Winter Storm in USA

[sha88]

Anyone else affected and what are you doing? We were supposed to leave for Florida on Saturday departing from the Pittsburgh Airport on Saturday, but we were able to change our flight to Friday at 5:50 am. Going crazy getting everything packed, etc. Don;t think my work is too pleased though!:eek:

[Rob & Beckys mom]

Smart thinking! We live in Michigan & that is why we always go a day ahead of our sailing. Much more relaxed. Jan

[Oi]

Anyone else affected and what are you doing? We were supposed to leave for Florida on Saturday departing from the Pittsburgh Airport on Saturday, but we were able to change our flight to Friday at 5:50 am. Going crazy getting everything packed, etc. Don;t think my work is too pleased though!:eek:

 

Sorry about that...but you're work will get over it, go enjoy your cruise and worry no more! Hope you enjoy getting away from the weather for a bit!

 

Happy Sailing!

[Chesie]

Anyone else affected and what are you doing? We were supposed to leave for Florida on Saturday departing from the Pittsburgh Airport on Saturday, but we were able to change our flight to Friday at 5:50 am. Going crazy getting everything packed, etc. Don;t think my work is too pleased though!:eek:

 

Smart doing that now. We also had this problem when we first started to cruise and we left the same day we cruised. We were sailing out of San Juan and needed to get there via JFK. There was a blizzard hitting the area Sat. Since there were 16 of us traveling, we all alerted everyone else. 5 of us were able to get out the day before.Iwent to work with a change of cloths and waited for the call when the car service was coming to pick me up. Boss wasn't happy but I said hey, if I don't go I miss my cruise. Landed in Ponce (opposite side of Island) airport and we all realized we were so busy trying to get out of the storm, we didn't have a place to stay!! We found a Hilton on the ocean. Probably the best hotel we ever stayed in. All of us made it before the storm hit but the others were traveling the red eyes and were exhausted for 2 days.

 

Lesson learned.......Travel the day before you cruise!

[regnig]

Boy is there ever the potential for things to get awful in the FLL / MIA area, particularly tomorrow. With all the ships that will dock on Saturday, the weather conditions specifically on the East coast shutting down airports, and the fact that it's Super Bowl weekend in MIA hotel rooms could be hard to come by for those poor folks who might get stranded unable to fly home. Then again, maybe they can take the hotel rooms of the folks who get stuck at home unable to fly to FL.

 

If there is anyone who cruises this time of year without arriving in their port city at least one, if not two, days in advance sure has far more faith in Mother Nature than I. Only cruise we didn't do that on was our very first, got slammed by "the storm of the century", cost us almost more to get from MD to FLL than the cruise did. Learned our lesson the expensive way but learned it well.

[graycottag]

Anyone else affected and what are you doing? We were supposed to leave for Florida on Saturday departing from the Pittsburgh Airport on Saturday, but we were able to change our flight to Friday at 5:50 am. Going crazy getting everything packed, etc. Don;t think my work is too pleased though!:eek:

 

I, too, am leaving from Pittsburgh to FLL around 2 PM today, wasn't able to change my flight...but, it seems like we are on the northern fringe of this thing and the snow isn't to start heavy until 4 or so. So far things look good.... and the flight I am leaving on is still scheduled to arrive here from FLL in Pittsburgh on time. Luckily I have a non-stop, usually have to connect in Charlotte or Atlanta.... so we should be in the air above it....... I'll relax once we actually get off the ground.

[Lovethe water]

I live in Balto and at 6:30 am I heard on the TV that Southwest had already begun to cancel flights for today as we are expecting 16-28". I work in a school and they are letting us out 3 hrs early and not a flake has fallen. People in this area panic at the mere mention of snow and flock to the grocery store for toilet paper, bread and milk. :eek:

[BobT172]

Always smart to head to FFL/MIA at least a day ahead for a cruise. It has become a planned ritual for us and we always find things to do.

 

Think of the thousands of folks who will be lined up at FFL/MIA airports trying to get home tomorrow... what a mess.

[jnc411]

When we cruise out of Florida , we always arrive a day ahead of cruise date. We live in Southern California , so we have to fly across the US through many states weather to get there, so far so good. Hope all goes well when we leave in a couple weeks.

