1pm Flight to FLL to Catch Cruise at Port Everglades

[Jgarriso]

Just wanted to verify,  if we have a flight arriving at 12:54 at the Fort Lauderdale airport,  with checked luggage,  will there be any problems making it to the Port Everglades Carnival Magic.

And with that being said,  is a Taxi the fastest/easyist method?   

 

 

THanks.

[CruiserBruce]

Just a little reading around the board would get you a lot of info. But you need to be providing some info...first, what is your scheduled sailing time? You need to be on board at least 90 minutes prior to that.

 

When are you flying? Weather could eat into this already tight schedule. Day of sailing flying in is never recommended here. What is your backup plan?

 

Yes, if everything goes according to schedule, you will probably be fine. Taxi (or Uber/Lyft) is fastest and easiest. But I certainly don't want to start my expensive vacation with this sort of stress.

[JohninDC]

If the flight lands about 1:00, you should collect your bags and grab a taxi (about 10-15 minutes and about$15) to your ship - you should arrive about 2:00.

 

If your flight is delayed by more than an hour or so you're out of luck.  I would try to switch to an earlier flight or better yet to a flight arriving the day prior to sailing.  I've had too many delayed and cancelled flights in the past year to be that risky, but it is you call - good luck!

[doone]

If all goes well for you and there are no delays, you grab your luggage and a cab and head to your ship, you should be ok, however, if you have any blips at all, you could miss your ship.  With that said, I never fly in the same day as my cruise, I fly a day ahead, if that isn't an option for you, then I would definitely try for an earlier flight.

[Jgarriso]

Thank you for the advice fellow travelers.    I will go ahead and bite the bullet and book an earlier flight.

 

PS.   Booking a honeymoon cruise for my Son.  Getting Married the night before and planning on booking a nice hotel the night before.  Did not want them spending their honeymoon night traversing airports.  Also didn't want them getting up at 4am to catch the first flight out of Chattanooga.   I will try to find a compromise with an earlier flight or a closer hotel and give them at least another hour of leeway.

[JohninDC]

1 hour ago, Jgarriso said:

Thank you for the advice fellow travelers.    I will go ahead and bite the bullet and book an earlier flight.

 

PS.   Booking a honeymoon cruise for my Son.  Getting Married the night before and planning on booking a nice hotel the night before.  Did not want them spending their honeymoon night traversing airports.  Also didn't want them getting up at 4am to catch the first flight out of Chattanooga.   I will try to find a compromise with an earlier flight or a closer hotel and give them at least another hour of leeway.

Or maybe a different cruise leaving a day or two later, giving them lots of time to get to FL and relax before boarding the ship.

 

Congratulations on the wedding!

[Flymia]

1 hour ago, Jgarriso said:

Thank you for the advice fellow travelers.    I will go ahead and bite the bullet and book an earlier flight.

 

PS.   Booking a honeymoon cruise for my Son.  Getting Married the night before and planning on booking a nice hotel the night before.  Did not want them spending their honeymoon night traversing airports.  Also didn't want them getting up at 4am to catch the first flight out of Chattanooga.   I will try to find a compromise with an earlier flight or a closer hotel and give them at least another hour of leeway.

 

Where are they coming from and what time of the year? 

 

Any cruise coming in the day of is a risk. Is the risk huge? No usually not. But it is day. Every single cruise will have somebody who misses the cruise because of flight delays. Almost everyone will tell you pick a cruise where they can fly in the day before. 

 

The ride from FLL to the port is not more than 10-15 minutes though. 

[Roz]

2 hours ago, JohninDC said:

Or maybe a different cruise leaving a day or two later, giving them lots of time to get to FL and relax before boarding the ship.

 

Congratulations on the wedding!

The couple is getting married the night before, so this plan won't work.

 

Roz

[Roz]

1 hour ago, Flymia said:

 

Where are they coming from and what time of the year? 

 

Any cruise coming in the day of is a risk. Is the risk huge? No usually not. But it is day. Every single cruise will have somebody who misses the cruise because of flight delays. Almost everyone will tell you pick a cruise where they can fly in the day before. 

 

The ride from FLL to the port is not more than 10-15 minutes though. 

It says they're flying from Chattanooga, but doesn't give the time of year.  In any event, Chatt is a small airport without many backup flights if something goes awry.

 

Roz

[JohninDC]

4 minutes ago, Roz said:

The couple is getting married the night before, so this plan won't work.

 

Roz

Wedding on Saturday (usually), so fly to FLA on Sunday and choose a cruise leaving on Monday (yes, I know - fewer options, but better than missing the ship!).

 

Other option is a LATE flight into FLA on Sat after the wedding (yuck) or an EARLY flight to FLA first thing on Sunday.

[Roz]

28 minutes ago, JohninDC said:

Wedding on Saturday (usually), so fly to FLA on Sunday and choose a cruise leaving on Monday (yes, I know - fewer options, but better than missing the ship!).

 

Other option is a LATE flight into FLA on Sat after the wedding (yuck) or an EARLY flight to FLA first thing on Sunday.

That's what I would do.

 

Roz

[BNBR]

Just grab the earlier flight and know if significant delays occur, they could miss the ship.  It's pretty much common sense.  Of course you know flights can be significantly delayed or canceled.  Life happens.  Obviously you are ok with that.  Just know if they miss the ship, you will still pay for the cruise and only be refunded port fees/taxes/excursions/drink packages, and things like that.  The fare you will lose.

Edited January 8, 2019 by BNBR

[BlueHerons]

Is it possible for them to drive to Asheville and book the direct Allegiant Air flight?

