Fly out the day before or morning of?

[BELLE16127]

This will be our sixth Disney Cruise and we ALLWAYS fly the day before just incase pluse I LOVE getting to the port early and chatting with people even waiting outside the gate is FUN!!!!!

 

[Mandersons04]

I also live in the DC area and we're coming in the day before the cruise. In fact, we're leaving Friday night coming in on Amtrak. And we'll be staying at the Hyatt MCO and we also have DCL transportation booked. I would worry way too much trying to come in the day of the cruise. I think it's much better to spend a few extra dollars for a hotel than lose a few thousand by missing the cruise.

Plus, you could look at it as an extra vacation day

 

[iankh]

Always the day before. The basic question tomask is whether or not you feel airlines are reliable.

Not sure where you live, but even if weather is hunky dory where you are it doesn't mean that your flight will be on time because of weather conditions in the region it's coming in from. Or, if the plane is there, it might be late because not all of the crew is there.

Our last cruise in April we arrived at the airport to find our flight and many flights were cancelled. Via circuitous rerouting we arrived at our destination the evening before the cruise. We were lucky that we travelled the day before and did so as early as possible.

There are many options to save money on the hotel for the night before, many are not talked about here..

If money is a consideration you can use Priceline, and make sure to go after hotels with airport shuttles. We've done that, paid $40 for the room at a good hotel, and used their shuttle. In the morning we took their shuttle back to MCO to pick up our DCL transfer.

Whatever you decide, unless you have 100% control over the outcome, I would mitigate the risks and fly out the day before.

 

[jjgarv]

...day before! Better safe and all that. Not to mention that we are better rested and get to 'ease' into vacation mode a bit earlier.

 

[tinkermama117]

Day before definitely. After almost missing my honeymoon cruise due to the airline "misplacing" my luggage, I will never fly in the day of again.

 

[VKtravel]

Another vote for flying in the day before again. You're coming in from DC which is over 800 miles from Orlando. From my calculations if you had to drive it would take you about 13-14 hours. You can do that as a contingency plan if you are preparing to leave the day before...not the day of. Therefore, if something like weather, flights, airport closings, FAA issues or WHATEVER could happen, can happen and you still don't miss a beat...let alone THE SHIP!! We flew in from Texas and had the contingency plan to drive if necessary which would have been about 15 hours. You are coming from a long ways away. Start your vacation early and don't stress over paying for a hotel. If hotel cost is the issue, just remember Motel 6 says, "We'll keep the light on for you!"

 

[mysteryguest]

We flew in the morning of, (out of Virginia like you), on our first cruise earlier this year. The flight was an early one that had us waking a 2 1/2 year old up at 4am which made things ugly around 5 hours later.

Everything worked out, but we had to deal with an exhausted child that slept through the departure celebration. She was so tired the ships' horn did not wake her while we were on the top deck watching the festivities.

With that said and a lesson learned, we are arriving the evening before on our next cruise in two months.

FYI-Do a search and read through some of the horror stories on this and other message boards of families who missed a cruise do to planning a "day of" arrival.

 

[Magic3forme]

day before !! years ago our flight was cancelled the morning of our cruise! we had to drive 2 hrs to another airport and just made it! what an awful feeling!!

go the day before and just relax!

 

[Mythicalbee]

When we booked our cruise, I bought our flights as well for the morning of the cruise. Our flight leaves Pittsburgh at 8am and we have to be on the ship by 4pm. After reading these boards, realized that I would have much preferred to fly down a day early just for peace of mind. Changing the flights would cost $125 each

So our plan is to stay at the hotel attached to our airport (we're also about 1 hour from our home airport) so we can let the kids wake up closer to their normal time and just walk into the airport. We also made sure we had passports JUST IN CASE we miss the boat, we can at least fly to Nassau.

In the future, we'll definately fly down the day before - from our vantage point, there's no real benefit to flying down the same day. It seems that in order to get peace of mind you're spending that money somewhere!!!

