Same-day flight.....?

[DirtyDawg]

 

It's not just the numbers: the whole point of the exercise is to go on a cruise - and not risk burning vacation time by missing part/all of it.

 

But I will concede your point: you are happy to fly in on day of cruise - and do not even think you are lucky that you apparently can make it with no sweat. My point is that most rational mere mortals who take time to think about things will only very reluctantly plan to take connecting flights scheduled to land within just a few hours before sailaway -.regardless of the cruise fare.

 

You're a mere mortal? I would have never guessed that!:D

 

Have a nice night.

[TNcruising02]

OP here- OK, OK...I chickened out! Coming in the day before! Only reason I'\d look at coming same-day would be to save a few bucks on hotel, etc.

So.... now that the majority of you have convinced me NOT to.... I'm hoping you'll all take up a little collection...to offset my extra expenses....:)

(BTW...if I told you where my ORIGINATING 5am flight was from, to get TO Toronto to connect...you'd say I was totally nuts to try it!) :)

 

I think you made a great decision. Now you can fly in and enjoy a night at a hotel as an extra vacation day. You can get a good night's sleep and wake up relaxed and ready to head to the port as early as you want to. I like to arrive at the port around 10:30 so I can get an early boarding number. I always look at the hotel stay the night before our cruise as an extra vacation day and have fun with it. I look forward to my cruises so much that it would be a huge deal if the ship sailed without me. I want to spend as much time as possible sailing.

[Warm Breezes]

My experiences with flights from MI to FL:

 

Direct flight GRR to MCO in June....Emergency landing in TN on ground for 4-5 hours due mechanical issues.

 

Direct flight DTW to FLL in April....Mechanical issues delayed in DTW for 4 hours waiting for a replacement plane.

 

Flight GRR to ORD to MCO in May...Mechanical issues delayed 4 hours in Chicago while they fixed the plane.

 

Friends experience DTW to San Juan....flight cancelled due to pilot strike day of flight...had to make other last minute flight arrangements.

 

This is why we will never fly in the same day. Luckily scenarios 1, 2, and 4 above were the day before cruises or ships would have been missed. Scenario 3 was for our land vacation with a VRBO house a couple weeks ago....luckily no ship to miss.

 

 

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[*Miss G*]

My experiences with flights from MI to FL:

 

Direct flight GRR to MCO in June....Emergency landing in TN on ground for 4-5 hours due mechanical issues.

 

Direct flight DTW to FLL in April....Mechanical issues delayed in DTW for 4 hours waiting for a replacement plane.

 

Flight GRR to ORD to MCO in May...Mechanical issues delayed 4 hours in Chicago while they fixed the plane.

 

Who the heck do you fly with? :o

 

OP, glad you are not doing this. I have done it successfully but I had Plan B to fall back on. Unless you have NEXUS, to get a connection out of Toronto is where it would all fall apart. I would never tempt fate under those conditions. Enjoy your cruise!

[jargey3000]

...how's that "collection" coming....? :evilsmile:

[Warm Breezes]

Who the heck do you fly with? :o

 

OP, glad you are not doing this. I have done it successfully but I had Plan B to fall back on. Unless you have NEXUS, to get a connection out of Toronto is where it would all fall apart. I would never tempt fate under those conditions. Enjoy your cruise!

 

I can't remember who the first was with. That was 13 years ago. Second was Delta. Third was United. Our friends flight with pilot strike was Spirit. I never count on having good luck. It is a good thing my family can go with the flow and not let stuff like this ruin trips for us.

[Lookingforfacts]

Years ago I read almost 80% of cruisers fly in day of cruise. I'm not sure if that's still true. That would include many (most) cruise air passengers. You'd never know this from reading the internet. Many people have limited vacation. In a perfect world you'll want to fly in a few days early because there are sights you want to see in your embarkation city. Why wouldn't you want to fly into Venice a few days early. Probably not as true for people who fly into MIA and FLL several times a year to take Caribbean cruises. I'll agree with the previous posters. Air travel has changed. Fewer non/stop flights. Higher passenger load. Few airlines have backup planes and crew ready to go. Our ability to find space on a later flight is diminished. People have to do what works for them. I'd be more cautions flying from the North during the winter.

 

Some posters don't appreciate the budget considerations of posters. It's OK to cruise with a BC and DL on a closed loop cruise. A family who's not likely to need a passport in the next few years can save money not getting passports. Many peoples have adequate medical insurance. Some credit cards offer enough travel provisions to handle reasonable needs. Not everyone wants the additional expense of extra hotel nights and food.

