Worth the risk for flying in same day as cruise?

Sun Country has the best price for sailing into San Juan - but it would fly us in at 4pm. Cruise is set to depart at 830pm. Would you take the risk and fly in same day?

Sun Country has the best price for sailing into San Juan - but it would fly us in at 4pm. Cruise is set to depart at 830pm. Would you take the risk and fly in same day?

No, get to port a day early relax in your hotel stress free until you embark the next day.

Absolutely NOT!!

We always fly in 2 or 3 days early and in 2014, 3 days early and we still had to do a last minute cancellation as airports here on the east coast were closed for the better part of 4 days due to a major snow storm. The airline couldn't get us out until 3 days into the cruise and it would have cost of a bunch to get to a port.

Thank heavens for insurance.

What are your back up plans if the air plane has mechanical issues and can't fly on time? We have had that happen as well.

Sun Country has the best price for sailing into San Juan - but it would fly us in at 4pm. Cruise is set to depart at 830pm. Would you take the risk and fly in same day?

NO! Too many things can go wrong: mechanical issues, delayed departure for any number of reasons.

You must be on the ship two hours before scheduled departure.

Not enough leeway time for unexpected delays. Fly in the day before!

Sun Country has the best price for sailing into San Juan - but it would fly us in at 4pm. Cruise is set to depart at 830pm. Would you take the risk and fly in same day?

Flying within continental U.S. - maybe. Otherwise - no way. Certainly not 4 hours before you have to be on board.

Try to arrive a day early. I once had a 4-hour fog delay between Buffalo, NY and Boston. Fortunately I was coming in 2 days early. My 1-hour flight turned into a very long day.

If the departure time is 8:30 pm. then the cut off for check-in is 60-90 minutes earlier than that.

I would never do it. I don't care how much you are saving. It is just not worth missing the ship.

This would be a bad idea with any airline. It being Sun Country adds an additional level of risk: their limited fleet of just 21, mostly-aging, 737's makes it extremely unlikely that they could readily roll out a replacement aircraft in the event of mechanical issues. Add the fact that management is threatening closing down if pilots do not accept the latest offer in an on-going labor dispute which seems to be coming to a head. Given these circumstances, I would be disinclined to rely on them to get me from Minneapolis to Chicago even if I had a few days' leeway --- but 4 hours -- to San Juan?

We would absolutely never, ever do this, even if the flight was free. Seriously. WAY too much beyond your control can go wrong. We missed the cutoff for a flight by 5 minutes once... 5 MINUTES... it was the day before - had it been same day as the cruise, we would have missed the cruise.

Please don't do this.

Sun Country has the best price for sailing into San Juan - but it would fly us in at 4pm. Cruise is set to depart at 830pm. Would you take the risk and fly in same day?

oh hells no. that leaves less than 3 hours in case anything goes wrong.

No, no, no, no, no.

Or as spookwife said: "Oh, hells no."

Even with an extra letter, that's the best answer you're gonna get.

You want to know why? just check the Princess message board for a post titled "Yay Zero Days."

Jim

Kind of makes me think of a line from "Dirty Harry" which is "are you feeling lucky today?" The reality is that flying in that late on the day of a cruise is nutz! Lets think of it logically. You probably are required to check-in for your cruise no later then 7pm (most lines require this because of CBP regulations on final manafests). If you aircraft arrived on time it could be an hour until you are off the plane and retrieve your luggage. And then you need to grab a taxi and get to the port but you would probably get there by 5:30 which is fine. But lets assume your flight is delayed by 2 hours (not uncommon these days). You will probably be on the dock waving goodbye to your ship and finding out what arrangements you need to catch-up to the ship.

But the fact that you are asking the question means you have your doubts. Taking a cruise should be about fun, relaxation, etc. Do you think it will be fun worrying about getting to the ship on time? This will bug you until you are in San Juan and might make you a nervous wreck long before your cruise.

Hank

Daring for me would be a red-eye that arrived in SJU in the morning of the cruise. Arriving 4.5 hours before sailing? Too risky for me.

Sun Country has the best price for sailing into San Juan - but it would fly us in at 4pm. Cruise is set to depart at 830pm. Would you take the risk and fly in same day?

We don't fly in the day of the cruise, but lots of people do, and 99.9% of them make their cruises without any issue, BUT

You are asking for a disaster with this proposal. Based on your CC information I assume you are coming from MSP. That is a really long flight and it would not take very much of a delay for you to miss the ship.

If you are on time, by the time you get luggage and get to a cab it is going to be 5:00 p.m. That will get you to the ship shortly before 6:00 which is fine in and of itself, but any delay and you are going to be spending a couple of days in San Juan. Flight delays are not as common as they were a few years ago but they do happen and it won't take much for you to be out of luck.

