Repositioning cruise.....good, bad or indifferent?

[Laszlo]

Considering a repositioning cruise on the Dawn in January of next year, San Juan to Tampa. In the past I've read about Repo cruises being "Different" Not really sure what that means, we have sailed on the Dawn from Tampa and like the ship. She was a little warn out but has since gone through refurbishment

[Starflyr3]

We did a Pearl repo from Vancouver to LA. It was a great short cruise. The o lu thing we had to deal with was customs and immigration...it made for delayed debarkation and delayed our leaving port in SF, but not really a big deal.

[Justaddvodka68]

Considering a repositioning cruise on the Dawn in January of next year, San Juan to Tampa. In the past I've read about Repo cruises being "Different" Not really sure what that means, we have sailed on the Dawn from Tampa and like the ship. She was a little warn out but has since gone through refurbishment

 

Repos are different in that they don't round trip to the same port. So you're traveling to one place to go, and returning from a different place.

 

Without the need to get back to the home port, the itineraries are different than the usual route. For instance, we repo'd in October from NY to San Juan and we visited St. Kitts & St. Martin, two islands NCL doesn't visit often, along with Tortola & St. Thomas, two islands on a lot of eastern Caribbean itineraries.

 

They're also sometimes a bit longer. Our October 2016 cruise was 8 nights. Our upcoming one is 11.

 

We're doing another in Oct 17 and it's hitting a lot of out of the ordinary (For NCL) ports, like Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao.

[Justaddvodka68]

Considering a repositioning cruise on the Dawn in January of next year, San Juan to Tampa.

 

This is an awesome itin !

 

 

EMBARK San Juan (Puerto Rico); Philipsburg (St. Maarten); St. John's (Antigua); Fort-de-France (Martinique); Bridgetown (Barbados); Basseterre (St. Kitts); St. Thomas (US Virgin Islands); DISEMBARK Tampa (Florida)

 

Tip: If you're flying into Florida from the US, price your tickets RT wherever to Tampa and back and price a one way Tampa - San Juan. Could come out much cheaper than a one way from wherever to San Juan and a one way Tampa - wherever.

[KeithJenner]

Repositioning cruises can be different for a number of reasons.

 

They are sometimes longer than the standard cruises that the ship does. This means the entertainment is often different.

 

You may visit unusual ports, or ones not visited often, or there may be more sea days (although probably not on the itinerary you are looking at).

 

The cruise may be less busy than usual as a lot of people are put off by the need for one way flights, and aren't necessarily looking for these itineraries.

 

There are other factors as well, which do tend to make these cruises different. The only repositionings I've done are transatlantic, which tend to be very relaxed due to the sea days. I assume the one you are looking at will be quite different to that.

[Laszlo]

Thanks for the info, yes the itinerary looks great. Not bothered by the one way flights. We can fly to PR from PHL pretty easy, same as flying home from Tampa. Its a toss up right now between this cruise and the 11 day on the Gem out of NYC same period. NYC has a great perk, we can drive to the pier in 90 minutes......decisions, decisions

[Alegeeter]

I find that the Repo cruises have a different crowd too. The one I just recently did (NY to San Juan on the Gem) was much tamer than what I'm used to and in general I found the trip to much more relaxing than a typical cruise. It also felt less crowded.

 

I don't know if this is the same for all repo cruises but if so I'd love to do repo cruises more often!

[dltvermont]

Our first cruise was a repo on the Dawn from Tampa to Boston. We loved it. Only "bad" part was when we were north of Bermuda it was getting pretty cold outside so you couldnt enjoy the pool etc so about the last two days were all inside or walking outside with pants/sweatshirt etc on. Yours shouldnt be that way at all starting from San Juan and ending in Tampa.

 

The Dawn was older and smaller but we really enjoyed it. Being a longer (12 days) cruise it cut down on the kids which generally arent a problem for us anyway as they are for some.

[Justaddvodka68]

Thanks for the info, yes the itinerary looks great. Not bothered by the one way flights. We can fly to PR from PHL pretty easy, same as flying home from Tampa. Its a toss up right now between this cruise and the 11 day on the Gem out of NYC same period. NYC has a great perk, we can drive to the pier in 90 minutes......decisions, decisions

 

 

Another reason people here may refer to them as different is that you can't get the dailies. A ship that runs 15 cruises in a row, eastern Carib, and you can get the dailies someone has posted and know what each day will bring.

 

I don't mind that. It's Norwegian night out when I get my daily and it says so, and the white hot party is whenever it is. I don't feel the need to know if that's going to be on day 3 or 5. Ya know?

 

Also, we did the Gem repo and it was fantastic. Don't worry about the weather. You really book it out of there and by day 2 you're even with the Carolinas and it's warm.

