Why you need to travel to foreign ports at least one day ahead!

[KLLund]

We have always flown into foreign ports at least a day and usually two ahead but it is because I want to see more of the ports than the few hours allotted by the cruise line at most ports. Today that cushion became vital.

 

We hired a towncar service to take us to the airport this morning. They didn't show up and had us down for the next day so we scrambled for a taxi. The taxi arrived and there was just enough time to get to the airport and make the plane between Portland and Vancouver, so that we could catch the plane to Hong Kong. We were ok until the cab driver backed out of our driveway and into our neighbor's car.

 

Got to the airport about 10 minutes too late to check in for the flight and there was no appealing the cut off. Air Canada only has one flight a day to Hong Kong .. so after rebooking and paying the high Alaska Air change fees and the reasonable Air Canada change fees, we rented a car and came home secure in the knowledge that we don't have to depend on anyone else in the morning.

 

A good lesson to us about that cushion of a couple of days is really more than just insurance.. sometimes it is necessary. The good news is two fold .. 1 I didn't cry once during the process and 2 We will make the cruise !!

[icat2000]

Sorry you missed your flight. Did you not consider staying at an airport hotel rather than renting a car and trying the journey again tommorrow.

Edited September 9, 2014 by icat2000

[KLLund]

We only live 25-30 minutes from the airport and it didn't seem sensible to stay for 24 hours when we live that close. We only ordered a town car because it is cheaper than the parking costs at the airport.

[Putterdude]

Wow, that is quite a story and how unfortunate. I am guessing that your connection at YVR was sufficiently tight that you couldn't take a later flight from PDX and still meet the AC flight. By the way this is the first time that I have ever heard of AC being "reasonable" and I have had the experience of dealing with Alaska Airlines on a change so I know of what you speak. I do hope that the rest of your vacation is uneventful.:)

[pompeii]

We only live 25-30 minutes from the airport and it didn't seem sensible to stay for 24 hours when we live that close. We only ordered a town car because it is cheaper than the parking costs at the airport.

 

So glad you made your cruise, even if it did cost you. We also hire a driver to the airport if we're going for more than 10 days or so. It's cheaper, especially when you factor in the cost of gas, and our car is home safe and sound locked in the garage. It's also nice to have someone waiting for us right outside baggage claim when we return!

[Aramis]

Valid thread and I am always shocked when people arrive same day as a cruise, particularly when travelling great distances. I have had one flight cancelled for 24 hours once, the flight to China was still in China at arrival at the airport in Australia. Another flight delayed for 5 hours due to a strike by Air Italia. Safer than sorry, always get in the day before if flying.

[Coral]

If you have insurance, you may be compensated for your airline fees as there was a car accident involved.

 

IMO - it is always important to fly in a day or two early.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

Edited September 9, 2014 by Coral

[tml1230]

Great planning….and i must say GREAT attitude! have a safe trip.

[baggal]

We learned our lesson the hard way in 2011. For a variety of reasons (work obligations, budget, etc.) we decided to live on the edge and fly in to Barcelona on the same day our Med. cruise departed (we had been to Barcelona before). We weren't completely naive though - we booked our air through RCI (we were on the Brilliance of the Seas) so that we would have back-up in case something went wrong.

 

Well it did. Our flight from Newark to Frankfurt was delayed 3.5 hours so we knew we would miss our connecting flight to Barcelona before we even left Newark. When we landed in Frankfort a wonderful ticket agent (Newark "couldn't" re-ticket) re-booked us on a flight that would get us in to Barcelona in time to catch the ship. We had called RCI to let them know we were delayed but would make every effort to get there on time. A RCI rep met us at the airport to help us with our luggage and get us into a taxi with instructions to the driver, "RAPIDO." We arrived at the ship at 4:20 p.m. - a scant 10 minutes before the absolute last deadline to board.

 

Lesson learned.

[SadieN]

Not for a cruise--

Most recent flying experience we had a change of planes. Originally we were supposed to have a 2-3-2 seating arrangement, ended up with a 3-3. Lost about 40 seats on a full flight. (Don't know which type of planes as I type them by seating arrangement).

Knew we were in trouble when a notice popped at while checking in from home.

[Cruise Junky]

I think I would have gotten my butt to Vancouver that day so you weren't risking anything the day of departure.

[geoherb]

I'm glad the OP is going to make it to the cruise ship. We had one flight delayed several hours due to weather up North. It was a balmy 60 degrees in North Carolina the day we were flying down to Fort Lauderdale. But a Nor'easter had dumped tons of snow in New England, and our plane was stuck in New Hampshire. We eventually left about five hours late. We had to change planes. We made the new flight but our luggage did not. Since we had flown a day early, it had time to catch up with us before we got to the ship. The airline delivered it to our hotel during the night. We met several people who weren't so lucky with their luggage. It caught up to them in St. Thomas on the third day of our cruise. And we missed meeting several other passengers who did not make it to the ship due to the weather in New England. One of them was the Protestant minister who was scheduled to be on board for Christmas.

