Originally Posted by
milepig
The only way I would consider flying in the day of the cruise would be in a situation where you could catch up to the ship on land.
One caution about this, especially if cruising out of the US, cabotage laws can sometimes make boarding at the next port impossible even if you can drive there easily. The example most US based cruisers will encounter is a roundtrip cruise out of South Florida with the first stop in Key West. Great, people think, if I miss sailing I can just drive down and catch up to the ship the next day, in Key West. Problem is that due to US law, you can't board in Key West because of different rules for one-ways versus roundtrip cruises - you have to board at a foreign port.