How often do you have to fly to take your cruise?

[Iluvcruising2]

Is it frequent for you?

 

My guess is not, since most of the cruisers here are able to drive to the ports and cruise from there. Please correct my understanding if I'm wrong.

 

So you guys are really fortunate.

 

We love cruising but we have very very few options as we live in Singapore.

 

For us, flying many hours to take a cruise is the norm.

 

Thankfully, with the Voyager relocating to Asia, we have slightly more options.

[WeLove2CruiseRCI]

We have to fly every time we cruise. We cruise twice a year. Driving to a port is really not a convenient option when you live in Missouri. We book at least a year or more in advance. We start checking and comparing flight costs as soon as they are available for the date we will be cruising.

[hazeleyez3]

My husband and I have had to fly to all of the embarkation ports.

 

A few reasons...

• Usually we can only take a week off, so we are limited to 7 night cruises.
  
• We usually cruise in colder weather and we have no desire to waste a few days cruising in weather we are trying to get away from.
  
• I'm not too fond of Bermuda.
  
• We don't want to stop in ports like Port Canaveral...we'll take a few days off to see Disney if we want to go down there. We usually go down to a port the day before, so we actually get time in the actual city.
  

[critterchick]

If we want to cruise on Royal Caribbean, we have to fly to a port. Minimum of 2.5 hours (Seattle) to 14 (Australia).

[Desertbelle]

We live in Las Vegas and try to cruise twice a year. We have driven to a port once, Los Angeles, but for the most part even for a cruise out of Southern California it's easier to fly than drive. Most of our cruises have been out of Florida or Europe, those are big flights for us....and we hate flying.

[NorbertsNiece]

In the past 3 years I have driven to the port once and flown every other time. Will be driving again in May. RCCL has 2 ships at UK ports soon to be summer months only.

[cantw8togo]

My husband and I have had to fly to all of the embarkation ports.

 

 

 

 

A few reasons...

• Usually we can only take a week off, so we are limited to 7 night cruises.
  
• We usually cruise in colder weather and we have no desire to waste a few days cruising in weather we are trying to get away from.
  
• I'm not too fond of Bermuda.
  
• We don't want to stop in ports like Port Canaveral...we'll take a few days off to see Disney if we want to go down there. We usually go down to a port the day before, so we actually get time in the actual city.
  

 

Ditto for us too. It usually takes us three to four hours to fly to a port, and for the four of us in our family, it isn't always cheap. Sometimes if we find a great seat sale and we can get a bit of time off work, we then start to look at what cruises are available. The farthest out that we have booked is three months, but we usually book within a month of sailing. We aren't loyal to any one cruiseline, (although we have do have our favourites,) we usually go with the best value that is available at that time. If we want to drive to a port, the nearest one to drive to is about five or six hours away and the second closest is 12 hours away.

 

Oh, and I can't say that I hate Bermuda as I have never been there, but I would prefer to travel there when the weather is warmer. We usually cruise to get away from the cold weather.

[Darkwolfe]

When you live where I do, flying is the only option unless you want a really long drive each way or an even longer (but more fun) train ride.

 

I have taken the train from KC to Miami, but it takes about three days.

[IBookHePays]

Sadly, I have never once driven to a cruise. My goal is to take a $20 cab to a cruise ship one day from San Francisco. Perhaps after the America's Cup we will have more options. :)

[gcvt]

Living in San Francisco, I guess we are lucky that we could just take a cab downtown to sail to Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico or South America. But those are generally longer cruises and we both still work full time. So, until we retire or get more time off each year, those longer journeys will have to wait. So for now, we will fly and take shorter cruises.

[gcvt]

Sadly, I have never once driven to a cruise. My goal is to take a $20 cab to a cruise ship one day from San Francisco. Perhaps after the America's Cup we will have more options. :)

 

If Pier 27 happens, we could be in really great shape about three years from now! :)

[Iluvcruising2]

How interesting. So flying to cruise is much more common than I thought.

 

Thanks for the sharing.

