Fly in the day of the cruise?

[matj2000]

The majority of cruise passengers fly in the same day....

[KeywestK]

In reality, the chance that the OP will have a problem is small. BUT, it's still a risk that many of us are not willing to take. We had a direct flight, BWI to FLL, a simple run-of-the-mill 2 hour flight, and we took off and landed exactly on time. Too bad our luggage our luggage never made it onto the airplane. BUT fortunately for us, we were staying at a hotel in FLL for 2 days pre-cruise and our luggage was delivered to our hotel the following morning. Had we flown and sailed on the same day, our luggage may or may not have been forwarded to one of ports mid-cruise. I will NEVER fly and sail the same day. EVER!

[gerif]

The majority of cruise passengers fly in the same day....

 

You can't make a statement like that without posting your stats. Please do so.

[alfaeric]

We are thinking of taking the red eyes flight and arrive to FLL at 8:30am for the Oasis in August. We usually fly in the day before, but due vacation time. We don't have a lot of option. Do you think it is too risky?

 

We've done it quite a few times into Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, and it was fine. Our flight arrives at 10:30 am or so, and there's plenty of time to make the ship.

 

We've even flown in the day of in San Juan. In the winter. With a flight cancelation. And made it fine.

 

If you have no other options, then there are not many choices.... You will be one of MANY who fly in the day of.

[alfaeric]

One word: NO (do NOT fly in the day of the cruise, not smart)

 

What it that means NOT taking a cruise?

 

Still, argue all you want, we've done it, not had problems, will do it again. so if you want people who have survived, there you go.

 

So YES.

 

:D

[StashZ]

This comes up very often on the cruise air board.

 

But let's get very specific.

 

You book the cruise through Choice Air.

 

It's a seven day cruise.

 

You miss the ship.

 

Next day is a sea day.

 

They get you to the next port of call.

 

You've already missed part of the cruise.

 

And often I read that the flights were not optimal unless you pay more to request specific ones.

 

I think it is a big mistake to fly in the day of the cruise and I have traveled a great deal on air that I have seen peoples vacation plans ruined. To me, there is much more downside and choice air cannot make up for the disappointment in my humble opinion.

 

Keith

 

Not saying don't fly in early. We are doing and leaving day after next cruise. Makes for a more relaxed trip.

 

I'm saying Choice Air works as advertised.

 

Booking through RCI/Choice Air covers the "what if". We've done it. Not just read about it on CC. We've had our choice of good flights at prices comparable to any web deal. We've missed flights because of a problem and were covered 100%. We've been put up in hotels and had alternate flights provided.

 

I won't cruise any other way.

[lovetotravel06]

You can't make a statement like that without posting your stats. Please do so.

 

I'm not sure if it's correct or not (and would like to see stats) but there are a LOT of people that fly in same day. I base my observation on personal experience flying into FLL, MIA, etc. the dreaded "day of". :)

 

We've done it (with connections mind you) numerous times and had zero problems. Being half way air travel "savvy" helps with stressing about it. I don't stress at all.

 

That said; we normally come in several days ahead of our cruise/s and stay several days after. Much nicer in Florida in the middle of winter than it is in the Midwest!

[CRUISING71]

Hello,

We are flying from LAX direct flight.

[alfaeric]

Hello,

We are flying from LAX direct flight.

 

How often do you have weather problems in the evening at LAX? If it's rare, then that's not going to be a problem.

 

FLL is more hurricane related delays more than just storms. And if there is a hurricane the day of the cruise, well, flying in isn't the #1 problem.

 

There are other risks, of course, but weather is the most common to have risks of.

 

gotta figure the odds of not making it, and is it worth chancing?

[Keith1010]

The majority of cruise passengers fly in the same day....

 

How do you know that?

 

On our roll calls I usually ask what peoples plans are and most say they fly in one or more days prior to the cruise. But I certainly don't know the statistics.

 

Also I know a lot of people who speed and go through lights as they are turning red but that doesn't justify nor make this right.

 

Keith

[Keith1010]

I know many people who flew in the day of the cruise and many on cruise critic. All it takes is missing the cruise once and they consistently say never again.

 

Keith

[Tapi]

As an airline pilot, I can say without a doubt that flying in on the day of the cruise is an absolutely BAD idea. Knowing every little thing that can (and does) go wrong, I would never, EVER take a flight departing on the same day of the cruise.

 

Anybody telling the OP that it "should be OK" to fly on the cruise needs to fly a little more. It doesn't matter if it's a long flight, short flight, if there are backup flights, if it's summer or winter, or if its morning or night. It's a BAD idea.

[CRUISING71]

Thank you so much for giving me the pro and con. Since we are paying a good penny to cruise the oasis, I don't to risk missing her leaving without me. So we will fly in the night before.

[Keith1010]

Cruising71, very wise decision.

 

I hope that those who are reading this thread think about the risk of flying in the day of our cruise. I remind those that do fly in the day of the cruise and have not had a problem to remember that the odds say you will. Remember, some of the problems are weather related or aircraft related but there are so many other things that can go wrong such as a computer glitch impacting not only the airline or the aircraft but the FAA or a terrorist issue or a multitude of other issues. I have not seen them all but in my many years of flying weekly on business I have witnessed many items that can go wrong.

