TIP: Please leave a day early before your cruise!!!!

[lsteadman]

I am sure others have seen the show "Airline." I was surprise by the number of people who missed their cruise because their flight was overbooked.

You are spending $3,000 for this a cruise. Pay an extra $50 - 60 for a hotel room the night before in Orlando so that if you miss you flight the first time you have some room to reschedule your flight.

Since my cruise is in January and with my luck, it will be the snow storm of the century when it is time for me to depart Minnesota. Please be proactive and leave early. I would hate to see any of my fellow "DIS" friends miss their cruise!

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

i second the motion. we always get to port canaveral on friday and spend a day to relax. no need for a 4 am rush that wont end til 10-11 pm. just relax and have fun on vacation

 

[ekelly4200]

Originally posted by lsteadman
I am sure others have seen the show "Airline." I was surprise by the number of people who missed their cruise because their flight was overbooked.

You are spending $3,000 for this a cruise. Pay an extra $50 - 60 for a hotel room the night before in Orlando so that if you miss you flight the first time you have some room to reschedule your flight.

Since my cruise is in January and with my luck, it will be the snow storm of the century when it is time for me to depart Minnesota. Please be proactive and leave early. I would hate to see any of my fellow "DIS" friends miss their cruise!

After seeing a few episodes of Airline where people missed their cruises and reading these boards I had changed my original res from same day to day before and staying at the Hyatt.

 

[PiperG]

Originally posted by lsteadman

Since my cruise is in January and with my luck, it will be the snow storm of the century when it is time for me to depart Minnesota.

We are also in Minnesota, and I couldn't agree with you more! There is no way we would take a chance on missing our annual escape from the cold. We always fly out a day early.

lsteadman, I see you are on the Western right before our trip. Make sure to leave the Magic in tip-top shape for us.

 

[dtuleya]

I agree totally! That's why we're flying down two days before our cruise and staying at the new Ron Jon Resort.

 

[Amberle3]

It holds true even if you're flying from someplace warm too. After all, there are mechanical problems that could delay your flight, schedule changes, flight adjustments, overbooking etc etc.

And, just because YOU aren't leaving from a snow-bound airport doesn't mean that the plane you're supposed to take isn't coming from someplace frozen. It would be nice if the airlines had "spare" aircraft sitting around for situations like that, but unfortunately not. If you're flying from LA to Miami, and the plane you're supposed to be on is coming first from Chicago and it's snowed in - you're not going anywhere unless they can get you onto a different flight.

Always fly in the day before.

Besides, then you're rested and ready to get on the ship and fully enjoy the first day of your cruise!

 

[tam012864]

There has been an all day marathon today of Airline..and I have seen several people who were turned away from their flights and missed their cruises. I would be so devastated--especially if I had purchased my tickets so far in advance and thought I was guaranteed a seat on the flight. One thing I have learned from this series is that I dont think I would ever fly SOUTHWEST AIRLINES. I had said that before several years ago when they came out with people of size must buy an extra seat. That to me was very discriminative. After seeing the show Airline--my thoughts stay the same---they are not an airline I want to do business with. I totally agree---please fly in a day earlier than you are scheduled to depart.... better to be safe than sorry and not on your vacation of your dreams!!!!!

 

[SNicksed]

This is really good advice. We are arriving two days early and spending the entire day before the cruise, and staying overnight at Universal Studios!

The night we arrive we'll stay at the Hyatt. We'll rent a car to Universal in the morning and then drop the car off at the cape the morning of the cruise.

 

[disneyjunkie]

What's Airline?

 

[WDWLVR]

We've flown in the day before and flown in same day. It was a no brainer for our December cruise. Coming from Chicago we are definately going to fly in the day before. Even if the weather is great it is much easier to sleep in and get to the ship rested then get up at 4 am to make a 7 am flight.

 

[invaderzim]

First of all -- I LOVE "Airline". I'm hoping to see some of the Southwest "Celebs" when we fly into LAX next year. But you sure learn a lot of do's and don'ts from that show.

We have always flown in the day before -- but basically for one main reason -- air fare is actually cheaper! We have found through much research that leaving on Friday is much cheaper than getting a flight out on Saturday morning. PLUS, no panic attacks if your flight is delayed or overbooked. It is a much more relaxing experience.

