An argument for not flying in the day of the cruise

I've flown in day of most of our cruises with the exception of two. Never had an issue. I would have flown in the day before but time would not allow it. And actually, the next cruise we are taking in November, I had flights for the day before and they were changed to a time that didn't work and now my flights are for the day of, getting us into Miami at 11:10am. Can't win.

Unfortunately, the first port of call is Roatan. Not excited about possibly having to meet the ship in Roatan.

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I will add my own recent horror story. We were to sail on the Jade out of Hamburg on July 16 so I booked flights for July 14. We were to spend the 15th in a Hamburg hotel. We had a 3 hour layover in AtL so was just a little worried but knew there were lots of flights out of ATL to Europe. Well our flight was 3 hours late leaving, but our aircraft was still at the gate in ATL but they wouldn't let us board....said gate was closed....code for we gave your business class seats away because the flight was oversold! The rest of the trip was a nightmare. We finally arrived in Hamburg about 2:00pm on the 16th. The ship was to sail at 5:00 but all aboard time was 3:00 pm!

Now I'm fighting with the insurance company who sold me trip delay insurance!

Sorry about your travel troubles. Sounds like a bumpy start to a vacation, especially since you had ample time built in for delays. Good luck with travel insurance claim. I had to make one and it was denied at first and then took months- I think they do that to hope you will say forget it and give up.

Our upcoming Jade cruise is quite expensive. I booked day before arriving to London heathrow and plenty of connection time for 1st leg BUT the airline shortened our connection to 60 minutes in slc, which doesn't have a ton on daily flights. Delta regularly struggles to get us anywhere on time but they won't change our flight because they say we have ample time to make the international connection. I'm figuring if we're 15 minutes late leaving on first flight we're screwed. It's giving me great stress but what can we do. Just hope for the best I guess. Just wish they'd let passengers who stand to lose out on very expensive vacations a little more flexibility to change flights.

A good outcome story- alaska airlines held our plane a couple years ago and even sent a car to our plane to drive us to the connecting flight at sea tac. There was 4 of us going on a cruise and they made sure we got on the ship departure in Vancouver. Last month however the same airline stranded us in the airport. Daughter had arrived to sea and their plane had no gate. She waited two hours before getting a gate and the flight attendant would not let her deboard ahead of other passengers. We missed last flight of night by about 60 seconds and also missed out on our Disneyland weekend trip. They gave us $25.

This thread is causing me great anxiety. I leave on Med cruise in 17 days. I'm scheduled to arrive in Barcelona at 6pm the night before and I'm wishing I had made it2days before.

We are flying in the day of for our cruise- but we are only going Orlando-Miami. We are on the first Delta flight of the day and there are several more after that which would still get us there in time. If our flight is cancelled and we can't get on another then we will hire a car and drive from Orlando to Miami- which we didn't choose to do in the first place because we aren't used to driving in America. We have back up plans!

Last cruise we flew in the day of, but it was only London-Barcelona and went like clockwork. Still, doing it makes me nervous and I don't know why I do it to myself! Next time (from Sicily) I'm going to fly in the day before.

I think the doom and gloom is a bit OTT- it's enough to say 'it's advisable to fly in the day before, but if you can't then have a back up plan'

This thread is causing me great anxiety. I leave on Med cruise in 17 days. I'm scheduled to arrive in Barcelona at 6pm the night before and I'm wishing I had made it2days before.

But you can easily catch up with a Med cruise at its second port in a worst case scenario

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I work in the airline industry. I'm a pilot. I can tell you thousands upon thousands of horror stories related to this...several I have experienced personally.

