Flying in the same day as cruise

[RAD]

To me it's not worth the chance of missing the ship just to save on a hotel bill for one night. Way too many times flights have been delayed or cancelled on my to take the chance. Last few times we stay at the MCO Hyatt the night before, call bell services which takes the bags directly to Disney, take the elevator to the 1st floor and walk on the bus.

 

[asunutgirl]

I don't like doing the red-eye from the West Coast. Frankly, no one really sleeps and then you are done for at least the first day of the cruise. Much prefer to fly in the day before. A good night's sleep and a restful start to the vacation are worth it for me.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I don't like doing the red-eye from the West Coast. Frankly, no one really sleeps and then you are done for at least the first day of the cruise. Much prefer to fly in the day before. A good night's sleep and a restful start to the vacation are worth it for me.

I guess it depends if 5 hours worth (what I can get on the flight) is enough. You can also catch a little nap on the bus ride (that's another hour) to the port. Or head over to the DCL transfer desk area early (they don't open until 9:00) and catch a few more hours there.

Some people can sleep through practically anything.

 

[CalDisneyMomof2]

To me it's not worth the chance of missing the ship just to save on a hotel bill for one night. Way too many times flights have been delayed or cancelled on my to take the chance. Last few times we stay at the MCO Hyatt the night before, call bell services which takes the bags directly to Disney, take the elevator to the 1st floor and walk on the bus.

For me it's not the $100-$200 I'd spend on the hotel room. It's a matter of DH having the time off and how many days I feel comfortable taking the kids out of school.

 

[CalDisneyMomof2]

I don't like doing the red-eye from the West Coast. Frankly, no one really sleeps and then you are done for at least the first day of the cruise. Much prefer to fly in the day before. A good night's sleep and a restful start to the vacation are worth it for me.

Different strokes for different folks! My family LOVES the red eyes. We've done 5 and we just manage to take a nap somewhere during the day - which I'd do anyway if I were to travel during the day.

 

[bumbershoot]

They might hold the boat - but if flights are such that the delay would be too much, they get you to the next port stop (their cost as I recall).

I'm going to assume that a passport would be necessary for that to work.

What are thoughts about being on the west coast and taking a direct red eye the night before?

Took the delta overnight flight on the 19th. Got on cruise on th 20th. Utter misery. Not planning to do it again.

We are not people who sit down and pass out. Well, dh is but he sat next to a chatty guy and they talked loudly for three hours. (We were in 1st and we were behind dh)

Then he passed out and DS and I were in misery the rest of the time. My activity watch shows zero deep sleep, about one hour of sleep total (not all at once), and the rest was awake.

Landed at 5:30am (2:30 pacific time! Joy!), totally toast. Got coffee, got the car. Drove to Canaveral, puttered around until 11, returned the car, got on our ship.

It was an experiment I failed on my own for princess, when I watched The Martian instead of sleeping, and we failed it this month without turning on the screen at all (until 3am when DS was losing it and instead of screaming I told him to just put something on and stop trying to sleep).

 

[tnshsms]

What time is your flight? What time will you need to get to the airport? Leave your house? Get up that morning? That's a hard way to start a vacation. You may be too tired to enjoy the first night of the cruise.

THIS.....I am WAY too tired and cranky to enjoy the first day if I fly in the day of the cruise. AND we have been delayed 4 hours the day we flew in....we were fine since we flew in the day before but we landed at the time of what would have been all aboard and we still needed to drive that hour to get to the ship...if we had flown in that same day. It makes me too nervous. Its worth the $120 overnight stay to me.

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

My mom flew in the night before our cruise last year and will do the same next year. She will not do the last flight of the day but maybe one or two before it as an extra buffer (from PIT.). The first time I cruised, a family was getting on the ship in the middle of the day in Nassau because of a cancelled flight the day before so they lost the first night and most of the second day which I can't imagine for only a 4 night cruise. I'm assuming they were even able to come because they had passports...another thing to think about if a flight is delayed or cancelled.

