Poll: Fly in a day before or same day as ship departs?

[swiddowson]

Dont worry with it - if you take your time booking.... study whats available to you our there, no one in the contential 50 should have to fly in a day early - look for direct flights, make purchase with reputable well established lines that dont typicaly have delays - and if you have to change planes avoid doing so mid day at a major hub - instead fly very early with a direct flight or go though a minor hub....

[Crowsie]

We always fly in the day of.

Our cruises tend to be long in duration and there's no way we can squeeze even one more day away from the kids and work just to get there a day early.

However...we ALWAYS buy travel insurance that covers the air portion of our trip.
Also...living in Minneapolis...we can go just about anywhere domestically without having to change planes...so missing a connection usually isn't an issue for us.

[CRB#33]

Definitely a day early. Like I said on the other thread, my luggage did not make it onto the plane with us for our Disney cruise, and was not delivered to our hotel until 8:00 p.m. If it was the same day, our ship would have been well out into the Atlantic at that time.

[Flintstone]

Sunluva....Wasn't that show amazing!!! I would be surprised if Southwest Airlines continues in business after this show. Whereas it does show a lot of the "crap" they take from passengers.....I think they come out looking worse with their "overbooking" policy!! I can only image how "bullistic" I would go if they denied me boarding for a "same-day" cruise after I booked and paid months in advance!!!!

[jdrblue]

We fly in a day early and at least 2 days early if the cruise departure port is not in North America. Our first cruise was almost 20 years ago and our TA assured us that same day would be no problem. We were connecting to Miami through DFW. What is normally a one hour flight to DFW took seven hours. We landed to refuel twice. DFW was closed due to severe thunder storms. Our cruise ship departed Miami shortly after we landed in Dallas. The airline provided a hotel that night in Dallas and then flew us to San Juan. I paid for the hotel in San Juan. Our 7 day cruise became a 5 day cruise. We did enjoy the extra day in San Juan. About six other families boarded the ship in San Juan due to the DFW weather problems. The cruise ship arrived about five hours late due to heavy seas so we sat on our luggage at the dock not knowing when to expect the ship. Now we always go early.

[cruiserforlife]

definitely a day early!!!

[Jane110]

We fly in 2-3 days prior to our cruise so that we can enjoy the city we're starting out from.

Our most recent cruise, last month, started in Copenhagen and we flew in 2 days early.

Our next cruise, in February, starts in Buenos Aires and we'll fly in 3 days prior to boarding.

[jhannah]

We have flown in on the day of embarkation only once. I felt pretty comfortable getting into FLL because airline schedules left us with a couple of alternatives should our original flight be delayed/cancelled. However, I had some trepidation over doing that. Flying in early is the rule for me, especially when flying to sail from a foreign port. It just isn't worth the stress of sweating out connections to get across the pond.

[gopher's girl]

East coast to east coast = fly same day.

[jodster]

Okay, now you have my scared. This is our first cruise on the Caribbean Princess and we are flying out the same day of the cruise. We have a non-stop flight from leaving Minneapolis at 7am and arriving in Fort Lauderdale around 11:30am. Hopefully we will be fine. We did purchase travel insurance just in case.

[StephenJohnson]

We almost always get to the departure port (or nearby) at least the day before the cruise. I want a day to decompress at minimum

99% of the time you're fine if you don't, but who wants to deal with that rogue 1%?

[saltysam]

For us,(Wife and I) it's a no brainer. We fly stand-by, since my son works for a major airlines, and flying in early is a must. You never know until the last moment if you have a seat on the plane. We will fly in as many as six flights ahead of the time embarkation starts, irrelavent of what time or day this turns out to be.

[skarletohara]

have gone on 5 cruises, flown in the same day on 4 of them with no
problems, and that's from San francisco to San Juan, S.F. to Miami,
Oakland to Vancouver, B.C., Oakland to LAX (1 hr flight)

Last year we did fly in a day before to Ft. Lauderdale

For our upcoming cruise we're flying in the same day (once again, Oakland
to LAX 1 hr. flight on Southwest, and I picked an early flight at 9 a.m.
that way they have a flight every hour on the hour to LAX in case we're not able to fly at 9, perhaps at 10, 11 or 12:00.

