The Transatlantic Experience. Talk to me.

[02143]

I'm pondering the two-week transatlantic from Barcelona to Ft. Lauderdale in December 2007. The itinerary has been posted, no costs yet, but the wheels are spinning.

 

I've only previously done seven-day Caribbean cruises. So I don't know what to expect, and a forum search for transatlantic turns up a lot of threads with people's signatures and not many threads discussing exactly what I want to know. ;)

 

What is the weather like on the southern crossing in mid-December? I've seen reports from October and November, but is it noticeably colder then?

 

On that note, how usable are balconies?

 

What is the clientele like? I imagine it skews older because of the duration of the cruise, but how would it compare to the clientele on a ten-day Caribbean or a European cruise? Do the cheaper fares draw in younger people or not so much?

We're both in our 30s and enjoy meeting people of all ages, but it's good to know if there will be many others in our age group. We've done a HAL cruise in the Caribbean with family and there really were too few people in our age group OR our parents' age group for our tastes, no offense, but we'd like a critical mass of younger people.

 

Thank you!

[joelmarj]

I just returned from the Connie TA and while I can not comment on the weather you would have, I will say that although it was a bit chilly, we still made use of our balcony. Especially liked grabbing blankets from the pool deck and laying on our loungers on the balcony for a nap or just to watch the ocean.

 

As for the clientele, What I found was that it was predominately the 30 - 60 yr old, well traveled cruiser. I was actually surprised, because I too expected a much older group, but was delighted with the demographics. I think the real pull to a TA is the seasoned cruiser who enjoys not just the port portion, but truely appreciates the life-on-board style of cruising. While there is plenty to do on board, obviously these are not port-intensive trips so much of the enjoyment is derived from the sailing itself. It was a delightful trip, with a terrific guest lecturer. There was always something to do, or just plain nap time! With the longer itineraries you get the added bonus of some ports (ours was 8 days with 6 at sea)

 

Personally, it was an amazing experience and I look forward to doing it again.

[DGF]

We were aboard the Star Princess, Venice to Ft. Lauderdale in late October, 2004. We had an enjoyable time- were some glitches in the management (unable to handle the crowds) and dining room (we kept changing tables until we found a waiter who was experienced and made us aware of best menus coming out of the kitchen

 

Star Princess is a large ship- 109,000 tons- and "road" the 12.5 ft swales very well= seas were rough going past Gibraltar and to the Azores

 

If we did it again with the knowledge we have now

1. Recommend a balcony, port side to get the sunshine. We splurged a bit taking a large balcony cabin (Princess calls them mini suite but are just an over size cabin with larger bathroom (with tub)= good decision. Cabin service was excellent
   
2. Go only on a a large ship which has a reputation of handling the Atlantic seas
   
3. Go on a ship with good entertainment- some evenings Princess ran two different shows- and lots to do
   
4. Go on a ship with alternative dining room experiences and proven reputation of good food- allows you to flavour several types of cuisine
   
5. Take along some draminine for the rough seas

Weather could be a problem in December.

[AliceS]

We just returned from the Millennium transatlantic and loved it. It was our first experience with a TA. One thing you won't have to deal with is the time problem. They took an hour away from us every night for five nights and we were really in a way with that. You would gain an hour every day in the fall. We had smooth seas and warm temps, who knows in the fall. I hear that the spring can be cool, too. Our coolest temperature was in Bermuda. The sea days are fantastic. You can run from event to event or do nothing, your choice. We enjoyed the balcony very much. We don't always take one, but this time it was a real plus.

[wesp]

We had a great time last April on the Constellation eastboaund from San Juan to Le Havre. DW and I enjoyed the 5 straight sea days - lots of leisure time, but still active days. We had no rough seas to speak of, and traveling eastbound the weather got progressively cooler each day. I liked sitting on our balcony wrapped in a blanket on the last day from Lisbon to LeHavre. The crowd was varied enough in ages for our liking. I would gladly do a TA again if the timing was right for our schedule. :rolleyes:

 

Wesley

[hajekfam]

We have done the Millie trans from Barcelona to Ft. Lauderdale 3 times. It seems that every year the trans gets later and later.

Weather in Barcelona in late Nov. was in in 60's during the day.

We did our first trans after we did two seven day cruises (Southern Caribbean and Alaska) about 6 months apart - each one had 6 ports that we had never been to before. We came home from those two cruises relaxed but tired. I happened to notice that we could do a 14 day transatlantic for about the same price as our 7 day Alaska and the trans had 8 sea days and 5 ports which gave us plenty of time to enjoy the ship. We got off the ship in Ft. Lauderdale totally rested and relaxed. We actually got to enjoy the amenities on the ship instead of just using it as a floating hotel.

After our first trans, we decided to do a cruise like that every other year as our rest and relaxation cruise.

