Flight Options for Med Cruise

[69RoadRunner]

We're doing a Med cruise on Symphony this summer. The last time we did one was on Princess. We booked flights through Princess, which is good because we were stuck in Istanbul on 9/11 and the cruise line was responsible for getting us a flight home (ended up on the first flight allowed into the US from that part of the world).

Anyway, that experience has me leaning toward booking through RC. Any thoughts and experiences doing this with RC? How far in advance should I book flights?

I'd like to tour Rome a day before our cruise and it looks like that's possible but I'll have to figure out hotel/tours/transfer to the ship myself.

[Traveling Mike]

I book through RC and Celebrity (same people).  The nice thing is you can book now and change or cancel your flights up to your final payment.  If the price of the flight goes down, you just call them, and they will adjust the price.  If you have issues during your flight, there is a special number to call, and they will help you.

One Note:  I found out with my September flights that all the cruise lines have lost their power with the airlines.  The airline changed my flight to the middle of the night, and I did not get to my destination until the next early morning.  I called and all they could do is send a message to the airline.  Then second leg was just dropped and all they could do is message the airline.  None of the CruiseLine's have direct access to the airlines anymore.  If there are issues before your cruise you are better off booking directly with the airline.  If you have issues during your flight, you are better off booking with the CruiseLine.  

[ChessE4]

We used Air2Sea and got a great price in October. But flights changed until a month out and we missed out on frequent flyer miles because we weren't provided ticket number in emails. Next time I would pay a little more for better carrier. In the end the 200 per person we saved covered our inconvenience this time.

[69RoadRunner]

When we booked with Princess, if the flight was canceled and caused us to not make it to the ship, Princess was responsible for getting us to the ship. If we had booked ourselves, we would be responsible finding a way to the ship. Is that the case today with RC? Flying to Europe, I felt good having it be on the cruise line to get us there.

[FireFishII]

Either booking the flights yourself or going thru the cruise lines, I would plan arriving at least 2 days prior to the cruise.  When I go in 2024, I have plan on traveling out 3 days prior to the cruise.  This lets me recover from jet lag and do some sight seeing in Barcelona and the surrounding countryside.  

[69RoadRunner]

13 minutes ago, FireFishII said:

Either booking the flights yourself or going thru the cruise lines, I would plan arriving at least 2 days prior to the cruise.  When I go in 2024, I have plan on traveling out 3 days prior to the cruise.  This lets me recover from jet lag and do some sight seeing in Barcelona and the surrounding countryside.  

Are you doing all the planning yourself or using a travel agent for your time in Barcelona?

[Mike6453]

20 hours ago, 69RoadRunner said:

We're doing a Med cruise on Symphony this summer. The last time we did one was on Princess. We booked flights through Princess, which is good because we were stuck in Istanbul on 9/11 and the cruise line was responsible for getting us a flight home (ended up on the first flight allowed into the US from that part of the world).

Anyway, that experience has me leaning toward booking through RC. Any thoughts and experiences doing this with RC? How far in advance should I book flights?

I'd like to tour Rome a day before our cruise and it looks like that's possible but I'll have to figure out hotel/tours/transfer to the ship myself.

Were booked on Greek Isles this August, we plan to book our own tickets to arrive the Thursday before (Sunday Cruise). We have picked out an Airbnb for three nights near the colosseum to do some touring and get adjusted to the time change. This way we also have a buffer  in case of a flight issue. We also plan to fly direct.

[FireFishII]

5 hours ago, 69RoadRunner said:

Are you doing all the planning yourself or using a travel agent for your time in Barcelona?

I am planning for myself and my family for our time in Barcelona.  I am using a TA to book the cruise.  We are each taking care of our own flights since some of us will be using airline points and we are also coming from all over the place (NH, FL, PA, and OH).  But I like to plan things.  I have been to Barcelona before and know a little bit about the lay of the land.  I am using a couple of sites for my planning purposes.  I am not sure if we will be doing a hotel or a house.  I will be using Viator and similar sites to plan our excursions.  After I finish my research, I will present our options to my family.  

[Bruin Steve]

21 hours ago, 69RoadRunner said:

We're doing a Med cruise on Symphony this summer. The last time we did one was on Princess. We booked flights through Princess, which is good because we were stuck in Istanbul on 9/11 and the cruise line was responsible for getting us a flight home (ended up on the first flight allowed into the US from that part of the world).

Anyway, that experience has me leaning toward booking through RC. Any thoughts and experiences doing this with RC? How far in advance should I book flights?

