Any horror stories of missing the Saturday embarkation time?

[Mjasp]

Good Move changing your itinerary to the day before. I originally wanted to fly in the day of, my DH is a frequent flier and down out refused to do it the day of. He keeps reminding me how he left O'Hare on a Friday evening at 5 P.M. and didn't arrive home in NY till Saturday afternoon about 2 P.M. We call him Chris now as a joke. (Christopher Columbus). By the way, It happened in the summer (no snow to blame)

Joanna

 

[disvaclub92]

We fly out of PHL to MCO all the time during the Fall. One time we had a flight that was cancelled three hours before the flight - we were just leaving the house when I called - due to bad weather.

So because of that I am flying in the night before. It really depends on what time you are getting down there and the season too.

Good Luck

 

[RellingTwin]

Disvaclub92...are you staying at the Radisson the night before?
The reason I ask is because a bunch of us DIS'ers going on the 9/28 cruise will be there and we would love for you to join us!
If you have not already, please check out our 9/28/02 cruise thread.

 

[sluggo]

It does happen that families do not arrive in time and miss the ship. On average it happens about 1 out of 3 voyages. The family is usually sent to the next port of call (Nassau, St Maarten, or Key West) to begin their cruise.

 

[LarryC]

We been on 5 cruises (2 on Disney Magic) and we fly to FL the day of the cruise for each one. Never had any problems.

Some cruise lines will wait for a plane that has been delayed - others will not. Once on Costa Cruise line, the boat delayed departure for 4 hours to wait on a flight out of NJ (snowstorm in Feb).

That being said, I fly around 75,000 miles per year, and I cannot even begin to count the number of flight delays of over 6 hours and flight cancellations I have endured. For complete peace-of-mind, fly the day before to ensure you will be on the boat. I worried until we were on the ground.

Hopefully, your trip insurance will cover your financial loss in case you miss the boat, althought he emotional loss will be tough to deal with.

PS - Those on USAir should be especially worried, given the financial condition of the airline. They could cease operations at any time, leaving you stranded (Anyone remember Eastern Airlines?).

 

[albiats]

Another word of caution -
In September of 2000, we were on a DCL cruise that had to leave early because a large storm was approaching from the west. About 3pm, they announced over the loud speakers that the Captain had decided it would be much safer to leave port early so they had the safety drill at 3:40 and we pulled out of port about 4:05pm. We were able to outrun the storm by leaving early.

And a word of advice -
If you have to fly in on the day of the cruise and you are using DCL transfers, you should inform DCL of your flight plans, even if you arranged them yourself. They'll monitor the flight arrivals and unless it's an unreasonable time period, they might be able to delay the ship's departure by a few minutes so you can still make it. I'm sure they have guidelines for the amount of time involved, but if they can still get you on the transfer bus, it could mean the difference between missing the cruise or making it.

And my opinion -
If at all possible, I would avoid coming in on the day of the cruise.

I also advocate buying the trip insurance for the cruise and I would also have the airfare covered. You can buy trip insurance from established companies as close as a couple of days before your cruise. One of the companies is CSA Travel, this is a link to their website:
CSA Travel Insurance

hope that helps

 

[pagemaker]

Ok, now I'm panicked again. This is our "once in a lifetime vacation", and of course, I'm in charge of everything. Planning a vacation shouldn't be this stressful should it? I hope its worth it!

Deb

11/23/02 - Magic 7 Day Western

 

[starwood]

We went to WDW in April. Flight was Friday at 4:45 pm. We wanted to see our High School band at Magic Kingdom 10:00 Sat. We had a bad thunderstorm that rolled in around our flight time. They never sent the flight from Atlanta which meant if we did leave we would never make the connection in Atlanta. Flight was eventually cancelled.

We were put on a flight 7:00 am Sat morning out of Philadelphia. We had to take Amtrak to Philly. Flight was now going to Melbourne instead of Orlando.

So instead of arriving in Orlando at 11:00 pm Friday night we didn't get there until 1:30 Saturday afternoon.

I don't think there is anyway, after that, that I would fly the day of my cruise.