RCI air from UK (Manchester) to Miami

[38anchor]

We have booked our very first cruise on FOS Dec 22nd 2007.

 

Thinking it would make life easier we booked air with this, but now I'm beginning to wonder if we have done the right thing.

 

1. Does anyone know which airline RCI prefer to use on this route (Virgin, BA, AA?)

 

2. Are we likely to get a direct flight from Man to Miami (preferable), or are we likely to have to change (ie Man to London, then London to Miami).

 

3. Once we get off FOS, could we have a long wait at airport (ie get off ship at 8am and flight does not go till 8pm). If this happens, are we able to store luggage anywhere and perhaps explore Miami for a while?

 

Any comments, advice or tips on this would be gratefully appreciated - we just don't know what to expect......

[jimc_usa]

This will help on the Miami Aiport questions

http://www.miami-airport.com/html/passenger_faq.html

I somehow doubt a non-stop flight from Manchester.More likely to be a BMI to Chicago or Boston and then American to Miami. Even if you go BA there will be a plane change in London.

I hope you booked to arrive a day earlier - we can have delays over here because of snow and ice in the winter months (assuming of course it is not a non stop flight) then you can spend a day in Miami before the cruise. The cruise line also has post cruise "see Miami" tours with a drop off at the airport so your luggage stays with you.

[38anchor]

Thanks for the reply jimc_usa.

 

I know you are able to fly direct man to Miami, but was hoping someone who had done this from the UK may have been able to tell me if they indeed did this, or if the change was indded in london or Chicago.

 

Luckily, the add on air with RC does indeed fly us in a day earlier and provide accomodation at the Intercontinental (not sure which one though as I believe there are 2).

 

We did want to add on a post crusie stay, but as this was over NYE's, none were available!!!!!!!

 

Not too sure about the post cruise tours in Miami either, as its too early to see what's available to us.........

 

Oh well, I just hope its all a 'pleaseant' suprise when we find out....

[wrp96]

What may have happened in the past won't necessarily be what happens to you. With cruise air, it really is the luck of the draw. It really depends on what is cheapest for the cruise line - when they book your tickets. So you may end up on a non-stop Manchester to Miami flight, but as Jim said you are more likely to end up with a changeover - either in Chicago, New York, Boston, Atlanta, etc. or in London.

[happycruzer]

Hi...in answer to your question about your flights from the Uk.

You can have your TA request direct flights from Manchester (RCI may charge you £20 to do a special request) all of this info would normally be available in your confirmation....BUT as your cruise is more than 300 days out the flights etc wont be available to confirm yet...so this may work in your favour...we asked for BA (as we collect Air Miles) and they told us they would do their best to get them for us. Worth a try !

As for a post cruise stay in Miami area, have you tried booking a hotel on your own....you'll get great advice over on the Hotels forum....if you get accomodation (cheaper to do it yourself too) RCI can adjust your flight home for you.(you should be ok with all of this due to the time between booking it and travelling) we done all of the above for our cruise in March this year.

As far as I know most cruiselines offer an excursion/tour which then drops you at the airport in time for your return home , bearing in mind that it is a min 3 hour check in before your flight , so you wont have hours and hours to spend there. Bare in mind though that if you do a post cruise stay there will be no tours available .

Hope some of this helps....BTW if you go to the 'fun stuff ' area of the boards, then to the floataway lounge, you'll find a brilliant forum for UK cruisers. We're up to over 4000 posts on it now, they are a great bunch of folks with a wealth of info...directed at us cruisers from this side of the pond. Its almost guaranteed that someone there will be able to offer good advice.

Hope to see you over there.

 

Happycruzer

[38anchor]

Thanks for that happycruzer.

 

I will give my TA a call over the next few days and ask him to make a request for a direct flight out of Manchester.

 

Like you, we also collect points, but with Virgin no BA, but I also know there is no Virgin flight Man > Miami, we WOULD have to change :(

 

I will also check out the other forum - thanks for the head up :D

[AnDeNo.UK]

 

Like you, we also collect points, but with Virgin no BA, but I also know there is no Virgin flight Man > Miami, we WOULD have to change :(

 

I will also check out the other forum - thanks for the head up :D

 

Last year we were booked on a Continental flight, Manchester to Miami, we were asked if we would change flights, we did................with Virgin, first class, straight thro' to Miami !!!:D

 

This year our TA has got us a great deal, one way to Miami, (we cruise home), £250 PP with American Airlines, Manchester to Miami, with a change over in Chicago.

 

Enjoy your first cruise, a lot of the fun is being on these boards, getting a wealth of info, and researching all the ports of call. GRReeaat !!!!!!:)

 

BTW, You can get much better flight/hotel deals than what the cruise lines offer if you search the internet.

[middy]

Hi 38anchor,:)

Don,t know if this will be at all helpful, We were catching a Princess boat.

From Manchester we seemed to have come from two routes, the first BA Manchester to London then to Miami. The second AA Manchester to Boston then to Miami. This was last November. This year doing Celebrity and they would only fly us from london direct BA. So will have to make own way to London.

Middy:)

[AnDeNo.UK]

Last year we were booked on a Continental flight, Manchester to Miami, we were asked if we would change flights, we did................with Virgin, first class, straight thro' to Miami !!!:D

 

 

OOOPS !!!! Sorry. :eek: We went to Orlando, spent eight days there then, flew to San Juan to board the Constellation to cruise home. (Best cruise ever !!!) :)

[ruth1964]

Hi, we went with RCCL using their flight and pre hotel package last year. We did B2B on the Navigator and like you wanted the easiest less hassle option. Going again this December and sorting out our own flights and pre hotel.

