Just booked my pre-cruise hotel for my May 28th Pride sailing...

[Eli_6]

I hope it sails even though I paid more to book a refundable room.  Took me half the day to find a nice, centrally located (but not $1,000 a night) hotel where I could get a family room for 4 or 2 connecting rooms.  Most of the Air BNB's I looked at a few months ago were booked up and hotels were about 2-3 times their normal rates. Some were already booked up for a party of 4.  I think something is going on in Barcelona that week before we sail; although, for the life of me, I can't figure out what it is.  When I booked my flights, the London to Barcelona flights (a short flight) were like 600 pounds each and I ended up paying for them with miles because I didn't want to dish out that amount times 4 for such a short flight and for whatever reason the "miles" price was just the same as a regular flight.  Regularly, London to BCN is about 100-200 pounds. So, I think there is something going on that weekend.  Not sure if it is summer vacation, running of the bulls (I kid), the Grand Prix or what.  I suppose it will work for the Venezia sailing, too...will just have to add a day if the Pride cancels. 

 

I am coming to town with my Motley crew so it probably means there will be some sort of crazy traffic/overcrowding incident like when we went to Dover... (google Dover July 2022 traffic if you want more info)

[ninjacat123]

Looking forward to hearing about your cruise on Pride!

[el344]

We’re on this cruise as well. I’m looking at flights from London to Barcelona on May 25 and finding them in the $300 range. I’m also looking at flights from Bristol. We’ll be staying a little closer to Bristol than London for the week before we leave for Barcelona, and I figure we can stand EasyJet for 2 hours, particularly given the significant price difference even after paying for all the extras.

 

But I’m waiting until after I make the final payment on the cruise in the hopes that if they cancel it I can change plans more easily.

[EllieinNJ]

We are on this cruise also.  We had to use 95,000 miles each plus $150 each to go from EWR to Barcelona and back from LHR.  And this is just economy on United.  There is only one nonstop flight and the seats were filling up so had to book it.

[Eli_6]

2 hours ago, EllieinNJ said:

We are on this cruise also.  We had to use 95,000 miles each plus $150 each to go from EWR to Barcelona and back from LHR.  And this is just economy on United.  There is only one nonstop flight and the seats were filling up so had to book it.

How far in advance are you flying in and what airline?  And when did you book?  When I was looking they were 600 lbs and up on British Airways.  I was looking within the first month after the flights came out, but I did not want to have to switch airlines, airports or have too long of a lag between when I landed in LHR and departed for Barcelona.  We are flying there on the Thursday before the Pride leaves. 

[EllieinNJ]

16 hours ago, Eli_6 said:

How far in advance are you flying in and what airline?  And when did you book?  When I was looking they were 600 lbs and up on British Airways.  I was looking within the first month after the flights came out, but I did not want to have to switch airlines, airports or have too long of a lag between when I landed in LHR and departed for Barcelona.  We are flying there on the Thursday before the Pride leaves. 

We had been monitoring the airfare for several months.  We only fly nonstop.  The cheapest we could find was on Fly to Fun for $1000pp.  It was United economy (not basic so we could choose our seats.) from EWR to BAR on Thursday, May 25th and return from LHR on Sunday, June 18th (we are doing B2B.  Then it was no longer available on F2F.  On United's website the same flights were $1500 pp.  The seats were filling up so I wound up using most of our miles plus cash to book.  This was in October.  We are staying in Hotel HCC Montblanc near Playa Cataluna and Gothic area.

 

 

[Eli_6]

On 12/31/2022 at 7:09 AM, EllieinNJ said:

We had been monitoring the airfare for several months.  We only fly nonstop.  The cheapest we could find was on Fly to Fun for $1000pp.  It was United economy (not basic so we could choose our seats.) from EWR to BAR on Thursday, May 25th and return from LHR on Sunday, June 18th (we are doing B2B.  Then it was no longer available on F2F.  On United's website the same flights were $1500 pp.  The seats were filling up so I wound up using most of our miles plus cash to book.  This was in October.  We are staying in Hotel HCC Montblanc near Playa Cataluna and Gothic area.

 

 

Ugh. Yes.  Very similar to us.  I ended up using airline miles to get around the high price. I don't recall how many I used but just that the flights into Barcelona seemed really expensive compared to other times. I think there must surely be something that is going on in Barcelona that weekend. I just can't figure out what it is...  

[sailing canary]

Coldplay - Music of the Spheres World Tour. May 24-27.

[pkster]

3 hours ago, sailing canary said:

Coldplay - Music of the Spheres World Tour. May 24-27.

 

Ah, that explains it . . .  I figured something must be going on with so many of the hotels already booked.