Pre cruise flight question

[HMSDingy]

Am I cutting too close if I book a flight arriving at 10:25 AM in Rome for a cruise leaving at 3 PM?

[Mary229]

Yes,  IMHO

[sandiego1]

Way too close! I wouldn’t do that after a domestic flight, let alone an international one.

[cabinluvn]

I would be nervous about it. When we were new to international flying to a cruise port, we booked a flight to arrive on embarkation day. Our flight out of Chicago was delayed and delayed. Some people were saying that they were going to miss a connecting flight in Rome. We were clueless. We had no idea that there was a 45 minute bus transfer to the port. We got the last bus leaving the airport and boarded right at the last minute. That is the last time we ever flew in the same day as the ship leaves…even domestically. 

[rodndonna]

23 minutes ago, HMSDingy said:

Am I cutting too close if I book a flight arriving at 10:25 AM in Rome for a cruise leaving at 3 PM?

 

I'm a "day-of-er" when it comes to pre cruise flights .. but would not be comfortable with that one. 

 

Quite a lot of potential extra delays in addition to potential flight delays -  baggage claim, customs and transport to the port. 

 

Edit: are your flights through Fightease and is your second port in Italy? If yes, I'd reluctantly consider it  🤔

Edited June 14, 2023 by rodndonna

[HMSDingy]

1 minute ago, rodndonna said:

 

I'm a "day-of-er" when it comes to pre cruise flights .. but would not be comfortable with that one. 

 

Quite a lot of potential extra delays in addition to potential flight delays -  baggage claim, customs and transport to the port. 

Then I go to plan B & fly in the night before & book a room.

[Roz]

13 minutes ago, HMSDingy said:

Then I go to plan B & fly in the night before & book a room.

Sounds like a good plan. 

[cbr663]

17 minutes ago, HMSDingy said:

Then I go to plan B & fly in the night before & book a room.

 

I would reconsider adding more than just one night.  Flight delays and cancellations are common right now.  We recently flew with Air Canada domestically from Ottawa to Vancouver for our Alaskan cruise and our original flight was cancelled, our rescheduled flight was cancelled causing us to have to fly the next day.  And, all flights had delays of 30 - 45 mins.

[YourWorldWithBill]

3 hours ago, HMSDingy said:

Am I cutting too close if I book a flight arriving at 10:25 AM in Rome for a cruise leaving at 3 PM?

Just a note to say I agree with @cbr663. Any experienced cruisers will say that arriving the same day is much too risky. It's worth whatever the extra night costs for your peace of mind, even if everything goes well.

[rodndonna]

11 minutes ago, YourWorldWithBill said:

Just a note to say I agree with @cbr663. Any experienced cruisers will say that arriving the same day is much too risky. It's worth whatever the extra night costs for your peace of mind, even if everything goes well.

 

Risk assessment for a holiday has a very personal component in addition to the "what are the chances" analysis, i.e., how much of a hassle is it , extra cost, etc against how much will it impact me if I miss this particular cruise? if I miss the first port(s)?  

 

I'm not sure it is necessarily experience in cruising that is required to deem whether arriving day of is too risky (for me). My work career was as an electrical engineer and then as a project manager, so I like to think I have a pretty good handle on risk assessment, and we often choose to fly in day of a cruise.

 

 

 

[YourWorldWithBill]

1 minute ago, rodndonna said:

 

Risk assessment for a holiday has a very personal component in addition to the "what are the chances" analysis, i.e., how much of a hassle is it , extra cost, etc against how much will it impact me if I miss this particular cruise? if I miss the first port(s)?  

 

I'm not sure it is necessarily experience in cruising that is required to deem whether arriving day of is too risky (for me). My work career was as an electrical engineer and then as a project manager, so I like to think I have a pretty good handle on risk assessment, and we often choose to fly in day of a cruise.

 

 

 

Okay, you're correct in your definitions of experience vs. risk assessment. So, to clarify: for me, I'm comfortable with the security blanket!

[CruiserBruce]

Flying in the day of, and not seeing one of the most wonderful cities in the world? Either way, arriving at 10:25 is not comfortable to me.

 

And by the way, this is from a person that just flew into Amsterdam today, everything went perfectly,  but I can't sleep tonight because the jetlag is killing me. But I am not tied to a cruise schedule, as this is a land trip. But if I were on a cruise, I would have very little time to adjust, flying in the day of sailing. 

 

By the way, if something is going to hang you up at the airport, it's Immigration (not Customs) and claiming your luggage, notoriously slow at FCO. Customs took exactly zero time today at AMS.

[BeachBum47]

Have you flown lately? Every flight I’ve been on in the last 6 months has been delayed. On one flight, I was stuck on the tarmac for 12 hours! Not sure if that’s just bad luck for me but I just don’t trust the airlines to be on time anymore. Personally, for a cruise, I ALWAYS go the day before. I would be so upset if the plane was delayed and ruined my trip. 

[rodndonna]

4 hours ago, BeachBum47 said:

Have you flown lately? Every flight I’ve been on in the last 6 months has been delayed. On one flight, I was stuck on the tarmac for 12 hours! Not sure if that’s just bad luck for me but I just don’t trust the airlines to be on time anymore. Personally, for a cruise, I ALWAYS go the day before. I would be so upset if the plane was delayed and ruined my trip. 

