You will be fine. Went through this summer and learned my lesson...however everything worked out fine...but I felt lucky. I know your stress! Hang in there....have a good trip and please let us know how great your cruise was.
It all depends on weather, but you'll probably be ok...
I get nervous when people are flying from the midwest or northeast during the winter, due to all the snowstorms....
My sister and brother in law are flying in from Boston the day prior to our cruise in Feb for that reason...
We were on a chartered cruise out of Ft Lauderdale one Feb, and we ended up being delayed leaving over 4 hours, due to a delay of almost 200 people coming in from Chicago for the trip, including Thelma Houston, who was one of the entertainers....
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I just had a flashback reading all of the posts. On our first cruise, we were flying out of Logan in Boston to San Juan but it was not a direct flight and we were cruising the same day.
When we woke the day of our cruise and looked outside, it had snowed about 7 inches overnight and we then thought, oh wow, we have to be in San Juan today! We made it and we never sailed out at our designated time as many, many flights were delayed due to the storm in the Northeast. At the time, it must have been an RCI policy if someone booked a package and there were many late arrivals to put off the departure time..I'm not sure if they consider this now. We now fly to our port 1 and sometimes 2 days ahead and always buy insurance. Don't fret, it will all work out.
My parents did a Hawaii cruise a couple years ago, flying out of Minneapolis the day of. They arrived with their party (two of mom's sisters and husbands) about 3 hours early (or more--they have been doing this since they all became senior citizens) and were offered an earlier flight which they took. Theirs was the last plane to take off from MSP that day. The other cruisers had to fly to the first port of call and join the ship two days late, the first day being an "at sea" day.
Anything can happen. As I stated before I have always flown the day of the cruise with nary a problem, but I know I have a few extra grey hair from the wondering. I will fly the day of again if the price is right.
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Originally posted by peter l:
At the time, it must have been an RCI policy if someone booked a package and there were many late arrivals to put off the departure time..I'm not sure if they consider this now.
Not sure if they consider this, but I'd be interested in knowing. I never thought that they would even delay the departure if there were multiple late arrivals that had purchased airfare through the cruise line. I guess it's similar to shore excursions. If you book an excursion through the cruise line, and the excursion is late getting back, the cruise ship will wait, because they know there are passengers on those excursions.
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Thanks Cruise Fanatic, I just learned something. I had been under the impression they wouldn't hold the ships any more because of the Homeland Security Rules. I'll never forget the time I was over 2 hours late because of flight delays. They did hold the ship because it was over 10 people and was before the current rules though.
On my past 2 cruises, I've flown down the morning of. I guess I'm one of the few that has a hub as my local airport (Newark Liberty Int'l; hub of Continental Airlines), so I've had direct flights down to Miami and Fort Lauderdale. I've made it without a problem.
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Regarding the late departure time out of San Juan; this was maybe 10 years ago that this took place and I do know that it did involve many, many passengers. If I remember correctly, we headed out of the harbor close to midnight and of course we made up the time during our next day at sea and arrived, as we should, at our first island on time.
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