Odyssey and Harmony PE Cruises 12/30 and 12/31 - YIKES Travel

[At Sea At Peace]

Well, for those on these Royal Caribbean ships down in the warm weather (not so here in FLL) and enjoying the sun, sea and all else cruising, please pay attention to the massive, massive mess going on with SW flights (no need to link articles, just Goggle), including here at FLL airport.  Same to those hoping to get on the next Royal cruises on these ships from Port Everglades.

 

60%-70% SW flights In/Out cancelled Monday and today, Tuesday.  Approximately 300,000-400,000 passengers per day with NO RE-BOOKING even allowed To/From some US airports until after December 31, 2022.

 

SW announced this will continue through the weekend.

 

I've personally been at FLL airport several time for 5-10 hours and witnessed these on my continuously cancelled flights.  There are thousands of people "not coming" and "not leaving" the airport for there planned cruises.  Many I met left FLL by car or alternate airline to get anywhere close to home.  Thousands stayed on the floor of the gate.

 

Without their luggage even.  The luggage is piled between all of the circulating belts.  Roped off by SW personnel.  Luggage is even on planes, some for 24+ hours.

 

The SW pilots at FLL and crew could not even make contact with Love Field HQ and were on hold for HOURS.

 

SO PLAN AHEAD

 

1.  Beat the crowd to find an alternative airline and flight - To/From

2.  Beat the crowd to find a hotel if (1) is not successful - To/From

3.  Really think twice about checking your luggage into a SW flight when you get there and assess.

4.  Get everything you really need into your carry on.

 

We've successfully got ONE family member in the air (non SW) today to Dulles (no BWI or DCA available).

 

We're successfully hoping the ONE we got for me (non SW) tomorrow to DCA makes it.  

 

I haven't seen my #3 grandsons 12/28 birthday since 2019!

 

GLTA

[GetToLivin]

10 minutes ago, At Sea At Peace said:

 

Without their luggage even.  The luggage is piled between all of the circulating belts.  Roped off by SW personnel.  Luggage is even on planes, some for 24+ hours.

It's crazy. I'm in Dallas and the local news was at Love Field yesterday, the media shots of the luggage carousel was insane. Luggage piled on top of each other with more luggage piled throughout the entire floor space. 

 

I mentioned this in another thread but DS had the first flight out of Omaha on Thursday so I thought we were set. Crew was there, plane was there. Pilot, not so much. He was coming in from Denver and those flights were canceled due to inability to de-ice the planes. SW called upon a local SW pilot and he graciously flew the flight to Dallas, then FL with a final stop at BWI, which ended up canceled. 

 

All this to say I know they really do everything they can but it's a huge domino effect that is going to take time to sort. Feel terrible for everyone caught in the crosshairs and consider myself lucky DS made it here at all.

[At Sea At Peace]

 

Southwest Airlines continues canceling flights as New Year holiday approaches

Forrest Brown, Karla Cripps and Barry Neild, CNN • Updated 27th December 2022

 

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/southwest-flight-cancellations-winter-storm-tuesday/index.html

 

 

Southwest Airlines: Customers can't rebook flights until after New Year's Day

BY OLIVIA LEACH

DECEMBER 27, 2022 / 6:16 AM / CBS DFW

 

https://www.cbsnews.com/dfw/news/southwest-airlines-customers-cant-rebook-flights-until-after-new-years-day/

 

 

Thousands of Canceled Flights Upend Travel Plans Across U.S.

Most of the disruption was on Southwest Airlines, which had called off more than 60 percent of its flights by Tuesday morning.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/27/us/southwest-flights-canceled-travel.html

 

 

 

 

 

[At Sea At Peace]

1 minute ago, GetToLivin said:

It's crazy. I'm in Dallas and the local news was at Love Field yesterday, the media shots of the luggage carousel was insane. Luggage piled on top of each other with more luggage piled throughout the entire floor space. 

 

I mentioned this in another thread but DS had the first flight out of Omaha on Thursday so I thought we were set. Crew was there, plane was there. Pilot, not so much. He was coming in from Denver and those flights were canceled due to inability to de-ice the planes. SW called upon a local SW pilot and he graciously flew the flight to Dallas, then FL with a final stop at BWI, which ended up canceled. 

 

All this to say I know they really do everything they can but it's a huge domino effect that is going to take time to sort. Feel terrible for everyone caught in the crosshairs and consider myself lucky DS made it here at all.

 

Crazy it is (Yoda).

 

I normally don't post such but I've been flying for almost 50 years, we're real savvy, and I've never seen anything like what I've seen at FLL in my life, or, met people whose plans were so unraveled they were just sitting on the floor in a daze.

 

In FLL, when the big RCCL ships come and go in a turnaround, we all avoid FLL airport like the plague.

