Transatlantic with air and hotel?

[dd likes to cruise]

Thru a travel agent we've booked the April 1,2017 transatlantic from Port Canaveral to Barcelona. Air home is included and 2 nights hotel, transfers, in Barcelona. We don't know the actuals until after final payment.

 

Have others done this type of deal? Will the hotels and air choices be decent, or might we be disappointed?

 

Right now I could maybe do all the items seperate and make my air choices for about the same amount.

 

Suggestions and/or experiences please.

 

Dori

Edited July 28, 2016 by dd likes to cruise

[Viv0828]

When we do a transatlantic, we like to stay a longer time after the cruise and maybe visit a couple of cities. If we do the arrangements ourselves we have more flexibility and it's cheaper.

 

 

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[taszmom]

As a former cruise consultant, it is not unusual to not know the details of the air and hotel arrangements this far out from departure. They negotiate contracts with the hotels in all of the departure ports and its possible they have not done that in Barcelona yet. Contracts may run calendar year. In regards to the air, you can request Premium Air now so you can select the flights you want ahead of time. They charge a custom air fee to do this and you may have to pay for the flights in full now. You also may pay more than the quoted rate they gave you (air differential). NCL contracts with the airlines so the prices are locked in now, they just don't have the exact arrangements because you cancel your cruise up to final payment without penalty, so then you would not need the air at all. Anyway, call your TA and ask these questions. When you book the air & hotel with the cruise line, its a seamless process because they know all your travel arrangements and it includes all transfers but you are at the mercy of their arrangements, i.e. air lines chosen, number of stops, flight times.

[casofilia]

We have never used NCL for arranging hotels or flights.

 

We like 2-3 days before and after cruises to explore, especially when we take a repositioning cruise. Also we would never want to arrive or leave on the day at the start or end of the cruise. Check back to what happened at San Diego and Copenhagen earlier this year.

 

Also NCL use top class hotels whereas we use hotels, like the boat, as somewhere to sleep (and, maybe, eat), so look for far cheaper ones.

 

We also like to make flying arrangements ourselves so we can use airlines where we get benefits and also choose when and how we travel.

[Blondie008]

It is very rare for us NOT to book our TA cruises with air included. Norwegian do differ from other lines - For example when we book with Celebrity, we get given the BA booking code and that allows us to book our seats etc in advance. With NCL - its not possible until airline check in -

BUT - the price is MUCH cheaper. You can ask at check in to upgrade and pay the upgrade fee direct to the airline. For us, we know our air at time of booking (well - at 11 months in) For example we have KLM and BA. They are also happy to deviate the flight - if you want to fly in a few days early - or depart later, its very simple to have your flight deviated.

We also found them really helpful in working with us (all of this via our travel service btw not direct) - to make sure we were happy with our flight times. I wasn't happy with the BA layover in London - it was too short, we would have made it (possibly!) but for sure our luggage wouldn't. They swapped us then for KLM via Amsterdam which works for us much better.

For TA - from UK at least - it means booking multi city - and for us, the price is always cheaper to book as a fly-cruise. The price we paid for our forthcoming fly cruise this winter - including drinks and speciality dining - I very much doubt I could get a flight alone for that price.

Worth checking both out and do ask to deviate your flight to suit yourself.

[delaware32]

On our 4/1/17 TA we have booked air through NCL Premium Air .Even with paying a deviation fee the flight is far less than what my searches uncovered on my own. We are booked on BA with 1 stop and were able to select aisle seats. We usually book flights independently but those one way flight fares for international travel were killer. I checked Norwegian and Aer Lingus as well but couldn't get any of those flights to work.

[dd likes to cruise]

Thanks for the advice etc. We normally would book everything ourselves also. Want to stay in Barcelona 4 days longer than our included 2 nights.

 

When we booked this cruise, the cruise was cheaper than one way tickets we were looking at then. I've since found a reasonable price hotel, and flights have come down. Biggest thing I'm worried about is getting a flight with horrible times, connections, layovers etc.

 

Think I'm going to sit on it a bit and do a wait and see.

 

Norweigian Air is a great price, but only flys out of Barcelona to Orlando on Mondays. Means my trip would be too short or too long. Looking at leaving on Thursday.

[Markanddonna]

skyscanner.com is a very good site for the best value in flights