Driving the day of the cruise

[spookwife]

I am looking at a February cruise from Baltimore - while it's an easy 4 hours on the train from Connecticut - there is no way I'd do that same day. Winter plus Amtrak equals risk.

 

ANYTHING plus Amtrak equals a risk. esp trying to get from either BWI or Union Station to the Pier.

[lor74]

A few years ago, I drove to NJ for a cruise the morning of. I left very early and got there without incident. On the drive home, there was a massive rainstorm, which was very dangerous to drive in as there was zero visibility. Many cars had pulled to the size of the road, and others like myself drove slowly with our flashers on. When the storm ended, we thankfully made it home without further issue, but there must have been a big accident on the other side of the highway, because the traffic was backed up for MILES. After seeing that, I would not chance driving that distance the day of again!

[cherbear4000]

I see no problem with that drive, as long as you are able to get off the first ship early.

[Kfoot]

I live in central FL and drove to both Miami and Ft Lauderdale the morning of my cruises. Have no problem. I take the turnpike all the way down. Traffic is much better on the pike.

[lady_cruiser]

Our drives to the ports we use is usually 3 - 3.5 hours and that is too long for us to change driving in the day before.

 

We always worry about heavy fog closing our Interstate, a major traffic accident shutting it down for hours on end or even stormy weather that will slow even the fastest of drivers down to a crawl.

[JanineM]

We used to live in Melbourne (30 minutes south of Port Canaveral). We often drove to Miami or Fort Lauderdale same day for cruises. It's normally a 3.5 hour drive.

 

Once we were delayed getting OFF a ship in Miami and got to our house at about 12:30 pm. I remember this specifically because DH had a flight at 2 pm that day and we were sweating.

[Cruisin' Chick]

We live an hour's drive from one port, so we will leave that day, but in the morning (9:30 or 10am) just in case there's a major accident on the way. My hubby was even talking about maybe staying near the port the night before for our most recent cruise, but we didn't.

 

Anything longer than that, we would definitely stay by the port the night before. Why not be rested and not stressed from a drive on the first day of one's cruise? When going by train nine years ago, we padded in an extra day which turned out to be a good idea as the train was four hours late getting into Seattle. That way, we got to sleep in and relax. If we hadn't padded the extra time, we would probably be tired when we boarded. Same with flights. No red eye flights getting us there in the morning of the cruise, no risking a cancelled or delayed flight.

[Lerin]

We always fly in the day before, but we don't live anywhere near a port. If we could drive to a port, I'd have no problem waking at even 3am to get there in time.

[OCruisers]

We often stop 3 - 4 hours away and drive in the morning of the cruise.

Doesn't stress us out. While we look forward to our cruises, we know we can always do another later if the worst should happen. ;)

 

LuLu

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[griffy116]

ONE year...we drove from Atlanta to Port Canaveral, just to pacify my son-in-law (cheapest man on earth). We hit a horrible rain storm caused a massive delay in our timeline and that absolutely exhausted everyone mentally. We finally saw a restaurant in the middle of nowhere to wait out the rest of the storm. Upon exiting the restaurant, we discovered that MY MOTHER had locked the keys in their mini-van. We checked with everyone at the restaurant and no one had a way to get into the mini-van. After two hours, my son-in-law was able to get the door unlocked with a make-shift clothes hanger. We were cranky and exhausted, nerves SHOT by the time we arrived, and we've NEVER attempted to drive to the port on the day we board AGAIN!