Trying to get to Venice

[thomasshawn]

OK on the Voyager 6/4-6/11 out of Venice

Currently airfare out of DFW is hovering around $1350 a bit more than I want to pay for a group of 4.

 

Looked into NYC which can be as low as $700 and trying to get a cheaper flight dfw to NC or Newark. might be able to squeeze $1100 if we get lucky.

 

I am willing to drive some (to Houston or San Antonio).

We also considered travel on the other side, Milan or Rome or even London and then a commuter flight or train but I wouldn't know the first thing about the feasibility of these options.

 

Does anybody have any ideas? I'd love to get something around $1000/pp.

 

what would be a reasonable alternate airport? then train or another flight in? we have the week before off as well but I'd rather not eat up a ton of money in hotels and traveling for a net gain of zero.

 

thanks so much. I've just got a few weeks left to cancel if we can't get airfare arranged.

[euro cruiser]

I feel your pain, but suggest you beware of what I call "false" savings. Yes, you might be able to save a little money by flying into Milan, let's say, and taking the train. However, train fare would be 60 Euro round trip (depending on the day, that's almost $100 per person), plus you've got to get from the airport to Milano Centrale, and that will cost something as well.

 

Iberia has been having some good fares to Italy - have you checked into flying out of Dulles? I've seen some good fares from there.

 

I use www.itasoftware.com to check airfares. They are a software company and don't sell airfare, so they don't have a vested interest in any particular airline getting top billing. Their software is very robust, and you can put in or take out a number of parameters to see what impact they have on pricing.

[Hlitner]

We agree with Euro (as usual). Also keep in mind while you are "looking around" to save a few dollars the airlines are all starting to add fuel surcharges and/or fare increases to future fares. There are some alternative airports in Europe such as Malpensa (Milan) from where you can get a train, but then you have to pay for the train and have the hassle of handling your luggage. Flying into other European airports and then finishing your trip by using one of the low cost European airlines (such as Ryanair) can actually cost you more because there are some nasty luggage fees associated with most of the low cost European airlines. The sad reality is that it is usually expensive to fly into Italy and its unlikely things are going to get cheaper with $100 a barrel oil.

 

Hank

[thomasshawn]

thanks guys. I will use the search engine and I was afraid that it wouldn't save me much but I was wishful that maybe someone would have some super-secret trick. unfortunately not and that is a sad reality. i booked the cruise because it was such a good deal at the time but airfare has taken all the advantage away.

 

Glad I've done one Med cruise before because this one may get canceled.

[thomasshawn]

one more quick question along the same lines.

 

does anyone know a way to look at cheap fares TO a location.

 

I mean basically show me the best fares to VCE. that way if I see a great deal out of MIA then I can grab it and then work on getting a cheap connection there.

 

this would be easier than searching repeatedly for MIA NYC CLT etc. I know I can set up kayak to do this but I was hoping there was already a way I could say "show me the best fares to VCE from multiple locations."

[euro cruiser]

I don't know how to set up a search into an airport, regardless of departure, sorry.

 

One other thought. If you're willing to try one of the low cost European carriers, like Ryan air, look into flying into Bologna rather than Milan. It will be easier to deal with, and a shorter train ride to Venice.

 

Low cost carriers require some flexibility, so you need to build a lot of pad into your timeline. From an economic sense, as Hank has pointed out, you need to pack light.

[hkto]

I think you've found the best prices for your dates. Prices recently went up. Prices are slightly less for departures in late May but by not much (may be $100-200 less in the best case scenario). Here in Toronto the current "sale" price to Rome or Venice for your dates on Alitalia is $923 but I don't think you'll save anything by flying from Dallas to Toronto (unless you got free air miles).

 

If you manage to get anywhere in continental Europe then getting to Venice shouldn't be that expensive on budget airlines (EasyJet, Vueling, etc). For options see http://www.whichbudget.com/ For us (Toronto) one of the cheapest gateways lately is Lisbon. Used to be London but Brits hiked airport taxes and it's usually no longer competitive.

[mbeginner]

OK on the Voyager 6/4-6/11 out of Venice

Currently airfare out of DFW is hovering around $1350 a bit more than I want to pay for a group of 4.

