Thoughts on a transatlantic?

[lbt43]

Hi All, thinking of doing a TA in November from BCN to Orlando. Have you ever done a TA? What are your thoughts?

[buchhalm]

I would LOVE to do a trans Atlantic. A whole long stretch of sea days with just switching off.

But in NOVEMBER? I would imagine that could be a bit bouncy....

[Clarea]

We've done a few and enjoy them very much. We took ours in October and November, from Europe to Florida and New Orleans, and pretty much had constant moderate motion.

[easyboy]

We like staying on a ship. Gives us so much relaxation. The lot of sea days on a TA provides us that enjoyment, including activities onboard.

 

 

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[Krazy Kruizers]

We have done them as well -- New York to Southampton in June.

Loved the relaxing sea days. Smooth seas for us.

[paul929207]

We have enjoyed the three we have done.

[jocap]

We do these every January... twice, in fact, because we go from the UK to the Caribbean, then sail back to the UK again. Absolutely love every minute at sea, with lots of activities all the time. OH goes mainly for the snorkelling in winter, but I go just for the 18 sea days.

[cocod08]

Hi All, thinking of doing a TA in November from BCN to Orlando. Have you ever done a TA? What are your thoughts?

 

 

 

If your looking at the TA on the Epic there are a bunch of us sailing on it and it's our first TA. It's a very active roll call with meet and greet, a slot pull, cabin crawl and a pub crawl planned. Check out the roll call for more info.

 

 

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[SelectSys]

I am sad that I don't have the time to go next year after the last two. It is a great cruise and we made several new friends on both our transatlantic cruises.

[Shmoo here]

I would LOVE to do a trans Atlantic. A whole long stretch of sea days with just switching off.

But in NOVEMBER? I would imagine that could be a bit bouncy....

Done 2 TransAtlantics (East and West bound).

 

Westbound in Sept/Oct - seas like glass (totally un-typical for that time period). Eastbound in May - 5 days (and nights) of rough, cold, seas and wind. Loved it.

 

I'd do a TransAtlantic every year, if I could.

[navybankerteacher]

October and early November has the Atlantic at its warmest - and, unless there has been recent tropical storm activity (and, as a matter of fact, the odds are strongly against there being any) you will have much better weather than on an eastbound earlier in the year.

 

From Gibraltar to Florida you are likely to have temps in the 70's at the beginning to low 80's as you near Florida.

[Sequim88]

Done two and it is the best way to visit a lot of places. Take your floating hotel with you. Eager to try Fall TA (Westbound) sometime to have the sea days to recover on AFTER all the port-port-port hecticness. Trade off is late hurricane season and residual warmer water temps making for more storminess in Atlantic but we aren't susceptible to seasickness so not a big deal for us.

 

Only problem for us now is they are a huge commitment of time and new job means less vacation time (2 weeks vs. 4 weeks formerly). We usually figured a night or two pre-cruise and several post-cruise in Europe so needed at least three weeks. Now also considering Hawaii R/T from Vancouver BC - lots of sea days each way on those too.

[NMLady]

Hi All, thinking of doing a TA in November from BCN to Orlando. Have you ever done a TA? What are your thoughts?

 

We've done 7 transatlantics, some in each direction. We prefer the west bound ones because an hour is added to the day each time zone change.

 

We've done some ta's in November and were lucky sometimes to have smooth seas. One time though the route was changed from northern to southern and our Azores port was skipped because of choppy seas.

 

We wouldn't hesitate to take another ta in November.

 

We love the relaxing non-schedule of all the sea days, sometimes choosing to join activities and sometimes not.

[Nebr.cruiser]

We've done three TA's, all eastbound in April. We love them and would love to do a westbound too, but that doesn't work as well with our schedule. Love the sea day!

[ger_77]

We've been on 2 - we took our first Westbound TA to celebrate my early retirement; we enjoyed it so much we went again last year. Both times we had great weather and smooth seas - in fact, for a couple of days in a row, the ocean looked like glass, it was wonderful. We had such a good time on last year's TA that we're taking another at the end of October this year and can't wait to enjoy the sea days in our floating hotel. I'm thinking after 3 years in a row, it might be the start of an annual tradition!

 

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

[ronrick1943]

If you like sea days and really enjoy the time at sea---you'll have a great time. We love TA's.

[BlueRiband]

I've done seven transatlantics but all on the only ocean liner in service, QM2. Since the North Atlantic weather can be bad even in the summer months Cunard excels at indoor lectures, entertainment, and diversions for the seven days.

 

You however are looking at a cruise ship repositioning so that's entirely different. How do you take to sea days? If you hate more than one then this isn't a voyage for you. It can get pretty boring on a line that normally specializes in port intensive cruises.

[Keith1010]

We have done several crossings including something similar to the one you are looking at.

 

It really provides a lot of time to enjoy the ship.

 

I highly recommend them for those who enjoy sea days.

 

Keith

[babs135]

Quite simply Go For It. We've done Southampton to Miami in late November/early December and apart from some bad weather around the Azores which meant we couldn't dock :( the seas were calm. We also had the advantage that as it was a southern transatlantic crossing we had warm weather and were able to sit outside during the middle of the day.

[SbbquilterUT]

Our first TA was last Oct - retirement gift to ourselves. BCN to Tampa on Brilliance OTS. We had moderate weather in Barcelona (plan on time in that wonderful city - in 3 days we only scratched the surface). Nice weather in Granada, fog obscured the top of the Rock in Gibraltar. Then very smooth sailing to Tampa - love having the time to truly enjoy the ship and sit and look at the ocean. Planning another in 2019.

[taglovestocruise]

We are doing our 4th this October. This will be our longest with 10 straight sea days and then 5 port days in the Caribbean before FLL. Next year were booked on Symphony of the Seas Barcelona to Miami. All have been westbound and all have had great weather. Lot of fun people and the last one on Allure had a total of 16 kids. happy cruising

[lbt43]

Great thoughts by all!

[marco]

We've done several. If you enjoy sea days...you'll be fine

[juliana13]

We have crossed the Atlantic several times with Celebrity. 13 nights from Southampton to Miami. It's great to spend some sea days doing quizzes, art classes, computer classes apart from relaxation with no interruptions from mobile phones. We stopped at various ports on the way. Everything is the same as regular cruising with good entertainment, excellent food, nice people to chat to. Not too much sunbathing until you get past the Azores and more southerly in November. We were only caught with bad weather once and got the tail end of hurricane Sandy. Otherwise, all good.

[cruisegoal100]

We have done 12 T/As...about 6 in each direction. There are advantages/disadvantages to each. We personally prefer eastbound because the seas are usually like glass, especially if you take the southern route. However, we don't enjoy losing an hour almost each night during the crossing. Westbound is great because you gain an extra hour of sleep almost every nite during the crossing. However, if you take the northern route weather can be an issue...especially since it's still hurricane season, although if there's an issue they will do an alternate route.

 

Have met a number of really nice people on T/As including a couple who we are now very close friends with and often cruise together with. Have also met a number of Europeans who are snowbirds in Florida and use the T/A to get back and forth vice flying.

 

Recommend you try a T/A as long as you like at sea days.