 

I can remember flying in the day before a cruise back in 2010. My wife was on a ticket in the back and I was hitching a ride in the observer's seat in the cockpit. An hour out of Ft. Lauderdale, we get put into a holding pattern out over the Gulf. The Expect Further Clearance Time (the time we're supposed to be cleared out of the hold) was over an hour from the time we got the clearance. Needless to say, no one plans to have THAT much fuel on board. Next thing I know, we're headed to Tampa. Turns out line after line of thunderstorms were crossing Florida from west to east. We were on the ground for 3 hours in Tampa. Over a dozen people missed their cruises. 6 people onboard that plane got to watch the Carnival Miracle sail as we taxied in.

 

A few years ago, I was working a trip. We were headed from Charlotte down to Ft. Lauderdale. We were supposed to depart around 11:30ish. The airplane that was supposed to make up our flight had a mechanical delay was going to be well 2-3 hours late. Dispatch was working on finding us a new airplane. They found one, but it was going to be almost 1pm before we were going to be able to (airplane was on it's way in, but had to be deplaned, cleaned, catered and reboarded) depart. As luck would have it, that airplane also had a maintenance issue that was written up on the way in and had to be cleared I had at least 10-15 people come up to me in the gate saying they were catching a cruise ship and that we had to go. Nothing I can do, except sympathize. I believe they made it, since we were in Ft. Lauderdale around 2ish, but I sure wouldn't want the stress they endured. Not a way to start a vacation.

 

Bottom line, there are so many factors in the airline industry that people rarely think about. The weather at your departure city, connection and destination could be great. However, there could be a giant thunderstorm over Virginia (if you're flying down the east coast). Guess what? Air Traffic Control in Washington is going to be severely restricting airplanes through that area, as it is some of the most congested airspace in the country. Or again, weather is great on your route, however, the plane is coming in from someplace else with crummy weather and is delayed. Or the crew is delayed from the night before. There are so many moving parts around the airline, it's not worth the risk.

 

Bottom line: fly down the day before, enjoy a nice relaxing dinner and start your vacation stress-free. Airlines will stress you out...GUARANTEED.

I can remember when both our girls worked for airlines and we would fly on passes. In those days, we didn't just allow 1 day, to be safe, no matter how a flight looked we allowed 2 days to get to the embarkation port.

This thread is causing me great anxiety. I leave on Med cruise in 17 days. I'm scheduled to arrive in Barcelona at 6pm the night before and I'm wishing I had made it2days before.

You will probably have no issues but it's always safer to plan a "just in case" scenario.

If I was going on a Med cruise, I'd just fly in earlier for time to rest, and maybe see the sites before my cruise...

Have a great time!

I can remember when both our girls worked for airlines and we would fly on passes. In those days, we didn't just allow 1 day, to be safe, no matter how a flight looked we allowed 2 days to get to the embarkation port.

I NEVER fly on passes when I cruise anymore. Non-revving is next to impossible nowadays. When we have to be somewhere, we buy tickets. It's not worth the stress.

A few years ago my wife and I along with another couple booked the Dawn out of Tampa in November. My wife and I few in the day before out of PHL. Our friends flew from BWI same day on a 6:30am flight. Because of fog at BWI and in Tampa they did not get to the port until 3:35pm. They were literally closing things up. Some how they let them check in and board. They were the last two pax to board the ship. Not a good way to start a cruise but at least they made it

Most of our recent cruises have been back to back so we end up back home without flying.

That said, we have flown from So Calif to Ft Lauderdale for cruises several times on the day of the cruise successfully by taking a redeye and getting there early AM.

You're comparing apples and oranges. When I travel for business' date=' I'm travelling alone. If I miss the meeting, it gets rescheduled or happens with me attending by phone. My travel arrangements are changed quickly because I'm alone. I usually have a carry on and a purse.

If I'm travelling with my family of 4, things are significantly more expensive and challenging to organize. Air travel isn't the luxury it used to be, flights are overbooked and delayed on a fairly regular basis. We have multiple checked bags and carry ons for each person. We almost always have to transfer, which adds another potential delay. We live in Canada and travel in the winter, so weather delays have happened to us too.

