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

[StephenJohnson]

[quote name='flagger']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.[/QUOTE]

True enough, but [B]most[/B] people work Monday-Friday, and [B]most[/B] cruises leave on weekends. I understand there are exceptions, and that there may be reasons people can't make it, but vacation days seemed like a pretty unlikely one to me. Of course, I could be wrong :eek:

[pkexton]

We have flown in the day before on our past 2 cruises - it gave us time to relax and not have to worry about missing the boat.

[Host Walt]

[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]

For us to go from LAX to FLL (or MIA) requires a 1:00pm or so departure...or a redeye. For Saturday sail dates we start our vacation on Friday and try to catch a morning flight so we can relax in the port city.

We do take an early evening flight to YVR or SEA for Alaska trips thus saving a vacation day.

[Putz]

We had always flown in the morning of the sailings (all HAL). Last year we discovered that HAL not longer used Air Canada as their carrier from Toronto so we were given connecting flights on US carriers. Because we were with my parents who weren't keen on flying in the first place, I paid the supplement and changed over to Air Canada non-stops...but it was still a hectic day. From now on we'll always fly in a day early.
Putz

[Irby]

We used to fly the same day going out of San Juan because of the late night departure. We'd take an early flight and arrive late morning with plenty of spare time (we thought). One year there was heavy snow and all flights were cancelled. We missed the ship and the airlines couldn't get us to the ship in another port for three days. Since then we always go at least the day before, sometimes a couple of days before and stay at a resort for a couple of days first.

[nannyny]

I usually leave the day before so I'm not stressed out. I truly enjoy leaving out of NYC, 20 min. drive and I'm at the pier. I sure am looking forward to having the Infinity to myself this Sept.

[donnaw]

Doesn't always work but we definitely try for at least 1 day early during the winter! Something about Midwest winters and flying out of Chicago or Milwaukee that can make you totally crazy. Not only do we fly in a day early but we try to get an early flight then actually stay in a hotel the night before and take advantage of the free parking and shuttle service. Doing that for the Horizon paid for the hotel and then some! Even without the savings we are 40 miles from ORD and MKE so makes sense to get closer just in case!

[tuggers]

if you are online could you email me @ [email]tuggers1@mchsi.com[/email]

Gail

[catmand]

We cruise out of our home port, San Francisco. BUT, if we did fly it would be a least a day early. If we went on the day of embarkment I wouldn't have any finger nails left. I was a mess just driving over the Bay Bridge last March. We had 5 hours till sail-a-way and I could SEE the ship.

[zrmolly]

2 days before...;)

[SteveS]

If you are cruising Europe you wouldn't want to miss spending a few days in Barcelona, London, Rome, etc.

[safein]

We always go down at least one to two days before. We're lucky that my husband has family in FLL so we stay with them. And after what happened when we sailed on the Summit, going down early is a MUST!

We flew down on Saturday with a sailing on Monday. The day we were scheduled to sail was the day that Flight587 crashed after taking off from JFK. We would have lost a day since everything closed down in NYC thatday (This was in Nov 2001) Ever since then, we make it a point to go to our sailing port early!

Anita

[scapel]

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

[fendbass]

Generally speaking, we make it a rule to fly/drive in a day early. The exception was in Hawaii, when we flew in 3 days early. Got to do some sightseeing, you know, plus, my internal clock was a mess for about 36 hours

[babylene]

Normally, we fly in a day early because of fear of being stranded and missing the boat!

Having said that, we are seriously considering using Celebrity air for our Northern European cruise next July. If we do, we'll arrive the day of. The port, Dover, is quite far and if we take cruise/air, we get transfers. I imagine it will be much smoother to get the transfers at the airport, than to fly in early, take a taxi to the bus terminal, and find the Celebrity bus. I heard that there were no signs to be seen. Of course, that doesn't mean there will be signs at the airport. Does anyone know?

[themommy]

We don't really have a choice as the cruise booking includes the flight for us beacause we fly from the UK to join the ship. The down side is that we are always so very tired when we finally get on board. Also I am never sure if its the same day or not, bearing in mind the time zones, it always feels like I have been awake forever before it gets dark.
This time we will stay overnight in a hotel in Jacksonville before the Zenith 21.11.04 cruise of Southern Caribbean.

[kelmac]

[b][size=4]At least one day before! The one time we tried a "same day flight" we had plane trouble in Dallas and almost missed the ship. Very stressful sitting on the plane watching the time slip away on your watch.:eek: Made the ship at 4:45 and they were shutting down everything. We missed the muster drill and the ship pushed away at 5:15. Never again![/size][/b]

[romy]

[font=Comic Sans MS][size=3][color=blue]Always fly 2 days before to enjoy the port city. I'm landlocked in Colorado and NEED a beach for a couple of days. Not to mention if there's any problem with the flight.[/color][/size][/font]

[font=Comic Sans MS][size=3][color=blue][b]This time (I don't know what just happened to my font) we'll be doing the transatlantic thing from Denver to London, so with jet lag, I almost wish we'd planned it 3 days prior.[/b][/color][/size][/font]
[b][font=Comic Sans MS][size=3][color=#0000ff][/color][/size][/font][/b]
[b][font=Comic Sans MS][size=3][color=#0000ff]Happy Sailing!![/color][/size][/font][/b]
[b][font=Comic Sans MS][size=3][color=#0000ff]Romy[/color][/size][/font][/b]

[barbgazz2]

Just out of curiousity flagger, are you flying in a day early for your cruise? or is it not in your budget?

[MISSYLOU]

[b][color=blue]We always fly in one or more days prior to the cruise. We also stay at an airport hotel the night before we fly out so that we can park and fly.[/color][/b]

[Shmobo]

When I cruise during winter when there are chances of snowstorm and bad weather..I always fly in at least a day earlier...For sure I don't want to miss the ship.

For summer months, I can get away with fly in the same day....

[RSteele]

Always the day before...in fact, I'm so paranoid about something going wrong and missing the ship that I'm actually thinking about going down the day before our next cruise...even though it's just a 5 hour drive :o What if the car broke down???? :(

[polodad]

In April our cruise was out of Ft. Lauderdale & we live in the San Francisco area. So we flew in a day ahead of time. This time we are on the Mercury on THIS Friday out of Vancouver so we can fly up the morning of. But it returns to our home port of San Francisco, neener, neener, neener.

[janjay]

We fly in the day before! Have too.

[Slinkiecat]

We have scheduled our upcoming cruises for times when we would be within driving distance, which means during our winter in Florida. The exception was when we left from Ohio to board in Barcelona, and we had to spend the night on a transatlantic flight, arriving in time to be bussed to the terminal and board. I would have liked to have a day in Barcelona, either before or after the cruise, but it wasn't to be. Hubby had to work the day before we left and the day after we returned.

slinkie