Transatlantic (and Transpacific) - What Do You Like?

[SoloAlaska]

19 minutes ago, Bateau_de_croisiere said:

Really debating on doing Ovation this April from Hawaii to Vancouver. I figure Ovation is a bigger ship with plenty to do and different dining experiences. Anyone have experience with this reposition?

How many consecutive sea days is it? I think my max number is 6 no matter the size of the ship. 

[Bateau_de_croisiere]

5 days

[Another_Critic]

2 hours ago, Bateau_de_croisiere said:

Really debating on doing Ovation this April from Hawaii to Vancouver. I figure Ovation is a bigger ship with plenty to do and different dining experiences. Anyone have experience with this reposition?

 

I did 8 night non-stop transatlantics on both Quantum and Anthem.

[Teeara]

On 2/14/2024 at 11:05 PM, fac429 said:

Seems like quite a few people get very excited about the transpacific and transatlantic cruises.  And while I definitely enjoy being on a ship, the longest cruise I've been on was a week and its hard for me to picture ship life for days at a time without any port stops.  So I'm just curious- what do people like about these cruises?  Do they get boring?  What's the vibe like on that type of cruise?

 

Thanks!

I'm linking the Cruise Compasses for the Wonder WB TA in 2022 to give you an idea as to what to expect.  We had 8 sea days and it was a great cruise.  Very relaxing and you could do as much or as little as you wanted.  We were never bored.

 

Wonder of the Seas 2022 WB TA cruise compasses

[silentbob007]

Done both TA and TP. The TP was 23 days and I was ready to get off at the end (getting sick didn’t help). Trivia is always a big deal if you enjoy that. Otherwise it’s a great time to just do what you want. 

[Teeara]

1 hour ago, silentbob007 said:

Done both TA and TP. The TP was 23 days and I was ready to get off at the end (getting sick didn’t help). Trivia is always a big deal if you enjoy that. Otherwise it’s a great time to just do what you want. 

Did you depart from LA or Vancouver or Australia and on which ship?  I've already done SF to HI, but wouldn't mind doing Vancouver to Australia or HI to Australia..  Sorry to hear you were sick!

[silentbob007]

51 minutes ago, Teeara said:

Did you depart from LA or Vancouver or Australia and on which ship?  I've already done SF to HI, but wouldn't mind doing Vancouver to Australia or HI to Australia..  Sorry to hear you were sick!

It was Sydney to Seattle on Explorer. It was a long string of sea days from Hawaii to Seattle for sure. It was a little bit of everything for me on that cruise. A little noro. A gout flare. Then ending with a sinus infection. You definitely realize his far you are from anything when your closest port is four days away and that is the place you just left. Beautiful stops though. 

[steveru621]

13 hours ago, Bateau_de_croisiere said:

Really debating on doing Ovation this April from Hawaii to Vancouver. I figure Ovation is a bigger ship with plenty to do and different dining experiences. Anyone have experience with this reposition?

 

The problem is not the ship class or sea days.  It's the number of ports.

 

We did Honolulu to Vancouver twice when it was 12 days.  The itinerary included an overnight on Maui, one stop on Kauai, and two stops on the big island.  The new itinerary is not a good way to see Hawaii.

 

I understand there are 'issues' with Maui and the big island.  We are on the 2024 Sydney to Honolulu leg but opted not to continue.

[spunks]

We have done 26 TA's and one TP. It is the best of cruising in our opinion. We prefer the Westbound TA's because we have no jet lag when we get home. We have learned that when you fly into Europe, we simply stay awake that first day as long as we can stand it till maybe 8PM and then sleep like we were dead till the next morning. When we wake up we are fine....no jet lag. However, sailing to Europe and flying home takes days to get over.

 

What we like about the sea days is easy....the whole ship is open. There is so much to do that we have to tightly schedule to avoid conflicts. I agree that we have to choose between bridge and trivia.

[Teeara]

1 hour ago, silentbob007 said:

It was Sydney to Seattle on Explorer. It was a long string of sea days from Hawaii to Seattle for sure. It was a little bit of everything for me on that cruise. A little noro. A gout flare. Then ending with a sinus infection. You definitely realize his far you are from anything when your closest port is four days away and that is the place you just left. Beautiful stops though. 

Oh no!  That sucks.  I hope you got well quickly in spite of everything.  Being sick at sea is no fun.

 

Question: How many time zones did you have to go through for this cruise?

[crzndeb]

1 hour ago, Teeara said:

Question: How many time zones did you have to go through for this cruise?

Hey there,

 

I have done several TP’s and another one coming up in Oct. I have no clue how many actual time zones it is. When you cross the International Dateline, you skip a whole day going over, and repeat a day coming back to the US. It is very confusing…LOL

I just did the 5 legs from Sydney to Seattle on Ovation last March. I should have made note of all the time changes.

[OldCaver]

On 2/20/2024 at 10:12 AM, spunks said:

We have done 26 TA's and one TP. It is the best of cruising in our opinion. We prefer the Westbound TA's because we have no jet lag when we get home. We have learned that when you fly into Europe, we simply stay awake that first day as long as we can stand it till maybe 8PM and then sleep like we were dead till the next morning. When we wake up we are fine....no jet lag. However, sailing to Europe and flying home takes days to get over.

 

What we like about the sea days is easy....the whole ship is open. There is so much to do that we have to tightly schedule to avoid conflicts. I agree that we have to choose between bridge and trivia.

Same experiences for me. I find that taking a four hour nap on arrival in Europe gets you all synced up right away.
Love those sea days, no shortage of things to do. Sometimes after six sea days or so, I would get up in the monring, look out and see land, and it seemed weird, somehow.

[mugtech]

         One other advantage of TA's, they have the best 12 step program meetings.

[Teeara]

On 2/20/2024 at 1:59 PM, crzndeb said:

Hey there,

 

I have done several TP’s and another one coming up in Oct. I have no clue how many actual time zones it is. When you cross the International Dateline, you skip a whole day going over, and repeat a day coming back to the US. It is very confusing…LOL

I just did the 5 legs from Sydney to Seattle on Ovation last March. I should have made note of all the time changes.

Hi Deb!  Time to start taking notes ;o)