Total cost for Med cruise

[mad4mky]

Quanmama--I'm your neighbor--I live in Redwood City (and work in Menlo Park).

I know the prices of homes, schools etc in this area...So, know your pain well.

 

We are leaving the end of Sept (ship leaves Barcleona-Sept 29-Oct 6). We could afford this trip because we happen to have a time share, and traded it.

We are paying for college (she has graduated, but bills will keep coming for a long time) and have another one off to college next year.

 

But, this is a special anniversary trip for us...and we figured if we wanted to go--we go. So, I don't get that new carpet I have been wanting (yes, we do own our home).

 

But, I have met some great people here on CC--we are getting together for some private guides/tours on a couple of ports, and that sure helped on costs. The private drivers for just two people was just astronomical. A couple of ports, we are winging it on our own. And, while in Sicily--we have hired our own driver to take us to a little fishing town where my husband's grandparents are from (200 Euro + gas).

 

Will I ever make it back to Italy to see these thing again? I don't know...but I doubt it. I have other places to go and see.

Will the cost be worth it? Oh heck yeah.

 

I'm probably older than you...but I don't think you hear too many say..."I wish I didn't take that trip to Italy".

 

I used FF miles for our trip--but I when I looked, it was $754 pp flying from SFO to Spain. Keep searching prices--you have time yet--you don't have to book the airfare right now. Plus, you have 3 major airports near you to choose from (SFO, SJ and Oakland). And, like another poster said, try to go in the off season. Even Sept/Oct gave us such a break.

 

Save your $$ anywhere you can...and it can be doable. :D

 

Good luck!

[SelectSys]

Europe is getting insanely expensive for people from the USA. I just got back from a 3 week trip - 1 in England and 2 on the ship going through the med - and couldn't believe how much I spent - probably 60% more than I did on a similar trip 4 years ago! The only saving grace for us were that we had frequent flier tickets and free hotel stays in England using Marriott points.

 

Depending on ports, another way of saving money is to leverage many of the "hop on hop off" bus routes that exist. These bus lines also tend to have tie in deals with the museums and other attractions for discount admissions. While more expensive than just riding buses or subways, the routes are optimized to hit all the major tourist attractions and simplify planning.

 

I wouldn't bet on a near term recovery of the dollar, so just go and make the best of it.

[olga77]

It kinda sounds stupid but can people tell me how they can get ff or hotel points. I used to have a card with Finnair airles that I flew with every 3 months for 4 years (you think it should be enough) but when I called them they said I don't have enough points for the over-seas flight. Please help!

[agabbymama]

It kinda sounds stupid but can people tell me how they can get ff or hotel points. I used to have a card with Finnair airles that I flew with every 3 months for 4 years (you think it should be enough) but when I called them they said I don't have enough points for the over-seas flight. Please help!

 

I think they have credit cards that give you miles everytime you buy something. I have a discover card that does, but I seldom use it, so I think I have 5000 miles, not enough for anything. I also have a Royal Caribbean credit card, but again I hardly use it, and its only good on Royal Caribbean. So these folks either spend a lot more than I do, or travel to get points more than I do. My airline miles from flying once a year, expire before I can use them. I do have 26,000 miles on Swiss Air, but not enough for International ticket. So I'm in the same boat you are.

 

Someone else will hopefully answer your question.

[cruisemom42]

It kinda sounds stupid but can people tell me how they can get ff or hotel points. I used to have a card with Finnair airles that I flew with every 3 months for 4 years (you think it should be enough) but when I called them they said I don't have enough points for the over-seas flight. Please help!

 

 

I'll give an example. I have a Delta FF miles account (I live in Atlanta, Delta's major hub). Everytime I travel, I try to book with Delta for the actual miles (1 point per mile). Then I try to book online for an added bonus of 500 to 1,000 miles per trip (depending on promotions, etc.). I'm fortunate to be able to keep the FF miles for my infrequent business trips also.