 

I just can't see how they can put the genie back in the bottle when they were already booked through the week after NYs anyway.

 

I see concern more for those on the ships currently as we don't usually stay online that much.  

 

UBER also swamped.  Took me 1.5 hours to get a Uber LUX.  The 'traffic' was nasty with everyone exiting the Terminal at the same time.

 

[GetToLivin]

2 minutes ago, At Sea At Peace said:

 

In FLL, when the big RCCL ships come and go in a turnaround, we all avoid FLL airport like the plague.

I predict some RoyalUp offers will be granted at sail-away for these upcoming cruises...

[At Sea At Peace]

1 minute ago, GetToLivin said:

I predict some RoyalUp offers will be granted at sail-away for these upcoming cruises...

 

Good point, never thought of that.  There will definitely be a measurable # of no shows / couldn't get there openings.  

 

 

[At Sea At Peace]

A little update today on SW at FLL for those coming in early for Odyssey and Harmony at weeks end.

 

Inbound Cancellations - Through 12:50PM (i.e., so far) - Link in case.  😯

 

https://www.flightview.com/airport/FLL-Ft_Lauderdale-FL/arrivals

 

 

 

Outbound Cancellations - Through 2:10PM (i.e., so far)  - Link in case.  😯

 

https://www.flightview.com/airport/FLL-Ft_Lauderdale-FL/departures

 

 

 

 

[Ourusualbeach]

1 hour ago, GetToLivin said:

I predict some RoyalUp offers will be granted at sail-away for these upcoming cruises...

There were a lot of Royal up.offers granted last minute for this weeks sailing on Wonder (cruise sold out for a while) because of people not being able to get to the port due to the snowstorms last weekend. 

[cruise_co]

My son and his new wife were stuck in an airport on Sunday trying to get to FLL for their honeymoon cruise on Monday.  Their Spirit flight kept getting delayed and delayed and delayed.  Around 6pm they didn't want to take anymore chances so decided to rent a car to drive the 12 hours to FLL. That would put them in FLL with a cushion for traffic and well before final boarding. Only problem with that strategy was that there were absolutely no rental cars available in the state. The smaller agencies were closed because it was Christmas day and the airports were completely sold out, only honoring reservations made more than 24 hours prior. Greyhound was full, Amtrak was full.  All other airlines were full. The only option was to wait it out to see if their flight did actually fly.

 

Kudos to Spirit, they finally got the plane off the ground, kids got to FLL and they are now on Vision for their honeymoon.  We are loyal SW customers and would never have even considered Spirit airlines before, but will now reconsider as they managed to keep their planes in the air.  

 

My DIL mentioned that their roll call had so many people saying they were going to miss the cruise. I haven't heard if they got their Royal UP or not.

[mo&fran]

Funny that Delta, United, and American are noy having any problems.  Guess they know how to operate an airline.  Sure, weather affects all on them, but they seem to recover quickly. Flightaware only shows SWA with an issue. 

 Delta has always been our goto airline from Palm Beach.

[crzndeb]

My Alaska Air flight was cancelled on Sat. to San Diego from Seattle. Soonest rebook is tonight at 8:45pm. I had some leeway, since my family isn’t boarding the Navigator until the 30th. I have become very proficient on Flightradar24. I’m tracking all the originating flights before mine tonight. 
I have a feeling, a lot of people missed their cruises this week, and next. The whole US is a big weather cluster****

The issue wasn’t always weather either. It was issues with crews and planes being stuck somewhere else, and with delays the pilots and FA’s timed out and then couldn’t fly.
 

Edited December 27, 2022 by crzndeb

[At Sea At Peace]

26 minutes ago, cruise_co said:

Their Spirit flight kept getting delayed and delayed and delayed.  Around 6pm they didn't want to take anymore chances so decided to rent a car to drive the 12 hours to FLL. That would put them in FLL with a cushion for traffic and well before final boarding. Only problem with that strategy was that there were absolutely no rental cars available in the state. The smaller agencies were closed because it was Christmas day and the airports were completely sold out, only honoring reservations made more than 24 hours prior. Greyhound was full, Amtrak was full.  All other airlines were full. The only option was to wait it out to see if their flight did actually fly.

 

 

Yep, good point. 

 

While at the Gate yesterday for 5-6 hours, near the end before they did the formal announcement (kind of knew from the news and departure board starting dropping (literally removing) flights, some traveling families were trying to do the same and ran into the same issue.

 

They even tried shorter flights from FL all the way up to BWI to then get a rental to take back to New England.  They left for a BOS flight on another airline without their cruise luggage for their family.  It was going to BWI and connecting to NH.  I guess they'll get a call or email?

 

They were also hoping that BOS rental car centers would be open. 