Leaving a day early to increase the chance of an enjoyable vacation is an easy choice. As a previous poster mentioned, we too drive to NYC a day early even though we are a 7 hour drive. We have encountered horrible snow storms that have turned this into a 13+ hour trip, and were grateful to get to the ship on time!

For us, the risks of travelling the day of a cruise are simply too high.

 

 

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I agree totally. No one really knows what the odds of you missing a cruise due to flight problems or other travel related issues on the day of are, but I imagine the % of delayed or cancelled flights per airline are available somewhere. Even if that percentage is very small, if you are going to play the odds, you really have to consider the stakes. If the loss is small, ( I arrive for my beach vacation a day or two late ) even 50% odds might be acceptable. But the loss of a cruise vacation for a family of 4 would be too much for me, even if the odds were only 2 or 3% and it was fully insured.

 

Out of the handful of times we have flown to cruise vacations, I can recall 2 or 3 flight delays, one major snowstorm on flight day, and one ground stop at our destination airport causing cancellations of upcoming flights in Chicago, even for the following day, as the planes were sitting on the ground elsewhere or still enroute to our airport. Because several flights were cancelled, the competition for booking a flight the next two days was intense. By the time we were notified, the best we could manage was an arrival the afternoon of the day before the cruise vs two relaxing days in San Francisco pre cruise. If we had been playing the "day of" game, we'd have missed the cruise. And, we'd have still missed it even if flying in a day early. Flying to the first port stop in Hawaii would have been very costly, and we'd have missed the first 5 days of the cruise.

Another recent unknown: Twice last year major airlines (SWA and Delta) had computer glitches/hacks that shut down their network for several days.

We rolled the dice to arrive morning of our Alaska cruise and were affected. I took that risk knowingly - we are both heavy business travelers and have airline status, there are hourly flights from our area to Seattle and they are very reliable, no weather issues in either city during the summer and planes are going back and forth on only that route. We booked our cruise fairly last minute (~3 weeks out) and couldn't leave earlier. Having issues on that route is very unlikely, but lightning struck and when SWA started cancelling all flights ours was cancelled the night before.

Fortunately we were able to use points last minute to get on a United flight out of SFO instead of OAK for only a couple hundred $ in last minute fees and extra parking. (SWA would have covered that, I never bothered to file a claim.) We got to Seattle on pretty much the same schedule and all was fine. I suspect a less savvy traveler would have been more stressed and not had the options we did. Worst case we also could have driven up there, we had a window of time to work with and could have made the ship, although didn't want to.

I concur that business travel is different, even when I'm going to something that can't be cancelled like a speaking gig. I've had a lot of travel delays this year and they are stressful, but with status and only needing one seat I find a solution. The one time we had a delay with 4 people, including kids who need to be seated with an adult, it was nearly impossible to find a next flight.

We'll fly in several days before for our Hawaii cruise, and I would do it for Europe or the east coast most likely. But west coast to west coast (LA, San Diego, etc.) I'd still consider taking the risk of an early morning flight. There many alternate options for us and the routes are very reliable, and leaving an extra day earlier is just not feasible. But I go into that knowing the odds and watching for early signs of issues, with a back up plan in mind.

While I prefer to go a day ahead of time most of the doom and gloom scenarios that are painted in this thread are laughable. You guys clearly know something that the business world hasn't figured out yet, because thousands of business people fly to meetings on the day of the meeting, and they do it every day.

I have been in some of those meetings and they are even more useless than normal meetings because the out of town contingent always arrives late and they doze off even more easily than the ones who are rested. I would go in the day before so I could find the office, and if I had time, I would go find the meeting room and get the lay of the land beforehand.

I used to teach corporate technical workshops and I always wanted to see the classroom before we started so I always went in a day early. I knew instructors who would come in the morning of the workshop, and they were invariably late, which is not a good way to impress a room full of customers.

This thread is causing me great anxiety. I leave on Med cruise in 17 days. I'm scheduled to arrive in Barcelona at 6pm the night before and I'm wishing I had made it2days before.

