Millenium - Mediterranean Legacies

[rannoch]

Booked the Med. Legacies cruise starting from Venice, and (at the moment) my questions are related to the air travel getting to and from the cruise.

 

The flights are KLM Glasgow > Amsterdam > Venice and the return with BA Barcelona > Heathrow > Glasgow.

 

The first problem encountered was that I asked the travel agent about the baggage allowance. They phoned Celebrity, and all the Celebrity girl did was go to the KLM website and quote one case at 20Kg per person + one piece of hand luggage each up to 12Kg.

 

Next I tried the KLM website to see the booking, and although I couldn't access the information, the site did show that economy class has two types of luggage calculations - first is one case at 20Kg per person, and the second is 2 cases at 23Kg each per person.

 

Then tried BA's website and the booking information showed details of all four flights, and also showed a baggage allowance of 2 cases of 23Kg per person + one piece of hand luggage per person. I phoned BA and they confirmed 2 cases at 23Kg each per person + one piece of hand luggage.

 

Can anyone confirm that the baggage allowance is 2 cases at 23Kg per person. It will be very expensive if we turn up at the check-in with vastly excessive weights.

 

Next I wanted to book seats on the flights, but advised this can only be done at check-in, but it appears check-in can be done on-line within 24 hours of take-off.

Although the BA customer srvices guy said that was not possible (rival airline and all that), it looked as if I could book seats on the KLM flights from the BA website. Any idea if that's correct.

 

I take it I will need to log-on to the internet on the ship to book seats on the return flights.

 

This is all before I think about the cruise.

 

Hope you can help.

 

Regards,

 

rannoch

[keela1eva2]

I am afraid that the information you have been given is incorrect. If you are doing a Transatlantic flight then you would be allowed 2 cases at 23K each. If your flight is from Glasgow Amsterdam Venice then the allowance with KLM is 20K BA is 23K

 

I was flying out to Miami with BA and had the 2X23K allowance or 1 case under 32K. (This will change in September to 23K.)

I had to fly with BMI from Leeds/Bradford to Heathrow and BMI insisted that I only had the 20K and I had to pay £45 excess. My single case weighed 29K. There was no problem with BA on the T/A.

 

Return journey I checked in at Heathrow and as I was having assistance with my baggage the check in male came round to put my case on the scales it weighed 28K but he made no comment and he did not charge me. If you are flying from the UK you seriously could incur a hefty excess baggage charge.

I have booked on the Century in October. X booked me to fly with KLM to fly Leeds/Bradford fly to Barcelona via Amsterdam. Celebrity flights were to cost £330 and it meant a 6am start from L/B and then 2 hours in Amsterdam. I found a direct flight with Monarch (and will fly out 1 day prior to the cruise.)

When I asked X to book the Monarch flight they wanted a further £51 making a total of £361. I paid £119 to book the flight directly and would not consider giving X the extra cost as I would not be using their transfers etc. 1 night B&B in Barcelona plus taxi's will cost me less than this figure.

I have the 20K allowance and if I have to pay a little extra then I will accept this. BMI not honouring the Transatlantic baggage was in my opinion harsh.

 

Good luck

 

Sue

[Andym]

rannoch,

I think that you will; find that the 2 pieces of luggage per person is for trans atlantic flights. Inter european flights, it's only one piece.

[iandjm]

I have done this cruise 3 times, and have always had problems with the baggage allowance. Last year I just managed to pack everything needed into a light case with a total weight of 23Kg. It was a struggle, but possible. I saved buying shampoos etc until I got to Venice saving a lot of weight. This year I am on the October 21 departure and have booked with Air France from Southampton, via Paris with a weight limit of one case at 20Kg. I have been told that at the airport its possible to buy an excess baggage voucher at a rate of £4/Kg..... not too bad I guess.

 

Which date are you sailing on?

 

Ian :D

[tom_uk]

Yes, it's 1 bag, 20 kgs on most airlines, 23 kgs on BA. We actually drive (from Sheffield) to London & stay overnight at Heathrow the night before in order to ensure that we are flying with BA! But going from Glasgow you might be a bit stuffed.

