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Will you Consider Driving to Port Instead of Flying?


WannaCruise

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This question depends on where you live, but with the pandemic, once cruises start up again, will you drive to your departure port instead of flying?  We are in Ontario.  I have a bad back, which means that I can't sit for long, so would not be able to handle a drive to a Florida departure port.  And before, I wouldn't consider driving to New Jersey (8-10 hr drive...vs a 1.5 hr flight).  But with the pandemic, I am thinking thinking we do the drive to New Jersey to avoid airports.  We would still need a hotel for a night though to split up the drive and would need to do many stops.  Both our August cruise and our December cruise are out of this port.  March is out of Port Canaveral so no choice there.

What about others?  Will you drive until this goes away to avoid flying?  And if so, how long is your drive?

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Yes, it's possible.  Up until last year that's always how we traveled to ports, because my husband is very afraid to fly.  We live in Minnesota and we drove to Seattle, Vancouver, and Boston.  But it's a 2 day trip each way to ANY port for us, so it adds 4 days to our PTO, which is why we only did it every couple of years.  PTO goes fast when each day is 10 hours, lol.   It also adds 4 days of pet sitting fees, so we'd prefer to not do that anymore.  It'd be tough just for those reasons, but I guess it wouldn't be out of the question.

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We are fortunate in this regard, Miami and Ft Lauderdale are less than 3 hours away, so driving is always the option for us.  However, we are reconsidering our ususal hotel stay the night before. Instead we may elect to leave the house very early on the day of departure, thereby minimising our potential exposure a day prior. 

 

As I say, we are considering and have not yet made a firm decision.

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I have still been flying regularly since March (kinda essential for my job), so for me "pleasure" flying really depends on the situation at the time. I really, really am not a fan of long distance driving, so I would probably still lean towards flying if airlines are still doing a decent job of enforcing mask rules, and if the positivity rate is not too ridiculous. I am young and fit, so it's so much a concern of death or even getting sick, but of possible unknown long-term side effects in even asymptomatic cases. 

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5 minutes ago, Andy & Sheryl Unwin said:

We are fortunate in this regard, Miami and Ft Lauderdale are less than 3 hours away, so driving is always the option for us.  However, we are reconsidering our ususal hotel stay the night before. Instead we may elect to leave the house very early on the day of departure, thereby minimising our potential exposure a day prior. 

 

As I say, we are considering and have not yet made a firm decision.

3 hours is great...and I don't blame you for considering leaving the same day to avoid the hotel stay.  We would do this if it was an option.

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14 minutes ago, SpeedNoodles said:

Yes, it's possible.  Up until last year that's always how we traveled to ports, because my husband is very afraid to fly.  We live in Minnesota and we drove to Seattle, Vancouver, and Boston.  But it's a 2 day trip each way to ANY port for us, so it adds 4 days to our PTO, which is why we only did it every couple of years.  PTO goes fast when each day is 10 hours, lol.   It also adds 4 days of pet sitting fees, so we'd prefer to not do that anymore.  It'd be tough just for those reasons, but I guess it wouldn't be out of the question.

I hear you...it adds to your total trip...especially if you are talking 2 days on each end.

Luckily for our 2 upcoming cruises leaving from NJ , one is end of summer.  My son would need to miss the last day of camp (which hopefully isn't to much of an issue as he'll be a counsellor, but I know it has been done by others) and on the return side, its only a 5 night cruise so there are still a few days before the start of school.  For our second one, it's over xmas holidays so also works.  DH and I would just plan our vacation days accordingly.  Of course in Dec, we would have to account for bad weather and leave earlier if required. 

Now, this is all assuming there is no 14 day quarantine in the mix.

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I would still be comfortable flying once things calm down a bit. Heck, I am so desperate for a cruise, while driving around earlier, I had the crazy idea that I should check to see which sailings go out of Vancouver just in case borders don’t open anytime soon. Although the last time I looked, it was still cheaper for me to fly from DTW to YVR instead of from Canada, go figure lol. 

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1 hour ago, WannaCruise said:

This question depends on where you live, but with the pandemic, once cruises start up again, will you drive to your departure port instead of flying?  We are in Ontario.  I have a bad back, which means that I can't sit for long, so would not be able to handle a drive to a Florida departure port.  And before, I wouldn't consider driving to New Jersey (8-10 hr drive...vs a 1.5 hr flight).  But with the pandemic, I am thinking thinking we do the drive to New Jersey to avoid airports.  We would still need a hotel for a night though to split up the drive and would need to do many stops.  Both our August cruise and our December cruise are out of this port.  March is out of Port Canaveral so no choice there.