 

Every time I'm in that airport tons of people from Tennessee are taking that flight for a cruise.

 

They could spend the night at The Grove Park Inn in Asheville.

[Roz]

Chattanooga to Asheville is a long, treacherous drive.  I'm guessing the Tennesseans you encounter are from the Tri-Cities area who just head down I-26.

 

Roz

[Jgarriso]

Thanks again for the reply's.     As you can probably guess some things are out of my control.    Day,  Time,,,,   I work with what they decide.

 

Wedding Friday night,  cannot change,    Cruise Saturday,  although there are some cruises that leave on Sunday this is the one they picked,  so cannot change.  Plus due with work and stuff they want the traditional honeymoon following the wedding.  My job is just to do the best i can.  OS Cabin and put my credit card on file for charges.

 

TIME OF YEAR,  several of you asked about that and  hesitant to say,  but AUGUST.  I KNOW,  risk goes up.  But i'm a firm believer in luck.  Last year i book a cruise on same day as Charleston got hammered and another storm was going beside St Thomas.  We had perfect weather and calm water.  You can book the perfect time and get storms.

 

Flight.   Flying Delta between Chatt and Atlanta and they have a pretty good record.

 

I travel often and have cruised about 7 times,  just never out of Fort Lauderdale so was mostly concerned about travel time at to and from.

 

THanks.

[JohninDC]

Good luck - sometimes you have to roll the dice and pray!

 

Congrats again on the wedding. 😎

[CoolOne56]

OP, Your story sounds a little familiar.  Couple gets married and leaves next day on cruise -  a gift.  In their rush, they left their travel/cruise documents home.   Needless to say, they were not allowed to board the ship.

 

If you can, please read/search for this post.

 

 

 

 

 

[bilyclub]

The airport is practically next door to Port Evergaldes so if the flight is on time getting to the pier should be the easy part.

 

https://goo.gl/images/ZKmfcA

[Tapi]

On 1/8/2019 at 4:02 PM, BlueHerons said:

Is it possible for them to drive to Asheville and book the direct Allegiant Air flight?

 

Allegiant? On the day of the cruise? Now that's an excellent way to increase their chances of missing the cruise!

[Tapi]

14 hours ago, CoolOne56 said:

OP, Your story sounds a little familiar.  Couple gets married and leaves next day on cruise -  a gift.  In their rush, they left their travel/cruise documents home.   Needless to say, they were not allowed to board the ship.

 

If you can, please read/search for this post.

Even though that story is about cruise documents, it reinforces the importance of allowing extra time for unforeseen circumstances. It's not just for missed/delayed flights. 

 

Even though I've never been personally affected by a late/canceled flight when going on a cruise, having additional time has allowed me to rectify situations that would've been hard to rectify without additional time.

 

• One time, my mother in law flew down to Miami from NC to join us on a cruise, and sure enough, she forgot her passport at home. She had a friend go to her house, locate the passport, and express mail it to us. It arrived the next morning and we made our cruise!
• Another time, we flew to Seattle for an Alaska cruise. Flight was on time, but our big suitcase (with the bulk of our clothes) didn't make it. The airline assured us that the suitcase would arrive on a later flight. It never did. On the morning of embarkation day, we checked one more time with the airline and they couldn't even tell us where the suitcase was. So we spent the morning at Target in downtown Seattle, purchasing clothes and luggage, and creating a brand new, 7 day wardrobe for our family of 4. 
• We took a family cruise to Cuba last summer to celebrate my dad's 80th birthday. Family members flew in from various cities. One of my sister's flight was delayed 10 hours! They landed in Miami around midnight. Thankfully, they had flown the day before the cruise.

 

Just some examples why it's always a good idea to fly in early. I'm sure that there are tons more. 

 

 

[Tapi]

On 1/8/2019 at 4:19 PM, Jgarriso said:

  Cruise Saturday,  although there are some cruises that leave on Sunday this is the one they picked,  so cannot change. 

OP:

 

That's wonderful that you are gifting this honeymoon! I know that this specific cruise is the one that they picked, but can you talk some sense into them? We got married on a Saturday and it would've been BRUTAL to get up at the crack of dawn the next day to catch a flight and then cruise that same afternoon. 

[MamaStang]

An arrival only a couple of hours before cruise boarding cut off time is dangerous indeed.  They will NOT let  you on if you miss that window by even 10 minutes.  Weather in August may not cause delays but mechanical troubles happen often, delaying flights by a couple of minutes to a couple of hours.  Someone needs to talk sense into this couple or they could potentially pay not only for a cruise they do not make but also have to fund an unplanned honeymoon in Ft. Lauderdale! 

[Jgarriso]

Thanks for the advice fellow travelers.   I will consider you advice.

[BlueHerons]

On 1/10/2019 at 8:26 AM, Tapi said:

Allegiant? On the day of the cruise? Now that's an excellent way to increase their chances of missing the cruise!

Haha!

 

I think I'm one of the lucky ones.

 

We fly Allegiant monthly to Asheville and back, at least fifty times in the past couple of years, and we've yet to have a flight cancelled.  We did have one diverted to Lexington, Kentucky but that was because we couldn't land in the blizzard in Asheville.

[Jgarriso]

Your lucky then.  The Allegiant flights out of Chattanooga only go to Orlando and Tampa.  And the orlando flights are only on Sunday and Thursday.    I wish we had a Saturday Flight.

 

But Delta out of Chattanooga has a good record for the last couple of years.