200 passengers missed their Freedom cruise yesterday

[nybumpkin]

I am wondering if flying in 'one' day prior to a cruise is enough. Recently our airport was closed for almost 2 straight days. Fortunately I was coming home and not trying to fly out for a cruise.

I think if you have the time to fly 2 days early, it's worth it. Three years ago when we flew to NOLA for our Conquest cruise, we planned to arrive in NOLA Friday morning for a Sunday cruise. We ended up getting stuck in Chicago when the airline was experiencing some employee troubles and canceled our flight to NOLA. We didn't arrive in NOLA until 7 pm on Saturday. Last month, we planned to arrive in Miami late Friday night for a Sunday cruise and ended spending Friday night in Atlanta when we missed our connecting flight. Both times the cause was airline-related (two different airlines) and had nothing to do with the weather. For us, the main loss was losing some time in NOLA and Miami, but fortunately it didn't affect our cruises.

[Susan-M]

]I am wondering if flying in 'one' day prior to a cruise is enough.

Not always .... if they were flying out yesterday for a cruise today, chances are probably pretty slim that they would have been able to get rebooked onto a flight today.

[ronrythm]

Unfortunately, in these days of fewer flights, it doesn't have to be bad weather in your area. Los Angeles International has had dozens of flights canceled this winter because the plane that was supposed to be doing the route never made it here, due to bad weather somewhere else and the airline either didn't have a replacement plane or a replacement crew. With the hub system that most airlines use, this is just getting worse.

Survive,

Ron

[NCTribeFan]

How long have they lived in Ohio? Cleveland? :confused: I live about 60 miles from Cleveland and have lived in Ohio all my life. I can tell you that March and sometimes April we can have 12 foot plus snow storms. They should have known that. There have been many Easters in April with snow on the ground! Many a spring break ruined by cold, snow and ice. We are leaving in a week, driving not flying, we have included an extra full day into our travels because it is March!!!

 

No kidding! I grew up on the east side and when I was reading about this latest blizzard and people staying in, I was thinking, "but I used to get out and go to work and do everything! I never let a few feet of snow and whiteout conditions keep me at home!"

 

Of course, I moved away when I was 19! :p

 

Yes, March is winter in many parts of the country. Thankfully, I no longer live in one of those areas!

 

I feel for those folks who missed their cruise. I would be SO depressed. It isn't even a question of being compensated. It's the fact that I had planned for a cruise for 6 months, or a year or more, and was stuck at home, just when I most needed to get away to somewhere warm.

 

:(

[Wennfred]

that is fine unless you work a job where you have to work the last day and the first day after to get paid for your vacation. YES, there are companies out there that won't give you your vacation pay if you call in the day before.

 

 

Time to find a new job I guess.

 

 

Fred

[Kudos2Fly]

It also depends on how flexible you can be. My husband and I work for our selves. And we vacation when we want to. On our lasted cruise we drove down to Miami 5 hours away. We got on to the boat around 3:30pm and it was leaving at 4pm. Although I would have like to be there a little earlier it still work out.

 

Also, IF we were to ever miss a ship for some reason, plus if it was a good reason. I would also just work with the cruise line them selves and they will most likely just reschedule for a future trip. Plus my husband and I are very healthy and not accident prone people.

 

But for those that can't reschedule and who get stressed out easily then I think insurance is good for them. Also for those that have jobs that aren't flexible to fly in a day before, probably needs insurance.

 

But insurance is not or should not be a standard thing for everyone. Because not everyone needs it.. And yes we have had trips where we had to cancel every thing and head home because a hurricane was heading toward our home. Everyone worked with us and even if they hadn't we would have just paid the difference to get were we wanted to go...

[cruzegirl]

Just an informational post.

 

I have some friends who (were) set to sail on the Carnival Freedom yesterday, March 8th. They were flying down from the midwest on the morning of departure (Cleveland) and unfortunately because of the snow storm, their flight was cancelled. First flight in the morning, they were already on the plane, door closed, de-iced and ready for pushback when the captain made the announcement that the airport was closed and that the flight was cancelled. When they checked with their airline, they couldn't confirm them on another flight until Tuesday!!. They called Carnival to tell them about their situation and the agent told them that they already had about 200 passengers that wouldn't be making it to Miami and had plans to join the ship in San Juan.

 

FINALLY, after driving back home and spending the next 8 hours on and off the phone with the airline, they were finally able to find them a flight to San Juan on Monday just in time to meet the ship there. Although the airline waived the "change fee", they charged them an additional $880 to get them down to San Juan!

 

The reason why I'm posting this message is because I want to stress to my fellow Cruise Critic visitors two things:

 

- Try to fly down a day or two before departure

- Get travel insurance

 

So many times I've heard people "advise" in these boards that flying in on the day of departure should be perfectly OK, and that's not always the case....

