How early do you fly in? One day? Two?

[LeslieSJ]

We'll be cruising out of Ft. Lauderdale next February. I'm planning on flying in from Philadelphia one day early. But recently I've been reading about people missing cruises due to weather problems delaying their flights and now I'm wondering if one day is enough.

 

I'd rather not spend the extra money on the hotel (not cheap there that time of year) & hanging out in Ft. Laud. for the extra day if I don't have to -- rather save it for the cruise. But if there is snow or ice at home I don't know if one day be enough for the airport to recover. Is it better to play it even safer by giving one more day of buffer? Any advice would be appreciated.

[MEcruzr]

Coming from Maine in the winter I know exactly what you're dealing with! We fly out one day in advance. Time/$ doesn't allow for 2 days. So far, we've made it just fine. Which cruise are you doing in Feb? I'm on Millie leaving FLL on the 17th.

 

MECruzr

[bububr]

So I'm used to fast weather changes, delays, and cancellations.

 

On a typical 7 - 12 night cruise out of FLL, TPA, LAX, SAN, or SEA...we fly in the DAY before and get an inexpensive hotel.

 

Sometimes on a 7 nighter or depending on our work schedule, we fly in the NIGHT before and just crash in a cheap hotel.

 

On a two or three nighter we sometimes even fly in on that morning depending on the season.

 

We look at it as Cost, and time vs. length of cruise.

 

But because we do live in Chicago we also always get the cruise insurance.

 

Next year for our Med. cruise we are flying in 3 days early to check out Rome and spending a day after in Munich. Granted the hotels aren't cheap, but who knows what our situation might be in a year or two and if we'll be able to get back.

 

So to answer your question: for general purposes, the day before is a good idea.

 

Dave:eek:

[gracecarmo]

We always include in our budget for a winter cruise at least 2 days, and possibly 3 days. We consider it part of the cruise.

Next Jan/Feb on our B2B we have a 3 night stay at Extended Stay America on 17th st. We will have fun in the sun, and a good winter getaway from Kansas weather which can be icy/snow...

We are on the Connie.

[dutchess43]

Usually the first flight out the day before.

[Dick in Falls Church]

The day before from in the US. For Europe, we usually plan on spending at least 3 days in the departure area. Allows for a bit of time to readjust the body clock, see some new things, and not getting upset over missed travel connections.

[cruisergal 1]

We usually fly in the day before, especially if we've been in that departure port before. In March we will be leaving from San Juan, and are going 2 days before, because we want to do some touring there, as we've only spent a few hours there at a time previously.

[judyfssw]

We usually fly in at least one day before a cruise. Now, having said that, on our next two cruises, we're flying in two days befiore we cruise. The reason, like Grace and Tom, we plan to relax and will add it onto our cruise experience. I'm especially concerned about our Caribbean cruise in January out of Michigan. Therefore, we're definitely flying out 2 days in advance. And, if Ft. Lauderdale is cool, who cares as we'll be really close to the ship.

OP, do you have reward points from a hotel chain? It sure is nice to have free hotel stays.

[PatC]

Ida

When in March are you sailing and are you sailing Summit? We're on the 3/22 cruise. I know, holiday, Easter, but we're going with the kids and grandkids and school means they can only sail on holidays! We usually do 10+ nights.

 

Having sailed this past March from San Juan I can tell you a day before is still the best. We sailed the week of the ice storms in the northeast and the delays were horrible. New York, Boston, Philly and points north closed their airports the day of the cruise - people missed the ship and caught up for days after.

 

We're staying at the Embassy Suites in San Juan and then plan on spending 2 nights after at the Holiday Inn on Tartak Street. It may make the vacation seem a little longer than 7 days!

