repositioning

[esimon]

whose done a repositioning cruise?   which ships?  to and from?  pros and cons?   Thanks

[holacanada]

NOORDAM october 2019 from Vancouver to Sydney.

PROS : More Sea days / Less expensive to book / More time to make friends and to relate with them.

CONS : Sometimes the crew is a little exhaust bc the end of the summer/winter seasons. / Missing my very own & home Signature dishes ( Poutine for exemple ! ).

 

Edited August 15, 2019 by holacanada

[catl331]

Amsterdam, FLL to Los Angeles (ship went on to Vancouver for summer in AK).  FLL was the end point of a GWV, so about 1/3 of the crew changed there. Service was a little erratic in the MDR for a couple of days, but smoothed out. Other than that everything seemed normal.

[old mike]

 Noordam, Auckland to Vancouver 36 days spring 2017

Zaandam, Vancouver to Rio de Janiro 38 days fall 2017

Westerdam a B2B, Vancouver to Singapore 57 days fall 2018

the next one is already booked it will be another B2B for 44 days on the Zaandam,  Montreal to Rio de Janiro via the Panama canal in October 2019.

 

lWe enjoy the variation in the cultural experiences, the archealogy and obviously the scenic contrasts. We also enjoy the relaxing sea days, we find short cruises with lots of port days can be tiring.

 

The only con for us is the the need for the wide range in the necessary wardrobe, literally equatorial to sub arctic.

Edited August 15, 2019 by old mike
grammar

[Qcruise]

We live on the West coast so we do repositioning cruises a lot as they move ships in and out of the Alaska season.  This year we're on the Star next month in/out of Seattle and next year we're going to try HAL for the first time on the Kotingsdam out of San Diego going up to Vancouver.  We like these because they're usually only about four days and less expensive as well.  Princess does four day cruises up to Santa Barbara or Catalina down to Ensenada in the spring and fall and we really enjoy them.  This is a great way for us to try out HAL next April.

[mcrcruiser]

49 minutes ago, Qcruise said:

We live on the West coast so we do repositioning cruises a lot as they move ships in and out of the Alaska season.  This year we're on the Star next month in/out of Seattle and next year we're going to try HAL for the first time on the Kotingsdam out of San Diego going up to Vancouver.  We like these because they're usually only about four days and less expensive as well.  Princess does four day cruises up to Santa Barbara or Catalina down to Ensenada in the spring and fall and we really enjoy them.  This is a great way for us to try out HAL next April.

You will love Koningdam . There are many entertainment  venues from classical to Jazz to Rock  . Stop by the Dutch Cafe  & try the free Dutch goodies . The food all over the ship is great & the service above & beyond  .You might think that you are not on a main  stream type cruise line  .Don't muss the Theatre in the round shows ;but ,do get their 1/2 hour early for seating 

[RuthC]

ss Rotterdam v, Vancouver to Ft. Lauderdale
Oosterdam, Sydney to Seattle
Amsterdam, Copenhagen to NYC, Nieuw Amsterdam Barcelona to Ft. Lauderdale
Volendam, Kobe to Vancouver
Oceania, Barcelona to Miami
 

Pros:

All were long cruises, with plenty of lecturers. Most had a nice balance of sea and port days, so not too tiring.
Lovely opportunity to get to know other passengers on somewhat more than a superficial level.

Cons:
I had to disembark.

[lazey1]

Eurodam,  Copenhagen to Montreal

Eurodam,  Montreal to Fort Lauderdale  (different cruise not an extension)

upcoming: Oosterdam,  San Diego to Vancouver

 

Pros: less expensive,  longer cruises.   Cons: none

  

[YXU AC*SE]

Rotterdam - Rio de Janeiro to Lisboa

Eurodam - Amsterdam to New York City

Koningsdam - Civitavecchia to Fort Lauderdale (x2) 

Nieuw Statendam - Civitavecchia to Fort Lauderdale (inaugural + upcoming) 

 

Pros - sea days - catching up on reading and NY Times crossword puzzles stockpiled from home  Europe to NA crossings gaining an extra hour each night. Really enjoying the ship and amenities. Relaxation. Cheap per diems.   Upgrade opportunity.   

