Leave the day before or Early morning?

[elainmir]

We typically drive the morning of...

 

my birthday cruise we'll leave by 5 am CST which is 6 am EST Jacksonville time...5 hours puts us at 11 am...perfect even if we encounter an issue.

 

Mobile is 3 hours from us for our Thanksgiving cruise..my goal is 7:30 am the morning of...

 

that hotel cost the day before totally covers my parking for the each cruise which is why I do not drive in the night before...I only do that if it's Miami or some place longer than 6 hours..:D

[patrice1]

We live in Key West and always cruise out of Miami or Ft. Lauderdale. This is a 3.5 to 4.5 hour trip. However, there's only one road in and one out, so if there's an accident, the road could be closed for as much as 12 hours (we've seen it happen!). Plus, the trip is very stressful a drive, especially that most of it is not on a highway like I-95, which is stressful enough.

 

Originally, we went the day of, but is was so stressful, we started going the night before. One year, we went 2 nights before to see a show in FLL and enjoyed the decompression time so much, we now start our vacations 2 days before the cruise and just include it in the price of the cruise. Gives us a chance to get "off the rock" and experience the "real world", try different restaurants and return to old favorites.

[Mr & Mrs Happy]

We live about 4 hours from the port so leave the morning of the cruise. With the new check-in restrictions, I've started asking myself if maybe we should get a hotel overnight and wander over to the port after a nice breakfast. In the past, though, we've always left the house no later than 8:00, usually more like 7:00.

 

What check - in restrictions?

 

The hubster feels the money we'd pay for the hotel could be used on the ship...lol.

[shorties]

Hi y'all.

 

The hubster stated we will leave here about 4 a.m. (no later than 5 a.m.) Saturday (day of cruise) to give us some breathing room.

 

We'll be leaving from the Pensacola headed west on I-10 to New Orleans.

 

I always pack 1 or 2 days in advance. I have a planner which is covered in sticky notes. I also have a paper pinned by our keys to remind me to check the planner...lol.

 

If we arrive to the port too early, do they allow you in to just sit in your car?

If you get into New Orleans before 9AM, I would just go to Cafe Du Monde for coffee and beignets. You'll still have plenty of time to get to the ship.

[dolphin2012]

We used to drive up the day of the cruise to Galveston but now we go a day early. I'm a worrier and its just better for us to get there and just relax. I always get the park and cruise package and its a lot easier for us older folks. They take you to the port and pick you back up no worries. We have had car trouble on vakay before and I just don't want to chance it. It just depends on your worry level. I'm the kind of person that wont leave my passports or meds for a second till I'm on the ship. Last year a friend of ours got their car broken into the nite before and somebody stole all the luggage. There was a lot of flooding in texas this summer and on the way home they detoured us an extra two hours!! we were so exhausted... Good luck and I'm sure you can figure out what works for your family.

[BenjiRodney]

Even flying a day early is not without issues. Our first flight to Charlotte NC had to divert due to fog in Charlotte, diverted to Tennessee to refuel. Sat on the ground until Charlotte reopened, so a normal 45 minute flight took 5 hours. Missed the connection to San Juan, had to make a latter flight. Our luggage did not arrive in San Juan until we were checking out of the hotel. We always go 1-2 days early now.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[2wheelin]

Always fly in a day early when we leave from the Midwest. This time we need to be in Memphis for a wedding the night before cruise out of NOLA. Drive on Sun, Nov 27 (Thanksgiving weekend) is 400 miles/ 7 hours?

Anyone with any ideas on traffic in NOLA that Sun planning to arrive 1:00 or so. I know there is a big ball game and people will be returning from the weekend but will that impact getting into the city and to the port?

[simplelife]

Now you guys are making me rethink everything. I live in Central Florida and cruising out of Fort Lauderdale on Sunday, 11/20. It's a 4 hour drive and was going to leave early Sunday morning, but these posts are making me question that decision.

 

We cruised out of Miami a couple of years ago and drove as far as Jupiter the day before -finished out the last hour or so the day of. Another time we cruised out of Fort Lauderdale. We drove to Cocoa beach the day before and finished the drive the day of. Worked out just fine.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Lew Port]

Even flying a day early is not without issues. Our first flight to Charlotte NC had to divert due to fog in Charlotte, diverted to Tennessee to refuel. Sat on the ground until Charlotte reopened, so a normal 45 minute flight took 5 hours. Missed the connection to San Juan, had to make a latter flight. Our luggage did not arrive in San Juan until we were checking out of the hotel. We always go 1-2 days early now.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

On Friday we were to fly to Charlotte, but the small airline has cancelled their early morning flight to Charlotte. I guess flying 2 or 3 passengers is not a $$ making proposition AARRGGHH. After much investigation, we have decided to rent a car and drive to the Charlotte airport. The return flights are all still scheduled.

Flying out of Charleston WV , would have added $400 to the flights and a ton of $$ to park at the Charleston airport

[DRZ2]

We leave out of New Orleans also, a 9 HR drive for us. We head down 1-2 days early and start the vacation a little early. I have huge fears of being behind a horrible traffic accident, missing the boat and then having to fly to the next port. What we spend on a hotel and prevacation in New Orleans is still cheaper then airfare to the next port.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[jsglow]

We wish we had it as lucky as you close in cruisers. As we need to fly to any port, we always travel the day before, most typically on an early evening flight that'll get us to our near port motel at a reasonable hour, say 9p. Almost all flights for us are non-stop so the likelihood that our carrier couldn't get us there is pretty low. Even if we were to be delayed 8 hours by weather, we'd still make the ship. If a major snow storm were projected on our end, we'd know 24 hours in advance and be able to switch our flight and plans to head out immediately, maybe even driving to a distant airport part way to FLA. I'm not exactly sure how I would have handled the hurricane 2 weeks ago. But that would have been true for everyone.

 

I agree with those that have 8-10 hour port drive. That's a day before event too. For those 2-3 hours away I'd almost certainly drive the morning of the cruise leaving early enough to account for any glitches. We routinely attend sporting events that are two hours away and our arrival time can be estimated within 10 minutes 95-98% of the time.