 

 

Edited December 27, 2022 by At Sea At Peace

[At Sea At Peace]

12 minutes ago, mo&fran said:

Funny that Delta, United, and American are noy having any problems.  Guess they know how to operate an airline.  Sure, weather affects all on them, but they seem to recover quickly. Flightaware only shows SWA with an issue. 

 Delta has always been our goto airline from Palm Beach.

 

Yep, Jet Blue had a similar, but not so widespread, period a bit ago.  SW owns most of these.

 

Hearsay from the Gate and flight crew of our cancellation.

 

Their "systems" (communication and plane and crew scheduling) had completely 'melted down.  They said, and confirmed in WSJ article, that pilots where on HOLD for 4 hours trying to get assignments.

 

Our flight crew, with plane at gate, needed 1 more steward.  From another SW plane came a BWI based stewardess to fill the gap.  They couldn't communicate with Love Field (Dallas?) to get the okay (per the Gate and Crew) live.

 

I got my notice of departure changed to 1:32PM at 3:35PM!

 

During the nights, I got three separate emails after midnight that my fly was now cancelled!

 

🤣

[gmerick]

In hindsight, this is just another "you get what you pay for" situation.  It's nice to save on transportation costs, and the budget airlines do wonders in publishing rock bottom fares.  Then comes "problems" and suddenly the estabished airlines don't seem so costly anymore.  

I do hope that travel insurance does cover much of the expense of hotel bills, lost / delayed luggage, alternate transportation cost, and missed cruise fare.  I'd question though if travelers cut the corners on flights whether they might also have foregone travel insurance?

But in the end, how does one put value on a ruined vacation, loved ones not seen, and nights spent sleeping on the floor of an airport?

[Husky1987]

12 minutes ago, crzndeb said:

My Alaska Air flight was cancelled on Sat. to San Diego from Seattle. Soonest rebook is tonight at 8:45pm. I had some leeway, since my family isn’t boarding the Navigator until the 30th. I have become very proficient on Flightradar24. I’m tracking all the originating flights before mine tonight. 
I have a feeling, a lot of people missed their cruises this week, and next. The whole US is a big weather cluster****

The issue wasn’t always weather either. It was issues with crews and planes being stuck somewhere else, and with delays the pilots and FA’s timed out and then couldn’t fly.
 

We got caught in the SeaTac Alaska debacle as well.  Flight to San Antonio Friday was cancelled, nothing else available to book until yesterday so we just bagged the trip.  I'm hearing SeaTac is a nightmare still (especially with luggage)...best of luck to you.

[At Sea At Peace]

7 minutes ago, gmerick said:

In hindsight, this is just another "you get what you pay for" situation.  It's nice to save on transportation costs, and the budget airlines do wonders in publishing rock bottom fares.  Then comes "problems" and suddenly the estabished airlines don't seem so costly anymore.  

I do hope that travel insurance does cover much of the expense of hotel bills, lost / delayed luggage, alternate transportation cost, and missed cruise fare.  I'd question though if travelers cut the corners on flights whether they might also have foregone travel insurance?

But in the end, how does one put value on a ruined vacation, loved ones not seen, and nights spent sleeping on the floor of an airport?

 

Good points.  We fly SW when we can because W flies free companion pass and our summer airport MHT in NH has SW as an anchor there.  We're working on Jet Blue.  We always to Jet Blue if available on trips longer out of BOS or FLL or AUS.

I'm reading on FB that the cruise line insurer for RCCL is giving some weird denials?  Hearsay.  "Doesn't count pilot not showing up."  

 

I have no idea if such is true.  The SW cost to settle all of this must be massive, 400,000 per day and, like you pointed out, beyond the flights it's hotels, meals, lost luggage and missed cruises.

 

12 minutes ago, Husky1987 said:

We got caught in the SeaTac Alaska debacle as well.  Flight to San Antonio Friday was cancelled, nothing else available to book until yesterday so we just bagged the trip.  I'm hearing SeaTac is a nightmare still (especially with luggage)...best of luck to you.

 

I read their runways were frozen even when treated, as well in Denver.

 

Now, this will come as a surprise (or not) to many.  These runways are not heated; however, in Berlin NH (up 'nawth quite a bit) they get a freaking $19.5 MILLION Federal Grant to HEAT THE DOWNTOWN WALKWAYS AND STREETS AND PARKING LOTS!!!

 

https://www.conwaydailysun.com/berlin_sun/news/local/berlin-awarded-19-5-million-grant-for-downtown-snowmelt-system/article_b2f67a26-18bd-11ed-a98a-8be3b0dc0abb.html

 

 

[At Sea At Peace]

Well they formally announced what the rumors (they are 'rebooting' everything, 2/3rds reduction, reset planes, pilots and crew and give a breather to land-based staff and crew that have tens of thousands of pieces of luggage to deal with) have been.

