Mediterranean planning

[FJS961]

Very excited about doing 2014 Med on refurbished Magic. Plan is to do 7 night cruise but fly over a week early. We have never been to Europe before. Initial thoughts are to fly into London, take the high speed Eurostar to Paris, then make our way to Barcelona.

Anyone do something like this or planning it for this or next year?

[ColoradoDisneyFreaks]

We did pretty much exactly this in 2010 when we did our Med cruise. We flew into London, spent a couple of days touring there, and then took the chunnel train to Paris. We were scheduled to spend a couple of days in Paris, but found out that the Parisian airport workers had scheduled an "industrial action" which is their term for a limited strike, for the day we were supposed to leave, so EasyJet had to reschedule our flight for the day prior. We ended up spending an extra day in Barcelona and did the HoHo bus to tour around.

For both Paris and London we did the subways to get around the cities. There was an awesome dinner cruise that we did on the Seine, highly recommend that!

My one piece of advice, if you're using EasyJet, get an international cellphone with data and have your e-mail forwarded to your phone. EasyJet doesn't notify with anything except e-mail, they even charge you to call a service agent, they won't call you to let you know that your flight has been cancelled, so if you can't get your e-mails, you'll have to change your flight when you get to the airport. There were a few people on our cruise that missed the first day at sea because they had to catch up to the cruise after missing the first day.

[FJS961]

Thanks! Did you guys fly back from London or Barcelona? Airfare not out for next August but was looking to get ideas. Doing round trip to London from JFK is around 1K but going one way to London then one way back from Barcelona is like $2400 EACH WAY?!? Is that possible? Good news is I saw flights from Barcelona back to London for as little as $130 so that is what it may have to be.

I was thinking first couple days London then high speed train to Paris (2:15 trip). I want to spend a few days in Paris and possible take days trips from there. There is an overnight train to Barcelona, maybe come in day before cruise?

Lot of research to do.

[DisneyNurse19]

I would fly BA if you can as i was looking at prices this year to fly to Barcelona for our cruise and although Easyjet looks cheaper in the end it was more expensive than BA. Also i was told once from an airline to book a return ticket and then cancel the leg you don't want, that will save you a lot of money

[hrhdhd]

Originally Posted by FJS961

I was thinking first couple days London then high speed train to Paris (2:15 trip). I want to spend a few days in Paris and possible take days trips from there. There is an overnight train to Barcelona, maybe come in day before cruise?

Personally, I wouldn't want to visit three major European cities in one week (except on a cruise ship!). If you fly into London for airfare purposes, I'd spend time there (3-4 days?), and then head to Barcelona. You could spend weeks in each of those cities. Adding Paris for a few hours means more time in transit, finding hotels, checking in and out--time that could be spent touring.

[FJS961]

Originally Posted by DisneyNurse19

I would fly BA if you can as i was looking at prices this year to fly to Barcelona for our cruise and although Easyjet looks cheaper in the end it was more expensive than BA. Also i was told once from an airline to book a return ticket and then cancel the leg you don't want, that will save you a lot of money

Virgin Atlantic looks good - some flights have a very reasonable premium economy class that gets good reviews.

[FJS961]

Originally Posted by hrhdhd

Personally, I wouldn't want to visit three major European cities in one week (except on a cruise ship!). If you fly into London for airfare purposes, I'd spend time there (3-4 days?), and then head to Barcelona. You could spend weeks in each of those cities. Adding Paris for a few hours means more time in transit, finding hotels, checking in and out--time that could be spent touring.

I don't really plan on visiting Barcelona. We want to fly into London, tour a couple days, 2+ hr train to Paris, stay a few days, then do an overnight train to Barcelona to board the Magic. I was thinking that a 2 hour or so trip to Paris then an overnight train would waste minimum transit time and be efficient.

[ruadisneyfan2]

Originally Posted by FJS961

Thanks! Did you guys fly back from London or Barcelona? Airfare not out for next August but was looking to get ideas. Doing round trip to London from JFK is around 1K but going one way to London then one way back from Barcelona is like $2400 EACH WAY?!? Is that possible? Good news is I saw flights from Barcelona back to London for as little as $130 so that is what it may have to be.

I was thinking first couple days London then high speed train to Paris (2:15 trip). I want to spend a few days in Paris and possible take days trips from there. There is an overnight train to Barcelona, maybe come in day before cruise?

Lot of research to do.

