Repositioning cruises?

Has anyone done a re-positioning cruise? My wife and I are contemplating doing either The Carnival Legend one to Hawaii or The Explorer of the Seas one to Seattle and we wondered if anyone has any experience with these (or similar) cruises? Are they any different to other cruises and what should we expect?

We are also wondering if it better to cruise there in April and fly home, or wait until September/October and fly there and cruise home? One advantage I can see with flying first is there is no baggage limits on the return trip after my wife goes shopping over there :)

Our last cruise was Sydney to Hong Kong on Golden Princess. We loved it.

Typically you get more sea days on a repositioning cruise, which suits us.

We've also done a couple of one-way cruises - Auckland to Sydney and Fremantle to Sydney.

Personally I think it's nicer to get the annoying air-travel over first, then cruise home but sometimes an opportunity pops up that involves cruising first then flying home.

Never done one, because flying is out. But sis did Hawaii to Aus last year on solstice said the only real difference was more sea days than she was used too, but the itinerary will tell you that anyway.

As a lover of sea days it'd suit me fine.

Has anyone done a re-positioning cruise? My wife and I are contemplating doing either The Carnival Legend one to Hawaii or The Explorer of the Seas one to Seattle and we wondered if anyone has any experience with these (or similar) cruises? Are they any different to other cruises and what should we expect?

 

We are also wondering if it better to cruise there in April and fly home, or wait until September/October and fly there and cruise home? One advantage I can see with flying first is there is no baggage limits on the return trip after my wife goes shopping over there :)

I've done Honolulu to Sydney on Rhapsody in September and the main difference is the sea days between Honolulu and whatever your next port will be. Pago Pago in my case.

I seem to recall it was about 6 sea days and I was getting a bit twitchy by the end of it.

If your cruise goes via NZ, then I think it might be a tad warmer there in April than in Sept/Oct. If you stay in the tropics it won't matter.

Done about six. Four transatlantic and two Sydney to Singapore or Perth to Singapore.

Repositioning cruises are our very favourite. Lots of sea days and lots of different ports to explore. Go for it :)

We've done several, the longest being 30 days from Galveston, TX to Dubai. We love them but they aren't for everyone. If you don't love sea days, you might not enjoy these cruises as much as we do.

I can't speak of other cruise lines but Royal Caribbean usually have activities all day long so you can be busy or not, depending on what you like to do.

We enjoy the Sea days but must say we preferred the on-board entertainment we had on our Carnival cruise than on our Royal Caribbean Explorer of the Seas cruise so we may have to think about that.

The Carnival Legend cruise is Sydney, Noumea, Denauru, Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora & Honolulu in April 2017; the return in September 2017 is Honolulu, Bora Bora, Tahiti, Moorea, Suva, Noumea, Sydney.

The Explorer of the Seas is (April 2017) Sydney, Noumea, Lifou, Mystery Island, Suva, Lautoka, Honolulu, Maui, Seattle; the return (September 2017) is Seattle, Maui, Honolulu, Lautoka, Suva, Mystery Island, Lifou, Mare & Sydney.

So Explorer visits more ports but is an extra 6 nights and when you add the tipping & AU/US conversion is also more expensive (the cost isnt a deal breaker at this stage).

I've two repositions from Canada to California.... thoughts...

• love the price. The inside cabins are CHEAPER than driving.
  
• there may be more maintenance like repainting or plumbing not working.
  
• once you leave the protected waters of Seattle, the Pacific can have rougher waters.
  
• some services may not be the same as 7 day show. Examples... videos (there are limited port days or none). Shows.... there are fewer cruise days for shows.
  

We really like the repos - sea days are just a real holiday! Sprinkle in a few ports & life is good.

In Oct 2013 we did Singapore to Sydney - 14N on Voyager OTS & really enjoyed it.

In Aug/Sept/Oct 2014 we did Vancouver - Sydney repo via Hawaii on Rhapsody OTS. It was actually B2B with 7N Alaska cruise, so we did B2B2B - 34 nights in total!

I think fly there, cruise back is always going to be the best option.

We love the Royal Caribbean experience & realise the Fx rate is a factor right now, but it is just money, right :)

Our only experience on Carnival (Spirit) was very good also, but it was a 'theme' cruise as in Melbourne Cup, so even though 8N, we probably didn't get the typical Carnival experience - but we are going again on Carnival just to check it out :D Oh & then 29N on Sun Princess!

The Carnival Legend cruise is Sydney, Noumea, Denauru, Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora & Honolulu in April 2017; the return in September 2017 is Honolulu, Bora Bora, Tahiti, Moorea, Suva, Noumea, Sydney.

 

The Explorer of the Seas is (April 2017) Sydney, Noumea, Lifou, Mystery Island, Suva, Lautoka, Honolulu, Maui, Seattle; the return (September 2017) is Seattle, Maui, Honolulu, Lautoka, Suva, Mystery Island, Lifou, Mare & Sydney.

 

So Explorer visits more ports but is an extra 6 nights and when you add the tipping & AU/US conversion is also more expensive (the cost isnt a deal breaker at this stage).

I must say I like the Carnival itinerary better. There are heaps of cruises that visit Fiji and New Caledonia but very few that go to Bora Bora, Tahiti and Moorea.

