The MAGIC is Back!!! ~ WBTA 2014 ~ Come & join the fun!

[annichan]

Are there any 'rules' about what sort of books are fit for exchange?
Just following on from the whole 'alcohol left in FEs could encourage underage drinking' I was just wondering if the same could be true of a book exchange left in the open?

Cool question! I was only planning on bringing some political extremist books and pornography, so I guess I'll be fine

 

[ShellB8585]

Cool question! I was only planning on bringing some political extremist books and pornography, so I guess I'll be fine

LOL Annichan!! and it is a good question. What would everyone prefer? I must admit i dont read anything racy so it didnt really cross my mind before.

Are there any specific rules people want implemented for the book exchange?

 

[Shercara]

How is everyone doing on booking their airfare? We have a one way booked for our return from San Juan back to Newark, NJ on the 21st - ( we will be staying 1 night in PR after the cruise.) We got those tickets for $200 each. Not the BEST bargain - but not too bad.

Our outbound to BCN is another story - trying to get a non-stop from JFK or EWR to BCN on Sept 3rd in the evening - but prices for 1 ways are $3000 per ticket -when booking with the airline!!!!!!

I am seeing some tickets for $550 - $700 per person for that flight - but it would mean booking through webjet . com and airfare . com

Does anyone have any experience with them? or do you have any suggestions????

Thanks,
Sherri

 

[SucalT]

How is everyone doing on booking their airfare? We have a one way booked for our return from San Juan back to Newark, NJ on the 21st - ( we will be staying 1 night in PR after the cruise.) We got those tickets for $200 each. Not the BEST bargain - but not too bad.

Our outbound to BCN is another story - trying to get a non-stop from JFK or EWR to BCN on Sept 3rd in the evening - but prices for 1 ways are $3000 per ticket -when booking with the airline!!!!!!

I am seeing some tickets for $550 - $700 per person for that flight - but it would mean booking through webjet . com and airfare . com

Does anyone have any experience with them? or do you have any suggestions????

Thanks,
Sherri

I personally prefer to purchase directly from the airline. I have heard way too many horror stories.

Due to very high airfare, we booked directly through Turkish Airlines and get a bonus day in Istanbul. We will enjoy our 20 hour layover in Istanbul, Turkey and visit the Market and the Blue Mosque before continuing to Rome for six (6) nights.

Following the six (6) nights in Rome, we are on to Barcelona for four (4) nights before embarking.

Turkish Airlines was about $550 coach pp or $1100 comfort class pp. We will be Comfort Class for our 12.5 hour non-stop to Istanbul!

 

[wayneg]

How is everyone doing on booking their airfare? We have a one way booked for our return from San Juan back to Newark, NJ on the 21st - ( we will be staying 1 night in PR after the cruise.) We got those tickets for $200 each. Not the BEST bargain - but not too bad.

Our outbound to BCN is another story - trying to get a non-stop from JFK or EWR to BCN on Sept 3rd in the evening - but prices for 1 ways are $3000 per ticket -when booking with the airline!!!!!!

I am seeing some tickets for $550 - $700 per person for that flight - but it would mean booking through webjet . com and airfare . com

Does anyone have any experience with them? or do you have any suggestions????

Thanks,
Sherri

Doesn't look to be a great route for direct. Norwgian.com do indirect via Copenhagen for $448pp but you have an 8hr 50hr connection, this is on the Dreamliner. As said Turkish are another airline who do low cost indirect one way flights.
AerLingus.com have a flight with excellent timings, total 10hr 40 incl connection in Dublin for $682.94

Thankfully we are on a route that is quite reasonable this Sept, we live near Manchester UK, from here to BCN cost $130, SJU to Tampa $113, Tampa back to UK $350, all direct, all incl tax & luggage.

Hope you find something you are happy with.

 

[vakamalua]

How is everyone doing on booking their airfare? We have a one way booked for our return from San Juan back to Newark, NJ on the 21st - ( we will be staying 1 night in PR after the cruise.) We got those tickets for $200 each. Not the BEST bargain - but not too bad.

Our outbound to BCN is another story - trying to get a non-stop from JFK or EWR to BCN on Sept 3rd in the evening - but prices for 1 ways are $3000 per ticket -when booking with the airline!!!!!!

I am seeing some tickets for $550 - $700 per person for that flight - but it would mean booking through webjet . com and airfare . com

Does anyone have any experience with them? or do you have any suggestions????