 

Cons - limited port choice.  Potential for weather (dodged two hurricanes on Eurodam - Bonnie and Earl)  Public spaces can feel somewhat crowded (especially on inclement weather days)   Weather isn't guaranteed.   Open jaw air can be tricky w/ pricing.  

 

Scott. 

 

 

 

Edited August 15, 2019 by YXU AC*SE

[kazu]

2 hours ago, RuthC said:

Cons:
I had to disembark.

 

LOL 😄 and so true.

 

OP, there are tons of repositioning cruises - TA’s over to Europe and TA’s back along with all the other ones mentioned.

 

I’d far rather cross the Atlantic on a ship than on a plane 😉 

[kwb101]

We were on Maasdam during April and May 2018, from San Diego to Boston. At least one-quarter of the passengers disembarked in Fort Lauderdale,  so things were much quieter...and it was $100 cheaper for the extra five days. We made one stop in Charleston, and it was all very relaxing...especially because we were going to visit our kids and their families (eight, count 'em, eight grandchildren) in NY and NJ, so the sea days were most welcome. 

[crystalspin]

Nieuw Amsterdam, FLL-Venice, spring 2015. This was our first TA and loved the time to relax. Had an active knitting-and-handwork group, which HAL no longer puts in the daily. After Barcelona, it was a hectic northern Mediterranean cruise with only one seaday! Did not love that as much as we thought we would and now always recommend that you pick out a port every 3-4 days to skip! At least no excursions (even walking tours) that day. 

 

Rhapsody of the Seas, Barcelona to Tampa but wound up disembarking at Port Canaveral because of a storm in the Gulf; winter 2018. We enjoyed the Canary Islands and then days of relaxation. We liked this RCI ship but it did not make us want to try one of their bigger ships.

 

Zuiderdam, FLL to Copenhagen; spring 2019. We loved this ship! We even stayed aboard at Bermuda and one of the Azores. Finding we enjoy seadays more as we age and are booked next on a 28-day So.Pacific cruise on the Oosterdam (same class ship and same location stateroom!), which is a R/T San Diego not a reposition, but will have many seadays.

 

Can't think of any cons, except that HAL no longer publicizes craft-hour and RCI only a couple of times. "If they can't sell it, they don't tell it."

[erewhon]

We have done three Trans Pacific cruises on the Volendam,  once, Vancouver to Auckland, two from Vancouver to Sydney. 

Love all the sea days, very sad to disembark.

[Hlitner]

9 hours ago, esimon said:

whose done a repositioning cruise?   which ships?  to and from?  pros and cons?   Thanks

There are likely millions who have done repo cruises :).  We have only done about 2 dozen on various ships of multiple cruise lines.  Most recently on HAL we have done a transpacific on the Oosterdam and a transatlantic on the Zuiderdam.  In a couple of months we will be doing a long repo cruise on Princess and next April we will do a 30 day on the Westerdam.    I say all this not to boast but to establish some creditability.  

 

As to pros and cons you need to consider that you do need to get yourself to the embarkation port and get home at the end of the cruise.  This can be a con for folks who do not like to fly.  Another "issue" is that many repo cruises have a lot of sea days which can be a pro (in my case) or a con depending on how much you like sea days.  Years ago we used to find that repo cruises were sold for some of the best prices in the cruise world.  But repo cruises have become a lot popular and prices are certainly higher.  

 

Repo cruises can also be used to avoid flying long distances.  The last time we wanted to spend some time in New Zealand we used the Oosterdam to get us there from Seattle (it only took a month).  We have also traveled to and from Europe on various cruises as an alternative to flying.  In fact, on a few trips we have used a repo cruise to get to Europe and the Queen Mary 2 to get home (you could do this in either direction).  The lowest cost cabin in the "Queen" was actually less expensive then flying Business Class....and we certainly enjoyed the crossing more than a flight.

