Question for Alaskan cruisers...

[ruadisneyfan2]

When we cruised Alaska, we sailed from Seattle. I have a coworker who will be sailing the Wonder in July from Vancouver and she asked what's the earliest she should book a flight home. I wasn't sure how to answer her since international requirements are different than domestic.
Then again we have a 10:45 am flight home from Barcelona. I wouldn't have booked it if I didn't hear from plenty of Dis-ers who said they had no problem making flights even earlier than that. DCL's extra early continental breakfast was for those with flights before 9am.

So what should I tell her? The flights that depart around 2pm don't arrive to Philly til midnight or the next morning. There is one at 12:00 that arrives a little earlier. Would that work?

 

[CruznLexi]

I am recommending my clients not booking any flights before 12pm

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

thanks!

 

[lady9]

We had an 11:30am flight out of Vancouver and had no problem making it. We walked our luggage off the ship as soon as we were allowed to disembark and used a private car service to the airport.

 

[lbgraves]

Tell her that in addition to getting off the ship and through customs at the port, she needs to get to the airport, go through customs there & check in at the airline. You also need to be at the gate for international flights earlier than domestic flights. She won't be able to put their luggage out the last night, however, because then she will have to wait for her character to be called to disembark.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Tell her that in addition to getting off the ship and through customs at the port, she needs to get to the airport, go through customs there & check in at the airline. You also need to be at the gate for international flights earlier than domestic flights. She won't be able to put their luggage out the last night, however, because then she will have to wait for her character to be called to disembark.

Wait, so you're saying to make a noon flight they should carry off their own luggage, not put it outside their door?

 

[lbgraves]

That's my suggestion to make sure that she gets to the gate in time. The ship got into Vancouver later than we have experienced in PC. You then sit around and wait for your luggage tag to be called due to there not being enough room to put all the luggage out at once. It was after 9:00 before we had claimed our luggage, through customs and out of the terminal. It is 30-45 minutes to the airport with a taxi. That would get them there around 9:30-9:45 in the best case. Customs at the airport had a long line when we were there around 6:00 a.m. [spent the night at a hotel the day we got off the ship]. You have to check in with the airline also. You then have to check in at the gate and they verified passports there also. I forget how far in advance you have to be at the gate for an international flight, but it is earlier than domestic flights. We were there before the cruise ships were disembarking that day, so I can only imagine that if you add hundreds of passengers to the lines we experienced that day it will take longer.

 

[pequele]

I am recommending my clients not booking any flights before 12pm

CruznLexi have you heard anything on more released cruises for 2014 yet?

 

[pequele]

What about without flights we wouldn't be international until we made a connecting flight in Canada somewhere (Montreal or toronto) we wouldn't have to be at the airport as early, right?

 

[CruznLexi]

Nope very eagerly waiting.

 

[gilsan]

What about without flights we wouldn't be international until we made a connecting flight in Canada somewhere (Montreal or toronto) we wouldn't have to be at the airport as early, right?

Domestic check in (to Toronto, Montreal, or any other Canadian airport), is 1 hour prior to flight. You do need to go through customs so you don't need to be there as early. If you are connecting to a US destination you will clear customs in your last Canadian airport, they usually have express lanes for connecting flights. International flights check in is 2 hours prior.

 

[pequele]

Nope very eagerly waiting.

booo

Domestic check in (to Toronto, Montreal, or any other Canadian airport), is 1 hour prior to flight. You do need to go through customs so you don't need to be there as early. If you are connecting to a US destination you will clear customs in your last Canadian airport, they usually have express lanes for connecting flights. International flights check in is 2 hours prior.

thanks. I was just checking on flights in anticipating booking an Alaska 2014 trip...but I'm still torn between that and Europe.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Thanks everyone!