 

Basically, we went with us airways from manchester to philadelphia and then onto miami. the plane was great - 2 4 2 configuration with seat back tvs and on command video/music etc. Food OK to and drinks free throughout, not alcoholic ones!

 

The change at philadelphia was a bit disorganised but this is due purely to the size of the airport and having to change terminals. Due to this being the arrival into USA you need to clear customs and therefore you baggage has to be reclaimed by you and then put back into the system! The official way is to reclaim, then inbetween terminals there is a luggage carousel where bags are left to be loaded back onto flights [your tags will show connecting flights]. However on the day we landed, the carousel was broke and luggage seemed to be backing up - there were staff there who were arranging to have it loaded up again but for me it was too much of a risk........ so we carried onto the terminal for our connecting flight to miami and checked back in at the flight desk! I know it sounds manic but really it wasnt, once its done you can relax! The connecting flight was a smaller plane bit cramped but ok for the flight.

 

We landed in miami late evening and were herded to our shuttle buses - you need to have your voucher handy for this [it will be with your paperwork when it arrives!] RCCL use various hotels, ours was Hyatt Regency but I believe the intercontinental is v good....

 

Our experience at the Hyatt is that b/fast is not included! and that it can get very busy in reception as the whole hotel was full of cruisers not just RCCL line. We also found out that we needed to checkin for our shuttle to the ship [it was a little desk not at main reception - not sure of set up for your hotel] but only found this out by word of mouth and this meant we were on a later shuttle.

 

HOPE THAT HELPS SO FAR............ next installment...

 

we had booked the cruise nearly 18 months in advance. we then decided 4 months before the holiday to extend and travel to orlando! so we rang our TA and extended the flights home for £20 each... we couldnt change departure airport though without huge costs, so we just flew back down to miami the night before coming home!

 

we didnt know about asking our TA to look into the possibility of requesting an airline and we certainly didnt know about extending the dates until we asked!

 

Regarding this cruise.... we are booking cruise only this time and have sorted flights and prenight accommodation ourselves. From my experience by booking flights as soon as they become available [10months?] you can save around £300 per adult per flight........ even booking it as late as i have this time as we hadnt pre planned, i have saved approx £150 each on flights [x3] the hotel is costing approx £100 for us all with breakfast! and the taxi to the terminal will be about £10 and back to the airport £25 approx [although you can buy vouchers when on the ship to use their shuttles i believe]. So the money i save will pay for the gratuities etc.

 

I understand about wanting the comfort blanket of RCCL for your first time and certainly wouldnt knock it, indeed by booking this early you might find that the flight costs are a guesstimate and you are quids in... try their online site and compare the cruise with and without flight included... it might make you rethink for future cruises.

 

ALSO whilst my extension to my flight date was cheap enough, you need to be thinking about the cost due to NYE and also hotel availability - if you are going to do it............ do it now as prices are on the up [i know i extended my flight again this year and had to change my hotel dates for coming home and the cost had already crept up within 2 weeks].:eek:

 

I will stop this essay now but feel free to ask for more if you want to!!:D

[38anchor]

Wow, thanks for taking the time to type all that in Ruth - much appreciated :o

 

We did think about booking it all ourselves, but being Xmas and 18months away we figured it would be easier to do it ourselves, even if we did end up paying a bit more.

 

TBH, it now looks like we may have got a good deal. We paid £820 each for flights :eek: but it is on the 22nd Dec, and that also includes our nights stay at the Intercontinental.

 

My mum has just decided to book the same cruise for the rest of my familly, but tried to book flights indepenantly through TA and not RCCL. Although not all flights are released, the best she could get was with Air France (not direct flight) and that was £780 WITHOUT transfers and accomodation, so she is now going with RCCL Air.

 

We have mentioned to our TA that we may want to do custom Air and pay a bit extra to get the airline/flight we want - does anyone know how much this is and can we add it on at a later date?

 

I think we may also try to get to the port earlier than the shuttle pick up. Admittedly, we will have to pay for a taxi, but if there are hundreds all being picked up and dropped off at the same time, it would be nice to get in a bit quicker.....

 

I guess I just wanted to hear that someone had had a positive experience (thanks for that) and no horror stories about going with 'crappy' airlines and having to change 3+ times as RCCL were trying to get it 'on the cheap'.

[ruth1964]

your welcome for the long reply............. glad you could understand it...

 

just for your information.......... we are going 15 dec till 30 dec this year, man to miami change at philadelphia with us airways......... when i booked it was in the region of £450 and then paid £30 to extend to the 30th [2nd week booked last minute!] via us air site it is now in the region of £700!! but there are some agencies out there who can still get them at £600 mark....

 

point i am trying to make is that i notice xmas eve was dearer and then new years day, but just before and just after still reasonable....

 

last year when i did the extra internal flights to orlando i did it on line and direct with AA air.

 

this year i looked not just at price but also the plane........ eg usair £450 - alitalia £330 but no seat back tvs bad reviews re times and luggage lost.. check out seatguru for airline planes used etc and search for forums on airline companies, it makes for interesting reading... and useful tips.

 

if doing it again another year, i would still like to try a more direct route or transfer in london so that imigration is just in miami..... this would be more ideal for my mum for example [late 60's] so would want to make it a bit easier for her, but it is just us this year!!!!

 

give dial a flight a call.......... still getting good prices for this xmas this year and i have used them this time rather than usair web site as cheaper for the timings that i wanted, yes too early for next year but they can give you an idea, and sometimes these sort of companies actually will give prices based on their buying power [i know that airline network do that....] also you need home flights after lunch time to allow getting from the ship to the airport...

 

feel free to ask if you need any more help.

 

Ruth.