Always fly the day before!!!

[PlanetX]

1 day before -absolutely

2 days before to avoid delays- really?

 

2 days before may not be strictly necessary to avoid delays, but it can help with airfare costs (flying on a Wed/Thurs is often cheaper than flying on a Fri/Sat) and give you a longer vacation. I know that I prefer to go on vacation for a minimum of 9-10 days since I only get to get away from work once a year.

[Cruisin'Kim]

To the extent one can, of course arrive the day before. But it is simply not always possible. Before I started arriving early, I cruised twice out of Europe and once out of Puerto Rico same day as arrival. I wonder what the majority of cruisers do? Especially when the cruise leaves on a Saturday and thus requires an additional day off work.

 

This post could also be titled "always buy insurance." I may be disappointed to miss the cruise, but I would hate more to lose the money. May even be cheaper to buy insurance versus getting a room/paying for meals.

 

 

 

I always bite the bullet and take an extra day of vacation. Buying insurance does help recoup your money, but doesn't' help with the disappointment of missing your cruise. Yes, you do have to pay for meals and hotel, but we just enjoy it as an extra vacation day.

 

 

 

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[Mac303]

Since moving to Naples, Florida area, we leave early on the day of a cruise that

is leaving out of Fort Lauderdale, and Miami, it is a two hour drive across alligator

alley, but we allow 6 hours of travel time.

 

We will Fly into Seattle a day early for our Alaska cruise.

We have a future cruise out of Port Canaveral, for that one we will go a day early

estimated drive time is 4 hours but the route is through a much more heavily

traveled/congested area of Florida.

 

 

Mac

[money4me]

Issues with phones lines started in Quebec and did affect parts of Ontario, parts of Ontario but all of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia , Prince Edward island and Newfoundland.

 

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[DirtyDawg]

Issues with phones lines started in Quebec and did affect parts of Ontario, parts of Ontario but all of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia , Prince Edward island and Newfoundland.

 

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Thank you for the information. My point to the other poster the outage was not most of the country.

[DirtyDawg]

We stay after cruises and fly out the next morning also.

 

We hightail it out of the port city ASAP after a cruise. We usually have to get back to work the next day. When we fully retire we might stick around more often.

[disneylynn]

We are flying out of ISP to MCO at 6am the same day for our Oasis cruise on 8/27. I was having anxiety before I read this thread now I am freaking out. We have always flew out the day before. My daughter was not able to get 2 Saturdays off from work in a row so now we have to fly the morning of the cruise. Everyone please keep your fingers cross that we make it!!!!!

[travelplus]

CC is littered with stories of cruisers who either missed their cruise or went through huge amounts of stress to get to the sailaway on time due to flight issues. Hanging around a hotel pool the night before a cruise is something I really look forward to enjoying. Well worth the one night hotel cost.

 

Isn't it pure luxury to be sipping a "Pre Cruise" cocktail at your hotel the night before and then swimming in the hotel pool, enjoying a nice dinner and breakfast before heading to the port knowing your ship is around the corner? I always pick a nice hotel that is minutes from the port such as in New Orleans and Tampa FL.

[travelplus]

Since moving to Naples, Florida area, we leave early on the day of a cruise that

is leaving out of Fort Lauderdale, and Miami, it is a two hour drive across alligator

alley, but we allow 6 hours of travel time.

 

We will Fly into Seattle a day early for our Alaska cruise.

We have a future cruise out of Port Canaveral, for that one we will go a day early

estimated drive time is 4 hours but the route is through a much more heavily

traveled/congested area of Florida.

 

 

Mac

 

Mac I can appreciate that you live 2 hours from your ports but what if there is a 50 car pileup on the Alley and your plan of allowing 6 hours is not enough? I would much rather spend the night next to the Port.

 

I am looking at a cruise out of San Francisco and you can be damn sure I would spend the night before the cruise. I don't care that its only 50 miles to the port but there can be traffic on The Embarcadero leading to the port.

[harryfat1]

If you are flying across the country to catch a cruise, definitely think about staying an extra day pre cruise. We encountered this issue back in 2013.