Thanks,
Sherri

Try Aer Lingus. We're flying JFK thru Dublin to BCN on September 1st for $680 per person. Luckily, we were able to book flights home from San Juan on mileage points. Good Luck.

 

[twopeasonepod]

How is everyone doing on booking their airfare? We have a one way booked for our return from San Juan back to Newark, NJ on the 21st - ( we will be staying 1 night in PR after the cruise.) We got those tickets for $200 each. Not the BEST bargain - but not too bad.

Our outbound to BCN is another story - trying to get a non-stop from JFK or EWR to BCN on Sept 3rd in the evening - but prices for 1 ways are $3000 per ticket -when booking with the airline!!!!!!

I am seeing some tickets for $550 - $700 per person for that flight - but it would mean booking through webjet . com and airfare . com

Does anyone have any experience with them? or do you have any suggestions????

Thanks,
Sherri

Not doing well at all. Too many miles for HNL-BCN, so I keep waiting (which is probably bad). SJU-MCO, then MCO-HNL 4-5 days later is still crazy ridiculous, too.

 

[vakamalua]

BTW, the DCL website has EBTA excursions up for Malaga (the only port that overlaps with the WBTA). BUT it states that one of the Malaga city tours won't be offered when we're there on September 8. When making plans for Malaga, note that September 8 is a local holiday--the feast of Our Lady of Victory, Malaga's patron saint--that commemorates the Spanish victory over the Moors. Some of the stores and the local market will be closed that day.

 

[squirrel]

We got really good prices with Icelandair.

We are switching airlines in London as it was cheaper to go with British Airway.

Total was $638.01 per person flying from Vancouver, BC to Barcelona.

The return home was $314.22.

 

[Shazzie B]

BTW, the DCL website has EBTA excursions up for Malaga (the only port that overlaps with the WBTA). BUT it states that one of the Malaga city tours won't be offered when we're there on September 8. When making plans for Malaga, note that September 8 is a local holiday--the feast of Our Lady of Victory, Malaga's patron saint--that commemorates the Spanish victory over the Moors. Some of the stores and the local market will be closed that day.

Thanks for the info

 

[Pinkocto]

Cool question! I was only planning on bringing some political extremist books and pornography, so I guess I'll be fine

This got a snort of laughter out of me

 

[MandyGirl]

Hi Mandy Girl
Just getting caught back up on this thread again.
Thank you so much!
Renee'

No problem! We've had so much movement keeping that list has been the best bet.

Due to very high airfare, we booked directly through Turkish Airlines and get a bonus day in Istanbul. We will enjoy our 20 hour layover in Istanbul, Turkey and visit the Market and the Blue Mosque before continuing to Rome for six (6) nights.

Following the six (6) nights in Rome, we are on to Barcelona for four (4) nights before embarking.

Enjoy the Blue Mosque! We didn't make it to the market because we needed to stop by a pharmacy (plus the riots were going on and we didn't want to lose a kiddo in the market) so we headed on back to the ship after Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia.

And yay for your time in Rome! A cruise stop for one day was just a tease. We love Barcelona for sure!

BTW, the DCL website has EBTA excursions up for Malaga (the only port that overlaps with the WBTA). BUT it states that one of the Malaga city tours won't be offered when we're there on September 8. When making plans for Malaga, note that September 8 is a local holiday--the feast of Our Lady of Victory, Malaga's patron saint--that commemorates the Spanish victory over the Moors. Some of the stores and the local market will be closed that day.

I'm hoping to find some true local cultural events that day. Our daughter is in a dual language program, which the principal and dual language coordinator approved our homeschooling during this time, but we plan to expose her to as much as we can like we do each vacation. It's amazing what our kiddos learn, even at a young age!

We got really good prices with Icelandair.

We flew them for the first time this past summer after the EBTA and really enjoyed them. Milan to KEF had more technology on that leg, but we definitely enjoyed the "free stopover" in Iceland to see Golden Circle and Blue Lagoon. Are you able to take advantage of their stopover there?

 

[CDNDisneyMom]

Cool question! I was only planning on bringing some political extremist books and pornography, so I guess I'll be fine

LMAO

 

[NHPixidust]

Yeah we found "decent" rates with Aer Lingus so you might want to try them

Try Aer Lingus. We're flying JFK thru Dublin to BCN on September 1st for $680 per person. Luckily, we were able to book flights home from San Juan on mileage points. Good Luck.

