Live Horizon/Mardi Gras B2B 8/1-8/7and 8/7-814

[lennythenose]

11 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

Ken has been pretty non committal, but I would bet yes he will be. 

We are on the Pride TA from Lisbon to Tampa Oct 30 3022. First time on Pride and first TA. And yes I am hoping Ken will be there. We were lucky enough to have John Heald as our CD and Ken as MD on the Miracle in Alaska in 2014. Awesome trip!

[Knights on the Beach]

14 hours ago, mondello said:

Thank you for the update. I flew home from MCO last week and couldn't figure out why my experience was so different from KMom. I liked the cavernous lobby surrounded by the balconys of the Hyatt, quite unusual to see a hotel in the airport. Also, the quick monorail to the Southwest terminal took us to a great food court with many choices and about the best priced airport food I've seen.

 

We haven't flown in about two years (still pouting about our Hawaii trip that was cancelled last year) but we have never had the kind of experience KMom did at MCO.  I was wondering what the heck had happened to our home airport in such a short period of time.  😂  But we almost always fly Southwest.

[jimbo5544]

3 hours ago, cruisemom2 said:

 

We haven't flown in about two years (still pouting about our Hawaii trip that was cancelled last year) but we have never had the kind of experience KMom did at MCO.  I was wondering what the heck had happened to our home airport in such a short period of time.  😂  But we almost always fly Southwest.

Covid happened for 18 months.  Now the entire country is trying to on vacation (cannot blame them).  They are swamped.

[Knights on the Beach]

8 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

Covid happened for 18 months.  Now the entire country is trying to on vacation (cannot blame them).  They are swamped.

Oh definitely, I get that.  But I was referring to KMom's comments on the condition of the airport, not how busy it was.  Apparently I've never been in that area of MCO because I've never seen anything like that there.

[jimbo5544]

49 minutes ago, cruisemom2 said:

Oh definitely, I get that.  But I was referring to KMom's comments on the condition of the airport, not how busy it was.  Apparently I've never been in that area of MCO because I've never seen anything like that there.

Me either, but I do know the wing she was talking about.

[KmomChicago]

On 8/18/2021 at 9:16 PM, jimbo5544 said:

Me either, but I do know the wing she was talking about.

 

The problems we ran into were a combination of weather, the way airlines like Frontier work, Covid related issues, and then the airport itself.

 

1. Apparently there were weather problems at various locations that day which had delayed earlier flights for the crew. The plane was at the gate some time before the pilot arrived. During his first inflight announcement, you could hear the frustration in his voice about this as he apologized about conditions obviously far out of his control.

 

2. Frontier runs their planes on a daily schedule that may take them all over the country. If one leg for the day is delayed, it will push out arrival at the next airport, and so on. They don't usually add in an "extra" plane to make up the slack so you wait until it finishes its circuit. Our flight was scheduled for 9:50 pm already so you're tired and in no mood to sit around waiting longer than planned.

 

3. The labor issue was evident. There are barely enough workers to run the airport restaurants, clean the public areas, and run the airline. 

 

4. MCO's condition would be barely noticeable if we breezed right through it. Due to some Uber confusion, we arrived by 7pm so we already had a lot of extra time before we were delayed. Because all of the remaining Frontier flights were running behind at that point, the preflight waiting area was backed up and overfilled and got worse for a while until it eventually thinned. We were the last flight out for the night in our immediate area. When you have over 5 hours in such a situation, you notice every little thing after a while.  The food service at the center of the concourse did all close early for those of us on late flights. And the bathrooms did have several door issues and with the heavy use that night they were all looking trashed, toilet paper on the floors and so forth. Since I had so much time I went for a few walks to the other gates, but of course I didn't go back through security to the terminal or anything. I did consider riding the monorail tram back and forth for a while and decided that was tempting fate. 

[KmomChicago]

I realize my airport rant is rich people's problems and in the end, if you walk away, it's always a good flight. In general I try to avoid a lot of whiney comments but this is actually less about my personal gripes and more about a question I ask myself more and more frequently:

 

Is it worth it to fly to a cruise, or at what point do we break even by driving to a closer port as far as expense and convenience?

 

Unfortunately the logistics of getting to any cruise ship in the USA are rather inconvenient no matter what we do.  For flights we have to drive to either O'Hare, Midway, or Indianapolis and they are all a time-consuming hike. Technically Allegiant flies from some other tiny airports semi-nearby but there are limited schedules and not really closer to us than the big boys.

 

Then you have to deal with luggage limits and hauling and charges, airport time and long term parking and of course: security. Then you have the flight itself, however that may go - sardine packing, turbulence, lack of overhead bin space, etc.  Then you deal with another airport at the other end, and getting a ride to wherever you're going next, and then rinse and repeat when it's time to go home.