What about others?  Will you drive until this goes away to avoid flying?  And if so, how long is your drive?

You wont be driving anytime soon..Canada wont open the border for a long time yet...and even when they do, they wont be removing the 14 day quarantine...and I am guessing you will need to show proof of vaccination before you can leave or enter Canada...

 

SO as of right now...flying is the ONLY option and will be for another year or more I am guessing....so its not a matter of being willing to drive or not......

 

I would fly today if I could cruise....we are looking at a trip to Cuba or Dominican to replace our cruise we missed...but with the 14 day quarantine when we come back, it severely limits our vacation options...

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15 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I would still be comfortable flying once things calm down a bit. Heck, I am so desperate for a cruise, while driving around earlier, I had the crazy idea that I should check to see which sailings go out of Vancouver just in case borders don’t open anytime soon. Although the last time I looked, it was still cheaper for me to fly from DTW to YVR instead of from Canada, go figure lol. 

I hear you.  I wish the cruises out of Quebec ran all year round and not just Sept-Oct

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1 hour ago, WannaCruise said:

This question depends on where you live, but with the pandemic, once cruises start up again, will you drive to your departure port instead of flying?  We are in Ontario.  I have a bad back, which means that I can't sit for long, so would not be able to handle a drive to a Florida departure port.  And before, I wouldn't consider driving to New Jersey (8-10 hr drive...vs a 1.5 hr flight).  But with the pandemic, I am thinking thinking we do the drive to New Jersey to avoid airports.  We would still need a hotel for a night though to split up the drive and would need to do many stops.  Both our August cruise and our December cruise are out of this port.  March is out of Port Canaveral so no choice there.

What about others?  Will you drive until this goes away to avoid flying?  And if so, how long is your drive?

From Toronto, ON To Port of Miami..   hmmm.   I have driven to Florida before no issues.    I would rather fly to be honest.

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4 minutes ago, Rene Desmarais said:

From Toronto, ON To Port of Miami..   hmmm.   I have driven to Florida before no issues.    I would rather fly to be honest.

Yeah, it's possible, and some do the drive on normal occasions.  Same location for us. It would be hard on my physically and I think our kids would go nuts. ?

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With the uncertainty that surrounds everything currently, that was the option we chose in order to avoid logistics issues. We are fortunate to be less than 5 hours from Cape Liberty. Not an ideal drive, but OK. Until more restrictions are lifted, our next cruises are out of Bayonne. With that said, once everything is back in business, 2021 could be a big cruise year for us!

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4 hours ago, Matt said:

While I have not flown since the pandemic began, I think I would still be comfortable flying, provided some of the new policies remain in place such as empty middle seats and enhanced sanitation.

We just did a short 90 minute flight to visit relatives and to see what flying was like with the new policies in place.  I can't say the experience was that much different from flying before the pandemic.  The flight was full and the policy was that they "offer" you the option of taking a later flight.  On our flight,  I only saw one empty seat so not many people took that option.

The only difference was that everyone wore a mask while boarding and during the flight.  The airlines can't enforce the mask rule in the airport itself and I didn't see any enforcement at the gate but most people were compliant.  Social distancing on the plane really didn't happen since the flight was full.

I would consider driving to the port once cruising resumes.

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Im fortunate enough to be in half a days driving distance to most ports in Florida. I have only ever flown for one cruise...driven for all others. I most definitely prefer driving. I like the control (albeit somewhat imagined) I have over the situation. I plan to drive in March. BUT.....I would absolutely fly (of course the day before, @Matt ), if someone paid for my tickets! Ha! 

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If I sail out of FL, I am more inclined to drive now after just being annoyed the whole time on a flight to/from Jacksonville in July. I am not tempted to justify it saying it's "not that bad." I am more inclined to say that it just sucks. The sketchy reporting of numbers from the CDC and localities about infections and deaths caused me to quit playing this fear game months ago. Active cases have consistently been at 0.12% of the population where I live (lockdown has been done for months and masks mandates have been done for weeks) and there haven't been deaths (0.01% to population) in weeks. I hope we just learn to live with it and keep good manners and hygiene.

