We wont go straight home after our cruise!

After our first cruise we were transported to some shopping mall with a drive through some residential areas (which was boring) and then transported to the airport where we had to wait several hours before our flight. (we found flights to the UK from Miami tend to leave in the evening). It was a downer to end a holiday like that to say the least. And a 10 hours flight, 5 hours time difference and cold weather all in the same day. :eek:

I know some people go on a trip to the Everglades on their last day, but can you really enjoy it knowing you have to be at the airport at a certain time.

We now stay for at least a couple of days in a nice hotel after our cruise. We found it easier to "get back to real life", get ready for the long flight home and get over the "cruise blues".

Maybe some first time cruisers (especially from further away) might take all this into consideration when booking their first cruise.

:)

Nice idea but really depends on where they are from and how much time and money they have to take an extra few days away

I do always try the same. Also precruise so your relaxed when you hit the ship

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I suppose it also depends on where your cruise ends.

Our cruise last year ended in Dover, and as you can appreciate being from the UK, its not a good thing to stay there too long.

This year our cruise ends in LA, and as much as we would love to stay the new school year starts on the Monday (We are teachers) after we dock on the Saturday...ah well.

We found a great deal on Cruise Critic's sister Co. Jetsetter . Had a wonderful 5 day stay @ Cheeca lodge down in the Florida key's just south of Miami post cruise .:D

There is nothing worse than trying to "kill time" waiting for a late flight. Hawaiian flights work like that, too....most Eastbound are late night departures. It's awful.

This cruise, it's Saturday to Saturday. So we're flying in on Friday and out on Sunday instead of in on Friday/Saturday and out on Sunday.

It'll be nice to have some time to wind down and maybe that last cruise day will be a little less sad!

We do that quite often. I always make sure we have at least a day if not more pre/post cruise built into our time off. This way if I can't get a good deal on airfare we have time to drive to/from MI and if we do get a deal on airfare we build in a mini land vacation pre/post cruise.

depending on when you are flying home AC, AA & BA (maybe others) have mid day flights but they are not non stops so you are still 11 + hrs travelling

It is a trade off ..leave late evening or leave earlier & spend hours at the connecting airport

We found a great deal on Cruise Critic's sister Co. Jetsetter . Had a wonderful 5 day stay @ Cheeca lodge down in the Florida key's just south of Miami post cruise .:D

On my bucket list now for our next stay :cool: Thanks biker x

It's interesting to see what others do pre or post cruise.

Our next trip to Santiago, Chile we fly to Patagonia for 3 days pre cruise. Post cruise Fort Lauderdale for a couple of days.

Since we are golfers we are spoilt for choice in Florida but unfortunately my plan driving the "scenic route" back did not quite go to plan as there is no "scenic coastal route" which I thought it was when I looked at the map. Maybe this is more a European thing? Tons of scenic routes in Scotland, Italy, Germany, France.

Our trip in 2016 we will stay a couple of days in Singapore pre cruise and post cruise Hong Kong we will fly to Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand (only 3 hour flight :D) and stay there a few more days. Found an absolute gem of a villa there, Lana Thai Villa, which is very reasonable priced for what it is. :cool:

We either leave for the airport after the cruise ends or we will stay one or more days post cruise to tour the local area.

Keith

We have no choice but to stay over at least an extra day at the end of a cruise because our first flight is always early in the morning. Depending on the port, we sometimes stay over 2 or 3 days.

So far our cruises have all started in far flung places to us (Rome, Hawaii and next year Dubai) so we have always wanted a few days to explore first anyway. Last year our cruise from Hawaii ended in Sydney which we go to multiple times a year so we just flew home that day (only and hour domestic flight). So I think when we eventually do some local cruises we will fly in the day before and out the same day as departure as they are from cities we see all the time. But any international ones we will always add a few days, one so we can explore a new place and two so were aren't rushing around airports after a relaxing cruise :)

On our last two cruises, we added an extra day at the end of our cruise - we found that we didn't feel like cattle being herded off the ship onto waiting buses to be once again herded into the airports with throngs of other cruisers from different ships and lines. We now take a taxi to a hotel where they hold our luggage until check-in (or actually let us into the room early in the morning), and spend the day relaxing, wandering around, and enjoying a last day of vacation. The next morning we make our way to the airport where we don't have the huge lines like the previous day would have.

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

Something else to consider is a hotel day room....we did this on a trip to st john in the usv i....had a flight out of st thomas after 5 pm....packed up and left the villa early and spent the day at a nice hotel across from the airport....grandson spent the day in the pool and we were relaxed and ready to go...worked better for us than leaving mid-day with no place to put our bags and too early to check in.....