A Stupid Question I am sure...

[mjl1960]

Do all you people that have so many cruises listed live near ports or what? I know if I lived near a port, this would be a great thing to consider every time vacation came up, you really can't beat the price for what you get.

 

But being from the midwest, the airfare is the thing that makes this prohibitive. I guess I am jealous in a way, and wish that I would have discovered cruising earlier in life.

[*Mach*]

Do all you people that have so many cruises listed live near ports or what? I know if I lived near a port, this would be a great thing to consider every time vacation came up, you really can't beat the price for what you get.

 

But being from the midwest, the airfare is the thing that makes this prohibitive. I guess I am jealous in a way, and wish that I would have discovered cruising earlier in life.

 

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic!! First... there are NO stupid questions... well almost no stupid questions...

 

I'm sure that many of us do live close to a port. I live about 250 miles from Galveston so it's not a bad drive for me but I still travel to Florida to cruise...

[Grits53]

We live 5 hours from both New Orleans and Galveston, which is the port we've cruised out of most. So this is a "do-able" distance for us to drive. However, we have driven 12 hours to sail out of Port Canaveral, and we're flying to Ft. Lauderdale to board the Miracle in Oct. But in answer to your question, no, I wouldn't have that many cruises under my belt if I had to travel long distances to the port each time. If I lived closer, I'd probably cruise even more! :o

[DarthGrady]

Greetings from Sunny Florida! :D

 

We have 5 cruise ports: Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Port Canaveral, Tampa, and Jacksonville. You will see Floridians well represented on these boards, as most folks can drive to any one of ports. Plus, for the folks in the Panhandle, Mobile is only a state line away.

 

Bonus: We don't have a state income tax, we don't have snow, and we have Disney! Travel agents and realtors are standing by!:cool:

[jayscore]

Where in the midwest are you? I know round trip from Minneapolis is steep. I recently booked air for our 4-09 cruise, and it was not a great price. Today I checked and it's gone up at least $200 per person. Don't this just suck?:mad:

[p2lockhart]

Do all you people that have so many cruises listed live near ports or what? I know if I lived near a port, this would be a great thing to consider every time vacation came up, you really can't beat the price for what you get.

 

But being from the midwest, the airfare is the thing that makes this prohibitive. I guess I am jealous in a way, and wish that I would have discovered cruising earlier in life.

 

We live about 3 hours from Galveston and all but 2 of my cruises have been out of Galveston. One cruise was out of Honolulu and the other was on the Conquest during her inaugural year in the spring and we had to depart from Gulfport, MS. It is nice not to have to fly. But I may start doing more of it since I have seen about all the Western Caribbean has to offer and would like to try some different ships. I am envious of those who live within driving distance of the Florida ports.

[mjl1960]

Where in the midwest are you? I know round trip from Minneapolis is steep. I recently booked air for our 4-09 cruise, and it was not a great price. Today I checked and it's gone up at least $200 per person. Don't this just suck?:mad:

 

 

We are from Lincoln, Nebraska - will be flying out of Omaha. We did the smart thing, knowing what fuel prices were doing to the airlines, we paid to let Carnival worry about the flights and locked in the price over a year in advance. We may still get hit with a surcharge for the luggage the way things are going, but at least we know how much the flight will be at this point.

[Pumpkin_va]

I live in Virginia and this will be my first cruise in May 09 im over 2 hrs away from Norfolk Va which the cruise is sailing out of, and the other port is in Baltimore Md which is also 2 hrs away im right in the middle of both its so kewl since i dont fly ( rather i never have and most likely dont want too) lol

[Essiesmom]

I live two hours from Jacksonville, five from Port Canaveral...So I can drive to the short cruises. But the long ones require flights, and my sister flies from up north to join me. EM

[mjl1960]

Gee...if we like this as much as we think we are going to, we may have to move to southern california or florida just so we can do it more often...naw, I would miss my Nebraska football games! :D

[Attack Dog]

It cost me almost as much to fly to a cruise port as the actual cruise. I usually cruise during the off seasons when the cruise fairs are the cheapest. The prices almost double during the summer and spring break. My other non-cruise trips are usually local and limited to 2 or 3 nights, or they will run b2b with a a 4 night cruise. (Even Las Vegas.)

[gail811]

We are in northern VA and drive to FL for our cruises. We split the cost of gas/parking with the other families that usually travel with us. We are looking forward to the Pride relocating to Baltimore! Did the Victory out of Newport News (before they finished the facility at Norfolk) and would love to see Carnival do more out of there.

I recently drove to FL alone to visit my family, and it cost me $300 in gas! (but still cheaper than airfare and car rental.)

[jenscruise]

Fortunately, we have two discount airlines that fly out of Indianapolis - Air Tran and Southwest. Some good deals can be found on those airlines. We snagged tickets to Orlando for $200/person direct, which was less than those major carriers were offering for indirect flights.

 

It's just part of cruising for those of us who don't live near a port. We just figure it into the vacation budget and go from there...

