Most cruises end the same way. You wake, maybe earlier than usual, and you are ushered off the ship as quickly as possible. Then there’s the mad dash to the curb where you wait in line for a cab or order a Lyft. Once your ride arrives you then get ferried to the airport where you wait for your flight, which is often many hours after you’ve disembarked. The entire day is pretty crappy, but that’s how a vacation ends right?
What if I told you, it doesn’t have to be, and you might even be able to save some money?
Airline Prices Are High
Airfare ticket prices are up, there’s no doubt about that. Ticket prices are often even higher when you are flying out the day a cruise ends, and you can see why. Thousands of people, often multiplied by 3-8 cruise ships arriving in a port at the same time, all want to leave the city the same day. If you look at prices the day before or after, they’re often a lot cheaper.
When we were booking our most recent cruise on Celebrity, which wasn’t great, we were blown away by airfare prices. Tickets to Tampa from a large Michigan airport were more than $1000 apiece. That would mean that our airfare would be almost as much as our cruise. Then I got to thinking about how tickets are often cheaper the next day.
What happens if you move the departure date to one day forward? In my case, it saved more than $1000 dollars – even after paying for a hotel for the extra night.
So, that was a no-brainer decision. We waited till the next day.
Should I Just Wait a Day Then?
That’s an option, yes. You can book a hotel, grab some lunch and dinner, and relax for the day. We were planning on doing exactly that as we didn’t really care much about trying to squeeze anything more out of our trip. But then, fate took us down another path.
A client reached out to Nichole about booking a day at Discovery Cove in Orlando. If you aren’t familiar with Discovery Cove, it’s a water park of sorts, but not just any water park. Instead of twisting, turning water slides or wave pools, there’s an aviary and snorkeling. What Discovery Cove really is, is an interactive animal rescue and rehabilitation program. Its signature feature is that you can swim with Dolphins – the only place in North America where you can do so.
The snorkeling pool at Discovery Cove.
Clients, as a matter of fact, regularly ask about the park and it’s always a bit of a struggle because neither Nichole nor Gretchen have ever been there, and I was last there nearly twenty years ago. That makes answering questions challenging because there’s nothing more valuable than firsthand experience.
That’s when we thought of using the extra day in Tampa to visit the Orlando area instead.
A Nearly Perfect Day
We still needed to get off the ship as quickly as possible, so we booked ourselves into the earliest disembarkation time. Once off the ship we grabbed a Lyft and… still went to the airport. We had to do that because on a Sunday it was the only car rental place open.
Still, once we had our rental for the day, we quickly threw our bags in the back and drove the hour and a bit to Discovery Cove.
We couldn’t get to the park right as it opened, which was 7AM, instead we arrived just before 10, which still gave us 7 hours in the park. Food is included there, so we grabbed something to eat and then changed into swimwear and got into the water.
The hours flew by. Between the aviary, the snorkeling, and the dolphin encounter, we spent the day in amazement. By the time 5PM rolled around and the park closed, we were getting rather hungry. Then another idea struck us, and instead of immediately driving back to Tampa, we stopped at Disney Springs for dinner.
I’m a sucker for Italian, and there’s something about Enzo’s that hits just right.
I love Enzo’s Hideaway and haven’t been in years, mostly because Disney World is so expensive, so I was glad to go back. We spent the evening wandering around Disney Springs, taking in the entertainment, stores, and food.
We did run into a bit of a construction backup on our way home, which delayed us an hour, but it wasn’t a problem, not really. When we got back to the hotel in Tampa, we were tired, full of delicious food, and ready for bed.
Savings?
I admit, the initial savings from delaying our flight was wiped out after we did all that. I would argue that I got more value from it though. Instead of handling Delta a pile of cash to be crammed into a seat, I got to spend the day swimming with dolphins and eating delicious Italian food.
Of course, you can choose to save the money and just relax in the hotel, that’s up to you. No matter which way you slice it, though, if you can manage it, you might be better served by delaying your flight home by a day. I know that I’ll be looking at that option from now on and I suggest you do the same whenever you travel.
