What happens if you miss the boat at Port Canaveral?

[Sir William]

Arriving a day prior to sailing is probably the only thing experienced cruisers agree on. We may disagree on cruise lines, dining, activities, excursions, hotels, ways to get to the port, and whether to visit WDW before or after the cruise, but we all agree that scheduling to arrive at least one day before cruise departure prevents the potential or actual stress of missing your flight, the flight being delayed or canceled, or being stuck in traffic if driving.

With one exception, we've always flown to all our cruises and always at least day early (though once that meant a midnight arrival) and either stayed at an airport hotel or a WDW resort. For the one time we drove, we were 1 - 1 1/2 hours from the port. DW wanted to arrive between 1 and 2, but I insisted we arrive by 11. As luck would have it, there was a major accident shortly around noon blocking the exit to the port and traffic was backed up for miles. Some passengers were still stuck in their cars watching the ship pull away.

 

[sambycat]

fly in the night before

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Yes, you could meet the ship in Cozumel. You would have to have a passport in order to fly to Mexico.

While it used to be quite easy to just "catch up" with the ship in the next (foreign) port, as long as you have a passport to fly, it's not quite that easy now.

The paperwork/processing for returning passengers on a closed loop cruise is fairly short and quick to do. But, if even one person boards the ship in a foreign port to complete the cruise, the cruise is now considered a "foreign itinerary" cruise and the paperwork/processing is much more involved. Many cruiselines are now not allowing people to catch the ship at a later port.

I'm not saying it can't be done, just that most cruiselines are more particular about allowing it. It would have to be arranged/OK'ed by the cruiseline, before someone just flies to the next port to board.

 

[dittymau]

Same day arrival will always be a gamble, and since DCL is sans casino, you must not be a gambler... It is low percentage of occurrences that could result in missing the boat, but why risk it? Even if you take late flight in and stay at Fairfield Inn at the airport and the transport (private or DCL) in the morning reduces your risk for an incident, and for what you spend on a DCL cruise, best to always reduce risk wherever possible. Just my .02...

 

[southerngirl528]

Some years ago, I worked at DVC in MS and I booked many, many hundreds of cruises for DCL. Before that experience, I am one that would have still flown in the day before a cruise, but after hearing repeated stories of delayed flights due to weather, mechanical issues, you name, and subsequent issues that can arise, my VERY adamant advice was to GET TO THE AREA OF YOUR DEPARTURE PORT THE DAY BEFORE YOUR CRUISE. As someone else said, who needs the stress if you miss your flight, you get delayed, etc.?

I live an hour from Port Canaveral. Years ago, with all my OCD ducks in a row, we take off for PC to get there nice and early (pre-PAT days). We don't go 20 minutes up 417 before we have a FLAT TIRE. Picked up a screw in a tire somewhere. It would have taken AAA an hour and 1/2 to even get to us, much less change the stupid tire. It was June and hotter than Hades. My poor SIL and DS got out in the heat on a toll road shoulder (and THAT scared me!) and changed our tire in their nice resort/cruise clothing. The poor dears were a sweaty mess, but we got on the road in a decent amount of time. That hour delay made for an extremely stressful departure for our long awaited cruise. Moral of the story? STUFF HAPPENS.

 

[Jk125]

If its cost that concerns you think about what is cheaper, an extra night in a hotel or last minute a night in a hotel + last minute airfare to Cozumel

 

[Weedy]

Another thought about flying in the day of. If your flight arrives at 10am what time does it leave your local airport??? So you need to get to your airport at least 1 hour (if not more) prior to your flight. So you need to leave your house at least 45 minutes prior to your flight?? So you need to get up when?? 4 or 5 am. Makes a long day for your first day of vacation. You may be too tired to enjoy the 1st day and night. I would rather spend my money on a hotel for the night before than waist money sleeping the 1st night of the cruise.

 

[Sir William]

Another thought about flying in the day of. If your flight arrives at 10am what time does it leave your local airport??? So you need to get to your airport at least 1 hour (if not more) prior to your flight. So you need to leave your house at least 45 minutes prior to your flight?? So you need to get up when?? 4 or 5 am. Makes a long day for your first day of vacation. You may be too tired to enjoy the 1st day and night. I would rather spend my money on a hotel for the night before than waist money sleeping the 1st night of the cruise.

