What Would You Do?

Looking at what flights are available in March 2015 to go from Philadelphia, PA to POM. Available non-stop flights are on embarkation day at 6 am and again at 8 am. Do I take one of the early flights on embarkation day or fly to Miami the day before just in case any problems arise? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

My advice would be to get there the day before if you can. It's a lot smoother and easier to do when all you have to do is get up and hop on a shuttle as apposed to trying to fly in, hope the airlines don't mess up and cancel/delay your flight and the whole 9 yards. Enjoy the night in Miami there are a lot of things to see and do there if you get there early enough the day before. :cool:

Enjoy you vacation!

I would fly the day before

Very few will say flying in the day of your cruise is a smart thing to do, particularly when weather can be a factor. Fly in the day before.

Take all of our advices -- fly in the day before.

Fly the day before, especially as you are going in March. The weather then can be really unpredictable.

We always fly the day before, and to Europe two days before. Never had an issue, and the day before lets you enjoy the departure city more!

Add me to the voice of reason: fly in at least a day ahead.

Another reason for flying in the day before: although you are on a non-stop flight, when you arrive at Miami, your luggage may have decided to take a side trip to Los Angeles or Seattle. At least you will have time to get your things together if that should happen. Friends of ours flew from New Orleans to Miami, but their luggage ended up in Minneapolis for some reason. It showed up at our hotel around breakfast time the next morning.

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

If you can go the day before, if not go early I would guess you will be with U.S.Air. This is best if you are going the same day they have many more flights so if something goes wrong you will have a chance to catch another flight.

The ship does not wait for anyone. It will leave without you if you are late. It's best to give yourself that one extra day.

Sent from my LG-D801 using Forums mobile app

Get to the home port 1 day ahead...but you can book an early flight home...generally, around noon, depending on your port/airport combo. You do NOT need to stay an extra day AFTER the cruise.

I'll add my vote to the "go the day before" brigade. Especially in March. Even if you were flying from a warm-weather city, bad weather somewhere else in the country could screw things up. Fly in, get a decent hotel, enjoy Miami a bit, have a relaxing dinner, and wake up the next day ready to cruise!

If you can go the day before, if not go early I would guess you will be with U.S.Air. This is best if you are going the same day they have many more flights so if something goes wrong you will have a chance to catch another flight.

This advice is always so sketchy, as if there will always be available seats on that later flight....good luck with that!!!

March can be a tricky month...it's starting to warm up a little, and that could mean ice or a wintry mix instead of straight up snow. :eek:

I would fly in the day before the cruise, if only for peace of mind.

Looking at what flights are available in March 2015 to go from Philadelphia, PA to POM. Available non-stop flights are on embarkation day at 6 am and again at 8 am. Do I take one of the early flights on embarkation day or fly to Miami the day before just in case any problems arise? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

I agree with everyone who has said fly in the day before the cruise starts, to have a safety factor.

I would also consider booking a backup flight with Frontier Airlines out of Trenton-Mercer airport, about 40 minutes north of Philadelphia, about 1.5 miles off of I-95. I will be booking airfare out of Philadelphia for a cruise out of Fort Lauderdale next month. In case of bad weather cancelling flights out of Newark or Philadelphia, I also bought a flight on Frontier Airlines out of Trenton nearby that leaves 10:30 the morning of the cruise and gets to Fort Lauderdale about 1:15P. They only fly there Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. Air fare is competitive; $344 round trip gets you a fully refundable fare, 1 checked bag, 1 carryon, and a better seat selection. Sometimes they will be flying out of Trenton when other airlines are not flying out of the other airports due to weather. Back in February I was on a flight from Trenton to Denver in the middle of a snow storm that hit the area. I met a fellow passenger who had just booked the flight an hour before who had been told by Southwest Airlines said they could not get him out of Newark for another 2 days because of rebooking dozens or even hundreds of flights in the major airports that had been cancelled in anticipation of the storm. Trenton was open, although I did have to shovel 8-10" of wet snow out of my own parking spot, as the aisles were clear, but no flights had returned yet, so no cars had left.

I don't know details about your cruise, but I know Princess sells transfers from both Miami airport and Fort Lauderdale airport to the pier in Fort Lauderdale; perhaps your cruise line does the same to the pier in Miami.

I frquently travel to Philadelphia on business and have never been on a flight that takes off on time, if at all. Don't risk it. Fly in the day before.

Day before!

Looking at what flights are available in March 2015 to go from Philadelphia, PA to POM. Available non-stop flights are on embarkation day at 6 am and again at 8 am. Do I take one of the early flights on embarkation day or fly to Miami the day before just in case any problems arise? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

I would get there THE DAY BEFORE!!!! Airlines and Cruise lines are two different entities, and you are basically 'on your own'. Keep in mind that just because you are going on a cruise, you DO NOT have priority. If you do not plan accordingly you could potentially put yourself at risk of flight delays or cancellations and ultimately 'missing the boat' figuratively and literally!!!!! :rolleyes:

I'm laughing as I read this. The question is whether to spend a March day in the frozen north or in sunny Miami. Really? Come on down! If it was me, I'd try to find a way to fly down a week early. or a month.

But that's just me. I hate the cold so much I stay in Miami all year! :)

Enjoy your vacation!

Another reason to fly in a day early: If you fly in day of, you will be exhausted and first day on board will be wasted. I speak from experience!

For our first two cruises together, we flew down the day of, and while we got lucky with the winter weather in January coming from A, as many CCers point out, you could be tired on that first day on the ship.

Now, we fly the day before, even if the weather is not an issue. For the Alaskan cruise we just did, we flew to Seattle a day early and were able to explore the city and get accustomed to the change in time zones. No worry about the September weather with that cruise!

If you can afford the extra time off, and the costs of the hotel, than yes, definitely fly in the day before.

But you can fly in the morning of and still be fine. That is what coffee is made for! :D

Enjoy the cruise!

Looking at what flights are available in March 2015 to go from Philadelphia, PA to POM. Available non-stop flights are on embarkation day at 6 am and again at 8 am. Do I take one of the early flights on embarkation day or fly to Miami the day before just in case any problems arise? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

i fly the day before, just to make sure if all timing will work out.

Looking at what flights are available in March 2015 to go from Philadelphia, PA to POM. Available non-stop flights are on embarkation day at 6 am and again at 8 am. Do I take one of the early flights on embarkation day or fly to Miami the day before just in case any problems arise? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Well, it looks like I'm going to be in the minority here. Since you asked about flying in on embarkation day, I'd say take the earliest flight possible, at 6:00 a.m. Hopefully, by March, the really bad Winter weather should be pretty well over with, so that shouldn't be too much of a factor. We've always flown to the port city on embarkation day, and out of nine cruises, we've only been delayed once and missed the sail away. That was when we used to cruise in February. Of course, as others have said, you do eliminate the risk of missing the sail away by flying in the day before. It just depends on whether or not you can fit it into your schedule.