Fly in early or not

I imagine this has been debated before but if so, I searched and can't find the thread.

I've done two Viking trips before, never had a problem with flights. But it could always happen. I'm about to drop some cash on the Mediterranean Odyssey cruise. I'm leaning towards coming in on embarkation day and doing an extension in Barcelona at the end of the cruise.

I'd like to be in Venice for the evening activities. I'd work with a TA for flights and plan to pay for Air Plus. So I think I should be able to find flights that put me there early enough. The worst that happens is that I miss a flight and get in the next day.

Anyone have experience flying in the same day? Any bad experiences?

Don't do it.

Why?

Because if your flight is delayed or cancelled you can miss the ship.

If luggage goes missing there is no time to get it to you.

Jet Lag. Med Cruises are port intensive and you want to get on the ship feeling like you are on the time zone and you are ready to go.

Keith

Don't do it.

 

Why?

Because if your flight is delayed or cancelled you can miss the ship.

If luggage goes missing there is no time to get it to you.

Jet Lag. Med Cruises are port intensive and you want to get on the ship feeling like you are on the time zone and you are ready to go.

Keith

Keith is correct and something went too would never do.

The risks and the worries are way too great. We find flights now a days way too horrible to add worries to all the above.

I believe OP is planning another Viking and often Viking spends the first night and most of second day in the port of origin so I suspect that OP is thinking they have a day of leeway ..... and if my assumptions are true the worst case is they lose the day in the "first port"

We're booked for a Viking Ocean soon and it boards day 1 in Greenwich but does not depart Greenwich until 2359 the following day (2) ..... since one usually can't board until afternoon anyway there would appear to be ruffly 36 hours of leeway ....

We slice the pie a little differently tho: if I'm spending that many hours on a plane to get 'over there' I'll spend a couple of extra days b4 AND after .... we find that booking our own air and hotels we can beat the pants off V's flight arrangements and 'add ons' every time ...

Agreed! And to share our experience, two years ago we were flying to Lisbon for a cruise, going through Dallas. When we got up at 3 am to go to the airport we had an email that the flight from Dallas was canceled due to a tornado! In May!! They flew us out the next day, through Madrid(and then lost our luggage!!!). Fortunately we were flying in two days early. Bu we would NEVER go the same day.

I imagine this has been debated before but if so, I searched and can't find the thread.

 

I've done two Viking trips before, never had a problem with flights. But it could always happen. I'm about to drop some cash on the Mediterranean Odyssey cruise. I'm leaning towards coming in on embarkation day and doing an extension in Barcelona at the end of the cruise.

 

I'd like to be in Venice for the evening activities. I'd work with a TA for flights and plan to pay for Air Plus. So I think I should be able to find flights that put me there early enough. The worst that happens is that I miss a flight and get in the next day.

 

Anyone have experience flying in the same day? Any bad experiences?

On the other hand, we have arrived day of the cruise on our last three Viking adventures and were fortunate not to encounter any problems. Two of our cruises were end of December. There are many people who arrive day of the cruise without any problems and there will always be one or two horror stories of flights gone awry, etc.

However, I find that flying takes more out of me than it used to and on our next adventure, I want to arrive early so I have some time to recuperate before the fun begins.

I would ask you if you are willing to lose a day of your $1000+ per day vacation? Is there a work/time constraint pushing your arriving the day of embarkation?

You do have the second day in Venice to catch up and odds are that it will be fine.

Depends on your personal comfort level with possibly losing a day of the trip.

I prefer to have a cushion because I have encountered delays of every type-equipment, weather, airline computer meltdowns, lack of crew. Arriving a day (or more) earlier let’s me travel relaxed and knowing that I have time to catch up from jet lag as well. And if my luggage goes missing-time to deal with that.

Thanks. Leaning towards going early. My next is NCL. Haven't booked Viking yet. Just put hold on something with TA.

I recommend the day before for all the above mentioned reasons. I was on the first Viking Ocean cruise, Istanbul to Stockholm (ok, the ship had to get from Venice to Istanbul) and used Viking air to fly in the same day (left ATL the evening before) but was beat flying 20+ hrs in economy. On the other hand, I was on a cruise with another line out of San Diego. A couple flew in the day we departed and their flightwas delayed and they missed the sailing. They flew to Alaska to join the ship but due to a typhoon, we did not go there. 13 days after sailing, they caught up with the ship. I don't recommend arriving the same day the ship departs.

Thanks. Leaning towards going early. My next is NCL. Haven't booked Viking yet. Just put hold on something with TA.

Glad you are leaning this way.

Keith

Did a flight arriving the day our transatlantic cruise started. Never again! No flight issues - but flying from the west coast of the U.S. meant crossing lots of time zones. Complete zombies the first full day and we had excursions booked. Lesson learned. We now arrive for any transatlantic cruise two days prior.

We just returned from a NCL cruise to the Canary Islands. 6 hours before we were to begin our flights, we received that dreaded message "your flight is delayed." We could rebook, but there were simply no options available. Fortunately we were able (just barely) to make our connections and arrived in Barcelona on time. From now on I will always book at least 2 days in advance!!

Member of our roll call flying to San Juan PR yesterday was delayed 5 hours because of computer problems on the plane, in AZ. Missed conneciton in Dalles, put up for the night by AA. Got stand by seats this morning to San Juan rather than wait till late afternoon flight. This was three days before our cruise which beigns March 27.

I am flying in the predawn tomorrow, with a connection in CLT to San Juan. Hope to be at the hotel by mid afternoon. Have two nights before beginning our cruise.