 

This baggage limitation for UK (and other european) passengers is a bit of a problem, especially when cruising with the likes of Celebrity as you have to take formal wear as well as casual stuff. I've investigated alternatives, e.g. 'First Luggage' who can take a case & deliver it to a holiday destination & then back home, but unfortunately they require a real address (e.g. a hotel) to deliver it to - they won't turn up on the quayside & give it to you. And RCI UK have told me that they won't support having it delivered to the port agent. However, if you happen to be flying out & staying in Rome for the night before - and doing the same the night after the cruise - then First Luggage (or an equivalent) service) would be a good answer. But my experience is that UK-based cruisers tend to fly out on the day of the cruise, not in advance, and we're very unlikely to stay for extra days at the end.

 

So you'll have to practice what I call 'guerilla packing'. At least this year the hand luggage weight limit has been removed or increased - last year there was a 6 kg limit on that. We tend to pack the minimum and use on-board services to get things cleaned that we need, e.g dress shirts for me, or one of my wife's good dresses. Toiletries are another issue: if you can use on-board toiletries, do so - that saves a lot of weight. But my wife prefers not to - we once had a stay in NYC spoiled because she came out in a huge rash after using an unfamiliar moisture cream. So she has collected lots of little toiletry-style plastic containers, and the week before the cruise will start transferring quantities of her toiletries out of the heavy glass containers they come in & into the little plastic pots! Then they have to be labelled up, etc. Sounds silly, but probably saves at least 1 kg which can be used for something else.

[rannoch]

Thanks for the information.

 

My initial reaction is that if I'd realised the restrictions I would not have booked this cruise or any cruise.

 

I'm just back from Mallorca with a baggage allowance of 20Kg, and that was tight. The formality which a cruise requires makes a higher allowance a necessity.

 

Looked at the KLM website, and their charge for excess weight is 12 euros per 1Kg. Not sure if that's for each leg (Glasgow to Amsterdam and then Amsterdam to Venice). BA is £60 per case, but depending how you read it it might be £120

 

Back to the travel agent.

 

Rannoch

[lucky white heather]

Booked the Med. Legacies cruise starting from Venice, and (at the moment) my questions are related to the air travel getting to and from the cruise.

 

The flights are KLM Glasgow > Amsterdam > Venice and the return with BA Barcelona > Heathrow > Glasgow.

 

The first problem encountered was that I asked the travel agent about the baggage allowance. They phoned Celebrity, and all the Celebrity girl did was go to the KLM website and quote one case at 20Kg per person + one piece of hand luggage each up to 12Kg.

 

Next I tried the KLM website to see the booking, and although I couldn't access the information, the site did show that economy class has two types of luggage calculations - first is one case at 20Kg per person, and the second is 2 cases at 23Kg each per person.

 

Then tried BA's website and the booking information showed details of all four flights, and also showed a baggage allowance of 2 cases of 23Kg per person + one piece of hand luggage per person. I phoned BA and they confirmed 2 cases at 23Kg each per person + one piece of hand luggage.

 

Can anyone confirm that the baggage allowance is 2 cases at 23Kg per person. It will be very expensive if we turn up at the check-in with vastly excessive weights.

 

Next I wanted to book seats on the flights, but advised this can only be done at check-in, but it appears check-in can be done on-line within 24 hours of take-off.

Although the BA customer srvices guy said that was not possible (rival airline and all that), it looked as if I could book seats on the KLM flights from the BA website. Any idea if that's correct.

 

I take it I will need to log-on to the internet on the ship to book seats on the return flights.

 

This is all before I think about the cruise.

 

Hope you can help.

 

Regards,

 

rannoch

 

 

Hi Rannoch, you are now experiencing what we have had to go through many times when doing Transatlantic cruises..you can take more on the leg out to the USA assuming your UK carriers from (in our case) EDI allow it on your through ticket ...but and it is a BIG but.... when you disembark in Barcelona as we have every year (until this spring when we finished in Southampton ), you are then coming under European baggage allowances.

We know Eva1Keela2 ..she posted as well, and have discussed this question of allowances till we are sick of it because anomalies exist....and because you may be using two different carriers you have to pack to the one that allows you the smallest weight allowance to prevent the very high overweight baggage charges which will punish you otherwise.

I wrote to Celebrity and the airlines concerned regarding this very restrictive problem and the disappointing outcome was their decree to go with the smallest alllowance or be prepared to pay excess.

 

We are on the Med Legacies in NOV...did it last year too.... and had split travel allowances with BMI to LHR and Venice(20kgs) and then back from Barcelona on BA all the way (23kgs) and despite their system allowing larger allowances until Sept.07, it has never been other than 23kgs on the leg coming back from BCN although once you transferred to BA in London you were allowed to have up to 70 lbs. per bag again.

