Thinking about driving to Wonder this week

[ATSEAMYLIFE]

20 minutes ago, poocher said:

It’s not just the weather where you are & where you’re going.  Where the plane is coming from also has an impact.  

That's why you get the first flight of the morning so you know the plane has been there all night.  

[poocher]

Absolutely but not always possible 

[PolicromaSol]

I've done this from New Mexico. The drive is long, but enjoyable if you take the extra time and treat it as an extension of your vacation.

 

Giving the car a little love before the trip, as others have suggested, can't hurt either.

 

The time we did it, we gave ourselves a buffer day in case the drive took longer than planned. (And we figured we could spend a day at the space center the day before.) Well, we needed the buffer day, as it took more time than expected to get there, but we still had our day at the space center. It was worth it.

 

 

[DirtyDawg]

@chiguypaul, It' sounds like you have things covered. Have a great cruise. 

[chiguypaul]

12 minutes ago, DirtyDawg said:

@chiguypaul, It' sounds like you have things covered. Have a great cruise. 

Thanks. Appreciate everybody’s comments.

[DirtyDawg]

16 minutes ago, chiguypaul said:

Thanks. Appreciate everybody’s comments.

Just one final question. Won't cruising at this time of the year interfere with you watching Da Bears playoff run? 😇

[chiguypaul]

15 minutes ago, DirtyDawg said:

Just one final question. Won't cruising at this time of the year interfere with you watching Da Bears playoff run? 😇

Yea...right. 🙂 That season ended a few weeks ago.

[cruisegirl1]

sorry  - wrong thread.  Wish there was a delete key.

Edited December 26, 2022 by cruisegirl1

[midwife1021]

Southwest is not going to be back to normal for a long time.  😞  I was caught in the great Southwest Christmas meltdown.

 

After disembarking Oasis on 12/22, we flew AA to Tampa to take care of the elders and make sure they got home OK, with a plan for husband and our boys to spend most of the next day with his parents and fly back 12/23 on the late TPA-IND flight. We were at the airport (and rental car already returned) when our flight was cancelled and rebooked by the airline for 12/25 morning. When we got up to start getting ready, that flight was also canceled by SWA and we they rebooked us for 12/28, which was too late for us.  We went back to the airport, exchanged our 2nd rental car for a bigger SUV and drove from Tampa back to Indy in one go (exactly 16 hours from In-law's house to our driveway about an hour away from the IND airport). 

If I had to do it again, I would rotate the drivers and go straight through without sit-down meals.  It is not a horrible drive, and depending on when you go traffic may significantly increase drive time.  Took 2 days with a total of about 22 hours total travel time to drive that same route in 2019 a few days before Christmas.  

 

 

[Jimbo]

48 minutes ago, chiguypaul said:

Yea...right. 🙂 That season ended a few weeks ago.

Would have been best to finish their season once preseason was  done because  after that went down hill fast..........😉

[ATSEAMYLIFE]

Track your flights for the next couple of days and see how they recover.  

 

https://www.airportia.com/airlines/southwest-airlines/

 

[GetToLivin]

17 hours ago, ATSEAMYLIFE said:

That's why you get the first flight of the morning so you know the plane has been there all night.  

That's what I thought too, until your realize your pilot is coming in from another flight on the same morning. Happened to DS last week. Supposed to leave first flight out of Omaha, plane was there, crew was there. But where was the pilot? Stranded in Denver, couldn't de-ice the plane. Luckily SW contacted a local pilot who graciously came to the airport and flew them to Dallas, had he not done that, he wouldn't have made it here (at least not on that day).

[ATSEAMYLIFE]

11 minutes ago, GetToLivin said:

That's what I thought too, until your realize your pilot is coming in from another flight on the same morning.

Sometimes that happens.  We have never really had an issue with any early AM flight on SWA.  Delta, now that's another story.  

[ATSEAMYLIFE]

Looks like you better drive..

