Our horror story!!

[smjj]

Be careful of connecting flight:

On our two Disney cruises and our other 4 we have always let the TA handle our air(mostly let them book thru the cruise line) including Disney handle our air. This last week we missed out Princess cruise due to the USAirways plane out of Indy being broke and not able to take off and us having a 25 min. layover in Charlette onto Ft. Lauderdale. USAir and Princess both tried to re-book out flight but no flight was able to get us into a port before our ship left. They tried several ports on our cruise. We booked this time of year as always because its our anniversary. We and our travel agent both questioned the 25 min. layover with the final leg getting to Ft. Laudedale with only 3 hours to spare but was told by both USAir and Princess to not worry that its a regulary scheduled flight. The point being try and make sure you fly in the prior day or you do not have any short connecting flight. We are working with Princess and USAir but as of now the only option forthcoming is a 75% voucher on a furture cruise. We did have insurance but that only handles cases where you need to cancel , say a death or illness in the family.
I know there will be those who say Disney would not have done this but on our last Disney cruise we had a straight flight into Orlando but with just two hours to spare. If any delay had happended we would be been in trouble there also. We spent this week just getting documnents together to try and get our money back. Wish us luck....smjj

 

[kajohn]

So sorry to hear of your problem. I constantly worry about flights, and always book a day ahead for that reason. Even then I worry! I hope you get things worked out!

 

[Disneyland_emily]

YUCK!

Glad you are so upbeat about it-but it still is depressing-

best wishes on getting compansation-

Im glad Im flying in 5 days before my cruise- -em

 

[The4OfUs]

Thank you for sharing that...I'm sorry you had to go through all that, after looking forward to a cruise for a while I'm sure! Interesting that trip insurance didn't help...what company did you go with? I just went back to see if mine would have covered this, and I am surprised to see it doesn't...should there have been a strike, OR if the delay was caused by bad weather, or even if there was a terrorist attack in the city any of the airports you had to go through was in...THEN they would have covered it, but it says nothing about "equipment failure".

Hmm.

I hope the companies work with you to make the aftermath a little less stressful.

 

[mbaidacoff]

We were on the 3/13 Western and ended up leaving Port Canaveral over an hour late because the ship waited for some people whose flights were delayed. (Not that I minded - I hardly noticed I was having so much fun at the deck party!)

On our trip home yesterday we had a 45 minute connection and we didn't make our connecting flight (though our luggage did, and was waiting for us when we landed on the next flight, 3 hours later!)

I always fly in the night before because it gets us into the "vacation state of mind". The price of a hotel is well worth the security of knowing you won't be stranded in an airport somewhere when that Wish Upon a Star horn goes off.

 

[mrsfuzzmo]

Day ahead, Day ahead, Always fly in a Day ahead!!!!! You've learned a valuable lesson (As did we when we missed the first day and a half of our Honeymoon Sailing Cruise in Venezuela- We had 5 flights in one day, AND it was the DAY BEFORE we sailed and we still missed the first 30 hours of our Honeymoon!!!). Never again will I fly in the same day as when I sail!

 

[mbaidacoff]

The4OfUs

My travel insurance specifically said it would NOT cover us in case of a terrorist attack. I'm sure that clause wasn't there before 9/11. Times have changed...

 

[The4OfUs]

Originally posted by mbaidacoff
The4OfUs

My travel insurance specifically said it would NOT cover us in case of a terrorist attack. I'm sure that clause wasn't there before 9/11. Times have changed...

How sad, huh. *sigh* We used TravelGuard, and they're pretty extensive, including pre-existing illnesses, like my daughter's asthma. Funny I never looked to see if equipment failures were covered. Probably good or I'd have stressed about that!!

 

[smjj]

What is interesting is that the airlines people said "you should have flown in the day ahead". The TA and Princess said that was not necessary. Everyone blaming someone else and us caught in the middle. I know that USAirways after stating we should have flown in the day before would not fly us in the day before our ship hit any of the ports. They also said said that because we did not fly in the day before it was not their fault, even though it was their plane that had the machanical problem that caused the flight to be cancelled!! Its a real mess and our 6 page letter is supposely in the hands of USAirways and Princess now so we just have to wait and see what happens. I know this, when they cancelled the flight after we were onboard for an hour it was a mad dash for the 120+ people back to main ticketing to try and get rescheduled. We were about 60th in line and it took us over 45 minutes to get to the front of the line and all this time we were on our cell with both Princess's emergency line(worthless) and USAirways that was telling us different info from what the Rep. at the counter was telling us....smjj

 

[mickeyboat]

I am so sorry this happened to you. I was almost in the same boat for our 3/6 Magic Eastern sailing. We scheduled our flight for the same day (stupid, stupid). I booked through a local TA who asked if we were interested in doing the day before option but did not make a recommendation one way or the other. (I have since told her that she should strongly recommend it to her future customers).

Our flight was scheduled to leave Manchester, NH at 7:30AM, we had a layover in Atlanta and were to arrive at 1PM in Orlando. Our flight was delayed until 11:00 AM (the fog the night before and the problematic naviagational system meant our plane was diverted to Boston, the crew then had to rest for a certain period of time), there was no other flight to get us from Atlanta to MCO until 6:30. We booked on that flight and waited for DCL to open up. I spoke to Mindy at DCL Ground Transportation who said we would probably miss the ship but to keep her informed). We booked our air through DCL and were told we would be flown to St. Maarten to wait for the ship.