 

Looked into NYC which can be as low as $700 and trying to get a cheaper flight dfw to NC or Newark. might be able to squeeze $1100 if we get lucky.

 

I am willing to drive some (to Houston or San Antonio).

We also considered travel on the other side, Milan or Rome or even London and then a commuter flight or train but I wouldn't know the first thing about the feasibility of these options.

 

Does anybody have any ideas? I'd love to get something around $1000/pp.

 

what would be a reasonable alternate airport? then train or another flight in? we have the week before off as well but I'd rather not eat up a ton of money in hotels and traveling for a net gain of zero.

 

thanks so much. I've just got a few weeks left to cancel if we can't get airfare arranged.

 

 

 

See here

 

 

http://www.airberlin.com/site/start.php?LANG=eng&MARKT=US

[mapleleaves]

This won't be a popular answer but at some point I think it's worthwhile to pay a travel agency fee and be done with it. Last yr I spent countless hours looking at various city pairs for a Seattle Venice flight, plus a few internal flights after the cruise; so many nights and weekends scouring web sites, looking at train and bus schedules, etc. In the end I wasn't sure I HAD found the best fare and best connections so I went to a TA. She didn't find anything better, but it was so much easier to sit in her office for an hour as she quickly went thru a zillion scenarios. I could have kicked myself for spending so much time on it. Plus she saved me $30 on our Venice hotel. Her fee was only $30 per ticket.

I hadn't been to an agent in years and probably won't use one again in the near future, but when you start getting frustrated or don't think you're finding the best deal or the best connections, it MIGHT be worthwhile to pay someone $30 and be done with it ! Assuming you know of a reputable agent.

[pvmkmyer]

I would NOT fly into Milan as an alternative to Venice. Flights from North America land at Malpensa, which is about an hour outside the city. You will have to take the shuttle coach to Milano Centrale (the airport coach stops there) but then you'll have to deal with the transfer at the station - shlepping your luggage up the escaltors and dealing with it on the train. The Milano station is huge - one of Mussolini's monuments to the glory of ancient Rome. Then when you arrive in Venice you will have to take another coach or a couple of taxis from the station to the cruiseship - or shlep your luggage again. It's really not worth the hassle. I would bite the bullet and fly directly into Venice. You can get transportation from the airport directly to the pier.

[chipmaster]

One should always consider airfare when pricing out cruise.

 

1300 sounds a bit high, but you are still out a bit. Since this is early June you are early enough prices could fall, or it of course could go up too if economy strengthens.

 

Airfare is one of many factors one must price out. Don't forget your excursions as the price delta you are looking for is about the same as two port tours.

 

OK on the Voyager 6/4-6/11 out of Venice

Currently airfare out of DFW is hovering around $1350 a bit more than I want to pay for a group of 4.

 

Looked into NYC which can be as low as $700 and trying to get a cheaper flight dfw to NC or Newark. might be able to squeeze $1100 if we get lucky.

 

I am willing to drive some (to Houston or San Antonio).

We also considered travel on the other side, Milan or Rome or even London and then a commuter flight or train but I wouldn't know the first thing about the feasibility of these options.

 

Does anybody have any ideas? I'd love to get something around $1000/pp.

 

what would be a reasonable alternate airport? then train or another flight in? we have the week before off as well but I'd rather not eat up a ton of money in hotels and traveling for a net gain of zero.

 

thanks so much. I've just got a few weeks left to cancel if we can't get airfare arranged.

[ab0si]

I would NOT fly into Milan as an alternative to Venice. Flights from North America land at Malpensa, which is about an hour outside the city. You will have to take the shuttle coach to Milano Centrale (the airport coach stops there) but then you'll have to deal with the transfer at the station - shlepping your luggage up the escaltors and dealing with it on the train. The Milano station is huge - one of Mussolini's monuments to the glory of ancient Rome.

 

Actually, that has changed. There are now trains from Malpensa to Centrale.

[hkto]

"Actually, that has changed. There are now trains from Malpensa to Centrale"

 

Yes that's correct. Train is saving 15-20 min over bus trip from MXP to Milano Centrale but it's not a major factor in choosing MXP over VCE. Landing in MXP adds at least 3-4 hrs to the trip + cost of train (30-40 euro o/w). It may be a good choice for gateways that have nonstops to MXP (e.g. JFK) but if plane change is required (in case of DFW) then might as well land in VCE.