 

[kcashner]

Another vote for a Priceline hotel for the night before, and you DO want to come down the night before. At the 2.5* level, the hotel will have a complimentary shuttle to/from MCO AND a complimentary breakfast. I typically pay between $31 and $39 bid price for this.

Don't like Priceline? You don't say how many of you there are or how you plan to get to the port, but there are hotels that will keep a family of 4, breakfast and ROUND TRIP to/from port for $200. That's way cheaper than DCL!

You DO want to come in the night before. If not, you get up at 4 am to drive to the airport for a 7 am flight...maybe 8 am if you're lucky. THey you wait in Atlanta and hope it isn't fogged in. You get on the ship at 2, but by 6 pm you are exhausted.

Or...do the travel the day before (we do, even if it is after work/school and we arrive late). Sleep at the hotel, have a leisurely breakfast and a 1 hour drive to the port. And enjoy your first day on the ship instead of being stressed and tired!

My logic is that if I'm in Orlando, then SOMEHOW I will be on that ship. I can't say the same if I am sitting at my home airport.

 

[DMMarla07860]

I say fly in the day before. I know I always worry about something going wrong and we usually fly down two or one day before. Once I am there I don't care what happens since I am only a hour away

 

[vakamalua]

We also live in the DC area and ALWAYS fly in the day before any cruise!

 

[Nikki'sMommy]

Our friends flew down last year from BWI on the first flight in the morning the day of the cruise. They arrived at the port by 10:30am...They had no problems...That said, this year they will be coming down the day before as the stress of "what can happen" was too much on them. If you can swing it,,come down the day before..

 

[Jack Skellington]

This thread just made me paranoid & convinced me to change my flight in for our 10/15 cruise. I never thought of the possibility of missing our flight or having it cancelled.

I had booked an 8am flight on SWA out of Baltimore that would have gotten us in Orlando around 10:30 on cruise day. I just switched it to a flight arriving the evening before and we'll just spend the night in a hotel around the airport.

The Hyatt that's literally in the terminal is around $150 a night. There's cheaper options a few miles out, but we aren't renting a car until the next morning. Any suggestions??

 

[brat5063]

Thanks for all the replies. You have convinced me my mom knows best and will fly down the night before probably. I need to think more about day/evening because it would require us to take our son out of school early. We have a lot of options to take a 6 am - 8 am non stop flight out, but I think we would be more relaxed flying out the night before.

I should start another thread, I've read posts where people use other transportation and it is cheaper. Do you loose any magic, not taking the DCL transportation. What's the advantages of DCL? I think on the way home you give them your luggage the night before and you don't see it till you land at your airport, is that correct?

 

[Minnie Monellen]

This thread just made me paranoid & convinced me to change my flight in for our 10/15 cruise. I never thought of the possibility of missing our flight or having it cancelled.

I had booked an 8am flight on SWA out of Baltimore that would have gotten us in Orlando around 10:30 on cruise day. I just switched it to a flight arriving the evening before and we'll just spend the night in a hotel around the airport.

The Hyatt that's literally in the terminal is around $150 a night. There's cheaper options a few miles out, but we aren't renting a car until the next morning. Any suggestions??

Actually, the family that recently posted that they missed their spring vacation on DCL was trying to fly out of Baltimore on SWA the night before their cruise. Their flight was delayed due to a terrible storm and eventually cancelled due to crew issues. Had they flown down the morning of departure they would have been able to cruise as planned.

 

[iankh]

Thanks for all the replies. You have convinced me my mom knows best and will fly down the night before probably. I need to think more about day/evening because it would require us to take our son out of school early. We have a lot of options to take a 6 am - 8 am non stop flight out, but I think we would be more relaxed flying out the night before.

I should start another thread, I've read posts where people use other transportation and it is cheaper. Do you loose any magic, not taking the DCL transportation. What's the advantages of DCL? I think on the way home you give them your luggage the night before and you don't see it till you land at your airport, is that correct?

We've done DCL transport a couple of times. It is a bit more exciting, but now we use alternate arrangements because it's cheaper. For our upcoming cruise I booked Executive VIP Limo who came very highly recommended. It's costing $79 for three adults each direction. That's a fair saving over DCL.