Pre-nite Or No Pre-nitre???????

[mikeblum]

Coming from a northern city like minneapolis and doing most of our cruising from november to april we prefer to leave a day early and spend and extra nite before embarkation...weather can be an issue in the northern states and after waiting so long for the vacation to come i don't want to be stuck in a potential snow bank...i don't think the captain is going to wait for me...WHAT'S YOUR PREFENCE...PRE NITE OR NO PRE-NITE...we actually did a pre and post nite in miami last march and it got as little long on the post night...just wanted to get home...the kids were already with us,,, stayed at the miami holiday inn by the port of miami for the pre-and post...

[DutsCruiser]

Every cruise at least 2 pre-nights and 1 post-night.

 

One pre-cruise-night should be enough to make it to the ship but the extra

pre-cruise-nights gives me the opertunity to relax after the flight and check out the local sightseeings.

 

I book the post-cruise-night just to make sure I'll make it to the plane in time. We have booked airport hotels for 3 out of 4 cruises for the post-cruise-night.

 

Hotels are reasonably cheap in the US compaired to here in the Netherlands so I surely can't think of a reason why I should risk missing my vacation over one or two hotel nights.

[Nliedel]

I always head down a few nights early and site see before a cruise. The couple times I didn't I was stressed beyond belief and I am grumpy when stressed.

 

We always come home the day the ship docks. By then I am ready to see my dog!

[mikeblum]

Of Our 13 Cruises Only The Very First One Do We Not Do A Pre-niter...we Did Not Know Better...you Want To Talk About Cranky...minneapolis To San Juan...then A 45 Minute Shuttle To The Pier...canky Turned To Down Right Bitchy...never Again...alway A Pre-nite...staying At The Holiday Inn Again In Miami In April For The Vos...

[Sheffie]

Our first 3 cruises we didn't do a pre-niter. Just didn't think about it. On that 3rd cruise, we were absolutely wiped out! I cannot sleep the night before a cruise due to excitement, and the early plane departure, the long flights, and everything else just made my first 2 days "catch-up" days. We have since started flying down the day before. Ah, the joy of being relaxed, refreshed, and being one of the first on the ship! I would love to do 2 days before and one day after, but I don't have the time.

[cb at sea]

I always do a pre-night, for safety's sake, but once the trip is over, I want to go home--NOW!!!!!! No post night, for me!

[dave&micki]

We always come down to florida at least a day ahead for a couple of reasons --first like you said the weather we live in the northeast and you never know what it will be like --second it just seems to make more sense to be rested when you board the ship rather than to arrive all tired from your flight-- and last-- why not enjoy a day or two of local color knowing you are where youwant to be ---We are heading to florida in 21 days --two days early and actually have a deep sea charter booked out of cocoa beach the day before our cruise--- so enjoy relax-- and forget the stress--of getting there HAPPY CRUISING!!!!!:D

[mikeblum]

dave and mickie could not have said it any better...RELAX AND FORGET ABOUT THE STRESS...UNFORTUNATELY I THINK IT WILL STILL BE THERE WHEN YOU GET HOME...

[kevin priestley]

My wife and I did the Panama Canal last March which left on Sunday and we went down on Friday night couldn't wait to get out of here. We stayed at the Sringhill Suites which has now been sold but for our next cruise in december we already have a room at the Ramada for the night before Friday December 1, which gives us what the Sringhill did FREE TRANSFERS TO AND FROM THE AIRPORT AND THE PORT AS WELL AS FREE BREAKFAST.Not bad for $75 a night the deal was so good I booked 7 rooms for all of our friends going on the same cruise with out asking them.

[Cape Cruiser 2007]

We always come down to florida at least a day ahead for a couple of reasons --first like you said the weather we live in the northeast and you never know what it will be like --second it just seems to make more sense to be rested when you board the ship rather than to arrive all tired from your flight-- and last-- why not enjoy a day or two of local color knowing you are where youwant to be ---We are heading to florida in 21 days --two days early and actually have a deep sea charter booked out of cocoa beach the day before our cruise--- so enjoy relax-- and forget the stress--of getting there HAPPY CRUISING!!!!!:D

 

Add- that you can do a baggage "change around"- put things in a carryon for the day before your luggage arrives!

Why worry about late flights/transfers? Relax!!:D

[gatour]

Since I live in Florida (Jax) no need for me to fly. :) But if I am sailing from Port Everglades or Miami, if it is Saturday cruise, I drive to Cocoa after work on Friday and then the rest on Saturday. If it is a Sunday cruise, I drive all of the way down on Saturday.

[iluvcruzin]

Most times I do pre-cruise for the same reason as most stated. Post cruise I did once only because I used frequent flyer miles and I couldn't get a flight back until the next day. I don't think I will do that again as I'm with Mike - I was ready to go home.

