- Disembarking
- “Self-assist” is the cruiselines’ clever way of saying “You do all the lugging.”
- Time vs. Exertion - Know in advance if you can handle it alone. If you choose self-assist, don’t expect Any help. It can be quicker and your luggage does not have to be “found” in the terminal, but really - which will be less stressful for you? Terminal luggage identification has improved over the years, so…choose the best option for you and bask in the knowledge that you made a plan and followed it.
- While we currently manage our luggage independently, we hope to cruise far enough into the future that we will gladly accept the assistance. (Schedules and potential back pains must be managed on a sliding scale.)
- We never book a flight before noon on departure day.
- If traveling internationally, we book flights after 2pm, or more likely the following day.
- Since most of our return flights depart in the morning, it’s not easy to make a good same-day connection
- More likely, we will stay a few days in the arrival city. Common destinations are Barcelona, Amsterdam and Southampton (they can call it London, but you need a train or bus to travel from the port to the city).
- When bad weather cancelled our Southampton to Amsterdam flight one January, we walked to a nearby hotel for satisfactory accommodations. In hindsight, it was a risky choice for Europe in January, but after a very nice Transatlantic cruise, we cut the vacation short, took a train to London and flew home. (Better luck next time, we thought. And, maybe not in January.)
- Our best stress reduction travel approach is to fly into Orlando (MCO). Depending upon connections, it’s often late evening or approaching midnight. We’ll stay at the MCO Hyatt within the terminal and drive a rental car home the next day (or drive our own car if we were away less than 10 days, and therefore chose to park - at the airport, or a nearby hotel offering a good price).