The only time I have flown into SJU on day of cruise was on a flight from FLL arriving morning of...I preferred to spend our pre-cruise days in Fort Lauderdale....and going to do the same next May..an easy same day flight always making sure it's the first flight of the day.

NO! Certainly not in that time frame! If I could fly in first thing in the morning, with other, later flight options available, should something happen, AND if it's not winterweatherhurricanseason, maybe.

Unless, of course, you're an adrenaline junkie!

I have, of necessity, taken a non-stop the day of, but we flew first thing in the AM and the ship wasn't scheduled to depart until later at night.

No, no, no, no, no.

 

 

 

Or as spookwife said: "Oh, hells no."

 

 

 

Even with an extra letter, that's the best answer you're gonna get.

 

 

 

You want to know why? just check the Princess message board for a post titled "Yay Zero Days."

 

 

 

Jim

Also on the Princess Board is My Most Excellent Adventure.

Would I take the risk? Absolutely, positively NOT!

The Cruise Critic boards are filled with stories of missed cruises (and scary near misses) from people who somehow thought the odds were in their favor. For me, saving a few bucks is not worth the anxiety of getting from point A to point B, especially in the event of weather, mechanical or logistical delays. I try to fly in at least one day before the cruise. That way, I have a decent amount of pad built into my travel plans (in case of any problems) and I get to board the ship the next day relaxed and refreshed, not worried and rushed.

If you insist on doing a same day flight, take the very first plane out and pray it gets there on time.

Not on your life. The one & only time we flew in on "day of" was a land trip in San Antonio that did not leave San Antonio. We thought this would be fine, guess what: our flight from Pgh had mechanical issues and was late leaving. We had already missed our connection but it was further delayed due to weather. We did not get to San Antonio until the next morning. Luckily we were able to catch up with the group since the 1st day was at the Alamo. Had it been a cruise we would have been scrambling to meet up with the ship.

We often fly in 2 days early.

No. We had 2 times where mechanical issues delayed us over 4 hours. The first was a direct flight from MI to FL. We ended up making an emergency landing in TN and were on the ground for 5 hours while they fixed our plane. The second time was last month. Again a direct flight from MI to FL. Our plane was 4 hours late arriving in DTW due to mechanical issues in PA. Both times were for cruises (that would be 2 out of our 13 cruises.) Both times in the spring/summer. Both times we were flying in the day before. I would never fly in for a cruise on the same day.

Sun Country has the best price for sailing into San Juan - but it would fly us in at 4pm. Cruise is set to depart at 830pm. Would you take the risk and fly in same day?

That timing would be cutting it way too close for us. We'd fly in the day before. ;)

LuLu

Sun Country has the best price for sailing into San Juan - but it would fly us in at 4pm. Cruise is set to depart at 830pm. Would you take the risk and fly in same day?

I'm assuming that the cost of the flight would be similar if not the same for the day before. If that is the case, book the same flight a day early and you should be in good shape. You would have at least 24 hours to find other arrangements if your flight is cancelled. And even if a delay caused you to arrive many hours late, you would still be there well before you need to board the ship.

I would never do it. I don't care how much you are saving. It is just not worth missing the ship.

Exactly. There are so many things that can go wrong with a flight or with weather conditions. Maybe your destination airport is fogged in or there's an earthquake or....

The only times we don't go in a day ahead is when we're leaving from the Port of L.A., but we're an one hour drive away, and even then we try to be on the road or picked up by 10am at the latest. We've even talked about staying by the port even though it's a short drive. Else, it's get to the emarkation city, stay in a hotel, have a nice dinner and be able to relax.

We love cruising too much to risk not getting to the ship on time and not getting the full cruise.

Going to my last cruise I was supposed to leave at 9:45, change planes in Atlanta, and arrive in FLL at 1:55pm. Fog kept us in Richmond until a little after 2pm and just made a flight out of Atlanta and arrived (minus one suitcase) in FLL just after 6. Would have missed a same day cruise.

The moral of my story is go the day before - you just never know what might go wrong.

I don't think I'd book a flight on Sun County to a destination that I really had to get to. The airline and pilots have been in contract negotiations for a while, and the airline has said there will be no more offers. In addition, the airline has said if the pilots strike they will shut down operations. It doesn't appear that the pilots are planning a strike anytime soon, but I wouldn't want that worry hanging over my cruise plans. And if you don't think any of that can happen, just ask the people who had flights booked on Eastern Airlines back in the late 80's or early 90's when they shut down.