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I'm fortunate enough to live just a short 40-minute drive from Cape Liberty, so two of my three cruises thus far have been from there. It saves so much on airfare that it's hard for me pass up the option even with the more-limited itinerary options. But I also have a few other drivable port options, including Baltimore and Boston (both about 3 hours away). Quebec is about an 8-hour drive according to my mapping app, and for the right itinerary I'd definitely drive that (although I'd likely get a rental car for each way).

In theory, we could drive to Florida from our home in NJ. But it would definitely be a 2-day trip and I'd be in the same bind as @SpeedNoodles. I have the PTO to make it work as an extended trip, but my wife isn't so fortunate. With all the other ports much closer to home, I'd rather stick with those options for now.

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48 minutes ago, Rose City Cruiser said:

Could consider driving to Cape Liberty.  Only 9h drive for me.  Not ideal.  Cost of flights may skyrocket once travel ramps up again.  People will be redeeming their credits for their cancelled flights.    

Very true.  That certainly is another factor....and worse for those flights that are further and driving isn't feasible.

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For me Florida is 60h in a car round trip.  That's 6 hotel stays.

Galveston is a 2 day drive one way.  Round trip that's 4 days so 3 hotel stays.  

A hotel stay and eating multiple meals in restaurants carries nearly the same risk as flying.

I don't think I'll be driving to a cruise from home anytime soon.

As foolish as it may be with later check in times I might have to consider flying in the day of the cruise when I first restart cruising which right now is looking like spring or summer of 2021.  Staying in a hotel doesn't appeal to me, less so than flying.  Both carry risk not only of CV-19 but other viruses that would also create issues for cruising. 

Have fun all you Floridians and for goodness sake live blog your cruise!  

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We have no idea what we are going to do. We are traveling with our 3 kids and while my husband and me would prefer to fly, the cost to pay for all of us to fly to any of the Florida ports is high and we are not ready to do any flying with the kids just yet. On the other hand, I like the control we have with our driving bubble although we are not looking forward to an 11 hour drive with the kids (I’m sure we will be pulling our hair out with stops and bored kids...), being tired before the cruise starts, and having to get a rental car so that we can comfortably fit all of us for a long distance trip. 
 

So we are holding off on making a decision until we have more concrete info about when and how cruising will resume.

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I think I would definitely prefer to drive than fly at the moment.

The idea of a positive test at the port resulting in denied boarding and the nightmare logistics that would entail without a car to drive home in really puts me off the idea of flying.

However, for us, here in Custard Tart Land, that severely limits our options. Lisbon is under 3 hours away, but very few cruises start from there. Malaga is about 4 hours but even fewer from there. Barcelona? That's where our only currently booked cruise will be sailing from a year from now but that's a 12 hour drive. Doable but far from ideal.

I guess we'll wait and see how things pan out but, for sure, I won't be booking flights for it any time soon.

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Flying is much more convenient when travelling with my entire family...only port close to RI is Cape Liberty and yes, I would consider that.  But I do not want to cruise to Bermuda and the other cruises from there are 7 or 8 nighters...which I am not sure will be options right away (according to many of the other posts and discussions). 

For now...our planned cruise in April 2021 is out of Miami so driving would add several days to both ends of the trip.  Not a problem for me and my husband (I took early retirement and he is flexible with his work schedule) but our kids' and grandkids' time is precious.  I am so anxious to cruise with my grandkids...and I want to do so before they all reach their teens!!!!  

Just waiting to hear more info as it pertains to all of this.

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51 minutes ago, FionaMG said:

However, for us, here in Custard Tart Land, that severely limits our options. Lisbon is under 3 hours away, but very few cruises start from there. Malaga is about 4 hours but even fewer from there. Barcelona? That's where our only currently booked cruise will be sailing from a year from now but that's a 12 hour drive. Doable but far from ideal.

So I gather that Custard Tart Land (gonna have to visit there some time, I love custard tarts!!) is somewhere in Europe. Is a combination of car / taxi and train a viable option? I know that rail transit in Europe is a heck of a lot better than it is here, but I imagine there are still gaps or problem spots.

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35 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

So I gather that Custard Tart Land (gonna have to visit there some time, I love custard tarts!!) is somewhere in Europe. Is a combination of car / taxi and train a viable option? I know that rail transit in Europe is a heck of a lot better than it is here, but I imagine there are still gaps or problem spots.