Good point about having a long day if you get up early to fly from home to the ship. This is another reason why we like to get in at least a day early. We get a good night's sleep, can even sleep in late if we wish (I'm the only one in the family that wakes up early, every day, even though I haven't had to the last 5 years), have a nice breakfast, and then make our way to the ship in plenty of time. Much, much less stressful!

 

[INDY1919A4]

Agreed with all you guys said, another perk to boarding the ship early in the morning is, I feel, you almost get another day on the ship. Shoot by the time the sailaway party starts, we have walked the decks, ate lunch, had a couple of mickey bars, looked at the movie list, watched a few Disney cartoons, kanoodled with the bride, and lost the kids... Man thats what I call living in the tall clover..

 

[zimaaaaah]

Another cautionary tale, we were flying for our WDW vacation and in the check-in line in front of us was a family of 15 heading for a cruise the next day. Our flight was in the afternoon and when it was cancelled by weather where the plane was coming from, there were no other flights. They had no way to get out and there that day. So, in their case, even one day ahead was not enough. I still always book one day ahead for cruises, but always wonder if I should do 2 just to be safe. Yes, I am a bit of a excessive planner. We were able to call and Disney adjusted our vacation dates since we could not get there until the next day, but you just don't have that option on a cruise. The $100 bucks for a hotel night is a cheap trade off IMHO.

 

[shoes99]

Another cautionary tale, we were flying for our WDW vacation and in the check-in line in front of us was a family of 15 heading for a cruise the next day. Our flight was in the afternoon and when it was cancelled by weather where the plane was coming from, there were no other flights. They had no way to get out and there that day. So, in their case, even one day ahead was not enough. I still always book one day ahead for cruises, but always wonder if I should do 2 just to be safe. Yes, I am a bit of a excessive planner. We were able to call and Disney adjusted our vacation dates since we could not get there until the next day, but you just don't have that option on a cruise. The $100 bucks for a hotel night is a cheap trade off IMHO.

We have been cruising on Disney in February for the last 3 years. The year before we flew out of Newark the night before and arrived at MCO around 8PM. JetBlue never put the luggage on the plane for any of the
passengers. They said they would get the luggage to MCO by midnight. Fortunately we were staying at the
Airport Hyatt so we just checked in, had dinner, and then picked up the luggage at the Jet Blue office around midnight. This February we will probably fly in two days before.
Last year we had terrible snow storms in NJ so we changed our flights at the last minute and flew in 2 days before. We got the last flight out of EWR at 5PM before they closed Newark Airport because of the snow.
I paid the $100 change fee per person, but JB refunded the $$. We stayed at AoA 2 nights pre-cruise. Disney had no problem adding the extra night at to our reservation. I think in the winter you almost have to fly in 2 days before if you are flying out of the NY/NJ area.

 

[GatorMomInNC]

My DH worked in Montreal last year and flew there and back every week. There's no direct flight from us so, at first, he went through LGA or JFK each time. The flights were ALWAYS delayed -that is not hyperbole, they were literally not on time ONCE. He got stuck overnight in NYC twice. And two other times, in the winter, he never made it out of Montreal because NYC airports were shut down. He told me to stop booking flights with connections in NYC, even though it cost more to fly and connect through Detroit, Chicago, etc. But even then, he also got stuck overnight in Philly and Atlanta!

So my point is, s@?t happens, especially flying out of NYC. There was a thread on here a few months ago from someone who arranged to fly in one or two days before the cruise, but flights were cancelled --because of Sandy, and I believe poster lived in New Jersey, IIRC. Anyway, even with all that cushion time, they ended up driving down. At least if you arrange a Friday flight and something goes wrong, you can always hop in a car and drive all night, or try to get a little closer, then rent a car and drive.

Depending on weather and time of year (winter? Hurricane season?) plus mechanical failures, is it a busy travel weekend, etc, I'm sure the odds are still more likely than not you will be fine, but there is A CHANCE -and I would not even call it a SMALL one, that you will be delayed. Why stress out? Just start your vaca Friday night and start relaxing!

 

[Saamh]

I watched the YouTube video a pp shared here - I feel bad that I was so entertained by someone else's misfortune. But that didn't stop me from watching other similar videos suggested by YouTube. I came across this one and could not stop cracking up. Apparently these passengers missed the ship in every port up until this point in the cruise. It's pretty hilarious (and makes you wonder what in the world these people are thinking).