 

I felt so bad for my friends, but at the same time, they played Russian roulette by purchasing a flight on the day of departure with no insurance. They thought that because it's march that the possibility of having a weather delay or cancellation would be minimal, but they were wrong and now they are paying for it....

 

I couldn't have said it better myself. No matter what time of year, though winter is the worst, there are a chance for flight delays. It's worth the $100-$300 for a hotel for the night for the reassurance that you won't miss your ship......

[ooulio]

We flew out Feb 22 from Pvd to Miami. We were supposed to leave 7:17am. When we got on plane, it had just started to snow. We were on runway for 4 hours. They kept deicing the plane. I managed to get off the plane to cancel my connecting flight at 11am. I made a new one for 12:15. They let a few of us off after a couple hours sitting there. Then they told us, if we didn't leave in 10-15 minutes, they were going to have to get a new crew. Something about too many hours. We just made it. Then they closed the airport for awhile. We just made it out. Then they closed it for a few hours. We got to Pittsuburg in time to catch the 12:15 plane. They had 44 people over booked on that plane. The rest of the people on that plane that morning that didn't get out, missed their connecting flight. They were catching the 3:45pm if they didn't get closed down. We manged to get in to Miami at 4:40pm. Not our 1:00 but we were lucky we made it. We met our friends who came in from LaGuradia at 4:40. They were the last flight out that day. They closed the airport down. We met people the next day who spent the nite at airport and arrived at 3:15pm on Saturday. They were all nervous wrecks. Too many times we have had close calls. One time on Disney we arrived at 3:30. Just made it from a 7am flight. The idiot that was driving the shuttle sat there and waited for people flying in. No one told Disney, they were holding the shuttle. They didn't even know we were coming in. No way would I ever travel without insurance. We have had too many close calls. 2 Years ago, we were delayed because of a rain storm into ft Lauderdale. We arrived with no luggage. It never made our second plane. It arrived to our ship the next afternoon from US Airways. That is just a few of our examples. Every year it is always a mess. This year on our way back. our luggage went to Bermuda. They changed the gates but not on screens. Had to file forms for our suitcases. It finally made it to RI and was delivered.

[janetz]

What a shame to be so excited for a cruise and then the stress of not getting to the port in time. :( These days, hardly any flight is on time and the airlines are so undependable that flying is a nightmare. At least go the day before. We are trying to cruise these days from Boston or NY just because of the flying issues. :o

[meresener]

I have a question. I always buy trip insurance, use a TA (because I dont have time to book everything) and have my air booked with Carnival. Now, does Carnival ever let you fly in a day or two ahead of time if you book your air with them and are willing to cover the expense of a hotel? I live in Indiana, and usually cruise out of some port in Florida over spring break time. Needless to say, I am going to check with my TA, but I was wondering if anyone has any input.....I feel sorry for all those who missed their cruise!!!:(

[Kudos2Fly]

meresener I have a question. I always buy trip insurance, use a TA (because I dont have time to book everything) and have my air booked with Carnival. Now, does Carnival ever let you fly in a day or two ahead of time if you book your air with them and are willing to cover the expense of a hotel?

 

Once when we were doing a cruise out of San Juan my PVP told me to just book the air on my own, because I would probably get a better deal with out using Carnival for air. Which I did.

 

That way I can control the flt. Because the airline did change my flt to a much later flt. then I wanted. So I called them and change it back to a 8am flt. I have more control over the flt. then letting Carnival book it. Frankly it didn't take me that long to book the flt. either.

[Smiling Cruiser]

25 yrs ago my SIL (28 yrs old), my BIL (35y) and their 2 children (5y and 18 mos) were on a motor trip to Canada. Their car was broadsided and flipped. BIL died and niece (5Y) suffered a spinal cord injury. The emotional issues have no pricetag, but some insight to the financial issues: Funeral costs to prepare the deceased prior to transportation to his home town. Helicopter from island to mainland for one child's hospitalization, flight back to island to take care of details and pick up other child who was admitted to a different hospital. Airfare home, after two weeks-3 seats (had to be removed to lock in child's stretcher) and 1 seat for SIL. (Other child went home with family members a few days earlier). Too many other details to post. Tragedy has no compassion for age or situation. Don't think anyone is too young for insurance. If tragedy strikes, the last thing on your mind should be "How do I pay for this?"

25 years later the remaining family members are doing just fine, thank you. I didn't want to upset anyone, but I think the message is important. Happy and safe sails to all.

[gotsand]

We flew in the day of, on our 2 previous cruises. It was stressful and we were so tired, because we took the 6 a.m. flights. This time we are flying in the day before. Another reason to fly the day before, we live in Ohio, we are flying to Seattle, the 3 hour time difference will be tough to adjust to, so we want to try and get a good nights sleep before boarding our cruise ship.

