What is the farthest you have traveled to get to your embarkation port?

[Gwendy]

Brisbane, Australia to London, a couple of times, broken up with a stop in Dubai fora couple of days.

Brisbane to LA.  Arrived there around the same time we left due to International date line,  exhausted.

Brisbane to Buenos Aires.

[SbbquilterUT]

SW Utah to Moscow for a fabulous river cruise.

[jocap]

On 7/6/2022 at 6:49 PM, ldubs said:

 

Interesting.  I find the experience flying to US airports to be pretty much the same as flying to airports in other countries.   When it comes to the grief and expense you mention, what makes it so different for a non-US citizen coming to a US airport? 

 

BTW, those options you mention for Caribbean cruises sound terrific.  

We've had no problems flying to the USA for "normal" holidays to Florida or Hawaii via SF, but the only time we flew to Fort Lauderdale for a Caribbean cruise, the waiting at immigration going in, and the queuing on the dockside for an hour leaving the ship on the way out,  in the heat,again for immigration,  left a nasty taste, so we've not gone that way since. It's easier to take the direct flight to the Caribbean.

[ldubs]

17 hours ago, jocap said:

We've had no problems flying to the USA for "normal" holidays to Florida or Hawaii via SF, but the only time we flew to Fort Lauderdale for a Caribbean cruise, the waiting at immigration going in, and the queuing on the dockside for an hour leaving the ship on the way out,  in the heat,again for immigration,  left a nasty taste, so we've not gone that way since. It's easier to take the direct flight to the Caribbean.

 

Interesting.  Before reading it here, I would have guessed Caribbean flights from your neck of the woods would all be via some major US east coast airport.   Direct/nonstop are always better.  

[SFLcowboy78]

DFW (Dallas, TX) to VCE (Venice, IT) with a layover in London and a transfer from Heathrow to Gatwick

[jocap]

6 hours ago, ldubs said:

 

Interesting.  Before reading it here, I would have guessed Caribbean flights from your neck of the woods would all be via some major US east coast airport.   Direct/nonstop are always better.  

Lines such as P&O and Marella place ships in the Caribbean over winter, then sell a package of flights and cruise on chartered aeroplanes, so that once you've checked in at the airport, you're in their hands until you leave the airport on your return. Any other line, you still have to go via Miami. 🙂

[ldubs]

2 minutes ago, jocap said:

Lines such as P&O and Marella place ships in the Caribbean over winter, then sell a package of flights and cruise on chartered aeroplanes, so that once you've checked in at the airport, you're in their hands until you leave the airport on your return. Any other line, you still have to go via Miami. 🙂

 

That is a really nice option to have available!  👍

[rkacruiser]

13 minutes ago, jocap said:

Lines such as P&O and Marella place ships in the Caribbean over winter, then sell a package of flights and cruise on chartered aeroplanes, so that once you've checked in at the airport, you're in their hands until you leave the airport on your return. Any other line, you still have to go via Miami. 🙂

 

Didn't Carnival once tried to do something like this?  I recall a Carnival Airlines whose flights might have been charter flights to their cruises.  

[DnD CruiserZ]

2 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

Didn't Carnival once tried to do something like this?  I recall a Carnival Airlines whose flights might have been charter flights to their cruises.  

Sort of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival_Air_Lines

 

[rkacruiser]

2 minutes ago, DnD CruiserZ said:

Sort of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival_Air_Lines

 

 

Thank you.  Wikipedia knows it all!  

[DnD CruiserZ]

9 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

Thank you.  Wikipedia knows it all!  

How does the saying go, Nobody knows everything but Everybody knows something. You don't have to know, you just need to know who knows...

[jocap]

Carnival certainly knew about fly cruising, because when they bought the P&O Princess line in 2002, a Princess ship was doing chartered flights from the UK- Caribbean, and I know that Carnival continued for some years because my relative sailed on Sea Princess via a very small, local airport (Doncaster) in 2010.  Eventually Princess was replaced with their sister line, P&O, and remains very popular with UK cruisers

[John Bull]

20 hours ago, ldubs said:

 

Interesting.  Before reading it here, I would have guessed Caribbean flights from your neck of the woods would all be via some major US east coast airport.   Direct/nonstop are always better.  

 

 

It's not just that the P&O and Marella (and sometimes Fred Olsen) flights are direct, Idubs.

It's that they're chartered fly/cruise packages - everyone on the aircraft is on the cruise (or in the case of Marella, accommodation in their destination resort)

 

As well as the advantages that Jo & I have already mentioned, that means that if either the  flight or the cruise can't go ahead the cruise line is responsible for both. No cruise line has left behind 300 passengers because their package flight was late.😉

When we book flights & cruise separately (which for scheduled flights is more flexible and usually cheaper) there's always the risk of missing the cruise if the flight is delayed or cancelled, or hunting for a week or two's accommodation in some god-forsaken port because the cruise is cancelled - we've yet to test whether travel insurance covers that.