 

[jpeppers]

I was flying back on 5/9 from my Fantasy cruise and we ended up in a snow storm in Denver on the way to Seattle. We ended up sitting on the plane for 4 hours. Most of the flights were cancelled because the crews went over there allowed hours. As we sat there we found out the most stressed out passengers were sailing to Alaska the next day which was also mothers day. We finally got in the air (thank you Southwest) but most of the flights didn't. These people got very lucky as did I because I got home by 5 am on Mothers day!

 

[Bruiserknits]

As Christian, the Cruise Director on board the Dream we recently went on, says, "If you miss the ship, I hope you have your camera with you because the Dream sailing off into the sunset is a beautiful sight."

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

(1) Travel insurance.
(2) your fault- you make your way to the next port.
(3) DCL fault ie DCL booked flight that was delayed they make arrangements to next port or WDW or re book.

Rule one, allow plenty of time to get there they leave on time unless there are a lot delayed by DCL fault.

Option 2 and 3 will only work if you have a passport for most cruises out of this port. I actually met someone who was on another line where the had flight issues and did miss the boat. Since they had booked air via the cruise line the line was going to fly them to the next port and load them on the ship, but... only half of them had passports. And the cruise line would not "refund" for them so only half of them got to do the cruise.

Also, I was on a DCL sailing that was late leaving one time due to a late flight at MCO which had passengers with DCL air bookings. So we are standing on the deck looking out and see the bus coming.. just in front of the bus is a limo which was FLYING down that road to the port. Limo pulls up and people jump out, grab luggage and RACE as fast as they can into the checkin area. Right behind them the bus pulls up and Disney starts trying to move as fast as possible to get those people on the ship. We later met the couple in the limo. Their flight was around 5 to 6 hours late due to a combination of weather and mechanical.... When they got to MCO they found a DCL person and asked them what to do, they were told that as long as they were in front of that bus they could get on. So they "raced" the bus to the port (and they claim the bus was driving way too fast LOL!)

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

My own opinion...if you allow 3 hours for getting to the boat from MCO that woud be around 1pm IF your flight leaves NY on time
....IF you actually arrive in MCO at 10 am...2 big IFS any expierenced traveler will tell you are not gonna happen..planes rarely ever arrive at the designated time..now you have traffic to the boat..checking in the boat and whatever they require. You are setting yourself up for extreme stress IMHO. Obviously none of us are going to change your mind but those is us with this kind of travel expierence hate to see you take such a chance of such a close call. I wouldnt but change my flight if I could

OK. There is no need to lie to create hysteria. "Planes rarely ever arrive at the designated time"?

http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/press_releases/dot054_15

April On-Time Performance Up, Cancellations Down From Previous Year, March 2015

Press Release Number:
DOT 54-15
Date:
Thursday, June 11, 2015
Media Contact:
Caitlin Harvey, 202-366-4570


PDF

WASHINGTON – The nation’s largest airlines posted an on-time arrival rate of 81.8 percent in April, up from both the 79.6 percent on-time rate in April 2014 and the 78.7 percent mark in March 2015, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Air Travel Consumer Report released today.

In addition, the reporting carriers canceled 0.9 percent of their scheduled domestic flights in April, an improvement over both the 1.1 percent cancellation rate posted in April 2014 and the 2.2 percent rate in March 2015.

 

[Quellman]

' Island time' does not begin until you have your room key and have been announced on board. Until that point you have adult responsibilities to arrive early. Previous persons have laid out very well what happens if you miss embarkation day.

 

[bumbershoot]

As Christian, the Cruise Director on board the Dream we recently went on, says, "If you miss the ship, I hope you have your camera with you because the Dream sailing off into the sunset is a beautiful sight."

I adore Christiaan. I don't know what I would do if I were on a Disney cruise and he wasn't the CD. (have been lucky 4/4 times so far)

 

[KLB9]

Agreed with all you guys said, another perk to boarding the ship early in the morning is, I feel, you almost get another day on the ship. Shoot by the time the sailaway party starts, we have walked the decks, ate lunch, had a couple of mickey bars, looked at the movie list, watched a few Disney cartoons, kanoodled with the bride, and lost the kids... Man thats what I call living in the tall clover..

I loathe getting to the port to early, waiting... getting on the boat to early, waiting for rooms to open ect... I like to show up around 1-2 and walk straight on the ship and into my room, We spend the morning at the hotel pool.

I liked this post purely for the line about kanoodling