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My really stupid cruise move

Momto3girlsintheCarolinas
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Momto3girlsintheCarolinas

Momto3girlsintheCarolinas

Posted
Posted

I thought I'd share this story...

 

Years ago, hubby and decided to take a cruise out of Miami in March. We were flying from New Hampshire to Miami to board the ship. I decided, in my infinite stupidity, that it would be fine to book a very early flight the day the ship left port. If we landed in Miami at 9:00 AM, that gave s plenty of time to board by 4:00 PM.

 

It'd save some money on a hotel and, besides, what could possibly happen....in New Hampshire.....in MARCH.

 

That's right - it could snow and out flight could get delayed.

 

Long story short(er), we ended up landing in Port Canaveral (best we could do) instead of Miami. We RAN out f the airport and hopped a cab. It is 3:00 PM in Miami traffic. Port Canaveral is not so close to Miami. I have no idea how the cab driver did it, but we barely made it. We tipped the cabbie heavily and RAN on board.

 

I have rarely needed a drink so badly in my life.

 

Moral of the story? Spring for the hotel!! Don't be a dock runner!

 

:cool:

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ryano

ryano

Posted
Posted
I thought I'd share this story...

 

Years ago, hubby and decided to take a cruise out of Miami in March. We were flying from New Hampshire to Miami to board the ship. I decided, in my infinite stupidity, that it would be fine to book a very early flight the day the ship left port. If we landed in Miami at 9:00 AM, that gave s plenty of time to board by 4:00 PM.

 

It'd save some money on a hotel and, besides, what could possibly happen....in New Hampshire.....in MARCH.

 

That's right - it could snow and out flight could get delayed.

 

Long story short(er), we ended up landing in Port Canaveral (best we could do) instead of Miami. We RAN out f the airport and hopped a cab. It is 3:00 PM in Miami traffic. Port Canaveral is not so close to Miami. I have no idea how the cab driver did it, but we barely made it. We tipped the cabbie heavily and RAN on board.

 

I have rarely needed a drink so badly in my life.

 

Moral of the story? Spring for the hotel!! Don't be a dock runner!

 

:cool:

 

This is good information! Even driving down, I ALWAYS arrive at least one day before the cruise!

 

Do you mean you landed in Fort Lauderdale though? You cant land in Port Canaveral and its about a 3+ hour drive to Miami!

 

So glad yall made your cruise!

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theSHAH

theSHAH

Posted
Posted (edited)

I usually like to fly in early in the morning of for a cruise to avoid to cost of a hotel. Flying from Boston to Miami is generally a simple, direct flight. However I'm looking at my Symphony sailing in January and thinking there's a good chance one winter storm can cancel the entire trip. Needless to say, I'm looking at hotels

Edited by theSHAH
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poncho1973

poncho1973

Posted
Posted
I DID mean Ft. Lauderdale. Sorry about that!

 

We now live in NC and we usually drive. I have learned my lesson! We always get a hotel the night before!

 

Thanks for your reply!

 

Hahaha! I read that and I thought... holy crap... PC to Miami in 1 hour???? That cabby must have been supersonic! I was assuming they stopped at MLB (and not DBA) but even still that's like 175 miles!

 

Thanks for the clarification. FLL is about 30 miles from the Port of Miami and in moderate traffic that's about 45-50 minutes. TIGHT, but makeable.

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leisuretraveler223

leisuretraveler223

Posted
Posted

I have played it both ways. If it's just my wife and I, I'll fly out of Boston to Florida day of. HOWEVER, there are a couple qualifiers:

 

I watch the weather very closely and if there is significant concern, I jump on an earlier flight the day before.

 

Worst case scenario, I can't get on an earlier flight to my destination, I talk to the airline and tell them to just get me SOMEWHERE, ANYWHERE before the snow comes, and then we'll figure out the rest. I once grabbed a flight to Atlanta and made alternate arrangements.

 

Fortunately, I'm in the position where if need be, I have the flexibility in my schedule to leave early. It also helps to have status with airlines as it gets you priority phone numbers and better options to reschedule.

