Flying day of cruise

[SparkleBee]

it depends... is it a non-stop flight or are there connections? I flew from CA to Copenhagen and had terrible delays and arrive 5 hours later than planned. thankfully it was the day before! on the other hand, my brothers flew in non-stop from NY that morning and it was fine.

[Warm Breezes]

it depends... is it a non-stop flight or are there connections? I flew from CA to Copenhagen and had terrible delays and arrive 5 hours later than planned. thankfully it was the day before! on the other hand, my brothers flew in non-stop from NY that morning and it was fine.

 

Even non-stops in June can have issues that cause you to arrive 5 hours later than planned....talking from experience here.

[Elzacruiser]

We booked a non-stop flight from Ontario, CA to New York on the first flight of the day last October. It was 6:30 am. We boarded the aircraft and sat there 30 minutes without moving, and then captain announced that ground staff found a leaking and they had to ask all passengers leave the plane. All passengers need to rebook their flight. We were in N.Y. 8 hours later than we scheduled, and we had to stopover in Dallas. Also, one time at Heathrow airport. It was a 2 hours flight to Copenhagen. We were waiting at the lounge and suddenly Heathrow airport closed due to accident. Eventually the 2 hours flight turned into a 36 hours nightmare. We barely catch the cruise ship, but lots of people miss it. Well, if you can, book yourself a day before. At least, you won’t get a heart attack when your flight got cancelled at the last minute. :)

[Debala715]

Being the rookies my husband and I are at this, we didn't know to book the flight for the night before. We booked it so we fly out of ORD at 6:00 am the morning of the cruise (11/21/15). After the trip was all booked, I then found this forum. Reading this thread and other threads about this, I just checked to see if we could change our flight. It would cost us $400 to change flight and then an additional hotel room charge. We just can't afford that extra expense, as this would take away from our cruise spending money. Now we know for the future, but best we can do is hope we don't have our first cruise spoiled by plane or weather issues. Here is another of those live and learn moments that life throws at you. All future cruises, we will arrive the day before if at all possible.

[Flatbush Flyer]

Being the rookies my husband and I are at this, we didn't know to book the flight for the night before. We booked it so we fly out of ORD at 6:00 am the morning of the cruise (11/21/15). After the trip was all booked, I then found this forum. Reading this thread and other threads about this, I just checked to see if we could change our flight. It would cost us $400 to change flight and then an additional hotel room charge. We just can't afford that extra expense, as this would take away from our cruise spending money. Now we know for the future, but best we can do is hope we don't have our first cruise spoiled by plane or weather issues. Here is another of those live and learn moments that life throws at you. All future cruises, we will arrive the day before if at all possible.

 

 

With the cost of international airfare climbing (either in money or points), we look for cruises with interesting (hopefully new to us) start and end ports so that we can extend both pre and post cruise stays for at least 2-3 days before and 2-4 days after. This gets us the most bang for our buck. Next 10 day med cruise on O has 3 days in Lisbon pre and 4 days in Rome post.

[donaldsc]

With the cost of international airfare climbing (either in money or points), we look for cruises with interesting (hopefully new to us) start and end ports so that we can extend both pre and post cruise stays for at least 2-3 days before and 2-4 days after. This gets us the most bang for our buck. Next 10 day med cruise on O has 3 days in Lisbon pre and 4 days in Rome post.

 

We do the same thing but for us it is usually at least a couple weeks before and a couple of weeks after. Our last cruise which was a 14 day cruise morphed into 1 1/2 months.

 

My philosophy is that there are so many interesting places to visit and I may not get back to all of them again so as long as I am paying for the air faire, I might as well make a big trip of it.

 

DON

 

DON

[DebJ14]

Non-stop flights are great - as long as they remain non-stop, and non-delay, non-cancelled, and non-diverted.

 

True! Friends of ours missed their sailing on the Carnival Breeze last June. Weather was perfect, plane took off on time from Atlanta headed to Miami and they should have arrived in Miami at 11am. The plane developed mechanical difficulties and made an emergency landing in Jacksonville. Delta promised they would be on their way and get there in plenty of time. The plane was not fixable so Delta sent another plane from Atlanta to pick up the passengers in Jacksonville. It did not leave Jacksonville until after 3:00pm. They arrived at the pier 10 minutes after the ship sailed. They were in touch with the cruise line all day and thought the ship would wait for them, but they did not. NCL did hold the ship for their guests who were on the same flight.

