POLL: Do you fly in the day of embarkation or before?

[zebra36]

There is an interesting thread over on the RCI board re: this topic.

Seems the OP did make arrangements to fly in a day early but now there is a pending snow storm this weekend that may upset the best laid plans. Hope all of those in the NE flying out this weekend to meet a ship make it.

 

Frank

[jakedoc]

We are leaving tomorrow morning (a day early) and are still not guaranteed to get there on time due to the snow storm and high winds after the storm that is forecast for tonight and tomorrow. Expecting from 6-10" of snow. Should have left 2 days prior!

[cul8er]

We are flying out tomorrow afternoon, right as the storm starts. I hope we beat it! Looks like it will be nice in Fort Lauderdale, a little nicer than 6 inches of snow and sub zero wind chills.

[Bryon]

We always fly in a day early, not so much because of travel delays as because its nice to have a day to transfer from "go" to "stop" and enjoy the cruise. We try to book a flight that will get us to the port by early afternoon so that we can have a day to decompress and be on vacation before boarding.

 

We fly home the day of disembarkation for the same reason, to maximize the time we have to get all of the little things done that would otherwise become real annoyances the next week---and to generally get back into "go" mode.

[VMontana]

We fly in the day of departure for Florida trips. Which sounds like living dangerously until you consider...

Living in Atlanta, we have several contingency plans. Atlanta has a huge variety of options to Florida, including Miami, Palm Beach, and Delta and Air tran. So even if one airline has a meltdown (ala USAir), there is a non related alternative.

First off...take the first flight out of the day. Yes, you may end up at the cruise terminal very early (like 10 a.m.), but it allows back up flights (up to four or five), in case of a cancellation or extended delay.

 

We arrived in FLL once, to find a bag didn't make it. By hanging out at the airport for another hour, we were there when the next flight came in (with the bag), and still had several hours cushion.

 

Also, we check the weather the day before for any Florida, Atlanta major issues (so if all else fails, we can hop into the car and drive). (Our son plays travel hockey, so a 10 hour drive isn't fun, but it isn't foreign either).

First flights are also a trick we use with his hockey (because there is nothing like a hockey bag or hockey sticks to mess up an airline's baggage system, especially in the South).

Airlines mess up odd size luggage on an average of 30% as our hockey team found this year...something to consider when packing.

First flights, while painfully early, also mean a less crowded airport, and generally fresher employees (they haven't reached maximum annoyance yet)and experienced travelers (no one going through the x-ray with a piggy bank of pennies in their pockets).

[MLAinVA]

We sail next Saturday and have a 9 AM flight from Dulles to FLL (non-stop). If we see any possibility of really bad weather, we'll leave by car on Friday morning and just blow off the air reservations, I guess. That is so not what I want to do!

[Jimsgirl]

I try to fly the day before, but have just spent a few "stressful" weeks over a flight booked with a cruise line (not Celebrity ), the trouble was the air dept seemed to be staffed by non flyers. a/ booked me on air line making headlines re possible bankcruptcy , b/ booked through a hub making headlines with baggage problems running into the thousands, c/ booked me with too little time to get from domestic terminal to international terminal - girl seemed to think the "gates" were "just a few steps away"!!!!

Finally got it sorted out yesterday.different air line, different hub, and with 90 mins to make the transistion from one terminal to other. Big Smile

only three weeks to next cruise , then only another six weeks to yet another cruise, but then it is five months deprivation before the Infinity out of San Diego for 14 days R/T

[jakedoc]

Consider going 2 days in advance if you live in the North during winter. We almost did'nt make our ship in San Juan on 01-23-05 even though we left 1 day before cruise. Big snowstorm in Midwest and Eastcoast on 01-22-05. We booked one of first flights out of Milwaukee but we were delayed hourly. Finally @ 2:30 PM we boarded plane, got de-iced and sat on runway for 45 minutes-turned back to gate because of poor visability. Unloaded and I was luckily near gate counter when our flight was canceled. There were 14 of us and nothing available for next day(visions of us missing our ship) to San Juan. Only 2 more flights out to Florida(one to Tampa and one to Ft Meyers) leaving about 6PM. We were able to book the flight to Ft Meyers and miraclusly the sky cleared enough to leave frozen Wisconsin. Maybe 4 flights went to Florida out of Milwaukee all day. All others were cancelled. A lot of people I talked to missed their flights and were CRUISING THAT DAY! If we did't get out of Milwaukee that day I'm sure we would have missed our ship. We still had to rent a Maxi Van in Ft Meyers and drive 2 hours to Ft Lauderdale BUT WE CAUGHT OUR FLIGHT TO SAN JUAN. Our ship did pick up many passengers and luggage in our first port of call-but that was 2 days of missed cruise and I'm sure many more dollars later to catch the ship.

[AFT_LOVER]

out of LAX to meet Summit 11/20. If we fly in 11/19, stay at the Sheraton across the street with free shuttle, how do we meet transfers the next day since we can't get inside without tix.? Have you done this?

 

For 3 cruises including Dover England, "X" has flown us to meet transfers to get us aboard. Non-stop Gatwick, gave us 6 hours of sleep, so we were ready for the day. Just curious how they handle bad weather? Our Transatlantic was late leaving Dover due to FL hurricane that had flights cancelled & they bussed folks to other airports to fly. YEAH CELEBRITY! We met many folks that were very happy.

 

Always like to get there two days ahead, even if Celebrity does the Air.

[Mike & Sue]

Being new at this, and after the recent big snow storm in the northeast, we changed our plans and are flying in 2 days before. Do not want anything to keep us from being there on time!!

[pboedeker]

We used to fly out the day of the cruise....until we encountered a "mechanical failure" on a American jet that was supposed to take the entire family to FLL for a wedding cruise! Needless to say..we ended up missing the sailing and were re-routed to the ship's first port of call at 1AM! UGH...

 

Never again - we always fly to the embarkation port the day ahead!

[TITISSA]

Since we live in Connecticut and most of our cruises are taken in February and April (yes, even in April we can have some snow), we always fly the day before just to play safe. :eek:

[newmexicoNita]

WE flly at least 1 day before and sometimes two or three. We fly stand by most of the time so it's important to get to our embarkation port in plenty of time. Even if we didn't fly stand by we would do it the same way. It gives us a chance to rest up and get to the ship early!!! NMNita

[dragonlady]

We're booked for our third cruise, second on the Mercury out of San Francisco, just a 4 hour drive from home. So I guess that makes me a "home port,...neener, neener, neener". But when we had to fly, we flew in the day before. Just felt safer...