 

And the cruise pricing process in the UK means that prices can drop or increase dramatically in the last 6 weeks. Unless you want a specific cruise or need a specific date late-booking can mean great bargains, but if it involves flying to the embarkation port the savings of a late-booked cruise are nullified by expensive late-booked flights.

But seats on a chartered flight  can't be sold separately like scheduled flights. So a cheap cruise is a cheap fly-cruise, and the only risk is the flight availability from a convenient UK regional airport. 

 

Just so many advantages of a chartered fly-cruise - I don't understand why some Brits cruise the Caribbean out of Florida ports.

 

JB 🙂

[Billish]

34 minutes ago, John Bull said:

Just so many advantages of a chartered fly-cruise - I don't understand why some Brits cruise the Caribbean out of Florida ports.

Because there are only two options. Marella (shudder) and P&O.  If you want to cruise on any other line,  you are more or less limited to cruises out of Florida. 

[John Bull]

25 minutes ago, Billish said:

Because there are only two options. Marella (shudder) and P&O.  If you want to cruise on any other line,  you are more or less limited to cruises out of Florida. 

 

Yes, of course.

But for silky-smooth transfers direct to the Caribbean rather than the hubbub of a Florida airport a day's sailing to & from the Caribbean and being kicked off the ship with our luggage at 9am when flights back to Blighty are in the evening, plus all the other advantages, I'm happy to sail P&O (as have you).

And for the right price and their unusual itineraries (including Cuba overnite and Cartagena and Panama and Costa Rica and  Grand Caymen all on one cruise) as well as the afore-mentioned advantages I've happily sailed with Marella too. Try booking Havana out of Florida 🥴

 

And there are plenty of opportunities to sample US ships sailing out of the UK, as we've done.

 

JB 🙂

[Billish]

43 minutes ago, John Bull said:

And there are plenty of opportunities to sample US ships sailing out of the UK, as we've done.

The problem is that we won't cruise with Marella, and P&O are just OKish, so that leaves no choice but to sail from Florida.

[John Bull]

23 minutes ago, Billish said:

The problem is that we won't cruise with Marella, and P&O are just OKish, so that leaves no choice but to sail from Florida.

 

Each to their own, matey.

Although have you actually sailed Marella?

We've sailed them a dozen or so times - perhaps because our priorities are itinerary and cost, not the best cruise line, but always friendly and never had a bad experience with them.

 

JB 🙂

[weltek]

Milwaukee, WI to San Juan, PR was our first cruise and our farthest to embarkation. Madison, WI to LAX was our longest within the 48 contiguous. I'm always envious of those who can drive to ports! So much more flexibility and fewer expenses. 

We haven't been into cruising in other continents yet (or maybe we never will). When we travel abroad, it's for long, land-based trips. 

[babs135]

Manchester to Sydney but with a stop.  Once did the other way around with only a refuelling stop - close to 25 hours!  Never ever again.

[ldubs]

1 hour ago, babs135 said:

Manchester to Sydney but with a stop.  Once did the other way around with only a refuelling stop - close to 25 hours!  Never ever again.

 

That is one long trip.  To get to Sydney we fly west.  You fly east.   

 

Out of curiosity where does a flight like that make a stop?  

[babs135]

17 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

That is one long trip.  To get to Sydney we fly west.  You fly east.   

 

Out of curiosity where does a flight like that make a stop?  

Flown out to Australia on British Airways 4 times now (2 cruises and 2 land based).  Chose to stop either in Hong Kong or Singapore.  Did 3 nights. Both are about midway so two flights of 13 hours. Still very long.  The 25 hours flight stopped to refuel in Bangkok but we literally got off the plane, was escorted down a long corridor and then got back on the plane. Disappointed as we thought we'd have a little longer to stretch our legs. I was virtually crawling on the ceiling by the time we got home. I can't sleep on a plane.

[bonsai3s]

Long flights that I can remember...

* San Francisco - Sydney

* San Francisco - Dubai

* San Francusco - Beijing (Tianjin)

* San Francisco - Istanbul

* San Francisco - Bangkok (Laem Chabang)

* SF -  Santiago, Chile...flight was relatively short, but got stuck in traffic for 7 hours.

 

* BEST flight: October 2021, Las Vegas to Houston Hobby...Pete Rose was in the seat right in front of me. 

 

Edited July 29, 2022 by bonsai3s

[John Bull]

19 hours ago, ldubs said:

 

That is one long trip.  To get to Sydney we fly west.  You fly east.   

 

Out of curiosity where does a flight like that make a stop?  

 

 

A number of options, the usual ones are

Dubai (a rather uneven split), or Kuala Lumpur or Singapore or Hong Kong or Bangkok

When we've flown UK to Aus we've broken the journey at the intermediate stop for 24 / 48 hours, at no extra cost

 

JB 🙂

 

[Senoj84]

The furthest I've traveled is to California from Maryland to cruise.

[Vexorg]

I've done Seattle to Fort Lauderdale a number of times for cruises, which is nearly the longest distance domestic flight you can take in the continental US (the only one that's slightly longer is Seattle to Miami.)  Throw in a layover and time zone changes and it makes for a rather long travel day. 

Edited August 9, 2022 by Vexorg