Why not to fly in the morning of a cruise

anjuan

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 10, 2012
Before I left on my June 2 Mediterranean cruise I had seen posts on here about whether it was ok to fly in the morning of a cruise. I just wanted to give a PSA that there were actually a couple of families on my cruise that tried to do this for our cruise leaving from Barcelona. However, their flight was delayed and they actually did miss the ship. Then our next day was a sea day so they missed that as well. They ended up catching up with the ship on the second day of the cruise, the port day in Naples, dropping off their luggage with the ship and going directly on their excursion. (I actually saw them handing the luggage over as I got off for my excursion). So, just know missing the boat has happened to people very recently.
 
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Yup! Though we have never missed the boat, we have friends that have. They were stuck in Boston in February two years back for 24 hours with just summer clothes since they thought they would only need Bahama temperature clothing.

We are going on the June 30th Mediterranean cruise and will be arriving three days ahead of schedule. Already thankful for the additional days since the airline moved our connecting flight up several hours and it is highly unlikely we will connect. May miss our first night in Barcelona and though that will be annoying if it happens, we should have enough time to sort it out.
 
Been there, almost done that. Flew out the day before for Celebrity cruise. Got diverted from DFW to San Antonio because of wx at DFW. EVERYBODY was rerouted to SAT. Unloaded the passengers off the aircraft, no luggage (no place to put it in the terminal). Rented a car and drove north to DFW during the night. Arrived back at DFW (the morning of the cruise). Got last seats on the first flt out. Still no luggage other than our roll on. Found a cab and told him to get us to the nearest target, Kmart, whatever. Wrote out quick shopping list for DH and one for me. Divide and conquer. Last ones to process on the ship. Now we leave two days early. Oooh, our luggage never caught up with the ship. It was diverted right back home from SAT.
 
Been there, almost done that. Flew out the day before for Celebrity cruise. Got diverted from DFW to San Antonio because of wx at DFW. EVERYBODY was rerouted to SAT. Unloaded the passengers off the aircraft, no luggage (no place to put it in the terminal). Rented a car and drove north to DFW during the night. Arrived back at DFW (the morning of the cruise). Got last seats on the first flt out. Still no luggage other than our roll on. Found a cab and told him to get us to the nearest target, Kmart, whatever. Wrote out quick shopping list for DH and one for me. Divide and conquer. Last ones to process on the ship. Now we leave two days early. Oooh, our luggage never caught up with the ship. It was diverted right back home from SAT.

Yikes! :crazy2:

This is a great thread IMHO, as many years ago I worked MS, and I cannot COUNT the times members had chosen to fly in day of (and that was for domestic flights, not international!) their DCL cruise, against MS' advice and ended up missing their boat. It is just plain not worth the risk. Fly in at least the day prior to your cruise, even if you live in the U.S. and are sailing out of the U.S. And I recommend booking a flight that lands at your destination in the first 1/2 of the day in case there is a scenario like Cruising Engineer described. NOT a fun way to start a cruise vacation! :sad2:
 


I’m curious to know how the travel expenses are incurred when this situation occurs. Is the traveler responsible for all fees out of pocket, or do they bill you? This can become really expensive flying internationally. I’m assuming some of the cost is covered by travel insurance or the airline. Airlines typically only take responsibilty if it’s mechanical. They usually don’t compensate travelers for weather and air traffic delays/cancellations.

What happens when it’s the travelers fault like getting a flat on the way to the airport, or getting stuck in traffic? This can also occur in port if you are on a self booked excursion.

I have three kids, and would not be able to enjoy the remaining days of my cruise knowing I just got dinged for another huge bill, having to pay to get us all back to another port.
 
I’m curious to know how the travel expenses are incurred when this situation occurs. Is the traveler responsible for all fees out of pocket, or do they bill you? This can become really expensive flying internationally. I’m assuming some of the cost is covered by travel insurance or the airline. Airlines typically only take responsibilty if it’s mechanical. They usually don’t compensate travelers for weather and air traffic delays/cancellations.

What happens when it’s the travelers fault like getting a flat on the way to the airport, or getting stuck in traffic? This can also occur in port if you are on a self booked excursion.

