Flying in day of cruise

We are looking at the wonder out of Miami in October. Are we safe flying in day of if our flight comes in at 9am. My husband is afraid of missing the boat. We have never flown in day of a cruise before

First you need to ask yourselves " are you the gambling type of family?" If it's a direct flight maybe, but if you have a connecting flight I would think twice. Nothing like waving to your boat going off into the sunset a few hundred dollars out of your pocket.

I second #2.

Sorry, a more helpful reply from me might be that you should have no problem getting to the port as long as your flight is on time to Miami from my research. The port is about 20-30 minutes away.

OK, we hate to fly in the morning of a cruise.

Scene 1--up at 4 am to get to the airport for a 6 am flight. Since we now have no direct flights available, fly to Atlanta and hope that the connecting flight leaves on time. Get to destination about 11 if lucky, then transfer to terminal. About 3 pm, drop dead on the ship from total exhaustion. Hopefully sneak in a nap between safety drill and dinner or show. And this is the BEST outcome. The worst is a flight leaving late, missed connections, etc.

Scene 2--get a cheap hotel (we often use Priceline and get a 2.5* for under $50). Fly to port city after school/work on the afternoon before. Arrive really just in time for dinner and sleep. Get up in the morning, have complimentary breakfast at the hotel and travel to terminal. Start cruise rested and ready to go.

Can you make it to the ship if your flight gets in at 9 am - sure. Think of all the what if's though. What if the flight is delayed or cancelled? What if you have luggage problems? What if you forget something because you are rushing to the airport that morning?

We used to fly in the morning of the cruise. We had non-stops from Chicago so it was no problem and we never had a problem getting to the ship on time. What we did have a problem with was enjoying that first day. We were so tired from getting up extra early to make our early morning flight that we really didn't enjoy that first night on the ship. Now we fly (or drive) in at least a day early. Get a good nights sleep before the cruise and start it out relaxed and ready to enjoy the cruise.

Save yourself and your husband the stress and fly in the day before.

To paraphrase Clint Eastwood - "Do you feel lucky?"

If there are no other options, its doable. But imagine if your flight date was this past week with all the delays?

To paraphrase Clint Eastwood - "Do you feel lucky?"

 

If there are no other options, its doable. But imagine if your flight date was this past week with all the delays?

To be honest, having tickets to fly in a day early this past week might not have helped given the meltdown that the air system was in. That said, it was not a typical short term weather delay and is probably not the best example.

A better example would be getting to Atlanta and having the connecting equipment and crew be delayed by two hours due to high winds in Denver or an emergency landing due to a bird strike at JFK. Two hours is often a make or break point when flying in the day of.

Autocorrect responsible for most typos...

Not safe,:( for all of the above listed reasons and examples!

AKK

Flying out, who cares if you get a delay?

Flying in, well, can you control 100% of everything? I experienced a series of ridiculous delays for my flight for a funeral two yrs ago. First was weather related (thunderstorms), second was a gas spill behind the plane that they had to hold up to clean up?! :eek: Third, I can't remember exactly, maybe no flight team to relieve the pilots etc? something like that. they had reached their rest limit or something and we had to wait for a new flight team, if memory recalls, but it was like 3.5 hrs and I finally landed at 1am. This was all in a single day.

Now, who wants to fly in the day of and start their vacation off completely exhausted (cuz its going be an early flight) and then totally stressed out (are we gonna make it?!) and then miss half the fun of the evening their first cruise night because of their super early start?

Yippee!

Not sure why, but I feel sarcastic today... sorry, nothing mean intended. But no, we would never, never do this. Also we love to play in Orlando so we always come in a few days early... Even if we skipped the parks (yeah right) we would still come in the night before. Only time we didn't was when we were 2.5 hr drive away from port which we easily covered the next morning. Otherwise, we make sure we are within 1-2.5 hrs drive and have made it mostly stress free every time!

Have you ever watched Airport 24/7 which is filmed at the Miami airport? So many things can go wrong that can cause a delay. The stress level flying in the day of would be too high for me.

My husband is a pilot and I am a former flight attendant. A few years ago we were working a flight from Raleigh NC to Fort Lauderdale. We were delayed a few hours due to our airplane not arriving to Raleigh on time, then enroute, FLL was shutdown for about 40 minutes due to a typical Florida thunderstorm. This forced us to hold for about an hour while ATC got the airport back up to speed. There was 2 ladies trying to catch a cruise leaving that afternoon. As we were holding they kept asking me to tell the pilots that "they were suppose to be catching a cruise, just tell that to ATC and let us land first! " When we landed they had less than 30 minutes before the cruise left. I don't know if they made it or not. The real kicker was in our holding pattern we could see the ships in port, how frustrating for those ladies to be so close...

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I would have no qualms about flying in the same day in October. Have a great cruise!

I would have no qualms about flying in the same day in October. Have a great cruise!

I have been just as delayed in October as I have in January. Thunderstorms can play havoc in Florida.

Autocorrect responsible for most typos...

