Need advise for post flight same day
 

Dear cruise people,

I have a cruise from LAX to SYD with Holland America Line. The cruise ship depart at 16:00 from LAX.

My flight is with United Airlines in F from LAS to LAX 10:40-10:49.

There is a flight at 06:20 from LAS to LAX, so what should i do?

HAL say that i have to be 2 hour before departure at chech in, do you know if the are strict on that?

What would you advise?

Thanks for your advise,

Dennis, Netherlands

I think you times are written wrong.

The cruise leaves from LAX at 16:00 which is 4pm.

The flights you have said arrive at LAX at either 10:40 which is in the morning. The otherf light you show is at 06:20 which is even earlier than the 10:40 flight.

Whatever you do you will need to have checked in for the cruise 2 hours before departure.

Many times you can start checking in for the cruise after 11 am. Keep the 10:40 flight. By the time you get luggage and to the dock you will be able to check in for the cruise. You might not get into your cabin but they will take your luggage and have one of the decks open. They will be serving lunch. Hang out on the deck drinking till it's time to sail away.

Thanks for your fast reply!

You are right, the cruise ship depart at 4pm. The flight arrives at 11am. So i am a little nervous for the connection if there is a delay.

Should you take the 6am flight, that arrives at LAX at 7am?

Greetings from Europe, Dennis

My rule of thumb for cruising is to either get in the day before and don't worry about it, or be on the first flight of the day, this way should something go wrong there are still alternatives.

So I would say go for the earliest flight you can.

Thanks very much for your reply,

I think i will take your advise and take the 0620am United flight.

I am also thinking of booking a back up flight with Southwest, in case there is a problem with United.

Thanks, Dennis

I'm with cordelli; in fact, for a cruise, I would always fly in a day early. The cruise ship waits for no one. While chances are remote, an earthquake, tsunami, volcanic ash, another 9/11, etc could ground an entire air system.

DITTO IF YOU CAN MANAGE IT.
If you arrive early in LAX, you can book a sightseeing service to pick you up at the airport, tour you around the area, and deliver you to the pier.

If you go in a day early you should check parksleepfly.com for a hotel near the cruise port. I would go in a day early so you don't have to be stressed 'cause you're taking a vacation! :D

Double dittos. Fly in the night before or take the earliest flight possible. We recently were to arrive at 10 am in Newark for a 5pm sailing from Bayonne. We stepped onboard with (literally) one minute to spare due to equipment problems and a cancelled flight. It's not worth the stress and the hassle to catch up would have been a nightmare. Inexpensive hotels at the airport or port are plentiful. Worth it to remove that potential layer of stress or miss the ship.

Our rule over the years has been arrive the day before, unless it is in some relatively distant part of the earth and then make it two days. As well, never take the morning flight out the day the cruise ends - in fact, we may stay a couple of days and let the cruise traffic dissipate and see a bit of the port we end up in. We apply these to most of our waterborne trips, whether the small ship dive liveaboards or the cruise lines.

Add my name to the list. We take 3-4 cruises a year, and we NEVER arrive at the departure city the day of departure. If we want to spend a couple of days there, we do it before the cruise rather than after, and if we don´t want to spend any time there, we still get there the day before. That way we can get up, have a leisurely breakfast, and make our way to the ship. We generally stay near the terminal, so the hotels are pros at looking after getting us and our things to the ship.

The advice to arrive before the day of sailing is great, but obviously, not everyone has the luxury of extra vacation days.

We usually arrive a day ahead also - occasionally 2 if we can't work the air out the right way.

I guess it also depends on where the ship's next stop is. The cruise that the OP mentions goes from LAX to SYD so next stop could be Hawaii or somewhere in the Pacific (a few days later as well as could be difficult to get to - so perhaps more leeway is needed). If it's something like a Caribbean cruise leaving from FLL or MIA with the next stop in Key West - maybe don't worry about it - since you can probably get there quite easily (relatively) if you "miss the boat".

Another fan of the day before