[dmk]

I just love Transatlantics:D . I adore the sea days. We have also met some very interesting people on board:) . Many are European and a lot are from the UK. The age group I would agree is somewhere in the 50 - 60's.

Personally, if I could afford it I would do the Spring and the Fall TA's;) . I would only do TA's. Also that way I could buy a return air ticket and use 1 return ticket for both TA's

[poetic license]

We returned two weeks ago from the CENTURY TA, and loved every second of it. We love sea days, and they were just the ticket to REALLY relax. There were three ports of call before arriving in Barcelona. We dispatched from FLL and went on a southerly course. The Atlantic was as smooth as glass. We (and many others) commented that it was the smoothest cruise we had ever taken. Temps were above average; we were expecting 60s and got middle and upper 70s each day.

 

I noticed in your profile that you are living in Massachusetts. The December TA won't be all that warm, but it will sure be a lot warmer than being in Boston at that time of year. ;) We moved to Austin last year, and believe me, we are now in the mode of taking cruises that take us to cooler climes. I am sure the weather will play a factor in your decision. As long as you don't expect a TA to be like a Caribbean cruise weather-wise (or passenger demographic wise) you will love it. We thought people were friendly than on the TA than other cruises; perhaps it's because it's long enough to form some friendships, I dont know, but people did seem more outgoing to us.

 

We loved it so much, we're taking CENTURY westbound in October! Maybe that says more than anything else. As the poster above me stated, booking two TA's and using one round trip air ticket is the way to go. It really is a lot less expensive to do it that way.

 

Hope you book your TA .... I don't think you will be disappointed, and the cooler weather will make exploring the ports much more of a joy.

 

Good luck, whatever you decide.

 

Cheers~

Nicki

[MortgageChick]

I am currently 44 years old and Dh and I have done 2 crossings. One in 2002 on the Carnival Legend after its inaugral European Season. 15 nights on Carnival and judging by the age group you would never have know you were on Carnival. Much older and Formal nights were more formal than we have experienced on any other cruise to date.

 

In November 2004 we did a 17 night on Hal from Barcelona to FLL. Again, in our 40's we were in the younger group for sure. Lots of Brits on board on this trip.

 

Longer cruises attract an older crowd, regardless of itinerary,

 

Our 17 night in Nov ended on Dec 3rd and the weather for the crossing was in the 80's daily . It could just as easily have been in the 60's. You can never tell what you will get.

 

I say go for it, the pricing on repo cruises is usually very good and lots of nice relaxing sea days in a row

[02143]

Thank you for the interesting responses and the discussion. Hearing about people's experiences is very helpful!

[In need of Sun]

Hi 02143-

 

I was on the same cruise as JoelMarj. I have to admit, I was a little surprised by the, "Activeness" of the Atlantic. We are open to taking another transatlantic but would probably take the southern route. I hope that you have a wonderfull time whichever you choose!!

 

Paul & Hilary

[wasup254]

We just got back frm the TA from Fort Lauderdale to Rome, it was port intense, with 10 ports in 9 days! If we do the TA again, it will be the TA form Europe to the USA, as the sea days come at the end of the cruise, when i need them! The weather on our TA in NOvemeber was a bit rough, bu we did skirt Hurricane Delta and Epilson, this was Nov 2005. Not every day was hgh seas, just a couple days, this was on the millie.

 

I also liked the time change of gaining the hours

 

Marlene

[AliceS]

This week has us with another point of view. We have really suffered with jet lag more than ever. We returned last Sunday from the Millennium TA. The body clock started to balk when you lose one hour for five days, then on the return to reality, it hit us big time. I'm OK now, but hubby is still in la la land, getting up at 3:30 AM and napping in the afternoon. I loved the trip, but would really have to think about doing it again. We had smooth sailing all the way, I don't know how the seas are in the fall on a southern route.

[dmk]

2 years ago we did the westerly TA from Barcelona to Miami. It left on the 28th of November, on a 14 day cruise. I was prepared for cold weather, rainy weather and choppy seas. But, all I cared about was the lovely relaxing sea days.

We were so pleasantly surprised. We spent 3 days in Barcelona with sunny weather in the 70's. We stopped in Portugal and Gibraltar with similiar weather. When we struck out acroos the Atlantic on a Southerly route, the weather got warmer. I mean it was sitting by the pool weather. I was prepared to go to all kinds of seminars and didn't go to any. The Atlantic was shockingly calm. The sea only got a bit more choppy when we arrived in the Carribbean. The weather in St. Martin and St. Thomas were well in the 80's.

