Anyone fly space-A to catch a cruise?

Author Message   Matthew Alan Knapp Senior Member Username: Matt_k Post Number: 1654 Registered: 02-2006 Posted on Saturday, October 04, 2008 - 08:12 am:    Julie, I've met many SPATs that took last minute cruises during their visits to Honolulu. Vacations to Go http://www.vacationstogo.com Last minute ticker has wonderfully competitive last minute deals for cruises.   Julie Hollinger Member Username: Julieh Post Number: 15 Registered: 07-2008 Posted on Friday, September 26, 2008 - 04:23 pm:    Edwin, We live in North San Diego County, so we will be driving to Ft. MacArthur (very near cruise terminal) and spending the night before there. We can usually get a good deal on a one way rental and leave the car in the driveway as we don't know for sure where we will return to.   Garland Summerall Intermediate Member Username: Garland Post Number: 121 Registered: 12-2004 Posted on Friday, September 26, 2008 - 04:31 am:    I was thinking of spacea to Ramstein and then go to MWR to see if I could get a Rhine river cruise by change. If not, then do something else. It's only time. Then whats time to a hog.   Edwin B McConville Senior Member Username: Perkyva1 Post Number: 667 Registered: 06-2003 Posted on Thursday, September 25, 2008 - 04:25 pm:    Julie: I'd obtain trip insurance just for piece of mind. The way the airlines cancel flts or the terrible traffic in California it is well worth it. I've purchased from USAA in the past.   Julie Hollinger Member Username: Julieh Post Number: 12 Registered: 07-2008 Posted on Thursday, September 25, 2008 - 02:44 am:    Problem solved: We are taking a cruise to catch a space-A! Just booked a 2 wk Panama Canal Cruise on Princess out of L.A. and will end up in Ft. Lauderdale. Plan to drive to Jacksonville and catch a flight to North Island. (Got a fabulous price on the cruise)   Bill Mathews Senior Member Username: Bill_mathews Post Number: 781 Registered: 06-2003 Posted on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 - 04:46 pm:    Richard V.: The Pat. flight out of Norfolk alternates to Sigonella every other week. From Sig. to Naples can have Navy flights daily or every other day, quite often... So head to Naples or Sig., where ever the flight goes the week you want to travel. When we use SpaceA to hook up with another fixed date event, we allow 5-7 days to get to where we need to be, and also a good back up plan. If you plan to fly out of Norfolk and it does not work, you could drive to Andrews for a Wed. or Fri flight to Ramstein or to BWI for their frequent flights to Ramstein. In Oct, Andrews should be ok. But there are few flights from Ramstein to Sigonella (fewer still to Naples) you may have to catch a train to Rome for your Cruise departure.   richard verret Member Username: Richbv Post Number: 38 Registered: 08-2004 Posted on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 - 12:32 pm:    That's what I plan on doing, my concern is that the flights to Naples aren't as many as before. I notice that there is only one flight every other week. Other than Norfork, I don't see any other base flying to Naples   dinotars Senior Member Username: Dinotars Post Number: 4466 Registered: 06-2003 Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 08:43 pm:    Richard, We booked a Med cruise two years ago which left Civitavecchia.We went spacea from Norfolk to Naples and took a train to Rome,then to the port area to board ship.All went well, a few nights at Capadochino(Naples)then train to the port.On return we just took the same route back.   richard verret Member Username: Richbv Post Number: 37 Registered: 08-2004 Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 04:01 pm:    I booked a 12 day cruise sailing out of Civitavecchia, Italy. I intend to fly space A to any where close to the Port (Naples would be Ideal)or If I have to, I'll fly to Germany and somehow go by train or any other mode to Italy. I intend to give myself a lot of time to arrive at the port city. The cruise sails Oct 2009 Any suggestions will be appreciated.   