 

We are doing this cruise again with the same carriers in NOV. and we'll now be allowed 20kgs both flights out, and 23kgs both flights home.

 

We do as the previous poster said and think well ahead....ie. pack in plastic bottles etc as toiletries run away with your allowance, take things you can wear more than once, use the laundry facilities on the ship if necessary and pay ( much cheaper than overweight baggage costs) and refine your baggage contents till you are blue in the face!

 

As far as booking seats on the aircraft is concerned the BA system changed last DEC. You can only book your seat now 24 hours ahead if you are not in specific categories of passenger ie. travelling on full fare ( which you won't be if your cruise company did it for you. on a concessionary fare and ) ...you need your ref. no. and even then I had trouble with mine on our last Transatlantic flight out to join the ship as the system had somehow corrupted my booking... you have to know this passenger locator number to book ahead on your return flight ............ not easy to do depending on where you are going to be 24 hours before your flight back!

Yvonne

[tom_uk]

My initial reaction is that if I'd realised the restrictions I would not have booked this cruise or any cruise.

 

This is one of the big arguments in favour of UK-based cruises, e.g. P&O, Fred Olsen, and even some US lines now have ships departing from Southampton (e.g. Princess, RCI). I know, that's still a long way from Glasgow (or points further north?), but Fred Olsen at least does some cruises from points around the UK, including Leith.

 

How about looking at one of the less formal lines? You'll have the same general issue, but you wouldn't need to carry so much stuff. I'm thinking of RCI or NCL, both of which do cruises of various lengths in the Med.

[Petoonya]

We just did a Rio-Barcelona transatlantic, and after Barcelona, flew to Italy. So had a decent luggage weight limit on the flight emananting from the US, but then the 20kg from Barcelona to Venice. I worried all year about how we were going to do it- 4 weeks of clothes and accessories per person=20kg.

 

It was a lot easier doing it on Oceania as the dress code is "country club casual" which was no jacket, suit, tux for husband, no gowns for me. I bought a lot of lightweight quick dry clothes to handwash in the sink from places like Ex Officio and REI. And brought very few clothes. Heavier items like jackets, heavy walking shoes we wore on the flights. And toiletries we cut way back on figuring we could buy what we wanted either where we were headed, or onboard. The hardest part for me as a woman was not bringing my usual vast number of shoes!

 

We bought the lightest luggage we could find.

 

You can always ship your luggage, at a goodly cost, but it is expensive. With good planning, you can do it on Celebrity. Just plan on rewearing a lot of evening clothes. No biggie as you'll be so busy sightseeing during the day, you won't want to be too fussy about dress in the evening.

 

Good luck.....

[mason525]

FWIW- After traveling for a few weeks in the UK, I am going to be on the 7/12 Millie Med cruise. I am using a service called Luggagefree to send my cruise bag ahead. I was going to have it sent directly to ship but now my plans have changed & it will be delivered to my hotel a few nights before the cruise begins. Haven't used them before so not sure how reliable they are but may be worth a try. I agree with other that it is doable to keep within strict weight allowances with smart choices. Good luck. Meg

[rannoch]

Phoned the travel agent, and they confirmed your advice - go for the carrier with the lowest allowance. That's KLM - 20Kg bag each plus one piece of hand luggage up to 12Kg in weight each.

 

Thanks,

 

Rannoch

[tom_uk]

FWIW- After traveling for a few weeks in the UK, I am going to be on the 7/12 Millie Med cruise. I am using a service called Luggagefree to send my cruise bag ahead. I was going to have it sent directly to ship but now my plans have changed & it will be delivered to my hotel a few nights before the cruise begins. Haven't used them before so not sure how reliable they are but may be worth a try. I agree with other that it is doable to keep within strict weight allowances with smart choices. Good luck. Meg

 

Meg: Did luggagefree actually say they could send it direct to the ship (before you changed your plans)?

[mason525]

Tom UK-

Yes. I needed to send luggagefree the name of the port agent that Celebrity uses. The people at luggagefree say they do this for cruise passengers all the time & had worked w/this particular port agent. I thought that it was worth a try even though it is expensive. Meg

[helen47]

rannoch, we're doing the same trip next friday from glasgow on the millie. Have you considered Globespan direct back to glasgow? Their baggage allowance is 20kg inc hand luggage- and their prices were much cheaper than ba via heathrow when we were booking up.