 

Then I also have an Amex card linked to my FF miles. I get points for charges (1 point per dollar except for Delta travel and a few other things for which I earn 2 points per dollar). Thus, I try to charge all the travel on this card -- so I actually end up earning quite a bit for a flight (the actual miles plus 2x the ticket price).

 

I charge routine expenses (gas, groceries, etc.) on this card and pay it off every month. The points do add up. You also get a substantial number of points just for applying (5,000 I think) and another 5,000 the first time you actually use the card.

 

If you keep up with special offers, you can earn more points -- for example, 1,000 points for registering your email address, or taking a survey, etc.

 

The downside is that it does take quite a few points to earn a ticket, and overseas flights take more points than domestic flights. But if you plan ahead, and really maximize the offers, you can probably get enough points in a couple of years even with minimal air travel.

[rainer]

The total cost of Med. cruise seems getting a bit out of control. We have booked a Med. cruise for June 2008 on Summit. We REALLY would like to go on this cruise. The cruise fare seemed fair so we booked and did not realize how much everything would cost until after we booked.

 

We are only getting a oceanview cabin for 3 of us. That is already a bit over 6K. Airfare will likely cost around $1500 per person (based on the airline and route we refer). Then the cost of private tour guides (I know I know...you are going to tell us that we don't necessarily need private guides). I estimate for three of us, each city's private tour will cost us about 250 Euros assuming we do share with others in a van. We like to have private guides for Rome, Florence, Naples, Athens and possibly Nice. That is at least 1000 Euros.

Plus hotels pre and post cruise, meals and transportation, plus the misc expenses on board. We usually don't spend that much on board but still there will be some expenses e.g. a few drinks, ice cream and laundry.

 

I estimate this trip may cost us around $15000!!!

 

Folks who just finished their Med cruises, tell me how much you had spent?!

In the worse case scenario, we may have to cancel the trip.

Help!!

 

 

 

 

I do believe your paying very high rates. DH and I will be on the Carnival Freedom starting this Sunday (8/5) - total cost of cabin (inside), tax, port charges, for 12 days is $2,300.00 TOTAL FOR TWO. And this is AUGUST rates as I can only go June, July or August - (School District employee). We cashed in our FF miles - so two free R/t tickets to Rome - just had to pay tax $51.26pp. We do not do pre or post cruise hotels - so thats a big savings. We do not do ship sponsored tours always go on our own - usually share taxi/vans with others and split the cost. My budget for this cruise is a TOTAL of $3,000.00 for 2 - and believe me, it will be done. This is our 8th cruise - so we know the ropes. Just keep checking the cruise lines for "sales" - also the airlines for "sales" - it is possible to do this cruise for a LOT less than you quoted. And, no I am not a travel agent getting any "perks". ENJOY your cruise!!

[mad4mky]

My FF miles with American & United were all just from flights--no credit cards.

I fly to Disneyland often--and have been to other destinations throughouto the US (mainly to Hawaii). I just have been adding them for years. Hence, we are flying to Barcelona on FF.

I also have an American Express--but haven't touched those points yet.

 

And I agree-Europe is no bargain. The low dollar is making travelling to Europe pricey. I went to Paris right after 9/11...and the Euro was amazingly low. Paris was the best bargain to be had (and other EU countries).

 

I don't think travel is a bargain anywhere any more--unless you head to Mexico. :)

[olga77]

Thanks everyone for the help! :mad:

[tomko2]

We stick to one credit card only (Visa Gold) and everything over $10.00 goes on the card -- dental, groceries, insurance, etc. This way we are able to build up points faster than if we used more than one card and it makes economic sense to pay the premium for a gold card. In addition, we join every point program that we do not have to pay a joining fee, e.g. drugstore, airlines, hotels, etc. Even if we don't think we would ever stay at a particular brand of hotel again, we join the program and gain some free perks to start off with such as newspaper delivered to the room, priority bookings, etc.

We check often to see how many points we have with any particular program and research options for best use and keep a sharp eye out for expiry dates.

It is amazing how often we have had free flights and hotel stays.

