Odds of making the boat if I change my flight (stuck in blizzard)

[League3056]

Hi all, 

 

We're supposed to fly out of Des Moines, Iowa,  tomorrow around 2pm for a Carnival Celebration cruise that departs the following day (Sunday). It's not looking good for our flight, and I'm guessing it will be canceled. I have back-up tickets (fully refundable) for another set of flights that leave DSM at 5am on Sunday, with a short-but-doable layover at DCA, then onward to land in Miami at 12:52pm on the day of the cruise.

 

Our assigned check-in time is 11:30-12, so obviously we would miss that if we end up having to take these back-up flights, but our docs say that final boarding is at 2:30. I know traffic in Miami can be bad. We *would* be checking a bag (can't do carry-on only), so if everything went perfectly and we did indeed land at 12:52, do you think we'd have enough time to grab our bags, get in a taxi/uber, and check in at Port Miami before 2:30?  Or is this just a crazy plan, and if we don't make it out of here on our original flights tomorrow, I should just consider it a lost cause and stay home? I don't have enough experience with cruises OR Miami to know how crazy this sounds. This is a one-off very special cruise with family members we never get to travel with, it is so very disappointing that it's looking more and more like it won't work out. 

 

I couldn't find anything that lands earlier in Miami on my own, but there's a chance that if our first set of tickets for tomorrow get canceled, maybe AA will be able to at least get us closer to MIA for an overnight stop somewhere and a flight into MIA really early on the cruise morning.

[JohninDC]

Sunday traffic in Miami should be better than a weekday rush hour - a cab ride from MIA to POM takes about 20+ minutes.  If you wind up taking your back up flight I would call the cruise line, advise them that you will be cutting it close, and see what they advise.

 

Worst case, what's the first port on your schedule?

[League3056]

First port is Amber Cove, but we'd miss the first 2 full days if we tried to meet the boat, and at that point, I don't think it'd be worth it for us just on the basis of missing so much of the cruise, let alone the headache of flying into DR.  OH, and I just remembered that my parents are traveling using their birth certificates and don't have passports, so that's not even an option. 

 

 

[RocketMan275]

58 minutes ago, League3056 said:

First port is Amber Cove, but we'd miss the first 2 full days if we tried to meet the boat, and at that point, I don't think it'd be worth it for us just on the basis of missing so much of the cruise, let alone the headache of flying into DR.  OH, and I just remembered that my parents are traveling using their birth certificates and don't have passports, so that's not even an option. 

 

 

Have you looked at flights into Fort Lauderdale, Tampa, Orlando.  

[League3056]

55 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

Have you looked at flights into Fort Lauderdale, Tampa, Orlando.  

Yes.. nothing better 😞

[jsn55]

If your cruise is insured, I'd take my chances tomorrow (and wishing you very good luck indeed) that you arrive at MIA sometime.  If you get out of DesMoines but miss the sailing, spend your time in Florida, make a vacation out of it.  Book a hotel for the first night and figure out what you want to do for a few days.  Sure better than staying home feeling badly.

[Elaine5715]

Did you get out?

[jsn55]

1 minute ago, Elaine5715 said:

Did you get out?

Yes, we're dying of curiosity.  I'm thinking that you're on the ship and have no time to update us.  A girl can hope!

[Cienfuegos]

I'm late to this party, but the cruise lines have been known to accommodate / delay sailings out of Miami when a widespread event occurs.  A multi-state snowstorm closing many airports would fit that bill.  As would thunderstorms preventing access to Miami, Fort Lauderdale, etc.

[Elaine5715]

3 hours ago, Cienfuegos said:

I'm late to this party, but the cruise lines have been known to accommodate / delay sailings out of Miami when a widespread event occurs.  A multi-state snowstorm closing many airports would fit that bill.  As would thunderstorms preventing access to Miami, Fort Lauderdale, etc.

That is mostly when guests coming in on cruise line flights are affected

[League3056]

Update: We didn't have to take those back-up flights and WE MADE THE CRUISE, but things did go kind of badly and it was really touch-and-go there for a bit. Our original flight last Sat left DSM on time, but then we picked up just enough of a delay during de-icing and taxiing to the runway that we missed our flight from CLT to MIA by mere minutes. We couldn't get to Miami that night, and they initially tried to rebook us on a flight that would arrive the following evening (a non-starter) so finally got rebooked onto a direct flight the next morning that landed in Miami around 11:30. That was a little tight but do-able - We made it onboard the ship around 1:30, about an hour before the final cutoff time, proving that had we landed closer to 1:00, I'm not at all confident that we would have made it. This was stressful enough as it was! We briefly considered just driving the 11 hours from Charlotte all through the night, but we were desperately/nauseously sleep-deprived and the weather looked good in both CLT and MIA for the next morning, so we decided to take that risk. It was a great cruise and we were pinching ourselves the whole week that it'd worked out in the end!

 

 

[jsn55]

6 minutes ago, League3056 said:

Update: We didn't have to take those back-up flights and WE MADE THE CRUISE, but things did go kind of badly and it was really touch-and-go there for a bit. Our original flight last Sat left DSM on time, but then we picked up just enough of a delay during de-icing and taxiing to the runway that we missed our flight from CLT to MIA by mere minutes. We couldn't get to Miami that night, and they initially tried to rebook us on a flight that would arrive the following evening (a non-starter) so finally got rebooked onto a direct flight the next morning that landed in Miami around 11:30. That was a little tight but do-able - We made it onboard the ship around 1:30, about an hour before the final cutoff time, proving that had we landed closer to 1:00, I'm not at all confident that we would have made it. This was stressful enough as it was! We briefly considered just driving the 11 hours from Charlotte all through the night, but we were desperately/nauseously sleep-deprived and the weather looked good in both CLT and MIA for the next morning, so we decided to take that risk. It was a great cruise and we were pinching ourselves the whole week that it'd worked out in the end!

 

 

So happy to read this!  Thanks for letting us know.

[Elaine5715]

8 hours ago, League3056 said:

Update: We didn't have to take those back-up flights and WE MADE THE CRUISE, but things did go kind of badly and it was really touch-and-go there for a bit. Our original flight last Sat left DSM on time, but then we picked up just enough of a delay during de-icing and taxiing to the runway that we missed our flight from CLT to MIA by mere minutes. We couldn't get to Miami that night, and they initially tried to rebook us on a flight that would arrive the following evening (a non-starter) so finally got rebooked onto a direct flight the next morning that landed in Miami around 11:30. That was a little tight but do-able - We made it onboard the ship around 1:30, about an hour before the final cutoff time, proving that had we landed closer to 1:00, I'm not at all confident that we would have made it. This was stressful enough as it was! We briefly considered just driving the 11 hours from Charlotte all through the night, but we were desperately/nauseously sleep-deprived and the weather looked good in both CLT and MIA for the next morning, so we decided to take that risk. It was a great cruise and we were pinching ourselves the whole week that it'd worked out in the end!

 

 

HAPPY DANCE!!!!!!