 

[april riddle]

Tam - my feelings exactly - my DH came in from work and I was watching the episode that they overbooked the flight to Ft lauderdale by 53 people - a lady did miss her cruise on that episode. When he walked in the door I said we will never fly Southwest. I have many friends and family that fly it all the time. The last time we had problems on an airline it was Northwest - very rude personal, and on USAir flight from Vegas to Charlotte they postponed a flight to Greensboro because they said there wasn't enough people on the flight. We ended up in Charlotte airport for four hours - it only takes an hour to drive from Charlotte to Greensboro. We are going down three days early (driving from NC) but I don't think I could possibly go the day of - I would be too worried about missing the ship -

 

[Amberle3]

Tam & April,

Try not to think too badly of Southwest. They're just the only airline willing to put everything out for the public to see.

All airlines overbook. The assumption is that on any particular flight a certain percentage will either cancel or just not show up. It's a particular problem with the lower fare carriers - somehow losing out on a $99 ticket just doesn't seem as big a deal as losing out on a $599 ticket. But I've yet to fly an airline that doesn't overbook.

Also, as far as I know any airline can (and will) require that a Customer of Size purchase an additional ticket. This was a point of major contention several years ago when the ruling came into effect. It was argued that it was discrimination, however the airlines successfully argued that a person who occupies more than 1 seat thereby prevents the airline from comfortably placing someone in the neighboring seat and there they have the right to require that the person pay for two seats.

As an overweight person (was a size 22) believe me I wasn't thrilled with that. But I've also been witness to 2 very large people, one sitting in the aisle seat and one in the middle, and there's no way that anyone would have fit into that middle seat. The airline shouldn't have to lose revenue in cases like that.

And believe me these days, most airlines can use all the revenue they can get.

As for Southwest, they don't handle everything perfectly but I've seen them manage some pretty tough situations. I've also seen other airlines handle similar situations, often with much less care. So far I've yet to see a Southwest agent actually yelling at passengers, which I have witnessed before on 2 other airlines.

 

[Talking Hands]

This is a good idea even if driving. We are only a 5 hour drive south of the port and arrived 2 days before. More relaxing and DH was able to go to Kennedy Space Center, which he has always wanted to do. Even being only 5 hours away I would never risk driving up the same day. Cars can have problems as well.

 

[TheWog]

Originally posted by disneyjunkie
What's Airline?

Its a reality show on A&E or TLC, one of those channels. It follows crew members and agents of Southwest Airlines as they go through a typical day. Its quite interesting sometimes. I was thinking the same thing about the airline, if all they show are the bad situations, but when you think of the number of people flying daily with them, the number of bad situations really isn't that much. I like Southwest and would fly them again anytime.

 

[invaderzim]

"Airline" is on A&E on Mondays at 10 p.m. (2 shows a night). The new season just started last night. It is an excellent show -- portraying the good and bad of both the airline's mistakes and the customers they have to contend with (and some of them are too funny to believe). But there have been some very touching stories of the Southwest employees doing some pretty incredible things to help people out.

It gives you back a little faith in the airline industry!

 

[Mickeyhugger]

Because I'd worked for years in the airline industry, it's why I have our family fly in the day before as well.

Also, when a flight is overbooked and an airline needs to 'bump' passengers, it's irrelevant how far in advance one purchased their ticket. If that passenger has still not shown up a certain amount of time before departure, the airline has no guarantee that they will show. Each airline, too, has rules about overweight passengers purchasing extra seats.

(No, I never worked for Southwest. They're not my favorite airline either. Just stating the rules are pretty much similar w/each carrier.)

 

[swandiverpatt]

We fly Southwest Airlines almost exclusively and have *never* had a problem with them.

 

[Hollyster2]

I would definitely fly into Florida a day or two early. We flew in a week early...any excuse to hang with the Mouse a bit longer! We are seriously considering driving down a day early when we go on the Westcoast cruise next year too. We live about 7 hours away from LA, but have had our car break down before, and we are not willing to take any chances of missing that trip!

 

[tezb]

If you're coming from the WEst Coast, you should fly in 2 days earlier. We have always flown in the day before the cruise but last year, the weather was bad in our stopover, (Dallas) so we weren't going to make our connecting flight. Anyway, they got us on another flight just because we told them we had a cruise the next day. So this year, (2 wks ago) we flew in on a Friday night for a Sunday cruise (RCCL Mariner). Stayed the 2 nights at Ron Jons....better for peace of mind because you never know...even though the day before always worked w/ previous cruises.