Transatlantic clientele

[Chardo]

Looking into a transatlantic repositioning cruise, and wondering who typically takes such cruises. I'm speculating that they are mostly older, as who else has the time (not to mention money) to take a 3 week vacation in spring or fall? Anyone with experience that can comment on transatlantic cruisers?

[NMLady]

Looking into a transatlantic repositioning cruise, and wondering who typically takes such cruises. I'm speculating that they are mostly older, as who else has the time (not to mention money) to take a 3 week vacation in spring or fall? Anyone with experience that can comment on transatlantic cruisers?

 

We've done half a dozen transatlantics. While most of the passengers are retired there are always younger ones as well. There are also sometimes a few children.

[navybankerteacher]

Because there are almost always three or so weeks involved - more if time is spent before or after sailing - it is obvious that most passengers would be of retirement age. That said, cost is usually much less than that for a Caribbean itinerary - our 16 day Rome to Ft. Lauderdale in a balcony cabin cost just over $1,500 each, much less than a comparable cabin on that length cruise in the Caribbean ---T/A's rarely sell out - precisely because of the time requirement, no so much the cost.

[Chardo]

I know it's a good value on a per day basis, but it's still a big price tag when adding flights, pre/post cruise activity, 15 days of on board charges, tips, etc.

Edited January 12, 2015 by Chardo

[Padraic]

I know it's a good value on a per day basis, but it's still a big price tag when adding flights

 

Unless of course you have someone in the family in the airline business. :)

[cathammer]

They're going to skew fairly old, few children. They're often relative bargains (although return transportation has to be considered), but the amount of time, especially if adding other travel pre or post cruise, and the fact that most occur during the school year tend to favor that demographic.

 

Meal service, especially dinner, might stretch out a bit. We've seen some of the few people that did have young ones give up on the main room dining with bored, fidgety, children after the first night or two.

[crystalspin]

We are sailing on the Nieuw Amsterdam (Holland America Line) 8 April to 4 May of this year. My husband has a full-time medical practice, with partners, but it was touch-n-go if he could get that much time off at that time... he managed to block it out before anyone else had put in for it!

 

I think he's trying out longer vacations to see what being retired will feel like! He's mid-sixties and I am mid-fifties. I did not go back to work after I was down-sized out of my job in the mid 1990's. I do some technical writing, and I manage the nuts and bolts of the many trips we take. I think we are "young" for our ages!

[AKman2495]

We are taking the Royal Princess in September. We are in our 60's and decided a couple of years ago to go cruising now, while we are still healthy to get around.

 

You will do a lot of walking on ships and in ports. Best to do it while you can.

 

We know too many people we were waiting for the right time-only to ever make it or to find themselves incapacitated.

 

A 15 day TA is a great cruise. I expect few children and a lot of interesting people to meet in the way over.

[pris993]

We have done about 6 TA in past 15 years, we are both retired, DH is 82 and I am 68; both of us are active for our age, walk daily and enjoy sea days a lot. We usually look for a TA that has some ports of interest on the itinerary... in general a good value, we usually try bank airline mile to help us with the airfare issue, for example on our last TA, we used miles for a one way back from Barcelona and only booked and paid for a one to Miami.

[marco]

If you're taking a "repo" TA, they are usually at least 2 weeks, and just about always while schools are in session. Thus hardly ever any children on board. If you are taking a Cunarder between NYC and Britain, especially in the summer months and the voyage is 6 or 7 days, there usually are a decent number of kids aboard.

[flamomo]

I like to tack another cruise on before a T/A. In 2013 I booked a 12 day cruise from Southampton to FLL. After seeing what the flight to London was going to cost, I figured I might as well get my money's worth out of that cost, and added a r/t Southampton to the Canary Islands on the same ship, to make a total of 26 days.

[lamchops]

I know it's a good value on a per day basis, but it's still a big price tag when adding flights, pre/post cruise activity, 15 days of on board charges, tips, etc.

 

Those of you who live on the east coast and can find cheap transportation to Toronto or Montreal Canada may catch a one-way flight to London Gatwick and sail out of Southampton.

 

Air Transat & Canadian Affair are offering one-way flights this fall for about $432cdn which currently is about $365us.