Kathy

[Cruisin Oma]

$1,500 sounds a bit steep for airfare. I'm wondering if you could you PriceLine and put in a low fare to see what happens? (They can always reject it.) Has anyone out there ever tried PriceLine for airfare? I haven't but I've thought about it. I also heard about a website where you can see what people are bidding and priceline is accepting (esp for hotels) but I don't know what it is. (I HAVE use priceline for hotels and it's worked out fine -- esp when I know the area and click on 5 or 4 stars and try low bidding. It will be interesting to see what people say!

Don't buy into that expensive airfare (are you booking business class?) too soon. We are flying from Phoenix to Paris and then Barcelona back to phoenix. When I started looking back in January, we were finding airfare around $1000, then all of a sudden out of the blue, British Airways dropped it by $200 one day and we saved another $100 booking it through Priceline. The $300 per person savings meant $1200 to spend elsewhere on the budget!

 

We just used priceline as our internet TA, we didn't bid on airfare. We booked actual flights and times, dates.

[Debbierpof]

We have been fortunate enough to go on a Med cruise for the past three years. Every year we used American Express Membership Rewards. For 12,000 points plus $150 we got the second ticket free (Air France). No need to accumulate huge amounts of points for a "free" fare that required multiple stops (as happened with my in-laws and their Delta ff miles). This year we used AmEx again and for 30,000 points we got our second ticket on SwissAir for free (we could only afford economy but it would apply to business class also) -- the one ticket cost $1,600 from Miami to Rome. The cost of this last cruise was the most expensive. We stayed post and pre-cruise longer (not sure when we'll be going back to Europe since our kids now understand we are gone on vacation without them). We stayed 3 nights precruise in Rome and 1 post in Luzern (SwissAir's hub is Zurich). We did three private tours (Tunisia, Malta and Palermo). Used the X1 package on Costa so for about $125 all of our wine, sodas and waters were included with lunch and dinner (last year our tab was $700 on RCCL!). Total trip with expenses this year was about $9,000. That's alot of money but the memories are worth much more. We also did not have the option of traveling outside of summer. Otherwise, the cost would have probably been cut in half! Bummer! Oh, and the dollar really killed us (exchange was about $1.47). Not good. If this is your chance to go to Europe. Do it! You won't regret it!

[nomars_girl]

It kinda sounds stupid but can people tell me how they can get ff or hotel points. I used to have a card with Finnair airles that I flew with every 3 months for 4 years (you think it should be enough) but when I called them they said I don't have enough points for the over-seas flight. Please help!

 

I can't speak for others, but I travel frequently on business (almost every week). I try to do most of my travel on the same airline. i also collect points on my corporate credit card that are good on any airline. Between the miles for actual flights, and the credit card miles, I always have plenty of miles when we want to take a trip. In order to use the miles, I have to plan very far in advance and be a bit flexible with my travel plans. For our Med cruise, we needed to board the ship on a Wednesday in Civitavecchia. In order to use my miles, I needed to leave home on Sunday (Easter) and arrive in Rome Monday morning. It meant having a couple of pre-cruise days in Rome which was great, but it would have been expensive if I didn't also have hotel points for the stay.

 

You also need to be aware of your frequent flier programs policies, since sometimes miles can expire. You do need a lot of miles for an overseas trip. It was 50,000 miles per ticket (coach) for the three of us.

[olga77]

Thanks everyone regarding ff and points info. :rolleyes:

[agabbymama]

I do believe your paying very high rates. DH and I will be on the Carnival Freedom starting this Sunday (8/5) - total cost of cabin (inside), tax, port charges, for 12 days is $2,300.00 TOTAL FOR TWO. And this is AUGUST rates as I can only go June, July or August - (School District employee). We cashed in our FF miles - so two free R/t tickets to Rome - just had to pay tax $51.26pp. We do not do pre or post cruise hotels - so thats a big savings. We do not do ship sponsored tours always go on our own - usually share taxi/vans with others and split the cost. My budget for this cruise is a TOTAL of $3,000.00 for 2 - and believe me, it will be done. This is our 8th cruise - so we know the ropes. Just keep checking the cruise lines for "sales" - also the airlines for "sales" - it is possible to do this cruise for a LOT less than you quoted. And, no I am not a travel agent getting any "perks". ENJOY your cruise!!

