Advice please. Will we make it? Flight arriving 11:35am day of Royal Caribbean cruise

Consumers need to be their own advocates when it comes to purchasing through travel agents. I would never book with one without knowing what their personal experience is with the product they are recommending. I don't mean that they have to have taken the exact trip, but have they actually flown into the airport they are suggesting? Have they sailed on any ship in the line they are recommending? Have they sailed out of the port they are recommending, etc. What personal insights can they offer. If they have none, they haven't learned anything and I'd be out the door. An inexperienced TA can create havoc and cost you a lot of money.

Remember you have to be on the ship earlier.

 

In general it is 90 minutes before the cruise embarks and some cruise lines require 2 hours.

 

The problem when people say no problem if the flight is on time there is great risk it won't be on time.

 

I would see if you can change the flight.

 

Keith

And yet, every week, almost every ship has people arriving and boarding right up until they pull the gangway and say that's it. Sailed on the Oasis 2 weeks ago and we didn't depart until shortly after 5 (430 is scheduled departure) as we were waiting for late arriving passengers making their way in late from the northeast storm.

OP, it looks like you are reading everyone's response to your post. Would you kindly let us know what you decide to do. Too often on these boards we never hear the final decision.

Thank-you to all who have replied.

Some due diligence on m behalf before booking might have saved me some worry/problems/money, but i went with what the TA said that things will be fine.

Yes the TA explained that the flight would provide enough time to get on-board and yes it is an Air Transat flight/cruise package. i will have to look into their policy if delayed or if there are any provisions.

I will check into a flight change and how much that will cost, but if it's too expensive or not feasible then of course I will pray that the flight

arrives without delay and will hightail it to the port.As advised, i will take a taxi and not the shuttle.

Thanks.

Cameron

This post made be want to look at flight I had book from LA to Vancouver the morning of our cruise in September.

This is something I have not done before and was already a bit nervous but it was a very early flight that got us there 6 hours beforehand.

After logging onto the airlines website I could not view the flight details and was being asked to contact customer service :confused:

Now we live in Australia so this was costly, turns out that the flight I had booked was rescheduled for 4 hours later meaning only landing about 2 hours before. I become very Worried about clearing customs and getting to the port on time and if the flight was even just a little late we would miss the ship :eek:

The customer service lady was amazing and transferred us to a flight the night before, a very latr one so we could spend as much time as possiable with our friends in LA (the whole reason for the LA part of our trip) and was apologetic that we would land at midnight. In the end I am much happier with a little less sleep the night before than a nail biting flight the morning of the cruise.

So I guess thanks for your thread as it made me think about our flights. :D

This post made be want to look at flight I had book from LA to Vancouver the morning of our cruise in September.

 

This is something I have not done before and was already a bit nervous but it was a very early flight that got us there 6 hours beforehand.

 

After logging onto the airlines website I could not view the flight details and was being asked to contact customer service :confused:

 

Now we live in Australia so this was costly, turns out that the flight I had booked was rescheduled for 4 hours later meaning only landing about 2 hours before. I become very Worried about clearing customs and getting to the port on time and if the flight was even just a little late we would miss the ship :eek:

 

The customer service lady was amazing and transferred us to a flight the night before, a very latr one so we could spend as much time as possiable with our friends in LA (the whole reason for the LA part of our trip) and was apologetic that we would land at midnight. In the end I am much happier with a little less sleep the night before than a nail biting flight the morning of the cruise.

 

So I guess thanks for your thread as it made me think about our flights. :D

This is the beautiful part of Cruise Critic!:)

The one problem you may have to deal with is if you have to go through Customs in Ft. Lauderdale or if you are able to do it in Toronto. If you have to go through Customs that will delay you some what.

tigercat

Ditto everyone else. Even as experienced cruisers, I will NOT plan on travelling to the ship the day of unless I live within about 2 hours of the port. Even for Houston (5 hours from home), we will drive down the day before and stay at a hotel. For Florida, which we will also fly to for our Sky cruise, I would NEVER contemplate going the day of.

Your agent did not do you any favours. Is it possible to switch to a flight one day earlier and spend the night in Fort Lauderdale?

As everyone has said, no problem IF you arrive on time.

At least you are going direct from TO to FLL. Quick cab ride to Pier from Airport.

Last time we flew direct TO to FLL we were delayed 3 1/2 hours (left TO on time however couldn't land at FLL because POTUS on Air Force One was departing so we had to circle, then Air Force One kicked up so much gravel they had to close the runway to clean it, then we needed more fuel, went to Tampa to get fuel, our plane was not allowed to get fuel until plane was cleared and that required an Immigration Officer however they had all gone home as Tampa wasn't expecting any more international flights that evening.