 

 

West coasters can do this from Vancouver for $554cdn or $465us. I think the price will drop as I've never paid more than $500cdn for my flight to Gatwick.

 

I did this from Vancouver in 2012 for $500cdn and did a $900 TA before flying home from FLL.

Edited January 13, 2015 by lamchops

[Chardo]

Don't care about having kids on board (mine will be at college), but we're in our 40's and I fear such a cruise would be like traveling with a bunch of my parents' friends. For a sociable vacation like a cruise, I would like some others in my generation.

[LHT28]

Don't care about having kids on board (mine will be at college), but we're in our 40's and I fear such a cruise would be like traveling with a bunch of my parents' friends. For a sociable vacation like a cruise, I would like some others in my generation.

 

Why not get a group of your friends to go with you on the cruise

 

We enjoy meeting people of all ages over 25 ;)

[Hlitner]

We have done over 20 TA repositioning cruises and do think that the clientele falls into a few categories. There are the seniors and younger folks who see these cruises as good bargains....and couple them with one-way air to get to or from the ship. And then there are those (such as moi) who see these cruises as an alternative to round trip air...and utilize them as a way to get to (or from Europe) where we then spend significant time driving (some like to train) around the continent.

 

I should also mention that it does seem like most of us who do these Transatlantic and even Transpacific Cruises love our lazy days at sea. In fact, DW and I used to talk about doing a cruise "to nowhere" and recently tested that theory on a 14 day Caribbean cruise where we never got off the ship in any of its 9 ports (other then 5 min in St Maarten). We loved staying on the ship so much during the port days we are considering repeating the entire experience again next November.

 

Hank

[madascharley]

we have done 2 t/a and are both in our late 40s early 50s. the cost is usually cheaper than 2 weeks in the carribien. there are a few older people on these cruises but I don't think the price has anything to do with this I believe it is because younger people find it hard to get more than 2 weeks off from work.

[FTLcruisers]

on our last TA, I was surprised to see that there were several families traveling with several young children on board.

 

There was also a military couple traveling who used the cruise ship to transport the goods they needed for their new home in the US since they knew the rest of their belongings would take several weeks to reach them - thought that was interesting!

 

Marianne

[Markanddonna]

I think the age demographics also depends on which cruise line you choose. I won't mention the name, but one line was reported as they average age being 72 while a more mainstream line like NCL or RCCL would be more like 62. I think you will find a few walker/wheelchairs on any TA but most people tend to be very active and fit. I did see one small group of very elderly that were being cared for by one nurse.

 

As far as kids, we have seen only a dozen on one TA but the last one to the Baltic region had quite a few (although no more than 100). More preschoolers and children traveling with missionary parents, etc. Children on a TA have never presented a problem although I have never been on a sailing where the children were overtly naughty. Lucky me.

 

If you are in the middle, I wouldn't hesitate to book a TA. Many of the other passengers will be older, but they will likely share many of your interests and are a great source of knowledge about traveling. People who take TAs are often well traveled.

[Chardo]

I think the age demographics also depends on which cruise line you choose. I won't mention the name, but one line was reported as they average age being 72 while a more mainstream line like NCL or RCCL would be more like 62. I think you will find a few walker/wheelchairs on any TA but most people tend to be very active and fit. I did see one small group of very elderly that were being cared for by one nurse.

 

As far as kids, we have seen only a dozen on one TA but the last one to the Baltic region had quite a few (although no more than 100). More preschoolers and children traveling with missionary parents, etc. Children on a TA have never presented a problem although I have never been on a sailing where the children were overtly naughty. Lucky me.

 

If you are in the middle, I wouldn't hesitate to book a TA. Many of the other passengers will be older, but they will likely share many of your interests and are a great source of knowledge about traveling. People who take TAs are often well traveled.

 

Come on, mention the name!

[kimlovesfl]

I am thinking about a TA Nov 2016, mostly because it is the cheapest way to see some wonderful ports in Europe. I honestly don't care how old the passengers are, as long as there aren't a lot of bratty, noisy children, or whiners. I lived in Palm Beach county for 8.5 years, and it was notorious for "whiny old people" as I called them.

