GrampyLo - info2

Emailed a person who was on transatlantic in 2003. He assures me that from Malaga on was warm to hot. Since the hurricane season this year is really until the end of November which requires 80+ degrees, we should be warm from Malaga on. Temps in Cannes are now running low 80's. Porcia

GrampyLo,

Please post info/review on your trip as we are seriously considering the Trans Atlantic for 2005. We've sailed the Royal Clipper through the Grenadines & love the ship, passengers, crew & food...

We too, are looking at picking up the ship in Malaga & returning from Barbados. Please, let me know if you went through Clipper channels to book flights, transfers & any rooms prior or post cruise. I let them do it all last time & was VERY dissappointed! High $$$ hotel, I could have gotten a great place on the Internet for much less & high $$$ transfers. These were all in Barbados.

Since that time, I've booked all my own flights & hotels on the islands!

Going to the other side of the "big lake" into a foreign country (we don't look at Barbados as too foreign) is a bit different...

Let us know how it all goes!!!

Hi Barefoot....

GrampyLo and I (Porcia) are both signed up for the Star Clipper from Cannes to St Maarten this October. I had email from a gentleman who went on the Royal Clipper last year from Malaga to Barbados. He is the one who said temps were very warm. He appeared to have gone thru a travel agent for air/hotel. He flew from Vegas to London to Malaga. Don't know if we can mention agency names in this. We are using an SC pass thru travel agent. I also think hotel cost were high, however, by the time you did it yourself and then paid their deviation fees, it was not enough of a cost savings to bother. At least in our case. Not sure who GrampyLo is using, but sounds like a travel agent and not direct with SC. Will try to post a report Nov or Dec. Porcia

Good morning Portia,

Looking forward to hearing all about the trip in a few months!! Stay in touch!

Thanks

Hello Porcia & Barefoot...

We are using a local travel agent who deals with SC. I don't think one can book the cruise directly with SC. She used SC for flights....much less expensive than direct booking according to her. After Porcia told me of the SC precruise hotel in Cannes I checked it out and she made arrangements to stay there through SC. One must also buy transfers from the airport but as Porcia said the SC deviation fees are eliminated At first look the price does seem high, but it includes transfers to the ship and breakfasts I think. All in all I think it about breaks even with other possibilities that we looked at and I'm happy to let SC make the arrangements rather than trying to figure them out.....besides, my French is almost non-existant!

Porcia: We received our materials from SC a few days ago with everything looking great. There is info about port excursions for some of the stops. They look attractive. There'll be time on board to learn more and select any that appeal.

I'll definately chime in with a report when we're back. - GrampyLo

Hi GrampyLo.... We used SC air also - much less expensive.

Glad you let me know about getting stuff from SC. So far, we have not received anything. I will email the TA and see when ours should arrive. Time is getting short and I am getting more excited. See you soon. Porcia

My wife and I are sailing on the Royal Clipper from Rome to Barbados (9 October - 30 October 2004). We also found that air fare is much cheaper when booking through Star Clippers than anything we could find on our own. I think part of this is because of the "open-jaw" air itinerary (one way US to Rome, followed by one way Barbados to US).

The major drawback was that we were unable to stay in Rome an extra day (since October 8th is our actual wedding anniversary day) unless we arranged air travel ourselves. The extra air fare, plus the expense of Rome hotels and transfers, made the extra day prohibitively expensive for us. Anyway, our travel agent handled everything for us very nicely.

All is well, however, since we arrive in Rome rather early in the morning and plan to take a train into the city, sightsee the city by local tour bus, and return to the airport in plenty of time to catch the prepaid transfer to the port at Civitavecchia at 5pm.

I only hope I can get a very good night's sleep on board that first night. It will be an exhausting couple of days with very little sleep until we get aboard the RC!

Just got our travel documents and excursion information yesterday. The various ports-of-call excursions look very interesting, and certainly seem reasonably priced. I like the pace, too, with a day at sea between nearly every port-of-call on the Mediterranean/Morroco/Canary Island portion of our itinerary.

Have a wonderful voyage aboard the Star Clipper, and let's all report back after our trips!