[Hurricane Girl]

We have cruised out of Port Canaveral and Miami. Port Canaveral is a 10 hour drive which is easy. Miami took us about 14. We've decided not to drive that one again! If we can't afford to fly we will just cruise out of PC, Jacksonville, Mobile, New Orleans, Tampa, or Charleston. All 10 hours or less (and we have the Great Smoky Mountains in our back yard).

[Purplehaze21]

My husband is a Husker Fan! We know the expense of flying to Nebraska and we choose to drive there mostly every year (Grand Island) Its to expensive to fly for us so we opt to drive (21 hours) With gas now, we skipped it this summer.

We live a 8-9 hour drive from Port Canaveral. We took our 1st cruise in Feb. and booked this upcoming one shortly after. You will be hooked.

[CARNIVALCRUISE3]

I live 30 minutes from the Port of Miami, an hour from Port Everglades, and 3 hours from Port Canaveral. I usually sail from the Port of Miami, but have sailed once from Port Canaveral and Port Everglades.

[G'ma]

I live in southern New Jersey; Philly is our closest airport - about 20 minute drive. So lucky to have Southwest and Air Tran flying from Philly to Florida.

 

Usually we fly Southwest into Ft. Lauderdale..and wait for the best price. If the cruise is leaving from Miami, we rent a car for about 35.00 and drive to our Miami hotel - turn the car in there. Southwest also flies into Tampa and Orlando from Philly so all bases are covered here.

 

I just consider the airfare to be part of the whole cruise package....like gratuities, port taxes, fuel surcharges and price of the hotel for the night before sailing.

 

I have driven twice. Once by choice...took a leisurely 3 day ride to Miami keeping to the secondary roads and enjoying the scenery. Another time, no choice....hurricane problems closed airports all over Florida - Amtrak not running either. So, I hopped in "L'il Skippy" (my '97 Sunfire) and drove. Was a hairy ride! Ran out of gas near Cocoa Beach..no electricity to pump gas. Spent the night in a dark, hot Best Western hotel room (with a coupla hundred others). Fortunately, Carnival had delayed the ship until 10:00PM - and electricity came on about 1:00PM so was able to make the ship!

 

I do enjoy the drive but it's more economical to fly Southwest........

[jpg1747]

While I have lived in California and Maryland, I've never driven to a cruise. I've flown to every one of them. I'm looking forward to my first no fly cruise from Baltimore.

[krystalkruzer]

More greetings from sunny Florida.Port Canaveral is about 1 hour away.

DarthGrady,there is also Universal,Seaworld and Bush Gardens :)

[buddyjo143]

Back in 2006 we took our first cruise together and became hooked. Our last land vacation was that summer (up to the White Mountains of New Hampshire).

 

We have decided to put our vacation money toward cruise vacations and airfare for now. Next summer we will get to sail out of Boston to Bermuda and then New York to the Bahamas in Dec. That will save us a bit of money.

 

I do miss land though :rolleyes:. Have a list of places, still to see in this country.

[BND]

We're doing our fourth cruise in 4 years this fall. For FL we take the Auto Train. Last year we were in San Diego anyway so we just tacked a cruise on at the end of the trip. I see a lot of cruisers from all over the US who have taken many cruises. My parents have friends (retired) who cruise at least once per year and they live in VA and don't fly very often. They go out of Baltimore or Norfolk when they can. I love the fact that we'll be able to do Carnival out of both those locations year round. We're less than two hours from Baltimore and 3.5 hours from Norfolk. You will see plenty of posters here who live in the north east who cruise regularly out of FL. But when you actually get on a cruise, you will find at least 50% of cruisers on the ship seem to live in the state you're cruising from.

[Theresa522]

Do all you people that have so many cruises listed live near ports or what? I know if I lived near a port, this would be a great thing to consider every time vacation came up, you really can't beat the price for what you get.

 

But being from the midwest, the airfare is the thing that makes this prohibitive. I guess I am jealous in a way, and wish that I would have discovered cruising earlier in life.

 

All of my cruises are leaving from NY. We are only 25 minutes from the pier.

[Handsome58]

Maryland 5 minutes out side of dc.........I have been on 6 and wife 7.....we have flown to Florida for all of them........we leave in August.......booked airfare at start of the year....$245 rd trip on American...........we will fly to Miami day before .....we do that every year......we have Flown out of National in DC...and BWI near Baltimore....have Flown discount airlines Air Tran and Southwest out of BWI and American out of National...all have been non-stop.....and priced not too high........I hope that will stay the same because I am hooked on cruising......

[delta cruiser]

I work for an airline so airfare doesn't effect me. If we had to pay for airfare there is no way we would be able to cruise twice a year.

[queenanneitis]

We're in mid-Virginia and have mostly flown before now. However, with the airlines and airlines prices the way they are, we're re-working our cruises to driving points. I can be in Charleston, SC, Norfolk, VA or Baltimore in about 5 hours and I can be in NY or NJ in about 8 hours. If it's just DH and I then we could drive anywhere else we wanted to. Even though gas is high, it's much cheaper to drive than fly especially considering they keep canceling or changiing flights. Not worth the stress. This way we keep cruising without the extra costs of flights now.