The last same day flight with them we left at 11:00, landed at 12:15 and
boarded 2 hours before sailing.

We also purchased flight insurance this time.

[seagoer]

We always fly in at least two days before, there are usually 4 or 6 in our party with two of us across the country from the others. That way if our flights are cancelled or delayed we still have a day to get there. As someone else said, after watching "Airline " on A& E your asking for trouble if you don't. :) We rent a car, take a dry run to the port to get our bearings and find something to do the day before.

[Cathys Cruising]

We've usually gone the day before even when driving only a couple of hours to the port. Next trip we'll be there 2 days prior and one post. It's more relaxed that way and makes the vacation countdown shorter. ;)

[bx47]

If at all possible I suggest traveling the day before and avoid the stress and unforeseen delays. Sometime you may even get a better airfare which covers the cost of the additional nights stay.

[zuggie]

Always the day before. You pay a lot of money just getting to the port, and usually the port is an interesting destination in itself - why not spend an extra day before to enjoy it!

[HighRoller]

Once I did fly in on the sameday and this was last year into Auckland after 36 hours of flying...never again!....I had to work until the day of our flight which was on a Friday evening at 7PM only to get into Auckland on Monday morning at 11:30am and then take a taxi to the ship (Star Princess) at the Hilton Hotel lobby for embarkation which took 2.5 hours...was the day from hell!....The only time and the last time I will ever fly in sameday! I usually fly in a day or two before.

[beachlovergirl]

Fly in early the day before so we get to enjoy the day there and we stay over at least one night after the cruise.

[Cruisin' George]

Our first cruise this summer, we flew in the day before. Good thing because our first flight out was cancelled. It would have caused us to miss the ship.

[ScubaJim]

We flew in the same day, but we had to get to the Mobile airport at 5am. Flew to Memphis as there are no direct flights to Florida and then on to Miami where a rep from Princess Cruise met us and had us board a shuttle bus to Ft Lauderdale and Port EverGlades. We got about the ship at 12:30 and went to the Horizion Court for our first meal in 9 hours!
That was the first time. The next cruise we drove to Ft Lauderdale and did it in 2 days.

[Barry H]

We always fly in the day before. We have met too many people who missed the ship through airline delays (even those who booked through the cruise line). The other advantage is that we are well rested on departure day and get on the ship early. Getting up at 3am to catch an early flight out of the Toronto airport is no fun. You are totally zonked after dinner and it takes a day or two of the cruise to recover.

[zimmerjulie]

Before!

On my first cruise, the air was booked by the cruise line from Portland, Oregon to Miami, Fl ON THE SAME DAY AS THE CRUISE. That cured me of ever trying to do that again:D .

Even on our most recent cruise, when we had a 2.5 hour drive to the port, we still arrived a day early. Can't beat a stress-free embarkation day. It gives you another half day of enjoyment on the ship, as opposed to spending it exhausted from flying/making connections, going to baggage claim, getting taxis, yuck. The extra cost is well worth the extra hours of cruise enjoyment, for me.

[NitaBcruising]

[quote name='zimmerjulie']Before!

On my first cruise, the air was booked by the cruise line from Portland, Oregon to Miami, Fl ON THE SAME DAY AS THE CRUISE. That cured me of ever trying to do that again:D .

Even on our most recent cruise, when we had a 2.5 hour drive to the port, we still arrived a day early. Can't beat a stress-free embarkation day. It gives you another half day of enjoyment on the ship, as opposed to spending it exhausted from flying/making connections, going to baggage claim, getting taxis, yuck. The extra cost is well worth the extra hours of cruise enjoyment, for me.[/QUOTE]
[b][size=3][color=indigo]Hi Julie![/color][/size][/b]
[b][size=3][color=#4b0082]Are you doing a Princess next??? I should email to visit, I guess! :D [/color][/size][/b]

[srphnx]

[b][color=black]I repeat, day before. We are flying out on Saturday Sept 4th for our Sept 5th cruise.[/color][/b]