 

We were flying from California to Boston on a late red eye Friday night in June looking to stay an extra day in Boston sightseeing before getting on the ship on Sunday. We boarded the plane at midnight but we didn’t take off as they had mechanical issues.

 

After 2 plus hours of trying to fix it, at 2:30 in the morning they turned on the lights and kicked everyone off at 3 AM and declared the plane to be dead and couple hundred people were thrown back to the terminal to stand in line to try and re-book a new flight for later in the day.

 

As we had an extra day buffer, I wasn’t as worried but the group in front of us of around 15 folks in a large extended family entourage was in deep trouble. They had a Holland America cruise that Saturday out of Boston. Obviously they weren’t going to make the sailing out of Boston at 4 PM on Saturday. As we stood in line at the counter, one person said to us that they thought they were ok in booking a direct red eye flight with the thinking they didn’t have to deal with connecting flight issues or winter storms. No one was planning for mechanical issues.

 

They had one member of the family on the phone with HAL and another member on the phone with the airline trying to find 15 seats on a flight out of CA within next 2 days for them to fly to the first or second port of call in Maine or Canada to meet up with their ship. Not good.

 

As for us, we couldn’t secure a flight out for the 6 of us until Saturday night on the next red eye as all the other flights were full out of San Francisco. Since we didn’t really sleep on Friday night (being at the airport) and had to do a red eye on Saturday night, it was as if we did a back to back red eye flight. We looked and felt like poop when we landed in Boston Sunday morning and after boarding the ship and ate lunch, we headed straight for the cabin and crashed for 2 hours instead of exploring the ship.

 

Guess we were the lucky ones as we caught our sailing. Couldn’t say the same for the other family.

 

Another consideration is the bigger your traveling party, the harder it will be for the airline to get your entire group onto the next available flight. Easier to try and find 2 seats than 15 seats last minute.

 

Nowadays with airline computer delays and any crazy idiot with weapon (or even potential of one) can shut down the airport for hours. Way too risky to try and fly in on the day of the cruise.

[Biker19]

Trust me, don't base your travel on statistics.

Because the airlines lie when they report them?

[Rich & Claudine]

Because the airlines lie when they report them?

 

They don't really lie but they are giving you a little misleading information. I used to work in a city where we sent our first departure out at a 99% on time rate. Every three months or so, they would change the flight number of our first departure and give "our" on time rate to another city and we would get one that was usually in the high 60's or 70's. After three months when we had it up to a decent on time percentage, the flight numbers would change again.

Just because the airlines say that a flight goes at a certain on time percentage, it is usually associated with the flight number...at least that is how it used to be a few years ago.

[Mac303]

Mac I can appreciate that you live 2 hours from your ports but what if there is a 50 car pileup on the Alley and your plan of allowing 6 hours is not enough? I would much rather spend the night next to the Port.

 

I am looking at a cruise out of San Francisco and you can be damn sure I would spend the night before the cruise. I don't care that its only 50 miles to the port but there can be traffic on The Embarcadero leading to the port.

 

I get your point, but at the time in the morning that we leave, you would have a hard time

finding 50 cars on the whole length of aligator alley. Traffic is non existent early on a

Sat/Sun morning in that area.

 

Mac

[FPP777]

Because the airlines lie when they report them?

 

 

No, because stuff happens. If the flight you are on arrives on time 90 percent of the time, that means 36 days a year that flight will be late. Why risk it?

[money4me]

Last year on completion of our Baltic cruise we disembarked in Barcelona. We were booked on a flight from Barcelona to Heathrow. We were at the airport in plenty of time and were all boarded when we got the word that we were delayed due to heavy fog at Heathrow. We finally left for Heathrow, but arrived just moments before our connecting flight departed for Toronto Canada. We spent the next 8 hours in a British Airways ticket line attempting to rebook our flight to Canada. During the time we spent in line, no less than 4 flights departed that would have got us to our destination. By the time we got to the front of the line, the next available flight was the same time frame as the one we were supposed to be on, but 24 hours later. We wouldn't have minded a day in London, if we could have done something more entertaining than standing in a line up in the airport. Only positive out of the whole thing, was they put us up in a hotel, gave us vouchers for transportation and meals. Decided then that we would never fly through Heathrow again. We always allow a couple of days buffer inbound and outbound for our cruises.

