flying in the same day?

[TheWog]

For our cruise in January we flew the day before and were delayed leaving Manchester, NH. We arrived in Charlotte and watched our plane pull out from the gate next to us. We had to stay in Charlotte for 7 hours waiting for the next flight we could get on. We arrived at MCO at about 10:30 p.m. (approx 7 hours later than scheduled). Granted the next day may have been a different story, but we were glad we flew in the day before. We were also well rested for our first day on the ship. We will always fly in the day before.

 

[3littlepeas]

Well.....the latest news is...my travel agent called me last night saying that DCL will charge 25$ cancellation fees, which is more than fine, and I can now book my own flights and I will fly in the day before. My TA agrees that it is the best thing to do, plus it'll give us a chance to see Cape Canaveral. Has for transportation to the pier, he suggested I rent a one way car from Budget and leave it at the pier, do the same thing on the way back, it will be much cheaper than the 300$ Disney charges the 5 of us to get there....I'm just waiting for his confirmation now that all our flights are booked...thank you so much for all your advice! I'll keep you posted. Oh yeah someone asked, I have one connection in PIT....

I'LL BE CRUISIN'

 

[Jeanny]

we also flew in the night before (January-our plane was delayed because of snow-I call it my travel curse!! ) stayed at the Hyatt right there in the airport lobby.... put our luggage out in the a.m. and hopped on the DCL bus.

You're doing the "setting your mind at ease" right thing by flying in the day before .... you could even get a limo to take you to the Port if you wanted, but by renting a car, you're free to do things at your leisure and enjoy the sites!

Good luck and have fun in whatever you end up doing.

 

[two-foxes]

Has anyone seen the show on A&E, Airline? It is a docu-reality show that showcases a day in the life of a traveller and the staff with Southwest airlines. They had an episode where Southwest oversold a flight by 52, yes 52, seats. That is bad. Worse yet, a good chunk of the 52 passengers where headed to Florida to leave for their Carnival cruise, which was leaving that evening. It was UGLY! People were yelling, upset and threatening lawsuits. They were frantically calling Carnival, calling friends they were meeting, and all I was thinking was "trip insurance" and "save yourself the what if's and fly in the night before."

So, fly in the night before.

 

[mickeyboat]

PLEASE FLY IN THE DAY BEFORE!

We thought we would have no problem with a 1:30 flight. First I found that we would probably miss the ressie scramble, so no Palo for us.

I thought since it was March we would have no problem with weather. Boy were we wrong. There was fog all through the East Coast the night before and morning of our flight. Our flight was delayed by four hours, we had a layover in Atlanta that we were going to miss and we were not scheduled to get to MCO until 6:30 - all because of a little fog. No cruise for us.

Luckily, we spoke to a supervisor at Delta who was able to put us on stand-by for an earlier flight from Atlanta. We had to RUN to make the connection with two big bags and two small children.

When we got to MCO, we were met by a DCL rep who rushed us to the bus - sans luiggage.

We made it to the ship, but out luggage did not. DCL delivered it to us in St. Maarten. It made for an interesting couple of days.

Avoid the problems and the rush. Come in the day before. This is a vacation of a lifetime, don't risk it for such a small amount of money. Consider booking your own flight and hotel.

Another reminder: DCL's airline program generally does not have non stop flights into MCO. You are boind to have a lay-over, and that leaves more room for error.

Denae

P.S. I just read more of the thread that said you are coming in the night before. Good choice. My plea stands for anyone else considering coming in the day of.

 

[Houzer]

Well good news! We are staying the night before at the Hyatt!! Yahoo!!! As I said our friends are traveling with us and she called last night and said we were not going to pay for the resort so they said we could stay at the Hyatt. Now why the heck when I told them we didn't want to say on the resort they didn't tell us about being able to say there. This piece of info would have helped us out a great deal!! I am not so nervous now about the entire thing. Pauline

 

[natdencro]

Hey Mickeyboat, I think it must have been your family we saw at MCO as we were waiting for our return flight to UK. We felt SO sorry for you arriving so late for your cruise, and wondered if you made the ship in time. Sounds like you did, thank goodness, but as you say, better to be sure and take earlier flights to ensure stress free vacation. Its not worth risking the whole cruise for the sake of saving $s. Hope you managed to relax once on board! Nat