This week post system meltdown, a good friend was flying to Orlando on the first Delta flight out on Tuesday. All was good until a mechanical issue with the plane was detected. Delay, delay, unable to change to another flight (there were a couple to Tampa with availability) until hers was officially cancelled. Finally told 4:30 and were about to board when they were u- turned and the flight was finally cancelled. 13 hours after she should have been in the air, she was FINALLY able to get on one of those Tampa flights and get a car service to Orlando. Thankfully this wasn't for a cruise - but it was for the WDW Marathon Weekend where her first race was yesterday and she had to pick stuff up on Wednesday.

So yeah...stuff can happen. I refuse to fly the day of departure. Way too risky.

My logic is that if I am in the port city (or Orlando for PC), then somehow I'm going to be on that ship. There are enough options and time to deal with issues like a wreck that closes the highway (and yes, that has happened).

If I am sitting at my home airport or at a connecting airport, I can't say the same thing. Too much is out of my control and a "work around" may not be possible.

We are looking at the wonder out of Miami in October. Are we safe flying in day of if our flight comes in at 9am. My husband is afraid of missing the boat. We have never flown in day of a cruise before

Always Fly in the Day b/4 Just for peace of mind

STUR DAYTON, OHIO

I think most people agree that it's best to arrive the day before a cruise just in case you need the safety net in case of a flight delay. Also consider this story. My BIL had a connecting flight. It wasn't until he got to the second leg of his trip, several hundred miles from miles from home, that he discovered he left his passport at home. He had just enough time to contact a friend, have the friend break into his house, get the passport and overnight it to him.

We are looking at the wonder out of Miami in October. Are we safe flying in day of if our flight comes in at 9am. My husband is afraid of missing the boat. We have never flown in day of a cruise before

We have always flown in the day of the cruise.. Flew in Sept and Oct on same day to Orlando. . Usually getting in at 11- That said, these were direct flights and I probably would never fly in same day without doing a direct flight. (We did not take direct flight home) This time we are flying in day before as I could not get direct flight and did not want to take chance with weather.

We have always flown in the day of the cruise.. Flew in Sept and Oct on same day to Orlando. . Usually getting in at 11- That said, these were direct flights and I probably would never fly in same day without doing a direct flight. (We did not take direct flight home) This time we are flying in day before as I could not get direct flight and did not want to take chance with weather.

PLEASE be aware that a delay can be due to a lot of things other than weather. We've personally seen issues with a flight delay leading to a cancellation due to flight crew being beyond allowed hours, several mechanical issues with planes, and in one case a control tower in another city being hit by lightning.

The other consideration is that if your luggage happens to take a vacation other than the one you are on, flying in the day before gives it a chance to catch up with you.

My daughter still laughs about my reaction on the phone when an airline luggage person had me repeat my claim check number and then told me that it was showing that my bag had arrived in EQUADOR and was being sent back to me. "EQUADOR??? AS IN SOUTH AMERICA???" How the heck does a bag go from Tokyo to Chicago (and we know it was in Chi as it had to be taken thru Customs there) and then to Equador?

We just finished our first cruise and I would say no I would not feel at all comfortable flying in the day of the cruise. We have flown a lot and as previous poster mentioned there are other reasons for delays and we have had several flights delayed. If you do make sure you have good travel insurance in case you miss your cruise or luggage.

I would have no qualms about flying in the same day in October. Have a great cruise!

Mechanical issues occur all times of the year. Cancellations and delays are not always weather related.

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I am a pilot for a major airlines that flies to Fla. all the time. Go a day early. I can tell you many, many reasons why we have been delayed during all seasons. Go early, start the party, relax, it's Florida. Go to the beach and chill out with a nice drink. If your cruise leaves Sun. and you're there on Sat., go to the beach, walk to the jetty, and watch the ships leave.

Never challenge fate.

Just another perspective here. We've done that three times before without any trouble. The first two times were when I was in medical school and then resident when getting even a few extra hours off to fly down the night before was simply not possible. The last time was for an eight night cruise so again, impossible to go the night before. Also, the last time we went with a baby and a two year old so with needing car seats and cribs an whatnot, getting a hotel one night before wasn't such a simply feat. We always get insurance so that we can at least be financially whole if we miss the boat and acknowledge ahead of time that missing the boat is a small but real possibility. We also live in atlanta though so weather is usually on our side and the next flight out is never a long time away. Also, we never have connecting flights.

We've flow in the day of the cruise 3 times. Each time we had a back up plan if we didn't get there in time. We always try to get non-stop flights so there are no connections that could get messed up.

For example, our last cruise departed from Boston. We flew LA-Boston arriving there at 6:00 am. Our back up was - the ship's next port of call was Fort Lauderdale, two days later. If we were late in Boston we could fly, take the train, or even rent a car to get to Ft Lauderdale and pick up the cruise there.

Other times, the back up was that we booked the airfare through the cruiseline. If you miss the ship due to flights they arrange, they assist in getting you to the ship at the next stop.