I'd like to tour Rome a day before our cruise and it looks like that's possible but I'll have to figure out hotel/tours/transfer to the ship myself.

First, it sounds like your itinerary cruises out of Civitavecchia (Our April 30 Symphony cruise is out of Barcelona).  Realize that Civitavecchia is actually a good distance from Rome...and in the other direction from Fiumicino (The Airport).  I would highly recommend flying in AT LEAST a couple of days early--especially if you want to spend time in Rome.  We always fly in to Rome--or wherever in Europe several days early...We're typically dealing with 9 or 10 hours change in time zones and coming off of 10-15 hours worth of travel/air time...so we are fatigued and off schedule arriving there.  What we do is to spend at least a couple of nights in Rome (or Tivoli or Orvieto or wherever) then heading to Civitavecchia the evening before the cruise to ease stress and keep travel on embarkation day to a minimum.  There is a LOT to see in Rome...and it is a great town to just relax, wander around, eat in restaurants, get some Gelato, etc.  DO NOT short yourself on the opportunity.

As to ground transportation--Airport to Rome, Rome to Civitavecchio, there are many options...We've done a few of them--the train, various shuttle companies, scheduled buses.  One time, we took a bus from the airport to a dropoff in central Rome--incredibly cheap--like 6 euros pp round trip.  We once did a tour with NCC shuttles that took us from the ship, did a full day tour and dropped us off at our hotel near the Campo di Fiore.  Reasonable and convenient.  Another time we just took the train (with a bus from the Civitavecchia train station to the port.

As to flights, book ASAP with Air2Sea.  We've used them several times of late (including for our upcoming April trip and for our Quantum Alaska cruise in August...and just used them for our recent August two cruise month-long vacation on Vision of the Seas and Celebrity Summit (requiring flights LAX to Barcelona, Barcelona to Reykjavik and Boston to LAX).  We've actually found lower prices with better flight times than we found on our own...and the flights were all cancelable/changable for no cost up until final payment date...AND NO PAYMENT UNTIL FINAL PAYMENT DATE.  YES, things go wrong from time to time--but virtually always the fault of the AIRLINE, NOT RCCL.  The airlines, of late, keep canceling or changing flights.  Air2Sea has been very good in working with us in re-booking flights when the airlines mess with them.  Yes it can be difficult, at times, getting through to Air2Sea...but ir can be just as difficult, of late. getting through to the airlines.  Our daughter just had a Christmas night flight home on Alaska canceled and ended up spending most of Christmas Day--over 6 hours-- on hold with Alaska Airlines just to get on a flight for the following day...and the Alaska agent was unable to simply change her flight from th one she was on from LAX to an AVAILABLE one from Burbank! 

Only reason i book direct anymore from a cruise is if I'm cashing in miles (though I did just book Lisbon-Barcelona between my two upcoming April cruises directly on TAP...because it was a strange instance of a better flight time and lower price than I could get with Air2Sea.  So, yes, always double-check).  But there are just too many advantages booking with Air2Sea.

[Zacharius]

1 hour ago, FireFishII said:

 I have been to Barcelona before and know a little bit about the lay of the land.

One option I always like to recommend - if you've been to Barcelona before, but haven't been to Madrid, take a look at that. Madrid is a great city (I personally prefer it to Barcelona quite a bit), and it's easy to get from Madrid to Barcelona. Madrid also tends to have more nonstops to the US than Barcelona does. So, perhaps fly in to Madrid, spend a couple days there, then take one of the many nonstop trains from Madrid to Barcelona (they're only about 2.5 hours, and yes, actually nonstop). 

[69RoadRunner]

1 hour ago, Bruin Steve said:

First, it sounds like your itinerary cruises out of Civitavecchia (Our April 30 Symphony cruise is out of Barcelona).  Realize that Civitavecchia is actually a good distance from Rome...and in the other direction from Fiumicino (The Airport).  I would highly recommend flying in AT LEAST a couple of days early--especially if you want to spend time in Rome.  We always fly in to Rome--or wherever in Europe several days early...We're typically dealing with 9 or 10 hours change in time zones and coming off of 10-15 hours worth of travel/air time...so we are fatigued and off schedule arriving there.  What we do is to spend at least a couple of nights in Rome (or Tivoli or Orvieto or wherever) then heading to Civitavecchia the evening before the cruise to ease stress and keep travel on embarkation day to a minimum.  There is a LOT to see in Rome...and it is a great town to just relax, wander around, eat in restaurants, get some Gelato, etc.  DO NOT short yourself on the opportunity.

