3:00 PM - Too Late To Board ?

[RocketMan275]

11 hours ago, Taters said:

The forgot to refuel the plane?  Holy cow!  I worked in aviation for quite a few years and have never heard that one before!

 

I've had the baggage door break on two occasions.  The first time I was traveling from Fairbanks to Kotzebue, AK on business.  I was supposed to fly from Fairbanks to Anchorage to Nome to Kotzebue.  (There are no direct flights.)  The baggage door broke in Nome.  They really don't have support staff there, so they gave all of the Kotz passengers meal vouchers and sent us into town for lunch.  We were instructed to come back in 4 hours.  When I got back to the OME airport, we were given the options of flying back to ANC for the night, then continuing onto Kotzebue nonstop the next morning OR overnighting in OME and continuing onto OTZ the next afternoon.  Since I needed to be in Kotzebue the next morning I opted to fly back to Anchorage that night.  All in all - FAI-ANC-OME-ANC-OTZ over the course of almost 36 hours, and I hadn't even left the state!

I left Japan enroute to Anchorage, then the (I'm not making this up.) the volcano erupted diverting us to Fairbanks.  We spent six hours in Fairbanks as the crew carried meals aboard the plane before we could leave for Alabama.

[RedneckBob]

Your traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A Cruise into a wondrous land with only boundaries that are imagination. That’s a signpost up ahead, your next stop. The Miss Your Cruise Zone.

 

The last thing you ever want to see on your upcoming cruise is arriving at the port, you rush through the terminal, run onto the dock and see this magnificent ship pulling away as a chorus of passengers on the Lower Promenade Deck are singing, “Na Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye.

 

I believe I summed it up.

[DeeniEncinitas]

1 minute ago, RedneckBob said:

Your traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A Cruise into a wondrous land with only boundaries that are imagination. That’s a signpost up ahead, your next stop. The Miss Your Cruise Zone.

 

The last thing you ever want to see on your upcoming cruise is arriving at the port, you rush through the terminal, run onto the dock and see this magnificent ship pulling away as a chorus of passengers on the Lower Promenade Deck are singing, “Na Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye.

 

I believe I summed it up.

This is the best👍👍👍

Twilight Zone?

Merry Christmas RedneckBob🎄

Denise😊

[Chocolatemom2]

We were flying out of Munich, boarded the plane , went through the safety spiel, all the whole feeling and hearing power tools under our feet. Long story short, after an hour of this we were offloaded and sent to a new plane. The connection in Frankfurt only waited because our group was 60+ passengers. And this was the first flight of the day. 
my point is twofold. Things happen that we have no control over, and because of our delay the flights using that gate were delayed. 
 

[RedneckBob]

53 minutes ago, DeeniEncinitas said:

This is the best👍👍👍

Twilight Zone?

Merry Christmas RedneckBob🎄

Denise😊

Thanks. Not the Twilight Zone. The RedneckBob Zone!

[DeeniEncinitas]

4 minutes ago, RedneckBob said:

Thanks. Not the Twilight Zone. The RedneckBob Zone!

Very creative writing!!

Denise😊

[Seasick Sailor]

RedNeckBob... Very funny! Very true. 

We waved to 3 people in September while leaving Quebec City. It was the craziest day ever trying to get to the port since there was a major race going on that day. Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec . We had sail away cocktails, the band had finished playing, packed up and left, and we were still in port til late and there were still folks who had to catch up at the next stop.  

 

[VennDiagram]

We usually only fly if we are going on a cruise, so we don't fly very often.  I can't imagine how often frequent flyers are delayed.  Reasons our flights have been delayed, or we have been late deplaning:

 

a critical medical emergency that kept all but the affected passenger and his family on the plane for approximately 45 mins

 

preboarded large family group decided to change seats, and refused to relinquish their seats until threatened with law enforcement (30 min delay)

 

our plane arrived late because of bad weather at the originating airport (2 hr delay)

 

our plane had smoke in the cockpit, returned to airport, the pilot hit his "time limit", and we waited 4 hours for a replacement pilot (5 hr delay)

 

2 pax failed to board the plane, and their luggage was in the cargo hold.  Had to remove their luggage, but it was buried deep.  The pax arrived, the pilot allowed them to board, the cargo was all secured, and the man of the couple then refused to secure his cane properly, preferring instead to have it jammed into my DH.   Nasty couple who were totally abusive to the flight attendants, and they did NOT comply until they were threatened with being removed    (total 1 1/2 hr delay.)

 

could not deplane in our destination airport because of a security incident (3 hr delay)

 

... and those are only a few examples.  I sort-of think we are like @Btimmer -- soon people will be checking with us about what flights we are taking, so they can avoid them 😉

 

Seriously, OP, your original plan is perilous.  Find another flight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[scamper]

Add my voice to the "no way on God's green earth" should you travel the flight you outlined. I will never, ever fly in day of departure under any circumstances. Take it from someone who worked in consumer relations with a major US airline, I've heard all the stories and know what can, does, and will go wrong. There're many reasons why airlines cannot guarantee their schedules. The peace of mind arriving day before completely outweighs any expense incurred or effort involved to travel the day before.

[davy jones]

On a positive note, you will get through check in very quickly.

[GreenValleyDogWalker]

WOW - Finally, someone with a positive note !! - Thanks

 

At least my post generated a lot of interesting stories !   Love CruiseCritic   😀 

 

FYI - This will be our 45th cruise - and - when sailing out of another country (last year out of Tokyo) or out of New York or Miami, etc, of course, we arrive a day or two early. 

 

However, since we live on the West Coast - when sailing out of a West coast port (In July, we sailed out of San Francisco on our 4th Alaska cruise)  - we have no problem flying into that cruise-port the day of departure.