[cpcanuck]

Wow, that is quite a story and how unfortunate. I am guessing that your connection at YVR was sufficiently tight that you couldn't take a later flight from PDX and still meet the AC flight. By the way this is the first time that I have ever heard of AC being "reasonable" and I have had the experience of dealing with Alaska Airlines on a change so I know of what you speak. I do hope that the rest of your vacation is uneventful.:)

 

I was thinking the same thing! AC being "reasonable" is not something you hear very often... :)

[MJSailors]

Agree about getting to a cruise port a day ahead of the cruise.

Another suggestion is to call the car service ahead of time to make sure the reservation is good for the time of pick up.

People can make mistakes and it is always good to check on reservations.

[Putterdude]

I was thinking the same thing! AC being "reasonable" is not something you hear very often... :)

 

Let's see, the last time was 1959, they were called Tans-Canada Airlines and they were competing with Canadian Pacific Airlines.:D

[sweetsleep]

Glad it worked out for the OP but after nearly missing flight from Chicago to Rome in 2006 it opened my eyes about scheduling flights!

I no longer book a flight that is the last flight of the day to an international connection-weather issues,even in the summer months (lightning, thunderstorms,heavy rain) as well as winter storm delays make me super cautious even if it means a long layover in a gateway city (Chicago,Altanta,DC,New York,etc)

I no longer book the LAST flight from my hometown to the international gateway city to hedge my bets, especially if that international flight only has ONE departure per day!!

I had to ask my then active cross country runner daughter to sprint to our gate in another terminal while I carried ALL of our carryon bags as we heard the "final boarding call" for our flight to Rome. I told her to lay down in the door to block closure if necessary until she saw me arrive. Not a fun thing to do but airlines could care less about leaving even 5 minutes late to accommodate passengers even if it means delaying us for 24 hours for the next flight!!

What is even more interesting is that our bags still made that flight! I expected a delay in that for sure.

if you travel with a companion, I advise packing your bags in such a way that both of you have clothes on each piece!! That way no one is stuck with no clothes.

[AZJerry]

For our last cruise from FLL, we had a connecting flight in Charlotte with about 45 minutes between the flights. This after our original non-stop that would have gotten us there in the late afternoon was canceled several months before.

 

We left Phoenix about an hour late due to a "security issue" where we all had to disembark while security swept the plane. The pilot made up much of the delay but it wasn't enough for our connection.

 

While we waited in the long customer service line, we called the airline directly and found they had already booked us on the "first available flight", the next morning. No mention of paying for a hotel for us as we would loose the already paid for hotel in FLL. We asked about the flight they had later that evening and had them book us on that instead. We finally arrived at our hotel just after midnight, technically the day of the cruise.

 

Two morals:

- Plan to arrive at least a day ahead as mentioned above.

- If there are flight problems, call the airline directly as it is often faster that waiting in line.

[DougH]

The farther away from home more days I arrive early as you never know what will cause a delay. Even sailing from the West Coast (I'm near San Francisco) from LA/San Diego or Seattle/Vancouver I try and arrive the day before.

 

On two of my last three trips out of Vancouver I've had major delays, luckily one was on the way home. First one caused an overnight delay and turned into a same day arrival only a couple of hours before sailaway. The other one caused a 6+ hour delay heading home that if I was heading to the ship would have made me probably miss the ship.

 

I learned a long time ago the cost of one nights hotel room isn't worth missing the ship. And I always buy insurance

Edited September 9, 2014 by DougH

[islandatsea]

Excellent points about arriving early for a cruise. I usually cruise from Florida but even then I always time myself to get to the Port early enough in case of some challenges on the road. On the point of flying in, only have flown to SFO, AUA & SJU from Florida to get on a cruise ship. Back in those days, I did not even think about getting in a day or two earlier. Now being older & maybe wiser, when flying to get on a ship, will get in at least 1 day earlier. The 3 times I have flown to the Ports was about 15 to 20 years ago.

 

BTW, The Dolphin Cruise Line had a ship that left from Aruba back in the early 90's .

[Vexorg]

The only time I will fly in the day of the cruise is from here to LA, and that's only because I've done the SEA-LAX flight often enough to know that the morning nonstop flights are pretty reliable. I will allow at least a day for cross-country flights, and have had issues with those before, especially during the Winter. On the flights to FLL for the cruise I did last December we basically had to run from one terminal to another to make our connection in ATL with about 2 minutes to spare after the flight got delayed in Seattle. It wouldn't have been much fun to deal with with if we had missed our flight, but at least we wouldn't have been at any risk of missing the ship.

Edited September 9, 2014 by Vexorg

[zephyrella14]

Taking our first cruise next summer and we are definitely planning ahead taking into consideration all the "what if's". We sail out of SFO, we are driving there from LA. We were originally planning to take the 12 hr sceneic route up the CA coast the day before embarkation but decided it would be too risky. Were pinching pennies to take this vacation the last thing we want is to have it be ruined. Were eliminating any potential risks we can, were taking the shorter 7 hour drive direct instead, two days before, early morning, so we have time to deal with any unexpected setbacks, and make the cruise. We can't control everything, but we can try. We will drive the coast on our way back home :)

[nanwel]

I have taken the risk a few times when "just" going out of Florida, but enjoy going a day ahead - time to unwind - buy some wine to take on board, do a little sight seeing and walking, get on board refreshed, not a bundle of nerves.

