If the Jade is Set to Depart at 7pm...

[auducky2]

What is the latest they'll let you board? I'm worried about flight times... First day of embarkation...

 

TIA!

[cmpaula]

I would call NCL and ask them so you are sure of the time. There is a wealth of information on these boards but calling NCL, getting the name of the person you are speaking with along with the date and time of the call, would be a good idea.

[uppitycats]

What is the latest they'll let you board? I'm worried about flight times... First day of embarkation...

 

TIA!

 

First call NCL and confirm that the 7 p.m. is correct. It seems rather late to me.

 

The general rule is that you have to be aboard no later than 2 hours before the ship is to leave, which (if 7 p.m. is right) would be 5 p.m. Sometimes NCL has been a bit lax about the 2 hours, and shortened it to 90 minutes or even one hour, but I'd not want to take a chance and find that I'm waving goodbye from ashore!

 

Why are your flights so late? Many of us fly in the day before just to avoid any concern; it would seem to me that with the ship not leaving until 7, you'd have lots of options to get there early that day!

[auducky2]

First call NCL and confirm that the 7 p.m. is correct. It seems rather late to me.

 

The general rule is that you have to be aboard no later than 2 hours before the ship is to leave, which (if 7 p.m. is right) would be 5 p.m. Sometimes NCL has been a bit lax about the 2 hours, and shortened it to 90 minutes or even one hour, but I'd not want to take a chance and find that I'm waving goodbye from ashore!

 

Why are your flights so late? Many of us fly in the day before just to avoid any concern; it would seem to me that with the ship not leaving until 7, you'd have lots of options to get there early that day!

 

We can't take off of work on Friday, so we're taking a red eye in Barcelona for Saturday.

[garycarla]

What is the latest they'll let you board? I'm worried about flight times... First day of embarkation...

 

TIA!

 

Hi Ducky. Folks here would be glad to help out a bit. Maybe tell us where you flying from. Where you are sailing from. What time your flight gets in.

 

Hard for us to guess.

 

I just now see you are flying into Barcelona. I believe they do leave late from there. They do not have the 2 hr rule there like in the states. That gives you some extra room. Almost all NCL provided flights arrive the same day. I would never do that as Barcelona is such a great place to visit, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

[msescada]

I I see that you are from NJ, so our experience is probably relevant to you. We left from Newark on Continental last december, although that wasn't the plan. an ice and snow storm on the east coast prevented us from even getting to the airport. the flight did take off about 7 hours late, but the traffic jam was four hours long and the airline still needed us to be there before the original departure time.

 

so we rebooked for the next night and took the 7 pm departure into barcelona. You will arrive around 9 am, as a rule, if you are flying in from the east coast. I'm not sure what the arrival times are from other parts of the US.

 

If you arrive in the morning, you'll take transpo- taxi or NCl transfer or private car service and get to the pier in about 30 minutes, depending on traffic. figure you'll arrive at the pier 60 to 90 minutes after you land because it takes some time to get through immigration and get luggage, get it loaded and get going.

 

If i remember correctly, all aboard was about 5:30 or so for the 7 pm departure, but don't cut it that close if you can avoid it.

 

Taking the overnight flight, even a later one than the 7 pm departure we took, will still get you into Barcelona airport by noon, and to the ship by 2 at the latest.

 

Hope that helps.

 

BTW, on the way home...be SURE to check the monitors in Barcelona airport FREQUENTLY if you are on Continental. They change the gate constantly (we've done it more than once and EVERY time, we had to play 'run to the new gate' with kids, strollers and carry-ons in tow. The last time, we were aware of it and knew to look but you could easily miss your plane because of the gate changes.

[auducky2]

I I see that you are from NJ, so our experience is probably relevant to you. We left from Newark on Continental last december, although that wasn't the plan. an ice and snow storm on the east coast prevented us from even getting to the airport. the flight did take off about 7 hours late, but the traffic jam was four hours long and the airline still needed us to be there before the original departure time.

 

so we rebooked for the next night and took the 7 pm departure into barcelona. You will arrive around 9 am, as a rule, if you are flying in from the east coast. I'm not sure what the arrival times are from other parts of the US.

 

If you arrive in the morning, you'll take transpo- taxi or NCl transfer or private car service and get to the pier in about 30 minutes, depending on traffic. figure you'll arrive at the pier 60 to 90 minutes after you land because it takes some time to get through immigration and get luggage, get it loaded and get going.

 

If i remember correctly, all aboard was about 5:30 or so for the 7 pm departure, but don't cut it that close if you can avoid it.

 

Taking the overnight flight, even a later one than the 7 pm departure we took, will still get you into Barcelona airport by noon, and to the ship by 2 at the latest.

 

Hope that helps.

 

BTW, on the way home...be SURE to check the monitors in Barcelona airport FREQUENTLY if you are on Continental. They change the gate constantly (we've done it more than once and EVERY time, we had to play 'run to the new gate' with kids, strollers and carry-ons in tow. The last time, we were aware of it and knew to look but you could easily miss your plane because of the gate changes.

 

Wow, thanks! You actually made me feel A LOT better! We actually disembark in Istanbul, so we won't have to worry about going through Barcelona again! lol.

 

We leave in September. So...no ice storms! We're leaving out of Newark, we're supposed to land in Barcelona (connection through Madrid) at 2:50pm. I'm thinking of hiring a private car for times sake, since there will be 4 of us (and I've heard the taxis are small and usually can take about 3 people) and they can help with the luggage and everything. I figure we can be there by 5pm (hopefully) the latest.

 

Thoughts? Thanks again for your experience!

[msescada]

You are going to have to hope that there are no delays in madrid. the european flights from newark get priority (again, this is if you are on continental), so the flight WILL take off, even if it is extremely delayed. that time of year it is unlikely to be ice, but mechanical failure is an issue (we waited 9 hours at heathrow last summer - our plane had mechanical problems at newark, so we had to wait for the Houston flight to arrive, which was 6 hours after our flight was supposed to depart...but it came and we went home -- so this does happen0.

 

When we arrived at Barcelona, our luggage came up within 30 minutes of landing, probably in about 20 minutes, but we were business first and our luggage was among the first off the plane. Use that as a guide. It was actually pretty efficient and the airport is easy to get out of, even if you pay for that on the way back in.

 

Also the taxis are VERY small. So do plan for a private VAN. make SURE you specify a VAN otherwise you will get a small CAR.

 

are you by any chance in a concierge level cabin? if you are, you can email ahead to the concierge and let her know what your arrival plans are. i kept Ruthie informed of all of our December travails just so she'd know what was happening. (it was a cursed trip from the get go -- my little one was very sick the whole time with ear infections and a 105 degree fever two nights of the trip, then I got sick and it was freezing cold and the service wasn't up to par b/c the 'real' crew was on vacation for Christmas).

 

See if you can arrange for an NCL transfer from the airport to the ship. My thinking here is that if they are responsible for picking you up, you might have a prayer that if the flight is delayed from Madrid, you might still be able to make the trip.

 

BTW, in Istanbul (one of our favorite places on earth) the security used to be very, very tight (this is years ago but i can't imagine it has changed for the easier) and expect to go through security at least twice before you board the plane. That's at Attaturk airport.

 

Good luck!

[auducky2]

Thanks! I think I'll try and arrange for the NCL transfer then. I have read that in Instanbul, someone went through security 3 times or so, but our flight is at 6:15am, so hopefully it won't be too busy at 3:30am. Thanks for all your input. We're hoping for the best. If not, then we'll fly to Rome and get an extra day there! :)