Booking cruise and air on my own

[Jaylie]

I have been on two Princess cruises (both to the Caribbean), one I booked through a TA and one I booked myself directly with Princess. I had no problems either way. Now my DH and I want to go to Europe (British Isles) and wonder if I should depend on the expertise of a TA, or if I can just do it myself again. I guess my bigger question would be about flights. I've never booked a flight overseas. We would go a day early and would want to get a hotel room with a shuttle to the port (Southampton). Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

[geocruiser]

I have been on two Princess cruises (both to the Caribbean), one I booked through a TA and one I booked myself directly with Princess. I had no problems either way. Now my DH and I want to go to Europe (British Isles) and wonder if I should depend on the expertise of a TA, or if I can just do it myself again. I guess my bigger question would be about flights. I've never booked a flight overseas. We would go a day early and would want to get a hotel room with a shuttle to the port (Southampton). Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Just remember to get travel ins. including flight ins.

[Julia’s Journey’s]

I usually use a TA for my cruise to get the discounted prices and book my own air and hotel etc

I don't think the hotels in EU offer free shuttles to the port like in FLL.

We are cruising out of Southampton for the first time this October but going to Paris pre cruise and then to London for a night.

Check out the departure boards for shuttles from London airports to Southampton, some offer excursion stops at stonehedge etc

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - Oy, excuse the auto correct ;)

[-Lew-]

There's no advantage in booking directly with Princess, but there is with using a TA. If you use a TA who books many Princess cruises, there's a very good chance you could get a pretty good discount.

 

TAs for the most part are much more knowledgeable than Princess reps. If this is your first European cruise a TA can be quite helpful.

 

I doubt that you'll find a London area hotel that provides shuttle service to Southampton. There are a number of ways to get there...train, bus, limo.

 

Booking a flight to Europe is no different than booking a domestic flight. We usually use a consolidator for their better pricing.

 

Be sure to join the roll call for your cruise. Your fellow cruisers will be able to provide a lot of assistance. You may even be able to join a group for the trip down to Southampton.

 

Lew

[oskidunker]

This year the flights are running about $16-1800 pp.

[2theship]

It all boils down to research. There is no sure answer. Sometimes you can get better flight deals on your own. As we are learning, often, Princess offers the better price for air fare. Check both.

 

If you stay in London pre-cruise, you have the option of booking a Princess transfer to Southampton or taking the train or finding others to share a car. If you join your roll call, you may get some good ideas. London is 1-1/2 to 2 hours from Southampton so there are no free transfers. If you plan to stay in Southampton, you should have an inexpensive taxi ride to the ship. Of course, you'll have to get from a London airport to Southampton . . .

[Shogun]

Hi There

We have flights booked this year for a few hundred dollars.

Look at indirect flights via Iceland , Dublin, ,Amsterdam or Scotland then into London

 

Yours Shogun

 

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Forums mobile app

[Pam in CA]

I agree with Lew. There's no advantage to booking the cruise directly with Princess and you can save a lot by using a TA.

 

You can get a lot of good information from others on your roll call as well as the Ports of Call boards.

 

Most flights to Europe are overnight flights so you will probably arrive early in the morning to mid-morning. This gives you time to get to Southampton by evening. Going through Customs & Immigration at Heathrow can take quite a while and then it's at least a 2-hour drive to Southampton. Take this into account when planning your transfer to Southampton. Never heard of a non-cruise shuttle to Southampton although I'm sure hotels there with shuttles to the pier.

 

Even though I use air miles to book flights to/from Europe, I check airline schedules and go to such sites as Kayak to look at pricing and routing.

[ggprincess2004]

Princess offers transfer to Southampton from London - the major airports and one location in London itself. If you are actually arriving the day before it is simple to get a hotel near the airport and then head back over to the baggage claim area in the morning to find the Princess rep and the transfer. Princess also offers hotel/transfer/tour packages.

 

When we flew in most recently we stayed at the Marriott Renaissance, went back to airport to take the tube into London for each of our 2 days of touring, and then went back to the airport the morning of the cruise to catch the Princess transfer. We booked the flight and hotel on our own, as we used points, and had friends we wanted to visit with in downtown London prior to our cruise.

 

Definitely think about a travel agent in terms of discounting the cruise price.