I realized that at check-in the employee did not check-in DH so I went back to the desk. The employee said DH had to come with me even though I had given her his ID. I said DH was upstairs in the terminal with my two small kids and I didn't want to drag the whole family all over the airport. Then she said there was no more room on the later flight into Atlanta. I flipped out and started bawling - but not before I asked to speak to a supervisor. Shelby was wonderful. We went from "sorry - no room at the inn," - to "we can put you priority on a stand-by flight and you will make it to MCO at 4PM." That was sounding much better. I talked to Mindy at DCL again who said that they would be watching to see if we had made the flight and would have a DCL rep there when we got off.

We had to run to our connecting flight in Atlanta and we did get seats (1st priority stand-by as Shelby promised). When we got to MCO, a DCL rep escorted us to the DCL bus and we were wisked away to port on an empty bus, sans luggage.

We made the ship just in time. No embarkation photo for us, we were brought in through the guts of the ship. But we were there. Guest Services was tremendously helpful getting us by until outr luggage met up with us in St. Maarten.

We have been offered compensation from Delta and are also filing a claim with out travel insurance company for replacement items. Our insurance (Travelex) covered baggage delay.

Once again, the moral of the story is, FLY IN THE DAY BEFORE!

Sorry for the rambling!

Denae

edited to add - Delta said we should have flown in a day ahead as well.

 

[disvaclub92]

I am so sorry to hear about your trip. We booked our first cruise through a TA. Hubby thought it would be a great idea to have someone else take the responsibility - nice idea - but it backfired.

I gave the TA instructions for the flight stating that I wanted to travel the night before. She stated that was not necessary - I insisted upon it. We were staying a week in WDW after our cruise and she was advised of that fact. She booked us to fly home the day we arrived at port. I had her correct it.

Here is the problem - be aware: The tickets had to be rebooked. We purchased the tickets with a Debit Card - hence we would have no bill - since we had the cash available. The TA failed to inform us that a credit for the wrong tickets cannot be processed at the same time as the reissue - therefore, causing us to be short in our account. Several Bank charges later - we were advised of the credit problem. Comment was - that is how debit cards work. After a battle with the manager and the TA, we were refunded the fees that they caused us.

Needless to say - I struggle with relying on a TA to do anything for me. In addition, I always allow myself time for traveling just in case something could go wrong.

 

[christinou]

SMJJ, I am just curious, what did you do, were you able to catch up with the ship on the next island??

 

[felixdacat]

Hi,

I would like to suggest that you contact the staff at www.clarkhoward.com .
Clark Howard is a consumer advocate who has a syndicated radio show. He originally made his fortune in the Travel Industry.
They may have suggestions on how you can deal with this situation. However, if they believe that the 75% voucher is a valid compensation, then they will be honest and let you know as well.
They have a message board where you can post your story, or you can contact them by phone.

 

[travellady]

Since I am flying in from Seattle in December, I've booked by flight 2 days prior to departure. Seattle is notorious for fog this time of year. I've read too many horror stories about people missing their cruise - this is one more of those. I"m sorry you missed yours, I suspect you were very disappointed.

 

[buzz&woody'smom]

On our 10/25/03 Magic cruise we were delayed and watched as they rushed a few families on board. They made announcement we would be delayed bc of the flights being delayed...I felt so sorry for those families but was glad to see they made it

 

[cindy21494]

I'm sorry to hear this happened to you. This almost happened to us last year with US Airways. We got to the ship with 40 minutes to spare, talk about stress! On the last two of three flights, we had problems with US Airways. Both flights had equipment problems. Unfortunately, US Airways is the cheapest flight we can find that flies non-stop. We have learned the hard way too, now we fly in the day before. At least this time we will be relaxed before we even get on the ship.

I hope you have better luck next time.

 

[Worldtraveler777]

As a TA, I always advise my clients to fly in the night before. That way, they have that extra cushion in case of flight delays and such.

There's nothing like waking up refreshed and unhurried with the peace of mind that you will make it to the port in plenty of time.

 

[smjj]

Originally posted by christinou
SMJJ, I am just curious, what did you do, were you able to catch up with the ship on the next island??

Christinou:

They tried to fly us into Governers Harbor near Princess Cay but USAir(Uslessair) could not find it in their computer and when they finally did they could not get us a flight in until 40 minutes after the Grand Princess left. Princess insisted this happens and they have flown people to Governers Harbor many times. USAirway(UslessAir) then tried to fly us into Grand Cayman on Wednesday but same result, the plane landed after our ship pulled up anchor. My wife was by this time balling her eyes out but to no avail. No one at Princess or UslessAir would fly us in the day before our ship docked at any ports but by then the cruise would have been half over anyway. The feedback I am getting from many people is that UslessAir is the cheapest and that is why they have these problems and Princess uses them(to save a buck)...smjj

 

[bostonlass]

Here's an interesting piece of information that I was unaware of before. Now I'm armed just in case I miss my connection in Detroit! http://www.mytravelrights.com/travellaw.cfm?ai=3

 

[Amberle3]

Originally posted by Worldtraveler777
As a TA, I always advise my clients to fly in the night before. That way, they have that extra cushion in case of flight delays and such.

Also as TA, I have to agree. I always advise my clients to fly in the day before, and if they insist on flying in day-of I note in my file that I had made the recommendation.

The most important thing when chosing a TA is to get recommendations from people you trust on what TAs they use. The big advantage to using a TA is that you have an additional person who will go to bat for you when things go wrong. I've had clients with wonderful experiences, but I can't tell you how many phone calls and letters I've written to vendors about horror stories, and how many hours I've put in trying to get emergency situations straightened out.