Came home from London GB once - 13 of us, the hotel desk cancelled our bus to the airport - there were 2 groups, and she thought someone had ordered 2 buses in error. The hotel realized it was their error - called the airport and we arrived very last minute - jogged past the stores to the boarding gate - taken by golf carts to the plane - I was in charge and did a frantic head count - did not relax all the trip home. Luggage arrived home a day after us.

[helenb]

We flew in the day of the cruise on our first (honeymoon) cruise. While we made it on time, we were exhausted with jet lag and slept our entire first day on the ship. After that we decided to always fly in at least one day ahead of time.

 

We have had 2 occasions where this has paid off for us. One was in 2009, when we took a Hawaiian cruise on the Golden from LA over the Christmas holidays. There was a huge snowstorm on the East coast and no flights got out of New York/Newark or Boston that day. I think even DC was impacted. As a result, a lot of people never made the ship before she sailed, and the first port was Hilo! We saw a number of people waiting to board in Hilo, who had gone on ahead and flown to Hawaii to catch up with the ship. They had missed 5 days of the cruise, but since it was a 14 days cruise, they still had plenty of time to their vacation. We were really glad that we had driven to the ship (being in California that was the obvious choice down to LA) and that we had arrived the day before.

 

The other occasion was more serious for us. In 2010 we were flying out to Boston from SFO to board a Canada/New England cruise on HAL. Our son tripped and fell in SFO, banging his head against the sharp metal arm of a chair. The cut was deep and required stitches. The airline was willing to change the flight for my son and one of the adults, so my daughter and I flew on to Boston while my husband and son stayed behind. They went to the medical clinic at SFO (until then, I didn't know there was a medical clinic at SFO) and got the stitches, then took a red-eye flight to make it out to Boston on time the next morning. We were really glad that we had had that day of cushion, otherwise we would have missed our ship!

 

As it was, my son had the stitches in for 7 days, and the nice doctor on the HAL ship took them out for him after that. Since they billed us from HAL HQ in Washington state, our PPO even took care of the cost for us (as well as the cost from the SFO medical center). So in the end it worked out okay, but it could have been a disaster for our vacation.

[shredie]

Taking our first cruise next summer and we are definitely planning ahead taking into consideration all the "what if's". We sail out of SFO, we are driving there from LA. We were originally planning to take the 12 hr sceneic route up the CA coast the day before embarkation but decided it would be too risky. Were pinching pennies to take this vacation the last thing we want is to have it be ruined. Were eliminating any potential risks we can, were taking the shorter 7 hour drive direct instead, two days before, early morning, so we have time to deal with any unexpected setbacks, and make the cruise. We can't control everything, but we can try. We will drive the coast on our way back home :)

 

Good plan. The drive down the coast is much more enjoyable if not rushed.

[Cruisin' Chick]

We have had 2 occasions where this has paid off for us. One was in 2009, when we took a Hawaiian cruise on the Golden from LA over the Christmas holidays. There was a huge snowstorm on the East coast and no flights got out of New York/Newark or Boston that day. I think even DC was impacted. As a result, a lot of people never made the ship before she sailed, and the first port was Hilo! We saw a number of people waiting to board in Hilo, who had gone on ahead and flown to Hawaii to catch up with the ship. They had missed 5 days of the cruise, but since it was a 14 days cruise, they still had plenty of time to their vacation. We were really glad that we had driven to the ship (being in California that was the obvious choice down to LA) and that we had arrived the day before.

 

...

 

We had the same thing happen to about 200 or so passengers on our 2010 holiday cruise on the Golden. But it was Heathrow that had the massive snowfall. And it was pouring rain here in LA for several days straight. The captain held the ship for over four hours but finally had to sail off without the Brits. We don't know if any of them ended up catching up to the ship in Hilo. We would ask anyone with a British accent if there had flown on that flight, but each of them had made other arrangements, such as flying from another airport or flew out a few days ahead of the storm and stayed in LA or Vegas pre-cruise.

 

We don't try to travel to our embarkation port on the same day, except for when we leave from LA (that port is an hour's drive). Since our last three cruises were two week ones, we used a land transportation service to take us to the port each time (too much stuff for our sedan's trunk). But we did have a problem when we used Prime Time on that second cruise -- they messed up and sent our driver to the port (while we were waiting back in the Valley). When I called the company, I was asked "when does our ship sail," and I just about blew a gasket (and I'm usually even-tempered). I said to send us a vehicle right now.

 

Two weeks later, they messed up again --yes, they sent the vehicle to our house.

 

And the email confirmation that I had received after booking had the info correct. On the morning of our cruise, we did get a call to confirm that our driver "was on the way," a recorded message that didn't say where the driver was going. Same for two weeks later. Will never use them again. The next cruise, we got the phone call from the actual driver to tell us he was coming to our house. And he was actually early, even though the name of the company was "On Time."

 

Kathy, I hope everything runs smoothly for you tomorrow and you have a great cruise!