Manchester to Barbados

[yesididit]

Can now afford the time and money for Britannia around the Caribbean. Have filled in the booking online 3 times and bawk on the final click. The number of 'what ifs' are now in single figures, one big one is the dreaded flight. Iv'e never been longer than 2 hours so this is big for me. Is there any chance while waiting at Manchester we could be bing bonged "flight cancelled,please make your way to coach for onward to london"?This would tip me over the edge.

[janny444]

Hi...done this fly cruise a couple of times and yes it is a long flight but it is bearable if you don't mind flying. Possibility of being Bing Bonged to a London flight...not sure. What strikes me is that something is holding you back from committing. ..are you sure that it is only the fear of being Bing Bonged or is it that you are unsure about something else....it seems like your instinct is making you hesitate and I would go with that until you feel that it is right for you without any ifs or maybes.

[yesididit]

You're very perceptive Janny ! After our last cruise we vowed no more cruising, Fed up of mass tourism but here we are again seriously about to book.

 

The long flight,especially the return landing at silly o'clock with no sleep and having to drive home is the only thing weighing on me. I keep telling myself I wouldn't be doing anything else that day. The heat too, I'm no good when it's hot, I'm hoping come November the heat will be welcome. 30' All year? Prefer 20' just cant please some folk :-)

[janny444]

Hi ...if the long flight home and the drive from the airport is your only concern then do it. When we flew from Manchester we had a return taxi. It will be hot...we went in December. It isn't just the heat it's also the humidity. I too can't take the heat so we were out and about early ....back to the ship well before lunch and of course the ship is all air conditioned so I coped very well with it. Would I go again...yes....in Winter it's lovely to be guaranteed some warmth...it's just that now my husband can no longer fly .. we could only sail from Southampton and that would mean a long cruise which isn't for us. Don't let it be one of those things that you regret not doing...do it while you can .

[HomelessBear]

We’ve done the Caribbean fly cruise over Xmas / new year quite a few times. Yes the flights are long but with a snooze and my iPod & book, not to mention eating, the time goes by reasonably quickly. There’s also films and other stuff to watch if you wish to make the time go by.

We always book seats when they’re released (usually midnight) as I get stressed if I don’t know where I’m sitting. You may also be lucky and get extra legroom seats at the front (I wouldn’t do the ones further back as folks stand in the gap queuing for the toilet), or even book premium, which may make the flight more comfortable. Both will be extra costs though. They are also mostly charter flights with everyone on board on the cruise, so these are less likely to be cancelled. If it is, there’ll be 300+ people they’ll have to get there, and I’d guess they’d find a replacement plane from somewhere and the ship should wait for you.

Not sure where you live, but we also book a taxi to & from airport. This saves us stressing with traffic, weather or parking and especially after an overnight return flight, we haven’t got to worry about driving with no quality sleep for 24 hours.

If you’ve coped with the heat we’ve had this summer, you should be ok with Caribbean heat. You don’t have to sit out in it anyway, as there are plenty of air conditioned spaces to relax in on the ship. It’s also lovely being warm when it’s cold and wet here, especially in the evening.

If you don’t mind me saying, it almost sounds as if you’re looking for things to stop you from pressing the final button, but I know that it’s a big decision and a costly one too. Sometimes you have to go with your gut feeling whether it’s right, but life is short and you never know what’s around the next corner. So if your feeling says ‘go for it’, then you’ll have something lovely to look forward to.

 

 

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[dronnygirl]

Please be aware that the long haul flights have bigger, more spacious planes. They feel light and airy compared to the smaller planes. It's surprising how quickly the flight goes and on the return they turn the lights down after dinner so most people have a sleep

[Nellie100]

Hi

We are a couple of 60 & 67, flown all over the world but the older we get the more stressful it gets for some reason so we have to plan carefully, we have done P & O Caribbean 9 times and the flights have always been so easy, always nearly on time give or take 20 minutes, straight forward the outbound is day time and we are usually excited so it passes quickly, I know this sounds weird but I usually try and plan a different activity every 2 hours, a film, some music, read a magazine then my kindle one I've eaten and had a couple of drinks we are there!! no luggage to pick up (it's bonded and once dropped at Manchester next time I see it is outside my room) down the steps on the plane and straight into a mini bus.

The return journey I always make sure I book seats (cannot afford premium) I try to spend a very relaxed day before the flight we just sit in the sun on board have good breakfast and nice lunch, shower in the spa and ready for pick up again only hand luggage, the wait at Barbados is a bit of a pain as not the most exciting airport once on board I do the every 2 hours activity until I feel a little tired then take a couple of calming tablets and try to sleep with an inflatable footrest, neck cushion and blanket.