 

As one of the options I can suggest buying AA nonstop from DFW to Madrid & then EasyJet or Vueling flight from there to Venice.

[thomasshawn]

One should always consider airfare when pricing out cruise.

 

1300 sounds a bit high, but you are still out a bit. Since this is early June you are early enough prices could fall, or it of course could go up too if economy strengthens.

 

Airfare is one of many factors one must price out. Don't forget your excursions as the price delta you are looking for is about the same as two port tours.

 

I did factor the airfare and I knew in the beginning that having done a similar cruise 2009 i would wait for airfare to drop or cancel the trip. The airfare is almost double what we paid in 2009. the kicker is that the "fares" are not that much higher but the "taxes/fees" are almost equal to the ticket price now. I saw one fare listed at $750 I almost passed out trying to book it before it went away. Turns out on the FINAL screen they showed me $400 in "taxes" much of that was airline fees if you expanded the item to see it in detail and an additional $450 per ticket in fuel charges!! so the ticket actually was over $1600.

 

absurd.

 

I will ride the tuesday afternoon price cuts on airfare for a few more weeks but if it doesn't happen before my full refund date. I'll walk away.

 

as for using a TA, I had my cruise TA look into flights and he actually contacted a broker that sometimes works some magic for him and he said the fares I had found were same/better than he was able to get through his channels.

 

I am getting price fatigue at this point. $900 was my initial target but then it creeped to $1100 now that $1300 is a distant memory it doesn't look so bad either. best deal now is approaching $1700. there was some random flash sale at like 0100 last tuesday night. when I awoke to the email alert it was already over.

 

thanks for the info

 

Shawn

[dln929]

This question has been of interest to me because we're in the same boat. We're cruising out of Venice in October and I've only ever flown into Rome or Milan. I have no experience with going over to Venice and I've been trying to figure out the best options myself.

 

We're using American Airline miles so I think we may be limited to either Rome or Milan. I looked up train fares and to go to Venice from Rome takes 3 1/2 hours - 4 hours on the fast train; 6 hours on the slow and costs either 73 euros or 45.50 for the latter (time really is money ;)). The train from the airport to Termini Station runs around 10-12 euros if I remember correctly.

 

Taking the train from Milan to Venice takes 2 1/2 - 3 hours and costs 30.50 euros; about 10-12 euros to get from the airport to the main station in the city.

 

I would NOT take Ryan Air. Absolutely no savings there. My daughter spend last year in Italy studying and she flew Ryan Air several times visiting her cousins in the UK and then friends in Malta and Sicily. The first time she went on Ryan Air she had luggage and she paid through the teeth. It was an outrageous fee. Their fares seem low until you figure in the "extra" fees. And they tend to use out-of-the-way airports, too. When they talk about flying from London, they don't mean convenient Heathrow!

 

I've come to the conclusion that Venice is not easy to reach no matter how you look at it. If we were to fly there from Indianapolis, it would take three different airplanes to get us there. Rome or Milan means only two and a train. If I weren't busting a gut to see what Venice looks like, I'd rethink using it as a port!!

[rsquare]

It's even worse for those of us with Venice to Civitavecchia (or v.v.) itineraries, because we either have to book an expensive open jaw air trip, or (as we eventually decided) do a round trip to FCO and a separate FCO-VCE flight on Alitalia for about $180 pp. Lufthansa quoted a bit over $10,000 for an open jaw PHL-VCE-FCO-PHL trip.

 

Between the difficulty of getting to Venice, and the problems of maneuvering luggage over bridges or wrestling it into a vaporetto, I'm coming to the conclusion that this will be a first and last cruise out of Venice. Or at least no more start-in-Venice-finish-somewhere-else cruises.

[dln929]

It's even worse for those of us with Venice to Civitavecchia (or v.v.) itineraries, because we either have to book an expensive open jaw air trip, or (as we eventually decided) do a round trip to FCO and a separate FCO-VCE flight on Alitalia for about $180 pp. Lufthansa quoted a bit over $10,000 for an open jaw PHL-VCE-FCO-PHL trip.

