Am I Stupid????

[sogamusicman]

My dw and I are cruising out of NY next week. I booked pre and post transport from the airport through Carnival. They charged $80 per person roundtrip. I discovered they are using Airlink for this. I went to the Airlink website and found the same thing for $44 per person. Am I missing something or is Carnival ripping me off???? Do you recommend I cancel through Carnival and book directly with Airlink? FYI, we've never worried about this before - we normally drive to ports. this time we're flying in.....

[gone_cruisin]

Unfortunately, yes they are.

[sixgun8]

you sure the airlink price isn't one way? I know transport to and from in Galveston/houston is way cheaper to do carnival than any other options.

[Gayle V]

If you've already booked the air through Carnival, and the cruise is in just one week, it is probably now way to late to cancel the airfare and get a refund, anyway. Can't hurt to ask, but not likely.

 

From where we live (Cleveland) it is almost always significantly cheaper to book the flights on our own, than through the crusie line. I would have been very surprised if the cruise line air was the better deal. Booking on your own is usually cheaper and gives you far better times and itineraries.

[MrPete]

Early in our cruise careers, we let Carnival do our air, tranfers, as well as tours.

 

We soon learned that it was a LOT cheaper to do these things on our own.

[DocF]

One needs to look at the options for air transportation for each cruise. For our transatlantic cruise last fall, we saved over $1000 by booking through Carnival rather than booking our air and transfer ourselves. The bulk buying power aspect and the rising fuel prices made this a no-brainer. I also am willing to pay a few bucks extra for the lack of hassle in dealing with airlines that using the cruise line to book my air travel gives me.

 

What I prefer to do, though is drive to the port. I absolutely detest flying at best and it is far from at its best these days.

 

Doc

[G'ma]

My dw and I are cruising out of NY next week. I booked pre and post transport from the airport through Carnival. They charged $80 per person roundtrip. I discovered they are using Airlink for this. I went to the Airlink website and found the same thing for $44 per person. Am I missing something or is Carnival ripping me off???? Do you recommend I cancel through Carnival and book directly with Airlink? FYI, we've never worried about this before - we normally drive to ports. this time we're flying in.....

 

Carnival makes a profit on EVERYTHING they sell...including shore excursions and items from the gift shops on board.

 

Personally, I prefer to make my own arrangements to avoid their markup. It's not a rip-off.....it's simply their price. You can chose to pay it or not...just like anywhere else.

[momofzeke]

It may be too late to cancel the Carnival transfers, but if they will let you cancel, I would do it.

 

I don't like Carnival transfers because not only is it usually just as expensive (if not more so) than arranging your own transportation.....you also have to sit on the bus until it fills up before they will leave the airport. If you happen to be among the first on the bus, you may be sitting there for 1 or 2 hours.

 

Same thing going back to the airport....you have to wait for the bus to fill before they leave the port. Then, once at the airport, they will drop off passengers at each airline....unloading all their luggage as they go. If you happen to be on an airline that is farther down the line, you'll be sitting on the bus for quite a while.

 

We did Carnival transfers our first cruise, but I will not do them again.

 

If you can't change for this cruise, at least you'll know for next time.

 

Have fun on your cruise! :)

[scperk]

That's why we always use a taxi..and yes they are ripping you off......Dennis

[mail-girl]

We paid for carnival transfers when we got to the airport in ft lauderdale last december. After paying for them we checked on the cost of a taxi(we also wanted to make a stop along the way) and found out we could get there a lot cheaper. Carnival tore up the charge slip when we asked to cancel. You might want to find out what it would cost for a taxi from the airport. I don't remember the cost but the taxi was cheaper than the carnival transfers(not by a whole lot, but we made a stop along the way and the taxi waited while I went into a grocery store & made a purchase.) & we left immediately (the shuttle group was still waiting inside the airport when we left) I was able to get my pepsi & the taxi driver got a good tip.:cool:

[yesterdaystime]

Done it both ways, to date, Carnival has proven to be the easiest and for the most part, the least expensive. When we cruise, we try to eliminate as many variables as possible - in short - leave the worries to some one else; and if something does go wrong, there is only one person to turn to - Carnival!

[lorriv20]

The only advantage to booking these types of things through Carnival is that you are covered if something should go wrong. That being said, if you did not arrange the flight through Carnival, the only thing covered would be the ground transportation..and how much could really go wrong with that? Not enough to justify twice the price and for me the worse problem of "hurry up and wait" as was mentioned by another poster.

[zqvol]

My dw and I are cruising out of NY next week. I booked pre and post transport from the airport through Carnival. They charged $80 per person roundtrip. I discovered they are using Airlink for this. I went to the Airlink website and found the same thing for $44 per person. Am I missing something or is Carnival ripping me off???? Do you recommend I cancel through Carnival and book directly with Airlink? FYI, we've never worried about this before - we normally drive to ports. this time we're flying in.....

 

Ripping you off? No . . . making a profit? Yes.

 

You are going to quickly learn that most shore excursions and transport options can be purchased from independent vendors for less than you can get them from Carnival.

[KCCruisin']

Like G'ma said, they get a commission on everthing connected with them. That's way if you book through them there's going to be a mark up of about 30% on excursions and probably the same for airport transfers. Save yourself some money and book them yourself.:)