[crusinmama06]

It depends on the Port. We did pre-week :) in Orlando because of Disney.

 

In Miami, once we did prenight and stayed at Biscayne Bay (Best Western I think), the other two times, we just flew and boarded the ship the same day.

 

We've never done post night.

[TahoeBob]

on my one and only cruise we did a pre night. We live at lake Tahoe and DEC weather can be a problem. It turned out to be a blessing we did, we have the option of flying out of Reno or Sacramento (sac is 40 miles more drive) we left Sacramento at 4:30 P.M. on Saturday got to LA and in our hotel by 6:30. On our cruise we met some one who left Reno on sunday (1 hour flight) there 10:30 flight was held up because of fog in Reno. They ended up getting to the ship at 4:45 for a 5:00 sailing. Even on a short direct flight thing can go wrong its just not worth stress to go the same day.

[kevin priestley]

We love Tahoe We got married there last April.

[BobBeaSea]

Yup! We go down the day before as well. Spend the afternoon and evening at Bayside..watch that day's sailings go out, have a nice dinner etc. It's great getting up the next morning, look out the window and the ships are there. Already in vacation mode a day before getting on the ship. :)

 

Forgot to add, the only time I ever flew in the same day was my first cruise in '90. RCI air, Toronto-Nashville-Atlanta-Miami, geesshh!, what a day. I swore I would NEVER do it again.

[Murphy]

Of Our 13 Cruises Only The Very First One Do We Not Do A Pre-niter...we Did Not Know Better...you Want To Talk About Cranky...minneapolis To San Juan...then A 45 Minute Shuttle To The Pier...canky Turned To Down Right Bitchy...never Again...alway A Pre-nite...staying At The Holiday Inn Again In Miami In April For The Vos...

Yep, our first cruise was a travel nightmare as well. Didn't know any better (have a great TA now!!) and flew from Chicago to San Juan via St. Louis the DAY AFTER OUR WEDDING for our first cruise. Never again. I bought our boarding picture because if was our honeymoon and our first cruise, but man, I look at it now and wonder why I did! Clothes wrinkled, hair sagging, black circles under our eyes! We didn't leave port until 11:00pm and were too wiped out to even stay up for the sail away!

 

We have relatives in FL, so if we are sailing out of any FL port, we ususally go down and visit them a few days before and drive to the port on sail day. Even that can be stressful, as on a rare occasion, Aligator Alley closes down and although it's never happened when we were traveling, if it ever did, we'd probably be SOL!! :)

[Boo Boo]

We have always done a night pre-cruise - we are from the UK and have to get to the florida a day before (since flights tend to get to Florida late afternoon).

 

Our last trip to the US (not a cruise) has actually made me decide to do AT LEAST an extra day pre-cruise from now on. We flew direct from London Heathrow to Denver International on British Airways (checked in over 3 hours before departure, flying Business Class) and one of our suitcase (with all our clothes in!) didn't make the flight. It took over 7 days to finally reach of that (took BA 5 days to put it on a plane to the US!)! On most holidays, if your clothes don't make it, at least you have lots of opportunities to buy more. On a cruise, you are stuffed... So my feeling is, get there an EXTRA day early - then you have an extra day to unwind and look around (or, in the worst case, a whole day to rush around buying clothes...)

 

Boo

[dave&micki]

Yes you are so right Cape Cod cruiser--luggage can be a big deal changing it around if you had to wear sweats orsweatshirts coming down-- great add-on--- say where are you from on the Cape?? Welive on the Vineyard-- 20 days and we are OUT OF HERE!!!!!!! HAPPY CRUISING !!!!!:D :D

[Libracruzer]

I always arrive a day or so ahead if I am flying to the east - I have to! I still enjoy being at the port city a day ahead even if I drive to port. It is much more relaxing. Generally, I go home the day the cruise is over - I am packed up and ready to go.

[negc]

We always try to get to the port at least a day before we sail. One year, the airlines misdirected one piece of our luggage. It was finally delivered to our hotel room at midnight. Had we flown down the day of the cruise, we would have been far out to sea by then.

Usually we fly home the day we arrive back in port, but when we have done cruises that end up in Vancouver, we always try to schedule an extra day or two at the end of the trip to enjoy its many features.

[Coralc]

Flying for East Coast cruises, we always do a pre-night. In fact over the last few years we have started to do at least 3 pre-nights, because that is how long it takes us to fully adjust to the time change. On our last cruise we were out rather late on arrival evening, and the hotel maid woke us up at some unholy hour the next morning. I stumbled to the door, and she drawled "housekeeping". I grabbed my watch and said, it's 7AM! *%$#&, never mind, it's 10 isn't it? We are from California, and don't need anything, thanks. :D