Finally they brought someone in to clear the plane, we got our fuel and finally landed in FLL.

We still laugh about it but then we were not trying to board a cruise ship.

As I saw the name Air Transat, which is a charter flight operator, I suppose you booked through a Travel Agent for an air+cruise package offered by the tour operator arm of the airline. Oasis departs on a Saturday. The Saturday-to-Saturday Air Transat package is pretty much fixed, although it looks like they do have one YYZ-FLL flight leaving on most Friday's in April, so you may want to check with your TA if that can be changed as it is still part of the same package with Transat Holiday.

As to your question of whether you will make it? I think many posters have already offered you their opinion. I'd say you should be able to make it in most cases, as your TA suggested. But there is very little wiggle room.

Will I do it if I were you? No.

edit: Have I done something similar before? Yes! Flew in and out the same day of the cruise, but August instead of April; Miami instead of Fort Lauderdale; American Airline instead of Air Transat; Liberty OTS instead of Oasis. Was everything fine? Yes, no problem at all, but I recalled that I couldn't really relax until I arrived at the port and saw the line-up and knew that we were on time before I could officially switched to the real vacation/relax mode.

This post made be want to look at flight I had book from LA to Vancouver the morning of our cruise in September.

 

This is something I have not done before and was already a bit nervous but it was a very early flight that got us there 6 hours beforehand.

 

After logging onto the airlines website I could not view the flight details and was being asked to contact customer service :confused:

 

Now we live in Australia so this was costly, turns out that the flight I had booked was rescheduled for 4 hours later meaning only landing about 2 hours before. I become very Worried about clearing customs and getting to the port on time and if the flight was even just a little late we would miss the ship :eek:

 

The customer service lady was amazing and transferred us to a flight the night before, a very latr one so we could spend as much time as possiable with our friends in LA (the whole reason for the LA part of our trip) and was apologetic that we would land at midnight. In the end I am much happier with a little less sleep the night before than a nail biting flight the morning of the cruise.

 

So I guess thanks for your thread as it made me think about our flights. :D

Wow,,,,,, How great you checked on your flight.

Would have been nice had the airline notified you of such a substantial change but great you had a customer rep who made good alternative scheduling.

Check again now and then to be sure they don't make more changes. :)

Good advice for all of us who have to fly to our cruises.

Wow,,,,,, How great you checked on your flight.

Would have been nice had the airline notified you of such a substantial change but great you had a customer rep who made good alternative scheduling.

 

Check again now and then to be sure they don't make more changes. :)

 

Good advice for all of us who have to fly to our cruises.

 

I agree they could have emailed but I can't complain I got a really low price to begin with and it didn't cost anything to change flights just the hassle that we now stop over in Seattle for an hour.

I am very hands on when planing holidays as I've had a few issues with travel agents so I wil be checking a few times between now and then.

The one problem you may have to deal with is if you have to go through Customs in Ft. Lauderdale or if you are able to do it in Toronto. If you have to go through Customs that will delay you some what.

tigercat

They will pre-clear in Toronto before the flight.

They will pre-clear in Toronto before the flight.

True, and this was pointed out to OP on their duplicate thread. And it's immigration that takes more time, customs is usually pretty fast.

Dear Tusconcam

We are a firm believer of arriving at least the day before a cruise. I have traveled extensively by air and am more comfortable building in a buffer between the two (air/sea). Although, last cruise we purchased our air segment through the cruise line and arrived the morning of the cruise and did not stress because of the cruise guarantee of getting you to the ship. In this case we were met at the arrival airport luggage carousel by the ship's agent and were taken care of from picking up our luggage and on the bus from the airport to the ship's terminal.

Normally we book our own air segments, but the fact remains if you are late the ship will not guarantee you getting aboard, plus you have to pay to get yourselves to the ship's next port of call. I found this site called flightstats.com where you enter in the airline name and if you have it, the flight number to see the performance of on-time service. Airtransat scored well in its top 20 flights but they were all south to north flights. I also tried some Montreal to FLL and Toronto to FLL flights and they were 88% to 100% on time with the delays recorded as under 15 minutes.

Others have posted about peace of mind by arriving on at least the day before. I second that idea.

I hope you two have a nice cruise.

I am agreement with everyone else here that you would be far better off flying in the day before your cruise and spending the night in your port city. We have experienced delays of up to 12 hours for a Med cruise and last time we flew to FLL to get on Allure of the Seas, our flight was delayed by a mechanical for 4+ hours. My husband, of course, became very concerned as our flight would not get into FLL until after 3:30pm (he doesn't pay any attention to what I book beforehand) and asked me when all aboard was. Imagine his relief, when I replied, "Tomorrow at 4pm. We're spending the night at a hotel."