 

Pat C

[spearmint]

For all of our previous cruises (4) we flew in to Fort Lauderdale on the same day as the cruise departed, and had no problems. :rolleyes:

 

That being said, last year when we drove to Florida, (not to catach a cruise) we got caught in Pennsylvania not during, but the next night after a snowstorm! Transport traffic on the poorly cleared I-81 soon turned out to be a total nightmare for all concerned and we were forced off the highway to spend the night in a total fleabag motel in Hazelton. :eek: This exerience made us think carefully and we realized that we were lucky not to have experienced a storm on any of our previous flight days to catch a cruise ship.

 

As a result, we will be arriving the day before for our November cruise this year, and will do the same from now on. :)

 

P.S. By the way, our chain hotel is only $83 US, which is not bad these days.

 

P.P.S. You should be safe with one day 's grace. If your flight is early, and you miss it one day, you should be able to get the the cruise in time, the next day. Hope this helps.

[world~citizen]

I love this question.

 

I would have said the day before until one day we flew into Istanbul to pick-up a cruise, and we were met by a nice young lady from Lufthansa at the baggage carousel who told us our bags were still in Frankfurt.

 

Yipes!

 

Well the good news was the bags were not LOST as the airlines use that term, they were only mishandled and we would be getting them at about midnight. We did get our bags at midnight so off we were on our cruise WITH our bags, but what would have happened if were transferring from the plane to the ship.

 

Apparently, most mishandled baggage is recovered and reunited with their owners within 24 hours. Apparently also, each day after that is increasingly bad news. Airlines can forward your luggage to your ships next port of call but that is a pretty hit and miss thing.

 

I always suggest people pick a cruise that begins at a very interesting port - one that they wouldn't mind exploring for a couple of days. Venice come to mind, but you get the idea. There is a lot to do in Miami and most US and Canadian ports, and Europe is better and so on.

 

This will also allow the airlines to reunite you with your baggage should it be mishandled - which research suggests is happening more an more and more.

 

An ounce of prevention sort of thing. :)

[geoherb]

We fly in one day ahead, usually aiming to take a late morning or early afternoon flight. The last time we flew for a Celebrity cruise, a winter storm in the Northeast caused flight delays all around the country. Our plane was stuck in New Hampshire, and we were delayed by five hours.

 

Our luggage did not make the connection in Orlando, but the airline delivered it to our hotel during the night. I was glad we had flown down the day early. A lot of people missed that cruise because of the storm. Their flights were not until the day of the cruise.

 

And last year, we met a family on our Princess cruise whose luggage had not made it. They had flown to Fort Lauderdale from Texas but had had airline problems. They said they barely made it to the ship before it sailed. Their luggage caught up with them in St. Thomas--on the third day of our cruise.

[TeaBag]

Always a day early for US sailings and more than that for Europe or other far away destinations. It's just so much better to be relaxed about making the cruise in time.

[Hflors]

Us usually go one day before, but for our cruise we did this past march we went two days early and enjoyed San Juan, this coming feb we are going 3 dsys early and spending the weekend in San Juan. Besides the airfare was sooo much better on friday than any other day.

[Conrycol]

We're from New England and we always fly in the day of the cruise. I understand what you're saying about the flights and winter weather. Lets say you booked a flight the day before the cruise and a snowstorm hits that day and your flight is cancelled, you're not automatically on the flight the next day. With the way the airlines are filling up their flights the passengers who are already booked on that flight will fly before you. We went to Disney World last February and I was originally going to fly in a day early with my family. That's when an ice storm hit last year. If I had booked a day early my flight would have been cancelled and I wouldn't have been able to get to Orlando until 4 days later. It's a crap shoot with the weather, especially now that the airlines are flying to near capacity.

[LeslieSJ]

Sounds like the majority vote is one day ahead. I'll probably do that. Maybe check the airfare first and see if flying two days early would be substantially cheaper before I decide. Ft. Laud. is not a bad place to spend an extra day. :)

 

I'm amazed that misrouted luggage could catch up to people mid-cruise -- that seems like a logistical nightmare that airlines would never even attempt to work through.

[jerseygirl3]

We always flew in 2 days early for a winter cruise (coming from the Northeast) and 1 day early other times of the year.