 

I fly in a few days early. Gives me a change to tour a new city. Gives some cushion for flight issues. I appreciate the fact that other cruisers have different issues.

[*Miss G*]

I can't remember who the first was with. That was 13 years ago. Second was Delta. Third was United. Our friends flight with pilot strike was Spirit. I never count on having good luck. It is a good thing my family can go with the flow and not let stuff like this ruin trips for us.

Oh phew. I was thinking they were with the same airline and I really wanted to make sure I didn't fly with them. lol

[CLTflyer1977]

Carnival booked me into MIA on the same day. I landed at 11, checked in at the airport and was on the ship by noon. If you're not going to buy air through the cruise line then you may want to buy travel insurance.

[mjkacmom]

I don't live in fear and what is the chances of that happening during the time of his cruise in the US is slim to none. Technology issues is uncontrollable and that can happen the day before he plans to fly in for his cruise it could happen the day of. I have successfully flew in the day of to cruises in Miami and San Juan. No problems. So don't instill your fear onto others. Since your speaking of those chances. There is always a chance yours hip could have mechanical failure but I see you still get on the ship.

Slim to none? When my husband travels for work, I'm guessing his flight is delayed about 1/4 of the time. Weather, mechanical problems, computer problems... heck, I see daily travel delays just from Facebook friends stuck at airports.

[E@syPe@zy]

I think flying in a day early also allows you an evening and a night's rest to decompress from a day of travel. The day before I travel is filled with last minute details and list checking and getting pets to their boarding. I very much enjoy waking up refreshed the day of the cruise and just have to get myself on the ship.

However even the best plans don't always work out. Last year arrived in Baltimore the day before a 14 day cruise. Everything runs like clockwork until an hour before leaving the hotel. I became violently ill with food poisoning and spent 12 hours in the ER. I can tell you when you miss your cruise, it's a bigger letdown than you can imagine. Yes..I had travel insurance, but the disappointment factor was more than I thought it would be. Plus it breaks my heart that my DH missed the cruise too. He never acted like it bothered him, but I know he was looking forward to it as much as I was.

So...fly in a day early and don't eat any blue cheese dressing at a restaurant before you sail! :)

Happy cruising everyone!

[SadieN]

Enough said

 

What was your best/almost worst cruise?

 

4x4 Bob

Our Best/Almost Worst Cruise was a 10 day out of San Pedro to go down the Mexico Coast on the Crown Princess.

 

We decided to fly the day of the cruise because we lived in Northern California and the weather was good.

 

We arrived at the airport to discover that Delta had switched our airplane to another gate and let them load and gave us one with mechanical problems. Delta flight board stated 30 min delay. Yup, they kept changing the time by 30 minutes until 1:30 in the after noon when they canceled the flight. We found out that Delta had to fly a part in along with a certified Delta mechanic to install it. They just did not tell us what was going on.

 

My wife jumped on her Cell Phone while waiting in line for a Delta rep and got us onto a 3:00 PM flight that got us into LA at 5:00 PM and the ship sailed without us at 4:00 pm even tho we had been in constant contact with princess.

 

Two Princess Rep's met us at luggage pick up and helped us arrange a flight the next day down to Puerto Vallarta (PV) where we could catch the ship in 3 days. We had to deal with a Princess point of contact in India due to after hours. Having our Passports with us saved the day for us.

 

Delta comped us a hotel room in a hotel sold out which caused us to got back to the airport to get another Hotel room.

 

That night at 10:00 PM we are on the Hotel computer trying to find a Hotel down in PV. We had called home to have our daughter and the wife Sister also searching for us. Finally we find one with a vacancy, but they will not take a computer reservation so we had to call them.

 

Then we signed into the airlines that we would take the next day to confirm our seats to find out that the Princess Rep in India that had reserved the seats for us had not paid for them.

 

Next morning we call Princess at 6:00AM and they finally pay for the seats.

 

We arrive at PV to find out that we had really lucked out in selecting a 5 star hotel.

 

While we were enjoying a sandwich and a beer by the pool we saw another couple that we had talked to at the Airport in LA that had also missed the ship due to Delta mix up with their flight.

 

We ran around with them in PV and also on the ship. We were lucky to meet such nice people under those circumstances.

 

The last morning we found our Hotel bill that was slid under the door . I picked it up and ask the wife what had she ordered last for room service because the Bill was for $7,000.00. We ran down to the front desk to find out that bill was supposed to be in Peso's not USD.

 

All in All that cruise was one of our Better Cruises because we had that extra adventure of missing the ship.

 

And our trip insurance covered almost everything for us because we collected a receipt for every expense.

 

Bob

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=53255873

 

 

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