 

Hank

[esimon]

thank you very much   that is wonderful info.

[JimnKaren]

We live in Florida, it is easy to fly one-way to some city in the world and then cruise back to Florida. Generally those cruise prices are a bit less than the round-trip cruises and air fares can add significantly to the cost.

We just completed Buenos Aires, through the canal to Ft. Lauderdale

Before that, it was Venice to Ft. Lauderdale.

We have done several West Coast to Ft. Lauderdale.

It was good for us moving from Illinois to Florida, just for that reason.

Jim

[Essiesmom]

2002  Star Princess Singapore - LA

2009  Oosterdam San Diego - Rome

2009  Carnival Dream  Barcelona - NYC

2011  Solstice  FLL - Barcelona

2018  Carnival Splendor   MIA - Long Beach

Currently booked on a S2S (sort of) in 2020:  Carnival Legend NYC - Dover; QM2  Soton - NYC with two days between.  We love sea days.  EM

[propwash]

So how you find out which trips are repositioning????

Thanks

 

[boom_boom]

As West Coasters we've done San Diego to Vancouver, or reverse, several times. . .

Pros - Usually cheaper fares and often not as crowded as mid-season in the prime areas.

Cons - As others have said, the crew can seem a bit exhausted at first. I think they usually get back to the usual vibe in a day or so. The last time we did this on HAL, the MDR service and quality seemed a bit off. Sometimes less entertainment.

Still we like these cruises. If we have time, we sometimes take the train to or from the port and thus avoid flying at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

m

[RuthC]

2 hours ago, propwash said:

So how you find out which trips are repositioning????

Thanks

 

Generally, they are moving from one area of the world to another, or one climate to another. So, itinerary is the best tip-off.

[cowmilker]

The last repositioning cruise we did ( Rome to Miami) cost us a whopping $37 pp pd (not including gratuities).  This was way less than airfare and ever so much nicer.  We'd just come off of two very port-intensive cruises in the Med and it was so nice to have all those sea days ending with a lovely day or two in Caribbean.

[catl331]

1 hour ago, RuthC said:

Generally, they are moving from one area of the world to another, or one climate to another. So, itinerary is the best tip-off.

Our one Prinsendam cruise was from Barcelona to FLL, but I don't consider it a repositioning because the next cruise went back to Europe.  🙂

[old mike]

9 hours ago, propwash said:

So how you find out which trips are repositioning????

Thanks

 

Typically they will be in the spring or fall, March to April and October to November.  Just have to use the cruise line search engines.

[BarbinMich]

On 8/15/2019 at 12:45 PM, esimon said:

whose done a repositioning cruise?   which ships?  to and from?  pros and cons?   Thanks

You ask a very general question and have gotten a variety of answers.  I've skimmed thru the responses, but I'm not sure that anyone has mentioned that if you're doing a TA (repositioning either westbound or eastbound across the Atlantic), you could have 5-7 days at sea.  Also, depending on the itinerary and port sailing from and port sailing to, one can do a more northerly route (could stop at Shetland Islands, Faeroe Islands, Iceland, and or Greenland on a WB repositioning) or a more southerly route (could stop at the Azores; there aren't many other places to stop at in the part of the Atlantic).  We have done 10 such cruises and enjoy the sea days, but not everyone will.  TAs are a good bargain and we like the combination of ports followed or preceded by those sea days.

[newtocruiseinblue]

For those that have done transatlantic from Fort Lauderdale to Europe: it is better to do the cruise in the spring or the fall or doesn’t matter? 

 

We really want to try this - I think we would really enjoy it! 

 

But, worried about rough seas. Since we have never done a transatlantic, my imagination runs wild with what it is like in the middle of the ocean. I bet the stars are fantastic at night!

 

Thank you in advance!