 

I assume this question is for me. In the last 12 months we have flown 6 return flights ,  4  of which were cruises and none of those flights were late (beyond like 20 minutes or something that I would not remember). There have been many reschedules and we did have some VERY late luggage once though.

 

We would also be upset if we miss a cruise, some more upsetting than others and this is taken into account as to whether we arrive early. We have had quite a number of holiday "disruptions" over the years for a variety of reasons. Heck one time we were disrupted for 2 years of holidays  - lol, but we made it through them all. We fully anticipate and accept the fact that we will have more holiday disruptions with flights issues being just one of many components that can disrupt a holiday.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

It is to tight ...

[CNSJ]

For Rome, we have flown in the day before, booked a room at the FCO Airport Hilton for the night, then slept in best we could...enjoyed a great breakfast then left for ship with no worries.  We booked Rome Cabs which provided great service.  A nice gentleman was waiting in lobby for us at 11 am with a sign.

 

Starting a vacation/trip with stress and anxiety is just as bad as rushing off the ship to catch a flight leaving shortly after arrival to find long lines at security and check in....no fun.

[Roz]

In March I had a hotel room booked in Buenos Aires.  My plan was to fly to BA overnight, stay a night at the hotel, then board the ship the next day.  I missed my connection in Houston and then spent the next 3 days fighting my way to BA.  I boarded the ship 1.5 hrs. after the all aboard.  The saving grace was that the ship was overnighting in BA.  Otherwise I would have been SOL.

 

Last December I flew to Amsterdam for a river cruise.   I had a 4 hr. layover in Philly.  The plane was delayed 2 hours, but I still made my connection.  Nothing seems to be on time these days.

[Hlitner]

On 6/14/2023 at 2:13 PM, HMSDingy said:

Am I cutting too close if I book a flight arriving at 10:25 AM in Rome for a cruise leaving at 3 PM?

I will answer your question with a question.  What will you do if your flight is 3 hours late?  Assuming your flight is from Canada, it is not that unusual for flight to be delayed, sometimes for many hours.  Another issue is your luggage?  If your luggage misses your flight and shows up on the next flight....hmm.  To put this in perspective, even if your flight is exactly on time you may not get your luggage until about 11:30.  You will than need to get to the port and that takes up to an hour.  So, if things go almost perfectly, you should arrive at your ship around 12:30.  

 

There is a reason why most seasoned cruisers fly-in at least one day early (when going to Europe we generally go several days early.  You are leaving yourself almost no margin for error.  Another reason we like to fly-in days early is for the peace of mind (and lack of any anxiety).  And flying into Rome a few days early is not a bad thing as Rome is worthy of at least a few pre-cruise days.

 

So my advice is that you should have a "Plan B" in your mind just in case you do miss your cruise.  Plan B will be how (and when you will catch up to your ship at one of the following ports.  

 

Hank

[marazul]

On 6/14/2023 at 2:13 PM, HMSDingy said:

Am I cutting too close if I book a flight arriving at 10:25 AM in Rome for a cruise leaving at 3 PM?

That's nuts.

[HMSDingy]

14 hours ago, marazul said:

That's nuts.

Yes it is, that's why we plan on staying in Rome for one day after our cruise.

[marazul]

1 minute ago, HMSDingy said:

Yes it is, that's why we plan on staying in Rome for one day after our cruise.

I  hope you meant you are staying in Rome one day ahead of the cruise. One day after the cruise will not help you getting to the ship on the first day of the cruise. Your arrival plan relies on a lot of wishful thinking and luck. 

[HMSDingy]

14 hours ago, Hlitner said:

I will answer your question with a question.  What will you do if your flight is 3 hours late?  Assuming your flight is from Canada, it is not that unusual for flight to be delayed, sometimes for many hours.  Another issue is your luggage?  If your luggage misses your flight and shows up on the next flight....hmm.  To put this in perspective, even if your flight is exactly on time you may not get your luggage until about 11:30.  You will than need to get to the port and that takes up to an hour.  So, if things go almost perfectly, you should arrive at your ship around 12:30.  

 

There is a reason why most seasoned cruisers fly-in at least one day early (when going to Europe we generally go several days early.  You are leaving yourself almost no margin for error.  Another reason we like to fly-in days early is for the peace of mind (and lack of any anxiety).  And flying into Rome a few days early is not a bad thing as Rome is worthy of at least a few pre-cruise days.

 

So my advice is that you should have a "Plan B" in your mind just in case you do miss your cruise.  Plan B will be how (and when you will catch up to your ship at one of the following ports.  

 

Hank

As usual your answers are spot on. We'll fly in a day earlier and stay in Rome pre-cruise. That's what we do for all of our cruises regardless of the departure port. I was just curious and apologize for wasting people's time. Thanks Hank, much appreciated..

[HMSDingy]

1 minute ago, marazul said:

I  hope you meant you are staying in Rome one day ahead of the cruise. One day after the cruise will not help you getting to the ship on the first day of the cruise. Your arrival plan relies on a lot of wishful thinking and luck. 

Yes, sorry, typed too fast.