 

Keith

[waterbug123]

I suppose it depends where you are flying from, are there other flights out of the airport to FLL that morning so if something goes wrong with your flight. In other words have you a plan B?

 

A redeye flight indicates travel from the west coast. That's probably a 5 hour flight, plus a 3 hour time change. Add an hour to deplane, get bags and get to the port (might not take that long, but this would also account for minor delays) All aboard is what, 4:00? So a flight the next morning would need to depart by 7:00 am. That's not a plan B that I'd be very comfortable with.

 

14 family members (including me) cruised last week. 4 missed their connection and were rerouted to New York City, spent an extra night there, to then catch a connection flight on a different airline the next morning. In the meantime, we made it on our original nonstop flight (albeit one hour late) only to get there and learn that our big bag didn't make it. Thankfully, we had flown in the day before and had enough time to run to the local Target and buy new clothes.

 

 

Did you not wait to see if your bag came in on the next flight, or the next morning?

[scottishwee35]

I don't think I would book the flight on same day with cruise. I do that I will be more nervous...

 

funny that, I was reading another forum that someone said that her flight from England to Dublin had been cancelled and she was giving 7 pounds voucher for food and her flight supposed to be in the morning and she had to wait until 2.15 pm for the flight.

 

Can you image if that this have happen to you?

 

I always book one day or two days before the cruise.

 

Scottishwee35

[MrCruzeaddict]

Living in W. Michigan, our weather can be iffy at best. We always fly in a day early. We just don't need the stress. Remember....You are on VACATION.. Why sweat the details.

 

 

Joe

[jenfromjersey]

My upcoming December cruise will be the first time I am flying in early. I just always take the first flight out in the morning so that there are still others available if for some reason something happens to my flight. But then again, I fly out of Newark and that is a densely airport populated area. The only reason we are doing it differently this time, is because it is our honeymoon and we aren't leaving anything to chance. My last cruise, we had 16 people fly in the day of the cruise and not one person had any issues.

[FLACRUISER99]

As an airline pilot, I can say without a doubt that flying in on the day of the cruise is an absolutely BAD idea. Knowing every little thing that can (and does) go wrong, I would never, EVER take a flight departing on the same day of the cruise.

 

Anybody telling the OP that it "should be OK" to fly on the cruise needs to fly a little more. It doesn't matter if it's a long flight, short flight, if there are backup flights, if it's summer or winter, or if its morning or night. It's a BAD idea.

I'm one of the folks saying it should be OK & I Have flown quite a bit. Example AA 1584 has an on time arrival of 93% great odds to me. http://www.flightstats.com/go/FlightRating/flightRatingByFlight.do?airline=AA&flightNumber=1584&departureAirportCode=LAX&arrivalAirportCode=FLL

[Tapi]

Did you not wait to see if your bag came in on the next flight, or the next morning?

 

We landed in Seattle at 2pm on Friday, and the airline told us that the latest flight the bag had a chance to make it to us was on a nonstop flight departing Atlanta on Saturday at noon (9am Seattle time). We called the airline in the morning and they informed us that the bag was nowhere to be found and that needless to say, it was not on the flight. That's when we got busy and spent the morning shopping.

 

(BTW, the bag is STILL missing and we came home 5 days ago). How an airline looses a bag, flying nonstop between two cities is beyond me. The bag is not in Atlanta and it's not in Seattle.

[Tapi]

Example AA 1584 has an on time arrival of 93% great odds to me.

 

 

 

So basically, 7 people out of every 100 will be late taking that flight. On a ship like the Oasis with a capacity of about 6,000, that would translate into more than 400 passengers being late. That's pretty bad.

 

BTW, statistics mean NOTHING if you happen to be the ONE person affected by a delayed or canceled flight. Anything short of 100% is not good enough if you're flying in on the day of departure.

[clott]

We just recently returned from a cruise on the jewel. We flew in on the morning of the cruise no problems at all and actually didnt leave till about 9:15. I wasn't nervous at all. Now we met some friends on the ship that came from Texas. They started flying the day before. Well they were delayed several times. In the end that only got to the ship about 1 hr before muster drill and no luggage. It got lost on the original flight and didnt catch up to them till st. Marteen. If that's your only choice don't worry about and just do it.. If anything is gonna happen its gonna happen. No since in worrying about it

[timeoff]

Last Thursday 6/13/13, we were flying MIA-LGA at 8 am arriving at 11 am, how bad can it be? LGA closed around 10 am, and flight was diverted to Richmond, VA for refueling. Luckily, LGA opened and we were only a couple of hours late, the Captain kept us informed and gave passengers all the options of what could have happened. Would have been extremely disappointed and upset if we were cruising on the same day. Agree with everyone, fly in a day or two before.

[fridaythe13th]

Our first cruise in 1998 we didn't know ANYTHING about cruising. We booked the air with the cruiseline. Carnival sent not one, but two Miami Air planes and everyone onboard was going on the cruise! That blew my mind. We all made it! Since then we have just made it a point to go a day or two before and/or after just to make it a longer vacation. Although since I know now what I didn't know in 1998, I would never fly in on the same day as it would just make me too nervous. Even though we only fly direct there is still that chance that I'm not willing to take. For those who are UNABLE to go a day early, hopefully you'll be fine. Leave early, fly direct!

[ryano]

Leave early, fly direct!

 

And buy trip insurance :)