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

[Richard Stein]

Always fly in early considering reliablity of airlines. Airfares are cheaper if you get there after ship leaves. Do the same going and save enough to pay for motels.

[mango14217]

we always go a day or two early after cour panama canal cruise on the veendam in 1997 it was such a hassle we vowed never agan will we go on departure date.

[Shirley and Les]

Listen Up Folks,

Spend your money on the cruise and not on the incidentals.

You can always find a friend who will take you to the airport between 10:00 am and 4:00 pm. This departure time won't get you to a port on the day of departure. So, go a day ahead of time.

Also, cosmetics, hair dryers and similar things are very expensive in the ship shopping mall. Go to the departure port a day ahead of time and let your DW figure out all the stuff she forgot to pack. Make a list and then go to the local WalMart, KMart, Walgreens (whatever floats your boat, PUN INTENDED) and buy all the missing stuff. Motel van drivers are real warriors about getting you to a store when you show them the money!!!

Les

[Offtune Angel]

Thanks to these boards, we now fly in at least the day before and always have (a) post cruise day(s) so we aren't caught in the "cruiseship exodus to the airport".

 

We learned our lesson after the 11+ hours flight Toronto to Hawaii, arriving six hours before sail away. Jetlag induced sleep (read: coma) right through the sail away. Never again.:)

[jakedoc]

We most always go 1 day ahead, especially in the winter coming from the "Tundra". -never know when a snowstorm will get you. We went last year on a last minute notice cruise( we won it thru 02 cruise) Almost missed the Galaxy out of San Juan due to airline mechanical problems out of Miami-NEVER AGAIN!

[mromoff]

We fly out of Denver International airport so we always fly a day early. We have a saying in Denver, "If you don't like the weather, stick around for 10 minutes." Things change really fast and storms blow in so quickly here.

 

 

In addition, I am a big fan of staying in a hotel near where the cruise ship docks. Room service breakfast is a great way to start off your vacation right. ;)

[Pammie]

We would love to sail in a day or two before but due to vacations schulding we must fly in the day of sailing.

 

 

Pammie

[Peanuts]

We always fly in a day early. The winter weather in Michigan is so unpredictable we don't like stressing about our flight and boarding the ship. Going in a day early is so much nicer.

[CelebrityMan]

Yes, we, too like to fly in ahead of embarkation day, one or two days depending on distance flown. It doesn't always work out that we can, thanks to work schedules. But if there is an option, we opt for going early.

 

We've used the Celebrity Sea & Stay program and enjoyed it very much. It's nice to be rested and relaxed on boarding and embarkation day — good to feel as though one has had more than a harried rush through a port city's airport as their only experience of that city.

 

Hopefully our schedules will permit a nice post-cruise layover one of these times, too.

[hajekfam]

We fly in at least the day before and after our first transatlantic, we now fly home at least the day after. Who needs the congested airports with all the cruise passengers leaving and new ones arriving? The day we were to disembark from our first trans, there were 7 cruise ships at Port Everglades. All 7 disembarking passengers on the same day and receiving new passengers. The airport was awful with lines out the door for check in and lines around the terminal for security check to the gates. At that time we vowed never again.

We fly in at least a day early to adjust to the time zone and board the ship rested and ready to enjoy ourselves. On our first cruises, before we started doing this, we boarded and were ready to call it a night after dinner.

[cdncruzer]

Not too much cruise experience under our belt but we did the "day before" thing. We just don't trust that prairie weather to cooperate with our travel plans! Besides that, it is a great way to unwind pre-cruise.

[stephy1]

I guess we fall into the depends category. I hate to take an extra vacation day to fly in a day ahead. If we have enough frequent flyer miles to fly first class I have no problem doing a red eye. Other times it just depends on how much vacation time I have. We live in California so if we don't fly in the day before, it's almost always got to be a red eye since most cruises leave out of the East Coast.

When we sailed out of San Juan on the Constellation in December we flew in a day ahead and I'm sooooooo glad we did. I barely remember getting to the hotel. There was a huge thunderstorm that I mostly slept through, until the thunder set off a bunch of car alarms. :eek: It was really nice to get on the ship well rested and be able to take advantage of the whole day and stay up late.

 

Stephanie

[Longboysfan]

When time permits we fly in a day early.

This cruise we may fly in on Friday night and have all day Saturday to do things. Then onto the ship Sunday.

If not - get the first flight out on the day of the cruise.

 

More important is to get a good scheduled flight back.

