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Travel to/from Europe - Cruise Ship / Wide Bodied Jet

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Masboroughlad

Masboroughlad

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Usual trip to Western Europe and Germany for Christmas markets.

1) Are there opportunities to sail UK to Europe (or vice versa) in late November or Early December? I mean as one leg on a big cruise ship?

2) Any flights to/from Germany or Europe, on wide bodied jets (eg UK to Munich on a plane which has come from, or ongoing to a long haul destination)? (I forget the term or the site that details them).

We can travel conventionally, but fancied a twist if possible.

Thanks in advance.
 
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cactustwirly

cactustwirly

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Masboroughlad said:
Usual trip to Western Europe and Germany for Christmas markets.

1) Are there opportunities to sail UK to Europe (or vice versa) in late November or Early December? I mean as one leg on a big cruise ship?

2) Any flights to/from Germany or Europe, on wide bodied jets (eg UK to Munich on a plane which has come from, or ongoing to a long haul destination)? (I forget the term or the site that details them).

We can travel conventionally, but fancied a twist if possible.

Thanks in advance.
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Well you can travel on the overnight ferry to Hook of Holland, from Harwich, the ferry is quite big like a cruise ship
 
Masboroughlad

Masboroughlad

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Well you can travel on the overnight ferry to Hook of Holland, from Harwich, the ferry is quite big like a cruise ship.......

Where from? Which company?
 
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jopsuk

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There's three north sea ferry routes.
Stena Line sail Harwich to Hook of Holland. They sell a ticket for £55 single from any Greater Anglia station to any NS station. A cabin is a mandatory extra on night sailings. Trains run to Harwich International from London and (once a day) Cambridge (evening to Harwich, morning from Harwich) to connect to the sailings. Hook of Holland has just been reconnected to rail services with the opening of the extension of the Rotterdam Metro
P&O sail from Hull to Rotterdam and to Zeebrugge - Hull involves a taxi ride from the station; Rotterdam and Zeebrugge ports apparently have connecting coach services
DFDS sail from Newcastle (North Shields) to Amsterdam (Ijmuiden) with connecting buses
 
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Cricketer8for9

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A good while ago I came back from Nicosia on a 767. Nicosia is at least officially Europe, though obviously not the Continent.
 
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Alfonso

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Masboroughlad said:
Usual trip to Western Europe and Germany for Christmas markets.

1) Are there opportunities to sail UK to Europe (or vice versa) in late November or Early December? I mean as one leg on a big cruise ship?

2) Any flights to/from Germany or Europe, on wide bodied jets (eg UK to Munich on a plane which has come from, or ongoing to a long haul destination)? (I forget the term or the site that details them).

We can travel conventionally, but fancied a twist if possible.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
If you want different plus comfort, the big North sea ferries are definitely the way to go, especially now the Singapore Airlines flight to Germany is no more. If you just want different, there's a 32 seat dornier that flies Manchester and London to Billing, with connection by plane or train to Germany, or a little Fokker 50 that goes from London city to Antwerp.
 
30907

30907

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jopsuk said:
P&O sail from Hull to Rotterdam and to Zeebrugge - Hull involves a taxi ride from the station; Rotterdam and Zeebrugge ports apparently have connecting coach services
Click to expand...
Hull has a bus, too. Zeebrugge is almost walkable, but along a cyclepath IIRC, so the bus to Bruges is probably a better option.
 
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EAD

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Just to add on wide-body air routes, Lufthansa LH979 Dublin - Frankfurt a.M. (DUB - FRA) and of course the earlier LH978 inbound is operated by an A340-300 on Wednesdays until the end October timetable change.
 
LNW-GW Joint

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beermaddavep said:
Uk to Europe on heavy jets is only Heathrow to Madrid/Helsinki at the moment- I'm happy to learn otherwise!
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There's a Malaysian A380 on Palma-Manchester (PMI-MAN) until Sunday, but you had to have a Thomas Cook booking to use it (it's a CAA rescue flight).
Some of the passengers are grumbling about being forced to fly to Manchester (they originally booked from Gatwick/Stansted/Glasgow etc).
You can't please everyone!
 
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rf_ioliver

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beermaddavep said:
Uk to Europe on heavy jets is only Heathrow to Madrid/Helsinki at the moment- I'm happy to learn otherwise!
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This offers up the interesting possibility of an A350 (sometimes an A330) from Heathrow to Helsinki. Train ride from the airport to the city center, experience some trams and then take the ferry to Stockholm and back ... Helsinki-Stockholm is 18 hours and the ferries are huge! So, big plane, train and big ship, with authentic Christmas experiences in both Helsinki and Stockholm

Ian
 
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EssexGonzo

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You can also sail from Portsmouth to Bibao to Santander. 24 hour sail, very large for a ferry, excellent facilities.
 
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sprunt

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EssexGonzo said:
You can also sail from Portsmouth to Bibao to Santander. 24 hour sail, very large for a ferry, excellent facilities.
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You'd want good sea legs for that at this time of the year wouldn't you? I've heard that sailing across the Bay of Biscay can be unpleasant at the best of times.
 
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jopsuk

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EssexGonzo said:
You can also sail from Portsmouth to Bibao to Santander. 24 hour sail, very large for a ferry, excellent facilities.
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All of the "proper" (not Economie) Brittany Ferries fleet are nice vessels, and the crossings excellent, but even the Pont-Aven is not that far up the "big ferries" list these days (about 37th), well behind the huge P&O north sea ferries "Pride of Hull" and Pride of Rotterdam" (6th &7th) (guess which route they're on?) and the even bigger Stena Line "Stena Brittanica" and "Stena Hollandica" (4th & 5th)
 
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