[lucky white heather]

Phoned the travel agent, and they confirmed your advice - go for the carrier with the lowest allowance. That's KLM - 20Kg bag each plus one piece of hand luggage up to 12Kg in weight each.

 

Thanks,

 

Rannoch

 

 

Forgot to mention in previous post, we usually try to wear any heavy items to fly in where possible.. and you can discard them in the aircraft overhead rack until arrival ...husband wears his jacket (for informal nights) and packs his tux . I have worn two sweaters when necessary and that makes spare weight allowance for more sandals(TEE HEE!).

It is possible to get quite a few outfits in your one bag of 20 kgs... I write lists of what goes with what (even for my husband) so that we have a cross selection of "stuff" which is all interchangeable.

It makes me smile when I read how US cruisers complain about how they cannot manage with two 50 pound bags per person plus carry ons ...yet we cope with our measly allowances and can still look the business !

Yvonne

[rannoch]

Hi Helen47,

It's ironic that when I was "negotiating" the price with the travel agent I used Globespan as the route back from Barcelona to Glasgow in my own pricing calculating. The final total package was through Celebrity who organised the flights. I assumed that scheduled flights had a higher allowance. I'll remember the next time.

 

Hope you have a great time.

 

Regards,

 

Rannoch

[rannoch]

Well, it's definitely a case of make the best of it.

 

Some thoughts ...

 

Q1. Will a lounge suit be OK for formal nights, or should I wear tux. If you think a tux is required - what's the quality of the tux outfits you can hire on the ship, and how do you hire?

Q2. Will the ship's laundry handle delicate items. Any idea of the charges.

 

Put heavier (but not bulky) clothing items in hand luggage (trolley case which meets the size limits) - e.g. trousers, lounge suit, maybe footwear.

Buy suntan onboard ship, but carry 200ml bottle in checked-in case to see us through until ship shop open.

Wear heaviest footwear.

 

Love to hear lots of weight/space saving ideas.

 

Regards,

 

rannoch

[lucky white heather]

Well, it's definitely a case of make the best of it.

 

Some thoughts ...

 

Q1. Will a lounge suit be OK for formal nights, or should I wear tux. If you think a tux is required - what's the quality of the tux outfits you can hire on the ship, and how do you hire?

Q2. Will the ship's laundry handle delicate items. Any idea of the charges.

 

Put heavier (but not bulky) clothing items in hand luggage (trolley case which meets the size limits) - e.g. trousers, lounge suit, maybe footwear.

Buy suntan onboard ship, but carry 200ml bottle in checked-in case to see us through until ship shop open.

Wear heaviest footwear.

 

Love to hear lots of weight/space saving ideas.

 

Regards,

 

rannoch

 

A lounge suit is perfectly adequate.. but my husband says it weighs the same as his tux and he wears his "informal nights" jacket to travel so he only needs to pack trousers / shirts appropriate to the jacket . On a port intensive cruise as compared to a transatlantic cruise, many prefer to use their baggage allowance for clothes they will use more often (eg. excursions / sightseeing etc ).Shipboard events come further down the list of requirements for some cruisers. I don't know about the quality of hire tuxedos but many seem use this as an option and I think it has to be pre booked ????.

 

Charges for washing items / dry cleaning are not that deadly. ....on the second to last day or so they offer to wash a bag full of what you can cram in it for $20 or something like that but this is no help to you during the cruise.We wash "smalls" as we go along..they dry quite quickly on the bathroom clothes line.Shirts can be done as well.....I pack a spare hanger or two (which are discarded on disembarkation) as the wardrobe hangers are not suitable for hanging anywhere else (no hooks) . Last trip we asked for extra hangers..the supplied type were dry cleaning type metal hangers so next trip we might not pack any and request these from the room steward to save bothering.

We always try to pack anything we think would be best to have out of the main bag for weight purposes in the carry on.....some restrictive weight (checked baggage) airlines have more generous carry on allowances but again you are stuck with the BAA size requirements for carry on bags, and BA has a grid thing they may make you put your carry on into to make sure it is not oversized if it looks too big .If it won't fit in you will be turned away and have to go back to the check in desk to have them put it through for the hold.

Again you have to pack lotion / potion items into a SMALL (8x8 if I recall correctly?) see though zip lock (freezer type ) bag for security purposes ...keep it handy to put through the Xray machine in a separate tray and read which items (web site) are not allowed in your carry on bag...I have the pamphlet telling you what is /is not allowed at BCN airport..I think I had to ditch a very expensive (pretty new) mascara last time !