[polodad]

It depends on the trip. We live in the SF Bay area. 2 yrs ago we were leaving out of LA for Mexico so we went the morning of. April of this year we were leaving from Ft. Lauderdale and had to fly x country so we went a day early & enjoyed a great dinner at the Bimini boatyard. In Sept we leave from Vancouver and are flying in the morning of the cruise. weather should not be a factor. As long as Canadian customs cooperates (ccc) we should be fine. Our concern is using up extra vacation days as we both work.

[blndee77]

Over 88% of voters right now fly in early...we are really supporting the local hotel business!

[Host Walt]

I'm rather surprised that no one has yet mentioned one big benefit of the day before. You can watch your ship come into Port Everglades (if that's where you are sailing from) on sailaway day...and if you plan well, most of the hotels on the 17th street causeway have rooms on the higher floors that have a southern exposure so you have a nice view (if you're up early enough).

I don't care how many cruises we've been on, there's always that thrill seeing our ship arriving at the end of the preceding cruise, especially as it comes in the channel and heads into the dock.

The 6:00 am wake up is tough for we West Coasters (3 hour time change) but well worth it.

[StephenJohnson]

I'm amazed by the number of folks who fly in "day-of" based on vacation days - most ships sail Saturday or Sunday, so a Friday departure will still get you in the day before for all but distant destinations (i.e. intercontinental flights) - even a west coaster can [B]usually[/B] get an afternoon departure to an east coast port city that gets them in the night before. Am I missing something?

[Shari2]

We always fly in at least a day before the cruise, now. We live in Minnesota, and we could have a bad snowstorm in the winter... which is when we usually travel.

[websailor]

We like to go in early (usually several days).
1) Ease of mind for wife ... totally less hassles about airports, time constraints, etc... when we arrive in the port, we are almost certain we will be able to get on the ship...before that, the uncertainty due to weather, cancelled flights, etc make for grumpy wife ==> leads to an unhappy hubby
2) Lets us get on the ship and explore before anyone else (plus we get the good books from the Library and sign up for our shore excursions that we could not book online)
3) Let's us explore a new port/country
4) Relieves the pre-cruise stress due to flights, long times cramped in small seats, jetlag/lack of sleep. When we get on the ship, we are relaxed and ready to vacation...it's like getting an extra day.
5) Last cruise - we met some of our fellow CC folks and went out to a great dinner with them...it was fun meeting each other in person after talking online so long!

[flagger]

[quote name='StephenJohnson']I'm amazed by the number of folks who fly in "day-of" based on vacation days - most ships sail Saturday or Sunday, so a Friday departure will still get you in the day before for all but distant destinations (i.e. intercontinental flights) - even a west coaster can [b]usually[/b] get an afternoon departure to an east coast port city that gets them in the night before. Am I missing something?[/QUOTE]They might be on a budget and an extra day or two at a hotel may not be part of that budget. And flights might be cheaper the day of.

[StephenJohnson]

[quote name='flagger']They might be on a budget and an extra day or two at a hotel may not be part of that budget. And flights might be cheaper the day of.[/QUOTE]

They [B]might[/B] be, but the objections I've seen are all about vacation days, not money. And I find that incomprehensible, since most people can get in the day before without taking more than one week's vacation for a week long cruise.

[cechase]

Since we live in the Reno area, we find it prudent to fly in the day before and stay at a hotel. We did that in March for a cruise on Mercury departing from San Francisco, and in May for a cruise on Century departing from Fort Lauderdale.

Weather is one concern, but when going cross country, it takes us almost all of the day to get to our cruise destination.

[pa.cruisers]

We fly down the day before since we live in the northeast. We buy our own air and us priceline for hotel. Because of the great winter weather it gives you extra time in case of bad weather,but it gives you another day in the sun if no problems.sometimes we go 2 days early if the air and hotel are priced right.


Pa. Cruisers

[flagger]

[quote name='StephenJohnson']They [b]might[/b] be, but the objections I've seen are all about vacation days, not money. And I find that incomprehensible, since most people can get in the day before without taking more than one week's vacation for a week long cruise.[/QUOTE]
Just playing devil's advocate here and not trying to be argumentative. You originally mentioned most cruises departing either Saturday or Sunday. I do believe there are some mid-week weeklongs. I think HAL offers something WED-WED out of Vancouver. I would need to go back to the port calendar to confirm this.

Also, not everyone works a Mon-Fri schedule. When I was in radio, I worked six sometimes seven days a week, so any day I took off from work was considered using up a vacation day.

[CruiseForever]

We always fly in at least one day and sometimes two before the ship sails. Our 11 day Summit next April leaves on Monday from Ft. Lauderdale and we will be flying into FT. L. friday nigt on the red-eye from LAX. Two days on the beach and then on the ship by noon on Monday.

Ron and Marie