Fly in day OF or day BEFORE cruise?

[D & D]

Please settle a slight dispute my DH and I are having: I say we fly into LAX the day before our cruise "for safety sake". However, DH says to save $ on hotel, meals, taxi, etc, we should fly in on the first flight of the day (arriving LAX 9:45 AM, cruise leaves at 4 PM). I can ALMOST agree with him except our flight connects in DENVER -- in JANUARY! Can you see my reason for anxiety :eek: ? What is your experience, recommendations?

Thanks!

[Why Knot Me]

Definitely day before, especially for travel in January and then thru Denver :eek:.

 

Tell him my story... last August, hurricane season flying into Miami. If we hadn't flown in the day before, we would have missed the ship.

[markincanada]

It all depends on your stress levels. We have done it both ways. For our med cruise we flew in the day of to Barcelona and it was tight - but that was overseas.

 

Do what makes you relaxed.

[lhall85917]

Unless I absolutely HAD to, I wouldn't fly in on the day of the cruise. There are just too many things that can go wrong, especially in January. You never know what the weather will do - even if your weather is fine, there could be problems in the other part of the country that affect your flight(s).

 

You spend too much time planning and preparing for your cruise to be stressing over making it to the ship on time. I just read another thread of someone flying to London from the states on the day of their cruise - I just can't imagine doing that, I would be in a panic the whole way there!!:eek:

[route507too]

I had a terrible experience trying to get from Boston to Las Vegas once. (Obviously I wasn't taking a cruise...)

 

Nonetheless...we sat on the tarmac for about an hour before the captain finally announced that there was a mechanical problem with the plane and we all needed to deplane and see the attendant right at the gate for another flight. Well, imagine trying to get 200+ passengers on the only two remaining flights to LV that day! (They couldn't even get us on another airline.) Ha. Needless to say, we ended up being forced to buy tickets on JetBlue (which coincidentally "doesn't work with other airlines" to help get customers where they want to be when they want to be.) Thankfully US Airways DID refund our money for that flight, and give us a credit toward a future flight. Even so, these two things still didn't cover the cost of having to buy JetBlue tix within hours of the plane taking off.

 

Just to be on the safe side now, I will ALWAYS fly in a day before any important event. Maybe you just have to go through the hell that can be missing a flight or having one cancelled on you to justify spending the money on the hotel, etc.

 

Tell DH my story. Maybe it'll convince him. (Remind him that weather wasn't even close to a factor in my ordeal! I can't imagine trying to throw that wrench in the spokes TOO!)

Good luck. :)

[noobcruiser]

Always go the day before. Even more so if connecting through Denver in January.

 

To save money on transportation, stay near LAX, they will likely have free shuttles from the airport.

Then to save some on food, book a hotel that serves a continental breakfast.

[gbcruise]

Why create a potential problem? No one knows if a plane will have any problems or if weather will play a part in delays. With flying in the day before if problems arise you at least have time to restructure and no go into total panic. Without a doubt for us we arrive at least the day before, even when driving in. Nothing like awaking in the morning & watching your ship come in.

[noreddye]

Ditto, fly in the night prior.

[kebauc]

I also vote for the day before. You never know what may happen. We've had plane delays due to rainstorms, etc. in the middle of summer. We're flying in to Boston the day before our cruise. We consider this to be relatively inexpensive "insurance" to pay for hotel/meals vs. what we would have to pay out to catch up with the ship at one of the ports or lose out all together. Going a day early also keeps us from being stressed out as we begin our vacation... Enjoy your trip!:)

[oklahomagirl]

My DH was the same way. We had a flight that would arrive at 10:30 am in New Orleans out of Wichita. We sat on the tarmac for an hour because of fog. We missed our connection in Dallas and barely made the ship. We arrived in New Orleans at 3:00. My DH apologized a number of times. We will never fly in the day of a cruise ever again. It was so stressful because I was on the phone with Carnival quite a few times. It took me a whole day to relax from that stress. Fly in day before.

[S4POPO]

In your case, I would have no problems taking a chance flying in the day of the cruise. For a cruise leaving in Europe, that would be a different story.