Those are my tips we try not to let the stress get to us by planning. We are soon to book a trip before Xmas, last year we thought we would have a break from cruising and did 2 land based Caribbean holidays in November and December, to Barbados and Tobago won't bother again prefer the home from home on P & O ships.

Hope this helps and bit long and drawn out apologies.

[lansonlady]

We have just booked a Caribbean cruise on Azura. We are booked on a Thomson flight and I have just looked to book our seats in advance. The cost is £120 for the to of us! We have done this cruise before and although I don’t remember how much we paid, I don’t remember feeling so ripped off. Is it the same on Thomas Cook flights? Not that we can change flights now anyway.

[Caravan 37]

We have just booked a Caribbean cruise on Azura. We are booked on a Thomson flight and I have just looked to book our seats in advance. The cost is £120 for the to of us! We have done this cruise before and although I don’t remember how much we paid, I don’t remember feeling so ripped off. Is it the same on Thomas Cook flights? Not that we can change flights now anyway.

 

 

 

What seats? When are you flying?

 

 

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[kevcharben]

We have just booked a Caribbean cruise on Azura. We are booked on a Thomson flight and I have just looked to book our seats in advance. The cost is £120 for the to of us! We have done this cruise before and although I don’t remember how much we paid, I don’t remember feeling so ripped off. Is it the same on Thomas Cook flights? Not that we can change flights now anyway.

 

We are on Thomas Cook in December 7th (Britannia) and we had to pay £120 for both ways, and we are in Premium

[Ashling]

We are on a TUI flight travelling on the 15th December (Britannia) and paid £30 per person per reserved seat, so £120 in total. We are also in Premium

[wowzz]

You will find that you now have to pay to preselect seats with virtually every airline, charter or scheduled. Cost will obviously vary, but for a return £30 is pretty reasonable.

 

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[chunkster20uk]

You will find that you now have to pay to preselect seats with virtually every airline, charter or scheduled. Cost will obviously vary, but for a return £30 is pretty reasonable.

 

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Flying in November and paid £120 for the two of us to book our seats.

 

I fly a bit for business on BA and you are right unless you book ‘Business Class’ or have status you have to pay to reserve your seats.

[wowzz]

Flying in November and paid £120 for the two of us to book our seats.

 

I fly a bit for business on BA and you are right unless you book ‘Business Class’ or have status you have to pay to reserve your seats.

Even in club, with BA you have to pay for seat selection (around £60 one way ?), unless you have Gold status.

 

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[DamianG]

I'm just wondering if you've shopped around for the cost of the cruise or just going on P&O's online prices? Maybe a TA could discount the cruise further for you and you could use the savings for transport to and from the airport (taxi or train?) and also towards reserving seats on the flight?

Personally I don't enjoy flying but that is based on travelling with budget airlines whereas the in-flight experience we've had of flying to the Caribbean 4 times (twice for P&O cruises) has been generally much better.

One other thing I noticed is that your last cruise experience was with Fred Olsen so maybe it was just something about their style / passenger demographic / ship size / age of the ship or just that particular cruise that didn't suit?

I can get anxious pre-cruise but having the security of good planning and avoiding the things that I know are stressful to me works (for me).

I sincerely hope you find a way to work out how to go ahead with the cruise in the best way for you. Personally I would say that visiting the Caribbean is a great experience with beautiful landscapes and islands with friendly people. It can be very hot and humid but on the flip side we have fond memories of having pre-dinner drinks on deck as we sailed out of port around 7pm when it was dark but pleasantly warm enough to be outside. It is also the only time (in our experience anyway) when the evening outdoor deck parties actually work as it is not too cold or windy!

All the best

Damian

[DamianG]

Hi

We are a couple of 60 & 67, flown all over the world but the older we get the more stressful it gets for some reason so we have to plan carefully, we have done P & O Caribbean 9 times and the flights have always been so easy, always nearly on time give or take 20 minutes, straight forward the outbound is day time and we are usually excited so it passes quickly, I know this sounds weird but I usually try and plan a different activity every 2 hours, a film, some music, read a magazine then my kindle one I've eaten and had a couple of drinks we are there!! no luggage to pick up (it's bonded and once dropped at Manchester next time I see it is outside my room) down the steps on the plane and straight into a mini bus.

The return journey I always make sure I book seats (cannot afford premium) I try to spend a very relaxed day before the flight we just sit in the sun on board have good breakfast and nice lunch, shower in the spa and ready for pick up again only hand luggage, the wait at Barbados is a bit of a pain as not the most exciting airport once on board I do the every 2 hours activity until I feel a little tired then take a couple of calming tablets and try to sleep with an inflatable footrest, neck cushion and blanket.

Those are my tips we try not to let the stress get to us by planning. We are soon to book a trip before Xmas, last year we thought we would have a break from cruising and did 2 land based Caribbean holidays in November and December, to Barbados and Tobago won't bother again prefer the home from home on P & O ships.