In regards to your flight, should you decide to rebook for the day before, keep in mind, you can fly into FLL or MIA as MIA is less than 1 hour from Ft. Lauderdale and there are shuttles that run from MIA to FLL and back or you could rent a car from MIA to FLL. There is a 4 day airfare sale going on in the USA right now.

... last time we flew to FLL to get on Allure of the Seas, our flight was delayed by a mechanical for 4+ hours. My husband, of course, became very concerned as our flight would not get into FLL until after 3:30pm (he doesn't pay any attention to what I book beforehand) and asked me when all aboard was. Imagine his relief, when I replied, "Tomorrow at 4pm. We're spending the night at a hotel.

Sounds like my DH. He starts helping me plan about a week before we go. Now he has never asked me for details just generalizations. So he'd come home from work with parking discounts and things to do in the ports. I just humor him because everything is done and planned. My DGS asked details about our cruise in April. I told him it was 7 days, Saturday to Saturday. He says "I thought it was only 4 days". :rolleyes:

Here is my question...SWA from Louisville 6am, stop in Midway, arrive Newark 11:00. Cruise disembarks at 4:00. See any problem with that? Flying in August. TIA

There seems to be a lot of folks who just don't understand the situation the OP is in.

Please read my response to the OP on post #24. The OP responded on post #29.

There is no re booking of flights. There is no option to go the day before. The only way that can happen if he CANCELS his cruise and flight.

It is a package deal. All in one. Flight and cruise through Air Transat vacations.

Air Transat is a total crap charter airline. They are not a regularly scheduled air line like Air Canada or United Airlines. Air Transat rents planes and sells package deals, like a week all inclusive vacation to Cuba or Dominican Republic.

They have packaged some cruise and air deals for Canadians, mainly from Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa. They are based in Montreal.

Unless the OP cancels the whole thing, he is stuck. He would pay cancellation fees and then have to rebook the whole thing. Probably at a higher cost.

Is this the best way to travel? Nope.

Did the travel agent do anything wrong? Nope. She sold him a package. OP is probably an inexperienced traveller and is relying on advice from a TA who is selling packages.

Will there be an issue if Air Transat goes on strike or has a mechanical issue on the plane? Yep. The OP will have to pay a regular airline full fare to get on a plane to Fort Lauderdale from Toronto. Air Transat isn't part of any sort of aviation alliance like Star Alliance.

I just hope the OP has no issues with Air Transat that day. Charter airlines have a terrible track record here in Canada. Folks use them because they are "cheap". The last Air Transat flight I was on from Las Vegas to Toronto was a nightmare. We circled Pearson til the plane was nearly out of fuel, rerouted to London, ON, not allowed to get off the plane. It was July, 32 degrees outside, no air conditioning or water in the plane. There was nearly a fistfight and one guy nearly decked a flight attendant. Air Transat didn't even show a flight delay at Pearson, my Dad waited for hours to pick us up. Will I ever set foot on an Air Transat plane every again. No way. There are stories like this every week from folks who use their services.

Here is my question...SWA from Louisville 6am, stop in Midway, arrive Newark 11:00. Cruise disembarks at 4:00. See any problem with that? Flying in August. TIA

Is that a connection in MDW, or do you stay on the same plane for the EWR leg?

First choice would be non-stop. Second choice would be a stop with no change of plane. Third choice would be a connection with change of plane.

I would be worried about a pilot strike, as already mentioned:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/air-transat-strike-mandate-1.3429864

Hi Op, I didnt take time to read each post, so I hope I am not being redundant. If you stick with the flight you have, for peace of mind I would carry on one bag with enough to get you through if you had to for a few days. I've had my luggage misplaced by the airlines a few times, thankfully none in connection with a cruise, but with a close flight, it might be a good idea.

Hi

I chimed in early in this conversation. As I said before, If changes can't be made there is no point worrying because that wont help anything.

More likely than not everything will be just fine. Again this story is a good reason to have insurance.

If there is an issue sometimes if it is a big enough travel agency they might be able to make things right, that was why I suggested communicating with the TA at the outset, you want to be able to contact someone who can help right away, otherwise you have to be able improvise yourself.

have a great cruise

About 80% of the time (maybe more) you'll be fine.

No way I'd do it.

Last thing I want is to be stressing about being late.

I suggest you cross-pack your clothes -- each of you put some clothes in the (presumably) 2 suitcases you are taking. That way if one of the suitcases doesn't make it, you'll still have something to wear -- and hopefully the missing suitcase can be sent to one of your ports-of-call.