Each cruise line has a very specific stated time that ALL passengers must be aboard. It is always in the cruise documents, which should be carefully read. If a passenger has any difficulties getting there, the onus is on those passengers. The exception would be if the transportation was provided by DCL. I have heard of cases where there were a number of passengers affected by DCL booked transportation where they delayed leaving port, but that is quite rare.

Insurance would cover some of the expenses incurred, but I cannot imagine them covering all. I'd like to be wrong on that one. :)
 


My wife and I have cruised on DCL many times. Except for 1 time, we arrive the day before. The 1 time we did go into Houston morning of for a wonder cruise out of Galveston worked out fine. Plane arrived from LAX to Houston around 11am, We used dcl transportation to the port and got there about 1pm. we were lucky and had no delays. Not the normal for us. It can be stressful!!!
 
I’m curious to know how the travel expenses are incurred when this situation occurs. Is the traveler responsible for all fees out of pocket, or do they bill you? This can become really expensive flying internationally. I’m assuming some of the cost is covered by travel insurance or the airline. Airlines typically only take responsibilty if it’s mechanical. They usually don’t compensate travelers for weather and air traffic delays/cancellations.

What happens when it’s the travelers fault like getting a flat on the way to the airport, or getting stuck in traffic? This can also occur in port if you are on a self booked excursion.

I have three kids, and would not be able to enjoy the remaining days of my cruise knowing I just got dinged for another huge bill, having to pay to get us all back to another port.

I have nightmares about this sort of thing. Our coming cruise will be the first we fly for. But I always try to leave way early for the airport just for normal things.
 
Not to me and not DCL, but did happen to family members, even when leaving the day before the cruise. DFW airport (layover) was closed due to ice. Had to rebook all flights from CA to FL. They ended up travelling all night with a layover in Las Vegas and then another one somewhere on the East Coast before arriving in FL at 2 PM the day of the cruise (and still had to catch the transportation to the ship). In their case, they had arranged it all through the cruise line so they took care of the details. The family members just had to fly all over the US to get there ;) But they made it....barely.
 
We always fly at least one day before if it's international then two days. My dh has had to fly in the day of cruise a couple of times due to work. It worked out OK.
 
We were delayed a whole day on a land trip, so no boat to miss, but we did miss our first day in Rome with friends. Our plane got 3 hours over the Atlantic then turned back. Spent the night in Toronto, then the replacement plane was 6 hours delayed as well.
 
I'll buck the trend and say that we don't mind flying an early-morning nonstop flight the morning of the cruise if it's sailing out of Florida. We're from Texas, so winter weather isn't an issue with flights from our airport. Never had a problem. Morning flights are the least likely to be delayed, and we typically fly SWA or Jet Blue, who rarely change itineraries on you.

But I definitely wouldn't try it on an international flight to a cruise leaving from a foreign port. We are too middle-America to get to any foreign port in a reasonable amount of time.
 
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I learned the VERY stressful way that flying in the day of embarkation is never a good idea. I had to deal with the kerfuffle of the potential WestJet pilot strike right before we were leaving for our Alaskan cruise a few weeks ago, over Memorial Day weekend. We were flying in the day before the cruise, staying at the port no less, so it should've been an easy, wake up and just go downstairs to board the ship kind of deal. Instead, I spent the week before our long anticipated cruise stalking social media to see what my options were should the pilots strike, and let me tell you, last minute flights, even with travel insurance, is NOT pretty. Nor is trying to get a rental car sandwiched by Canadian and US holidays. I booked my airfare 5 months prior and no one could've predicted the situation then, and in times like that, even flying in the day before doesn't seem good enough, because I had a connecting flight in Calgary, and if I missed that flight, or if it got cancelled, the next flight out was 7am the next morning with another airline. Other people on our cruise had similar issues flying with other airlines. At least 2 other families had 30+ hour layovers due to flight cancellations. Plan ahead. Way ahead.
 
Also keep in mind that flights can be delayed/cancelled for mechanical reasons as well. I fly a lot for work and have experienced many of these situations and weather was not involved. It is just not worth the chance.
 
