Your ship is set to dock at 7 am. How much time will it take to get off the ship and what time should you schedule your flight home?
The first thing we need to do when tackling this question is make sure we are on the same page. The correct time you will planning for is the time you need to check in at the airport, not what time your plane leaves. Since it is suggested that you check-in two hours before your flight is set to arrive, that should be the absolute latest you plan to get to the airport. Many a cruiser has made the mistake of overlooking this simple fact only to be stuck in the security line as their plane started taxiing to the runway.
Ideally you will want to book a flight late enough so you don’t have to rush but you don’t want to put yourself in a position where you are sitting at the airport for hours on end to catch a red-eye home from your cruise. What you want is to find that sweet spot where you arrive in plenty of time to catch your plane but with a minimal amount of waiting at the airport.
Although your cruise ship will have a time scheduled where it is supposed to arrive at the dock this is only the beginning of your journey home. This time (usually in the early morning) is actually pretty irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Just because your ship docks at 7 am doesn’t mean you will be able to leave the ship at 7am. There are several potential bottlenecks that exist along the way and even if you are only slowed down a few minutes at a couple of those bottlenecks these minor inconveniences can snowball into a catastrophe e.g., you missing your flight.
Although your ship is set to arrive at 7 am. in addition to actually docking, the cruise ship will need to clear customs and immigration before anyone can exit. Usually this doesn’t take all that long but it is one potential bottleneck where something can go wrong. Its not unusual for you to read on a cruise forum about your exact cruise ship and itinerary disembarking at 7:30 am. one week and 9 am the next. These inconsistencies can happen due to customs, immigration, or maybe the ship simply arrived late. Whatever the reason getting off the ship late could pose a major problem.
The next thing you will have to do is pick up your luggage which can also take a while especially if you are one of the first groups off the ship. Once again this shouldn’t take long but it is yet another step that can throw your schedule off. I am actually someone who prefers to debark the ship late rather than early because I hate searching through all of those suitcases for my own. Even though I mark mine with neon packing tape I hate climbing over people and luggage so its still a headache I like to avoid whenever possible.
Lastly you will have to make the trip to the actual airport. Securing transportation, travel time and checking in are all places where you can lose precious time. While you can expect there to be a long line waiting for taxis, there is no way to account for traffic. While most seven day cruises begin and end on the weekends, other cruises may begin or end during the workweek increasing the chances of running into traffic. It once took me nearly 4 hours to make the 1.5 hour trip to the port of Baltimore (driving from my home), due to an accident on I95 causing major gridlock.
While accounting for every possible scenario that can happen would leave us all taking 11 pm flights home you do need to consider some of these things.
Here is what I would do.
- I would count on my ship being an hour late – this gives me a built in buffer just in case something goes wrong on the return trip.
- I would count on another hour to get off the ship – barring V.I.P. status the cruise line will exit the ship according to the time of your flight. While the disembarkation process used to take forever these days its a lot smoother but still takes time.
- I would count on another hour to find luggage and clear customs – while this will probably not take anywhere close to an hour it is possible to get hung up at customs and we are trying to be safe here
- I would double my travel time – most U.S. Based cruise ports have an airport within 45 minutes to an hour away from the cruise terminal, so I would double that amount of time when trying to figure out which flight to take.
So as you can see if my ship is set to arrive at 7 am. I want to attempt to schedule my return flight home somewhere around 2 pm., if my drive to the airport was 30 minutes instead of an hour I would be fine with 1 pm. My ship is set to arrive at 7 am., I am expecting to exit the ship, have my luggage and clear customs by about 10 am. I have planned about 2 hours to make the 60 minute drive and am expected to arrive at the airport 2 hours before my flight is schedule to leave. While it is certainly possible that you will make an earlier flight I absolute hate worrying about red-lights, running through airports and saying silent prayers of expedited security screenings. This leaves me with a sweet spot of sometime around 2 pm.
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