Well I've booked another TA for 2007. Not too port intensive because we really like to relax. I don't expect weather to be like the first time. So I will be prepared for cooler weather and rougher seas. Perhaps, I will finally get to got to the seminars , wine tastings etc.

p.s. Another reason why I love the western route is beause you get to have 5 or 6, 25 hour days, pure relaxation and you arrive home refreshed.:D

[CruznTom]

I'm pondering the two-week transatlantic from Barcelona to Ft. Lauderdale in December 2007. The itinerary has been posted, no costs yet, but the wheels are spinning.

 

I've only previously done seven-day Caribbean cruises. So I don't know what to expect, and a forum search for transatlantic turns up a lot of threads with people's signatures and not many threads discussing exactly what I want to know. ;)

 

What is the weather like on the southern crossing in mid-December? I've seen reports from October and November, but is it noticeably colder then?

 

On that note, how usable are balconies?

 

What is the clientele like? I imagine it skews older because of the duration of the cruise, but how would it compare to the clientele on a ten-day Caribbean or a European cruise? Do the cheaper fares draw in younger people or not so much?

We're both in our 30s and enjoy meeting people of all ages, but it's good to know if there will be many others in our age group. We've done a HAL cruise in the Caribbean with family and there really were too few people in our age group OR our parents' age group for our tastes, no offense, but we'd like a critical mass of younger people.

 

Thank you!

 

Possibly just for fun you could do a little research on your own. And then maybe you could thank the people who actually gave you information but I'm gussing you won't be back to recipicate.

[02143]

Ha! If you're going to lecture people about not doing research before their posts, and THEN complain about not thanking the posters, you should take the time to read the thread through first so as not to miss the post where I did thank the people who'd already responded. Or to quote the passage where I specifically explained why I had trouble doing research on this board when I did a search on "transatlantic."

 

But I'll throw a thank you in here to the many people who responded since that thank you post, for their additional helpful information.

 

And CruznTom, I wish you some fine warm spring weather to help you come out from whatever clouds made you pay a visit to this thread to share your feelings. In my experience, people from Carolina are usually nicer than that... are you sure you're not a transplant from Boston? ;)

[dmk]

Forum: Celebrity Cruises May 16th, 2006, 10:43 PM Replies: 328

Mutiny on the Summit

Views: 21,843

Posted By CruznTom

I am not saying that I would appreciate the...

 

I am not saying that I would appreciate the situation, but the rabblerousers (led by a Canadian with an agenda) should not be allowed to stop other pax from enjoying the remainder of the cruise.

 

 

01243:

He doesn't like Candians either. I mean, why mention what nationality a person is. I certainly don't talk about the "ugly american" stereotype

[02143]

Thanks for the link. I can understand the sentiment behind posts like his, but I didn't see how it was apropos to my thread, not that I can claim to be unbiased. It does sound like more than a few chips on his shoulder...

[CruznTom]

I am sorry for the post that was done under my name. I did find out who posted (That's another story) I don't usually log out and another user thought he/she was posting under his/her moniker. The post was totally out of line and the poster couldn't believe the content when I presented it. ( I think gin was involved);) My apologies

 

I do stand by my post that was quoted and do not feel any animosity toward Canadians. I was born about 150 miles from Canada and have found them (in general) to be more congenial than most nationalities.The use of an adjective (Canadian) does not imply dislike any more than if I used Kansan or Texan. IMHO The scope of political correctness has exceeded common sense. Why is calling a Canadian a Canadian offensive?

If a person (any nationality) is being rude and obnoxious, I can't call him/her a jerk because it might hurt her/his feelings? Give me a break!

Sorry for the rant and sorry for the post attributed to me.

[02143]

Thanks for the apology and the explanation. No harm done.

[littleprofessor]

My spouse and I just returned from a TA (Galveston to Rome) on Galaxy. We are both 34, it was our 6th cruise (3rd on Celebrity) and first TA. To respond to your original questions....

Weather: For us the weather was great and the sea smooth but I don't know how it would be in the fall.

Passenger demographics:

As for the other passengers, there were *very* few people who were similar in age. I met lots of people in their 60's, 70's and 80's, but few in their 30's or 40's (and only about 10-15 children on board this ship). For us, the older skew was fine because we expected it, and we keep to ourselves (table for 2, not interested in activities, and lots of time spent in our cabin relaxing), but if we were looking for social interaction with similar-aged others, we would have been unhappy. I also have to say that because there were sooooooo few people in their 30's, we were *constantly* asked: 1) various crew related questions (by people assuming that we were staff members), 2) "is this your honeymoon?" (we were actually celebrating our 11th anniversary), and/or 3) "what's it like to be the youngest people on the ship?".

Balcony:

For us it was fabulous because we spend a lot of time in our cabin and enjoy just sitting quietly, reading, and/or staring at the water. Of course, you can also do this in various places on the ship without spending the extra money on a balcony. Also, my spouse is a bit claustrophobic so the ability to open a door and let in some immediate fresh air on a 17 day trip was important.

