Princess air and transfers

[geocruiser]

I have book my air through Princess. My question is, if my flight get delayed (not too long I hope) will Princess wait for us to get to the ship? We will be getting to the airport in NYC at 8:34 AM, so there should be lots of time to make the ship. But, do I need to book the transfers too, to make it safer?

[CCFC]

If you booked your air travel with Princess then yes they will wait for you, within reason though.

[paul929207]

They will try to. It will depend on how long you are delayed, when they must leave to keep the schedule, when they have to be off the pier, etc. I believe they will get you to the first port where you are allowed to board. With the PVSA, that may not be the first port the ship calls on.

 

Is it too late to change to a flight the prior day?

[Times Prince]

I have book my air through Princess. My question is, if my flight get delayed (not too long I hope) will Princess wait for us to get to the ship? We will be getting to the airport in NYC at 8:34 AM, so there should be lots of time to make the ship. But, do I need to book the transfers too, to make it safer?

Princess provides an "En Route Delay" phone number ( see pg 18 of the 2013 Cruise Answer Book ). If your flight (or any leg of the flight should you have connections) is significantly delayed then a call to that number will alert Princess to the situation. They will tell you your options and how to proceed should you miss the sailing. One additional thing this En Route Delay support does is to alert the ship concerning which passengers are in danger of missing the sailing.

 

We had one such case where both legs of our Princess flights were delayed, and we kept the En Route Delay support informed with each successive delay. Despite having planned for hours of margin our last flight arrived in FLL about 5 minutes after when the Emerald Princess was scheduled to sail. We had been informed (In Atlanta's airport) that if we missed the sailing they would fly us to the first port (St. Thomas) and provide hotel and a generous meal allowance until the ship arrived. What actually happened is that we were met AT The GATE by Princess personnel, walked down to baggage claim, then given the choice of "baggage or ship?" We had a whole bus for the two of us to the port, and we were greeted again outside the terminal by Princess personnel, who walked us through the closed terminal onto the ship. While we were checking in our luggage, with luggage tags attached at home, arrived (hand carried by the Princess people from the airport) and the bulkhead door slammed shut and Emerald Princess sailed over an hour late.

 

Now this is what can happen using the support system Princess has in place. We were lucky to make the ship (with profuse thanks to the Captain!), but also had the assurances there was a backup plan (a couple of relaxing days in St. Thomas!) which helped us not to overly stress. Others' experiences may be different, and certainly there may be reasons the ship cannot wait (tides, order of departure, etc.). Our experience of Princess' support was outstanding!

 

Oh, and for those who will certainly respond - we had no option of flying in the day before due to work commitments. Flying in the day before can really ease the stress of travel.

[geocruiser]

Thanks for the info.

 

I thought about going in a day early but getting from the air port to my NYC home is far and having to redo that the next day is too much of a pain. If I thought it out better I would have drove to the port and stayed with family in Brooklyn. I live in NYS but 370 miles from the city now by car.

[shipsealand]

We had booked both princess air & transfer. The flight got us with not much time to board the ship along with another couple. They asked if we had done princess air. Hearing yes they stuck to us like glue knowing that the ship would wait for us (within reason). But as as we're rushing to board the bus, they had to scramble to make arrangements. Listen book both & avoid the stress & possibly miss the boat.

[geocruiser]

We had booked both princess air & transfer. The flight got us with not much time to board the ship along with another couple. They asked if we had done princess air. Hearing yes they stuck to us like glue knowing that the ship would wait for us (within reason). But as as we're rushing to board the bus, they had to scramble to make arrangements. Listen book both & avoid the stress & possibly miss the boat.

 

What I did so far is I book Princess air and just the transfers going to the ship.

At the end of our cruise we will get to the airport by ourselves. We will be having lunch with family after we leave the ship, then go to the airport.

Thanks for the info.