Considering a hotel stay before or after a cruise?
Published Thursday, June 8th 2017 - Updated Thursday, June 8th 2017
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Preparing for a cruise involves many components. One component I always recommend is a hotel stay before the cruise to ensure you are near the port in time for embarkation because flights and other travel delays are always a possibility. I also feel a post cruise hotel stay is beneficial as well.
It can be very risky to schedule flights the same day your cruise is scheduled to leave, but can work out just fine in most cases. You must consider the stress involved though and if it's worth the hassle of waking up to catch a flight, then be transported to the port to wait in line to get onboard by a certain time. Sometimes the stress of cramming it all in during one day can be overwhelming.
On my recent cruise experience, my family and I arrived in the port city one day early. We were supposed to arrive by 4pm (after leaving our house at 6:30am), but because of flight delays, we did not check in to our pre-cruise hotel until after 6pm. I could not have imagined flying in and dealing with delays while rushing to get to the port all in one day. It was a very long travel day as is. It was refreshing to have time to spare and a relaxing night in the port city before starting the cruise (and we were lucky enough to stay in a hotel with a complimentary welcome beverage which definitely helped with relaxation!).
We also chose to stay one night after the cruise in the port city before flying home. This has its' advantages and disadvantages. We did not feel rushed to get off the ship by a certain time and were luckily able to check in to the hotel early and utilize all the facilities. However, one downside was having to slightly unpack again after we had just packed up the night before on the ship. We tried to unpack as minimally as possible to make the next morning easy for getting checked out of the hotel and to the airport. Overall, it seemed to minimize the stress of going straight from the cruise ship to the airport and either rushing to get to your plane on time or waiting for several hours until departure because there never seems to be a plane that leaves at a precisely convenient time following a cruise.
A cruise is a great vacation in and of itself, but make sure to consider if either a pre-cruise or post-cruise (or both) hotel stay is something that will make your next cruise vacation even better.
It can be very risky to schedule flights the same day your cruise is scheduled to leave, but can work out just fine in most cases. You must consider the stress involved though and if it's worth the hassle of waking up to catch a flight, then be transported to the port to wait in line to get onboard by a certain time. Sometimes the stress of cramming it all in during one day can be overwhelming.
On my recent cruise experience, my family and I arrived in the port city one day early. We were supposed to arrive by 4pm (after leaving our house at 6:30am), but because of flight delays, we did not check in to our pre-cruise hotel until after 6pm. I could not have imagined flying in and dealing with delays while rushing to get to the port all in one day. It was a very long travel day as is. It was refreshing to have time to spare and a relaxing night in the port city before starting the cruise (and we were lucky enough to stay in a hotel with a complimentary welcome beverage which definitely helped with relaxation!).
We also chose to stay one night after the cruise in the port city before flying home. This has its' advantages and disadvantages. We did not feel rushed to get off the ship by a certain time and were luckily able to check in to the hotel early and utilize all the facilities. However, one downside was having to slightly unpack again after we had just packed up the night before on the ship. We tried to unpack as minimally as possible to make the next morning easy for getting checked out of the hotel and to the airport. Overall, it seemed to minimize the stress of going straight from the cruise ship to the airport and either rushing to get to your plane on time or waiting for several hours until departure because there never seems to be a plane that leaves at a precisely convenient time following a cruise.
A cruise is a great vacation in and of itself, but make sure to consider if either a pre-cruise or post-cruise (or both) hotel stay is something that will make your next cruise vacation even better.
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