Anyone Decide to Not Book Europe Cruise or to Cancel?

[esther e]

Unfortunately we canceled our Voyage of the Vikings for this year. In the cold light of reality, being away for such a long time was not a stellar idea for my husband. We've been to each of the ports several times, so I don't feel we're missing anything. His health and well being come first and we were both nervous about being so far from home for 35 days. :(

[sail7seas]

I'm sorry to hear you cancelled Esther but, of course, you know what is best. Hope DH does well and you can plan something a little less ambitious.

 

Best wishes.....

[sevenseasnomad]

Boy, do I admire you guys who booked online airfare to Europe. I say that with all sincerity. After trying for 6 months, I gave up and turned the flight details over to our TA. I'd love to hear from all of you who got fabulous deals. What is the trick? Obviously, I'm great at booking online fares within the U.S. and have been pleased at the deals I've received over the years.

 

Problem was everytime I attempted to book the international flight, DH & I were bumped all over Europe. Some of the flights & connections started to run over 40 hours from the time we took off at home. One flight had us landing at Heathrow and taking off from Gatewick within 30 minutes. Even I, who have never been to Europe, could figure out that connection wouldn't work.

 

Also, the flights were getting more and more expensive. Some in the $2800 range and higher. The cheaper ones had 3-4 connections. Our TA came through, as always, and in less than 24 hours. Now, we are flying with Delta Vacations. The flight with one connection in Atlanta then non-stop to Venice is 12 hours total from home take-off, and we're staying several nights pre & post cruise in a 5-star hotel on the Grand Canal. All of this for under $2,000 pp. It was more than worth it to us, if for no other reason than to avoid hassels. We sail from Venice on Nieuw Amsterdam, our first trip to Europe, and we couldn't be more excited.

 

To answer OP's original question, no, we're not going to cancel this trip.

[Sea42]

Sevenseasnomad - For our trip I only considered non-stop flights to Rome. From Chicago that is no problem. The problem I encountered was for the return all of the non-stop flights left (I felt) too early to safely make to the airport from the pier. What that leaves me with is either staying the night after the cruise in Rome and heading out the next morning or, the cheaper option as of right now, taking a flight to Helsinki spend the day and night there and continue on the next afternoon. This appeals to me because I do enjoy Helsinki and I do like to save money. But for me it's a little early to book something. I'll wait until later in the spring to see what the fall air sales bring.

I may be the odd one out but I much prefer international air travel to domestic. I just get very frustrated when the airport experience takes longer than the actual flight!

[Randyk47]

Good grief!! Im quite stunned reading this thread!! Anyone would think Europe was in the grip of social anarchy reading some of the comments!! The reporting of a few incidents in Europe has been totally sensationalised by the press. If we here in Europe relied solely on press reports about the US I can assure you we would not travel Stateside, what with anti capitalist protesters, hurricanes tornadoes & shootings ...get my drift. Fortunately we realise that this are just things that you accept when travelling outside your own society and events only occur in a minority of places. Europe is as safe as the USA.Fullstop.

As for airfares...please remember this summer is a BIG summer here in the UK with the Olympic games and the Diamond Jubilee. However if you hold you will find as tour operators release their allocations on flights and hotels prices will drop. I work in the industry and you will see some real bargains emerging from April.

You can bypass the UK if you want and fly direct to Europe or there is the wonderful Eurostar from London to Paris and beyond ( no liquid problems or airport security) There are also lovely ferries to Spain, France, Holland as an alternative if like me you hate hanging about in airports (something I do every week). Why fly when you can watch the countryside go by?? If anyone is interested in travelling by train there is a fab website called seat 61 which is a goldmine of information for European trains.

As for the Middle East, yes there are areas to be avoided but the UAE Qatar Oman etc are totally fine. Flight time from London to Cairo is 5 hours, not much shorter than Montreal to London!! Not really on the UKs doorstep!. Yes you are closer in the Med but do you honestly think any Cruise Line would take you to a risky place?? Don't think they would fancy the following litigation. One of our ports of call last Summer was Tunis in Tunisia. A lovely stop and no sign of any troubles there. The welcome was lovely.

 

I honestly can't say we feel Europe is in any kind social upheaval. Other than the off and on problems in Greece and Egypt, which is obviously not Europe, I can't think of a specific country or city we're the least bit worried about visiting. My wife's security briefing is just standard procedure for senior government employees with security clearances traveling out of the US. Nothing unusual or special about that and, as I said earlier, no warnings for any of the countries on our itinerary. The one country they did mention, which we're not going to but was a total surprise, was Portugal. She wasn't barred from going there, just advised to take special precaution if she did. That said I take news reports with grain of salt. I know when I lived in what was West Germany in the mid-80's my in-laws called all upset and concerned that we were barricaded in our houses because of some protests in Germany. They said it was all over the news and pictures of riot police with armored vehicles fire hosing folks and so on. We had not the faintest idea what they were talking about, sure wasn't happening anywhere close to us and never did.

[dakrewser]

Not only cruise in Europe but to Europe. I'm speaking at a conference in Munich Apr 17-20 and rather than fly over we're taking the Ryndam from Tampa to Rotterdam. Wish we could cruise back like one of our shipmates (they're staying in Holland for a week or so, then coming back on the QE2). Not only is it much more comfortable than flying, but it's way less expensive!

[jd1966]

Already cancelled our September Med cruise due to the outrageous airfare and the street violence in Greece.

[EDLOS]

I found that a terrific fare price on Oceania equalized what I had budgeted for cruise and airfare and in fact put me $300.00 per person under what I had budgeted. Could have gone lower if we wanted 1 to 2 stops in air travel but booked non-stops each way.

Are you dreaming that " I got a great cruise price, but I am not going unless I get a $500.00 non-stop round trip airfare too !"

[esther e]

I'm sorry to hear you cancelled Esther but, of course, you know what is best. Hope DH does well and you can plan something a little less ambitious.

 

Best wishes.....

 

Thank you. We have booked 2 Oceania cruises - both to the Caribbean. Easy for us and we love the one ship and looking forward to the brand new one which is still being finished.

[kakalina]

Esther, we also had to cancel our V of V for family reasons. We decided not to rebook Europe at this time. The cost of the tours and such are truly prohibitive. So, it's back to the South Pacific for us in the fall.

[sail7seas]

Not only cruise in Europe but to Europe. I'm speaking at a conference in Munich Apr 17-20 and rather than fly over we're taking the Ryndam from Tampa to Rotterdam. Wish we could cruise back like one of our shipmates (they're staying in Holland for a week or so, then coming back on the QE2). Not only is it much more comfortable than flying, but it's way less expensive!

 

 

Enjoy Munich. We had a wonderful time in that city. Charming.....

 

 

 

Thank you. We have booked 2 Oceania cruises - both to the Caribbean. Easy for us and we love the one ship and looking forward to the brand new one which is still being finished.

 

 

That's wonderful, Esther. Happy to hear you have some great cruises to look forward to. :)

 

[flashdog_1]

flashdog_1...we are in the Air Canada Aeroplan-Star Alliance program. We were told by an Aeroplan rep that our preferred airline Lufthansa often releases unsold seats into the program about three weeks prior to departure. No doubt this is dependent on passenger load factors.

 

 

We have had the good fortune in the past of snagging these for points travel on short notice. But only coach. We find it hard to get business class points tickets-even when we book well in advance.

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Lucky dogs! Hope it works out again. We are rather tied to Delta (Their headquarters is about 100 miles from here) and it was of them that I spoke.