Just Booked A Baltic Cruise and have questions

[cpl100]

Does Norwegian have a section where they book flights in conjunction with overseas cruises?

 

Does anyone have experience with this feature?

 

Do they usually have good options and good prices, especially compared to booking by oneself?

 

Anything(s) to watch for if using their service? Any downside?

 

Thank you!

[KeithJenner]

I don't have experience myself (other than a short Europe only flight), as I like to book my flights myself, but I would just say be careful if you use the NCL flights.

 

There are advantages. They have the responsibility to get you to the ship, so if there are any delays then they will sort it for you and, absolute worst case, will pay to get you to the ship at the next port if there are major problems. If you book yourself then that is your responsibility.

 

If your flight is late arriving then the ship will be much more likely to wait for you than it for people who have arranged their own transport.

 

Of course, it is unusual to get to that stage, but the fact that NCL will deal with any issues for you is a benefit. If there is a delay anywhere then it's down to them. They will also provide transfers from the airport to the ship.

 

However, there are some downsides.

 

It is likely to be more expensive than you could get by booking directly, especially if you have airline points to use.

 

Also, the route they take will be decided primarily to be cost efficient to the cruise line, and may well not be the one that you would decide on yourself. I have also heard stories of people not knowing their flight details until quite close to the date.

 

Personally I wouldn't use them unless I was booking very close to the departure date, when flights can be expensive if you book them yourself, but it you are happy to let someone else decide your route (not necessarily a bad thing if you don't want to research it yourself) and don't mind paying a bit over the top then it may be the best option.

 

I would just point out that there have been a couple of discussions on here started by people complaining about NCL customer service, specifically relating to air issues, so it certainly doesn't work smoothly all the time. It does seem that if you don't like what they book for you then it can be hard to do anything about it.

[notes21]

NCL has a premium air service for $50 that will work with you on finding the exact right timing for flights rather than just whatever their normal first available would be. We used this for our New Year's Spirit cruise out of Barcelona that went to Morocco and Canary Islands. The price was a little more b/c of paying for that service, but when traveling that far it was nice to have the reassurances that booking with them provided. We are on a Baltics cruise in 2018 and will probably use them again. Missing or having problems with an international flight when there may only be one a day could be a much bigger issue than domestic; so, for us it is worth it.

[Budski54]

Does Norwegian have a section where they book flights in conjunction with overseas cruises?

 

Does anyone have experience with this feature?

 

Do they usually have good options and good prices, especially compared to booking by oneself?

 

Anything(s) to watch for if using their service? Any downside?

 

Thank you!

 

One thing we like to do, is book our flight at least one day before the ship embarkation. Last year, on a cruise from Amsterdam, we arrived 3 days before, and had a chance to explore Amsterdam.

[SuiteTraveler]

If you allow NCL to book without your input you might wind up on a flight that is at an inconvenient time (like 15- 20 hours after your disembarkation) and has a long layover at an airport or is longer than necessary or goes out of your way to get where you need to go. That's why the $50 premium option is better. We book our own flights and come in at least 48 hours early - spend a couple of nights in a nice hotel and tour the city. If we're there anyway, we may as well see the port of embarkation! Europe is small enough that if we somehow missed our ship, we could easily catch up via train or plane for not too much money.