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missed cruise

pattyk

By pattyk,
in Royal Caribbean International

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kendon

kendon

Posted
Posted (edited)
How badly do you want to make your cruise?

 

Seriously. Get in your car NOW and start driving. NOW.

 

Hahaha...we did that several years ago. Snow everywhere and flights cancelled far and wide. Our travel insurance company didn't want to hear it. Very long story, very short...we threw all the leftovers from the fridge into a cooler along with the suitcases into the minivan and drove to the port in FLL. We had horrendous weather the whole way down and got to a hotel in Fort Lauderdale at 1:30 am. Well, we made the cruise. Very stressful, but worth it. Yes, consider driving but leave NOW.

Edited by kendon
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TexasGal#35

TexasGal#35

Posted
Posted

I was just "cruising" the boards and was curious what some of the answers were for missing a cruise.

 

I just had to comment on your signature because I loved the "spending our kids inheritance...".

 

I also noticed you are on the Radiance in May heading to Alaska. We are too. We'll be on the Southbound Inside Passage to Vancouver the 22nd-29th. Enjoy your trip.

 

Gloria

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paulh84

paulh84

Posted
Posted
I already told my husband if bad weather prevents us from flying into FLL for our next cruise (which leaves on a Saturday), we will call out of work Fri and start driving Thursday night. Even if we fight some bad weather getting into the Carolinas we should still be able to get to FLL by Friday night, plenty of time to catch the ship.

 

To rely on airlines getting their schedules back in order with a storm of this magnitude in any time less than a week is unrealistic. Travel is sure to be disrupted through the week in the northeast as things settle down once the sun comes back out.

 

This is our plan as well. Storms of any kind and Chicago airports are two things that you do not want to mix! We leave Fort Lauderdale Saturday on LOS. I booked a rental car for Thursday evening and if need be, we will pack up and head out Thursday evening for the 19 hour drive south from Chicago and fly back home the following week. Luckily the path from Chicago to Florida looks clear. I really hope this isn't the option we resort to, but better safe than sorry. The airlines will be so swamped with calls and rebookings I would hate to be stuck at their mercy. Good luck to everyone!

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phoenix1181

phoenix1181

Posted
Posted
This is our plan as well. Storms of any kind and Chicago airports are two things that you do not want to mix! We leave Fort Lauderdale Saturday on LOS. I booked a rental car for Thursday evening and if need be, we will pack up and head out Thursday evening for the 19 hour drive south from Chicago and fly back home the following week. Luckily the path from Chicago to Florida looks clear. I really hope this isn't the option we resort to, but better safe than sorry. The airlines will be so swamped with calls and rebookings I would hate to be stuck at their mercy. Good luck to everyone!

 

If you're planning on using your original tickets for the flight home, you need to contact the airline. When you don't take the first flight, they frequently cancel the return.

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paulh84

paulh84

Posted
Posted
If you're planning on using your original tickets for the flight home, you need to contact the airline. When you don't take the first flight, they frequently cancel the return.

 

Luckily due to using points to book the tickets, they are booked as two one-way trips on separate itineraries so I am in the clear there. Now we just cross our fingers and wait.

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Retired LEO

Retired LEO

Posted
Posted

They're now using Orlando as a parking lot to park their planes from the North east. MCO has the space to store the extra planes until this mess over. Once it's clear they can put the planes right back into service without going through the de-icing process.

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Jhondy210

Jhondy210

Posted
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On the issue of meeting up with the cruise later:

 

From personal experience, if you have booked airfare through RCCL, I know for sure that you can meet up with the cruise later (I am unsure about if you didn't book through RCCL). However, they will not fly you into Haiti so you will have to wait till the next port and then wait for some personnel guy/women to come and give you your cards to get on the ship. That part takes forever for some odd reason.

 

On a side note, when we did finally get on the cruise we missed, the bartenders were all very nice and gave us lots of free drinks when we explained all we had been through. Luckily, we had trip insurance and it turns out RCCL put us in the wrong hotel so they also gave us some money for a future cruise. All in all it wasn't the worst experience ever and it is a fun story to tell.

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ahecht

ahecht

Posted
Posted (edited)

We had a cruise that left during the Blizzard of 2013. Fortunately my boss let me take a couple of extra vacation days and a manager at Southwest Airlines (after some cajoling) rebooked us on a crazy rule-bending three-leg flight with a 13-hour layover that would get us out before the storm and into Fort Lauderdale an extra day early. My boss even had one of the administrative assistants help me book a hotel for the extra night at the corporate discount rate. That said, at our first port (Grand Cayman) we saw lots of people who hadn't been as lucky and were snowed in waiting to board the ship with luggage.

Edited by ahecht
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S.S.Oceanlover

S.S.Oceanlover

Posted
Posted
We are cruising April vacation (for the Northeast) for the first time ever. I just started working for the school system and that's my only vacation. We had planned to fly on Friday for our Sunday cruise, however the airfare is so amazingly expensive ($800+pp....last October we flew down for $200pp) that I took the Friday off and we are driving down starting Thursday. It's a 24 hour drive that I am NOT looking forward to, however you do what you have to if you want to catch the boat! Good luck!!

 

P.S. I hope you are in the car now and not reading cruise critic! :p

 

You may want to try what we are doing. We are from Philly and flights from here to FLL are costly the times we need to fly. Our cruise leaves from FLL also the day before yours.

 

We are driving down to BWI airport in Baltimore. We are only paying about $237pp RT on Southwest.

 

It would save you at least 12 hours of driving.

 

Bill

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msmayor

msmayor

Posted
Posted
You may want to try what we are doing. We are from Philly and flights from here to FLL are costly the times we need to fly. Our cruise leaves from FLL also the day before yours.

 

We are driving down to BWI airport in Baltimore. We are only paying about $237pp RT on Southwest.

 

It would save you at least 12 hours of driving.

 

Bill

 

I second this option. We found a great park and fly rate at a Marriott right near the airport, so we drive down the night before our flight.

 

For that extra 45 min drive we get more flight options at better fares and less crowds.

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LadyBeBop

LadyBeBop

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Posted (edited)

Given the path of the storm, I would have driven west before driving south. Maybe trying a round trip flight out of Buffalo or Pittsburgh.

 

If driving all the way south, I would think about the Autotrain for a good portion of the ride home. Leave just outside of Orlando in the afternoon and arrive just outside of DC the following morning. However, reservations should be made ASAP

 

Shows that if you travel from the snow belt during the wintertime, you have to have a plan B. Or even a plan C.

 

This did not involve a cruise, and we were driving, not flying to Florida. We were supposed to leave Friday night. Right into a snowstorm in the mountains that morning.

 

We suddenly got "sick" Friday morning. Weather was fine through the mountains.

Edited by LadyBeBop
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papaflamingo

papaflamingo

Posted
Posted

Suppose the OP is on Quantum... a whole new problem. We are doing Quantum Feb. 20. Surely hope there isn't a repeat of the Blizzard. Not much hope of getting to New York in this case. I did take out insurance and at the worst I can exercise my "cancel for any reason" clause and get 75% cruise credit. Better than nothing.

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