would you take a 10:40 am flight out of fll or 7:15 pm, if there was no other choice

[beachchairs2]

well dh has thrown up his hands and said...DO WHAT YOU WANT....lol...

 

translation.....god help you if we miss the flight....lol...besides we are with choice air and they may not even do the change, since they do not guarantee anything before 11....

[CRUZBUDS]

wow -- it is tough -- We're taking a chance on our 11:20 --- If I had the 10:40 VS 7:00 I don't know what we'd do!

 

Good Luck!

 

[Macadian]

I would be practising the delivery of my "another fine mess you have gotton us into"! As for the "I told you so", I already have that polished to perfection:D

[Starry Eyes]

well dh has thrown up his hands and said...DO WHAT YOU WANT....lol...

 

translation.....god help you if we miss the flight....lol...besides we are with choice air and they may not even do the change, since they do not guarantee anything before 11....

 

Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

My DH would worry from the moment I booked such an early flight, and I'd have to have a solid back-up plan to keep it even semi-sane. We had a similar flight post cruise from Newark once; in addition to the flight, I booked a one way rental car so, worst case, we could drive home (about 15 hours). We made that flight with ease and cancelled the car rental from the airport.

[warmwinds]

If you're with Choice Air, then I think you're right, they will be the final decision. Maybe they can switch you to another airline with better times? (never used Choice Air, so not sure how it works. I'm still pretty sure if an airline makes a radical change, you don't have to keep it).

[lkj1301]

Personally I like to extend our vacation. After 1 cruise (we disembarked in Miami), we went to the airport, checked our luggage, then rented a car & went self touring in the everglades. We had 8 hrs to drive around and sightsee. Had a wonderful time. Would do it again in a heartbeat. I'd also, rather have the later flight than be stressed on the cruise wondering if we're going to miss our flight. :eek:

[Marelaine]

This poll is close.

Cruzbuds and BeachChairs2, please come back after your cruise and let us know if you had any problems making the early flights.

[beachchairs2]

you are right ...it is very close....but we will probably do the late one...but should we do the early one, I will definitely write and tell you what kind of a nail biter it was....

[wallie5446]

Just off the Reflection with 6 ships in Miami, friends that were off by 7:20 and sitting in the Ft Lauderdale airport at 8:30 AM! :) we lingered at breakfast, had a final Coffee with friend's. We were in group 28 to leave and were still at our hotel in Coral Gables before 10:00 am. I would not have recommended this until today. We now will say it can be done without any problem.

[beachchairs2]

thanks you everyone....

based on the poll, I have conceded to my DH to take the late flight at 7:15...that was our agreement, so I had to honour it....

I also promised that if we were to take the early flight at 10:45 I would write and let you all know how that went...

I have been watching the aircanada site to see if they would add any additional flights...

LO AND BEHOLD!!!

a 13:35 appeared....I called immediately and after an hour on hold was told that the change has been added to our file and I need to call choice air and have them make the change...no additional cost...

called choice air, they said within 72 hours we will have a confirmation....it has been 36 hours so far....just hope this flight does not get all booked up before choice air makes the switch....

so I will let you all know when I get this confirmation....but I am so happy that I persevered and kept looking...

[warmwinds]

Fingers crossed for you - what a great outcome that would be.

I've never used Choice Air, but it sounds like such a pain to have to go through them for every little thing, like using a TA (which I don't do, either). I like being in control of my own destiny.

I hope they saved you a bundle for all this aggravation.

[beachchairs2]

thank you so much....

you are so right...would never use choice air unless there was a substantial saving...and there was...they took off $600 of our cruise price....it was a promo....that or drinks package..we dont drink....

yes having to call them and having to wait....

they just better come through .....

[Maligator]

I waited until I actually went through the process before I weighed in on this. We were on the 11/16-11/30 Eclipse sailing. We flew into FLL the morning of our embarkation and flew out the morning of our disembarkation and paid for the transfer through Celebrity.

We flew in from IAH on United and landed around 11:00am. After getting our bags, hooking up with the Celebrity/RCCL rep in the baggage claim, we were on a bus in short order. The bus trip was all of 10 minutes to the port and we were deposited at the entrance to the ticketing building (or whatever its called).

