Re: airports; I'm bummed...and venting

[rockne10]

Got up this morning at 4:30 to be the first at the airport for a flight that connected in Philly to Miami to join a family cruise on Royal Caribbean. Waited on the tarmac for twenty minutes for Philly to authorize a landing window. Missed my Philly to Miami connection by two minutes. Missed the cruise; all pre-paid and non-refundable. My fault for not flying down a day ahead and getting a motel for the night. Brother and sisters, nieces, great-nieces, nephew, spouses, all there, but not I. Best I can muster is, sometimes it is not all good. I wonder if the Philly airport improvements will ever make a difference. Still, it is my fault for not flying frequently enough to expect the failure. My fault.

[Gunslinger]

You have my sympathies. You did identify the answer...flying down a day ahead. You shouldn't have to do such things to avoid problems but that seems to be the reality.

Go ahead and vent...it doesn't help to keep it inside.

[DEEPNHOCK]

Travel is a crapshoot any more.
Best to insure yourself against poor service, or plan for poor service.
Having said that...
Cruises are not on my 'to do' list.
I travel a whole bunch and motel rooms are a snooze...
Why would I want to go a long way to go to a motel that leans?
One or two exceptions... A cruise through the Panama Canal, or an iceberg calving cruise to Alaska.
Or that three hour cruise
Jeff

You have my sympathies. You did identify the answer...flying down a day ahead. You shouldn't have to do such things to avoid problems but that seems to be the reality.
Go ahead and vent...it doesn't help to keep it inside.

[rockne10]

Agree, Jeff. I'm not a cruiser either, but, this was a family cruise. How often do you get that crew together, other than a wedding or funeral?
My fault; should have booked a day earlier.

[hausdok]

Can you fly down to one of the ports of call and board then?

[JDP]

Got up this morning at 4:30 to be the first at the airport for a flight that connected in Philly to Miami to join a family cruise on Royal Caribbean. Waited on the tarmac for twenty minutes for Philly to authorize a landing window. Missed my Philly to Miami connection by two minutes. Missed the cruise; all pre-paid and non-refundable. My fault for not flying down a day ahead and getting a motel for the night. Brother and sisters, nieces, great-nieces, nephew, spouses, all there, but not I. Best I can muster is, sometimes it is not all good. I wonder if the Philly airport improvements will ever make a difference. Still, it is my fault for not flying frequently enough to expect the failure. My fault.

You were certainly cutting it close and putting more faith in airline schedules than they deserve. A 20 minute delay is pretty much on time in this day and age, a hour late is not unusual and way more if weather or equipment failure is involve. I recall a few times where the airline delayed me overnight. Still, it sucks to miss a family cruise.

[DEEPNHOCK]

Agree, Jeff. I'm not a cruiser either, but, this was a family cruise. How often do you get that crew together, other than a wedding or funeral?
My fault; should have booked a day earlier.

OK.. Go do some real cool stuff...take pic's...and post 'em on Facebook.
They'll see them ,and they will be jealous

[JimsLeadCommander]

You CAN fly to the first port of call and join the ship there.....afterall, the ship folk have your name on their manifest and the fact that you ALREADY paid for it - -DO IT!!!

[53k]

Got up this morning at 4:30 to be the first at the airport for a flight that connected in Philly to Miami to join a family cruise on Royal Caribbean. Waited on the tarmac for twenty minutes for Philly to authorize a landing window. Missed my Philly to Miami connection by two minutes. Missed the cruise; all pre-paid and non-refundable. My fault for not flying down a day ahead and getting a motel for the night. Brother and sisters, nieces, great-nieces, nephew, spouses, all there, but not I. Best I can muster is, sometimes it is not all good. I wonder if the Philly airport improvements will ever make a difference. Still, it is my fault for not flying frequently enough to expect the failure. My fault.

I always buy travel insurance- have had too many close calls already.
Our first cruise involved flying from Washington Dulles to Paris to connect to Lisbon. They had given us a 45-minute connection in Paris (cruise line made the arrangements). We left Dulles two hours late and of course missed our connection. Fortunately there were other flights to Lisbon and, due credit to Air France, they got us on the first one. They also gave us food and drink vouchers for use in the airport. We got to the Lisbon airport arrivals and the cruise line had a van waiting for us- got to the ship 90 minutes before sailing. Talk about stress.