Booking Euopean multi-destination flights and hotels

[MinnesotaMouseketeers]

My wife, son and I along with another couple and their daughter have reservations on the Disney Magic's Norwegian Fjord and Iceland Cruise in 2018.

I have a question for all you experts out there that have done a similar cruise/vacation.
One that involves flying into one European city and out of another.

This particular cruise we fly into Copenhagen, Denmark and fly out of London, England. I know we do not want to book our flights through DCL. What do most people find easier, booking flights and hotel rooms using a travel agent; or doing a little investigation online and book it themselves?

I am thinking that a travel agent will have a few more tricks up their sleeves for finding the cheaper deals. Especially for the flights. Like the best time to book a flight to Europe and what airlines typically give the best deals. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

[scgustafson]

My wife, son and I along with another couple and their daughter have reservations on the Disney Magic's Norwegian Fjord and Iceland Cruise in 2018.

I have a question for all you experts out there that have done a similar cruise/vacation.
One that involves flying into one European city and out of another.

This particular cruise we fly into Copenhagen, Denmark and fly out of London, England. I know we do not want to book our flights through DCL. What do most people find easier, booking flights and hotel rooms using a travel agent; or doing a little investigation online and book it themselves?

I am thinking that a travel agent will have a few more tricks up their sleeves for finding the cheaper deals. Especially for the flights. Like the best time to book a flight to Europe and what airlines typically give the best deals. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

We have done it ourselves on our 3 past European DCL cruises (Med from Barcelona to Venice, Northern Europe, and British Isles), and are doing it for our Med cruise (Civitavecchia to Barcelona) next summer. Only the British Isles was straight-forward with a non-stop round-trip between Phoenix and London Heathrow. For our first Med cruise, my wife and daughter flew non-stop from Phoenix to Heathrow and stayed in London for 3 days and then took the Eurostar train to Paris for 3 days. From Paris, they flew to Barcelona via Heathrow to meet the ship after a night in Barcelona. I was supposed to fly from Phoenix to Heathrow and be on the same flight from Heathrow to Barcelona, but a delay out of Phoenix caused me to be delayed to Heathrow and miss my connection, so I was put up overnight in London by British Airways and they put me on the first flight of the day to Barcelona where I met the rest of the family at the port. On the way home, we flew from Venice to Heathrow and spent 3 more days in London before flying home non-stop to Phoenix. I booked my wife and daughter's itinerary as one giant flight with stopovers through British Airways directly and they priced it out as a very weird round-trip and not higher priced individual one-way legs. I did the same with my itinerary. As for hotels, Eurostar, and transfers, I booked all of those myself directly.
For our Northern Europe trip, we did a very similar thing, with all of us flying to Amsterdam via Heathrow on BA so it was only two legs. We stayed 3 days in Amsterdam and then flew from Amsterdam via Heathrow to Copenhagen for a few days before the cruise. After the cruise, we stayed another night in Copenhagen and the flew home to Phoenix via Heathrow to keep it to 2 legs, all on BA booked as a weird round-trip with stopovers.
For next year's Med cruise, it will be BA again to Rome via Heathrow and then Barcelona to Phoenix via Heathrow home, with a few days on each end. I already have all of the hotels booked.

 

[cruiser21]

You'll probably pay more with a travel agent. They are on commission. I like booking.com or hotels. com for Europe. You can also get some nice apartments through them. In London I like the Premier Inn chain. If your staying near the airport I like the Hilton Garden Inn. I would check Norwegian air into Copenhagen. They have the best rates. Out of Londonyou have lots of options. I like sky scanner. It will check multiple airlines and give you alerts to price drops. I would wait until 4 to 6 months out to buy tickets.

 

[Marc D]

Use Google Flights (multi-city option in classic mode), Expedia or Kayak to find multi-city tickets. Kayak's hacker fares are sometimes very efficient. When we went to Copenhagen for our Norwegian Fjords cruise last year, we flew to Heathrow for a week in London, then Copenhagen then back to America thru Frankfurt. We flew Air Canada, SAS and Lufthansa on a single ticket. It was impossible to book the route on the airlines websites. I prefer to do research myself rather than use a TA if only to see all the possibilities during my search and adjust everything (hotel locations, transport, restaurants) accordingly.

 

[MUN]

My wife, son and I along with another couple and their daughter have reservations on the Disney Magic's Norwegian Fjord and Iceland Cruise in 2018.

I have a question for all you experts out there that have done a similar cruise/vacation.
One that involves flying into one European city and out of another.

This particular cruise we fly into Copenhagen, Denmark and fly out of London, England. I know we do not want to book our flights through DCL. What do most people find easier, booking flights and hotel rooms using a travel agent; or doing a little investigation online and book it themselves?

