Flights before cruise

[brewcrew26]

DH is taking me on my first Disney Cruise on the Dec. 4 sailing of the Dream.

We're planning on doing the parks after the 4-day cruise is done. In regards to the flight getting to Orlando from Boston, most of the flights are early early a.m. and doing get in Orlando until 11 a.m. and noon.

Do you suggest flying down the day before hand since the drive to Port Canaveral can take a bit?

[DisneyFr33k]

We've flown in for 2 Disney cruises. One flight got in late - around 1pm and we still made the boat with no trouble. Are you using the Disney transfer? We have use it and paid for a private transfer (which we found cheaper). Our private transfer flew us out there in record time!

I think if you arrive at 11am. you'll be fine. the drive is only about 45 minutes to an hour.

[mook3y]

Whenever we cruise, we always choose to fly down the day before.

For us, it just isn't worth the stress of maybe missing the ships departure due to unforseen issues.

[DizneyRox]

Not sure if this is still true, however...

If you have a flight booked by the cruise line, they will get you to the boat. If you get airfare on your own, it's up to you. If you are late getting to the terminal, they WILL leave without you. This goes for shore excursions as well.

My panama canal cruise, RCCL chartered a plane from Chicago to Acapulco. It was late, yet they held the boat for us. There were some 300 people on the plane, so that kindof makes sense.

I would fly down the day before, two days before if you're travlling in the winter.

[susie & perla's mom]

Why not do the parks first?

[MarkC]

Good point about flying in early in winter. We will definitely fly in the day before and give us a chance to get fully rested by the time the cruise begins.

[ElenitaB]

A cautionary tale: in February 2008 we scheduled our plane flight two days before our cruise was set to depart. We were all packed, car service arranged for, bags at the door. Cue the first major snow of the season (definitely not this year, eh?). Snow's coming down. but not super heavy, on the way to Newark airport. Continental flights leave for Palm Beach; JetBlue cancels flight to Ft. Lauderdale; JetBlue cancels flight to ... Orlando! The next available flight out to Florida was the next day (scheduled now for late morning) from LaGuardia. We book it. We head to gather luggage and while waiting, I arrange for a car service to get back home and call DVC to say that we'd be in the next day. We drove home in the middle of a veritable blilzzard to the tune of $90!

Fast forward to LaGuardia the next day: our flight didn't leave until late, late afternoon and it was probably around 8:30 that we got settled into our room.

Moral of the story: always, always leave an extra day (maybe two) early if you're flying down in winter. Travel insurance is also good idea (all our extra expenses were reimbursed).

[brewcrew26]

Why not do the parks first?

We haven't officially decided yet on that but we have family in the area and weren't sure how much time we were going to spend with them at the parks. Plus, next December, we'll still both be in relatively new jobs so vacation time is an issue.

[DisneyFr33k]

We always purchase travel insurance that will offer full refund if flights are late/cancelled. We've been lucky. But we are flying from NC, so not too many major snow storms in January the two years we flew - luckily. This year was quite different! So I would definitely get good coverage if you fly in the same day.