 

I'd be very interested in hearing from you following your cruise, if you stayed within that budget. That's only giving you $600 for spending money for 2 people? My balcony cabin on the Grand Princess was $2000 pp, not the $2300 for two that you got yours for.

 

It's great that you had ff miles to get the two free tickets to Rome. Airfare is a killer. I need into Rome and out of Venice, those open jaw flights they are wanting $1100 pp right now. I'm afraid they will only go up next year. You say you don't do pre-cruise or post-cruise hotels, do you fly in the day of departure? That's another $200 per night. My friend has never been to Rome, she wants to see some of it before the cruise, if we don't do a pre-cruise hotel, she would see nothing of Rome, and the same goes for Venice at the end of the cruise. If we don't do a post-cruise hotel she won't see Venice. After flying all that way, we want to see some of the sights of Rome and Venice.

 

I'm trying to budget, but fear it is still going to cost around $5000 pp.

[cruisemom42]

If you have narrowed down the cruise you want and are looking for the best price, try *****.com You put in the ship, date, and category of room you want to book, and you will get offers from travel agencies. I have had good luck finding low(er) rates this way.

 

You can also use it as a bargaining tool if you have an agency you usually use....see if they can match or beat the best offer given.

 

Also, a lot of agencies will offer on board credit, which you can put toward a shore excursion if you normally don't have a lot of on-board expenses.

[rainer]

I'd be very interested in hearing from you following your cruise, if you stayed within that budget. That's only giving you $600 for spending money for 2 people? My balcony cabin on the Grand Princess was $2000 pp, not the $2300 for two that you got yours for.

 

It's great that you had ff miles to get the two free tickets to Rome. Airfare is a killer. I need into Rome and out of Venice, those open jaw flights they are wanting $1100 pp right now. I'm afraid they will only go up next year. You say you don't do pre-cruise or post-cruise hotels, do you fly in the day of departure? That's another $200 per night. My friend has never been to Rome, she wants to see some of it before the cruise, if we don't do a pre-cruise hotel, she would see nothing of Rome, and the same goes for Venice at the end of the cruise. If we don't do a post-cruise hotel she won't see Venice. After flying all that way, we want to see some of the sights of Rome and Venice.

 

I'm trying to budget, but fear it is still going to cost around $5000 pp.

 

 

To answer some of your questions - yes, we fly in on sailing day -and out on disembark day. However, we will be docked in Rome overnight (thursday 6:00am until friday departure) - so we will do our sight-seeing at that time (we have booked a Free tour) We do not go to Venice. Our cruise is round trip Rome.

I have researched this cruise and have found many FREE sight seeing tours - gratuities is optional) - especially in Athens, Rhodes, Istanbul - so free works for me and DH. We do inside cabins only. I didn't include expenditures such as purchases in various ports. Other than that - I fully intend to keep within my $3,000.00 for TWO budget. That way, we can do another European cruise next year!! Leaving in 2 days - can't wait!!

[Paul S]

Agabbymama,

 

Why bother with an open jaw ticket?

 

Trains between Rome and Venice are reasonably reliable and cheap, or if you really wanted to fly then there are budget and regular airlines flying this route.

 

Paul S

[agabbymama]

Agabbymama,

 

Why bother with an open jaw ticket?

 

Trains between Rome and Venice are reasonably reliable and cheap, or if you really wanted to fly then there are budget and regular airlines flying this route.

 

Paul S

 

A big THANK YOU Paul S,

I found a Europe Pass for $99 to fly from Venice to Rome in '07. I'm sure it will also be available next year. Now to wait until December and try to find a more reasonable roundtrip Rome flight that the schedules will work.

[donnaleed]

Hi there!

 

In a previous post you mentioned that you'd found a free sightseeing tour in Athens. Can you tell me where you found this?

 

Thanks!

Donna-Lee

[HapiFeet]

Thanks for the encouragement!! Likely we will sit for a bit and see since we have a long time to think about it before we could cancel the cruise without penalty.

