Has anyone ever missed their flight to cruise?

[BoPippy]

Has anyone ever missed their flight to their cruise departure because of weather or flight delay and what did you do to catch up?:eek:

[PennyAgain]

Yes, I did on flights booked by Holland America. I could catch up with the ship and ended up going home. Family members who arrived from other cities made the ship and the cruise.

 

Travel insurance paid very little. I ended up with a substantial loss. I was due to share a room with a family member. When I did not show up, Holland American changed that person a single supplement!

[emjsea]

I've never had a flight delay of much substance on the way to a vacation (coming home has been a different story).

 

But, just in case, this is why I try to get down to Florida at least 2 days before a cruise (also gives me time to ease in vacation mode). That way, if their are flight delays, I have some time to catch something and make it work.

 

I would never, ever, ever allow a cruiseline to book my airline flights. It may be cheap, but what you lose in weird flight times and all the connections is not worth the risk and inconvenience. But, I'm one who prefers to pay extra for direct flights rather than go through transferring.

[G'ma]

Has anyone ever missed their flight to their cruise departure because of weather or flight delay and what did you do to catch up?:eek:

 

I always, always fly in at least one day in advance......no problems with anything, ever.

[Sea Hag]

I was due to share a room with a family member. When I did not show up, Holland American changed that person a single supplement!

 

Hi Penny,

 

Do you mean they kept your money and charged the other person the single supplement as well? There was a thread with discussion back and forth on this, but as I remember it there wasn't general agreement on how it's handled. If HA keeps the original booking money and charges the remaining passenger the single supplement, then this is really good to know and I thank you very much for posting it.

[CowPrincess]

We were SCHEDULED to miss our cruise ship because of an impending airline strike :eek: which was scheduled to start the day we were to fly out. We futzed around for a week ahead of time, until FINALLY I got thru to a supervisor (after getting "There's nothing we can do to help" from the agents) who immediately changed our reservations to the day before the anticipated strike. We got to the cruise ship and the strike was called off.

 

I fly in the day before a cruise now :)

[paul929207]

We were on the Star Princess last spring and about 30 or 40 people were late getting to Santiago, Chile, and we sailed without them. They caught up at the next port.

[Putterdude]

We have never missed a sailing but have read the horror stories of people who have. That is why we always fly to the port at least a day ahead and if the drive is more than 4 hours the same principle holds true. A night's hotel room is pretty cheap comprared to the cost of a missed cruise.;)

[tamaram26]

We were really close to missing our last cruise back in December. We were scheduled to fly from Dayton, Ohio to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. We thought we were being careful because we were flying in the day before the cruise. When we got to Cincinnati, Ohio for our layover, a snow storm hit and our flight to Florida was delayed by 5 hours. After waiting for 4 hours (and standing in line at customer service for 3 of those 4 hours with about 150 other mad passengers) we finally found out that they had cancelled the flight alltogether and it was the only flight to Ft. Lauderdale until 2pm the following afternoon! At this point we were desperate to at least get close to the port. We were able to get on a later flight to Tampa, Fl. We arrived in Tampa at 2:00am and had to rent a car (at our own expense!) and make the drive to Ft Lauderdale through the night. It took us 5 hours to get there, due to the worst fog I have ever seen! (And I grew up in Florida, so I'm used to thick fog) Anyone who has driven through "Alligator Alley" at night knows how scary this can be. We finally arrived at our hotel (which we had prepaid for) at almost 8am and checked in to sleep for 3 hours before heading to the port. Thankfully, we did make it, and we had the most wonderful cruise, so it all worked out! Lessons we learned: 1. Expect the unexpected! 2. Flying in the day before does not always protect you, especially through an Ohio winter! (I'm still a little upset about the whole thing! Can ya tell?!)

[cruiserbryce]

fortunatly no, but we have always flown in the day before to insure that if we did miss a flight that we would still have a little cushion

[Salsera718]

I recently sailed with 2 friends on the NCL GEM for NYE week 12/27 - 1/3/09 - leaving from NYC...

 

They drove down from Boston the same day as we were leaving (Saturday) - due to an unanticipated problem they started out later than they expected..were sailing along (pun intended) and then hit traffic in CT...geez..

 

missed the ship sailing by around 30 minutes...you need to be on by 3:30 for a 4 pm sailing...the previous two weeks the ship sailed late due to restocking...this particular week we left right on time...they got to the pier at 4:05 pm

 

After frantic calls.messages, etc..they flew to Ft. Lauderdale and met up with the ship on the Monday (12/29)...

