9:45 a.m. Flight on Saturday in Feb

Just got change in flight time from 10:45 to 9:45 a.m. on Saturday. Checked and there are no other flights available until very late in the day with SW.

My question is, can we make it @ 9:45 a.m.??? We do have early bird check in. We've never got off that early for a flight. What do we do? Any suggestions or are we being paranoid? Thanks so much for any help.

Mary

Just got change in flight time from 10:45 to 9:45 a.m. on Saturday. Checked and there are no other flights available until very late in the day with SW.

 

My question is, can we make it @ 9:45 a.m.??? We do have early bird check in. We've never got off that early for a flight. What do we do? Any suggestions or are we being paranoid? Thanks so much for any help.

 

Mary

Is this Fort Lauderdale (just a guess since you mentioned SW)? If so, the good news is that you can see the airport from the cruise port. The bad news is that February is high season and the cruise port and the airport will be busy - especially if it is the beginning or end of President's Day week (Saturday the 18th or 25th) because that is the busiest week in February. Depending on what time your ship is due to arrive in port and if you can do self disembarkation (handle all your luggage yourself) you might get to the airport by 8:15 but do you really want to risk it? What happens if you miss the plane? Will you be charged a change fee? Will you even be able to get on another flight that day (remember it is high season)? Why don't you take the later flight and spend the morning/afternoon seeing some of Fort Lauderdale, taking a cruise ship excursion, etc.?

Is this Fort Lauderdale (just a guess since you mentioned SW)? If so, the good news is that you can see the airport from the cruise port. The bad news is that February is high season and the cruise port and the airport will be busy - especially if it is the beginning or end of President's Day week (Saturday the 18th or 25th) because that is the busiest week in February. Depending on what time your ship is due to arrive in port and if you can do self disembarkation (handle all your luggage yourself) you might get to the airport by 8:15 but do you really want to risk it? What happens if you miss the plane? Will you be charged a change fee? Will you even be able to get on another flight that day (remember it is high season)? Why don't you take the later flight and spend the morning/afternoon seeing some of Fort Lauderdale, taking a cruise ship excursion, etc.?

Yep Ft. L. And yes, too, it is 2/25! Great. Stress. Hate to move bags just for one night at a hotel. We have to drive once we get to Pitt to get home and it is always terrible weather. Much harder to drive at night time too.

Just got change in flight time from 10:45 to 9:45 a.m. on Saturday. Checked and there are no other flights available until very late in the day with SW.

 

My question is, can we make it @ 9:45 a.m.??? We do have early bird check in. We've never got off that early for a flight. What do we do? Any suggestions or are we being paranoid? Thanks so much for any help.

 

Mary

My money's on you won't make it in time to check your bags.

Just wondering what time your ship is set to come back. My cruise in FoS the week before says 5:30 return time to Port Everglades.

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Just wondering what time your ship is set to come back. My cruise in FoS the week before says 5:30 return time to Port Everglades.

 

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Not sure. couldn't find the site that lists what/when ships return to port.

Last year, we got chosen to go through Customs...lucky us, which of course delayed us for no reason.

I trust everyone's opinion on this site and we are staying over an extra day in Ft. L. Really don't want to stress that we will miss our flight due to things that are out of our control on the ship or customs. Anyway, hubby just loves moving bags! Oh fun.

Thanks everyone.

Mary

Your Booking Confirmation or Travel Summary should have the scheduled arrival time on it.

(Edited to remove the rest of my thoughts as I noticed just after posting you already decided to fly out the next day)

Not sure. couldn't find the site that lists what/when ships return to port.

 

Last year, we got chosen to go through Customs...lucky us, which of course delayed us for no reason.

 

I trust everyone's opinion on this site and we are staying over an extra day in Ft. L. Really don't want to stress that we will miss our flight due to things that are out of our control on the ship or customs. Anyway, hubby just loves moving bags! Oh fun.

 

Thanks everyone.

 

Mary

Wise decision. Now you will have a leisurely end to your vacation.

Just wondering what time your ship is set to come back. My cruise in FoS the week before says 5:30 return time to Port Everglades.

 

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That doesn't matter. What matters is when the ship is cleared by Customs and the cruise line wants to start disembarkation. Just because a ship arrives back in home port at a particular time does not mean that the process of disembarkation will start immediately. It doesn't and won't.

Last year when I was on the Oasis out of Ft Lauderdale there was a large group of non Americans that really slowed down Customs, took over an hour and a half to clear the building. Some times stuff happens, so basically it is the luck of the draw if you can make an early flight.

Last year we were on a B2B in Fort L. and they were very short customs officers so getting off was really slow. Security "helped" the last passenger off the ship and we weren't cleared to get back on until 11. I was glad we weren't flying that day.

Thanks so much for everyone's opinions. Last year we did B2Bs and remember we were not able to get back on the ship until after 1:00. There were problems with not enough customs officers apparently.

Last year I checked and our flight was @ 10:30 a.m., which we just made. Got to airport by 9:00 and did curbside with bags, but there were HUGE lines to get through security like we never saw before. Just made it in time for our flight. That was scary enough.

Everyone is right, we don't need that stress. I'll remind hubby of that when we have to move the bags and he complains about having all the luggage!

After reading here in CC it seems the hotels are quite booked for that weekend too. Hopefully we will find something and be able to check in early. I didn't realize it was a holiday week.

I guess I knew the answer, but needed all of you to tell me it was the right thing to do. Thanks so much again to all.

Mary