East or West Transatlantic?

[ORTravelGal]

17 hours ago, *Miss G* said:

I must have been on the same sailing as @ORTravelGal We were on the Rotterdam and the time changes were the same. 

Yes, we were there! Great trip. Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. 

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Both ways is a great way to travel.

[QuattroRomeo]

Very helpful thread! We are considering an eastbound and I hoped it would be enough to ease us into the new time zone.

[QuattroRomeo]

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Edited Sunday at 02:22 PM by QuattroRomeo
duplicate

[FLCruiser97]

5 hours ago, Gail & Marty sailing away said:

Both ways is a great way to travel.

Just curious...I would love to do round trip TAs, however, wouldn't you have to stay in Europe from Spring to Fall or vise versa? That's about 6 months. 

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

45 minutes ago, FLCruiser97 said:

Just curious...I would love to do round trip TAs, however, wouldn't you have to stay in Europe from Spring to Fall or vise versa? That's about 6 months. 

We fly one way into Amsterdam every August. And take the ship back to Florida.

[FLCruiser97]

33 minutes ago, Gail & Marty sailing away said:

We fly one way into Amsterdam every August. And take the ship back to Florida.

Yep, that's what we do, well similar. I was just wondering how you could do a round trip sailing both ways without staying in Europe for 6 months.

[Heartgrove]

We have our second Transatlantic in two weeks and again on HAL. It is a westbound on the Rotterdam from Rotterdam. Our first was also westbound on the Oosterdam from Barcelona. We choose Port side staterooms for the sunny side.

 

Next Spring we decided to take an eastbound Transatlantic for a change. Originally we were going to sail for the first time on Celebrity to Barcelona. We changed our plans to doing the EB on the Oosterdam to Barcelona, changing piers in Barcelona to board the Celebrity Equinox to Istanbul to disembark in Civitavecchia. Then another change of piers to the MSC Splendida to Spain returning to Civitavecchia. This will be 32 days aboard three cruise ships without a hotel stay. After that a land trip through Northern Italy and Switzerland and flying home.

 

Although excited about trying Celebrity for the first time, we are thoroughly familiar with HAL for the crossing.

 

- Jack

[Shmoo here]

2 hours ago, FLCruiser97 said:

Just curious...I would love to do round trip TAs, however, wouldn't you have to stay in Europe from Spring to Fall or vise versa? That's about 6 months. 

We just did a Voyage of the Vikings.  Basically, a B2B 17 day & 18 day cruises, sold as one cruise for 35 days.  Boston to Rotterdam, Rotterdam to Boston.

 

 

[Ready2go11]

Have done Atlantic TA’s both ways and both were great trips and very smooth sailings. have three more booked; one eastbound and two westbound so we are a huge fans. 

 

We do slightly prefer the westbound because you arrive on the ship and when you were very excited and full of energy, you have all of the ports first. Then you have a relaxing week at sea and gain back all your time day by day. 

 

My personality is to get the hard work over first and then enjoy the relaxation and the westbound TAs do that for me. 
 

We have also done a Pacific ocean, westbound from San Diego, and it could have been a fluke, but the seas were much, much rougher. 
 

I think the ships that do the time changes at 2 PM rather than in the middle of the night do it to help the crew so they do not lose an hour of sleep when they go to bed late and have to be up early. It seems they do that more frequently on the Pacific voyages. 
 

 

[rafinmd]

3 hours ago, FLCruiser97 said:

Just curious...I would love to do round trip TAs, however, wouldn't you have to stay in Europe from Spring to Fall or vise versa? That's about 6 months. 

Look at Queen Mary 2 for the other direction.

 

Roy

[FLCruiser97]

20 minutes ago, rafinmd said:

Look at Queen Mary 2 for the other direction.

 

Roy

OK. Noted!

[carnivaljunkie]

Look at the October 7, 2025 to November 21, 2025 Volendam to the Med. from New York to New York.

[FLCruiser97]

28 minutes ago, carnivaljunkie said:

Look at the October 7, 2025 to November 21, 2025 Volendam to the Med. from New York to New York.

That would be a good one, however I have a TA from Rotterdam to Ft. Lauderdale on Oct 11, 2025. But good to know for future.

[oakridger]

11 hours ago, rafinmd said:

Look at Queen Mary 2 for the other direction.

 

Roy

 

Good to see you posting Roy @rafinmd!!  🙂

~Nancy

[northernphoenix]

On 9/29/2024 at 4:18 PM, FLCruiser97 said:

That would be a good one, however I have a TA from Rotterdam to Ft. Lauderdale on Oct 11, 2025. But good to know for future.

Joining on this itinerary…

[Aardvaark]

On 9/27/2024 at 7:40 AM, a.madruga said:

Pro and Con on both directions by those who have cruised Transatlantic with HAL

thanks for your experiences suggestions

Westbound.  Usually a TA starts in Europe with several days there, then sets off across the pond to the US.  You can get worn out in the early days and recover during the transit yourself.  Plus, changing time zones is easier westbound.

 

[dockman]

westbound..go to europe first tour around and get on the ship exhausted and relax on way home.

[MaisonRose]

On 9/27/2024 at 1:40 PM, a.madruga said:

Pro and Con on both directions by those who have cruised Transatlantic with HAL

thanks for your experiences suggestions

Going west: you keep gaining time as you go

[sambamama]

I only go to Europe first. I go early and bop around Europe first, and then enjoy gaining my hour every night and my week of sea days. Perhaps if I was retired, I'd take the QE2 over, but that isn't a reality yet. 

[FLCruiser97]

On 10/1/2024 at 6:41 PM, northernphoenix said:

Joining on this itinerary…

Awesome!