 

Any flight for us is minimum a 6 hour proposition each way. More often than not, we are spending the night at the airport on one or both ends so there's no savings in time or $$ compared to a hotel night on the road.  

 

We left my dad's house at 5pm Eastern time for the one hour ride to the airport Saturday afternoon due to our Uber confusion (we were trying to get a 6pm ride but it deployed immediately in the app and we couldn't seem to change it) and we pulled in at the house around 5am Sunday morning, i.e. 6am Eastern time.  So we had 11 hours travel time that night. Granted this is partly our fault as we didn't have to get to the airport so early.

 

If we had gotten off a ship in Baltimore that morning and hit the road immediately, however, we could have been home shortly after dark that same day. Not that there were any cruises sailing from Baltimore and not that they were or will be the fabulous MARDI GRAS. 

 

It's more about planning for the future and deciding what option makes the most sense. When we drove to New Orleans for the Triuimph we grumbled about the time on the road. When we flew into Orlando-Sanford for Oasis of the Seas we grumbled about the high expense of a spring break flight on a "budget" carrier.

 

Again I do try not to complain about everything but we really like cruising and we are really not conveniently located to get to cruise ports. 

[jimbo5544]

1 hour ago, KmomChicago said:

 

The problems we ran into were a combination of weather, the way airlines like Frontier work, Covid related issues, and then the airport itself.

 

1. Apparently there were weather problems at various locations that day which had delayed earlier flights for the crew. The plane was at the gate some time before the pilot arrived. During his first inflight announcement, you could hear the frustration in his voice about this as he apologized about conditions obviously far out of his control.

 

2. Frontier runs their planes on a daily schedule that may take them all over the country. If one leg for the day is delayed, it will push out arrival at the next airport, and so on. They don't usually add in an "extra" plane to make up the slack so you wait until it finishes its circuit. Our flight was scheduled for 9:50 pm already so you're tired and in no mood to sit around waiting longer than planned.

 

3. The labor issue was evident. There are barely enough workers to run the airport restaurants, clean the public areas, and run the airline. 

 

4. MCO's condition would be barely noticeable if we breezed right through it. Due to some Uber confusion, we arrived by 7pm so we already had a lot of extra time before we were delayed. Because all of the remaining Frontier flights were running behind at that point, the preflight waiting area was backed up and overfilled and got worse for a while until it eventually thinned. We were the last flight out for the night in our immediate area. When you have over 5 hours in such a situation, you notice every little thing after a while.  The food service at the center of the concourse did all close early for those of us on late flights. And the bathrooms did have several door issues and with the heavy use that night they were all looking trashed, toilet paper on the floors and so forth. Since I had so much time I went for a few walks to the other gates, but of course I didn't go back through security to the terminal or anything. I did consider riding the monorail tram back and forth for a while and decided that was tempting fate. 

Not a Frontier fan

[jimbo5544]

1 hour ago, KmomChicago said:

I realize my airport rant is rich people's problems and in the end, if you walk away, it's always a good flight. In general I try to avoid a lot of whiney comments but this is actually less about my personal gripes and more about a question I ask myself more and more frequently:

 

Is it worth it to fly to a cruise, or at what point do we break even by driving to a closer port as far as expense and convenience?

 

Unfortunately the logistics of getting to any cruise ship in the USA are rather inconvenient no matter what we do.  For flights we have to drive to either O'Hare, Midway, or Indianapolis and they are all a time-consuming hike. Technically Allegiant flies from some other tiny airports semi-nearby but there are limited schedules and not really closer to us than the big boys.

 

Then you have to deal with luggage limits and hauling and charges, airport time and long term parking and of course: security. Then you have the flight itself, however that may go - sardine packing, turbulence, lack of overhead bin space, etc.  Then you deal with another airport at the other end, and getting a ride to wherever you're going next, and then rinse and repeat when it's time to go home.

 

Any flight for us is minimum a 6 hour proposition each way. More often than not, we are spending the night at the airport on one or both ends so there's no savings in time or $$ compared to a hotel night on the road.  

 

We left my dad's house at 5pm Eastern time for the one hour ride to the airport Saturday afternoon due to our Uber confusion (we were trying to get a 6pm ride but it deployed immediately in the app and we couldn't seem to change it) and we pulled in at the house around 5am Sunday morning, i.e. 6am Eastern time.  So we had 11 hours travel time that night. Granted this is partly our fault as we didn't have to get to the airport so early.

 

If we had gotten off a ship in Baltimore that morning and hit the road immediately, however, we could have been home shortly after dark that same day. Not that there were any cruises sailing from Baltimore and not that they were or will be the fabulous MARDI GRAS. 

