I can so remember being excited by the phrase Fly-Drive. I remember it being new and exciting, but now it seems like an effort. Fly-Cruise is so much easier and the world is discovering this en-masse. Onboard time is normally around 1830. Lifeboats drill normally around 1930. The ship will leave around 2000. Delays happen if a plane is late if some later planes are used the time will go back an hour but onboard time is likely to stay the same for guests.
Even though Liverpool is being clever and building a new state-of-the-art cruise terminal, UK cruisers will be so many that thousands will be fly cruising.
If you have never cruised before then you may be asking how. In many places like Barbados, it is easier than others because they do not bother immigrating you into the country. You stay in airport airspace and board a coach on the runway which is effectively ‘bonded’. The coach takes you to the cruise port, which is not part of the country, so you never enter Barbados. You enter the ship, get a cruise card, and they can walk into Barbados without a passport. That is there. Malta, being in the EU, is far more difficult. See below. Cruising is a big purchase, and there are hidden costs. You might save money by purchasing via Top Cashback as many cruisers do.
The island of Malta …
Our flight out left UK air space, went through Paris air space, Gerona, down the Mediterranean between Majorca and Italy, and over Sicily to Malta in a TUI Boing 737-800 from Gatwick. A pay-for tea trolley, snacks and an alcohol run were done without disturbing the passengers unlike the Thomas Cook Airbus on the way back which leftover half an hour late to wait for bags left by a previous flight and is designed with one toilet at the front and three at the back so everyone from row 10 back has to use rear toilets. That would be if the staff moved the carts which they didn’t. Both did a duty-free cart run between drinks services, but not for spirits or cigarettes as the plane flew within the EU. Don’t leave anything on the plane on the way out as it will be left with local agents not taken back to the UK. Decent over Malta you pass over the stadium and motor scrambling track, and a fantastic low aerial view of a well-featured park with the round centres with fountains which cars and carriages go round. The flight home gave us a great night view of Paris.
