Hai, you have brought up one of my pet peeves.

We choose to use a New Jersey company called Rapid Rover to take us to the
airport. If we have an 8AM flight, they will pick us up at 5:30. That gets
us to the airport around 6AM. When curbside check-in is available, we are
at security at 6:15 and at the boarding gate desperately seeking coffee no
later than 6:30.

We travel with a Guide Dog, and we use frequent flyer miles to fly First
Class, which means that we board first.

But as we sit at the gate waiting for our call we are always aware of people
arriving right up until the time that we board the plane, and we are always
aware of people coming on to the plane long after we have been belted in.

Maybe the airlines should make a rule that unless you are available for your
flight 30 minutes before flight time your ticket will be canceled and not
refundable. Maybe that will allow more flights to leave on time.
--
DG in Cherry Hill, NJ


"Hai Pham" wrote in message
...
DG,

This was the problem for my cousin last August, by mistake he set the
alarm
late by an hour. He went to PHL and tried to explain to PHL's security,
nobody cared. Fortunately, the passengers let him move to the front. He
was
behind an Eagle football player and the security keep talking with the
player, the line did not moved\ for a while. He almost late, he was the
last
one before they close the gate.

Hai
"Dick Goldhaber" wrote in message
...
Mike,

I live in the Philadelphia area and we generally cruise in the spring
and
the fall.

I agree that traveling from Canada in February can be worrisome. If it
accentuates the idea of going a day early, let me tell you about our
last
cruise, Hawaii in October.

We were booked out of Philadelphia a day early. The morning was foggy.
The
plane was there, but the crew was not. This is the way it is.

The crew got there and we were off to San Diego about two hours late,
but
PHL doesn't care whether you are late, you get in line like everyone
else.

We came home to San Diego at the time of the fires. We had an early
flight
and HAL got us off of the ship and to the airport in plenty of time,
except
our plane was down in Phoenix and unable to fly to San Diego.

We got home, not at 8PM, but after midnight.

We got home, but coming home is not your problem. Please make sure that
you
have built a buffer into your travel plans just in case of the worse
case
scenario.
--
DG in Cherry Hill, NJ

"Mike" wrote in message
ble.rogers.com...
Hello All,
Just wanted to get an opinion from those who have booked cruises
directly with cruise lines instead of going through a travel agent. My
wife and I are thinking about booking a cruise on the Royal Caribbean
Explorer for the last week of February. I've made a few calls to local
TA's and they have been as helpful as a rubber crutch for the most
part.
Some don't return calls and those that do can't seem to come up with a
travel plan that I want. We live in Canada and I want to travel a day
before the cruise and land in Florida a little early. One TA suggested
I
stay overnight in Toronto. Great plan that is. Who the hell wants to
stay in Toronto in late February when you could be staying in warm
Florida! Sheeesh.

Having been frustrated with the lack of help from the TA's I decided
to
call Royal Caribbean directly. They seemed helpful and had no problem
making arrangements that I wanted.

I haven't yet committed to them but wanted to ask your opinion.
- How safe is booking directly with the cruise line?
- Anyone have any troubles booking directly with the cruise line?
- Any gotchas that I should be aware of?

I know the guy from Royal Caribbean said that if they make all
arrangements for me then they are responsible for getting me to the
ship. He even said the ship won't leave without me if my flight was
delayed for a few hours. Now if the flight was delayed for a day or
something like that then it wouldn't wait of course, but they would
put
me on another cruise of my choosing.
- Truthfully, is this something I can bank on?
- Has anyone booked with RC and gone through something like this? I'd
be interested to know how you were treated.

Thanks
Michael