As others have said, you have many plan B's if things go sideways. With a 6pm arrival time, it sounds like you are connecting in Europe. If you can't get to BCN...try MAD and a train. If something happens to your flight, be armed with alternate flight plans in the same airline group that can get you there or close. And, as someone said, in the worst case scenario a catch-up to the ship is relatively easy in Europe.

I always get trip insurance. I used to get it because my parents were elderly, so just in case we had to come home in a hurry. Well, we never had to use it for that reason. 1 year my dh took sick. I had to cancel everthing. Luckily we got back everything, except the cost of the insurance, naturally. I'll never go on a trip without it.

Also, since we live in the northeast and usually cruise or go on "major" trips in the winter (got to get away from the cold) we've been leaving either the day before or 2 days before. Too many times there have been snow storms right after we've left or the next day. We left out of Boston 1 yr. We were the last flight out due to a snow storm. I cherish my vacations too much to miss them.

A couple of years ago we went on a cruise with my brother & fiance. We went down 2 days before to enjoy the San Juan before the cruise. Luckily we did...he left his passport in the seat pocket of the 1st leg of the flight. He realized it after we left the airport on the 2nd leg of the trip. It was great that the airline found the passport and had it sent next day air to the hotel we were staying at. (They had found it early enough that it could be sent the same day). That was a pretty nerve racking experience.

While I prefer to go a day ahead of time most of the doom and gloom scenarios that are painted in this thread are laughable. You guys clearly know something that the business world hasn't figured out yet, because thousands of business people fly to meetings on the day of the meeting, and they do it every day. The vast majority of flights arrive within 30 minutes of their scheduled arrival time. Flying in the day before can be just as risky as flying in the day of, because there are not a lot of empty seats and if a flight gets canceled it might take you three or four days to get to your destination. If your flight is simply delayed, then going the day before can be a cruise saver, but it is not likely to help with a canceled flight.

Apparently, the U.S. government publishes on-time flight statistics. The numbers that I have seen show that about 20% of U.S. flights are delayed and the average delay is about 60 minutes. 10% of flights are delayed over 120 minutes. I think I remember seeing somewhere that this numbers goes down to about 7% of flights are delayed over 4 hours. If any of the CC readers have seen the 4-hour number please let me know. Those are yearly broad averages for the system so I'm pretty sure some months will be higher and some routes will be higher.

I traveled a fair bit for work in my career and luckily, we have lots of direct flights from Toronto to all over North America. I rarely would fly in for a meeting the night before unless the meeting started very early in the morning or very bad weather was predicted. (better to get stuck in the client's city for a day or two than miss the meeting) I could catch the first flight out of Pearson in Toronto at 6 am and be in Manhattan ready to go by 8:30 am. Lots of the passengers on those first flights out in the morning I met on the evening return flight from New York, Boston, Montreal, etc. It is a very common thing to do.

We always arrive at the departure port at least 1 day early, unless we're sailing out of our home port of Boston (30 miles from home).

That said, our most stressful embarkation was in Hamburg, Germany, where we had spent the whole week before. Boarding was on a Sunday, and we went about our business attending the morning service in one of the historic churches. Then, back to the flat where we were staying to retrieve our bags. Having spent the week using public transport, we knew how to get around and were confident we'd have no trouble arriving at HafenCity on time; just an easy bus ride from where we stayed to the Main Station, and then another bus to the port. Easy peasy.

What we didn't realize was that the annual Hamburg Bike Race was that day, meaning ALL the main streets were closed between the main train station and the port and thus there was no bus service to the port. The new subway line to HafenCity was still under construction, so that wasn't an option. So we hired a cab thinking the driver would know another route. It was a no go. He ended up dropping us near the station where we started, and we realized we'd just have to hoof it the 1 mile to the port on the hottest day of the year! We were in our early 50's at the time and somehow made it on time, having walked full speed ahead while dragging our bags. We were NEVER so grateful to board the ship as we were that time.