 

Sort of like everything else; unplug it, wait and then plug it back in.  🙄

 

Southwest Airlines CEO Says More Cancellations Ahead as Airline Tries to Recover

Carrier’s current plan is to keep its announced flight cuts in place through Thursday; some two-thirds of its flights were canceled Tuesday

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/southwests-troubles-mount-as-airline-scraps-more-than-half-its-flights-11672084678?mod=hp_lead_pos1

 

WSJ paywall, but you'll get the gist.

 

I hope people on board these RCCL ships headed back into FLL are being updated by the Captain or CD about what is going on (I have no idea).  The 'ripple effect' on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday disembarkation / embarkations at Port Everglades could still be seriously impacted.

[robmtx]

1 hour ago, gmerick said:

In hindsight, this is just another "you get what you pay for" situation.  It's nice to save on transportation costs, and the budget airlines do wonders in publishing rock bottom fares.  Then comes "problems" and suddenly the estabished airlines don't seem so costly anymore.  

I do hope that travel insurance does cover much of the expense of hotel bills, lost / delayed luggage, alternate transportation cost, and missed cruise fare.  I'd question though if travelers cut the corners on flights whether they might also have foregone travel insurance?

But in the end, how does one put value on a ruined vacation, loved ones not seen, and nights spent sleeping on the floor of an airport?

 

Is American Airlines a budget airline? I seem to recall just 6 months ago they were cancelling thousands of flights and leaving people stranded all over the country.

 

This isn't related to how much you pay for a ticket. We actually flew Southwest over the summer BECAUSE of American Airlines' failures to maintain a reliable schedule out of PHL.

 

We were very fortunate SWA was there for us!
 

[GetToLivin]

SWA is often just as much as AA for our flights so I hardly consider it a "budget" airline. And honestly, by the time you add bags and seats to Spirit or Frontier, those aren't even "deals" anymore. I also recall ALL major airlines having issues especially after people started flying more. I really don't think the price of the ticket had ANYTHING to do with what SWA is dealing with. Murpheys Law is in full effect and they're doing what they can to recover from a massive storm and a load of bad luck that came with it.

[At Sea At Peace]

Although it's been going on all day and I linked and posted screenshots of this morning to a little after noon, here's a look at the current 'window' of cancellations In/Out FLL for those coming in for Port Everglades cruises and for those on current cruises (Odyssey and Harmony, Friday and Saturday returns).

 

If you can, it would seem to make sense to try to rebook on another airline until SW gets rebooted and back to normal.

 

GLTA

 

Link - toggle between departures and arrivals.

 

https://www.flightview.com/airport/FLL-Ft_Lauderdale-FL/departures

 

 

Incoming ~ Early evening

 

 

Departing ~ through 8:20PM

 

 

 

Edited December 27, 2022 by At Sea At Peace

[Stealthdog]

We dont fly to Florida anymore. We normally drive (last time we took autotrain).  Yeah its a long 14 hour drive for us, but we got tired of multi hour delayed flights and figured its so much cheaper just to drive it.

 

[DaKahuna]

25 minutes ago, Stealthdog said:

We dont fly to Florida anymore. We normally drive (last time we took autotrain).  Yeah its a long 14 hour drive for us, but we got tired of multi hour delayed flights and figured its so much cheaper just to drive it.

 

 

 I have flown out of IAD for 30 cruises so far and have not experienced but one multi-hour delay.  I consider us lucky but at my age, a 14-hour drive would take three days.   

 

 I already have flight reservations for this years cruises out of Florida but will keep the autotrain in mind for future sailings out of Florida.

[At Sea At Peace]

8 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

 

 

That's a great one!

 

For a friend ~

 

 

[irishgal432]

My sister returned on 12/24 to fll and sat at the airport for 5 hours until they said the plane was not coming due to staffing.  They were lucky, SW gave them 2 hotel rooms, meal vouchers.  They got their luggage back since it was not loaded on a plane. Then the flights 2 days later were cancelled and they rented a car to go to Ft Meyers and were able to get out on the only flight of the day on 12/26.

 

[Ocean Boy]

23 hours ago, gmerick said:

In hindsight, this is just another "you get what you pay for" situation.  It's nice to save on transportation costs, and the budget airlines do wonders in publishing rock bottom fares.  Then comes "problems" and suddenly the estabished airlines don't seem so costly anymore.  

I do hope that travel insurance does cover much of the expense of hotel bills, lost / delayed luggage, alternate transportation cost, and missed cruise fare.  I'd question though if travelers cut the corners on flights whether they might also have foregone travel insurance?

But in the end, how does one put value on a ruined vacation, loved ones not seen, and nights spent sleeping on the floor of an airport?

It would be more tolerable if SW truly was budget but it is costing me close to $300 to get home on SW for a 3 hr flight after my cruise. The only thing budget about SW is how they run the airline.