On the other end, we were assigned baggage group #2, which I believe was due to having the Celebrity transfer. We were off the ship and dragging our bags through Immigration in minutes. The buses were right outside the building and across the driveway. The driver had us leave our bags either by the front or back of the bus, depending on which airline. The bus took about 15 minutes to fill, as others made it through Immigration and everyone seemed to have group #2 tags. Another 10 minute drive (it was the same driver as our arrival transfer) and we were at Terminal C for United a good hour before our flight boarded.

Long story short: the early flight worked just fine for us. Others' results may vary, depending on circumstances and traffic or airline shenanigans.

[beachchairs2]

thank you for posting....and I am so glad it all worked so well for you...

things have turned out well for us too...aircanada added another flight that leaves fll at 1:30 perfect for us...

I was able to switch to that without any additional cost...now we will leisurely disembark.....

but your advice may help someone else in the same predicament we were in....

[Marelaine]

That's perfect for you BeachChairs 2. The 1:30 flight will allow you to have breakfast on the ship. Have a great vacation.

[sfpen66]

I would take the 10:40am flight. We have taken a flight out of FLL departing at 10:15. We made it in plenty of time. We did the walk off with our luggage disembarking from Emerald Princess. Good luck!

[Dick in Falls Church]

Arrived FLL Sunday on the Silhouette, transAtlantic.
Very, very, very slow debarkation (attributed to Customs and Immigration). We made our 12:15 flight with almost 5 minutes to spare. and a few years back, we missed a 1200 flight (but the agent was good enough to rebook us on a later flight with no extra charge, although we lost our first class seats and ended up with 2 middle seats). The self-checkin at the airport wouldn't recognize our flight info, so there was almost 30 minutes in line waiting for a live agent.

[SusieV]

If anyone's interested, we're gambling and have not changed our flight coming home on Jan 19 Silhouette. We're booked on the 10:40am flight.

So... fingers crossed! We did not want to stay over an extra day (requires babysitters to take another day off work), nor did we want to sit at the airport for hours. It would be nice to be home so early if it works out! Edited December 20, 2013 by SusieV

[Fouremco]

[quote name='SusieV']If anyone's interested, we're gambling and have not changed our flight coming home on Jan 19 Silhouette. We're booked on the 10:40am flight.

So... fingers crossed! We did not want to stay over an extra day, nor did we want to tour Ft Lauderdale. It would be nice to be home so early if it works out![/QUOTE]
[FONT="Comic Sans MS"][SIZE="4"]Well, best of luck to you! I'd never want the stress during my cruise, but you've certainly given it a huge amount of thought and are comfortable with your decision.

Tell us what happens when you get back! :)[/SIZE][/FONT]

[derekjp47]

[quote name='beachchairs2']poll

1. 10:40 am

2. 7:15 pm[/QUOTE]

I wouldn't hesitate in taking the 10:40 flight. I have gone out of Port Everglades about twice a year for the past 7-8 years and every time but one we drove home to Alabama the same day. The latest we have got on the turnpike is 8:30 and the one time we flew we had a 9:30 a.m. And actually got moved up to the 8:00. The secret is self walk off, if you get in line early, you can be off and out of the terminal in less than half an hour. If you can't walk off, then you are at the mercy of many others and would agree with those who say to take the later flight.

[Oceangoer2]

[quote name='SusieV']If anyone's interested, we're gambling and have not changed our flight coming home on Jan 19 Silhouette. We're booked on the 10:40am flight.

So... fingers crossed! We did not want to stay over an extra day (requires babysitters to take another day off work), nor did we want to sit at the airport for hours. It would be nice to be home so early if it works out![/QUOTE]
We took that flight into Toronto as well a few cruises ago...walked off with our luggage around 7am and through Customs quickly. Arrived at the airport in about 15 minutes with no crowd at the check-in counter as we were ahead of the many groups and buses which would arrive in the next hour...in the terminal for coffee before 8am. We do the walk-off process every time now as it's a little harder to predict how it will go at the airport when so many from all the ships arrive at approximately the same time. Edited December 20, 2013 by oceangoer2

[dodger1964]

Sorry if mentioned before. Didn't read through whole tread.

Make sure to check in for flight day before. If only carry on bags makes even better.