[sammiedawg]

I'm not aware of London hotels shuttling to the port. In London, hotels in the County Hall area are close to Waterloo station. You can get a train from Waterloo to Southhampton. I'm thinking of the Marriott County Hall. It is centrally located and a great area for first timers to see some sights. There is also a train from Gatwick to Southhampton but most US flights go to Heathrow. You can also research National express bus from central London to Southhampton.

We always book our own flights, as someone already said prices are high this year. We generally watch flights for a while before we book but this year the prices only went higher. There is no difference when you book an overseas flight, you may be asked to input a passport number if not already on file with the airline. Allow plenty of time in and out of Heathrow and note which terminal your flight goes into.

 

In London we have used private transport to and from ports, BA transfer did a good job for us last year, they picked us up at Heathrow, took us to central London, then picked us up at the Dover port back to Heathrow.

 

There is a very helpful website called the london toolkit, one word.

Edited June 2, 2014 by sammiedawg

[cdngrl]

if you prefer to book on your own, do that. in my experience a travel agent doesn't know much about the cruise itself but they will give you a better price. you can always book with princess, get everything the way you want and then transfer (before final payment) to an agent for better pricing.

 

princess may have cheaper air, check their ezair. they also will offer pre-cruise hotels but I find them pricey. if its worth the convenience to you though, that may be the route to go.

 

I booked air and hotel and private transfer (via Stonehenge) on my own with lots (LOTS) of research. the planning is half the fun!

 

definitely go at least a day early and see the London sights!

[EightFurryPaws]

The web site londontoolkit.com has lots of great information. We booked a transfer that was found on that website from London to Southampton with a stop at Stonehenge.

 

There is a list of hotels available where a coach will pick you up in the morning at your hotel. During the trip to Stonehenge, the driver gives a great commentary of places and sights we were passing. We arrived at the ship approximately 1:30. I don't remember the actual cost, but I remember it being very reasonable.

[Corfe Mixture]

I live near to Southampton and a Meet n Greet car from Heathrow will cost you around $170.

 

Alternatively you could do it with a stop in Windsor for around $220 or for $310 with a stop in Stonehenge.

 

All payable in Sterling.

 

This is just one of many Southampton based companies which offer this service.

 

http://www.majestictaxis.com/TaxiFro...FUn4wgodmUAASQ

[san diego sue]

Fly into Heathrow. Take the bus(it is right between terminal 2-3) and you can walk to it. Lovely bus ride to Southhampton and very inexpensive. Use to have senior rates but that may have changed, still cheap. We arrived in Heathrow at 7:30am, was on the 9:30am bus, and there is one at 11ish too. Got to Southampton in a couple of hours, cabs

at bus station are cheap, took a few minutes to hotel. We stayed at

Holiday Inn. It was nice and clean and reasonable. Walking distance to an indoor mall where we bought our wine, ate our meals in food court.

Next morning very rested, hotel called a cab for the short ride to port.

Don't remember the name of bus but it may have been National. We booked on line but you could do it right at the bus terminal if you want to. Seems like we paid about 25 pounds or less for the two of us. Check on line. We had considered car service but didn't want to pay over $200.00 for that service when not necessary.

On a different cruise that ended in Southhampton, we did the ships transportation back to Heathrow.

Edited June 3, 2014 by san diego sue

[Corfe Mixture]

Don't remember the name of bus but it may have been National.

 

Yup, it would have been National Express.

 

If any of you are interested in this route, then click on this link to get the timetables

 

http://www.nationalexpress.com/coach/destinations/timetablefinder.aspx

 

When you start to type Heathrow in the 'From' box it will auto fill and give you a choice of terminals.

 

When you start to type Southampton in the 'To' box it will auto fill and one of the choices is Southampton, Cruise Ship Terminal

[mreasier]

As others have mentioned, I suggest you check Princess eZAir for flights. You can use it whether or not you use a TA (strongly recommended) or book directly with Princess. We recently booked flights from Reno to LA and from Venice back to Reno thru eZAir. The fare is considerably less than that I could find thru consolidators or the airlines themselves. We booked the cruise thru a TA.

[Tedferg]

mreasier, I checked via EZAir once and thought their schedule was not the best so booked myself. Any thoughts ?

 

Also used a TA once and flight was no better than I had found on line.

Edited June 3, 2014 by Tedferg

[mreasier]

mreasier, I checked via EZAir once and thought their schedule was not the best so booked myself. Any thoughts ?