We will do more research on how to get around some of the ports without a private guide. Again we really would love to go. We love traveling too.

Hi Quanmama -

 

We're neighbors, too, in Saratoga. We're cruising the Med in September and have booked an cabin to save some money. We're never in our cabin that much anyway. Also, we're taking the train from Rome to Venice, staying in a B&B that I found on Venere.com. We're going to self-tour in Florence, Cannes (train to Monaco and along the Cote d'Azur) Barcelona, Venice, Dubrovnik, Messina. Get a Rick Steves book and look up each city you want to visit. He has maps, hours, phone numbers, and many details for just about any place you want to visit. For some of the other transportation and ports, we're going in with others from our roll call to share the cost of a private tour guide. I watched the airfares on Kayak.com for months before I purchased. There are other websites that also watch the airfares for you -- Farewatcher.com, Farecompare.com. For our food, we made sure we booked our hotel and B&B where they offer breakfast. We're planning on eating a light lunch out (with gelato, of course) and bringing fruit, bread, etc. back to our room for dinner. When cruising, breakfast and dinner on the ship with a light lunch out. Lunches out are much less expensive than dinner out and picnics are so wonderful in a foreign city. We did that in St. Paul de Vence on our honeymoon, sitting on a wall in a small town square. We had a picnic dinner in our room in Paris. I have such nice memories of those picnics and remember more about them than the restaurants we ate at. Another thing to watch for are special menus. In Italy, a wine bar has less expensive food than a sit-down restaurant. In France, look for the prix-fixe menus. Anyway, I hope this helps you reconsider the trip. After all, if not now, when?

 

Ciao!

[Debbierpof]

I just want to reiterate the comments by cruisemom42 regarding prices. We also used www.*****.com and definitely saved. My in-laws room was on deck 8 and we were on deck 10. We paid lots less than they did and about $200 less than on the Costa website. Our travel agent was from NY and we're from FL, but that was not a problem in the age of the internet. Would use it again!

[Cruisin Oma]

Airfare for their 2008 cruise has been running about $1200 and all of a sudden today it dropped to under $800.

[NancyIL]

We're thinking about a trip to Europe in the fall of 2008, and I don't want to spend a small fortune. My husband wants to spend a week in a rental house in Tuscany, and I want to cruise - so we're looking at combining the two for a 2.5-week trip. I'm looking at a 7-day cruise on Splendour of the Seas out of Venice which we would do first, followed by the land portion. I'm thankful for our American Airlines FF miles and for Marriott and Starwood hotel points. Without them, a lot of trips wouldn't get taken. By traveling on or after October 15, the mileage requirements on American Airlines go from 60,000 miles/pp to 40,000 miles/pp for coach.

[Loniel]

We will be heading over to the Med for our second cruise. The first cruise in 2005 was so enjoyable that my siblings and I decided to cruise together every other year until we're all dead and gone. (Our ages run from 54, me, to 60, my oldest sister.) All together, with DHs and DWs, we number eight, a very good number for cruising as it turns out. Our first cruise was on the Zuiderdam for seven days. When it was over we all agreed that seven days on a cruise ship is at least seven days too few. So we are booked on the Star Princess for a 17 day Med/Transatlantic cruise from Rome to Port Everglades.

 

The cruise departs on Dec. 3, 2007. We booked in early July of 2006 and I have been diligently researching every aspect of our itinerary as well as the ship for the last year. With all the research and a little luck, I think we've hit a home run here. For instance, we started out at $2,530 pp for a BA balcony cabin and thought that was pretty good. However, as of this moment we've all been bumped to AB Mini-Suites and the rate has been dropped to $1,938 pp.

