Love the solo low/no supplement topic but what about airfare.

I love this topic but a lot of the cruises are last minute so it seems like airfare might eat away at the savings. Do people drive to embarkation, have tips for lower airfare or do you ever check if there are multiple ships leaving port in a close timeframe and book airfare in advance and book the cruise later? Interested in how to truly enjoy these low cost adventures. Thank you in advance.

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Particularly as Canadians with limited airline choices, relying or dreaming of airline deals is my last choice. Granted I have yet to take advantages of these last minute deals, - but I do 'have a plan'. I know of people who book flights with no set cruises confirmed. These are to places they want to go to anyway (say Barcelona), and take their chances.

Otherwise, I look at Baltimore, NJ or NY as departure ports - I can drive there from Ottawa and plan last minute. But recently, there was a great transatlantic deal, and the flights were not astronomical for 2 one way tickets. Balanced with the cheap cruise, the 'per day' rate was palatable and just in general the flight costs were within my usual flight costs.Too bad the dates where not feasible....It was really tempting.

I just check airfare before I decide to book a "last-minute" deal. (I am sadly not retired yet, so I can't book truly last-minute, but I usually book inside the final payment window as that's when prices tend to drop, so I'm not checking airfares a week out or anything, but within a month or two.) But I also travel a lot for work and it's not always true that prices are much higher for flights at the last minute--especially if you can book early morning flights. Don't assume they'll be too high--check. :)

And if you book through RCCL/Celebrity/Azamara and I suspect a couple of other cruise lines, they have their own captive travel department who books consolidator type fares and you can often still get a good deal through them. Or ask your travel agent if they have a consolidator they work with and can quote you fares--if they can't do that, look for a travel agent who can.

I do think a lot of the folks who book REALLY last-minute (like a week or two out) either can drive to the ports or are airline employees/retirees/family of the above so can stand by for free/really cheap flights. But it never hurts to check fares before you decide not to book one of those really last-,minute cruise deals. :)

I just check airfare before I decide to book a "last-minute" deal. (I am sadly not retired yet, so I can't book truly last-minute, but I usually book inside the final payment window as that's when prices tend to drop, so I'm not checking airfares a week out or anything, but within a month or two.) :)

Ditto. I've booked most of my cruises within the final payment window, and I always track BOTH cruise prices and air prices when making the decision.

For typical 7 days cruises, sometimes I look for those that don't sail out on Saturday or Sunday .... better chance to get a more decent airfare even when booking within 30 days. Veendam has a few for Caribbean itinerary and Volendam for Alaska.

Download the Hopper app to get airfare pricing predictions and notifications. Also, I have found some of my best cruise purchases well in advance. It doesn't have to be last minute. Good luck!

My plan for the next cruise I take is to know the week that I have off, identify several cruises/ships that leave in the same Friday/Saturday/Sunday block that I'd be happy sailing on, and go ahead and book my flights to Florida when I find a good price. With my flights locked in, then I just have to price watch on those different cruises until supplements are lowered or they offer promos that start to justify a higher supplement.

Thanks everyone for the really good ideas. I think all of them sound like they would work well. I especially like the idea of picking a few cruises, booking airfare and then waiting to see which cruise ends up the best deal. I've been on a few cruise lines and like them all so not super loyal which works out well.

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I did my first solo cruise in December on a last minute (2 weeks out) deal. After researching a lot of options of airfare (multiple airports: DFW vs. DAL, FLL vs. MIA, 1 or 2 days early, even using frequent flyer miles), I wound up getting the best deal from the cruise line (HAL in this case) directly. I got a regular economy seat outbound for less than Delta's budget economy fare allowing me to have advance seat assignments, carry on luggage assurance, and frequent flyer upgrade opportunity. This was also a morning of the cruise flight with a connection - usually a risky option. However, when you buy through the cruise line, they give you a guarantee to get you to the ship which put my mind at ease. Plus I saved the costs of hotels which made for a really inexpensive vacation.

I did my first solo cruise in December on a last minute (2 weeks out) deal. After researching a lot of options of airfare (multiple airports: DFW vs. DAL, FLL vs. MIA, 1 or 2 days early, even using frequent flyer miles), I wound up getting the best deal from the cruise line (HAL in this case) directly. I got a regular economy seat outbound for less than Delta's budget economy fare allowing me to have advance seat assignments, carry on luggage assurance, and frequent flyer upgrade opportunity. This was also a morning of the cruise flight with a connection - usually a risky option. However, when you buy through the cruise line, they give you a guarantee to get you to the ship which put my mind at ease. Plus I saved the costs of hotels which made for a really inexpensive vacation.

I did my first solo cruise in December on a last minute (2 weeks out) deal. After researching a lot of options of airfare (multiple airports: DFW vs. DAL, FLL vs. MIA, 1 or 2 days early, even using frequent flyer miles), I wound up getting the best deal from the cruise line (HAL in this case) directly. I got a regular economy seat outbound for less than Delta's budget economy fare allowing me to have advance seat assignments, carry on luggage assurance, and frequent flyer upgrade opportunity. This was also a morning of the cruise flight with a connection - usually a risky option. However, when you buy through the cruise line, they give you a guarantee to get you to the ship which put my mind at ease. Plus I saved the costs of hotels which made for a really inexpensive vacation.

Can I ask you what you paid for this flight? I live in Dallas and priced airfare to both MIA and FLL but the prices were over $300 for flights several months out. I wound up paying for one way and then using FF miles on American for the other way. It did help that I paid $1140 for a 6 day Studio cabin that came with the drink package.

I don't look for a cruise deal -- I pick the cruise I want and decide if I can afford it. Then I book the flights, non-stop if possible (it's part of my vacation, and I don't want it to start off badly with a round-about routing that takes and extra 6 hours). If I can use points, even better. I'd drive if I could, but being based in Toronto, it's not really feasible unless I make an east coast drive part of my vacation, which I won't. And as someone's said, we don't have a wealth of options in Canada.

Can I ask you what you paid for this flight? I live in Dallas and priced airfare to both MIA and FLL but the prices were over $300 for flights several months out. I wound up paying for one way and then using FF miles on American for the other way. It did help that I paid $1140 for a 6 day Studio cabin that came with the drink package.

I paid $186.55 for the DFW-FLL outbound. Like you, I wound up using miles for the return on Delta. I forget what the return prices were that I was looking at, but it was for a mid-December flight and I was bumping into holiday traffic as well.

Southwest Airlines is the only one that does not charge a fee to change flights. Scope out the future cruise you are interested in. Then when you see a Southwest sale or one of their everyday web fares is to your liking, go ahead and book. Your airfare $$ are good for one year if you need to rebook different dates.

For transatlantic and European cruises, check out Norwegian Air. This airline is not affiliated with NCL. Cheap fares.

Thanks for thr Norwegian Air tip!

Because we nearly always have to take rather long flights most off the ships are in US or elsewhere!

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I did one time flying to Miami and got the ticket 3 months in advance- I did have to go 2 nights ahead of time.

Probably was a one time thing for me. I usually just take bus up to NYC the day before.

However, I was considering Alaska on the Bliss- but it looks like with everything it ends up 2x the total cost of my avg NYC cruise.