As to ground transportation--Airport to Rome, Rome to Civitavecchio, there are many options...We've done a few of them--the train, various shuttle companies, scheduled buses.  One time, we took a bus from the airport to a dropoff in central Rome--incredibly cheap--like 6 euros pp round trip.  We once did a tour with NCC shuttles that took us from the ship, did a full day tour and dropped us off at our hotel near the Campo di Fiore.  Reasonable and convenient.  Another time we just took the train (with a bus from the Civitavecchia train station to the port.

As to flights, book ASAP with Air2Sea.  We've used them several times of late (including for our upcoming April trip and for our Quantum Alaska cruise in August...and just used them for our recent August two cruise month-long vacation on Vision of the Seas and Celebrity Summit (requiring flights LAX to Barcelona, Barcelona to Reykjavik and Boston to LAX).  We've actually found lower prices with better flight times than we found on our own...and the flights were all cancelable/changable for no cost up until final payment date...AND NO PAYMENT UNTIL FINAL PAYMENT DATE.  YES, things go wrong from time to time--but virtually always the fault of the AIRLINE, NOT RCCL.  The airlines, of late, keep canceling or changing flights.  Air2Sea has been very good in working with us in re-booking flights when the airlines mess with them.  Yes it can be difficult, at times, getting through to Air2Sea...but ir can be just as difficult, of late. getting through to the airlines.  Our daughter just had a Christmas night flight home on Alaska canceled and ended up spending most of Christmas Day--over 6 hours-- on hold with Alaska Airlines just to get on a flight for the following day...and the Alaska agent was unable to simply change her flight from th one she was on from LAX to an AVAILABLE one from Burbank! 

Only reason i book direct anymore from a cruise is if I'm cashing in miles (though I did just book Lisbon-Barcelona between my two upcoming April cruises directly on TAP...because it was a strange instance of a better flight time and lower price than I could get with Air2Sea.  So, yes, always double-check).  But there are just too many advantages booking with Air2Sea.

Thank you. This is very good information. We're flying from the DC area, so there are direct flights from IAD. Flights are mostly red eye flights. So flying out 2 days early gets you there just 1 day early. Flying out 3 or 4 days early is currently at least $600/person (4 of us) more. Plus hotel plus, plus, plus. 

I could get the Economy Plus seats on ITA 2 days early for less than Economy Cramped 3 or 4 days early. I'm almost 6'3", so that 40% extra space would be nice.

Maybe I should start looking at touring Rome after the cruise instead.

[Temeculaguy]

On 1/8/2023 at 6:55 PM, Traveling Mike said:

I book through RC and Celebrity (same people).  The nice thing is you can book now and change or cancel your flights up to your final payment.  If the price of the flight goes down, you just call them, and they will adjust the price.  If you have issues during your flight, there is a special number to call, and they will help you.

One Note:  I found out with my September flights that all the cruise lines have lost their power with the airlines.  The airline changed my flight to the middle of the night, and I did not get to my destination until the next early morning.  I called and all they could do is send a message to the airline.  Then second leg was just dropped and all they could do is message the airline.  None of the CruiseLine's have direct access to the airlines anymore.  If there are issues before your cruise you are better off booking directly with the airline.  If you have issues during your flight, you are better off booking with the CruiseLine.  

I second Mike's opinion, I used have good luck with Air2Sea through RCL but they seem to have lost their leverage. Plus I have lost faith in the airlines and I fly once every month or two. I have 4 airline credit cards for miles and free checked bags, easier to just go through them and add days before any cruise, the further the distance the more days. If it's a domestic flight 1-2 days, international across the pond, 3 days would be my comfort level. When returning I don't mind chancing a same day flight, if I make it home late or without my luggage it's not as big of a deal as before a cruise. I also put airtags inside each checked bag, that saved me on a recent flight where one suitcase went to a completely different airport in another country and I was able to tell the airline exactly where it went. Once you leave the US, the airport technology is a bit spotty, language barriers can add to the problem.

[Carotthat]

Rome Airport is a mess when luggage is lost - however they are experienced to deliver the luggage to the first island you're sailing to.

Second, at least european flights are getting more and more expensive, so book early!

Third, arrive at least two days before. Rome is nice, enjoy your time there. 

Fourth, train options from Rome to Civitiavecchia are cheap, fast and reliable. There are several threads about this here.