 

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[Biker19]

. Why risk it?

 

Because 90% odds is pretty darn good? Also, because while there's a 10% chance the flight will be late, the chances of it being late enough to miss the ship or canceled are probably very small.

[ronandcarla]

Mostly all of our cruises have been during the winter months from Phila, Pa., and heading south and we have always flown down the day of the cruise; on the last cruise that we were to take a snow/ice storm happened on Friday and lasted through Sunday and our trip was cancelled, insurance covered the financial part, but we were really disappointed by reason of us not being able to share the vacation with our daughter and son in law who were coming from Louisiana and with all that said we would still continue flying in on the same day as cruise, for us its to much of an inconvenience and expense to do it any earlier. I've often wondered what is the percentages of who does and who doesn't fly in prior to the cruise.

[BND]

We always arrive the day before our cruise, except when we go out of Baltimore. Our drive to Baltimore is just over one hour so no need to go the day before. Although one back up plan is for snow when we can go the day before and stay with my sister who lives in Crofton. Crofton gets us 20 minutes away from Baltimore and on the right side of the river. The possible stress on the day of, just isn't worth it to me. There's enough horror stories of missed cruises due to cancelled and delayed flights. We take the auto train to Fl and go the day before because even though the train is due in sanford around 8 am, it's been known to be much later. Our back up if the train is cancelled is to drive which we would have time to do with a train booked two days before our cruise.

[BigHouseFootball]

My wife and I have flown in the day of for both our cruises. No problems. Granted I make sure we are on the very first flight out in the morning, but still, day of had worked for us.

[FPP777]

Because 90% odds is pretty darn good? Also, because while there's a 10% chance the flight will be late, the chances of it being late enough to miss the ship or canceled are probably very small.

 

They suck when you are in the 10 percent... I get that its an odds thing, but after my 30 years of experience of changing the vacation plans of millions of people, I go in the day before, I know better. I leave nothing to chance. I know what goes into cancelling 3-400 flights with the push of one button.

 

I leave the odds playing to others.

[DCGuy64]

Not to be a naysayer but arriving a day early isn't always possible for everyone. Oftentimes given our schedules and vacation allotment it's a matter of flying the day of, or not going on the cruise at all. I'd rather travel the same day than not at all.

 

 

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[FPP777]

I/m not sure if I said it earlier, but if I didn't, if at all possible, when you are flying, try the day before.

[nealstuber]

Because 90% odds is pretty darn good? Also, because while there's a 10% chance the flight will be late, the chances of it being late enough to miss the ship or canceled are probably very small.

 

 

 

Given the choices of not going at all, digging in to another weeks vacation, or flying day of I might try the first direct flight day of. I would never do a connection day of as, even if you believe the published odds, you go down to a 1 and 5 shot of being late. Agree that being late is not the same thing as missing the ship, but the odds of your bags arriving in time to meet the ship are even worse.

 

 

 

 

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[DirtyDawg]

Because 90% odds is pretty darn good? Also, because while there's a 10% chance the flight will be late, the chances of it being late enough to miss the ship or canceled are probably very small.

 

Yes 90% + are very good odds. I would certainly take those odds at the Casino. :D

 

But a lot of CC members won't risk their cruise (we are cruise addicts after all ;)) with those odds.

[bigque]

I get your point, but at the time in the morning that we leave, you would have a hard time

finding 50 cars on the whole length of aligator alley. Traffic is non existent early on a

Sat/Sun morning in that area.

 

Mac

 

We drove from Charlotte to Port Canaveral back In 2015 and left the day before as always. When we drive we always leave early enough to get to PC at around 1:00 to 2:00. Well there was an accident on I-95 about 45 minutes to an hour out of PC and traffic detoured off one of the exits. Because of the heavy traffic getting off on that one exit and then re-routing the GPS to get to PC we did not get to our hotel until about 5:30. If it would have been the day of the cruise we would have missed the ship. So even driving people should plan on at least the day before! We saw later on the news that night that a bus carrying some college athletes had flipped over on I-95.