[sail7seas]

I am thinking about a TA Nov 2016, mostly because it is the cheapest way to see some wonderful ports in Europe. I honestly don't care how old the passengers are, as long as there aren't a lot of bratty, noisy children, or whiners. I lived in Palm Beach county for 8.5 years, and it was notorious for "whiny old people" as I called them.

 

There is only One way to not grow old. The alternative is not attractive to many. :D If we are really, really lucky, we will be old one day.

[navybankerteacher]

The one-way trans-Atlantic air fare to tie in with a repositioning is prohibitive if you try to book it on your own. However HAL and Celebrity (among others) can line you up with special fares - make sure you book them yourself - do not let the line do it - and you can pretty well select dare and time of flight, choose seats, etc. As an example, in connection with our November T/A on HAL, we got airfare from JFK to Rome plus back to JFK from Fort Lauderdale for about $840 each - something you could not match on your own.

[Markanddonna]

I would check out this airline- not at all associated with NCL and also skyscanner.com. The RCL/Celebrity line has choiceair which can be a good option, but know that they only "guarantee" you get to your ship's sailing. We had trouble during the Hurricane Sandy time with our flight to Europe- several days before the sailing. That is when we found out that little known detail. We would have lost out on several days in Rome before our TA if I hadn't made valiant efforts with hours on hold.

 

BTW- I took a Norwegian Airlines flight within Europe and it was great- a budget airline where you need to add on extras but it certainly is a good option to check! They fly to JFK and FLL and periodically to Orlando.

Edited January 15, 2015 by Markanddonna

[Hlitner]

The one-way trans-Atlantic air fare to tie in with a repositioning is prohibitive if you try to book it on your own. However HAL and Celebrity (among others) can line you up with special fares - make sure you book them yourself - do not let the line do it - and you can pretty well select dare and time of flight, choose seats, etc. As an example, in connection with our November T/A on HAL, we got airfare from JFK to Rome plus back to JFK from Fort Lauderdale for about $840 each - something you could not match on your own.

 

While this used to be very true, times have changed. There are some airlines that will now sell a well priced one-way fare and there are even airlines (such as Aer Lingus) that sell one-way at half the cost of round trip. That being said, we agree that its wise to check-out the cruise line offered airfares.

 

I would add that we have also used another strategy for repositioning cruises to and from Europe. We simply buy a round trip air ticket that will cover two repositioning cruises. Half the ticket gets us to Europe so we can catch a ship back to the US and the other half of the ticket brings us home after taking a cruise to Europe from the USA. Since airline tickets can be purchased up to 330 days prior to the flight, this strategy easily handles both a fall and spring repositioning cruise.

 

Another strategy got us free airfare to visit Ireland. We did a repo cruise to Europe and then purchased one-way Aer Lingus flights back to the USA. Aer Lingus allows a lengthy stopover (used to be up to 2 weeks) in Ireland, so we stopped in Ireland and spent more then a week before continuing home. One can do the same type strategy with Icelandic Air and stopover in Iceland for a few days.

 

Hank

Edited January 15, 2015 by Hlitner

[navybankerteacher]

While this used to be very true, times have changed. There are some airlines that will now sell a well priced one-way fare and there are even airlines (such as Aer Lingus) that sell one-way at half the cost of round trip. That being said, we agree that its wise to check-out the cruise line offered airfares.

 

I would add that we have also used another strategy for repositioning cruises to and from Europe. We simply buy a round trip air ticket that will cover two repositioning cruises. Half the ticket gets us to Europe so we can catch a ship back to the US and the other half of the ticket brings us home after taking a cruise to Europe from the USA. Since airline tickets can be purchased up to 330 days prior to the flight, this strategy easily handles both a fall and spring repositioning cruise.

 

Another strategy got us free airfare to visit Ireland. We did a repo cruise to Europe and then purchased one-way Aer Lingus flights back to the USA. Aer Lingus allows a lengthy stopover (used to be up to 2 weeks) in Ireland, so we stopped in Ireland and spent more then a week before continuing home. One can do the same type strategy with Icelandic Air and stopover in Iceland for a few days.

 

Hank

 

Seconded - the round trip to accomodate two T/A's is an ideal way to handle the flying aspect. We did it one year, but with grandchildrens' graduations and other travel plans, one T/A per year seems our limit for the time being.

 

In any event it pays to check all options.