Cruise & Air Fare

[DSimpson14]

Considering a cruise to Alaska & wondering if anyone has booked air fare w/ Carnival & cruise.  Any tips.  Flying from NC

[thesmiths]

Get to the airport 2 hours before departure?

[BananaAnna]

We flew RDU to SeaTac non-stop on Alaska Air. Great flight!

[teknoge3k]

22 minutes ago, thesmiths said:

Get to the airport 2 hours before departure?

 

RDU isn't one of those airports you need to be there super early. You can drop your luggage with the skycap, go through security and be at your gate in no time at all. Even our local airport, you can arrive at the airport 30 minutes prior to your flight and have a lot of extra time.

[canes20]

We did cruise and air with Carnival for a cruise out of Miami. We flew from Knoxville to Miami with stop in Orlando. Carnival took care of everything and did not have to worry if there were to have been any delays. We used Carnival shuttle to and from port so did not have to worry with luggage. The price was great.

[DSimpson14]

Thanks for all the info

[riffatsea]

I would only book through Carnival IF I could pick the airline and itinerary!

I would only accept a flight that got me to the port 1 day before the cruise.

I would not fly across the USA on the same day that the cruise starts!!

[Shaded Lady]

I haven't used Carnival for airfare since 1998, but one thing to be on the lookout- apparently when they book your airfare, Carnival is not as concerned about your convenience or getting you to the port as early as you might be... often they'll have 2-3 legs instead of a non-stop, they might get you there with a slim margin of time to get to the port... I've heard several people post about missed flights, last minute changes etc which created a lot of aggravation. Enough so that I would consider booking my own airfare to any port, and would likely arrive the day before my cruise.

 

I know that you weren't asking about advice as to whether or not to use Carnival airfare, I just thought I'd mention some concerns I've heard in the past, so you can make an informed decision.

[GradUT]

Very useful information from Shaded Lady regarding multiple legs.  I would aim for a one-stop flight at the most.

 

I did my Alaska cruise with HAL and we departed from Vancouver.  So, if Carnival departs from a Canadian port (as opposed to Seattle), pay close attention to the airport where you enter Canada.  Toronto's airport is, according to various surveys and statistics, the WORST airport in Canada.  I had read a lot of horror stories about the Toronto airport before we booked our flight from D.C. to Vancouver and while there were several flights that first went to Toronto, we opted to take a flight whose first entry point in Canada was Vancouver.  Vancouver was a great airport and our flight on WestJet could not have been better.   (FWIW, we did have some scheduling problems that arose before our flight and WestJet handled them quickly and in a friendly manner to my complete satisfaction.) 

[coevan]

2 hours ago, riffatsea said:

I would only book through Carnival IF I could pick the airline and itinerary!

I would only accept a flight that got me to the port 1 day before the cruise.

I would not fly across the USA on the same day that the cruise starts!!

 

 

I agree with this and Shaded Lady. I like control of my flights, seats, layovers and such. We live in a commuter airport town only RJ's. So there are no direct flights and we don't like to fly at the crack of dawn. 

[jc4me]

On 8/15/2019 at 12:02 PM, teknoge3k said:

 

RDU isn't one of those airports you need to be there super early. You can drop your luggage with the skycap, go through security and be at your gate in no time at all. Even our local airport, you can arrive at the airport 30 minutes prior to your flight and have a lot of extra time.

We cruised to SeaTac from RDU in May and it took us a good hour to get through security.  That was leaving Saturday morning at 7:30 AM.  The return flight wasn't quite as bad, but still long.

[jc4me]

We flew from RDU in May and booked through Carnival.  I would suggest getting their flexible plan so that you can cancel if you find a cheaper price.  I think ours was $775 for 2 people round-trip with Delta.  We were able to use our discounted gift cards to save 10%, so not bad at all.  Alaska was AMAZING!  

[teknoge3k]

2 minutes ago, jc4me said:

We cruised to SeaTac from RDU in May and it took us a good hour to get through security.  That was leaving Saturday morning at 7:30 AM.  The return flight wasn't quite as bad, but still long.

 

oh wow, we typically fly early in the morning so maybe that's why. In May from the time our Uber dropped us off at the airport until the time we were at our Southwest terminal took maybe 25 minutes. That was dropping our luggage at the skycap, going through security and making it to whichever terminal we were at. 

 

I do know my wife and I left a little later in the morning the time prior to that (maybe around 7 or 8?) and security wasn't too terrible. They were going pretty fast.

[jc4me]

22 minutes ago, teknoge3k said:

 

oh wow, we typically fly early in the morning so maybe that's why. In May from the time our Uber dropped us off at the airport until the time we were at our Southwest terminal took maybe 25 minutes. That was dropping our luggage at the skycap, going through security and making it to whichever terminal we were at. 

 

I do know my wife and I left a little later in the morning the time prior to that (maybe around 7 or 8?) and security wasn't too terrible. They were going pretty fast.

Our TSA line was all the way to the end of the airport and wrapped around the back wall before we even got into the maze.  It was crazy!  Glad that we got there early and we were even able to get a little breakfast before we left.  Is Southwest in terminal 1?  We were in Terminal 2.

[teknoge3k]

On 8/16/2019 at 2:01 PM, jc4me said:

Our TSA line was all the way to the end of the airport and wrapped around the back wall before we even got into the maze.  It was crazy!  Glad that we got there early and we were even able to get a little breakfast before we left.  Is Southwest in terminal 1?  We were in Terminal 2.

 

I think that's how it's numbered, yea. When we come in from 40, it's the first place you come to. 

[coevan]

I can't believe more people don't sign up for TSA Pre, $85 for 5 years is the best deal at the airport. 

[Shaded Lady]

5 hours ago, coevan said:

I can't believe more people don't sign up for TSA Pre, $85 for 5 years is the best deal at the airport. 

 

LIKE!!!

 

Unfortunately, I think a lot more people are doing that now! My last 3 or 4 flights out of Austin the lines for TSA Pre-check were longer than the standard TSA lines! But I HATE taking my shoes off so I just stick it out!

[coevan]

We did the Global Entry/TSA Pre at the same time. The global entry coming back from a Costa Rica trip was awesome, walked right through to luggage.