Always fly the day before!!!

[bouhunter]

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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If flights are cancelled or delayed we rarely wait in a line at check in or gate - we call the airline direct and get things taken care of.

[2tall]

There was a terrible ice storm two nights before our first cruise. We were flying from DC to Fort Lauderdale the day of the cruise and, smugly, I thought we'd be fine since the airports were closed the day before our flight but were reopening the day of our flight. Nope. We arrived at the airport to find about 2000 people in line who had spent the night at the airport and were now trying to change their flights. Grabbed a porter, checked in ahead of the restless and angry crowd and proceeded to the gate...where we were told that our flight crew was coming in from Pittsburg, which was now in the throes of the ice storm we'd just weathered. Cancelled. We got lucky and picked up another flight and made it in plenty of time but a lot of people from the Northeast didn't. They met us at the port in San Juan and cheered when the ship pulled in.

 

That was the one and only time we have flown in the day of a cruise. My preference is now at least 2 days in advance and I look at it as an extension of our vacation.

[Mac303]

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.

 

 

Below is my original post see the part about a port Canaveral cruise and a day early.

 

 

 

 

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

[Crusingdiva62]

My July cruise I flew in from California on a Friday to BWI. I never chance my vacation with flights from cross country. If you fly out of San Francisco at night you are almost guaranteed a canceled flight from fog or delays elsewhere.

 

I never want to start my vacation out frustrated so I flew in and spent time with family in pikesville MD. Morning of the cruise we had breakfast at IHOP and a nice relaxing drive to the terminal.

 

 

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[happymanitee]

The title of this post is triggering a bad memory for me.

My family and I were flying from Dayton to San Juan, PR for a cruise on Adventure in June 2015. Our flight was supposed to leave at 6:00am the day before the cruise (Friday morning). Because it was such an early flight, I had to get my family up around 3:30 am to drive to the airport, park, and get checked in. We boarded the plane on time and I began to relax in my seat as the plane pulled away from the gate. As we neared the runway, I drifted off to sleep. Then, I felt my children kicking my seat (they were sitting behind me) and generally being noisy. I woke up to turn around and yell at them, when I realized we were at the terminal.

"oh, did we already land in Chicago for our connecting flight? I can't believe I slept through the whole flight.. what time is it?"

Well, it was 7am. I had been asleep for an hour and the plane never took off. We were still in Dayton. The plane was on the runway when a warning light came on and we returned to the gate. Our connecting flight was supposed to leave Chicago by 8am, so it was obvious that we would not be making that flight. We were held captive on the plane for another hour before they finally let us leave the plane. It was now 8am and I needed to make other arrangements to get to San Juan.

I waited patiently in the long line that had formed at the customer service desk until it was finally my turn.

 

Me: I need another flight to San Juan, PR

lady: we don't have anymore flights to PR. I can get you there on Monday.

me: umm... Monday is unacceptable. We are going on a cruise that leaves tomorrow.

lady (in the sweetest, sing-songy voice): 'ALWAYS FLY THE DAY BEFORE'.

 

at that moment, I wanted to jump over the counter and strangle her, but I calmly said, "yes, I know. It IS the day before. I need to be there by tomorrow afternoon, but you are telling me that you can't get me there until Monday'.

lady: yes, sorry. That is the next flight we have.

 

I'll spare you the rest of the details, but eventually, we got on a flight leaving Saturday morning on a different airline out of a different airport. It was a mess. And, when we showed up at that airport, someone pulled the fire alarm and the whole airport had to be evacuated. That evacuation caused our flight to be late and we almost missed our connection again. But, we did make it by running through the airport as fast as we could and yelling at them to hold the doors open just as they were closing them.

Overall, it was so stressful, that I had a hard time shifting into vacation mode after that.

 

I'm not sure what lesson is to be learned here. I mean, I did book the flights a day ahead and that almost wasn't enough. Dayton isn't a very big airport, so I guess that is why they didn't have more flights that could accommodate us. I now live in Dallas, so I am closer to a much bigger airport.

 

Anyway, just thought I would share. I can still hear her voice as she lectured me about flying the day before. I mean, did she really think that was a helpful thing to say in that moment? It just angered me that she was telling me there was nothing she could do and just hoping I would go away and come back on Monday. When, obviously, there was something she could do since she eventually put us on a different airline out of Cincinnati. Also, it was the third time we had problems with that particular airline. And, yes- it was the last time we had problems with them because we never flew them again.

 

Now, that I'm in Texas, I love being able to just drive to Galveston. But, even then, I drive down the day before, because you never really know what could happen. And, I just don't want to be stressed out like that ever again. It is so much more relaxing to take your time driving, check into a hotel for a good night's sleep, wake up and enjoy a nice breakfast, and then leisurely head to the pier.

[George C]

Also agree on insurance , last cruise a few months ago our flight was canceled then given a new flight then that was canceled then we had to fly out next day , lucky for us only thing we missed was a nice relaxing hotel stay the night before the cruise

[bigque]

 

It was now 8am and I needed to make other arrangements to get to San Juan.

I waited patiently in the long line that had formed at the customer service desk until it was finally my turn.

 

Me: I need another flight to San Juan, PR

lady: we don't have anymore flights to PR. I can get you there on Monday.

me: umm... Monday is unacceptable. We are going on a cruise that leaves tomorrow.

lady (in the sweetest, sing-songy voice): 'ALWAYS FLY THE DAY BEFORE'.

 

at that moment, I wanted to jump over the counter and strangle her, but I calmly said, "yes, I know. It IS the day before. I need to be there by tomorrow afternoon, but you are telling me that you can't get me there until Monday'.

lady: yes, sorry. That is the next flight we have.

 

I had a similar experience last year on a flight out of Charlotte but I was not going to a cruise. Our flight was cancelled due to no show of the flight crew. What I did however while waiting in that long line that had formed I called the airlines reservations number on my cell phone and when I got through to them and gave them my information they had already booked us on another flight and that flight was currently boarding, so we ran down to the gate and made the flight with few minutes to spare. If I would have continued to wait in the line without calling we would not have made the flight they booked us on as they did not call my cell or text me which was my preferred method of contact. Lesson Learned....... Don't just wait in the long slow moving line when a flight is cancelled but get on the phone and called customer service. :cool:

[LS6Caddy]

We fly in the day before for the obvious reasons. But for us it is also nice to get in early and get that travel day out of the way. We sit by the pool and enjoy beverages...sometimes too many. It gives us an opportunity to walk to the store for any last minute items we may have forgotten. And it allows us to get to port early and get on the ship early...its almost like adding a day to our cruise.