 

Looks like wife and I have done it all, as far as transport to cruise is concerned.

 

1) we flew from Singapore to LA to cruise on the Monarch

2) we drove from LA to San Diego for the Oosterdam. That time we were residing in LA. Parked our car for a week near the cruise terminal.

3) we took a cab to the cruise terminal in Singapore to board the Legend. Then we flew back from Shanghai. (residing in Singapore)

[jackretired]

I live in NW Arkansas and always drive to my cruises. 2 per year, but would do 3 if DW would let me. Under 20 hours (2 nights on road) to Baltimore, Under 10 hours (1 nights on road) to New Orleans, Under 21 hours (2 nights on road) to Port Everglades. We drive because:

 

We bring a lot of stuff with us, some medical

We combine the cruise with visiting friends &/or family or just being a tourist (NOLA).

[CaptData]

I am from the middle of Canada so I have to fly. I always go a day early since I usually cruise Jan/Feb (and winter weather can be a big problem here).

[mdwstcruiser]

We have always flown for our cruises - even for our New Orleans cruise this March it is just too far a drive for us.

 

Now if they put a ship a little bit further up the Mississippi it would be a different story!:D

[bajathree]

Never had to fly to a port yet:) It's a nice perk of living in FL:cool:

[SamFritz]

Someday we might pull of a drive to New York, Boston, or Baltimore, but all of those would be eight to ten hour drives. Since I want as many days on the ship as I can get, I'm not up for a long drive before and after. So it's been flying for all of our cruises so far. That is until Royal listens to me and establishes a Buffalo, NY homeport!:D

[BND]

We've only flown to one cruise and that was on Princess out of San Diego. We only drive to Baltimore (just over one hour). For Florida and NJ, we take the train, (Auto train to FL). I don't care to fly and for us the train is just as easy because we live 45 minutes from the Auto Train station in VA and about the same distance from Union Station in DC.

[Cigar King]

Is it frequent for you?

 

My guess is not, since most of the cruisers here are able to drive to the ports and cruise from there. Please correct my understanding if I'm wrong.

 

 

You're wrong. Have you ever looked at a map? There are only so many ports, and most of the world's population is not near a particular cruise port. We have never been able to drive to a cruise. Some people are fortunate enough to be able to drive but based on the crowds heading for the airport after a cruise, I'm not convinced "most of the cruisers are able to drive".

[hancogran]

Another Canadian here, and we always have to fly to take a cruise. :( I believe the closest port to us that sails to warmer places during the winter months, is about 10 or 12 hours drive.

 

I envy all the people who are two or three hours drive from a port! I'm sure we'd cruise a lot more if we could drive to a port nearby. Airfare on top of our cruise cost can be expensive!

[denamo]

We are getting ready to make a 6.5 hour drive that we haven't done in several years to catch a cruise ship. We live in TX, and while there is a Carnival ship here, there isn't a Royal Caribbean one here year around. Most cruises we are boarding a plane. Sometimes due to the ship we want to be on and other times due to the itinerary.

 

We do have significant drive time to catch the ship in Galveston, but honestly by the time we would get to the airport for check in, get transportation from Houston to Galveston and then to the ship the next morning, it's probably a wash with time.

[romnan]

We are fortunate that we don't have to fly or at least up to this point. We live in Tampa and that allows us to drive to the major ports in Florida:)

[Lionesss]

Flying time from either Pittsburgh or Cleveland, we live in the middle is just a tad under 2 hours.

Safe travels

Sue and crew

[K1200S]

I have driven to all the cruises I have taken except the two from San Juan. I enjoy driving and it is still cheaper. On our next cruise there will be 5 in the truck which makes driving way less expensive then flying.

[sjb317]

We usually have to fly but have been able to drive a few times. I like being able to drive as I'm not a good flyer:D. Driving seems to make for a much more relaxed disembarkation as we don't feel a rush to get off the ship to the airport. Plus, no worries about luggage restrictions:D

 

Sherri:)