Weather Ddelays from Philly

[docmb]

My group is scheduled to leave Philadelphia early Monday morning for our Sovereign cruise. There is potential for bad weather late Sunday night into Monday morning. My TA told me that if lot of people are delayed from the northeast (or anywhere else for the matter) because of a storm, RCI has been known to hold the ship for them and not leave port at its scheduled time. She told me to call RCI that day and make them aware that we are delayed. Can anyone tell me if this ever happened to them? Thanks for any input!!!

[critterchick]

From what I've read here, sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. Some people have told of the ship waiting an hour or so for late arrivals, but others have arrived 15 minutes late (with lots of other people) and the ship has sailed. At that point, your option is to fly to the next port & meet the ship there. If you have insurance, that should cover a good portion, if not all, of the expense.

[Grumpy8]

:D

My group is scheduled to leave Philadelphia early Monday morning for our Sovereign cruise. There is potential for bad weather late Sunday night into Monday morning. My TA told me that if lot of people are delayed from the northeast (or anywhere else for the matter) because of a storm, RCI has been known to hold the ship for them and not leave port at its scheduled time. She told me to call RCI that day and make them aware that we are delayed. Can anyone tell me if this ever happened to them? Thanks for any input!!!

 

They will hold it some but only if the flights were made through RCI.

I just did this trip two weeks ago. We flew in the day before. We has snow in Philly. So the plane need to be de-iced. So we were 1.5 hours in a delay.

Say Hi to Pete Wickersham for the Panman in the Viking Lounge.:cool:

[wingnutphl]

I wouldn't count on them holding the ship for you. I would try to get down the day before. That's your best bet.

[JrMafia90]

I don't think they will hold the ship. Don't get your hopes up and see if you can change your flight to the day before.

[docmb]

I've talked to the TA about flying out on Sunday instead. I could kick myself that we didn't plan it that way to begin with! We talked about going a day early and never followed through!! Shame on us!!

[superjerryw]

They are more likely to hold the ship if the airfare was purchased through RCCL as they would have to pick up the costs associated with leaving you behind. If you purchased airfare on your own they have no obligation or reason to wait for you. If they do wait, it can't be for that long in most cases since they have to get to the first port on time. If the ship was sailing from Miami and the first port was Key West they could probably wait a few hours due to the short distance involved. The longer the ships needs to travel to the first port the less leeway they have. They also have to consider the increase in speed that would be necessary to get to the first port on time as the faster they go the more fuel they burn. With oil prices as high as they are I'm sure they want to burn as little fuel as possible. As others have said, the best thing to do is travel down a day before, particularly when travelling during a time frame where the weather may be bad.

[printess]

We had a cruise scheduled a couple years back on December 5, my mothers 77th birthday, we were flying out of Philly as well. But since our first cruise we have learned to fly in the day before. December 4 we woke to heavy snow, it had been predicted but some said a lot, some said not so much, it turned out to be about a foot and a half of snow.

 

Our driver was suppose to arrive at 4, no show at 4:30, 5:00. Our flight was at 6:45. The driver actually said that he couldn't find our place because snow was covering the street signs, and couldn't call us because his cell phone battery was dead. (no we never used that service again) We were so upset that we weren't going to make it to the airport in time. I called a few brave souls to see if anyone would come take us to the airport, My boss came through and made it there with time to spare!

 

We got on the airplane and they taxied out, and we waited in a line to be de-iced, wouldn't you know this was the day they were instituting a new de-icing station and obviously it wasn't going well. Well, after two hours waiting our turn our flight crew informed us that they could no longer fly (regulations on how many hours) So we headed back to the gate.

 

But they couldn't get some tow bar set up correctly so we sat another hour and a half. Things started to move though when a man a few rows back started having chest pains, I think they physically pushed the plane to the gate to get the paramedics on board!

 

We all finally got off the plane, they said they would reschedule the flight for 9:30 the next morning, now we were out the money we spent on the hotel for the prenight. And we had no way to get back home, so we figured we would find some cozy corner of the airport and get some rest. But no, they said we HAD to pick up our luggage or else. So we did but because it didn't fit through the x-ray machines we couldn't bring it up to the nice area of the airport. So my Mom and I spent the morning of her 77th birthday in the baggage claim area of Philadelphia International trying to sleep on the seats while the pigeons kept opening the sliding doors and letting the cold in.

 

When we were finally allowed to recheck our luggage and get up to the gates to reboard they announced that they were unable to locate the flight crew, no one knew what hotel they had gone to. After another hour they said they were in contact with the flight crew and they would be there shortly. Everyone started yelling and we couldn't figure out why until someone pointed and said the flight crew was across the hall getting breakfast! There was a petition started and some people were upgraded but we never heard anything more about it.

 

In the end we finally took flight around 11 am and made it to the ship by about 3 the day of the cruise but boy what an adventure it was to get there!

[JerseyGirl23]

OMG! I both laughed and cried at that story!

 

docmd, can you drive to another airport that will probably not be affected by the storm and fly to your destination from there?

[docmb]

I think everything in the northeast is going to be impacted by either rain or snow Sunday night into Monday morning. All the guys in our group are willing to tough it out until Monday but the girls want to play it safe and go on Sunday! There are two flights out Sunday afternoon/early evening that still have openings so we need to make a decision soon! Thanks for all the advice!!! I hope I don't have an airpirt horror story to tell when I get back!!!

[PAGA]

Just looked at weather.com (I have family in Philly) and the forecast calls for no precip on Sunday and only light rain on Monday with a daytime high of 50 degrees -- hopefully this means you'll be in the clear!! Have a great trip!

[docmb]

I just watched the Philly news. They all seem to be saying that the Philly aea could get 1-3 inches overnight before it changes to rain on Monday. I think I can deal with that but we'll need to monitor the situation. Thanks for all the help everyone!!!!

[JerseyGirl23]

Good Luck and Enjoy your Trip! :)