I would guess it's due to searching as one way flights. RT flights from BCN were around $1100 for our Aug cruise.
Instead of searching just as a one way flight, try searching as a multi-city itinerary. I know USAirways offers this in their search engine. I'd think others do. Also try www.kayak.com

[OADad]

We are doing almost the exact plan you are proposing this August.

We fly Boston to London on Friday night (arrive in London early Saturday). Stay in London three nights. Eurostar to Paris, stay two nights. Then overnight train on Elipsos to Barcelona, arriving Friday morning. We then board the Magic on Saturday.

This is not the first time that my wife and I have been to London and Paris, and I can tell you we are feeling a bit time pressured in trying to fit things in. Want to show the kids everything on their "Whitman's Sampler" tour of Europe.

[woody73]

Originally Posted by FJS961

. . . Anyone do something like this or planning it for this or next year?

If you're going to spend one week pre-cruise, I recommend picking London or Paris and staying there one week. Otherwise it will be way too hectic, and you will spend too much of your valuable time packing and unpacking, and checking in and taking the Eurostar (you have to arrive early for security, as with airlines).

Woody

[FJS961]

Originally Posted by OADad

We are doing almost the exact plan you are proposing this August.

We fly Boston to London on Friday night (arrive in London early Saturday). Stay in London three nights. Eurostar to Paris, stay two nights. Then overnight train on Elipsos to Barcelona, arriving Friday morning. We then board the Magic on Saturday.

This is not the first time that my wife and I have been to London and Paris, and I can tell you we are feeling a bit time pressured in trying to fit things in. Want to show the kids everything on their "Whitman's Sampler" tour of Europe.

This is what I was thinking.

How crazy would it be to squeeze one more night in Paris and do the overnight train Friday night into Saturday then board the Magic??? It opens up the whole discussion of coming in the day before a cruise.

[OADad]

I'd be too nervous arriving the same day as the cruise. Of course I'm way too high strung to begin with...

[ColoradoDisneyFreaks]

Originally Posted by FJS961

Thanks! Did you guys fly back from London or Barcelona? Airfare not out for next August but was looking to get ideas. Doing round trip to London from JFK is around 1K but going one way to London then one way back from Barcelona is like $2400 EACH WAY?!? Is that possible? Good news is I saw flights from Barcelona back to London for as little as $130 so that is what it may have to be.

I was thinking first couple days London then high speed train to Paris (2:15 trip). I want to spend a few days in Paris and possible take days trips from there. There is an overnight train to Barcelona, maybe come in day before cruise?

Lot of research to do.

We flew EasyJet back to London, stayed overnight there, and then took the morning flight back to Denver. It was actually kind of nice, meant we weren't coming off of a cruise to a full day's flight home.

Originally Posted by woody73

If you're going to spend one week pre-cruise, I recommend picking London or Paris and staying there one week. Otherwise it will be way too hectic, and you will spend too much of your valuable time packing and unpacking, and checking in and taking the Eurostar (you have to arrive early for security, as with airlines).

Woody

I think it all really depends on what you're going for. When we went, the idea wasn't to see everything in London and Paris, but to allow the kids to hit the highlights of the cities, so a couple of days touring, and then go on the cruise. They'll be back to Paris again for a couple of days to see different things. We also didn't unpack everything in each location. We packed so that the clothes we needed for each stop were all together, and didn't unpack at all except a toiletry bag, at the hotels. We only unpacked once on board the Magic.

[lilpooh108]

We're doing 3 nights in London, 3 nights in Barcelona and 4 nights post cruise in Paris. The number of days booked in each location depended on our budget for hotels since we have 3 rooms per night. Batcelona was by far the cheapest city in terms of hotel. We were originally going to skip Paris but got lucky on Priceline Express and got the Novotel for $80 per night. We've been to these cities before and but I would choose a less hectic schedule if were our first trip. Good luck with your planning! I will post a short trip summary when we get back.

[NancyIL]

Originally Posted by FJS961

I don't really plan on visiting Barcelona. We want to fly into London, tour a couple days, 2+ hr train to Paris, stay a few days, then do an overnight train to Barcelona to board the Magic. I was thinking that a 2 hour or so trip to Paris then an overnight train would waste minimum transit time and be efficient.

DO spend time in Barcelona! London and Paris are both great cities, but so is Barcelona. I would either add more days to see all 3, or choose between London or Paris plus Barcelona.