[MuffyKismet]

we live in Florida and relitively close to most of the ports (except Jacksonville) and we always drive the morning of the cruise, even that makes me nervous , because anything can happen while driving, but we have done it 14 times now and have been lucky enough not to get stuck. last year we drove and our vehicle's oil pump took a dump, luckly enough we made it to the port, parked it and had it towed when we got back.......there was nothing we could do and we were lucky enough to get it to the port LOL.....gosh that was alittle less then fun. It was pretty costly to have it towed all the way back home, but didn't have much choice in the matter at the time...........we have a brand new vehicle now , so we don't anticipate any problems.......but it is still risky to drive the day of........but we do it:rolleyes:

[Bobug]

March. Still in winter for a reason:

 

March 13, 1993: BLIZZARD! Missed ship!

 

MrPete....I remember that blizzard vividly....we live 90 minutes from Atlanta. That was a big deal for this area.

[gazingm42]

I like going the day before so I can get some REST before my vacation.

Because you don't get too much rest on a cruise :)

[nicnat]

No kidding! I grew up on the east side and when I was reading about this latest blizzard and people staying in, I was thinking, "but I used to get out and go to work and do everything! I never let a few feet of snow and whiteout conditions keep me at home!"

 

Of course, I moved away when I was 19! :p

 

Yes, March is winter in many parts of the country. Thankfully, I no longer live in one of those areas!

 

I feel for those folks who missed their cruise. I would be SO depressed. It isn't even a question of being compensated. It's the fact that I had planned for a cruise for 6 months, or a year or more, and was stuck at home, just when I most needed to get away to somewhere warm.

 

:(

 

 

NCTribeFan where on the east side did you grow up? My DH grew up in Eastlake Willoughby area. He lived there until 1985 when he joined the Navy. No, not everyone stops everything when we get tons of snow. In Ohio we would never do anything all winter if we stayed in when it snows. I did figure you for a former Ohioian when I saw the Tribe fan in your name. We are loyal to our teams. NO matter where we roam.:D

[scopewest]

My niece is flying here from Dulles via Atlanta next month, and DH has been monitoring the flights coming in. If she had come in a couple days ago, her 7:45 p.m. flight would have arrived at 1:01 a.m. the next morning. No idea why the delay.

 

One time our flight from Phoenix to San Diego (can you say no snow??) was delayed due to fog in Phoenix! And it's an hour flight. There were some very unhappy people at a couple of east coast gates as their flights were delayed several hours. Hopefully none of them were trying to catch a ship.

 

After that fog delay, we decided to fly in the day before no matter where we're going.

[airlink diva]

I can tell you from working with an airline, that the early part of year is the time with more delays with weather and aircraft positioning.

For example, I work in Memphis. While we have a direct flight to Miami and Fort Lauderdale, alot of times the aircraft is coming into Memphis from somewhere else. If an aircraft starts the day in Boston, and if the weather is bad and delay the aircraft, it's running late for the rest of day. That mean that your 12:30 p.m. arrival intro Miami is now looking like 2:30 p.m. or 3:00 p.m.

I also agree with someone reply a few posting ago, everyone can't leave a day early. One of my co-worker's wife job is really tight with vacation and they had to leave the morning of their cruise because of a big job project.

If you do the option of cruise air, they very rarely fly you a day ahead. My parents did this option a few years back with our family reunion cruise. Not only did Carnival split everyone up between the Fort Lauderdale and Miami flight, but those who came into Fort Lauderdale arrived to the ship in Miami right at boat drill time. They had to wait for additional cruisers. My parents were a wreak until they were on board the ship.

I tell anyone to go a day or two early, if not purchase insurance to get you to the ship. Hopefully it will never come to that.

Happy sailing!!

Second time around and my 40th birthday cruise on the

MAASDAM

10/24/08-11/07/08

[kinggartk]

While I agree with you about flying in a day early, especially from cold weather cities in winter, I don't think you are making an accurate characterization. As a regular reader of these boards I cannot recall a single instant where anyone under these circumstances, has advised flying in the day of a cruise. Frequently someone will ask if a flight arriving in Miami or Ft. Lauderdale mid-day on day of sailing will provide sufficient time to make the transfer to the ship. That is a very different question but it deserves an accurate answer. If you want to add that flying in a day early is advisable, that's fine but for some travelers that isn't an option.

 

 

I disagree..while MOST folks here say "Fly in at least one day in advance" I have seen many folks say flying in the day of should be OK. I would never do it, but some people like to live life on the edge, or try to save that one night hotel bill. Not worth the worry in my book.