Cori

[dutchess43]

Especially living in the NE I always try & book a flight the day before & the earliest non stop flight that I can get. Almost missed a cruise once & that was enough for us.

[Asil65]

The mid atlantic states are getting slammed. Things have been pretty calm in NE this year. I always get to the port a day earlier. Makes for less anxiety when cruising. Florida is supposed to get some really bad t storms today. I even heard threat of tornadoes. Crazy weather. Have a wonderful cruise.

[cruisefanfromLA]

Anyone else affected and what are you doing? We were supposed to leave for Florida on Saturday departing from the Pittsburgh Airport on Saturday, but we were able to change our flight to Friday at 5:50 am. Going crazy getting everything packed, etc. Don;t think my work is too pleased though!:eek:

 

You are lucky you were able to get a flight out early!

 

During the last huge snowstorm on the East coast in December, we were scheduled to leave out of Washington D.C. on Saturday for a Sunday cruise departing at 5:00 p.m out of Ft. Lauderdale. Our flight was canceled on Friday before one snowflake even fell. We tried to get a flight out that night but could not get reservations. We ended up getting one of the first flights out of Washington D.C. on Sunday but missed the ship by about 15 minutes.

 

Our nightmare continued in Ft. Lauderdale as we tried to catch up to the ship at the first port of call, Princess Cays. We were shocked as no one from the en-route service from Princess Cruises could give us directions how to get to the island. We knew that we would have to get to Nassau, and eventually found out that we would have to fly from Nassau to Governor's Harbour. By the time we got that information, we were unable to make the connecting flight in Governor's Harbour.

 

We eventually caught up to the ship in St. Thomas and missed the four days of the cruise. Needless to say, our Christmas cruise was a disaster!

 

I am writing this to let anyone who may need this information as it seems it is not always readily available from Princess Cruises.

[dcl1710]

As someone who always left the day of the cruise, we had our comeuppance for our Christmas cruise this year. We live in NJ and on December 19 the snow started. They closed Newark airport that Saturday. Our flight was for 6:30am on 12/20. We got up at 3am (which my children accused us of child abuse and they are 21 and 25), shoveled out and had the limo slowly make it to Newark and it was a ZOO. After we made through check in and what not we barely made the plane. 50 people missed the flight so the people who had stayed all night at the airport were able to get on the flight. It was a horrible way to start vacation, but we had a good time. Will definitely calculate more time to arrive next cruise. But in this instance, if we had planned to go a day ahead and left later in the day, we would have been in trouble. Good luck with your travel.

[micdee]

I know the airlines will waive any change fees when these big storms come, but how does that work with ticket pricing for the new flight? Do you pay the difference or is that waived too?

[Older Sister]

I was supposed to fly from Washington Dulles to Ft. Lauderdale later today (I'm on the Crown Princess which leaves Saturday), but Jet Blue changed me to a flight that left Washington last night, ahead of the storm. There was no change fee or change in the fare. However, instead of flying direct non-stop from Washington to Ft. Lauderdale, I had to fly north to JFK and THEN take a non-stop flight to Ft. Lauderdale. I was more than willing to endure this little inconvenience so as not to miss my cruise!! Good luck to those traveling today!

[pghflyer]

Nice to see a few other 'burghers here. I am booked on the 7:50 tonight which will be after the storm has started but hopefully not an issue since the plane is coming from Florida and our airport is used to handling snow. The 5AM went through Atlanta, so I decided that was a worse option and the 1PM direct was overbooked.

 

Good luck everyone!

[philv]

What's the poop on Atlanta? Do they handle these storms well? :confused:

[BobT172]

11:45AM

 

Well, the airlines are planning for the worse. I just checked all SWA flight from Albany, NY to Baltimore are cancelled for the rest of the day. Also, USAir flights to LaGuardia on to Washingotn are cancelled....

 

I hope all of you who ar eflying to your cruise make it...

[pghflyer]

The main problem with Atlanta (and other hubs) is your plane could be coming from anywhere and you are victim of the snowball effect of cancellations/ delays. Atlanta looked to be smack in the middle of the storm when I looked at the map last night too.

 

For me, my plane only flies to/from FLL and PIT, so I know the Florida end is okay.

 

It's all a toss-up......some of these airlines cancelling pre-emptively isn't particularly reassuring.....