I would NEVER fly in the day of the cruise for all the reasons stated.

I already planned to come in early for my NCL cruise in 2018. This thread has convinced me to do the same with my Viking Ocean cruise in 2019. My only question is whether I'll do the Viking add-ons or pick a different (better) hotel and manage my own transfers.

Viking add ons will be easy but are highly inflated for what you get. With MO. you can do better on your own financially, as both starting and ending ports are tilled with options.

We flew in the day of once and had no problems. It was from McArthur airport non-stop to Fort Lauderdale. However now we always fly in a day or two early and do some sightseeing first. It is because on itineraries where it would be difficult to fly to catch the ship if missed (like Cartagena on Panama Canal cruises) I just don't want to take that chance. We were sitting at LaGuardia airport on our way home after a cruise this past summer and the couple sitting across from us seemed distraught. They were starting their cruise vacation and decided to fly down to Miami the day of out of LaGuardia and for some reason their air travel got all messed up. I think their flight was cancelled due to mechanical difficulties and there were no other flights that would get them there on time. Their first port stop out of Miami would have been Cozumel and I suggested just flying there to wait for the ship but it turns out they were short on funds and didn't have insurance so that option was out of the question. So...they just turned around and went home. It was a couple and their young daughter. I felt sorry for them.

We flew in the day of once and had no problems. It was from McArthur airport non-stop to Fort Lauderdale. However now we always fly in a day or two early and do some sightseeing first. It is because on itineraries where it would be difficult to fly to catch the ship if missed (like Cartagena on Panama Canal cruises) I just don't want to take that chance. We were sitting at LaGuardia airport on our way home after a cruise this past summer and the couple sitting across from us seemed distraught. They were starting their cruise vacation and decided to fly down to Miami the day of out of LaGuardia and for some reason their air travel got all messed up. I think their flight was cancelled due to mechanical difficulties and there were no other flights that would get them there on time. Their first port stop out of Miami would have been Cozumel and I suggested just flying there to wait for the ship but it turns out they were short on funds and didn't have insurance so that option was out of the question. So...they just turned around and went home. It was a couple and their young daughter. I felt sorry for them.

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WOW I always get insurance because you never know what would happen

 

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The trip insurance through Viking is very expensive. Check with your credit card company. I have a Chase Sapphire Reserve and it covers up to $10,000 per person /$20,000 per incident. If something happens and we miss the ship or the trip gets interrupted for some reason we will be covered. Doesn't cost me anything, just had to book part of the trip with the card.

The trip insurance through Viking is very expensive. Check with your credit card company. I have a Chase Sapphire Reserve and it covers up to $10,000 per person /$20,000 per incident. If something happens and we miss the ship or the trip gets interrupted for some reason we will be covered. Doesn't cost me anything, just had to book part of the trip with the card.

Wow. That’s a great deal. Trip insurance isn’t cheap.

We have not arrived on the day of a cruise departure since almost missing our ship in Rome several years ago due to a delayed flight that caused us to miss a connection. We eventually made it to Rome and then had a hair-raising ride with a van driver who must have trained with Mario Andretti. We still would have missed our ship but for an entire plane full of folks on a charter flight through the cruise line who were later than we were so they held the ship for them and we made it onboard gasping for breath. Never again.

I have to chime in here. Our Trade Routes cruise begins on Saturday but we have arrived early to do some land touring. On our plane to Barcelona on Monday were a few Viking Star passengers whose cruise began on Tuesday so they were going to be picked up by Viking reps at the airport. All well and good as our plane was scheduled for a 9 am Tuesday arrival.

However! We had an unruly passenger on our plane who was escorted off by a federal Marshall. Then WE had to get off (Yes the entire plane) while a search was conducted. Our scheduled Barcelona arrival for 9 am turned into 1 pm. The Star passenger in my row was so disappointed that because of this incident she was missing a good chunk of her planned outing in Barcelona.

Btw, we were so impressed that there were so many Viking reps on hand at the airport despite the big delay. My seatmate thought for sure that they'd all have to fend for themselves and get taxis.

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Any time there is a late arrival it is so disappointing. But it is good that there is an overnight in Barcelona. We got lucky last year and our plane arrived at 7 AM. I had booked Sagrada for I think 11 AM and even taking a taxi to the ship, dropping luggage, taxi to Sagrada, we still had time to kill. So unfortunate that the 4 hour delay was for an unruly passenger. How rude! Nice that the Viking reps were there. Taxis were pretty cheap, though, and quick!

Any time there is a late arrival it is so disappointing. But it is good that there is an overnight in Barcelona. We got lucky last year and our plane arrived at 7 AM. I had booked Sagrada for I think 11 AM and even taking a taxi to the ship, dropping luggage, taxi to Sagrada, we still had time to kill. So unfortunate that the 4 hour delay was for an unruly passenger. How rude! Nice that the Viking reps were there. Taxis were pretty cheap, though, and quick!

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If we can see that the ship doesn’t leave our emvarkation port until the day after our embarkation port, the if we have had a relatively short outbound flight, we don’t mind flying out on embarkation day.

But, if the flight in quite long, or if the ship has one or more sea days straight after leavinv the embarkation port, we always fly out early.

Our flight is 3 hours, but with a stop over it becomes 7. To San Juan. We are there over night. So thinking of chancing it and flying in the day of.

anyone know what this note means for those flying from Canada?

Do they have to pay the 50pp, for deviation and a hotel?

My TA does not know, Viking does not know, yet it IS on their Web site at the bottom.

NOTE: Canadian flights depart one day prior to check-in date.