Cruise Package

I have just found out I can save £1000 if I book my flights,transfers myself ,is this advisable ,is there an element of risk of cancelled,delayed or missed flights.

This is our first cruise. Thanks

Many, perhaps most, book their own flights. Whether you book your own, or thru the cruise doesn't affect whether or not your flight might be delayed, canceled or otherwise affected.

At all times, flights you book must take reasonable effort to not miss your cruise if you get delayed. So arrive, at minimum, the day before, and enjoy the local area.

This is how I ALWAYS do it. Get travel insurance from a travel insurance company instead of through the cruise line. If you google "insure my trip" you will get lots of lists of these insurance companies and the insurance will cost a fraction of what you would pay for it from the cruise line and will cover flights/trains/cruises, medical etc. This way, if something goes wrong, you are covered. There are plenty of online reviews of these various travel insurance agencies so you can find a company that you are comfortable with and know you can trust.

Also, ALWAYS fly into to your departure port at minimum one day BEFORE boarding your ship. It is important to do this to minimize the chance of missing your ship due to any unexpected travel delay. We were flying from Dallas to Boston to Madrid to Barcelona for our first Med cruise and had a 6 hour delay in Boston. Luckily we were flying in a full day ahead of the cruise and Madrid has tons of connecting flights to Barcelona, so, we were able to get to Barcelona the day before our cruise - just 6 hours later than planned. The crazy part was Madrid put our luggage on a different flight than us and it wound up being delivered to a different terminal in Barcelona than the one we arrived at. We tracked it down, but had to go all the way to the entrance of that terminal and back through security in order to claim our luggage when we had just gotten off an international flight and were exhausted. But it could have been worse. Our luggage could have been missing. Which is another tip for you: You and your husband or travel companion should cross pack. By that I mean, put some of your clothes and underwear in your partner's luggage and they put some in yours. Carry toiletries and medication in your carryon. Then if one suitcase gets lost and doesn't make it to the ship, at least you will have about half of what you packed, which is enough to get by. If the airline loses both of your luggage, then my advice is to not wait and see if it turns up, get out to a store at your port of embarkation and shop for underwear and enough basics to get by. Then if the luggage turns up great, if not, then you will still have what you need. If you wear special sizes then pack things that are hard to replace in your carryon. (for example a plus size swimsuit might be hard to replace at your port of embarkation with limited time, whereas, buying a couple of skirts and tops and flip flops is easy to replace pretty much everywhere for all sizes.)

We book our cruise thru a TA. I then book the flights, transfers, hotels, etc.

If cruise line-arranged flights are seats on scheduled aircraft rather than aircraft chartered by the cruise line, yes you'll generally find it a lot cheaper.

And you can select your own flights rather than be stuck with the cruise line's "preferred air partner" which may result in an unnecessarily-convoluted flight-plan if they don't have a direct route, even though other airlines do. For example we arranged direct BA flights from Heathrow to join an RCI ship in Istanbul and arrived late morning. Those on cruise-air went via a three-hour stop-over & aircraft change in Amsterdam, & arrived early evening.

The only up-side of cruise air is that the flights, transfers and cruise are effectively a single contract with the cruise line.

If a delay or screw-up in the cruise line's arrangements mean that you miss the sailing it's their problem & not yours. The ship may wait if a significant number of passengers are affected, though due to port & pilot arrangements, tides, etc that may not be possible. But they are responsible for providing accommodation & getting you to the first port-of-call, for all those costs, and for some financial recompense.

If you fix your own flights, of course you're on your own. For that reason folk often fly to the port a day early. Also gives them time to explore the embarkation port.

One further risk is if the cruise is cancelled. It's rare, but it happens.

That single cruise-air contract means you are fully refunded.

But if you've bought your own air tickets and the cruise line cancels, they will not refund your flight tickets - you'll have to tear them, up or fix up an alternative holiday that makes use of them. I'm pretty sure that's even if you've booked both cruise and air at the same time & through the same travel agent - a cancelled cruise doesn't entitle you to a refund for your air tickets. I don't know whether that's covered by travel insurance.

Risks, and a bit of leg-work.

But I think you'll find most experienced cruisers fix their own flights, transfers & hotels.

JB :)

We've never used cruise air or insurance; we can do much better on our own. We have used cruise transfers a few times in the past, but in most cases wouldn't now as it is usually much more expensive and sometimes inconvenient.

We (almost) always fly in one day ahead, so worries about missed or delayed flights, etc. are minimized. Actually, from where we live it is almost impossible to fly in the day of for most cruises, so normally that's not an option.

I'd consider cruise air under some of the circumstances posted above (can choose own flight, etc.), but since we almost always use FF miles it's way cheaper to book our own.

Booking through the cruiseline has advantages, mostly the convenience of one-stop shopping; just buy the package and that's it. No hunting for prices or schedules or comparing various options. And, in most cases, if the cruise line may either wait for you or get you to the next port.

Be sure that when you fly that you fly in at least one day before the cruise.

And when you look at return flights be sure you leave a lot of time to get off the ship and over to the airport if you are flying home the day the cruise ends.

Keith

You can save a good amount of money doing your own bookings, but it pays to double check. On some one way flights it can be cheaper to use the cruise line flights.