[yst347]

I disagree..while MOST folks here say "Fly in at least one day in advance" I have seen many folks say flying in the day of should be OK. I would never do it, but some people like to live life on the edge, or try to save that one night hotel bill. Not worth the worry in my book.

 

Read what I wrote again. "I cannot recall a single instant where anyone under these circumstances, (flying in same day from a cold weather city in winter) has advised flying in the day of a cruise." Now if someone asks "will a flight arriving at 12:38 pm at MIA be early enough to make it to the Port of Miami in time to board a fun ship." Answering "you should be ok" is not offering any advice, it's a matter of fact. And winter isn't an issue with flying same day if you are flying from the south or southwest. If I were answering, I would add that flying in the day before is advisable. But I would never substitute my opinion for a factual answer.

 

Lets look at the converse of this situation. Questions about booking return flights are as common here. If someone asks "We will be returning on the Freedom, Is a 10:30 am flight from MIA too early?" Using the less stressed logic of so many here the only allowable answer would be "Book a flight the next day, or after 6:00 pm at the earliest. The ship could be delayed due to weather, or a medical emergency or a mechanical problem, you just never know. Why ruin the last day of your cruise stressing about whether you will arrive in time to make your flight". But this doesn't really answer the question being asked. A full answer would say that if the ship arrives on time and is cleared quickly, you do self debarkation and the roads are clear, you have a chance of making that flight but often it would be missed etc. It would be better to book an afternoon flight if possible, but if you book the early flight make sure you have a backup plan. That isn't an endorsement, it's an opinion based in experience. They are two very different things and should be read in that light.

[hubofhockey]

Read what I wrote again. "I cannot recall a single instant where anyone under these circumstances, (flying in same day from a cold weather city in winter) has advised flying in the day of a cruise." Now if someone asks "will a flight arriving at 12:38 pm at MIA be early enough to make it to the Port of Miami in time to board a fun ship." Answering "you should be ok" is not offering any advice, it's a matter of fact. And winter isn't an issue with flying same day if you are flying from the south or southwest. If I were answering, I would add that flying in the day before is advisable. But I would never substitute my opinion for a factual answer.

 

Lets look at the converse of this situation. Questions about booking return flights are as common here. If someone asks "We will be returning on the Freedom, Is a 10:30 am flight from MIA too early?" Using the less stressed logic of so many here the only allowable answer would be "Book a flight the next day, or after 6:00 pm at the earliest. The ship could be delayed due to weather, or a medical emergency or a mechanical problem, you just never know. Why ruin the last day of your cruise stressing about whether you will arrive in time to make your flight". But this doesn't really answer the question being asked. A full answer would say that if the ship arrives on time and is cleared quickly, you do self debarkation and the roads are clear, you have a chance of making that flight but often it would be missed etc. It would be better to book an afternoon flight if possible, but if you book the early flight make sure you have a backup plan. That isn't an endorsement, it's an opinion based in experience. They are two very different things and should be read in that light.

 

Your answer is a fair answer. As a New Englander, I think the "rules" are different in late April and through the Summer than they are in the Winter and during hurrican season. I am also one of those who sometimes can't get out a day early because of work. This time around, we are heading out late Friday morning and have a Saturday cruise. The Friday is actually a school vacation day and I will gamble that my work will be all set for the week.

 

Most of the problems I have flying in the morning of the cruise relate to being dog tired from waking up at 4 to 4:30 am to get my family ready to make our flights. I think it takes a bit away from enjoying the first day of the cruise and it will cost me $240 in hotel and one-day car rental charges to make my first day better.

[Tapi]

Well, my friends got on the flight to Newark this morning to connect to their flight to San Juan. The first flight was delayed, so they only had 20 minutes to make the connection. However, it seems like they got on since their celphones are off, and the plane is showing "in flight". They should be landing in San Juan right before 1:00pm (unless they're crying in a corner at the Newark Airport!)

[Tapi]

And winter isn't an issue with flying same day if you are flying from the south or southwest.

 

Does Atlanta fall into the category of southern airports where winter isn't an issue? If it is, I have some horror stories to tell you flying through there during the winter. 1 inch of snow there will literally halt the airport just as much as 1 foot of snow in Boston. I'm trying to think of other major airports farther south than Atlanta that would make your statement accurate...

[wrp96]

Just a note to all of you that think delays don't occur in the late spring or summer. I've had more flight cancellations and delays from April through September due to thunderstorms than I've ever had from winter weather. This is especially true in the south and midwest. Please don't assume that just because there's no possibility of winter weather you are home free.

 

As to travel insurance, I'm young and healthy and I've had to make a claim on travel insurance more than once. I never travel without it anymore after the one time I didn't have it and needed it. But it is definitely a personal decision whether or not to get it.