 

Between the difficulty of getting to Venice, and the problems of maneuvering luggage over bridges or wrestling it into a vaporetto, I'm coming to the conclusion that this will be a first and last cruise out of Venice. Or at least no more start-in-Venice-finish-somewhere-else cruises.

 

And we haven't even talked about acqua alta yet, either. I don't know about you, but we're going in October AND there's a full moon so we run the real possibility of running into puddles. I'm already worrying about packing light AND packing a gown for the formal night dinner, and how am I going to fit in rain boots as well?!

[euro cruiser]

And we haven't even talked about acqua alta yet, either. I don't know about you, but we're going in October AND there's a full moon so we run the real possibility of running into puddles. I'm already worrying about packing light AND packing a gown for the formal night dinner, and how am I going to fit in rain boots as well?!

Don't bring them, buy them in Venice if you need them. It would make a memorable, as well as functional, souvenier.

[Hlitner]

It's even worse for those of us with Venice to Civitavecchia (or v.v.) itineraries, because we either have to book an expensive open jaw air trip, or (as we eventually decided) do a round trip to FCO and a separate FCO-VCE flight on Alitalia for about $180 pp. Lufthansa quoted a bit over $10,000 for an open jaw PHL-VCE-FCO-PHL trip.

 

Between the difficulty of getting to Venice, and the problems of maneuvering luggage over bridges or wrestling it into a vaporetto, I'm coming to the conclusion that this will be a first and last cruise out of Venice. Or at least no more start-in-Venice-finish-somewhere-else cruises.

 

We are somewhat confused about your post and the $10,000 cost. Assuming you wanted to book coach we decided to take a look. Not knowing your dates we did a simple example in prime season with a departure from PHL to VCE on 7/5/11 and a return from FCO to PHL on 7/26. Using these parameters we were able to get flights for as low as $1338 per person. Even if we specified non-stop flights the cost was only $1561 (USAIR). Even if we used the non-stop USAIR Business Class the total cost per person was $2579 for these same dates. We would also tell you that we ourselves have used those same USAIR flights (they have a non stop from PHL to VCE) with no problems. If you want to double check our prices we used sidestep.com for this particular search.

 

Hank

[thomasshawn]

we ended up canceling the trip yesterday. fares continued to rise and there was no end in sight.

 

god luck to all

[dln929]

we ended up canceling the trip yesterday. fares continued to rise and there was no end in sight.

 

god luck to all

 

I don't know if this is any help to you, but the prices for the Adriatic 7 day cruise that we're going on in October are very reasonable. The weather's cooler, sure, but still nice. I know for a fact that the airfare in October is much less.

[socialworker]

What's acqua alta? This will be our first Med cruise and our first time to Venice.

[euro cruiser]

Acqua alta is literally "high water". It is the time when the tides and rain combine to flood the streets of Venice.

[rsquare]

We are somewhat confused about your post and the $10,000 cost. Assuming you wanted to book coach we decided to take a look. Not knowing your dates we did a simple example in prime season with a departure from PHL to VCE on 7/5/11 and a return from FCO to PHL on 7/26. Using these parameters we were able to get flights for as low as $1338 per person. Even if we specified non-stop flights the cost was only $1561 (USAIR). Even if we used the non-stop USAIR Business Class the total cost per person was $2579 for these same dates. We would also tell you that we ourselves have used those same USAIR flights (they have a non stop from PHL to VCE) with no problems. If you want to double check our prices we used sidestep.com for this particular search.

 

Hank

 

Was done on the Lufthansa web site for an August 24 departure from PHL, change in FRA to VCE, and return FCO-FRA, FRA-PHL on September 10, using their "multiple destinations" tool. May have been for the two of us rather than pp; when I saw five figures, I gulped hard and exited.

 

Thanks for the reference to sidestep.com; I was not familiar with this site. When I entered our travel dates on the PHL-FCO roundtrip with one change of planes, I was relieved to see them showing the same $1193 pp that we paid through Orbitz.

[mom2b41]

Hi, We are traveling to Venice in just a few weeks to do a Med cruise in March....my husbands sister told us to wait till after the first of the year because that is when the prices would go down...but instead they went way up...and we were in a real panic....I found a great site called...VAYAMA .com....we were able to find flights $400 cheaper than any other site...good luck...hope this helps...