 

[TotallyAngelic]

How is everyone doing on booking their airfare? We have a one way booked for our return from San Juan back to Newark, NJ on the 21st - ( we will be staying 1 night in PR after the cruise.) We got those tickets for $200 each. Not the BEST bargain - but not too bad.

Our outbound to BCN is another story - trying to get a non-stop from JFK or EWR to BCN on Sept 3rd in the evening - but prices for 1 ways are $3000 per ticket -when booking with the airline!!!!!!

I am seeing some tickets for $550 - $700 per person for that flight - but it would mean booking through webjet . com and airfare . com

Does anyone have any experience with them? or do you have any suggestions????

Thanks,


Sherri

I have recently got some very good prices for one way flights from USA to UK using www.flyeurope1800.com and www.kayak.com

 

[pharmjenn]

How is everyone doing on booking their airfare? We have a one way booked for our return from San Juan back to Newark, NJ on the 21st - ( we will be staying 1 night in PR after the cruise.) We got those tickets for $200 each. Not the BEST bargain - but not too bad.

Our outbound to BCN is another story - trying to get a non-stop from JFK or EWR to BCN on Sept 3rd in the evening - but prices for 1 ways are $3000 per ticket -when booking with the airline!!!!!!

I am seeing some tickets for $550 - $700 per person for that flight - but it would mean booking through webjet . com and airfare . com

Does anyone have any experience with them? or do you have any suggestions????

Thanks,
Sherri

Try Aer Lingus. We're flying JFK thru Dublin to BCN on September 1st for $680 per person. Luckily, we were able to book flights home from San Juan on mileage points. Good Luck.

So those of you finding the good fares, are these directly through the airline? I find cheap ($600) through kayak/airfare.com, but much more expensive through the airline. If I look at roundtrip through the airline, it jumps to around $1200. Cheapest from SFO that I have found is on AirCanada.

I did book our return home from SJU for $200 to Dulles for my Dad, then continuing on to SFO for myself for a total of $347. Not too bad overall.

 

[Sparky47]

BTW, the DCL website has EBTA excursions up for Malaga (the only port that overlaps with the WBTA). BUT it states that one of the Malaga city tours won't be offered when we're there on September 8. When making plans for Malaga, note that September 8 is a local holiday--the feast of Our Lady of Victory, Malaga's patron saint--that commemorates the Spanish victory over the Moors. Some of the stores and the local market will be closed that day.

Thanks! I sent an email recently to DCL asking when the port excursions would be available. The answer was they are working hard to get the best port excursions to make our cruise the most enjoyable and as soon as they are available they will be posted

 

[Sparky47]

How is everyone doing on booking their airfare? We have a one way booked for our return from San Juan back to Newark, NJ on the 21st - ( we will be staying 1 night in PR after the cruise.) We got those tickets for $200 each. Not the BEST bargain - but not too bad.

Our outbound to BCN is another story - trying to get a non-stop from JFK or EWR to BCN on Sept 3rd in the evening - but prices for 1 ways are $3000 per ticket -when booking with the airline!!!!!!

I am seeing some tickets for $550 - $700 per person for that flight - but it would mean booking through webjet . com and airfare . com

Does anyone have any experience with them? or do you have any suggestions????

Thanks,
Sherri

We are not having much luck with flights. We're flying out of Cleveland, Oh and everything I find is $3,000! We booked our flights through DCL for $1,200 hoping to find something cheaper - looks like we'll be staying with DCL since it's a decent rate and includes transportation (unfortunately due to work commitments we have to fly in the day of the cruise so in addition to this being cheapest rate, it's the safest flying in day of!)

 

[Con5421]

We are not having much luck with flights. We're flying out of Cleveland, Oh and everything I find is $3,000! We booked our flights through DCL for $1,200 hoping to find something cheaper - looks like we'll be staying with DCL since it's a decent rate and includes transportation (unfortunately due to work commitments we have to fly in the day of the cruise so in addition to this being cheapest rate, it's the safest flying in day of!)

Air Lingus 668 euro 2 stops.

 

[squirrel]

We flew them for the first time this past summer after the EBTA and really enjoyed them. Milan to KEF had more technology on that leg, but we definitely enjoyed the "free stopover" in Iceland to see Golden Circle and Blue Lagoon. Are you able to take advantage of their stopover there?

No we only have a 1hr layover before flying to London.

I can't afford to miss more work, I have my own business. My mom only works a few days each month and is already missing over half those days while away for 18 days.

We only really have one full day in Barcelona and an evening (if we are not too jetlagged).