Happier Abroad Forum Community

If I could only get a flight to Asia this cheap.

Fly US To Europe For 7 Euros
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/news ... er-10.html

Come on. What's the catch? There's no such thing as a flight for 7 Euros.

What do boat fees generally run? I know a cruise is different than booking a freighter, but what tends to be the going rate to get across the Atlantic with either?

Well when I moved to Lithuania back in december I flew on the German airline Condor Flugdienst to Frankfurt for only 396 dollars and taxes were included on the price. They fly to a lot of US cities but seasonal. Only cities they fly to all year round are Las Vegas and San Juan PR. and they offered me a seamless connection with Lufthansa to fly to Vilnius. I know it's got nothing to do with the ryannair article but it's a lil more realistic plus another airline that started flying to the US and it's a discount airline is Norwegian air shuttle.


http://www.condor.com/us/index.jsp


They also fly to some destinations in Asia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condor_Flu ... tions#Asia

Wolfeye wrote:What do boat fees generally run? I know a cruise is different than booking a freighter, but what tends to be the going rate to get across the Atlantic with either?

Freighters I don't know about, though I think they definitely run considerably cheaper -- looked into it back in 2002.

I took the Queen Mary 2 from New York to UK in 2009, paid $1,700 for a room occupied by only me. Came back a few months later on Royal Caribbean, with stops in France, Ireland and Iceland, for $1,200.

The price really varies quite a bit. For a brief time there was available a 13-day cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Barcelona this April that would have cost less than $900, including tips and everything. You can find the cost per person for a double-occupied room on either vacationstogo.com or affordabletours.com. Email affordabletours and they will tell you the price for a single; vacationstogo you have to call. Just search for cruises in the transatlantic region and all of them will pop up.

edit: vacationstogo has a feature where you can search for singles discounts. I just did, and Royal Caribbean has a couple of transatlantic cruises coming up where there's no markup for a single; i.e., you pay the same price for a room that a couple would per person. One is a 15-day cruise from Boston to Copenhagen, leaving April 24, cost $1,319. The other is 14 days Tampa to Harwich, UK, leaving May 4; cost $1,099. Those are pretty good deals, considering all the food you can stuff into yourself for the duration is included in the price.

Warning: no under-70 stray women to speak of on transatlantic cruises.

gsjackson- Thanks a lot! That helps with a few things, since I didn't really know where to start looking for this stuff. Pretty good prices, I was thinking it was going to cost a lot more than that. How was it on those cruises? Seems like Royal Caribbean was the better buy, but I might be willing to pay more for a better trip. Mainly looking to use it to immigrate, but I might want to do it in style & it might be nice to go see a bunch of places while I'm doing it. Also, what do you do, just buy tickets like on a train or bus?

I've got to ask & it is part of why I'm looking to move:
How do things go with customs? Any TSA bullshit like there is with the planes? I really doubt they're going to bust your chops for going to the bathroom like they do on planes, but I'd like to be able to take a pocket knife or a multi tool with me. I've also read that sometimes people run into problems with the staff on cruises (particularly women with security). I'm a dude, but there's not telling what might come up. Might even be moving with relatives (depending on how things go over here) & I DO have a lot of women in my family. I don't want to wind up like those peole that go to prison in Mexico because someone tapes something under their bus seat! Any idea where to look things like that up?

Wolfeye wrote:gsjackson- Thanks a lot! That helps with a few things, since I didn't really know where to start looking for this stuff. Pretty good prices, I was thinking it was going to cost a lot more than that. How was it on those cruises? Seems like Royal Caribbean was the better buy, but I might be willing to pay more for a better trip. Mainly looking to use it to immigrate, but I might want to do it in style & it might be nice to go see a bunch of places while I'm doing it. Also, what do you do, just buy tickets like on a train or bus?

I've got to ask & it is part of why I'm looking to move:
How do things go with customs? Any TSA bullshit like there is with the planes? I really doubt they're going to bust your chops for going to the bathroom like they do on planes, but I'd like to be able to take a pocket knife or a multi tool with me. I've also read that sometimes people run into problems with the staff on cruises (particularly women with security). I'm a dude, but there's not telling what might come up. Might even be moving with relatives (depending on how things go over here) & I DO have a lot of women in my family. I don't want to wind up like those peole that go to prison in Mexico because someone tapes something under their bus seat! Any idea where to look things like that up?

Based on my experience I would suggest not paying more on the assumption that it's a "better trip." I enjoyed Royal Caribbean as much as the Queen Mary and another cruise I took of the Mediterranean that cost $3K. All ships had their strengths -- Royal Caribbean had the best buffet, IMO -- but on balance I rated them the same. I would definitely look for the best price, unless money is no object.

I enjoyed the cruises, but, as I said, don't be expecting to find romance on them. And it's kind of a shame that transatlantic cruises have mostly elderly types, because these ships have about a dozen nightspots of one kind or another, and could be a goldmine given a different population. Staff is usually the best bet for girls, but you have to work around their hours.

I bought the tickets from the websites I mentioned. You could contact the lines directly, but I don't think the prices are any cheaper.

I didn't have any trouble with customs or passport control sailing into the UK. Passport control (they come on the ship) stamped me for six months without any questions. Your bags are picked up outside your room by the ship, and then you pick them up off of the ship after they have gone through customs.

On the websites mentioned you can click on the cruise number to get its itinerary.

Thanks for all that. So it's like a laundry service with the bags? I'm wondering: is there a way you can stay with them? I probably wouldn't have too much on me while moving (I'd just ship a lot of stuff once I got settled, but until then it really doesn't make any sense).

Marketing / advertising ploy for free press by the airline

What is?