P, E, O, P, L, E - PREPARATION-
BOOKING AIRLINE FIGHTS
BOOKING AIRLINE FLIGHTS
A good deal of thought should go into selecting your outbound and return flights for your cruise.
This includes making decisions with respect to airline, flights and class of service. Various factors come into play including the availability of flights to and from your home airport and whether you want a direct flight or one that might require changing planes as well as your budget.
We highly recommend for domestic cruises arriving at least one day before your scheduled cruise. This way a flight cancellation or delay will not cause you to miss the ship. In this day and age there is so much that can go wrong and that is beyond just mechanical or weather related issues. This could include airplane or airport security breaches; airline, airport or even FAA computer issues, insufficient flight personnel; along with a variety of other issues. If time is not an issue nor is your budget, you might want arrive even earlier than a day before your cruise. The other benefits of this approach include having time to explore the embarkation city and unwind after a long flight.
For international cruises, we highly recommend arriving even earlier such as two to three days prior to the cruise. In addition to avoiding the pitfalls mentioned as part of domestic travel, other benefits of arriving early include having time to get over jet-lagged so that you are not out of synch when the cruise begins but also having time for the airline to recover your luggage should it temporarily go lost. Often, there is so much to do and see in the area where your cruise is embarking so arriving early allows you to have plenty of time to explore and discovery is part of what makes travel so very special.
Think very carefully when you select your flights times including flight connections.
For domestic flights where a change of plane is required we highly recommend a connection which is far greater than the normal legal connection of around 45 minutes. We would recommend two to three hours so that you have a cushion should your first flight be delayed.
When you book your return flight and if you are flying home the day the cruise ends allow sufficient time to disembark the ship and to make your way to the airport. Please remember that sometimes things go wrong. Ships can arrive late to port due to adverse weather conditions such as fog, or there could be other delays due to a medical emergency the day or night before you arrive to the final port or other delays ranging from insufficient immigration personnel to clear the ship, being stopped for a luggage search by customs personnel, or even a work slowdown by the local porters who remove the luggage from the ship.
For arrivals to most USA ports, we recommend flights of Noon or later but this is not a hard fast rule and in certain cases a 1:00 PM flight or later would be advisable.
For international flights be sure to understand the rules of the airline so that you know how early you must check in for both outbound and return flights. In addition, be sure you know the distance from the cruise ship terminal to the airport you will be returning as the distance could range from under and hour to several hours. When you fly from outside the United States and are on a flight that requires a change of planes in the United States be sure to allow a lot of time between your arrival and the next flight and we would go way beyond the legal time. When you enter the USA on the first flight you must go through immigration and depending on day of week, time of day and even how many immigration personnel working it can take a very long time to get through immigration. We have experienced situations where it took sixty to ninety minutes. After you pass through immigration, the next step is to claim your luggage and then go through customs.
Because of all of this we carefully review our options. This might mean taking the first of two flights on the day we disembark and then staying at an airport hotel, or even staying over the day we disembark and flying home the next day.
There are actually several nice airport hotels all around the world.
The key to all of this is to research and evaluate all options because once you book the flights there is often stiff penalties should you need to change your reservation(s).
Next we will discuss pre/post cruise hotels.
This includes making decisions with respect to airline, flights and class of service. Various factors come into play including the availability of flights to and from your home airport and whether you want a direct flight or one that might require changing planes as well as your budget.
We highly recommend for domestic cruises arriving at least one day before your scheduled cruise. This way a flight cancellation or delay will not cause you to miss the ship. In this day and age there is so much that can go wrong and that is beyond just mechanical or weather related issues. This could include airplane or airport security breaches; airline, airport or even FAA computer issues, insufficient flight personnel; along with a variety of other issues. If time is not an issue nor is your budget, you might want arrive even earlier than a day before your cruise. The other benefits of this approach include having time to explore the embarkation city and unwind after a long flight.
For international cruises, we highly recommend arriving even earlier such as two to three days prior to the cruise. In addition to avoiding the pitfalls mentioned as part of domestic travel, other benefits of arriving early include having time to get over jet-lagged so that you are not out of synch when the cruise begins but also having time for the airline to recover your luggage should it temporarily go lost. Often, there is so much to do and see in the area where your cruise is embarking so arriving early allows you to have plenty of time to explore and discovery is part of what makes travel so very special.
Think very carefully when you select your flights times including flight connections.
For domestic flights where a change of plane is required we highly recommend a connection which is far greater than the normal legal connection of around 45 minutes. We would recommend two to three hours so that you have a cushion should your first flight be delayed.
When you book your return flight and if you are flying home the day the cruise ends allow sufficient time to disembark the ship and to make your way to the airport. Please remember that sometimes things go wrong. Ships can arrive late to port due to adverse weather conditions such as fog, or there could be other delays due to a medical emergency the day or night before you arrive to the final port or other delays ranging from insufficient immigration personnel to clear the ship, being stopped for a luggage search by customs personnel, or even a work slowdown by the local porters who remove the luggage from the ship.
For arrivals to most USA ports, we recommend flights of Noon or later but this is not a hard fast rule and in certain cases a 1:00 PM flight or later would be advisable.
For international flights be sure to understand the rules of the airline so that you know how early you must check in for both outbound and return flights. In addition, be sure you know the distance from the cruise ship terminal to the airport you will be returning as the distance could range from under and hour to several hours. When you fly from outside the United States and are on a flight that requires a change of planes in the United States be sure to allow a lot of time between your arrival and the next flight and we would go way beyond the legal time. When you enter the USA on the first flight you must go through immigration and depending on day of week, time of day and even how many immigration personnel working it can take a very long time to get through immigration. We have experienced situations where it took sixty to ninety minutes. After you pass through immigration, the next step is to claim your luggage and then go through customs.
Because of all of this we carefully review our options. This might mean taking the first of two flights on the day we disembark and then staying at an airport hotel, or even staying over the day we disembark and flying home the next day.
There are actually several nice airport hotels all around the world.
The key to all of this is to research and evaluate all options because once you book the flights there is often stiff penalties should you need to change your reservation(s).
Next we will discuss pre/post cruise hotels.