[topanga49er]

On 12/25/2022 at 10:26 AM, chiguypaul said:

I live in Chicago. I leave for the wonder on December 29. My cruise is on December 31. I am flying on Southwest. Given what a mess Southwest Airlines is right now, I have a lot of concerns about the probability of my flight getting out. I know it’s a couple days away but I’m worried about it. So I’m thinking about driving with my family from Chicago to Port Canaveral. We have four people that could drive so it wouldn’t be horrible but definitely not ideal. Obviously I need to wait a day or two to see what the airline landscape looks like. Was also thinking about renting a car instead of using our own but I know I can trust my own car.  Just wanted to reach out to my cruise critic folks to see what their thoughts are on this. I might be overthinking it. Thanks.

From all the reports, I think you should either drive or get on another airline.  Right now SW is showing no available flights until Jan 1.  They are such a mess.  And even though the other airlines are better it is going to be so tough to get on another airline before your cruise bc of SW screwup.  This happened to my good friend who is also driving down.  The good news is SW may pay for your rental car to do it.  Ask and good luck!

 

[alexgtp]

On 12/25/2022 at 9:26 AM, chiguypaul said:

I live in Chicago. I leave for the wonder on December 29. My cruise is on December 31. I am flying on Southwest. Given what a mess Southwest Airlines is right now, I have a lot of concerns about the probability of my flight getting out. I know it’s a couple days away but I’m worried about it. So I’m thinking about driving with my family from Chicago to Port Canaveral. We have four people that could drive so it wouldn’t be horrible but definitely not ideal. Obviously I need to wait a day or two to see what the airline landscape looks like. Was also thinking about renting a car instead of using our own but I know I can trust my own car.  Just wanted to reach out to my cruise critic folks to see what their thoughts are on this. I might be overthinking it. Thanks.

Same boat as you. 12 PPL , 2 seniors and 1 infant

 

Leaving Chicago for FLL for Harmony 31st cruise. Our SW Flight is Friday, But we already have 2 cars booked and leaving on Thursday so we have 2 days to get into FLL and make our hotel reservation for Friday PM.  We are Stopping midway in Georgia for an overnight stay.

We rented 1 way down, hoping the Southwest situation gets resolved by the time we need to fly home.

I don't trust SW to get their act together this week, looks like their main issue is getting staff moved to correct locations due to outdated computer system they use.

So it is a staffing issue and the fact that Southwest uses a point to point system as opposed to a HUB style system, add to their dilemma's. So they pretty much have staff trapped all over the USA without any direction on where they are to be, or an effecient system to get them where they need to be. Very disappointing as I am a frequent SWA customer.

[Ret MP]

On 12/26/2022 at 11:44 AM, ATSEAMYLIFE said:

Sometimes that happens.  We have never really had an issue with any early AM flight on SWA.  Delta, now that's another story.  

We had it happen last May going to Seattle on SW but it was a flight attendant that was late for some reason.  We did get going but we were about 45 minutes late.  We made it to Seattle on time, thankfully.  

[jerseygirl3]

1 hour ago, alexgtp said:

Same boat as you. 12 PPL , 2 seniors and 1 infant

 

Leaving Chicago for FLL for Harmony 31st cruise. Our SW Flight is Friday, But we already have 2 cars booked and leaving on Thursday so we have 2 days to get into FLL and make our hotel reservation for Friday PM.  We are Stopping midway in Georgia for an overnight stay.

We rented 1 way down, hoping the Southwest situation gets resolved by the time we need to fly home.

I don't trust SW to get their act together this week, looks like their main issue is getting staff moved to correct locations due to outdated computer system they use.

So it is a staffing issue and the fact that Southwest uses a point to point system as opposed to a HUB style system, add to their dilemma's. So they pretty much have staff trapped all over the USA without any direction on where they are to be, or an effecient system to get them where they need to be. Very disappointing as I am a frequent SWA customer.

Make sure your return flight isnt cancelled. If you're not on the outbound flight, your return us automatically cancelked, unless on a different locatir number. 