 

How about booking the airfare through the cruiseline? Wouldn't that provide you with some added protection? Even if the airfare is slightly higher than what you can book on your own, it should be less than the additional cost of a hotel, food, etc.

[D & D]

DH agreed that we should fly in the day before. Thanks to all of you for your great answers!

[hacmangum]

If you miss your cruise, you aren't really saving much money are you???

 

You can shop around to get a good hotel deal. I have found that it usually only costs us about $150 extra for pre-cruise lodging and transportation- and we COULD do it cheaper if we tried. However, we just consider than an extra "vacation" day and try to do something in the port city to make our time there worth while.

 

Good luck on convincing him!

[GinDon]

You'll be hard-pressed to find someone that will counsel you to fly the same day. It's just not worth the chance of missing the ship. Two years ago we were on our way to Tampa (the day before). First leg of the flight got delayed. Missed our connection. Landed in Tampa at 5:30 instead of 1:30 like we were supposed to. No biggie for us, but the couple in the two seats in front of us on the plane missed the boat they were sailing on, that day. There were no weather issues, just typical airline snafus. Go a day early. Be carefree. It's worth the extra $$$$$.

[Toyz711]

sept '06, flying out of memphis at 6:40am to seattle to catch the NCL alaskan cruise.

got to the airport at 4:45am, not bad...just a line of about 30 people for check-in...except that the computers were down. not just for american, but for the whole airport. the agents, behind the counters, were checking people in by phone...memphis agents were on the phone to another airport and those other agents were actually checking passengers in. took over 2 hours just to get those 30 people checked in. many flights were getting cancelled...but out flight did take off..30 mins late.

got in the air and the pilot tells us he may have to land somewhere other then DFW..bad weather over DFW!

thank goodness, he did land in DFW...ran to our gate, if this one person wasn't standing there ,finishing his ice cream cone, the gate would have been closed and we would have been out of luck. the gate agent was trying to get the ice cream eater to hurry as we ran up, she told us how lucky we were.

all other flights, to seattle out of DFW, were booked full..we would NOT have been able to get to the cruise.

we will never fly in the same day...ever, again.

[watchdiva]

Another vote to fly in the day before:) - no way I'd try to connect through Denver the day of.......

[JessLCH]

Definitely not same day in winter with a connection!

[Zeno]

In winter with a connection - The day before for sure!

[bluesea777]

DH agreed that we should fly in the day before. Thanks to all of you for your great answers!

 

GOOD!!

 

If it's a non-stop flight we fly in the day before, but if it's a flight with connection (aka long flight) we fly in 2 days before.

[weare3]

Day before .....always....(for sure in Winter).

 

Just picture this....(it's the day of your cruise, you're at the airport and they announce the flight is going to be delayed an hour, then it turns into 2 hours, then 3....TALK ABOUT STRESS. You'd still be at the airport when your ship starts sailing. Now to me that is stress.

 

But its also understandable what your thoughts are but to me its always safe to go the day before so you are assured to be on that ship. I've heard stories from people that missed the boat and their last words are always "we should have flown in the day before".

 

Good luck on your decision.

[billie5]

Anyone who pays $150 for hotel and travel costs to port via LAX is not even trying. You can do it for under $100 with minimal effort.

 

Bill

[cruiserssandr]

We are scheduled to cruise on the Norwegian Jewel out of Miami on Feb 7, 2010. I just realized this is the day of the Superbowl and it will be played in Miami. In this case I don't think flying in the day before will be an option. I don't think the flight will be a problem as most people going to the game will already be there. So in this case what do you think would be the best option. We will be flying from Boston. Had thought of using Jet Blue to Ft Lauderdale since I have some credits to use up. It will probably be early July before those flights are posted.

[1kycat]

Denver to LA is not too bad.

 

This past January only 1.3 percent of flights were canceled. Average arrival delay was 45 min.

 

That being said, I always arrive the day before. :)

[cruiselovincouple]

We've always flown in the day before just to be safe, but we live in Phoenix and are taking a chance this next time around. Embarkation port is San Fransisco and booked a flight that arrives in San Fran at 9:45am. It's a 2 hour flight and we're crossing our fingers that we don't have a bad experience!! Yikes!!:eek:

[FLAHAM]

I recommend a new husband with some common sense.