 

so ANYTHING can happen...flying,,driving,,, who can tell?

 

We still had a great cruise... and,, when we stayed on for the 1 niter on 1/3/09 it left on time..but the 1/24/09 1 niter left about 45 minutes late...go figure....

 

"indulge your passion..."whatever" it may be"...

 

GO NAVY!!!...later al...Marla

[Iluvmypuggle]

I've never missed my flight but my flight was delayed when we were sailing on rccl out of Florida. There was an issue with the door on the plane closing and we sat at the terminal looking through the window while this man was literally "dangling" out of the door to make sure it would close properly. Luckily, we made it to the ship just in time! I have yet to fly for a cruise since. I book sailings out of NY typically.

[nattie]

Yup, we sure did. Missed a flight because a brand new (2 weeks old) car wouldn't start - apparently if you forget to close the door in the BMW (leave it ajar/not latched properly), the lights and other systems keep running and drain you battery. Thankfully, we were flying in a day earlier and just caught next flight in, flights from DC area (IAD) to Miami are quite frequent. After that it is our policy to leave for airport early and fly at least a day ahead of time.

 

Also, not a cruise flight, but much more disastrous one. We were flying to Amsterdam for my husband to work at Leiden University for a week and then take a week to travel Europe. We took "Blue Shuttle" to the airport (for those not familiar it is a shared ride service from your home to airport, you must pick up at least one other passanger on the way). We were the second pick up, the route was planned badly and my DH ended up guiding the driver through downtown DC (those who have been/lived here know what a mess it could be!). We were still close to making it , BUT due to high winds "tornado warning" (VERY unusual for our area) was issued which resulted in jammed Beltway and no way to get to airport on time. So after approx 3.5 hours in the van we arrived at IAD 15 min after they close the check in for people with luggage. There were no other flights to Amsterdam that day, so we eneded up going home (Blue van again!!!) and driving in next day just to be safe.

[shelby_36]

We've never had that problem but we do take a precaustion that we try to fly out with enough time to spare that if it looked as if we would miss the flight we could hop in the car and drive.

[cruiser429]

I do remember---sailing out of San Juan about 10 or 11 years ago. We had come down earlier, but a number of passengers were coming in on cruise arranged flights from the mid-west, which had been hit by a huge storm. We were supposed to sail at 11 pm, but we held off until after midnight. We were looking over and saw people running to the ship--and my DH yelled "hurry up, you've already missed 3 meals!"

 

Does this mean they hold the ship if they arranged the air?? I really don't know.

[grandmato4]

I do remember---sailing out of San Juan about 10 or 11 years ago. We had come down earlier, but a number of passengers were coming in on cruise arranged flights from the mid-west, which had been hit by a huge storm. We were supposed to sail at 11 pm, but we held off until after midnight. We were looking over and saw people running to the ship--and my DH yelled "hurry up, you've already missed 3 meals!"

 

Does this mean they hold the ship if they arranged the air?? I really don't know.

 

It is a major misconception that cruiselines will hold the ship for you to arrive if you have purchased air arrangements through them. Cruiselines do not hold the ship for all passengers booking air through them to arrive at port. With that said, there are times that if there is a mjor airline problem that has held up many passengers the cruiseline will hold the ship for the passengers to arrive. In other words, sometimes passengers get lucky but other times they don't !

[Northshorecruisers]

Our flight to FLL for our Nov 07 cruise was cancelled before it even left the airport. Luckily - about 6 hours later they got us on a flight that took us to Sarasota (other side of the state) but at least we were in the right state. I would have been happy to get to Atlanta and driven the rest on our own. The airline paid for us to rent a vehicle and the fuel to get us from Sarasota to Ft Lauderdale. We arrived at our hotel at midnight - just 12 hours later than we should have had the flights run correctly.

Here's the reason we always fly in at least a day early.

[PennyAgain]

Hi Penny,

 

Do you mean they kept your money and charged the other person the single supplement as well? There was a thread with discussion back and forth on this, but as I remember it there wasn't general agreement on how it's handled. If HA keeps the original booking money and charges the remaining passenger the single supplement, then this is really good to know and I thank you very much for posting it.

 

Yes, HA kept my money and charged the person who was scheduled to share a room with me the single supplement. The travel insurance paid for my flight home as I was unable to catch up with the ship due to poor weather and skipped ports. It was a 7 day cruise. I lost about 80% on the deal when all was said and done.

 

After a lot of letter writing HA sent me some certificates that were 'valued' at $100 off per cruise (and you could only use one per passenger per cruise.) Never used them.