Correct. Portugal, home of the world famous pastel de nata. 

Pastel de nata

Actually, since you're in NJ, I bet you can find the real thing not far from home, given the massive Portuguese community in that part of the world. No need to come all the way over the Pond for them. ?

We are down in the Algarve, the southernmost province on the mainland, blessed with fabulous beaches right on our doorstep. A tourism hotspot that sadly is suffering badly as a result of all this Covid mess. ?

We could certainly do a car/train combo, but with our low-cost airlines over here, the trains are not very competitive and we'd still be left with the issue of how to get home if we tested positive at the port. Not sweating it, though, as there's still plenty of time between now and our sail date. Fingers crossed we're all back to some semblance of normality by then.

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Living in Alaska, driving to a cruise port (in the lower 48) is completely out of the question.  Not only would I have to drive through Canada to get there, it takes me about 5 days just to drive to Seattle (ignoring Covid), not to mention another cross country trip to an East Coast cruise port!  And then I need to get home, so double this!

Flying is our only option, and Alaska still has mandatory quarantine requirements for many situations.  Leaving Alaska initially isn't a big deal, but on the return, I have to have a negative test result once I'm back in state AND another negative test 5-7 days later.  My work requirements follow the state mandate, so I'm in a work-from-home situation until I get that second negative test.  In my area of Alaska, we haven't had a Covid death for a couple of months, and have only seen 3-4 positive test results in the last couple of weeks.  The schools are all back in session with in-person classes (with social distancing, masks, etc.) along with remote online learning options if desired.  Alaska has only had 56 deaths in state total from Covid. 

My wife and I were originally going to celebrate our 25th anniversary with a B2B on Freedom last June 2020.  That cancelled, and we rebooked for late October (same B2B on Freedom).  That cancelled to, and we are now rebooked for a third time for the same B2B on Freedom the end of March 2021.  Freedom home ports in San Juan, Puerto Rico, so flying is the ONLY option for us there!  My concern is traveling all the way there and VERY MUCH wanting to have a negative test result.  It would be a huge nightmare to deal with a positive test at that point!

I do hope cruising starts up soon, and am really hoping that itineraries are basically back to normal come March 2021!  I'm willing to deal with the new cruise requirements, and am just hoping all the Caribbean ports open back up and things start to stabilize!

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Yup, I'm mostly looking at Cape Liberty since that's only about a 6 hour drive for me.

I've given some consideration to Amtrak in a sleeper roomette to get to FL. Since I work remote now anyways the extra time spent traveling doesn't really bother me and might be fun to try.  Just not sure it's actually much better than flying.

Had a pipe dream of just getting a dirigible and moving into that instead of a house, maybe one day.....

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Within an hour to Cape Liberty, so that's a no-brainer for me.  As things stand right now, if I were cruising out of FL I would almost certainly take the Auto Train down.  Shave a day of drive time (and arrive well rested) and have my car there for an emergency return trip.  After the cruise I'd probably just drive back home over two days, saves money and there's less of a real hard deadline as to when I get there.  It's not like my house will leave me at the pier!

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We’ll be driving from OH to Cape Liberty but that's because I’m too cheap to buy tickets for holiday flights (sail 12/24) and not the pandemic. But we’re an airline family so my viewpoint is a little skewed.

However, I would think that if someone was comfortable enough getting on a cruise ship then airports/airplanes wouldn’t even be on their list of “dangerous” places. ??‍♀️

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2 hours ago, MarvinS said:

My concern is traveling all the way there and VERY MUCH wanting to have a negative test result.  It would be a huge nightmare to deal with a positive test at that point!

I do hope cruising starts up soon, and am really hoping that itineraries are basically back to normal come March 2021!  I'm willing to deal with the new cruise requirements, and am just hoping all the Caribbean ports open back up and things start to stabilize!

^^^^^^^^Totally agree with ^^^^^^^^

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2 hours ago, USCG Teacher said:

if I were cruising out of FL I would almost certainly take the Auto Train down.  Shave a day of drive time (and arrive well rested) and have my car there for an emergency return trip.

I forgot that's an option for us New Jerseyans! Not the cheapest option, but definitely a good one to keep in mind when flights are even pricier.

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