I guess this goes to show that, even if you arrive in the departure port a week early, things can still go wrong.:o

Here is my success story. For my honeymoon and first cruise we flew direct from Boston to San Juan the morning of the cruise, no problems at all. In February. Without trip insurance. Whew.

Our last 3 cruises we flew in the night before from Boston to Florida to be safe. This is what I now feel comfortable doing, but I am debating flying into Houston the morning of for April. We'll see what I decide but leaning toward the night before.

This thread is causing me great anxiety. I leave on Med cruise in 17 days. I'm scheduled to arrive in Barcelona at 6pm the night before and I'm wishing I had made it2days before.

Ha Ha! Me too! I wish I had not found it. We fly into Copenhagen one day (over 24 hours) before we cruise. I have to think of the thousands of people who do make it on time! I am going to quit reading this. We fly Virgin Atlantic out of Atlanta. We do have travel insurance tho. Air and cruise.:eek::o

im a nervous nellie and always fly the day before. ideally, i like the first flight of the day as well, because the plane is always there.

I flew in day of only once. I booked my flight through RCCL so I knew I was fully insured.

We got up ridiculously early (around 3:30am) to catch a 6:30 direct flight out of Montreal. We boarded the plane and got ready to take off but there was a problem and we didn't leave.

We got off the plane and waited for a replacement plane to arrive, I called RCCL to tell them we were delayed. They were very nice and asked me for all the details. We were expecting to arrive on time as we had a significant number of hours before we would miss the ship.

The part that really stressed me out was when the guy told me if we missed the ship, we would catch up with the ship in Jamaica on day 4! The first stop was Labadee and RCCL can't fly you to Haiti to catch the ship in Labadee as it no where near an international airport.

In the end, we were delayed about 3 hours and got to the ship on time. But we were exhausted from the early wake up and the stressful morning. My first evening was a right off because I was exhausted but couldn't nap.

Even if we hadn't been delayed, I wouldn't fly day of again, because taking such an early flight is tiring and the stress is tiring. I'd rather go to bed early in Miami than on the ship!

On my next cruise, I'm considering flying with Sunwing and thinking I might fly in two days early because it's a Sunday cruise and Sunwing doesn't have a lot of flight choices.

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Here is my success story. For my honeymoon and first cruise we flew direct from Boston to San Juan the morning of the cruise, no problems at all. In February. Without trip insurance. Whew.

Our last 3 cruises we flew in the night before from Boston to Florida to be safe. This is what I now feel comfortable doing, but I am debating flying into Houston the morning of for April. We'll see what I decide but leaning toward the night before.

A brief warning about Houston: Perhaps you should read the Houston/Galveston port reviews, because I warn you, fog (or rain) can be a HUGE problem. It is mostly because of weather delays that the Port of Houston no longer has any major cruiselines leaving from that beautiful terminal! Galveston has delays as well!

I never understand the prosthelytizing on this. I've done day of, and I've done days before, and the latter is clearly my preference, but it's not always possible. I understand the risks. In one case, work meant either take the risk of arriving in Copenhagen at 11:00 a.m. or not taking a cruise I really wanted to take. I research things -- subsequent flights in case of IRROPS, what the second port of call is, whether the port agent will allow missed boarders to board there, etc. In short, I'm an adult, able to make hard choices and responsible for them.

I could understand these threads popping up every two months or so if the message were something like, "here are the risks, you should consider them," but they always seem to be more along the lines of people deciding that their risk tolerance and choices should be the same as everyone else's, and if it isn't, they are idiots.

A brief warning about Houston: Perhaps you should read the Houston/Galveston port reviews, because I warn you, fog (or rain) can be a HUGE problem. It is mostly because of weather delays that the Port of Houston no longer has any major cruiselines leaving from that beautiful terminal! Galveston has delays as well!

Thanks for the warning. I would most likely go the day before, it's just tempting.

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