[chiguypaul]

1 hour ago, alexgtp said:

Same boat as you. 12 PPL , 2 seniors and 1 infant

 

Leaving Chicago for FLL for Harmony 31st cruise. Our SW Flight is Friday, But we already have 2 cars booked and leaving on Thursday so we have 2 days to get into FLL and make our hotel reservation for Friday PM.  We are Stopping midway in Georgia for an overnight stay.

We rented 1 way down, hoping the Southwest situation gets resolved by the time we need to fly home.

I don't trust SW to get their act together this week, looks like their main issue is getting staff moved to correct locations due to outdated computer system they use.

So it is a staffing issue and the fact that Southwest uses a point to point system as opposed to a HUB style system, add to their dilemma's. So they pretty much have staff trapped all over the USA without any direction on where they are to be, or an effecient system to get them where they need to be. Very disappointing as I am a frequent SWA customer.

I think you're making the right call. It's not worth missing the cruise. The flights from MDW or MCO seem to be moving today, but all you need is your flight to be canceled and that's game over. We already had AA scheduled back. Was just a fluke with how we scheduled this time. Normally we're SW RT. When you get tired of that drive - think about not having the stress of if your flight will go or not!

[cooncat_mom]

Southwest in New England is a mess still, add in  staffing problems, planes not in position and the WiFi is

 still iffy.  IF you drive, please schedule walking breaks in (those if you with lityle ones shouldn't be in trouble 😆) - I've had long distance drivers admitted to the hospital I work at with DVTs. One week we had 3 of them admitted.  For others, AmTrak can be an alternative....

[chiguypaul]

Just now, cooncat_mom said:

Southwest in New England is a mess still, add in  staffing problems, planes not in position and the WiFi is

 still iffy.  IF you drive, please schedule walking breaks in (those if you with lityle ones shouldn't be in trouble 😆) - I've had long distance drivers admitted to the hospital I work at with DVTs. One week we had 3 of them admitted.  For others, AmTrak can be an alternative....

Great advice on the breaks for all. We decided to add an extra day of travel to break out the legs and make them a little shorter. Sometimes we pull over just to stretch for 5 minutes when we have long trips. 🙂

[cooncat_mom]

12 minutes ago, chiguypaul said:

Great advice on the breaks for all. We decided to add an extra day of travel to break out the legs and make them a little shorter. Sometimes we pull over just to stretch for 5 minutes when we have long trips. 🙂

Umm...I'm a mom and an ex-paramedic still working at a hospital...can you say worry-wart? (Drives my adult kids nuts sometimes. Even if I AM right! 😂😂😂)

[DirtyDawg]

On 12/26/2022 at 12:32 PM, GetToLivin said:

That's what I thought too, until your realize your pilot is coming in from another flight on the same morning. Happened to DS last week. Supposed to leave first flight out of Omaha, plane was there, crew was there. But where was the pilot? Stranded in Denver, couldn't de-ice the plane. Luckily SW contacted a local pilot who graciously came to the airport and flew them to Dallas, had he not done that, he wouldn't have made it here (at least not on that day).

I blame this whole mess on Elon Musk. Where the heck is that self flying Tesla 777 you've been yapping about on Twit Central?✈️ 💥

 

(Dear Elon, that was a joke. 🤣)

 

Edited December 27, 2022 by DirtyDawg

[LilBlackDress]

We live near Rockford and drive to Fort Everglades and Miami almost every year sometimes twice a year (mainly in the winter) 

We give ourselves an extra day to arrive but hardly ever need it so we have more fun in the sun. 

We typically stay the night near Atlanta. Only because regardless of what time of day or night that we are near Atlanta, there is always a traffic jam that we don't want to sit in and keep driving through, So we either end or start our next day there  LOL 

 

Good luck with whatever you decide!! 

[barbeyg]

I personally would drive. Southwest has had an operational meltdown.  With 2/3 of flights cancelled today and tomorrow, and passengers on Friday already being advised of cancellation of their flights (friends of ours), I wouldn’t fly SW right now if you paid me to. 
 

Hope all goes well.