 

They sell Australian Gold sun products on board..we usually buy these...ship's shops open almost whenever the ship sails usually...so you may not need to think about taking any with you..but if the ship is staying in Venice overnight after boarding, then the shops onboard will be closed until it sails next day..depending on the time of year (Nov.?) you travel , you may not need sunproducts immediately anyhow, although last year (Nov.) the weather was very pleasant throughout and surprisingly sunny in places.

 

We never put the Celebrity cabin number labels on before we reach the destination as sometimes they are torn off during the time after check in and before collection from the carousel.We add them while we get together with the Celebrity "meeter and greeter" as they check us off their list. Last Nov. in Venice so many PAX arrived simultaneously from several flights from various origins...the queue for the buses was gigantic and not organised well... however once you get loaded onto the buses you are all set...I think we had few problems actually boarding.

Yvonne

[Glendakayself]

Hi, Yvonne,

Are the carry-on restrictions stricter in Barcelona than other airports? Can you elaborate on what is not allowed?

See you in November,

[tom_uk]

Washing clothes: yes, it's a pain but it does help. I wear mainly Rohan clothes during the daytime on cruises, and one big advantage of these is that they are light, very easy to wash in the sink, and will dry over night. So I'll wash out a few shirts and a pair of Rohan Bags during the cruise. I don't bother even thinking abot ironing them - my view is that the rumpled look is perfectly appropriate in the Greek islands! Mind you, it didn't feel so good last year in Cannes but our cruise doesn't go there this year.

 

Drying clothes: I bought a stretchy line to hang things on, then when we got on board I found that there was a line in the shower. It's not obvious what it is - there's a 'button' sticking pit of the shower wall a bit on one side, and a socket on the other side - pull the button, it's attached to a cord, it hooks into the socket, and you've got a lightweight line.

 

Getting clothes cleaned: yes, I'll probably just take one dress shirt and have it cleaned between each formal night. I won't bother getting the dress suit cleaned.

[lucky white heather]

Hi, Yvonne,

Are the carry-on restrictions stricter in Barcelona than other airports? Can you elaborate on what is not allowed?

See you in November,

 

Hi Kay, I've looked out the pamphlet from Barcelona airport..we've passed through there several times after disembarking from cruises.This last trip (TA /ML) was the first time we ever were given written info about security rules... it says "new EU security rules "on the pamphlet.

If you are already familiar with the security rules in the UK for example there will be no surprises ....liquids in small quantities (max. 100 Millilitres) packed in transparent sealable bag( they actually handed the bags out to you (free) if you wanted any)..bag capacity not more than 1 litre p.p. ....

liquids are...creams, lotions, oils, perfume, spray, gels, contents pressurised containers (eg. shaving foam) ,pastes (eg.toothpaste),liquid-solid mixtures, mascara, any other item of similar consistency.

 

These rules apply only to hand baggage...you can pack the items in your checked bags no problem. We have not felt this was much of a change for us as we are already very thoroughly checked in the UK !

We did not feel this was any stricter than we have already experienced , but it depends on what you are used to having to do to get through your local airport security.

Looking forward to Nov already!

Yvonne

[Glendakayself]

Thank you Yvonne,

It sounds like the restrictions for carry-on luggage is the same as in the states. I haven't flown since the new restrictions, and I haven't been to Europe since 2001. You gave me a scare when you said your mascara was confiscated. It seems from reading your post that as long as the sizes of liquids, gells, and pastes are small enough, and the products fit into the quart baggie without exceeding the total liquid limit, we'll be okay.

 

Our air arrangements are called a round-trip "circle" route. We are on American for the first leg from Dallas to Chicago. Then we are Chicago to Madrid to Venice on Iberia (cruise Venice to Barcelona), then BCN to MAD to Zurich. We spend three nights in Zurich, and then it is American back home. The Iberian website states that our luggage limitation will stay the same throughout all our flights with the flight of origin dictating the rules. I think from reading this thread we have really lucked out on luggage. (Cross my fingers and hold my breath for the next six months!)

Thanks again,

[lucky white heather]

You're welcome, Kay! I have spent a lot of time reading all the Millilitre contents of my makeup lotions and potions recently so that I do not have to ditch expensive stuff that didn't comply... the piles of discarded makeup at the airports were very large and had probably cost their former owners a small fortune !

Yvonne