Are you thinking of flying in the day of the cruise?

[marybrat]

This thread is totally stressing me out. We plan to fly in Friday evening for a Saturday cruise. We can't fly any sooner because I'm a teacher and we work that Friday. *aaahhh*

 

[Grandma4ever]

This thread is totally stressing me out. We plan to fly in Friday evening for a Saturday cruise. We can't fly any sooner because I'm a teacher and we work that Friday. *aaahhh*

No reason to totally stress out. If you are flying in the night before you should fine. Just remember to keep checking with the airlines because they do change flight times. If they change the times they will let you pick another flight that works best for you. Have an awesome cruise.

 

[cruisinmama06]

This thread is totally stressing me out. We plan to fly in Friday evening for a Saturday cruise. We can't fly any sooner because I'm a teacher and we work that Friday. *aaahhh*

The night before, you should be fine.

And if not, I think I see a cough coming on for the teacher that day

(yes I'm joking...lol)

 

[mmackeymouse]

This thread is totally stressing me out. We plan to fly in Friday evening for a Saturday cruise. We can't fly any sooner because I'm a teacher and we work that Friday. *aaahhh*

I am with ya. We have 4 adults' schedules to deal with. We felt that Saturday morning was our only option, as two of the work schedules generally do not allow you to take days off prior to or after a week long vacation. I will actually have that Friday off (IF we do the September date).

As I said before, if we do the Friday evening, we would have to do the last flight of the day. AirTran actually does have a 7:30 flight, which would probably work okay with our schedule, if they can get off a couple of hours early (we live aways from an airport).

I am just afraid that the early morning flights will be booked, and something will happen to the evening flight, then the morning flights will be on time, and we won't get to our plane.

 

[Grandma4ever]

I still would not fly the day of if you can avoid it but it isn't worth stressing over. Get in as early as you can and you will be fine. You must be to the port and on board no later than 4 PM. It is an hour to the port from the airport. Add in getting off the plan to to your transpotation to the port, makes landing much later than noon risky.

As far as being on a filght the night before and having not work so thinking the next moring might be better, the same thing could happen the next morning. Take it the night before and if the worse do happen you have that night to get the airline to figure out how they are going to get you to Orlando.

Please don't panic planning is half the fun, just do the best you can and pray it will all work out.

 

[Soccermom-Cheri]

Yes we did have the all inclusive package where DCL booked our insurance, flight and transportation. Otherwise I wouldn't be so gutsy, lol. Okay, okay, just so you know we may plan to drive down (18 hours ). Might visit family in Panama City before finishing the trip the next day. But yes, the only reason I would have kept our flight is because it was booked through Disney.

Edit: By switching over to a WDW vacate, I was more considering having the cruise refunded and simply apply those funds to a WDW spurt of the moment vacation. We really would be happy with either.

There are some pretty heavy cancellation penalties depending on when you cancel. Less than 7 days and you lose everything (unless you have insurance to cover it and, of course, there are exceptions but not for missing flights or changing your mind) so there might not be anything to transfer into a spur of the moment WDW vacation.

 

[tink71973]

Hello All,

I have been in the travel Biz for 7 years. Please please please never ever ever fly any place the day of any big event, weddings graduations, The day the ship leaves. I hate to think of the tears I have seen when people miss once in a life time moments because of poor planning.Too many thing's can go wrong don't risk it.

Happy Planning
Dawn

 

[flexsmom]

Yes we did have the all inclusive package where DCL booked our insurance, flight and transportation. Otherwise I wouldn't be so gutsy, lol. Okay, okay, just so you know we may plan to drive down (18 hours ). Might visit family in Panama City before finishing the trip the next day. But yes, the only reason I would have kept our flight is because it was booked through Disney.

Edit: By switching over to a WDW vacate, I was more considering having the cruise refunded and simply apply those funds to a WDW spurt of the moment vacation. We really would be happy with either.

As the previous poster said, you start incurring heavy cancellation penalties after the final payment is due. There are blocks of days where your penalty increases from losing 50% to losing 75% to losing it all within 7 days. Since you have the DCL package, if your air falls apart due to weather or airlines just messing with the flights (the air on which they ticketed you), and you miss the ship, then they'll reroute you to catch up with the ship at the first legal opportunity.

I don't know if you can just "opt out" and ask for a refund at that point since they are offering to get you to the ship at no add'l cost.

Good luck!

 

[HoosierFrog]

Just to put everyone's mind at ease (yes, I know you were worried about us). We did decide to visit family and take the long drive, so no worries about cancelled flights, just a small cancellation fee instead.

Have a great day.

Tim

 

[mmackeymouse]

I still would not fly the day of if you can avoid it but it isn't worth stressing over. Get in as early as you can and you will be fine. You must be to the port and on board no later than 4 PM. It is an hour to the port from the airport. Add in getting off the plan to to your transpotation to the port, makes landing much later than noon risky.

As far as being on a filght the night before and having not work so thinking the next moring might be better, the same thing could happen the next morning. Take it the night before and if the worse do happen you have that night to get the airline to figure out how they are going to get you to Orlando.

Please don't panic planning is half the fun, just do the best you can and pray it will all work out.

Thanks for the advice. There are two things I am by nature: an incessant planner and an incessant worrier.

So this is me in my element.

We are just not used to having a timeline when we travel. We usually just get on the plane or in the car and go. Our first day of arrival is usually a lazy, chill day.

So initially, we just planned on arriving first thing Saturday, and put it into the Lord's hands that we would make it on time. But, then I started reading all these posts, and it kind of scared me. So now I have all these situations in my head.

 

[BelleEm2]

Speaking from many, many cruises of personal experiences, I hate flying in day-of. I've never had a problem with arriving on time, but I am completely paranoid and pessimistic about the entire experience. Last year in the Med, our flight left Tuesday night for our Wednesday afternoon cruise... on the other side of the world. The flight was perfectly on schedule, and we landed in Barcelona at about 9 AM local time, but I was petrified that we wouldn't make it. We were actually early for the ship. CM's picked us up, and we were treated to a tour of the city because it was too early to go to the port, so timing was great, but planning... not so much. Because no one factored in the jetlag. And after a transatlantic flight, a day full of fun activities on a cruise ship is the last thing that you want to do... even if it is the Magic. So for those reasons, I always like to travel the day before. We're not so tired, and we can fully participate in the activities on the ship for the day. After all, it does count in your cruise.

Usually, when we leave out of PC, we stay at the MCO Hyatt the night before, but sometimes, because of other responsibilites, we can't do that. So we're not completely opposed to taking an early morning flight the morning of the cruise (JetBlue has flights going from JFK to MCO almost constantly throughout the day), but we'd prefer to fly in a day ahead.