 

Now, we're going on a cruise with TWELVE of us (myself and wife, her parents, four kids, and four kids friends) in August. I don't want to have to figure out how to get a dozen people there if something screwy happens. So for that, we go the night before!

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gerif

gerif

Posted
Posted

Yes, even in summer you can’t be too careful. Went to Atlanta last week for a conference. Left Thursday morning and was to arrive at 3:20. Got to the parking lot in record time, quick shuttle to airport, no line at security and boarded the plane on time. Then came announcement that Atlanta was closed due to thunderstorms. Everyone off the plane. Reboarded a few hours later by which time air traffic was all backed up. Finally got to hotel after 11. You never know.

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Extra Kim

Extra Kim

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Posted

We always fly at least one day before, but since we live in Sweden we often ends up staying one night in Copenhagen or Stockholm before the flights.

 

Back in 2016 we missed our connecting flight in Frankfurt. We stayed one night at Copenhagen airport, flew from Copenhagen to Frankfurt and the plan was to fly to Miami. Missed the plane in Frankfurt and ended up going to Bangor (refueling the plane) and the Newark, from Newark we flew down to Miami. From the time we left the hotel at Copenhagen airport until we got into our hotelroom in Miami it took us 26hrs. Normaly it would have taken 14 - 15hrs.

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Baron Barracuda

Baron Barracuda

Posted
Posted

It's not always the weather that gets you.

 

Quite a few years ago we flew from EWR to MIA with stop in Atlanta. Connecting plane had cracked windshield and it took 3 hours to secure replacement plane. Nearly missed ship and since then have always flown a day ahead.

 

Last February a number of people missed sailings thanks to Mr. Elon Musk. We had 9:30 am flight on Saturday morning ahead of Sunday sailing. Arrived at EWR and learned that FAA had halted all flights from northeast and midwest with destinations south of Cape Kennedy until 12:30pm because of 10:30am Space X launch. Of course launch was scrubbed at 10:28 but we still didn't reach FLL until after 4pm. Saw quite a few passengers and cruise line reps scrambling through airport.

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NewSalt

NewSalt

Posted
Posted
We always fly at least one day before, but since we live in Sweden we often ends up staying one night in Copenhagen or Stockholm before the flights.

 

Back in 2016 we missed our connecting flight in Frankfurt. We stayed one night at Copenhagen airport, flew from Copenhagen to Frankfurt and the plan was to fly to Miami. Missed the plane in Frankfurt and ended up going to Bangor (refueling the plane) and the Newark, from Newark we flew down to Miami. From the time we left the hotel at Copenhagen airport until we got into our hotelroom in Miami it took us 26hrs. Normaly it would have taken 14 - 15hrs.

 

I need to bookmark this and read it when I kvetch about a 45-minute flight delay.

 

Hope you had a fabulous cruise after all that.

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karena1

karena1

Posted
Posted
I thought I'd share this story...

 

Years ago, hubby and decided to take a cruise out of Miami in March. We were flying from New Hampshire to Miami to board the ship. I decided, in my infinite stupidity, that it would be fine to book a very early flight the day the ship left port. If we landed in Miami at 9:00 AM, that gave s plenty of time to board by 4:00 PM.

 

It'd save some money on a hotel and, besides, what could possibly happen....in New Hampshire.....in MARCH.

 

That's right - it could snow and out flight could get delayed.

 

Long story short(er), we ended up landing in Port Canaveral (best we could do) instead of Miami. We RAN out f the airport and hopped a cab. It is 3:00 PM in Miami traffic. Port Canaveral is not so close to Miami. I have no idea how the cab driver did it, but we barely made it. We tipped the cabbie heavily and RAN on board.

 

I have rarely needed a drink so badly in my life.

 

Moral of the story? Spring for the hotel!! Don't be a dock runner!

 

:cool:

 

So agree with you. We live in FL and we don't cruise out of San Juan if we don't go a day early!

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BecciBoo Great Review Rare

BecciBoo

Posted
Posted

You can even get into trouble flying the day before. During Hurrican Ike in Texas, they announced the San Antonio airport would be closed on Saturday when the storm was due to land near Galveston and they predicted it would come right over San Antonio. We were scheduled to fly out Saturday.