John A Civick Member Username: John6412 Post Number: 13 Registered: 07-2008 Posted on Monday, September 22, 2008 - 06:41 pm:    Yes, but a lady missed her flt to the port due to traffic when she filed a claim it was denied. Insurance company said it was her fault. Don't know how they would look at a military space a flt. www.cruisecritic.com   Julie Hollinger Member Username: Julieh Post Number: 9 Registered: 07-2008 Posted on Monday, September 22, 2008 - 06:13 pm:    Thanks to all of you. We have never purchased trip insurance.....guess we need to look into that. Always assumed that it was too expensive? I also have a problem with any trip that goes on for more than 3 wks total, from home. Our "plan B" if we get to Jacksonville is to head down to the keyes. Anyone know if that is a mistake in November? (cost and availability)   John R Garrison Senior Member Username: Majorg Post Number: 684 Registered: 02-2006 Posted on Monday, September 22, 2008 - 08:19 am:    Julie: we're presently on a repositioning cruise from Copenhagen to Ft Lauderdale. I hopped from Fairchild to Mildenhall on 4 Sept to catch a 17 Sep cruise from copenhagen. Would only do this if you have lot's of time between hop and cruise. Happy Travels, John   Elliott Manning New member Username: Elliottmanningyahoocom Post Number: 1 Registered: 06-2008 Posted on Monday, September 22, 2008 - 01:26 am:    Have made three Trans Alantic Cruises using Space A out of McCord AFB both coming and going. Also have made conections for three cruises in Hawaii from McCord. Some times it gets a little dicy wondering if I will get to the cruise location in time for the sailing... A good idea to get Travel Insurance just in case. Made it to several cruises in Los Angeles, San Diego and Miami via Space A flights. This year, haven't made any cruises (what a bummer)   Ron Glancy Member Username: Ron_glancy Post Number: 47 Registered: 09-2007 Posted on Sunday, September 21, 2008 - 06:56 pm:    We did this successfully last December although we did book the cruise first. We found out about a very inexpensive cruise around the Hawaiian islands ($399 for 7 days) that was leaving the next week. We booked it on a Monday for the following Monday. We live in South Carolina and at that time Charleston had frequent flights Andrews and Andrews had frequent flights to McChord and Travis. We knew that if we could get to the West Coast, we could get a reasonable one way ticket to Oahu if a flight from Travis or McChord to Hickam didn't pan out. We ended up flying from Charleston to Andrews to Travis on Wednesday. We then got a flight from Travis to Hickam on Saturday and boarded the cruise ship on Monday. We had already contacted Aloha Airlines and were ready to purchase a flight from San Francisco to Oahu on Sunday if our Saturday flight didn't materialize. Coming back was unbelievable. We got off out ship Monday afternoon and on Tuesday caught a C-17 from Hickam to Charleston. It flew through the night and we were able to make a bed on the floor and sleep almost the entire way. It was a great experience.   Cherry C. Senior Member Username: Cherry Post Number: 4111 Registered: 06-2003 Posted on Sunday, September 21, 2008 - 12:42 am:    We have flown space-a to catch a cruise (from a port in Europe), but allowed a lot of extra time and planned to spend it touring if we did get across the pond early. (Which we did!) We also were IN Florida one winter (using a friend's St. Petersburg condo) and went to an on-base ITT office to ask about a last-minute deal about which we had gotten an email from our favorite cruise line. The agent called the cruise line and gave them the offer number from our email, and the cruise line person said he had something even better--long and short, we booked the "even better" offer on a Monday, drove to Fort Lauderdale on Saturday and boarded for our 1-week last-minute cruise. (Had to pick up all the tickets/documents at the boarding desk, of course.) (We didn't have the usual cruise glad-rags with us, so we simply ate in the Lido every evening.) If you intend to do some 'tourist stuff' in Florida, I suggest you wait until you get there and then consult an agent about last-minute offers. After booking you can fill in your waiting time with local touring. Port Canaveral, Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Tampa seem to be the most common Florida points of departure.   dinotars Senior Member Username: Dinotars Post Number: 4452 Registered: 06-2003 Posted on Saturday, September 20, 2008 - 07:48 pm:    Julie, It's possible.We took spacea from Charleston to McChord to Elmendorf to meet up with an Alaska cruise a couple of years ago.   Julie Hollinger New member Username: Julieh Post Number: 5 Registered: 07-2008 Posted on Saturday, September 20, 2008 - 04:57 pm:    Has anyone ever tried this? We are thinking about just trying to get a flight to Florida and then look for last minute cruises, but we are wondering if anyone has actually booked one and then flown to catch the ship? We would be flying out of North Island to Jacksonville in late October.