What's the earliest flight time from Tampa FLA - my cruise boat docks at 7 AM?
I've been debating this with my friend. The cruise line says 11:30 AM at earliest. There are only a 10:48 AM and 4:30 PM flights. I think we have to wait to 4:30. Any insight is appreciated.
Cruise Travel - 2 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
You can be one of the first off the ship if you let them know in advance that you have an early flight. I have also heard that you can carry your bags off yourself and skip the "where's my bags" part. Again, you have to arrange this with the ship the day before. Even then the ship has to dock, and be cleared through customs before they start offloading. You could expect to be off by 8:30 or 9 am at the earliest, but you still have to get to the airport, get your bags checked, get through security, and onboard the plane. Its possible, but it would be a rush. I guess you could try and if you miss the flight, try to get on the 4:30 one (assuming its not full).
2 :
The cruiseline is right. Take the 4:30 flight. Schedule some kind of excursion to give you something to do during the day. The ship could dock at 7 AM - or it could be late due to weather or other issues. The ship could be cleared by immigration promptly - or one or two people who are supposed to report to immigration don't show up, and they have to be paged repeatedly. And NO ONE leaves the ship until immigration clears it. Plus you need time to get to the airport and to clear security there. A lot of other people from your ship will be trying to get there as well. And if there's more than one ship coming back into Tampa, it could get really ugly. If you book the 10:48 and miss it, chances are you will not be placed on the 4:30 plane. Most planes fly full or are even overbooked these days - the airlines are running fewer flights, to save money. Why have a crappy end to a wonderful time on your cruise? Why spend your last morning rushing and praying that nothing goes wrong to make you miss your flight?