 

We were contact while they were in Jacksonville. I tried to rebook them on another airline, but all the non-stop flights out to FLL or Miami were full. Flights requiring a change of planes all got in too late.

 

Lesson learned.

[cruznjan]

In the past we've flown day of to cruises. These days it's more difficult to get rebooked if something happens. We now fly out one or two days ahead.

[broberts]

Being the rookies my husband and I are at this, we didn't know to book the flight for the night before. We booked it so we fly out of ORD at 6:00 am the morning of the cruise (11/21/15). After the trip was all booked, I then found this forum. Reading this thread and other threads about this, I just checked to see if we could change our flight. It would cost us $400 to change flight and then an additional hotel room charge. We just can't afford that extra expense, as this would take away from our cruise spending money. Now we know for the future, but best we can do is hope we don't have our first cruise spoiled by plane or weather issues. Here is another of those live and learn moments that life throws at you. All future cruises, we will arrive the day before if at all possible.

 

If you have not already done so, you might want to look into emergency trip cancellation insurance. Some of these policies include coverage for trip interruptions (en-route delays).

 

The first time I cruised, (in January no less), I used cruise air and worried the entire time until I was safely aboard. But the fact is that cruise lines routinely book same-day flights for passengers. Only a very small percentage ever have to be flown to the first port of call.

[Debala715]

If you have not already done so, you might want to look into emergency trip cancellation insurance. Some of these policies include coverage for trip interruptions (en-route delays).

 

The first time I cruised, (in January no less), I used cruise air and worried the entire time until I was safely aboard. But the fact is that cruise lines routinely book same-day flights for passengers. Only a very small percentage ever have to be flown to the first port of call.

 

I did take out insurance for the trip. Even with the insurance, because this will our first cruise, I will worry until I'm on safely aboard also.

[broberts]

I did take out insurance for the trip. Even with the insurance, because this will our first cruise, I will worry until I'm on safely aboard also.

 

:) Hopefully you are not as much a worrier as I am. I worry about the weather, the flight, forgetting passports, etc. Have a great cruise.

[donaldsc]

True! Friends of ours missed their sailing on the Carnival Breeze last June. Weather was perfect, plane took off on time from Atlanta headed to Miami and they should have arrived in Miami at 11am. The plane developed mechanical difficulties and made an emergency landing in Jacksonville. Delta promised they would be on their way and get there in plenty of time. The plane was not fixable so Delta sent another plane from Atlanta to pick up the passengers in Jacksonville. It did not leave Jacksonville until after 3:00pm. They arrived at the pier 10 minutes after the ship sailed. They were in touch with the cruise line all day and thought the ship would wait for them, but they did not. NCL did hold the ship for their guests who were on the same flight.

 

We were contact while they were in Jacksonville. I tried to rebook them on another airline, but all the non-stop flights out to FLL or Miami were full. Flights requiring a change of planes all got in too late.

 

Lesson learned.

 

If your friend did not take CruiseAir, I fail to see why they would expect the ship to wait for them. They did not take CruiseAir. They made a choice to come in on the same day. However, they then do not want to suffer the consequences of your decision.

 

Also, assuming that the ship waited 10 minutes for them, should they have waited 30 minutes for a still later cruiser? If 30 minutes is OK, why not 45 minutes. Where does it end for late arrivals?

 

DON

Edited March 20, 2015 by donaldsc

[cruznjan]

To be fair, the last time I cruised, we left early morning the day of.

[cruznjan]

Not only did we arrive on time, the flight was early.

[DirtyDawg]

Not only did we arrive on time, the flight was early.

 

Good to see you're spicing up your travel. Flying in the morning of is fun.:) Will we make it? Won't we make it? It just adds to the excitement of the whole vacation experience.;)

 

I jaywalk sometimes too.:D

[AndreaDH91483]

If it were me, I'd rather pay the extra money and fly the day before. Yes, $300.00 is a lot of money to save, and if your flight the day of the cruise departs and arrives on time, you may not have any problems, but you never know if your flight will be severely delayed or cancelled for some reason, and if that happens, there's no guarantee the airline would be able to get you on another flight that would get you to the ship on time.