Princess also do repo cruises across to the US - Emerald is going over next April, plus you can do sectors of their Circle Pacific cruise, and they usually do a Sydney round trip to Hawaii and back.

On other thing to considerer - I believe Princess is going to change to AUD onboard costs on all Australian repo cruises that start or finish in Australia, plus the Circle Pacific sectors are all AUD, as is the Hawaii return cruise.

We did Hawaii to Canada on Solstice. I think there were 5 sea days after we did the Hawaiian islands. Surprisingly the sea was dead calm the entire way. I love sea days and there didn't appear to be any difference between the repositioning cruise and a regular one as far as entertainment and dining were concerned. I'd definitely like to do the Seattle to Sydney via Tahiti as I've previously cruised around Tahiti and the Cook Islands on Princess but hubby hasn't. It is absolutely breathtaking.

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We did Carnival Spirit Singapore to Sydney after its dry dock.

It was good to fly there have a few super busy days exploring and then a bit of a rest on the cruise back.

Yes our bags were a lot fuller getting on the ship then what we left home with and after a stop in Bali and Lombok where we bought more bags that we also filled.

Just be aware anyone doing a cruise after dry dock everything may not be finished and there will be teething problems.

Due to so many complaints Carnival were more then fair offering us a refund of 25% of our fares which made our cruise very cheap 16 nights in a Balcony cabin just over $900.

On a longer cruise you probably won't be overrun with children there was only 150 on ours.

We have done three now. Trans Atlantic on Celebrity Reflection, Barcelona to Shanghai on Quantum of The Seas and Sydney to Singapore on Voyager. We will almost certainly be cruising Sydney to Seattle on Explorer next April.

We enjoy the longer cruises and while repositioning cruises also carry the extra expense of air travel we try to offset the perday cost of the air by adding other cruises and/or land travel at the destination or embarkation location.

The demographics are generally less children and also less of the crazy party crowd but these things don't really effect us one way or other. I think we enjoy the longer voyages because it allows us to meet and get to know people on board a little better and possibly due to the fact that I don't really start to get my cruise/relaxation pace until 3 or 4 days into a trip.

Repos can also be had at crazy low per day prices but generally they only start to appear 3 months or so out but air costs at the same time may not be cheap.

To counteract this we now book air early and just sit on the cruise price until it (almost invariably) comes down. This only works if cabin location is not important. Explorer in April has very few balconies left but large amounts of inside and OV cabins and I expect to get a price around $1500 in December or January. Of course we could get stuck with a higher fare but there are many ways to monitor cabin availability in order to reasonably predict price movement.

If we go with the Carnival option and sail from Hawaii to Sydney, will the cruise still be $AUD onboard and no tipping or will it be $US onboard?

I love the relocation cruises and the numerous sea days that normally come with them. I have only done them on Princess and X but I would imagine that the basics would be similar across all the lines. Slightly older demographic than a 7 day round trip cruise due to length of the cruise and season changes. You will love it if you enjoy the sea days.:D

I went on a repo cruise from Bne to HK in April and had a great time. The length of the cruise allowed us to get to know the staff and passengers a lot better. I always made it to the schooner bar at about 5pm and caught up with the same people. It was like dropping into the local.

I have booked another repo for April 2017, from Sydney to Seattle. I am sure that we will have a great time again.

I meant to add, I have done numerous Trans Pacific's, one via Hawaii and one across the northern pacific, also a Transatlantic and a Trans Indian/southern Ocean cruise. The most sea days in a row has been 7 and it was glorious.

That would be wonderful, Mic.

After four sea days in a row on our last cruise I was grumbling about having a port day in Darwin. I wanted more sea days. :D

Still, we had a nice Japanese bento box lunch there.

If we go with the Carnival option and sail from Hawaii to Sydney, will the cruise still be $AUD onboard and no tipping or will it be $US onboard?

We did Carnival Legend Honolulu to Sydney last year and all prices on board were $AU , plus plenty of free drinks on two nights as they need to get rid of US grog before the Australian season.

We did Carnival Legend Honolulu to Sydney last year and all prices on board were $AU , plus plenty of free drinks on two nights as they need to get rid of US grog before the Australian season.

Free Drinks....WOOHOO!!! :D:D:D

The world needs lots more of that. Sign me up :)

Hi Woodywren we to are watching the one from Sydney to Seattle we hope to tack on a Alaska cruise a few days after we get to Seattle, how do you go about visas if you leave it late to book?

Jacquie

Hi Woodywren we to are watching the one from Sydney to Seattle we hope to tack on a Alaska cruise a few days after we get to Seattle, how do you go about visas if you leave it late to book?

Jacquie

Just another cruiser piping in with my two cents. Completed a transpacific from Honolulu to Sydney on Radiance in 2014 it was absolutely the best cruise.

We loved the length of it, and the banks of sea days. From memory we had two banks either side of Tahiti of 5 days. It was super relaxing. There was plenty to do, but we just soaked it up. It went a lot more quickly than I would have imagined also. Was very envious of some of our cruise mates who were onboard for another two cruises after our arrival back home in Sydney.

Tahiti is absolutely wonderful - Bora Bora in particular is absolute paradise. I would try to include that in your decision making process, if you haven't been there previously.

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