Yikes! :crazy2:

This is a great thread IMHO, as many years ago I worked MS, and I cannot COUNT the times members had chosen to fly in day of (and that was for domestic flights, not international!) their DCL cruise, against MS' advice and ended up missing their boat. It is just plain not worth the risk. Fly in at least the day prior to your cruise, even if you live in the U.S. and are sailing out of the U.S. And I recommend booking a flight that lands at your destination in the first 1/2 of the day in case there is a scenario like Cruising Engineer described. NOT a fun way to start a cruise vacation! :sad2:

Agreed!!! Mine wasn't as bad as that one, but in January this year I was supposed to arrive in Miami close to midnight the night before the cruise. My first flight (to Denver, from Montana) was delayed by something like three or four hours, so I completely missed all my connection options for that evening. They wanted to put me on two flights in the morning, through Houston, that wouldn't have gotten me there until 1:00 in the afternoon...if it got me there at all, considering there was a winter storm heading for Denver overnight! :eek: The agent at check-in was good enough to transfer me to another carrier for a red-eye leaving Denver at midnight and getting to Miami at 6:00 in the morning...but then when I got to Denver it turned out the hand-off between airlines had been botched, I didn't have a seat reserved, and the flight had sold out while I was in the air. :faint: I only got on that red-eye at all because a very, very kind gate agent re-checked on her lunch break and booked me in when she found a seat open. So I got there, but I got there with no sleep after an extremely stressful afternoon and evening.

No more evening flights before a cruise. At a minimum I'm flying early in the day the day previous; for the trip I'm planning in 2020 I'll be there several days in advance (though that's also so I can do a runDisney event before the cruise). It might not be as big of a deal for people with shorter flights and/or locales that are less likely to be impacted by weather, but when you live in Montana, it's half a day of travel to get to Florida at all and there are too many ways for it to go wrong.
 
I’m curious to know how the travel expenses are incurred when this situation occurs. Is the traveler responsible for all fees out of pocket, or do they bill you? This can become really expensive flying internationally. I’m assuming some of the cost is covered by travel insurance or the airline. Airlines typically only take responsibilty if it’s mechanical. They usually don’t compensate travelers for weather and air traffic delays/cancellations.

What happens when it’s the travelers fault like getting a flat on the way to the airport, or getting stuck in traffic? This can also occur in port if you are on a self booked excursion.

I have three kids, and would not be able to enjoy the remaining days of my cruise knowing I just got dinged for another huge bill, having to pay to get us all back to another port.
Work for an airline. We owe you nothing regardless if our fault or not. Our contract is to get you from a to b. If you book flight independently. Buying via DCL or a tour operator gives you a claim right. Pure Airfare: You might get compensation related to the flight. No cruise expenses. Actually I have a funny story to tell. We have an employee travel forum. . One Colleague wrote that her luggage did not make the flight And was asking if our airline would pay for her cruise as she refuses to board without her clothes. Was too funny because we all gave her the suggestion to go to a nearby Target. We even googled, gave directions. Her response was too funny like how dare you suggest that I go to target now and within one hour find the appropriate clothes for my cruise. As the saying goes you can lead a horse to water.....
 
Concerning lost luggage meeting up with you at a later port. Airlines will do their best to forward your luggage to try and meet up with you. Keep in mind though that most Caribbean flights are smaller aircraft and if there’s no extra room in the cargo hold for your luggage, your luggage will not go. Especially with airlines that are not in the same airline group. For example a United airlines lost to bag getting on an American Airlines flight has lower priority than an American pax lost bag.
 
While we never had a flight delay that caused us to miss the ship, we have had two flights with delays of several hours each for other vacations.

One a mechanical problem leading to an emergency landing the other because of weather. Could just as easily be a flight for a cruise! We will never fly in the day of the cruise.

It always amuses me the responses, you will be fine “we never had an issue flying in the day of the cruise”. Chances are you will be fine. But there always is that possibility!
 
A few months ago, DH and DS were delayed in Frankfurt for 12 hours on their trip to Spain due to a sudden worker strike. Anything can happen. If you're taking chances, make sure you know your alternatives. Last flight in for the night for a connection is a bigger risk than during the day, but not if there's only one flight a day anyway.
 

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