So I have been hearing all of these horror stories...

[martinezfamily1126]

about peoples flights being delayed and missing the boat. Not only do I not want to miss the boat, I wanna be there as soon as the terminal opens. And god help the airline that tries to stop me.

So I thought it would cost so much more to fly down the day before and stay at a hotel, yada yada yada. I booked through sams club and called them this morning. They are only charging me $163.32 more to fly down the day before and stay at the DIsney Carribean resort/hotel. I was also concerned about my transfers ( I know they are more expensive that doing it on my own but it is worth it if it means one less headache for me). They will pick me up at the airport and drive me to the hotel and pick me up at 10-10:30 the morning of the cruise to go to the port.

I am soooooooo excited.

 

[mommasita]

Sounds excellent!! You defintely will have a much better first day on the ship..You will be relaxed, not as tired, and in perfect shape....HAVE FUN!!!

 

[captaincrash]

You'll have a grand time!

For the next time you book you'll be familiar with the process and have a little less to be concerned over. SOme folks here are VERY FAMILAR with the process and they take on more "adventure" and potential uncertainty.

As such, I took my family into a hurricane to meet the ship after it blew over. I had 7 or 8 flight changes... most while we were enroute and even so I could not land any closer than Charlotte as every airport in Florida was closed on the day I needed to land - that is to meet the Magic when we were told it was expected. I drove a couple hundred miles into Jacksonville with hurricane Frances passing (that was something I'll NOT repeat) and then the next morning we were ready to drive the short run from Jacksonville to Port Canaveral when we learned that the hurricane had tracked right over port canaveral and sort of wrecked the plans to embark there. SO the embarkation had been pushed back another day and moved to Fort lauderdale! RATS!! Alas, DCL took sweet care of us handling hotels, transport and courtesy compensation for our loss of another day on the ship. It was almost all on their nickle once we reached Orlando.

Needless to say - this was a huge adventure that has proven both pleasantly memorable and an exercise in going over the top if you know what I mean. Would I do it again... unlikely. But we've traveled some and have actually seen lots of surprises while traveling and we have survived our challenges.

So... go hook up with your DIS mates on the cruuise meet forum! Have a great trip!!!!

 

[mattmommy]

I haven't heard any "horror stories", but on our last DC we had a single mom with her ds and dd. The poor kids were up at like 5am to get a flight to FL and didn't have a chance to rest. They were falling asleep at the AP. They kept saying, "please let us sleep". That's why we're coming in on a Friday night and staying at the Hyatt. Of course my extended family doesn't understand why I want to get there hours before they open the doors.

You guys understand, right? I'm not the only nutsy one here.

 

[kreedham]

Go down the day before! It worked out but could have been a disaster.

January 05. Our flight from Atlanta was to get into Orlando in plenty of time to get on the ship sometime after opening at noon. Well the ice and sleet were on there way so Delta announced anyone with a Saturday flight could move up to Friday or Thursday with no additional costs. Problem was we were on AirTran. I called them and they were able to do the same so now we are leaving on Friday night instead of Saturday morning. We get to the airport in plenty of time and it's raining, a very cold rain. We get on the plane about 10:30 and the weather quickly had gotten worse. It was awhile before we pulled from the gate and then we got in line. At this time they were having to deice the planes so that slowed things down to a crawl. We waited and waited through each announced delay. At one point we could see a plane on 1 side and 2 on the other all getting deiced. Finally we wished we would just go back to the gate cause we still had time to drive down. Well we didn't. We eventually got deiced 3 or 4 times and ended up taking off only 40 minutes before the original flight at about 7:45 Saturday morning. If we weren't the last plane to take off we were one of the last. We later heard they closed the ATL airport soon after we left. Yes we were on the plane all night long. Airtran stepped up. Not only did they credit that flight back to us they gave us a certificate for a RT which we used last August to fly to LA for the west coast cruise.

Now we will always go the day before!

 

[captaincrash]

Go down the day before! It worked out but could have been a disaster.

January 05. Our flight from Atlanta was to get into Orlando in plenty of time to get on the ship sometime after opening at noon. Well the ice and sleet were on there way so Delta announced anyone with a Saturday flight could move up to Friday or Thursday with no additional costs. Problem was we were on AirTran. I called them and they were able to do the same so now we are leaving on Friday night instead of Saturday morning. We get to the airport in plenty of time and it's raining, a very cold rain. We get on the plane about 10:30 and the weather quickly had gotten worse. It was awhile before we pulled from the gate and then we got in line. At this time they were having to deice the planes so that slowed things down to a crawl. We waited and waited through each announced delay. At one point we could see a plane on 1 side and 2 on the other all getting deiced. Finally we wished we would just go back to the gate cause we still had time to drive down. Well we didn't. We eventually got deiced 3 or 4 times and ended up taking off only 40 minutes before the original flight at about 7:45 Saturday morning. If we weren't the last plane to take off we were one of the last. We later heard they closed the ATL airport soon after we left. Yes we were on the plane all night long. Airtran stepped up. Not only did they credit that flight back to us they gave us a certificate for a RT which we used last August to fly to LA for the west coast cruise.

Now we will always go the day before!

I'm impressed with what Airtran did to "make it right" even though it doesn't sound like it could have been their fault.

 

[TheWog]

Smart decision. If we had the delays we had flying down the day before, we would have missed our cruise. As it was we saw plenty of luggage and people lining up to board in St. Maarten.

 

[ricka47]

We've learned to come in the day before if we need to fly. Years ago we had an RCI cruise out of MIA. We used RCI air and landed at about 2:30. There was a mix up with the transporation to ship and we arrived at 5:00 PM! We were the last to board. That was not a relaxing day!

From that day on we book our own air and go the day before. We've been among the first to board now instead of last! It's like getting an extra day on the ship.

 

[mrsltg]

You'll be so much happier arriving the day before. Just to be on the safe side I am arriving on Tuesday for a Saturday sailing. You never know, right?

 

[martinezfamily1126]

I just spent so much money and have my baby's heart set on this trip. if we miss the boat I don't know what I'll do. I remember I was supposed to go to california but we were going to have a major storm. My flight was delayed 3 times and we only ended up with an inch of snow.

Also, The airline didn't do anything for us.

 

[ChrisnSteph]

We usually fly down a couple of days before and stay in Cocoa Beach. We catch a cab to the terminal (like a 15-20 minute drive) and we're usually the first people to get there! It's really nice because we aren't rushing, we're well rested and we're so close-by.