[bjkTX]

Good luck to all those planning to travel this weekend! Not a good way to start out a vacation - a little stress - but it will make that first umbrella drink taste just that much better :-)

[cruisemom42]

What's the poop on Atlanta? Do they handle these storms well? :confused:

 

The main problem with Atlanta (and other hubs) is your plane could be coming from anywhere and you are victim of the snowball effect of cancellations/ delays. Atlanta looked to be smack in the middle of the storm when I looked at the map last night too.

 

For me, my plane only flies to/from FLL and PIT, so I know the Florida end is okay.

 

It's all a toss-up......some of these airlines cancelling pre-emptively isn't particularly reassuring.....

 

 

Hi from Atlanta. We've had very heavy rains from late last night through this morning, along with gusting winds up to 35 mph. We have been under various severe weather and flood warnings. The rain and wind are supposed to taper off later this afternoon.

 

As of this morning, flight delays for arriving flights were averaging 30 minutes.

 

As someone else said, the problem isn't always the weather at the airport itself, it's whether the plane you are boarding in Atlanta was able to make it from wherever it originated.

 

Good luck to everyone with travel plans today and tomorrow.

[jackdiamond]

At a wee bit after noon today, the snow had already begun in Richmond.

[sha88]

Thanks for everyone's input and sharing of experiences. We made the 5:50 am flight and it was a good thing we acted fast last night. The flight was totally sold out. Arrived Atlanta where it was raining pretty hard and windy, but not too bad landing. Made connection to Ft. Lauderdale with no problem, phew! I did purchase trip insurance, but after all the planning, expectations, etc, it would have been such a disappointment to not go on this cruise.

 

Boss emailed me this afternoon and said it was a really good thing we got out. It was starting to snow pretty heavily.

 

Good Luck to everyone else who needs to get here from the mid atlantic and northeast.

 

Hotel was able to accommodate us for additonal night in the room they had originally scheduled to put us in, so we won't have to change tomorrow. Great ocean view. Happy days are here again. All in all, I feel really lucky and blessed for all this coming together. Looking forward too, to experiencing the Super Bowl tailgating parties on Sunday.

 

Again, thanks for sharing your experiences, and quite frankly this is where I learned about flying in early. THANKS

 

Shahira (Shoo)

[Coolmama_1]

Smart doing that now. We also had this problem when we first started to cruise and we left the same day we cruised. We were sailing out of San Juan and needed to get there via JFK. There was a blizzard hitting the area Sat. Since there were 16 of us traveling, we all alerted everyone else. 5 of us were able to get out the day before.Iwent to work with a change of cloths and waited for the call when the car service was coming to pick me up. Boss wasn't happy but I said hey, if I don't go I miss my cruise. Landed in Ponce (opposite side of Island) airport and we all realized we were so busy trying to get out of the storm, we didn't have a place to stay!! We found a Hilton on the ocean. Probably the best hotel we ever stayed in. All of us made it before the storm hit but the others were traveling the red eyes and were exhausted for 2 days.

 

Lesson learned.......Travel the day before you cruise!

 

I have been to the Hilton in Ponce. It is a beautiful property! I loved the open air restaurant

[rdsqrl]

Thanks for everyone's input and sharing of experiences. We made the 5:50 am flight and it was a good thing we acted fast last night. The flight was totally sold out. Arrived Atlanta where it was raining pretty hard and windy, but not too bad landing. Made connection to Ft. Lauderdale with no problem, phew! I did purchase trip insurance, but after all the planning, expectations, etc, it would have been such a disappointment to not go on this cruise.

 

Boss emailed me this afternoon and said it was a really good thing we got out. It was starting to snow pretty heavily.

 

Good Luck to everyone else who needs to get here from the mid atlantic and northeast.

 

Hotel was able to accommodate us for additonal night in the room they had originally scheduled to put us in, so we won't have to change tomorrow. Great ocean view. Happy days are here again. All in all, I feel really lucky and blessed for all this coming together. Looking forward too, to experiencing the Super Bowl tailgating parties on Sunday.

 

Again, thanks for sharing your experiences, and quite frankly this is where I learned about flying in early. THANKS

 

Shahira (Shoo)

Yay! So glad you made it, and it sounds like your boss saw reason in the end which is nice. How fun for you to be in south Florida for the SB. Enjoy your cruise -- the Canal is awesome!