Hope this helps and bit long and drawn out apologies.

 

Great post and some super tips!

Cheers

Damian

[lansonlady]

What seats? When are you flying?

 

 

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Economy seats, 16 November 18.

[lansonlady]

You will find that you now have to pay to preselect seats with virtually every airline, charter or scheduled. Cost will obviously vary, but for a return £30 is pretty reasonable.

 

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£60 return not £30. £120 for the two of us.

 

I must be getting old and out of touch:') I think £60 is an extortionate amount of money for booking a seat.

[wowzz]

£60 return not £30. £120 for the two of us.

 

I must be getting old and out of touch:') I think £60 is an extortionate amount of money for booking a seat.

Well, and being blunt, don't pay it. If you dont want to sit together you will save money .P&O could of course, just increase the price off the cruise by £60 a person and you would not notice it.

As an aside, I think you are out of touch, if you look at how much legacy airlines now charge for seat selection. For example look how much Emirates charge for seat selection .

 

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[lansonlady]

Thank you for your reply Wowzz,

 

I think that honest pricing of fly cruises would be a much better option, and including those costs in the fare as you suggest, would be more acceptable to me.

 

P&O show the cost of reserving Thomson Caribbean seats as £30. I have to say I didn’t look at this before I booked the fly cruise but if I had looked I might still be annoyed as it is a tad misleading because the cost is actually £60.

 

I’ve learned quite a bit looking into this issue. I’ve learned that it is difficult, and in some instances impossible to establish how much it costs to reserve seats before booking the flight.

 

I’ve found that the Civil Aviation Authority is currently investigating Airlines with regard to their practises with passengers reserving/not reserving seats. This is born from complaints regarding inappropriate seat allocations for families with young children and deliberately splitting parties up to force them to pre select seats at a charge.

 

My daughter travelled with Ryan Air last week. There were three in the party and they were scattered in different places on the plane on allocated seats. They were immediately given the opportunity to book different seats on a half empty plane at £7.00 each.

 

I’m not sure that comparing Emirates with Thomson is a fair comparison. However, I found this information on Emirates regarding their charges-

Economy Class on a flexi plus fare is free to book.

Business class and first class is free to book

Economy Class Flex fare is free to book

Alternatively you can wait until online check in opens 48 hours before the flight and select for free.

 

Emirates charges for upper deck preferred seats, twin or extra leg room seats.

Economy Class tickets on a special saver fare also attract a booking fee.

 

In the interests of balance, It would clearly be impossible to seat everyone in their first choice seats on a plane. So there has to be some kind of compromise. However, passengers, including me, have succumbed to the implied threat that you might embark on a lengthy journey separated from your husband, or children. What happened to the days when families were automatically sat together? Without these insidious costs.

 

[wowzz]

Lansonlady - you make some good points there.

If I may, I'd reply to some of them

In the case of P&O charter flights, the cost to reserve seats is down to P&O, not the airline, so this matter needs to raised with P&O. Perhaps they could add free seat reservations instead of obc, or as an early booking incentive?

Ryanair are notorious for splitting up groups, but I would say that this is not the case with the vast majority of other airlines. I do believe that being seated together should be free, but that if you want to book specific seats, that choice should incur a charge.

As to discovering the cost of seat reservations, even with Ryanair, this is entirely transparent. During the booking process you will be offered the opportunity to reserve seats, and the cost will be shown. By doing dummy bookings it is quite easy to discover the final cost before making a confirmed reservation.

Finally, and this is drifting away from the original thread, the Emirates seat reservation process is not exactly straightforward. Economy pax who do not pay to select their seats, are allocated specific seats prior to olci opening. Once olci is open, you can, if you wish, change your seats to any that remain unallocated. For example. if the aircraft has only 10 empty seats, you can only select from those 10 seats, so in reality your choice is extremely restricted. Certainly on an Emirates routing, I would not let the computer choose my seat for me!

Sorry for the thread drift!

[doog442]

Flying in November and paid £120 for the two of us to book our seats.

 

I fly a bit for business on BA and you are right unless you book ‘Business Class’ or have status you have to pay to reserve your seats.

 

At least with BA even in economy you can book your seats for free from 24 hours before the flight. We've never had a problem getting seats together using this method.

 

TUI have taken things to the 8th degree and will now stop people even paying for seats online when a plane reaches a certain capacity.Its only then doable with a phone call if you can get hold of them.

[wowzz]

At least with BA even in economy you can book your seats for free from 24 hours before the flight. We've never had a problem getting seats together using this method.

 

TUI have taken things to the 8th degree and will now stop people even paying for seats online when a plane reaches a certain capacity.Its only then doable with a phone call if you can get hold of them.

TUI hold back 20% of seats for allocation at the airport, for those pax who, for whatever reason, have not checked in online.

 

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