When to Arrive for mid-Dec. cruise

[Ellen Dio]

I know none of you are psychic (well OK I'm assuming none of you are) so this may be hard to answer but I'd love some opinions.

How important do you think it is to arrive the day before the cruise? We are looking to book the 12/10 Westerdam out of FLL and will be flying in from JFK/LGA. It's partially a money thing and partially an animal thing - I'd like to not spend more money on a room and on an extra day of cat/dog sitting - plus our new dog has never been without us for more than a day and is not the best at separation - so I'm looking to keep this reasonable for our first test of how she does. (we've gone away but have always been able to come home if she freaks and have done so 2x now after just 1 1/2 days).

 

I can book a flight that gets us in a bit before noon - so even if it's late it could be fine. So opinions please. (horror stories are fine if you want to relive them but remember it's only mid December in New York).

[jtl513]

In Dec, with the possibility of bad weather delaying your NYC departure, I wouldn't fly in the same day. I see that you have a sea day on the 11th, so you would miss at least two of your 7 nights if you don't make it, not to mention the extra cost of flying to Grand Turk. Too much risk for me.

[CowPrincess]

I would fly in a day before the cruise.

 

Re: your dog. I would start "practice boarding" her RIGHT NOW. Send her to the kennel for an hour, then go get her. Keep doing this, and increase the amount of time she stays at the kennel each time. Work up to an overnight visit. This reinforces to her that mommy & daddy WILL come back and get her. Each time you get her she is succeeding in being reunited with you, and getting more and more reinforcement that she is not being abandoned. We did this with our dog, with great success. I recommend it to clients, too.

 

If you are using a petsitter, start having the petsitter come at supper or breakfast and feeding and excersing your dog, a couple of times a week, so the dog gets more of a trust bond with the petsitter. It can be done. It is in everyone's best interests that your dog be comfortable while you are away.

[MauiGirl55]

With unpredictable weather in December, and unpredictable air travel anytime, we always arrive a day early. I hate the frantic rushing around, worry that something might occur to delay our flight and miss the ship to chance a flight the same day. Plus--I love starting our trip a day early!

[Orlandocruiser]

This is not a cruise horror story but... My son was married on Dec 16 , 2000 here in Florida. I seem to remember that there was a huge snowstorm in the north the week before his wedding. Fortunatley it did not affect his festivities but I do remember thinking - good thing that storm happened last week. So you never know - even though you don't usually have snow that early - it can happen. (Heck we live 3 hours from Ft Lauderdale and we always do down a day early!:))

[Oceanwench]

Even without the complications of snow, flights get delayed for numerous reasons. Why start a cruise with that much stress?

[fann1sh]

I would fly in a day before the cruise.

 

Re: your dog. I would start "practice boarding" her RIGHT NOW. Send her to the kennel for an hour, then go get her. Keep doing this, and increase the amount of time she stays at the kennel each time. Work up to an overnight visit. This reinforces to her that mommy & daddy WILL come back and get her. Each time you get her she is succeeding in being reunited with you, and getting more and more reinforcement that she is not being abandoned. We did this with our dog, with great success. I recommend it to clients, too.

 

If you are using a petsitter, start having the petsitter come at supper or breakfast and feeding and excersing your dog, a couple of times a week, so the dog gets more of a trust bond with the petsitter. It can be done. It is in everyone's best interests that your dog be comfortable while you are away.

 

Wonderful, solid gold advice. My best friend operates a kennel, and gives similar counsel to clients.

 

In December, Fort Lauderdale hotels are relatively cheap. If you search this board, you will find dozens of recommendations. One of my picks is Hyatt Place for $107+tax, where are the rooms are mini-suites:

 

http://www.valuetrips.com/AMS/FL/F17.htm

 

 

Pick you up free at the airport (though I prefer $20-including-tip taxi) deliver you free to the cruise port, serve a free breakfast, and the room has a kitchenette and dining table. Makes it easy to bring in pizza for a cheap dinner (check out Dough Boys pizza: http://www.doughboysfla.com/DBaHome.html)

[iriemon]

We always fly in the day before especially in the winter. You don't have to have bad weather by you to have plane delays. The only time we didn't do it was when we were sailing out of PR and an ice storm hit. We were the last flight out. It was not worth the worry and fretting. We were exhausted by the time we got on the ship. Kicked ourselves for trying to save a buck.

[iancal]

We always go early as I like a few pre cruise days to wind down from business and to tour south Florida.