 

[jack87891]

I am writing this after running to catch a connecting flight. My connection became very tight because a passenger got sick on the incoming plane and they had to do extensive cleaning. I fly a lot for work and have seen so many delays/cancellations for all kinds of reasons (as a note see the article earlier this week about an allegiance flight from Michigan to Orlando.)

I'll probably never fly in on same day. If I HAD to as a last resort I'd probably do it only if I booked air through disney- ( which I don't normally do) and had no connecting flights

 

[Fyrefly]

We flew in day of for ours because I was light on vacation time. But our home airport is BWI which is a southwest hub. We were on the first flight of the day, in May when weather is historically fine, direct flight, and there were 3 or 4 more flights that day that could have made us there in time.

Everything went without a hitch, we were a little tired that night and went to bed early. If I hadn't been hyped up because of first cruise I would have tried to catnap a bit on the plane or in the terminal.

That being said if we needed a connector flight or if it was November-March or so, or if I lived near an airport with fewer Orlando flights per day, I would do the day before.

Edit: Also we had vacation insurance! Would never do day of without it.

 

[intricatejewel]

Sure, there's a risk to flying in the same day as your cruise. I've done this 6 times without any issues and all 6 flights were in the winter months.

 

[MinnesotaMouseketeers]

We always fly in at least one night before our cruises. We would not feel at all comfortable flying in the day of. From past flights for us we know first hand things happen that can delay you enough to the point you may miss the cruise. These were not for DCL vacations (but easily could be) but we have had a flight that had to make an emergency landing shortly after takeoff. We had a delay of several hours before we got on another plane and continued our flight home. That delay would have caused us to miss the cruise. We later found out the cockpit window was de-laminating; I believe that is the term, which means cracking. We had to make a rapid decent landing into the Albuquerque airport.

We were also with a very large group flying to Ireland. Two planes, two different airlines, each having a layover. Ours in Chicago; all our flights were on time. The other groups plane had a layover in New York which had a large storm system over the area. Their plane had a three hour delay taking off from the Twin Cities waiting for the system to pass so they could fly in. We had three hours to kill at the Dublin airport waiting for their arrival.

If you have to fly in the day of departure I would make sure you arrive as early as possible in the morning. If there are any issues hopefully they are taken care of with plenty of time to spare. And I would book a direct flight if possible because of weather. Other wise you also have to worry about the weather where your layover is; and that the plane that you transfer to is going to be there and not delayed somewhere waiting for takeoff.

We have always chosen a WDW resort to stay at, typically we get to it around 1:30 PM. If it's just one night we will at least have a dining reservation made and hit DTD/Disney Springs. More than one night we will add a park or more to the visit.

 

[FindMeAFishingSpot]

We flew in the night before in February. Flight was supposed to leave at 3pm from Rhode Island and get in with plenty of time to get the kids dinner and in bed at a halfway decent hour at the airport Hyatt. Arrived at the airport, 2 hour delay on the board with plenty of sunshine all around. Plane was coming in from Minneapolis where it was snowing. 2 hours turned into 4 hours, then they finally announced they called up another plane from Florida and we would leave at 9pm. Got a great voucher for our troubles ($800 for 4 people which is covering a lot of our flight costs in June to WDW!), but we didn't get in until midnight and we were spent. Cranky, exhausted kids and not the way to start vacation. From now on, I'll be flying in 2 days before!

 

[timrousbeastie]

Here are some problems that have happened during my own flights that would have led to a missed cruise:
* Missed flight due waiting in security line for over an hour so that some Middle Eastern VIP and his entourage could skip the line.
* Missed flight in Las Vegas due to extremely long security line the morning after a fight night.
* Missed transatlantic connection due to safety landing at another airport during domestic flight.
* Missed flight due to check-in counter taking forever to check baggage
* Volcanic eruption caused cancellation of multiple flights
* Flight cancelled at LAX due to President getting a haircut on tarmac
* Flight cancelled due to crew rest requirements
* Flight cancelled due to snow
* Flight diverted due to medical emergency
* Flights delayed due to mechanical issues
* Missed transatlantic flight due to cancelled domestic flight in Europe.
* Missed flight due to food poisoning.
* Missed flight due to forgetting something at home.

No matter how careful and on time you are, things can and will, eventually, go wrong.