 

It's more about planning for the future and deciding what option makes the most sense. When we drove to New Orleans for the Triuimph we grumbled about the time on the road. When we flew into Orlando-Sanford for Oasis of the Seas we grumbled about the high expense of a spring break flight on a "budget" carrier.

 

Again I do try not to complain about everything but we really like cruising and we are really not conveniently located to get to cruise ports. 

Weather was def an issue, we sat on the plane on the tarmac for over an hour, then big a big counter clockwise loop to fly north.

[have2vacation]

1 hour ago, KmomChicago said:

 

The problems we ran into were a combination of weather, the way airlines like Frontier work, Covid related issues, and then the airport itself.

 

1. Apparently there were weather problems at various locations that day which had delayed earlier flights for the crew. The plane was at the gate some time before the pilot arrived. During his first inflight announcement, you could hear the frustration in his voice about this as he apologized about conditions obviously far out of his control.

 

2. Frontier runs their planes on a daily schedule that may take them all over the country. If one leg for the day is delayed, it will push out arrival at the next airport, and so on. They don't usually add in an "extra" plane to make up the slack so you wait until it finishes its circuit. Our flight was scheduled for 9:50 pm already so you're tired and in no mood to sit around waiting longer than planned.

 

3. The labor issue was evident. There are barely enough workers to run the airport restaurants, clean the public areas, and run the airline. 

 

4. MCO's condition would be barely noticeable if we breezed right through it. Due to some Uber confusion, we arrived by 7pm so we already had a lot of extra time before we were delayed. Because all of the remaining Frontier flights were running behind at that point, the preflight waiting area was backed up and overfilled and got worse for a while until it eventually thinned. We were the last flight out for the night in our immediate area. When you have over 5 hours in such a situation, you notice every little thing after a while.  The food service at the center of the concourse did all close early for those of us on late flights. And the bathrooms did have several door issues and with the heavy use that night they were all looking trashed, toilet paper on the floors and so forth. Since I had so much time I went for a few walks to the other gates, but of course I didn't go back through security to the terminal or anything. I did consider riding the monorail tram back and forth for a while and decided that was tempting fate. 

All of this would have pushed my husband over the edge and more than once he has not got on a flight and we have drove home (DFW to Miami). Thank goodness we live in Florida or I wouldn’t be able to cruise often.

[ProgRockCruiser]

24 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

Not a Frontier fan

There are four airlines I won't fly:

 

Frontier

Allegiant

Spirit

Jet Blue

 

The first three because I don't trust their reliability and timeliness, and despise their "extra fees for everything", and Jet Blue due to timeliness and general treatment of pax.

 

Not that other airlines are the luxury brands they should be, but they are _generally_ better.

[KmomChicago]

21 minutes ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

There are four airlines I won't fly:

 

Frontier

Allegiant

Spirit

Jet Blue

 

The first three because I don't trust their reliability and timeliness, and despise their "extra fees for everything", and Jet Blue due to timeliness and general treatment of pax.

 

Not that other airlines are the luxury brands they should be, but they are _generally_ better.

 

We've had okay experiences on the first 3, never flew JetBlue yet. Allegiant has an advantage in flying to Sanford which is pretty close to my dad.  I like the big front seat on Spirit for a small upcharge. As you noted, I have had to pay for a lot of upcharges on the legacy airlines as well and often had the same or worse experiences than on these budget carriers. 

 

I can't fault the Frontier people. Everyone we dealt with was fast, efficient, friendly, and sympathetic, apologizing for waits and thanking us for our patience. 

[TNcruising02]

40 minutes ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

There are four airlines I won't fly:

 

Frontier

Allegiant

Spirit

Jet Blue

 

The first three because I don't trust their reliability and timeliness, and despise their "extra fees for everything", and Jet Blue due to timeliness and general treatment of pax.

 

Not that other airlines are the luxury brands they should be, but they are _generally_ better.

Same here.  We have flown on some budget flights in the past and won't do it again.  I like SW because they have a direct flight to Orlando from where we live.  I will fly Delta, United, or American if flying to other areas.  The seats on budget airlines are so uncomfortable, the extra fees are annoying, and I just don't trust their reliability.

[mondello]

I booked Spirit for Oct. because they had the only nonstop to NOLA. Cancelled cruise and flight. Supposed to be refundable more than 60 days out; however, "refund" is only future credits. Booked a week in Orlando to get a vacation before school starts back. Spirit emailed at 7:22pm the night before our flight but I didn't see the email until 12:30am, flight was cancelled. Jumped online and grabbed flights on Southwest at a higher price. Spirit's meltdown ended up lasting about a week. Props to Spirit, they did send a meal voucher($21pp) and sent $50pp future flight voucher, all of which I may never use.