[baggal]

Before I discovered Cruise Critic we cruised in mid-December and always took the first flight in the morning from Newark to FLL (on the day of departure) and arrived with enough time to rent a car, visit a relative, return the car and be on the ship by 3 p.m.

 

Then I began to read horror stories. I told my DH that the next time we sail out of FLL (which may be a while since I have given up on the Carribean) we are flying in the day before - since we have probably used up all our good luck!

 

The weather/air traffic in the NYC can be unpredictable in December. I would hate to lose 2 days of a 7 day cruise. Wouldn't be much of a vacation after that.

[RlrCstr]

You might not have bad weather at the airport you are flying out of--JFK or LGA--but the plane came from someplace else where there might have been a weather delay at that airport, and no other equipment was free to substitute as your plane.

Or---as happened to me a week ago--the plane is there, but a crew member is unavailable and it takes hours to find a replacement crew member and get that person to the plane. (Luckily the gate agents did not have us board the plane, and did kept us updated every 10-15 minutes about the search for the replacement crewperson.)

 

I agree that an earlier travel day is the best way to start off a cruise if at all possible.

[aliaschief]

By the title of your thread I wanted to respond. Show up in mid December.:D I agree with others; for us it is always the day before the cruise. Especially, if you do not have travel insurance.

[Typhoon1]

For winter cruises, we always arrive in Fort Lauderdale three to four days in advance of the cruise.

 

I want plenty of cushion should there be bad weather.

[CowPrincess]

Thanks for the compliment, Fannish :)

 

We leave home the night before our flight, get a hotel in the airport city, and fly out two days pre-cruise. Our "prep" for our cruise costs nearly what our cruise costs!

[donaldsc]

Balance the cost of boarding the dog for one day plus the cost of the motel room against the cost of flying to the next port when you miss the ship and the answer to your question should be obvious.

 

DON

[Ellen Dio]

thanks all - good advice and basically confirming what I was trying to convince myself we didn't need to do.

Thanks for the dog advice too - if I felt comfortable paying for her to be in a kennel or with a dog sitter days before we left I wouldn't really be concerned as I"m sure that would work. It's $75 a day not something in my vacation budget. Pretty sure we have a good friend to stay with her most of the time so it will only be a couple of days of a pet sitter here at the house - I think she'll adjust. My one rule about us getting a dog was that it wouldn't stop us from going away - than I went and fell for a rescue who clearly had separation issues - MY bad...

[ab0si]

Balance the cost of boarding the dog for one day plus the cost of the motel room against the cost of flying to the next port when you miss the ship and the answer to your question should be obvious.

 

DON

 

While I agree that flying down a day or three early is the best way to go, I can not agree with your analysis.

 

It is not Boarding + Motel versus Flying to next port, it is

 

Boarding + Motel versus Chance of missing ship x Flying to next port

 

To make up some numbers:

Boarding: $40

Motel: $120

 

Flight for two to next port: $1,000

Chance of missing ship: 5%

 

so it is 40 + 120 versus .05 x 1000 or $160 versus $50 (given my made up numbers). And, yes, I know there are other expenses being ignored.

 

the reason to fly down early is not because it is cheaper but because it allows one to start the vacation relaxed frame of mind. As a certain advert says: priceless

[Novice Cruiser 18]

I know none of you are psychic (well OK I'm assuming none of you are) so this may be hard to answer but I'd love some opinions.

How important do you think it is to arrive the day before the cruise? We are looking to book the 12/10 Westerdam out of FLL and will be flying in from JFK/LGA. It's partially a money thing and partially an animal thing - I'd like to not spend more money on a room and on an extra day of cat/dog sitting - plus our new dog has never been without us for more than a day and is not the best at separation - so I'm looking to keep this reasonable for our first test of how she does. (we've gone away but have always been able to come home if she freaks and have done so 2x now after just 1 1/2 days).

 

I can book a flight that gets us in a bit before noon - so even if it's late it could be fine. So opinions please. (horror stories are fine if you want to relive them but remember it's only mid December in New York).

Ellen, my sister and I are cruising on the Westerdam on Dec. 24. She lives in Ohio and I live in Massachusetts. We've both has bad experiences getting south in December (last year we went to Cancun and my sister go stuck in Charlotte over night and I had to fly from Boston to Cincinnatti to somewhere else before heading south to Cancun), so we're arriving in Ft. Lauderdale on Dec. 23! I get there at about 9:30 AM and my sister arrives at about 5:00 PM. Thereby we'll have time to visit friends in Hollywood and also see a little of Ft. Lauderdale before embarking on Christmas Eve at 5:00 PM. Most of all it's "peace of mind." The peace of mind is worth it.

