Flight and Cruise ?

[pirateyankee80]

I have a logistical question for anyone who has flown in to Florida for a DC. Do you fly in on the day your ship leaves or fly in a day early and stay overnight somewhere? I am trying to weigh the advantages for both. It would be cheaper to fly in that Saturday morning and take the bus right to the port but I’m wondering how much time that would take. I was told if we were to stay at a hotel near the port we are on our own with regards to transfers to the port. Boarding starts at 11:00am and you need to be on the ship before 3:00pm. How early would we have to leave, flying out of NJ? If we go to WDW a day early my DS will want to hit every ride we could before we take the bus to the port. And coming home, what time should I book that flight? Any help would be greatly appreciated…Been to WDW many times but this will be our first DC

[tron1970]

There is a hotel in orlando airport. I would stay at the hotel and in the morning go downstairs and catch the disney bus to the port. When we went on the cruise we got off the ship arounf 10:00 am, so Iwould book a late flight home or justr spend the night in the hotel at the airport and fly out in the morning.. hope this helped a little bit.

[Ed]

I have a logistical question for anyone who has flown in to Florida for a DC. Do you fly in on the day your ship leaves or fly in a day early and stay overnight somewhere? I am trying to weigh the advantages for both. It would be cheaper to fly in that Saturday morning and take the bus right to the port but I’m wondering how much time that would take. I was told if we were to stay at a hotel near the port we are on our own with regards to transfers to the port. Boarding starts at 11:00am and you need to be on the ship before 3:00pm. How early would we have to leave, flying out of NJ? If we go to WDW a day early my DS will want to hit every ride we could before we take the bus to the port. And coming home, what time should I book that flight? Any help would be greatly appreciated…Been to WDW many times but this will be our first DC

If you fly in the morning of your cruise, figure on a total of about two hours from the time the plane lands until you're at the port - - transit time from the gate to baggage claim, checking in with DCL, boarding the bus, and about one hour ride from MCO to the port.

Boarding actually normally starts closer to 12 noon; the terminal opens at 10.

As for the flight home, DCL recommends booking nothing earlier than 12:30pm. I agree 120%. I work at the airport, and I can tell you that "cruise days" can be extremely hectic at the airport. There are several other cruise lines in port the same days, and you have the usual passenger load from WDW. In a perfect world, you might be able to make it to an earlier flight, but things are seldom perfect. One minor fender-bender accident on 528 can easily delay your arrival at the airport by an hour. Add in bad weather, possible mechanical problems, etc., etc. and you're gambling big time.

The suggestion of staying at the airport Hyatt if you come in the day before your cruise is an excellent one.

[ElenitaB]

You don't mention when you're planning on cruising. We cruised President's Week in '08 and our flight out of Newark was cancelled due to snow and we weren't able to get onto another flight until the next day. We would have missed our cruise had we not given ourselves a cushion.

[DisneyFr33k]

I guess we've been lucky. We've flown out the morning of - the earliest flight possible (7am with flight time of an hour and a half). The two times we went down for a DC, the first flight was delayed due to mechanical issues for over an hour, which caused us to get on board around 2:30-3:00. The second time we arrived well before boarding. We are flying from NC, so weather wasn't an issue.

Flying back - again, I guess we've been lucky. The last time we disembarked first thing (7:30am), and had a private shuttle take us to the airport. Smooth sailing - we were there by 9:30 and on our way home by 11:30.

But, I would take Ed's advice. And, we got travler's insurance in case something prevented us from making the ship.

[pirateyankee80]

You don't mention when you're planning on cruising...... We would have missed our cruise had we not given ourselves a cushion.

We will be leaving port on Saturday, June 23rd, 2012. Booking on the “Fantasy”. In November of 2010 we were up at 4:00am, arrived at the airport at 4:50am, had a 6:45am flight out of Newark, and then had an ADR at California Grill at 9:00pm so we could watch “wishes” from the balcony! That was a 20hr day, something I’m used to but everyone else was completely burned out. After talking to people and listening to you folks, I am leaning heavily toward flying in Friday night and staying at the Hyatt.
I very much appreciate all your input!