Need Help Re. HAL's Fly-Cruise Air /Arrangements

[Oca]

My husband and I are booked on a 68 day Grand Voyage on the Prinsendam next January embarking in Ft. Lauderdale. We would be flying to the ship from Newark and would normally make our own reservations but because of the time of year, we are concerned about weather and the possibility of flight cancellations and are therefore considering booking our air through HAL's Fly-Cruise program hopefully guaranteeing that if we have to miss the embark in Ft. Lauderdale due to weather, HAL will take care of getting us to the next port to meet the ship.

 

We would appreciate any feedback we can get from those of you who have used the program and your letting us know if you had a positive experience in a similar situation.

 

We are nervous about the flight because this past August, we had a lot of anxious moments trying to meet a ship in Copenhagen with Hurricane Irene wreaking havoc on the east coast.

 

I know some will suggest that we just arrange to fly in a day early and that would be OK with us except that actually if we had done that last August with the hurricane situation, we would have missed our flight the day early and would not have been able to book the next day and would have missed the ship.

 

Thanks for whatever feedback you may be able give us.

[CruiserBruce]

A better way to assure making the ship, and have better control of your flights, connections, etc, is to book your own, and fly in a day or two early. For your Europe issue, we are planning a cruise in Europe right now, and we will fly in 2 days prior.

 

If you want to see the MANY negative reasons to fly cruise air, come over to the Cruise Air board, here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=128

 

Read the Sticky at the top of the board about Consolidators, and read dosme of the experiences there.

[mllewis48]

Oca,

 

As mentioned most of the time we do our own arrangements and fly early. However, and it's funny you mention last August, as we booked a Bermuda Cruise last August out of New York and decided to book HAL's air since we were not familiar with New York and the pier location. As it turns out that was one of the best decisions we ever made since hurricane Irene was heading up the coast. HAL ended up changing our flight to a day early and planned to put us up in a hotel for the evening until the ship came in to port, all at their expense. Upon arriving in New York we were taken direct to the ship and boarded as it returned a day early. We sat in New York at the pier until Sunday when we departed for the trip. All in all we had a great trip and very exciting being in New York during the storm on the best floating hotel in the city. Bottom line is HAL's air is more than booking your own but since you are leaving in our winter months I may play it safe and book their air, just my opinion.

 

Good luck and happy cruising

[goodroe]

We are also on this cruise and will be flying from Salt Lake City thru Atlanta. Normally, we just fly in a day early, but this time are planning on two or three days as a "just in case" plan. We did use HAL's air last June coming back from Europe, the price was too good not to pass up. Since we were on our way home, wasn't worried about any delays and the flights were just fine with good connections. Want to use miles to upgrade for this trip, so will be making our own reservations. If there are any delays, would rather have a ticket purchased directly from the airline. That was very good advice to read the postings about cruise air.

 

Really looking forward to this cruise - our first time on the Prinsendam.:) Have you joined the roll call for this trip?

[PathfinderEss]

My husband and I are booked on a 68 day Grand Voyage on the Prinsendam next January embarking in Ft. Lauderdale. We would be flying to the ship from Newark and would normally make our own reservations but because of the time of year, we are concerned about weather and the possibility of flight cancellations and are therefore considering booking our air through HAL's Fly-Cruise program hopefully guaranteeing that if we have to miss the embark in Ft. Lauderdale due to weather, HAL will take care of getting us to the next port to meet the ship.

 

We would appreciate any feedback we can get from those of you who have used the program and your letting us know if you had a positive experience in a similar situation.

 

We are nervous about the flight because this past August, we had a lot of anxious moments trying to meet a ship in Copenhagen with Hurricane Irene wreaking havoc on the east coast.

 

I know some will suggest that we just arrange to fly in a day early and that would be OK with us except that actually if we had done that last August with the hurricane situation, we would have missed our flight the day early and would not have been able to book the next day and would have missed the ship.

 

Thanks for whatever feedback you may be able give us.

 

In most cases, I would not suggest Hal air but unless you fly in 2 or 3 days early, I might concider doing Hal air because of the issues you list above, just to be on the safe side.