Aloha
We are booked on our first cruise with Radisson 6/9/04 on the Navigator.I would like to thank all of you for your help through reading many of your posts.
My wife,Christina and I are planning to do another cruise 6/18/05 on the Diamond,Istanbul to Athens.My Question is really for west coast people as to what kind of schedule do you think we will be subjected to!!!Will RSSC put us up somewhere along the way? Since we will be departing from Honolulu it looks like 26 HRS or more in travel time each way <img border="0" alt="[bang]" title="" src="graemlins/banghead.gif" />
Any suggestions will be appreciated.Mahalo

First, welcome captjohn!!

When I have used RSSC air from SFO, they have put me on Lufthansa (I request Star Alliance as I am United Mileage Plus). I would imagine they would put you on United to the mainland, then the United or Lufthansa flight leaving SFO at 2:30pm to Frankfurt, then Lufthansa to IST arriving local time about 5:30ish. I believe there is about a 3.5 hour layover in Frankfurt.

OOOPS! I just realized you couldn't get here in time to make the 2:30 flight! Now I don't know! Would they put you up on the West Coast or put you on a night flight to London or something with onward connections?? Are you going to get the business class upgrade??

I'm not much help at all, sorry...Whatever they do you are in for a looong haul!

We are on the cruise before yours on 6/2/04 from NYC to Bermuda. Last year We found that they flew people to Fort Lauderdale flights on American Air and they stopped in LA and we had an almost full flight LAX to FLL. I bet they have flights non-stop. There was also a couple we met who flew on Northwest from HI to NYC changing planes in Chicago. 16 hours of flying for them because of the changeover

Hi John! I have no input on how RSSC is going to get you to Istanbul ... but are you and Christina ready for our June 9th Navigator cruise?? :)

Masaki

Aloha Masaki,yes we are really getting ready to go! Christina has all our clothes picked out and the cats know that somthing is up!We were glad to see that you and Amanda decided to book this cruise.It looks like there are several others who also responded to your post in the "Roll Call" section.I guess that we could call ourselves "NJN"(Navagiator-June-Ninth)!!What do you think? How many days will you spend in NY and Montreal? John&Christina

Suzanne,

You said that you requested Star Alliance carriers when you booked Radisson's air. I didn't realize that they would fulfill such a request.

We are members of United's Mileage Plus and would prefer to use them or one of their partners, as well.

captjohn-
We are sailing on the Diamond in Oct., the reverse of your itinerary. We are doing our own air.

Using FF miles, taking British Airways, our outbound flight into Athens departs LAX at 9:30PM. We arrive in LHR at 4:00PM the next day. We have a 6 1/2 hour stopover in LHR. Our flight out of LHR leaves at 10:30PM and arrives in Athens 4:00AM, the next day - which is the day of embarkation! Talk about a long, miserable flight! I am working to get this scenario changed, but it's not easy using FF miles!

The dynamics of flying from the West Coast into Europe is a real chore.

You know, John, NJN's not half bad. We should have Karen or John change our cruise name -- there's at least 3 LCT members onboard! :)

We're spending 3 days in NYC precruise - but unfortunately, no time in Montreal on the way back since we're needed back at work. I'm still waiting to hear from Radisson as to how they're going to get us to NYC ... wouldn't mind Continental or Delta so we can use our Amex Platinum lounge priviliges. If United, we can get miles so that'd be OK as well.

Masaki

Masaki,
We will be doing a devation in SFO (3 days)on our way to NY.RSSC booked us on United all the way to NY.Then in Montreal we will be on American to Chaigo and then nonstop to HNL.Don't know yet where they will put us up overnight in Montreal.Guess we will find out when the doc's get here. John

Denise,

Yes, you can request certain carriers if you're using RSSC air. If you don't get what you like you can select custom air through them and pay the $100 fee. As you're staying in Istanbul for a post cruise you'd pay the deviation fee anyway.

The time of year you're going the flights are not badly priced. Unless you're using mileage to fly business, I'd just pay for the flight. I just looked at Orbitz and you could fly Lufthansa LAX leaving at 2:55 pm arriving FRA 10:25 am, connecting (on LH) to Athens leaving at 1pm arriving 4:45pm. The return is out of IST at 8:05 am to Munich arriving 9:35 am connecting on LH 11:10 arriving LAX at 2:25 pm. The price is running about $1173 RT. You'd have to pay for a hotel for 1 night in Athens, but you wouldn't have those horrible layovers and would be fresh for the cruise! What are you going to do in Athens between 4am and the time you board?? Just an idea...and you'd get about 13,000 miles!

Suzanne,

We're using our Alaska Air FF miles, with partner British Air, to save on air costs. We have considered this very option you suggested and may change course if a flight doesn't open up the day prior to when we are scheduled to fly out.

We'll hang on for a while and see if Oct. 1 opens up for us in Bus. Class. If not, we will go to plan B, which will be Lufthansa, a much better alternative.

We have a hotel reserved in Athens, if our plans change, and we arrive a day earlier, using our HH points.

As of now, we have George the taxi driver picking us up at the airport to tour in the morning, after we collect our luggage. We will most likely have breakfast before he picks us up, which is set for 7:30.

The other option, for such an early arrival, is to get a day room at Athens Sofitel, by the airport, freshen up and then have George pick us up there. However, Sofitel gave me a rate of 220E for the day room. EXPENSIVE!

Denise,
If worse comes to worse, it's cheaper to use the taxi as your "day room". George will wonder who these sleeping bodies are in his back seat :eek: . I sure hope your flights improve!!

Marcie,

As you can see, I am still agonizing over this mess.

I forgot to ask George the Taxi Driver if he has a shower in his cab :rolleyes: )

When Ngaire checked for me, she said that RSSC has a flight to get us back to Honolulu that day so apparently we won't be overnighting in Montreal the night of disembarkation. You'd think that if they can figure that out, they could also tell us what airline that would be on but oh well ... :)

Masaki

Well, if it was me, I'd just pay the deviation fee so that I could have a stop-over somewhere like NY. We have twice gone from Toronto to Papeete, and both times have had an overnight in L.A. It's a small price to pay. This time in Athens, we are arriving 6 days before the cruise, again paying the deviation.