 

Two family members have been to Italy, specifically Florence and Rome, many times including a two week land tour in May, so they will act as our guides in those cities. Even though we will all be leaving from different cities, Santa Maria, CA - Salem, OR - Nashville, TN - Tampa, FL, we will all meet up at Dulles for our nonstop flight to Rome (FCO) on Nov. 29th. We secured a transfer from FCO to our Rome hotel for all of us, and our luggage, for E110 through Rome Shuttle Limousine Service - http://www.romeshuttlelimousine.com/FiumicinoE.htm

On our experienced Italy traveler's recommendation, we negotiated dynamite rates at the Hotel Navona. This is not the fanciest hotel in Rome, but it is located at Piazza Navona and we got it for E110 per room per night with breakfast, (we booked four rooms for three nights). We will schedule a Vatican tour, buy a Rome Pass: http://www.romapass.it/english/cosa.html, and make plenty of use of the Rome Ho Ho Bus.

 

With eight of us, it's quite a bit cheaper to hire private tours, but still, we only booked private tours in Naples (with Salvatore Lucibello of Drive Amalfi) and Cannes (with Michel LeGrand of Revelation Tours). In Livorno we have reserved a van with driver for the day from Tuscany by Taxi. As for the remaining ports on our itinerary:

 

- Genoa - High-speed Eurostar to Milan from the Stazione Principe (designated on timetables as Genova P.P.), which is located a mere 500 meters from the cruise dock.

 

- Barcelona (National Constitution Day): Ho Ho Bus on our own.

 

- Cartagena: We will be here on a Sunday and will probably take the opportunity to find a church so we can thank the good Lord for making it possible for us to make this trip. Then we'll just knock about and see the sights.

 

- Gibraltar: Taxi to the Rock, gondola to the top and a slow, leisurely walk back down via the Apes Den and St. Michael's Cave, followed by shopping in town.

 

- Casablanca: Our only ship's tour, the four hour "City of Casablanca", followed by lunch at "Rick's", shopping and exploring.

 

- Madeira: Eight hour "Best of the West" tour from "Strawberry-World Tours": http://www.lido-tours.com/ (at 29 Euros pp)

 

None of us can actually afford this trip in terms of time or money, but we are so motivated that we just powered through and made it happen. We all have children and grandchildren so the timing of this trip, being so close to Christmas, is a real challenge. What we have decided to do though, is buy most of our Christmas presents over there. (DW and I have budgeted $2,000 for shopping.) It will likely mean less "stuff" but what we bring home will certainly be unique. What this does though, is raise the overall price of the trip substantially. However, when all is said and done and all costs are accounted for, DW and I are looking at just under $13,000 total!

 

I was fretting over this amount until I read this thread. Now I'm feeling pretty good about the whole thing. I don't think we'll be running into a lot of cognitive dissonance in our group. Even looking at the opportunity costs, like using those funds to take three or four "lesser cruises", we're still ecstatic. This is a dream that we have all shared for the better part of fifty years, and it's hard to put a price on fulfilling that dream. Heck, we feel fortunate just to have our health and be able to even consider a trip like this, let alone actually pull it off.

 

Something tells me that when all is said and done we will look back on this experience as a total bargain. Research can make such a huge difference in not only the cost, but also the overall quality of the experience, that to skip or avoid it would seem to border on criminal. (Even if you are blessed with unlimited resources.)

 

For anyone interested, I have compiled all my research into one document that I posted on the Roll Call forum for our cruise, I call it the "Western Mediterranean Resource Guide", and you can find it here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=348802&page=11. It is post #211. I also keep the document in a Word file that is continually updated. If you would like a copy of the file, email me at cassalery@aol.com.

 

So hey! Don't give up on your dreams Guanmama, just keep the faith and be diligent in your research.

 

Daniel

[Loniel]

A big THANK YOU Paul S,

I found a Europe Pass for $99 to fly from Venice to Rome in '07. I'm sure it will also be available next year. Now to wait until December and try to find a more reasonable roundtrip Rome flight that the schedules will work.

Try this web site for inter-european air specials. They are often as low as 9 Euros pp: http://www.germanwings.com/index.en.shtml.

 

It's a good idea to have this ph# with you when cruising in Europe, especially if you are hiring private tours or doing the ports on your own. It could be a lifesaver when trying to catch up with the ship in the next port, (heaven forbid!)

 

German Wings: ++44 (0) 870 252 12 50

 

Daniel