November is still hurricane season? What might be the chance of rain, etc for the Eastern Caribbean. Any info would be much appreicated.

 

Where are you flying in from? :)

[lovevacadays]

Southern California - most like LAX

[missmlt]

We flew the Saturday after Thanksgiving this year for a cruise that departed on Sunday. Other than longer lines than usual (probably 20-30 minutes longer than usual) at our home airport we had no issues. I don't know if flying Sunday would have made a difference though, but flying Saturday we didn't have any issues.

Since we flew southwest I didn't book my airfare untill the dates became available and I think the rates were a little higher than I would have paid on a non-holiday time, but not high enough to make me reschedule my cruise.

[kooljamming]

The Atlantic hurricane season is between June and November. Being at the begin or tail end, June and November are usually pretty calm. I have experienced hurricane in both months but I vacation in Mexico or the Caribbean quite often. I would feel comfortable going in November. I would avoid traveling the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Evey one is trying to get back and some might be very pizzed off about their family encounter:D

[smoosh21]

we love cruising the week after Thanksgiving - very few kids on board! Believe we had less than 150 this year. This year we flew in on Sunday since the departure was at 11:00pm - taking a chance, I know, but it worked out. We have flown in on Thursday and Friday often without any problems - especially if we are just flying to Miami/Ft Lauderdale.

If you are looking for a quiet, not-so-crowded, less expensive cruise, the week after Thanksgiving is great.

 

I am glad to hear this. Hopefully the same holds true on other lines.

[crynsky]

With the exception of one cruise last Feb we always go the week after thanksgiving and fly out of cak or cle leaving on fri or sat to arrive one or two days early to embarkation location and have never had any problems or major delays. Had more trouble getting home from San Antonio in Aug from a bussiness/vacation trip.