 

I also agree with the previous poster that you will want to select a large ship that has good reviews on TA cruises, good and varied entertainment, and an alternative restaurant. Overall, we had a great time and look forward to doing it again.

[donnaw]

We just returned from the Millennium transatlantic and loved it. It was our first experience with a TA. One thing you won't have to deal with is the time problem. They took an hour away from us every night for five nights and we were really in a way with that. You would gain an hour every day in the fall. We had smooth seas and warm temps, who knows in the fall. I hear that the spring can be cool, too. Our coolest temperature was in Bermuda. The sea days are fantastic. You can run from event to event or do nothing, your choice. We enjoyed the balcony very much. We don't always take one, but this time it was a real plus.

 

And that is why I haven't even thought about eastbound! More vacations hours are much better!

 

To our original op: They have generally crossed earlier. We actually hit the tail end of hurricane season on ours last year and ended up missing Key West. You can get the average temps for the ports from a lot of different websites including yahoo. We expected cooler and got a pleasant surprise. Only requirement is that you truly enjoy sea days. X provides enough things to do to make sure you don't get bored!

[MrLee]

Possibly just for fun you could do a little research on your own.

 

I thought making inquires here WAS part of the research. That's why I'm here.

[6MonthsHere6MonthsThere]

I'm pondering the two-week transatlantic from Barcelona to Ft. Lauderdale in December 2007. The itinerary has been posted, no costs yet, but the wheels are spinning.

 

I've only previously done seven-day Caribbean cruises. So I don't know what to expect, and a forum search for transatlantic turns up a lot of threads with people's signatures and not many threads discussing exactly what I want to know. ;)

 

What is the weather like on the southern crossing in mid-December? I've seen reports from October and November, but is it noticeably colder then?

 

On that note, how usable are balconies?

 

What is the clientele like? I imagine it skews older because of the duration of the cruise, but how would it compare to the clientele on a ten-day Caribbean or a European cruise? Do the cheaper fares draw in younger people or not so much?

We're both in our 30s and enjoy meeting people of all ages, but it's good to know if there will be many others in our age group. We've done a HAL cruise in the Caribbean with family and there really were too few people in our age group OR our parents' age group for our tastes, no offense, but we'd like a critical mass of younger people.

 

Thank you!

 

02143,

You will love it, we have done 12 transatlantic cruises and have 3 more booked and have loved everyone of them. Have sailed from UK to the States and Europe to the States and vica versa. Out of the 150+ days on these we have only had 3/4 choppy days.

Must say the latest we have done the Westbound is November, we enjoy the Westbound the most because as one of the other posters stated you get the extra hours with the time changes, but more importantly is that the weather gets warmer the nearer you get to the Caribbean/Florida. We have had balcony rooms on some of these and have found that with the exception of a few days we have been able to enjoy the balcony. One little tip, if you are thinking of having a balcony, try to choose the port side in preference to starboard as you will see more of the sun, although the downfall is that you do miss the sunsets which can be dramatic sometimes.

Hope this is of some help.

[Drew B]

My spouse and I just returned from a TA (Galveston to Rome) on Galaxy. We are both 34, it was our 6th cruise (3rd on Celebrity) and first TA. To respond to your original questions....

Weather: For us the weather was great and the sea smooth but I don't know how it would be in the fall.

Passenger demographics:

As for the other passengers, there were *very* few people who were similar in age. I met lots of people in their 60's, 70's and 80's, but few in their 30's or 40's (and only about 10-15 children on board this ship). For us, the older skew was fine because we expected it, and we keep to ourselves (table for 2, not interested in activities, and lots of time spent in our cabin relaxing), but if we were looking for social interaction with similar-aged others, we would have been unhappy. I also have to say that because there were sooooooo few people in their 30's, we were *constantly* asked: 1) various crew related questions (by people assuming that we were staff members), 2) "is this your honeymoon?" (we were actually celebrating our 11th anniversary), and/or 3) "what's it like to be the youngest people on the ship?".

Balcony:

For us it was fabulous because we spend a lot of time in our cabin and enjoy just sitting quietly, reading, and/or staring at the water. Of course, you can also do this in various places on the ship without spending the extra money on a balcony. Also, my spouse is a bit claustrophobic so the ability to open a door and let in some immediate fresh air on a 17 day trip was important.

 

I also agree with the previous poster that you will want to select a large ship that has good reviews on TA cruises, good and varied entertainment, and an alternative restaurant. Overall, we had a great time and look forward to doing it again.

 

I'm looking at the Galaxy Eastbound TA in 2007. I like the fact that it has interesting ports after the crossing (2 ports in Morrocco, then a day in Corsica). Were these the ports you did? What did you think of them? BTW, I'm in my 30's as well.