snow delay?

[Dabney]

Soooooooooo we leave tommorow for the 4 day wonder trip! This is our first cruise and we are very excited! However, there is a chance of ice tommorow at BWI, which will likely delay our flight. What is the latest you can board the ship? If the worst happens...will we just take a loss on the entire trip? Keep all fingers crossed!!

 

[clh2]

From what I understand - your options are much greater if you purchased trip insurance?

Any chance of changing your flights to later today?

 

[HooKooDooKu]

I believe that you can board the ship up until 3:30.

I seem to recall that the emergency drill either starts at 4:00 or everything on the ship closes at 4:00 in preperation for the dirll. So the official time might be at late as 4:00.

 

[The4OfUs]

I think it also matters if you bought air thru Disney or not...if so they hold the ship, if not they don't? Don't quote me on this, but that's the experience a friend had via another cruise line...

 

[kcashner]

There is much discussion of this in an earlier thread. If you arranged your own transportation, then you are responsible for getting yourself to the port. DCL has no responsibility to hold the ship for you. Travel insurance bought thru DCL will not cover you, however, privately purchased travel insurance which covers your flight as well as the cruise would cover.

If you bought your air thru DCL, they have been known to hold the ship for as much as an hour for a late plane. How much beyond that they would hold it, I don't know.

It is always a good idea to arrive early in bad weather...a day early is a great idea. You can get a 3* airport hotel with free shuttle (and some have free breakfast) thru Priceline for $28-35. Small price to pay for the assurance that you are in Orlando in time for the cruise.

Is there a chance of changing your flight to today???? Or earlier in the morning?

 

[Cruisin]

We were on a 3 day cruise in Jan of 2002. We left that morning from Detroit airport, our flight was delayed 2 hours due to icy conditions. We had lots of time cause we were flying out at 7am, but it still caused us some anxious moments.
When we were on the ship, they delayed the departure by about 1 hour. They said there was a flight coming out of Detroit that was late and they were waiting for the people to arrive from that flight. I would think that these people were already at the Orlando airport by that time.
After sitting on the runway at the de-icing station for 2 hours we now leave the day before our scheduled cruise. Too much stress

 

[inkkognito]

I'll send good thoughts and pixie dust your way that it will all work out.
And amen to the suggestion of getting there the night before! We always do that, and since we've had a couple of significant weather delays on two recent trips (to Orlando, not cruises), I have been reminded that it is the best course of action. We live in Chicago, so weather is always a factor in my paranoia, especially since we cruise a lot in the winter.
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[Dabney]

Thanks so much for all of the imput. I am unable to get a transfer for my flight tonight...Southwest is booked. I purchased our own air...oh well. My travel agent said it is our responsibility to "catch the cruise" if we miss. May he have warned us earlier???????? I purchased insurance and wrongly thought it would cover situations such as these. Keep throwing the pixie dust and we will cross our fingers!

 

[ms1]

The 12/27/03 Magic cruise did not leave until 5:45PM. One DCL bus was racing to the port shortly after the lifeboat drill. We thought that was it. Later 2 more DCL buses also raced their way to the terminal before we finally left.

I also was coming from Chicago. When I considered Disney air options they would only book me to fly in on cruise day. Not a chance I was willing to take. I also did not like not knowing my flight times until 2 weeks out since I was meeting friends that I was cruising with and wanted to be sure I made the concierge meeting for booking spa appointments. So I flew in the day before.

 

[ChattyKathy]

WOW Dabney, I'm in SW Pennsylvania and we are getting dumped on right now with snow, ..Wished you could have flown into FLA today...would have saved on your worries!
Oh well, keep your fingers crossed and pray!
Enjoy your long awaited cruise!


Kathy Sprinkling pixie dust your way!



PS- kcashner-I sent you a pm.

 

[cmitch9999]

If you purchased insurance indepent of DCL and covered the cost of both your airfare and the cruise..you would have coverage to get you to the first port of call. They won't help you with arrangements and you will need to prepay all and get reimbursed later. This happened to my sister who had to meet our cruise in Grand Cayman 2 days later. The insurance even reimbursed them the amount for the 2 days they were not able to cruise. We live in MD as well and I heard the freeze stuff should be changing to rain overnight..so hopefully you will be ok. We are flying a day ahead next month since on the 3 day trip I don't want to miss a minute if I don't have to. GOOD LUCK!

Chris Mitchell

PS you might want to look at hotels in Orlando, flights to your 1st port etc. just in case... bring phone numbers so you can make arrangments yourself if you need to.