 

Now that the kids are all grown and aren't tagging along with us (at least not during our winter cruise), we've solved this problem. We shack up with my parents in Marco Island for a week before we cruise and then take the Cruise Connection bus over to the East Coast for the cruise. Couldn't do this before with 4 kids tagging along, as my parents place isn't large enough.

 

Problem solved!!!

[PatC]

Hi Jerseygirl

 

Remember me! You missed our cruise when your hubby became ill? Anyway, great to hear from you.

 

Any more trips planned? We're down your way at least once a month. Going down tomorrow, Clay Street right off 9.

 

Hope things are well with your gang.

 

Pat C (another Jersey Girl)

[leoandhugh]

We always go at least one day ahead of sailing, unless the ship is sailing from here in San Diego or LA. If the cruise is leaving from some port city that we have not been to in a long time - we do a lot of European and transAtlantic back2backs, we may go as much as 4-5days before and see the port city and its surroundings. That is what we did last year when the cruise started in Istanbul. And at the end of the cruise in Miami, we spent a week visiting friends in the area. Once we have to fly somewhere to begin a cruise, we try to take advantage of the custom air we use and stay a few days.:)

[jerseygirl3]

Hi Jerseygirl

 

Remember me! You missed our cruise when your hubby became ill? Anyway, great to hear from you.

 

Any more trips planned? We're down your way at least once a month. Going down tomorrow, Clay Street right off 9.

 

Hope things are well with your gang.

 

Pat C (another Jersey Girl)

 

Pat, it's so nice to hear from you. We're doing well. Hubby, thank God, has recovered and just has little issues we have to deal with, but thankfully we have a great hospital in UPenn.

 

We'll be heading down to Marco Island in three weeks for a week's vacation, and then the following week we're boarding the Freedom of the Seas. Then we've got the Connie 10 day in Feb. 2008, the Carnival Freedom (the kids wanted this one) April, 2008, and the Connie Repositioning out of Bayonne Oct. 2008. I believe the Connie cruise was the one we had to cancel when Bob got sick, so we're keeping our fingers crossed that we make it this time!

 

Enjoy your trip down to the Jersey shore. The weather has been nearly perfect all summer long.

 

Jo-Ann

[PatC]

Hi Jo-Ann

 

You sound awfully busy! We have 3/22 on Summit (Easter Week) because the grandson has school break. It's only a 7 day trip and we've done it before but it's been a while since we sailed with the whole family. We have aft cabins so we plan on spending lots of time chilling.

 

We've booked Connie for 3/09 - 11 day again, done this before, but our cruise buddies are taking this one so we thought we'd see about doing it also. We can still change.

 

We're planning on moving in the next year to Millville - 55+. Getting the house in shape to sell, although with the market the way it is who knows. Hubby retires in January and I'm really looking forward to that.

 

Keep in touch

 

Pat

[Kathie44]

We didn't fly in early as newbies, but now we do.

1/02 Explorer E. Carib. out of MI. Ist cruise-- we flew in the day of and, due to delays and missed connections, boarded the ship without our luggage. :eek: Got it the next day at Nassau, our first port.

1/03 Explorer W. Carib. Flew into Miami day of, no problems.

8/03 Summit Alaska cruise/tour--flew into Anchorage the night before the land tour started w/Celebrity arrangements.

2/04 Adventure S. Carib.--flew in the day before to SJ. Flight delays made us 6 hrs late, but we had our luggage and it wasn't snowing :D

2/05 Galaxy Panama Canal (Galveston)--Direct flight to Hueston, day of--no problems.

6/06 Jewel Brit. Isles/Nor. Fjords (Harwich)--flew into London 3 days early for sightseeing. RCCL arrangements.

1/07 Mercury Mexican Riviera--flew in 1 day early to San Diego

1/08 Mercury Aust/NZ Flying in a day early to Sydney (ship leaves day after boarding) and staying 2 extra days in Aukland. Celebrity arrangements.

Anymore with all the delays and red tape travelers have to go through, we probably would never again fly in the day of a cruise.