I am thinking that a travel agent will have a few more tricks up their sleeves for finding the cheaper deals. Especially for the flights. Like the best time to book a flight to Europe and what airlines typically give the best deals. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

We did the Norwegian Fjords cruise this June and flew into Copenhagen and out of Amsterdam. I booked directly through Icelandair and I was very happy with the price I paid.

MUN

 

[gilsan]

Use Google Flights (multi-city option in classic mode), Expedia or Kayak to find multi-city tickets. Kayak's hacker fares are sometimes very efficient. When we went to Copenhagen for our Norwegian Fjords cruise last year, we flew to Heathrow for a week in London, then Copenhagen then back to America thru Frankfurt. We flew Air Canada, SAS and Lufthansa on a single ticket. It was impossible to book the route on the airlines websites. I prefer to do research myself rather than use a TA if only to see all the possibilities during my search and adjust everything (hotel locations, transport, restaurants) accordingly.

I agree use google flights/kayak it is an easy way to find flights at the best price.

 

[gotomu212]

If you want to add a little more fun look at Icelandic Air. The fares are normally competitive and you can add a multi day stop in Iceland which is amazing!

 

[mmouse37]

While not DCL I just returned last week from an Adventures By Disney Danube River Cruise. I booked fairly last minute (2 months out) so when I checked air myself I couldn't find anything under $1300 per person. I decided to call Disney and the exact same flight I could not get for under $1300 per person, Disney got me for $800.00 pp. We booked with Disney. We also booked our pre-night hotel in Budapest with Disney and that included all our transfers (from airport to hotel and then next day from hotel to ship) and a wonderful breakfast buffet.

Sometimes, it pays to book with Disney. We flew into Budapest and flew home from Munich.

MJ

 

[bibbidibobbidibecky]

You won't pay more using a travel agent (they get paid commission that is in no way paid by the client, but the companies they book with, if you book on your own, then the company absorbs the commission, FYI). You can, however, book it on your own. Look at kayak at multi city itineraries. It will take time to find the right deal, which is where a travel agent comes in, but totally doable on your own. Use sites like TripAdvisor to research a place before booking for hotels.

 

[elvispursley]

This! Travel agents can save you tons of time (which in some peoples' books = saving lots of money by not having to do the leg work themselves). I think unless you have a simple one-way flight, board the cruise ship home (e.g. transatlantic) or round-trip, why go to the hassle? Use a good travel consultant!

 

[MunFam]

I am a travel agent. I specifically do corporate travel because I could not stand selling clients the "best" commissionable rate when I knew in my heart there was a better deal or hotel available. When you go in to a global distribution software program (like Sabre), it will show a ton of different booking options (to the agent). Often one hotel is great, the other is okay. They are equal in price to the consumer, but the great hotel's commission is lower, so they are likely to book you at the okay hotel to get paid more...instead of booking you at the great hotel and making less money.

When a travel agent can definitely be worth it is in unique situations where there are complicated itineraries, of if you do not have time to research your trip...and a 5-10% (possible) increase in cost is worth it to you, or if you want VIP travel service, or if they have a group block somewhere and they can get you a MUCH better rate by adding you to the block. Sometimes, an agency has a top tier booking status with a cruise line, airline, etc. so they can give you some extra booking incentive that is not available to the average consumer...or even all travel agents. For example, Dreams Unlimited (the sponsor of these forums) is a top tier booking agent with DCL, so they can offer you a really great OBB credit. If you asked me to book that same DCL for you...you would get zero incentive from me...because our agency never books cruises and we have nothing to offer.

Some travel agents are better than others. I do things like check my clients in for their flights, order gifts for delivery in their room before their arrival (my treat), and if they have flight issues, I typically have it fixed before they even realize they were going to misconnect or a schedule change was made. Every client has my cell number and can reach me 24/7 365 days a year. I respond to every email within 30 minutes. But again...I am a corporate agent and I charge my clients some pretty hefty fees for my services. They are okay with that. They want their executives well taken care of. I doubt a leisure traveler would find what I do "worth it".

 

[MinnesotaMouseketeers]

Just want to thank everyone for your quick replies.

 

[abja09]

I can't answer your question as our cruise began and ended in Dover but I do want to say we just did the 11 night Norway/Iceland in June and it was absolutely amazing! The best vacation we have been on! Happy planning and have a wonderful trip

 

[laceltris3]

I agree with the Google Flights recommendation. I set up alerts on probably 20 different itineraries for our flights for our Baltic cruise, this year and jumped when I received a notification that British Airways lowered the price to $735 pp on a couple of the routes, which was approximately 40% below the lowest option that showed up. I also joined AARP for the additional discount and booked that day. The price was a one day only spike down, and I was exceedingly happy with the results.

 

[DahliaRW]

I usually find it cheaper and easier to book 2 one way flights rather than multicity. But I do always price it both ways. For us, Icelandair usually ends up being cheapest.