[SNJCruisers]

1 hour ago, jimbo5544 said:

Not a Frontier fan

Frontier, Allegiant and Spirit.....all second class airlines not worth the hassle.

[vacruisin]

1 hour ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

There are four airlines I won't fly:

 

Frontier

Allegiant

Spirit

Jet Blue

 

The first three because I don't trust their reliability and timeliness, and despise their "extra fees for everything", and Jet Blue due to timeliness and general treatment of pax.

 

Not that other airlines are the luxury brands they should be, but they are _generally_ better.

I've never flown the first 3 airlines but I've heard many complaints about them.  We used to LOVE JetBlue and we still fly it now but the service seems to have gone down the last couple of years or so.

 

As for the other luxury airlines, we'll fly any of them depending on price and flights available but our least favorite is American Airlines; we've had a few issues with them over the years with delays and cancellations so they are like a last resort for us.

Edited August 20, 2021 by vacruisin

[surfone]

1 hour ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

There are four airlines I won't fly:

 

Frontier

Allegiant

Spirit

Jet Blue

 

The first three because I don't trust their reliability and timeliness, and despise their "extra fees for everything", and Jet Blue due to timeliness and general treatment of pax.

 

Not that other airlines are the luxury brands they should be, but they are _generally_ better.

just got my flight cancellation notice from Allegiant for our flight next month.  Left us scrambling.  Jet blue was a bad experience from about 6 years ago on our flight to FLL,  brand new piece of luggage and half was completely torn up and they said it was already damaged prior to our fight! We were dumbfounded and went to the top with no compensation for our piece of luggage.  Flying is not what it use to be that's for sure.  

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

4 hours ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

There are four airlines I won't fly:

 

Frontier

Allegiant

Spirit

Jet Blue

 

The first three because I don't trust their reliability and timeliness, and despise their "extra fees for everything", and Jet Blue due to timeliness and general treatment of pax.

 

Not that other airlines are the luxury brands they should be, but they are _generally_ better.

 

We don't fly a lot, and haven't flown on those. Since we don't fly often, we'll typically look at first class options. It's nice not having to be too worried about weight/count of checked luggage.

 

Tom
 

[SNJCruisers]

51 minutes ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

We don't fly a lot, and haven't flown on those. Since we don't fly often, we'll typically look at first class options. It's nice not having to be too worried about weight/count of checked luggage.

 

Tom
 

I would expect nothing less than flying first class from a Presidential Suite occupant. 😉

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

4 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

I would expect nothing less than flying first class from a Presidential Suite occupant. 😉

 

Why do I get the feeling we're never going to "live that down", lol !

 

Tom

[jimbo5544]

6 hours ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

We don't fly a lot, and haven't flown on those. Since we don't fly often, we'll typically look at first class options. It's nice not having to be too worried about weight/count of checked luggage.

 

Tom
 

As they said in Jerry McGuire, it is not just a better seat, it is a better life.

[KmomChicago]

I get it. I don't think anyone should buy a product just to save money, if they don't like the product. Value is about getting what you want for a price you are willing to pay. 

 

These airlines are capturing a lot of market share, however. Just as Carnival does. Just as Walmart does. Like with any kind of travel, I am glad there are options to suit every level and every need.

 

https://simpleflying.com/spirit-fastest-growing-airline/#:~:text=Spirit is the USA's fastest-growing airline in the third,airport – growing by 40%.

Edited August 21, 2021 by KmomChicago

[Terab85]

On 8/15/2021 at 10:50 AM, jimbo5544 said:

OK, if you are considering going on the Mardi Gras, my recommendation is DO IT.  If you DO IT soon, it might be the BEST cruising opportunity you have.  To be on ship at 60% makes it a flat out home run.  Thanks for following along.  Next stop Horizon 9/26…

Great review!  We were supposed to be on the Mardi Gras this past April but it was cancelled so now sailing April 2023 and we made it a B2B.  We'll be on the Horizon too on 9/26 (we're on the 9/18 too).  Hope we get to meet.

[jimbo5544]

11 hours ago, Terab85 said:

Great review!  We were supposed to be on the Mardi Gras this past April but it was cancelled so now sailing April 2023 and we made it a B2B.  We'll be on the Horizon too on 9/26 (we're on the 9/18 too).  Hope we get to meet.

Thank you for the kind words.  B2B on the Horizon is very nice.   Would love to meet up.  

[Moviela]

On 8/20/2021 at 5:33 PM, jimbo5544 said:

As they said in Jerry McGuire, it is not just a better seat, it is a better life.

Aside from a couple of Gulf carriers it is hard to find a true first class anymore. Please take me back to the glory days of Pan Am, Singapore, and Thai. That was living.