Does Repositioning cruise have entertainment and all the other perks?

We've cruised 3 times on Carnival, once on Norwegian, and now we're thinking of taking a Respositioning cruise next Oct. 2015 for our Anniversary and my retirement from teaching. We're wondering if a Repositioning cruise has the regular things, such as entertainment, all the restaurants open, normal activities, like a normal 7 day cruise has?

We're also interested in seeing Ireland. Are there any cruises that leave from or go to Ireland? Thanks for any help.

Yes, of course the cruise will have entertainment, etc. A repo cruise is no different.

Yep everything off the other cruises is on a ta

Enjoy :)

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Thank you for your answer, but What does "ta" mean?

Thank you for your answer, but What does "ta" mean?

I believe it means "Transatlantic"....Repos are the same as any other ...except you leave from one Port and come back to Another.......They are great, even Stateside.

Thank you for letting me know what "ta" means. "Trans-Atlantic". That makes perfect sense!

Depending on context, "TA" means either TransAtlantic or Travel Agent. As for Ireland...it's such a beautiful country......... we have and I would spend a week or so there either before or after the cruise.

After 24 cruises we did a North Atlantic repositioning cruise in May on Brilliance of the Seas. I am sure each cruise line/ship is a little different. There was entertainment every night even though this ship normally does 5 day cruises in the Caribean. All of the activities and restaurants were the usual. However, here are come comments on how I think they were affected by this being a repositioning.

We really enjoyed the evening entertainment. Probably because it was a repositioning, everyone was going to the shows so you had to get there early. There were going to be some additional acts that were added for the upcoming Baltic cruise and they practiced in the afternoon.

I had more issues with the daytime activities. On our cruise the seas were calm (the captain avoided a few significant disturbances) but the weather was chilly. Therefore no sitting at the pool and too cold to sit outside for the outside movies. Therefore there was not enough space available for the indoor activities such as watercolor, movies, or trivia. They had a lecturer who I did not care for so that eliminated that activity for a lot of people. If you enjoy reading like I do, there was usually a place to sit and read. I ended up going down early to the solarium a few days and I spent most of the day reading there. Only got up for food in the solarium and to give my seat to my DH when he go back from bridge. It was difficult to find a seat in the Solarium in the late morning, but not hard at all in the afternoon.

Our cruise had terrific port stops in Europe of Cork, Ireland, Cherbonne France and Bruggs Belgium with a final destination of Harwich England. I would guess at least half the ship continued on for the next cruise to the Baltic or stayed over in London. We took a land tour to Scotland. I am sure you could make arrangement to go to Ireland if your final stop is in England, but it can get complicated. I will also add that the Scotland tour was much more expensive than either the cruise or the 3 days we spent in London.

This was also a retirement cruise for me. We finally had the luxury of adding the 14 days to our vacation for not much more than airfare would have cost.

Thanks so much, everyone, for your helpful information! Ireland sounds wonderful! I will certainly check into everything. And congratulations "EGG" on your retirement!

We've been on three Transatlantics, on three different cruise lines. Our experience is that the entertainment, especially the guest performers, was actually better than most cruises. The NCL cruise had the best entertainment we've ever seen on a cruise.

Weather does affect some outdoor activities, depending on time of year, but the pool area has been usuable most days. We have only done Florida to Europe cruises in Spring; usually had a couple of days too cool for much outside time, and all the cruises had more wind than normal, partly I think because the ship's speed is higher than many routes.

I'm not sure if any cruises start or end in Ireland, but there are quite a few that have various stops there. You can just do an internet search of TA cruises to find some.

We are doing our 1st TA next year it has 2 stop in Ireland ...Belfast & Dublin

The TA's may even have more activities than regular cruises;)

WE are taking a couple of cooking classes on ours

Enjoy

Happy retirement planning

Lyn

We have done quite a few repositioning cruises.

Everything on the ship is open -- bars, lounges, pools, shops, spa, specialty restaurants.

All the activities will be going on -- shows every night.

HAL doesn't have all their fall cruises for 2015 listed on their site -- but you can check out their E-brochure at this link:

http://www.hollandamerica.com/cruise-destinations/EBrochures.action?WT.ac=pnav_Dest_Ebro

I've not heard of a cruise line which begins or ends in Ireland- most people from Ireland either fly the short distance to the UK, then go by train to Southampton/ Dover etc, or they come over on the ferry. There are many cruises round the British Isles which cover various Irish ports, and a few specialist ones which will do a full journey round the Isle.

You'll find ship activities etc. for a repositioning cruise to be like you've experienced on a 7 Day. :)

LuLu

We've done four TA's and enjoyed them all. They seem to have extra activities for all sea days such as food demonstrations, camera/photo discussions and lectures from interesting people such as retired Diplomats, FBI agents, History professors and others. I would suggest flying over and cruising back to the U.S. for several reasons. When leaving U.S. ports heading East you usually traverse six different time zones during the first seven days. Moving your clock forward each day means on the seventh day you are having dinner around 1:00PM body time plus you've lost six hours of happy hour. Also, if you book through RCI or Celebrity you will be able to book flights through Choice Air. (A program offering discounted airfare on major airlines. Ask your travel agent about it.) We have had flights from Ft. Lauderdale to Barcelona as low as $550 each.

We've done two repo cruises. Both Southern California to Vancouver. The six day was a regular cruise with everything open.

The other was the kids first cruise in 2003. 3days with no ports on the Amsterdam. It was one of the first repo cruises of this itin open to pax. Before they just dead-headed.

188 pax. Not much was open. Gift shops, Pinnacle, bottom of the MDR, upper levels of the show lounge were all closed. Many had boxes for the Alaska season.

Took management a while to rearrange the crew schedules. The bar staff was tripping over themselves. Obviously didn't need all staff for such few pax.

We've cruised 3 times on Carnival, once on Norwegian, and now we're thinking of taking a Respositioning cruise next Oct. 2015 for our Anniversary and my retirement from teaching. We're wondering if a Repositioning cruise has the regular things, such as entertainment, all the restaurants open, normal activities, like a normal 7 day cruise has?

We're also interested in seeing Ireland. Are there any cruises that leave from or go to Ireland? Thanks for any help.

A repositioning cruise is a real cruise with all the normal bells and whistles. The only difference is that it is not a regularly scheduled cruise (occurring at most, twice per year per ship) and it does not begin and end in the same port (though there are regular scheduled cruises that also do not begin and end in the same port - the one week north/south Alaskan cruises for example).

So yes, it will have all the regular things, such as entertainment, all the restaurants, normal activities ...

The weather on a westbound trans-Atlantic (generally in October or November) is a lot better than one in April or May when the ocean is much cooler. We've done several and have found the activities/entertainment to be as good or better than other itineraries. Generally the per day cost is significantly less.

If you want to see some of Ireland, it would probably be better to take a few days on land to really see the country. I do not think and re-positionings start or finish there, but it would be no problem to get to/from Harwich or Southampton.