[sapper1]

Bear in mind that you have to be registered and aboard 90 minutes prior to sailing to comply with the new Homeland Security regs. If you do not arrive before that time you will be denied boarding.

 

We always fly in two days prior to a cruise in good weather and we allow three days in the winter.

 

It allows for weather delays, mechanical delays, cancelled flights, and the ever popular lost luggage catching up with you before you sail problem.

Another issue is that is not uncommon to see airports shut down for a few hours due to security scares and sometimes they clear everyone out of the departures area and rescreen them.

 

It is just too risky to plan on arriving a few hours before you are due to board the ship.

 

Flying in early also allows you the luxury of boarding in a relaxed, unrushed frame of mind.

[Novice Cruiser 18]

While I agree that flying down a day or three early is the best way to go, I can not agree with your analysis.

 

It is not Boarding + Motel versus Flying to next port, it is

 

Boarding + Motel versus Chance of missing ship x Flying to next port

 

To make up some numbers:

Boarding: $40

Motel: $120

 

Flight for two to next port: $1,000

Chance of missing ship: 5%

 

so it is 40 + 120 versus .05 x 1000 or $160 versus $50 (given my made up numbers). And, yes, I know there are other expenses being ignored.

 

the reason to fly down early is not because it is cheaper but because it allows one to start the vacation relaxed frame of mind. As a certain advert says: priceless

I couldn't agree more!

[sail7seas]

In December, there is no chance I would book a flight out of the northeast for the day we are to board the ship. JMO but I would stress too much to make cost saving worth it. Almost every day it would work fine but doesn't matter the day before or after, it matters only the day you are to fly.

 

[Boytjie]

Save yourself the anxiety and cost of potentially missing the cruise all together and fly in at least a day early.

 

We sailed mid February this year - when we had a couple of snow storms and air traffic was a horrible mess. Now I know you are flying mid December, but you just never know when bad weather hits somewhere else yet and affect the East Coast. Who knew Dallas air traffic could get disrupted by snow... it happened in February this year.

 

Fly in a day early, have a relaxing evening and morning before you board the ship and start the cruise stress free (or less stressed!)

[mamaofami]

We're flying out of NYC from Kennedy for a January cruise and leaving 3 days early. I didn't want to spend all those extra nights at a motel, but December can be tricky. There are flight delays out of NYC on days when I can't understand why. There are so many things that can go wrong and I don't want to miss a cruise and have to fly to the first port.

[Ellen Dio]

I love the analysis of costs vs. peace of mind thank you all again - Just to help it so I don't sound so ridiculously cheap - Where I live boarding our dog for a week is more like $200 - 325 - kinda close to what we're paying for the cruise! I've cruised a few times before - usually out of Puerto Rico and I've always gone down the day before which seems plenty safe - I can't see in early December going down 2 or 3 days ahead of time - besides I'm not looking to vacation in Florida. I do have a friend in Hollywood so we'll go down the day before and see her - You have all convinced me that the sinking feeling I had that I'd be taking another day of vacation and spending a couple hundred dollars more than I'd been figuring when I was planning on arriving early the day of the cruise was right - thanks again.

[MJYFGSL]

I know none of you are psychic (well OK I'm assuming none of you are) so this may be hard to answer but I'd love some opinions.

How important do you think it is to arrive the day before the cruise? We are looking to book the 12/10 Westerdam out of FLL and will be flying in from JFK/LGA. It's partially a money thing and partially an animal thing - I'd like to not spend more money on a room and on an extra day of cat/dog sitting - plus our new dog has never been without us for more than a day and is not the best at separation - so I'm looking to keep this reasonable for our first test of how she does. (we've gone away but have always been able to come home if she freaks and have done so 2x now after just 1 1/2 days).

 

I can book a flight that gets us in a bit before noon - so even if it's late it could be fine. So opinions please. (horror stories are fine if you want to relive them but remember it's only mid December in New York).

 

We are sailing Dec.13 from Fort Lauderdale .We are flying in from JFK on Dec.12 .However,we probably should have booked a Dec.10 or 11 trip .We can only hope there will not be any snow .