[bluesea777]

When I did not show up, Holland American changed that person a single supplement!

 

Hi Penny,

 

Do you mean they kept your money and charged the other person the single supplement as well? There was a thread with discussion back and forth on this, but as I remember it there wasn't general agreement on how it's handled. If HA keeps the original booking money and charges the remaining passenger the single supplement, then this is really good to know and I thank you very much for posting it.

 

Yes, HA kept my money and charged the person who was scheduled to share a room with me the single supplement. The travel insurance paid for my flight home as I was unable to catch up with the ship due to poor weather and skipped ports. It was a 7 day cruise. I lost about 80% on the deal when all was said and done.

 

After a lot of letter writing HA sent me some certificates that were 'valued' at $100 off per cruise (and you could only use one per passenger per cruise.) Never used them.

 

Good enough (or should I say BAD enough) for me NOT to book any cruise with HAL !! :eek:

[PennyAgain]

I'm not convinced that any other cruise line would behave in a different manner. HAL did what it said was 'policy'.

[bluefintuna]

The only time we had trouble was traveling from Boston to Ft. Lauderdale changing planes in North Carolina. We just made it out of Boston as the storm hit and we were so relieved. We landed in N.C. with ice covering the runway and grass and many flights were cancelled from there to Florida. Somehow we made it out and on to Florida.

[linkerbink]

I do remember---sailing out of San Juan about 10 or 11 years ago. We had come down earlier, but a number of passengers were coming in on cruise arranged flights from the mid-west, which had been hit by a huge storm. We were supposed to sail at 11 pm, but we held off until after midnight. We were looking over and saw people running to the ship--and my DH yelled "hurry up, you've already missed 3 meals!"

 

Does this mean they hold the ship if they arranged the air?? I really don't know.

 

Our Alaska cruise was due to leave at 5 PM but didn't leave til after 10 as they were waiting for a group which had booked air through RCCL. I'm guessing it was quite a large number of people on the delayed flight. We were on the ship, so we didn't really care if we left on time or not!

[printingchick]

It is a major misconception that cruiselines will hold the ship for you to arrive if you have purchased air arrangements through them. Cruiselines do not hold the ship for all passengers booking air through them to arrive at port. With that said, there are times that if there is a mjor airline problem that has held up many passengers the cruiseline will hold the ship for the passengers to arrive. In other words, sometimes passengers get lucky but other times they don't !

 

We got lucky. It was a Carnival cruise in February. We got out of New England just fine - no weather issues. We landed in Nashville to light snow showers. Nashville has only ONE de-icing machine. The captain kept announcing that we'd be in the air in 30 minutes. He repeated the announcement every 30 minutes. I was on the phone frantically with Carnival. I had kids on the verge of tears. It was very stressful.

 

We got to the dock aroudn 4:05 for a 4:00 departure. They held the ship, I think because we were not the only ones who were delayed. We missed the muster drill (YAY), and made the cruise (DOUBLE-YAY). But it's not a good way to start a vacation!

[RetireeWannabee]

YES. Sucked rocks.

 

Rain in Cinci caused our plane to not make it to Indy in time to get us to Miami. Rain, in May. grrrrr

 

Luckily, we had bought air thru the cruiseline, so they took care of the extra flights. Of course, we spent most of the day standing in line at Delta counters between here and FL, and ended the day with an hour+ midnight limo ride from some city in FL to another in FL, minus luggage, and had to get up early the next morning to get the hotel shuttle to the airport for a tiny commuter flight to Nassau.

 

That was in 2002, so most of the details I don't remember (blocked out, or whatever, I was quite upset).

 

Lesson learned: I will NEVER fly in Day-Of again!!!

 

For a short cruise (10th anniv, 3 or 4 day Bahamas), it had quite an impact.

[TiredOl6]

My thinking on this varies by the time of year you are flying, whether or not a direct flight is available, and whether or not there is a back-up flight going to the same destination after your flight but in time to catch the ship.

 

Middle of winter - fly in the day before

No direct flight - fly in the day before

Only flight to destination in time to get you there on the day of the cruise - lean heavily toward flying in the day before

 

But:

 

If the cruise is in a moderate weather month, you have a direct flight, and there is a back-up flight available that would get you there on time - we normally fly in early on the day of the cruise. I would like to add "and we have never had a problem" but there is no wood nearby to knock on. Also, not sure this matters to others but we always fly on a particular major airline with which we have had good luck and never fly the group discount charters, etc.

 

Just a thought - or two or three!