 

Also used a TA once and flight was no better than I had found on line.

We almost never use a TA for flights. We usually use a consolidator. The schedule for the eZAir flights was very good. Maybe not the best but the fare was so good we could not pass it up. I guess it depends on the specific flights you need. We always use at TA for the cruise - usually save 10% or more.

[caribill]

mreasier, I checked via EZAir once and thought their schedule was not the best so booked myself. Any thoughts ?

 

 

Some times EZAir is better (routing and/or pricing), sometimes it is not.

[flamomo]

I did a B2B out of Southampton last fall (r/t Canary Islandsm followed by TA to FLL), and used EZAir and a Princess hotel. Princess did VERY well on the airfare to Heathrow, had a car waiting at the airport to drive me to the hotel, and stayed a night at St Ermin's Hotel.

St Ermin's is delightful and is in the heart of London, just a few easily walkable blocks to Buckingham Palace and to Westminster Abbey. Despite persistent drizzly rain, I got out and walked to both places and did some other looking around the area. My dinner that night was at the Albert pub, about a block from the hotel, for some real British fish & chips. The next morning the bus for the transfer to Southampton picked us up and made the almost 2 hour drive to the port. Everything went very smoothly and if I were to go back to London for another cruise out of Southampton, I would use the same sort of arrangements.

[Brenda8129]

Generally a high volume TA will have group rates that will save a lot of money over the Princess rates. You can add on Princess air even if you book with a TA. Sometimes they have better rates and sometimes not. For my October trip from TPA to VCE, Princess has the best fares or anyone for Flex air. Do your homework, shop around, get insurance and happy cruising!

[pris993]

I have been on two Princess cruises (both to the Caribbean), one I booked through a TA and one I booked myself directly with Princess. I had no problems either way. Now my DH and I want to go to Europe (British Isles) and wonder if I should depend on the expertise of a TA, or if I can just do it myself again. I guess my bigger question would be about flights. I've never booked a flight overseas. We would go a day early and would want to get a hotel room with a shuttle to the port (Southampton). Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

We always book our own air and hotels, usually book cruise on board or directly with cruise line, transfer ship to TA at time of final payment so we can buy some travel insurance with the TA vs cruise line.

 

Ref your questions on booking for cruise out of Southampton, we have done cruises to and from Southampton. When we have left from Southampton, we booked one hotel night at the airport, we flew American Airlines to Heathrow. We stayed at a Marriott right there at the airport because it was easy to do following a long day of travel from the west coast. We then picked up a taxi to Southampton the following morning which was easy to do. Going the other direction, we looked on line on cruise critic for recommendations for a private car service for a transfer from Southampton to the airport. We found Smithstotheairport recommended and booked them on line. Very satisfied with the experience of using Smithstotheairport, would book them again if I was flying into Heathrow or another airport in London.

 

There are hotels in Southampton, you might check on the European boards for hotel option info.

[Kinkacruiser]

The web site londontoolkit.com has lots of great information. We booked a transfer that was found on that website from London to Southampton with a stop at Stonehenge.

 

There is a list of hotels available where a coach will pick you up in the morning at your hotel. During the trip to Stonehenge, the driver gives a great commentary of places and sights we were passing. We arrived at the ship approximately 1:30. I don't remember the actual cost, but I remember it being very reasonable.

 

I was about to post a similar note. Yes, there is a shuttle that collects clients form selected hotels in London. We have booked this for our upcoming cruise and included a stop at Stonehenge.

[SandyAtSea]

This year the flights are running about $16-1800 pp.

 

Check out Norwegian Air Shuttle (norwegian.com.) You can get a one-way flight from major US cities (JFK, LAX, FLL, MCO, OAK) for around $400. I just flew home from a TA on Norwegian and I was IMPRESSED. For that price I got one checked bag, two meals (hot dinner and cold sandwich later since flight was so long), and I got to pick my seat. It was on a brand new Boeing Dreamliner and had the best interactive TV and entertainment module I have ever seen on a plane.

 

Even if you have to fly to a secondary location once you get to the states, it would still be considerably cheaper than a one-way ticket on a major airline.

[Bird Dad]

Last year we booked our T/A Crown Princess cruise through our travel agent, however we booked our airfare through Prncess. We got amazing fares from Newark, NJ to Hethrow and FLL to Newark. How does $446.00 per person sound?