Air and Transfers

[shayna's mimi]

;) We have booked the airfare and tranfers with our July 12, 2009 Journey cruise to the Baltics. We start in Copenhagen. I noticed that a member mentioned that when arriving in Copenhagen early in the morning, they were met by Azamara and had a 2.5 hour tour of Copenhagen on a double-decker bus. Is this the usual procedure when you use their transfers and air. We usually don't take the cruise ships air since it is usually not very convenient. Any information on this topic would be appreciated!:)

[LHT28]

I would say most cruise lines will take you on a city tour if you arrive the morning of the cruise to stall for time
Don't forget people are getting off the ship early that morning then the crew have to clean & re-supply the ship.
If the do not take the arriving passenger on a city tour you will be sitting in the port area for several hours.
Always a good idea to fly in a day or more early and make your way to the ship after noon when boarding usually begins

[Susan-M]

;) . We usually don't take the cruise ships air since it is usually not very convenient. Any information on this topic would be appreciated!:)

Are you able to go a day or two early? If so, I would ask about custom air. We're using cruise air on our upcoming trip, but did custom air so that we could spend an extra 3 days in pre and post cruise ports. If you've cruised with Celebrity before, they will waive the air deviation fee ($75/pp). Our fares were the same price as the original air fare, so it was well worth it to pick the flights that we wanted.

If you do custom air but book your own hotels, you'll need to arrange your own transfer to the ship....in Copenhagen the pier is very close to the centre of town.

[tnt10]

Another reason to do custom air: seat assignments. Have heard of people doing cruise air and found seat assignments on opposite sides/ends of the plane. Not the worst thing to happen, but inconvenient to say the least.
Tim