 

We had a cruise on Mariner in Cape Canaveral on Sunday. We drove right away to the airport and spoke with the Continental folks(I wasn't trusting this to the phone) to get an earlier flight out on Thursday and they were accomodating. We spent the night in Atlanta and flew on in Saturday as planned, but it was frightfully stressful. When we returned, the storm had veared north and missed us by miles and miles...we didn't even get a drop of rain.:o

 

Be prepared is always our motto:halo:

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gatour

gatour

Posted
Posted

I am sorry I can't resist. :)

 

While you can't land at Port Canaveral, in theory you could land at Shuttle Landing runway at Kennedy Space Center.

 

I had to take a double look and deduce that the OP meant Ft Lauderdale as the "math" didn't add up.

 

This is good information! Even driving down, I ALWAYS arrive at least one day before the cruise!

 

Do you mean you landed in Fort Lauderdale though? You cant land in Port Canaveral and its about a 3+ hour drive to Miami!

 

So glad yall made your cruise!

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lenquixote66

lenquixote66

Posted
Posted
I thought I'd share this story...

 

Years ago, hubby and decided to take a cruise out of Miami in March. We were flying from New Hampshire to Miami to board the ship. I decided, in my infinite stupidity, that it would be fine to book a very early flight the day the ship left port. If we landed in Miami at 9:00 AM, that gave s plenty of time to board by 4:00 PM.

 

It'd save some money on a hotel and, besides, what could possibly happen....in New Hampshire.....in MARCH.

 

That's right - it could snow and out flight could get delayed.

 

Long story short(er), we ended up landing in Port Canaveral (best we could do) instead of Miami. We RAN out f the airport and hopped a cab. It is 3:00 PM in Miami traffic. Port Canaveral is not so close to Miami. I have no idea how the cab driver did it, but we barely made it. We tipped the cabbie heavily and RAN on board.

 

I have rarely needed a drink so badly in my life.

 

Moral of the story? Spring for the hotel!! Don't be a dock runner!

 

:cool:

 

We booked a hotel for the night before a cruise .Our flight from NYC was scheduled to leave at 8AM .Due to unforeseen weather the flight was delayed 12 hours .When we arrived at the bus shuttle area we found out that we missed the last shuttle by 20 minutes . We told the hotel Manager that we had no way of getting to his property.He sent a bell man to pick us up. The guy offered to stop at a 24 hour grocery because he knew we were hungry but we just wanted to get to the hotel.We checked in at 1:30AM.The bell man refused to accept a tip .

After that experience we decided that if we were flying we would come in 2 days early.

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robin13

robin13

Posted
Posted

I have a similar story but mine deals with luggage and not the weather. I caught a early flight from DFW to San Juan as I didn't want to spend the money for a hotel room. When I arrived at the airport in San Juan I went to baggage claim to get my bag but lo and behold there was no bag. I then went to the AA baggage claim counter and they said oh sorry but your bag is still in Dallas but will be on the next flight out. They said that they will take it to the ship when it arrives which should be around 5pm. Thankfully the ship didn't leave until 8pm that night so that was lucky but I was so stressed out until that piece of luggage arrived in my cabin that my first hours on the ship were not very happy. Lesson learned was to always go in the day before!!

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Cruise-y

Cruise-y

Posted
Posted

30 years ago, when my son was small and we were brand new to cruising and working full time, we could only get one week off of work. So time was very precious. I don't remember the cruise line, probably Premier (a Disney precursor) and we paid for Premier to book our air (inclusive with our cruise). Per their tickets for us, we left the morning of the cruise and of course we were bumped, because we were the cheapest rate on the oversold plane (which is always the deal when the cruise books your air). At the time, we were too naive to realize that's how it worked. Stranded at the airport, probably going to miss our cruise, with a panicked 6-year-old in tow, we had to beg the people in the waiting area to give up their seats for us. Finally some good Samaritan did that (and I paid it back later in my life for someone else). I swore I would never let the cruise line book my air again, even if I had to pay $$$$ more. Of course now, in retirement, we can go a day earlier. That was not an option for us as working parents in 1988.

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