[casofilia]

We love re-positioning cruises, lots of different ports, longer cruises, lots of people our age.

[delaware32]

We love repos . We've done one every year since 2008 and one booked through 2018 .

[cdnsteelman]

One of our favourite cruises was a repo on our honeymoon from Barcelona to Rotterdam. It was 14 nights and we got to hit several ports that are not on the typical itinerary (including Cagliari, Malaga, Cadiz, Vigo and Bruges) on top of some of the big Euro highlights.

[Arzeena]

Considering a repositioning cruise on the Dawn in January of next year, San Juan to Tampa. In the past I've read about Repo cruises being "Different" Not really sure what that means, we have sailed on the Dawn from Tampa and like the ship. She was a little warn out but has since gone through refurbishment

 

Go for it!

Repositioning cruises are great. The Dawn is a very nice ship.

[texastennis]

I've been thinking about the cruise after the one I'm doing in May to be a repo, but I'm not sure where to start to find them. I would like to stay with Norwegian, so is the best way to find and book one through a TA?

[casofilia]

I've been thinking about the cruise after the one I'm doing in May to be a repo, but I'm not sure where to start to find them. I would like to stay with Norwegian, so is the best way to find and book one through a TA?

 

Give an idea of where you want to go and someone here will be able to point you in the right direction. NCL does not list repositions as such.

[texastennis]

Give an idea of where you want to go and someone here will be able to point you in the right direction. NCL does not list repositions as such.

OK. I'll give it some thought.

 

Thanks, Mike.

[casofilia]

If you are interested I will tell you of two we are booked on:-

 

(Vancouver-)Honolulu-Pape'ete-Sydney

Sydney-Singapore-Hong Kong-Tokyo.

 

Last year we did:-

(Buenos Aires-)Valparaiso-San Francisco.

 

Earlier this year:-

Rome-Dubai-Singapore (then there is the reverse later this month)

 

Don't forget that all the Transatlantics are repositions too.

 

Mike

[highmath]

Our first cruise was also a repo on the Dawn, 12 days from NYC to MIA and basically circled the Caribbean. The itinerary is in my signature.

 

It's was an interesting cruise that required extra planning inbound and outbound. Overall, we enjoyed it...a little too long for us at the time, especially new to cruising, but we couldn't beat the price!(#1 reason we booked) I think that if we spent that amount of time on one of the larger ships, it definitely would have been much better. I'm glad we bought into the thermal spa passes.

 

The highlight to many repo cruises are the unusual ports visited; (#2 reason we booked)...some good, some not so. We didn't care for Samaná, DR, but loved Willemstad, Curaçao.

 

Don't fret and just enjoy the high seas!

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited February 7, 2017 by highmath

[hladygirl]

We have loved the 14 night repos from Boston over the years due to only one way flight and great itinerary so. Now the repos cruises from Boston have gotten shorter with less enticing ports. We found fall of 2018 to have a cruise for 14 nights Caribbean going from Boston round trip. The cost was high. We booked it. Sorry but flame me. We do not like a lot of kids on our cruises. The longer the cruise less kids.we took a 7 night cruise to Bermuda last October and could never go into the pool or hot tubs due to about 400 kids onboard that were in them the entire time we were onboard. We had to purchase a spa pass to use a pool or hot tub in peace.

[casofilia]

All the repositioning cruises we have done have had very few children on board and the average has been quite high.

 

I will admit we look at 20+ days minimum and preferably when school is in.

[Fiona2011]

Good to know about fewer kids being the norm on the longer cruises, which I sort of figured! Some friends and I are booked on the reposition of the Pearl from New Orleans to Seattle because we always wanted to go through the Panama Canal. April 2018 for 21 days. I expect it will be quite a different experience than our week on the Escape!

[Shawnino]

Repos used to be no great shakes because whatever you might have saved on the cruise (they are generally discounted) the airlines would soak up in one-way ticket surcharges.

 

Nowadays booking one-way airfare is no big deal, so repos often ofer great value.

 

Would not hesitate.

[LiLBxQt]

How does one find a list of all the repo cruises? Thanks in advance!

 

 

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[Laszlo]

How does one find a list of all the repo cruises? Thanks in advance!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

NCL used to have them in their pick of destinations. I have not seen it in the list in a while. You can start by choosing a longer cruise and go from there.

[hawkeyetlse]

How does one find a list of all the repo cruises?

There are cruise search engines that allow you to filter results based on this criterion (round trip itinerary vs. one-way). I can't name the website but try Googling "cruise finder" and "starting and ending in differnt ports" (spell it exactly like that) and it should come up.

 

This is assuming that reposition and "one-way" mean the same thing, which for a lot of people, they do not. But it'll get you started.