Fly in on Embarkation day? Don't do it (trust me)

The No. 1 mistake cruisers make is deciding to fly in on embarkation day. It seems simple to arrive the same day as the cruise departs without worrying about a hotel. But is this really the best idea? You could put your entire cruise vacation at risk.

We took our first cruise and booked a first flight out the morning of Embarkation. We are only a fairly short flight of about 3 ½ hours away. This should have brought us to Fort Lauderdale hours before we needed to be at the cruise terminal. We had a transfer booked on the other side so everything should have been seamless — right?

Wrong… Deciding to fly in on embarkation day can be a recipe for disaster.

There's so much uncertainty with air travel, and one minor issue could cause you to miss the ship. You also need to factor in getting your luggage and traveling to the cruise terminal from the airport — some terminals are 15 minutes away and others are over an hour.

Our first cruise left in late January and we live in Canada, so for the week leading up to the cruise, the weather app was my new best friend as I scanned the forecast for impending storms. A major snowfall would definitely be an enormous problem. I told myself we’d be okay though as we were first flight out and any delay should be manageable.

We were lucky. There was a storm, but it arrived 2 days before we left and all was clear for our departure. It was a narrow margin for sure. We are chronically punctual people, so we are often early and just sitting around waiting. With that in mind, we arrived at the airport at an unreasonable time in the middle of the night, waited for luggage check to open and got in the queue to clear security when it opened at 4am to make our 6:15am flight. We were winning.

Or were we?

For some reason, not shared with us, security didn’t have staff to open and we just... waited.

And waited.

The line was full of people trying to get to Fort Lauderdale to board a cruise. It seems many people choose to fly in on embarkation day. We were all in the same boat (or ship, if you will). It was nerve-racking. Security did finally open at 5am with hundreds of passengers to process for 6am flights. It was a stressful mad-dash for everyone.

We hurried and got to our gate with about 15 minutes to spare before boarding (yay)!

All was good.

No, it wasn’t.

Not everyone could get through security in time, so our flight would be delayed. We weren’t surprised, but I started doing the calculations. Our 9:30am arrival in Fort Lauderdale with plenty of time to board before a 3:30pm sail away would not happen. So we sat and waited.

And waited.

We boarded about 45 minutes late. Not too bad, we thought. We’d still be there about 10:15 so lots of time.

We boarded and waited some more.

Last-minute luggage to be stowed. No problem, I thought, we are on the plane and all is well.

Luggage loaded, and the captain lets us know we will head to de-icing and be on our way. I silently breathe out a sigh of relief, but my ease was short-lived.

Another announcement. There is a security issue in the terminal and protocol when that happens is that none of the planes pull away from the jetway. What?! This is not good. So we wait, not knowing what is happening in the terminal, just that we can’t go anywhere.

And we wait.

To the credit of everyone who works at Pearson airport and our flight crew, it was all resolved calmly and fairly efficiently. But of course, our ship would not wait and I did not know what or if other challenges lay ahead. We still hadn’t even left the ground in Toronto yet!

Our plane left, of course, but we were late. We got to Fort Lauderdale about 2 hours later than planned. We were lucky.

We found our luggage, boarded our transfer and go to the ship with no other issues.

We felt great waiting in the Embarkation line. It was a relief.

We finally knew we had made it!

My advice to you, and the advice I now use every time we travel….

If your cruise departs at 3:30pm, don't schedule your flight to arrive that morning! Choosing to fly in on embarkation day is a risk.

It’s true that you are likely to make it on time if everything goes according to plan. The problem is that things rarely go according to plan.

Even if you make it on time like we did, trust me, the stress and worry while waiting to see if you get there is not worth it. You’ve already paid for your cruise and your flight. One night in a hotel is a small price to pay for peace of mind and ensuring you are at the port on time.

There's so much uncertainty with air travel, and one minor issue could cause you to miss the ship. You would then need to scramble to meet your ship at the next port or miss the cruise entirely.

Consider also that it can be more than just the flight. You need to factor in getting your luggage and traveling to the cruise terminal from the airport — some terminals are 15 minutes away (as ours was in Fort Lauderdale) and others are over an hour.

Our first cruise got off to a very stressful start, and it was all unnecessary. One extra day, to allow for delays and unexpected events will ensure you start your vacation in a much more relaxed way. Remember, the ship won’t wait.

One last thing, if your cruise leaves from another time zone, the extra day allows you to adjust before you start your cruise.

Planning to fly in to your cruise port on Embarkation day? Don't do it (trust me)

Well earned mimosas for us after a long, hectic morning.