I have recently booked a cruise on Celebrity Century for October 22nd. At the time of booking I chose Manchester for the flight to Barcelona. A few days later when I asked my TA if this was a direct flight and she told me that it was via Dusseldorf. The price for this flight return was £310!
I then said that I would be better with a Leeds/Bradford and this was now £330 but again it was via Amsterdam. This flight was at 6AM! this meant that we would need to be at the Airport at 4am!
I told my TA that this flight was not suitable and I then looked on the Web and found a direct flight from Manchester with Monarch Airways. I know nothing about the company and we decided that we would fly the day before. The price of this flight was £119pp return and of course was just over 2 hours.
My TA then spoke to Celebrity and they said they could not book the return flight as this time but that they could do so when Monarch released their winter flight programme. They wanted me to pay a further £51! for this flight. This then meant that the Manchester flight was costing £361. They would not make any allowance for the fact I would not be using their transfers to the ship etc.
I was not prepared to pay X £361 so I have now changed my booking to cruise only and have purchase the flights with Monarch. In case of delays we chose to fly the day before but taking into account the hotel b&b and the taxi transers we are will below their price to Manchester return as well as transfers to the Hotel and then from Hotel to ship. It also means that we can board the ship around 12mn-1pm and this means we can enjoy the afternoon prior to sailing. Have done this previously.
I think the cost of these European flight is scandalous. I hope that I have not made a grave error in booking with Monarch but it seemed to be the lesser of two evils. Return flight times are good and we will arrange a taxi to pick us up at the Airport as per usual
Sue
We have booked a few "cruise onlys" and booked own flights with budget airlines e.g. Easyjet, Ryanair etc. For places like Rome and Barcelona it is incredibly simple, and we have done the same for Amsterdam in June.
As Sue says, you need to get flight at least a day early and book hotel too, but internet prices are sensible and for one night it is not that big a risk that the hotel is not exactly what you would want. Gives opportunity to tour the city as well, e.g. Amsterdam we are staying 2 nights and exploring pre-Baltic cruise.
As Sue says, you need to get flight at least a day early and book hotel too, but internet prices are sensible and for one night it is not that big a risk that the hotel is not exactly what you would want. Gives opportunity to tour the city as well, e.g. Amsterdam we are staying 2 nights and exploring pre-Baltic cruise.
Thanks
It cost us last year with Jet2 only about £90 for flight return to Barcelona. We paid about £90 each for a hotel B&B double for single occupancy. This was a good hotel and we could have found something much cheaper if we had wanted to, Used Trip Advisor to look at hotel reviews.
Taxi from Airport was I think 25 euro and from Hotel to ship 15-18 euro.
On the return journey to Airport we waited about 10 mins in a queue for a taxi to the Airport and once again this was around 25-30 euro's
Worked perfectly. With the Monarch flight the departure time is 12.20pm which is great as these days they are expecting everyong to be off the ship from about 6.30-8am. If you have your own arrangements you can disembark more at leisure than if you are being transferred by the Cruise Company. If I had not been in Barcelona before then I would have gone a few days earlier like you to see a bit of the city.
Regards
Sue
It cost us last year with Jet2 only about £90 for flight return to Barcelona. We paid about £90 each for a hotel B&B double for single occupancy. This was a good hotel and we could have found something much cheaper if we had wanted to, Used Trip Advisor to look at hotel reviews.
Taxi from Airport was I think 25 euro and from Hotel to ship 15-18 euro.
On the return journey to Airport we waited about 10 mins in a queue for a taxi to the Airport and once again this was around 25-30 euro's
Worked perfectly. With the Monarch flight the departure time is 12.20pm which is great as these days they are expecting everyong to be off the ship from about 6.30-8am. If you have your own arrangements you can disembark more at leisure than if you are being transferred by the Cruise Company. If I had not been in Barcelona before then I would have gone a few days earlier like you to see a bit of the city.
Regards
Sue
There is only one downside, if the flight gets cancelled there is really no comeback, although they would fly you on next available flight or lay on another one. This happened to us on one occasion for a return flight from Rome, they kept us in the airport (closed) with a couple of policemen overnight and laid on an additional flight 17 hours later than original. We coped, but horrendous for those with young children or physically challenged. The experience, which is rare, would not prevent us from flying independently with budget lines.
Sue, I have sent a private message which may be of high interest to you.
Sue, I have sent a private message which may be of high interest to you.
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