 

All I really wanted from my original post was what (if any) guidelines HAL had in place for boarding)

 

[richwmn]

1 minute ago, GreenValleyDogWalker said:

However, since we live on the West Coast - when sailing out of a West coast port (In July, we sailed out of San Francisco on our 4th Alaska cruise)  - we have no problem flying into that cruise-port the day of departure.

From another point of view. I live less than 2 hrs from Atlanta which has basically hourly flights to West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami - so a lot of choice if problems occur. I still fly south a day early, and spend the night at an airport hotel the night before the flight. Small price to pay to make sure nothing goes wrong.

 

[Seasick Sailor]

GreenValleyDogWalker, since this is your 45th cruise, you should know better than to scare all of us into thinking you may miss your boat. Sheesh. On Christmas to boot! Stop that! 

[stratixman]

Bah Humbug!

[DaveOKC]

17 hours ago, GreenValleyDogWalker said:

 

New to HAL - not sure of their  guidelines - Departing on the Oosterdam out of San Diego next month 

We can get a direct flight to San Diego that lands at 2:55 PM - We know that the airport is only a 10 minute ride to the cruise-port - 

(cruised out of there a couple of times in the past)

The ship is due to depart at 5:00 PM

We are hoping that time-line would work -

COMMENTS ??

Thanks 

I hope that you are joking.  IMO, you will never make it to the ship before 4 PM (unless you do carryons only).  Even so, I would never attempt this.

[VennDiagram]

15 minutes ago, DaveOKC said:

I hope that you are joking.  IMO, you will never make it to the ship before 4 PM (unless you do carryons only).  Even so, I would never attempt this.

 

See post 36, which I interpret as the OP is proceeding with the original plan.

[Vict0riann]

If you haven't sailed HAL before, and you do arrive in plenty of time for lunch, you can either go to the Lido Market, which will be hectic, or you should be able to go to the Main Dining Room for a peaceful sit-down lunch.  

 

Do let us know how it all goes.

[Taters]

5 hours ago, RocketMan275 said:

I left Japan enroute to Anchorage, then the (I'm not making this up.) the volcano erupted diverting us to Fairbanks.  We spent six hours in Fairbanks as the crew carried meals aboard the plane before we could leave for Alabama.

FAI gets a lot of flights diverted from ANC due to wind, volcanoes and many other things.  When I was working in aviation would see rows and rows of planes parked along the tarmac on my drives into work, I knew that those planes were diverted for an interesting reason.

[vicd1969]

Just a guideline for me - a flight arrival shouldn't be after an estimated time of arrival if I drove to the port on the same day. Not saying driving is preferable to flying, but if OP drove from Tucson starting at 7 am the day of the cruise, they would arrive at the SD port terminal around 1-130 PM instead of almost 3 PM from the flight.

[GreenValleyDogWalker]

5 minutes ago, vicd1969 said:

Just a guideline for me - a flight arrival shouldn't be after an estimated time of arrival if I drove to the port on the same day. Not saying driving is preferable to flying, but if OP drove from Tucson starting at 7 am the day of the cruise, they would arrive at the SD port terminal around 1-130 PM instead of almost 3 PM from the flight.

 

Hi again, everyone - OP here...what a lively thread 😀

FYI - surely didn't mean to "scare everyone" into thinking we would miss the boat ... 

Have changed our flights to arrive into San Diego at 11:00 AM 

 

Happy Holidays to ALL

[kazu]

53 minutes ago, GreenValleyDogWalker said:

 

Hi again, everyone - OP here...what a lively thread 😀

FYI - surely didn't mean to "scare everyone" into thinking we would miss the boat ... 

Have changed our flights to arrive into San Diego at 11:00 AM 

 

Happy Holidays to ALL

 

I think you have made a very wise decision 🙂 

 

Have a great Happy Holiday cruise 🙂 

[DeeniEncinitas]

2 hours ago, GreenValleyDogWalker said:

 

Hi again, everyone - OP here...what a lively thread 😀

FYI - surely didn't mean to "scare everyone" into thinking we would miss the boat ... 

Have changed our flights to arrive into San Diego at 11:00 AM 

 

Happy Holidays to ALL

Now I am very Happy!!!!

See we here on CC really try to help!

You will have a wonderful cruise and RELAXATION!! LOL at least I am relaxed now for you!

MERRY CHRISTMAS🎄🎄

Denise😊

[scamper]

5 hours ago, GreenValleyDogWalker said:

WOW - Finally, someone with a positive note !! - Thanks

 

At least my post generated a lot of interesting stories !   Love CruiseCritic   😀 

 

FYI - This will be our 45th cruise - and - when sailing out of another country (last year out of Tokyo) or out of New York or Miami, etc, of course, we arrive a day or two early. 

 

However, since we live on the West Coast - when sailing out of a West coast port (In July, we sailed out of San Francisco on our 4th Alaska cruise)  - we have no problem flying into that cruise-port the day of departure.

 

All I really wanted from my original post was what (if any) guidelines HAL had in place for boarding)

 

 

I think at the end of the day your best bet would be to contact Holland America directly and ask what their policy for boarding is. Then proceed from there. While many of us have enough experience with cruising to answer most questions posed, your question should be addressed directly with the company. Whatever you choose to do, I wish you luck and have a nice cruise.

[kazu]

18 minutes ago, scamper said:

 

I think at the end of the day your best bet would be to contact Holland America directly and ask what their policy for boarding is. Then proceed from there. While many of us have enough experience with cruising to answer most questions posed, your question should be addressed directly with the company. Whatever you choose to do, I wish you luck and have a nice cruise.

 

This advice is moot.

 

Go to post 45.  OP has wisely changed their flight 😄 

[Seasick Sailor]

Yippee! It's a Happy Christmas for all! Thanks GVDW!