Almost all of the around 380 cruise ships worldwide are sailing again.

But now the flight arrival is becoming a problem: thousands of canceled flights, hours of waiting at the airport.

If the airline cancels a flight at short notice, it only has to reimburse the fare paid and usually pay a flat-rate compensation.

This is of little use to the cruise ship passenger who wanted to reach his ship with this flight.

The airline does not replace the canceled cruise, and travel insurance does not step in here either.

With a few tricks and good planning, however, the risk of running into the flight cancellation trap on a cruise can at least be reduced.

Book as a package

Those who book flights and cruises as a package are at least financially secure.

Many shipping companies and tour operators offer such combination packages.

If the flight is cancelled, it is the tour operator's job to bring the customer to the ship anyway.

If that doesn't work, he will at least refund the full travel price including the cruise.

Book direct flights

Connecting flights increase the risk that at least one of the flight routes will be canceled or delayed.

After all, it is of little use if, for example, the flight from Amsterdam to Reykjavík takes place, but there is no shuttle from Munich to Amsterdam.

Direct or non-stop flights therefore increase the chance of reaching your destination.

This strategy is particularly useful for getting to the ship.

If something goes wrong on the way home, that's also annoying, but at least the cruise didn't fall through.

The status of flights should be checked regularly before travelling, in order to be able to react quickly and find an alternative if a flight is cancelled.

Airlines do not always provide timely information about this.

Secure with a second flight

Flight professionals resort to a somewhat perfidious, but completely legal trick to reliably reach their destination: they book a second ticket for another plane in a cancellable and, if possible, fully refundable fare.

They use this if the actual flight is cancelled.

Otherwise they cancel the ticket.

With this strategy, however, you should check the cancellation conditions for the second ticket carefully in order not to be left with the costs.

Arrive earlier

Those who can or want to afford it in terms of time and money should arrive one to three days before the cruise ship departs, especially for distant destinations.

If the flight is cancelled, the chances of switching to a later flight and reaching the ship increase.

However, whether this strategy makes sense depends on the availability of alternative flights.

If you have the exact dates of possible replacement flights ready, you can react quickly to a cancellation before all the other passengers scramble for the few alternatives.

Check in luggage earlier

At many airports, not only the lack of security personnel is the bottleneck.

There are also bottlenecks at check-in and baggage acceptance.

In front of the security queue, there is also the waiting time at the check-in counter.

Some airlines, such as Lufthansa or Condor, offer early-evening check-in at German airports, sometimes using machines.

This often does not reduce the waiting time for baggage drop-off, but it does not take place under time pressure on the day of departure, but on the evening before.

You should get the boarding pass in advance via online check-in if the airline offers it.