Flight cancellation - what to do about transfer?!

[Cisterna]

Thanks for all the well-wishes. A sad sad Iowa day...no cruise for us!! Cancelled flight, delay to cancel, and another delay. No way we can make the connection, even if the ship left 3 hours late we would miss it. Ugh how I needed this mini-break! Live and learn, you know?! We did get our FCCs back, just not the cruise cost (another hard lesson...so many today!), and Princess customer service was very kind. Hope someone gets a great balcony upgrade today in our absence!! Have a great trip, Golden! :')

OH How awful for you ! If you didn't book your flight through Princess they won't help you with a missed flight situation!.- btw the airlines are NOT responsible or required to help you if you are going to or miss your cruise (as someone stated)! Can I also assume you didn't buy insurance ? You spend so much money on your cruise a couple hundred extra is worth the price for weather flight cancellations and such - you would have gotten your cruise money refunded or a voucher to use on another Princess cruise - not just your FCC back. Such a horrible way to learn a lesson. I feel your pain!

[Cruisin' Chick]

I'm probably the exception here. I have an Alaska cruise booked for May 2015, and for only the second time in 25 cruises, I am going to take a chance at flying in the day of the cruise. I almost always fly in 2-3 days early. But, as someone who is now stretching my budget to cruise 2 or 3 times a year, the costs of flying in early are really getting high. Instead of just a transfer from airport to cruiseport, you need a transfer to hotel, a couple nights in hotel, another transfer hotel to cruise port, and a few days of meals out. We are finding hotel rates have really gone up, lots of extra taxes and fees added on, and amenities getting reduced. I have a friend who was flying in a day early. Snow caused her flight to be cancelled, and they could not rebook her for three days - thus cruise missed. Had she been booked on the early flight day of cruise, that flight took off on time and she would have made the ship. So you never know.

 

I'm not saying it's a good idea to fly day of cruise, and it's not something I'd do very often. But, I've already been to Alaska a few times, and I got a great price on the cruise. (It's an "extra" that I'm trying to keep the cost down on). I have a very early nonstop flight from NY to Seattle that gets me into Seattle around 10 a.m., I have Princess air, I have Princess transfers and I have Princess platinum insurance. So, just this once, I'm going to take a chance. Worst case scenario, if next port protection isn't available since it would then be transporting us from one US port to a different US port, I think I should be able to get a 100% credit under the "cancel for any reason." I know I'll be a little nervous, and I truly do not recommend flying in the day of the cruise, but under all these circumstances, I think I am willing to take this chance this one time.

 

To the OP, I would say, sometimes you give something a chance, and unfortunately this time it did not work out for you. Not everyone has the time or the money to fly in a couple of days early. So, just keep in mind all of the possibilities, and make the decision that works best for you. But, I do think it's a good idea to have Princess platinum insurance (which has cancel for any reason) if you are going to fly in the day of the cruise. Keeping my fingers crossed that this one time I fly in day of, it will work for me. If not, another lesson learned.

 

Would love to do most of my cruising from ports I can drive to, but it's just not realistic. Princess only does about a month of cruises to Canada/New England from NY. Anything else on Princess, I would have to fly. Wish me luck with this: hope I will not regret this decision.

 

If you're on a northbound Alaskan cruise (leaving from Vancouver) and miss getting on at the starting point, you won't be able to catch up to the ship and board after that due to the PVSA Act. There's been some stories on Cruise Critic about this happening to people.