Repositioning cruises

[dcruisers]

We are very interested in doing a repositioning cruise and would appreciate some information from fellow CC members who have done one.

Is there a better time to sail - spring vs fall? Any departing port preferred? Any information would be welcomed!

[CathyCruises]

IN GENERAL, Spring has warmer weather and the farther south the itinerary, the warmer as well. So cruises ending up in Rome will most likely be warmer than cruises ending up in London, for example.

 

On eastbound cruises, you lose an hour a night for 6 nights, which some people don't like. But on westbound, you gain an hour. However, because westbound cruises leave Europe in late November-December, it gets darker a lot earlier. . so there are plusses and minuses to both.

 

Celebrity has a wide range of itineraries to choose from; they all end or begin in Miami or Fort Lauderdale. It's really what part of Europe you want to start or end in that's the deciding factor. Some people fly home the day the cruise ends; others spend time in Europe pre-or post cruise. We like to use it as our transport to Europe and in reality it doesn't cost much more than an airplane ticket. Then we can go where we please as a land vacation when we get there.

 

Hope this helps.

[celebritydave]

We have done 3 so far with a 4th booked this November. 1 eastbound and 2 westbound.

 

We prefer westbound because you gain hours coming back. You do all the ports first and have 6 or 7 relaxing sea days before you get back. We always go a few days early and spend some time siteseeing at the departure port before boarding the ship.

[dcruisers]

Thanks! Good point about westbound gaining more hours. I didn't think about that!

We have done a Mediterranean cruise and also a river cruise . But there is still so much of Europe to see. Plus we love sea days- so a repositioning cruise would work well for us.

Appreciate the info!

[helen haywood]

Don't forget to look at booking your air with Celebrity's Choice Air for a repositioning cruise. For example, a trans-Atlantic cruise we are taking in April requires a one way flight home from Rome to Miami. Choice Air sold us seats at $567 per person, if we had bought it directly from the airline the price would have been $2642 per person!! If you don't know about the great fares Choice Air can give you for one way flights you might think a repositioning cruise is out of your price range!

[celebritydave]

Don't forget to look at booking your air with Celebrity's Choice Air for a repositioning cruise. For example, a trans-Atlantic cruise we are taking in April requires a one way flight home from Rome to Miami. Choice Air sold us seats at $567 per person, if we had bought it directly from the airline the price would have been $2642 per person!! If you don't know about the great fares Choice Air can give you for one way flights you might think a repositioning cruise is out of your price range!

 

That is so true, we got really good prices on 2 of our TAs using Choice Air.

Dave

[Fouremco]

Don't forget to look at booking your air with Celebrity's Choice Air for a repositioning cruise. For example, a trans-Atlantic cruise we are taking in April requires a one way flight home from Rome to Miami. Choice Air sold us seats at $567 per person, if we had bought it directly from the airline the price would have been $2642 per person!! If you don't know about the great fares Choice Air can give you for one way flights you might think a repositioning cruise is out of your price range!

What about flights to Europe for a westbound TA? I've heard they fly you in on the day you depart, something I'd never do on my own.

[Turtles06]

Don't forget to look at booking your air with Celebrity's Choice Air for a repositioning cruise. For example, a trans-Atlantic cruise we are taking in April requires a one way flight home from Rome to Miami. Choice Air sold us seats at $567 per person, if we had bought it directly from the airline the price would have been $2642 per person!! If you don't know about the great fares Choice Air can give you for one way flights you might think a repositioning cruise is out of your price range!

 

Another option for one-way air is to use frequent flier miles; on some airlines, the number of miles needed for a "free" one-way ticket is half the number needed for roundtrip (meaning you aren't being penalized as you are if you buy a one-way ticket using money).

[Schluetz]

Thanks to the OP for this question. And the opinions so far. I have been wondering myself.

 

An additional question on topic is this: Do you prefer fly-cruise OR cruise-fly? From the US one would choose to get the long flight out of the way at the start of the trip and then have a short flight afterwards. OR end with the long flight?

 

Depending on your country of origin this may be the same as east-west or west-east but if you had no preference on direction do you have a preference on the long flight before or after your cruise?

[4774Papa]

An excellent Repo cruise is from FLL thru the Panama Canal then down the W. coast of South America to Chile. It is on Infinity.

[Karynanne]

What about flights to Europe for a westbound TA? I've heard they fly you in on the day you depart, something I'd never do on my own.

 

Not always true. We've taken many repositioning cruises, and we always choose our own flights.

[varoo]

Thanks to the OP for this question. And the opinions so far. I have been wondering myself.

 

An additional question on topic is this: Do you prefer fly-cruise OR cruise-fly? From the US one would choose to get the long flight out of the way at the start of the trip and then have a short flight afterwards. OR end with the long flight?

It depends on how the flight will combine with whatever else we are planning to do before or after the repositioning cruise.

 

We never do a repositioning cruise in isolation but rather in combination with another B2B cruise and/or land vacation, whether the repositioning cruise goes to or from Hawaii or South America or Europe or simply up or down the US east or west coast.

 

 

When going from the USA to Europe, as Americans we prefer to take the repositioning cruise first..

Having done it both ways, we much prefer to arrive there rested and refreshed, ready to enjoy Europe right from the start instead of flying over and arriving there jet lagged, groggy and exhausted.

 

We don't much mind arriving jet lagged and exhausted when we are just going home.

There we don't need to be concerned about missing out on new experiences because we are too groggy and brain fogged to enjoy them. :D

 

[dcruisers]

Don't forget to look at booking your air with Celebrity's Choice Air for a repositioning cruise. For example, a trans-Atlantic cruise we are taking in April requires a one way flight home from Rome to Miami. Choice Air sold us seats at $567 per person, if we had bought it directly from the airline the price would have been $2642 per person!! If you don't know about the great fares Choice Air can give you for one way flights you might think a repositioning cruise is out of your price range!

 

Another great piece of advice! We always book our own air. However, I know that 1 way flights and/or splitting a ticket are more e pensive. So we will definitely book thru Cruise line.

[helen haywood]

You can definitely chose to fly in ahead of your cruise or depart later. I'm flying home three days after our cruise arrives. You just tell Choice Air the dates you want.

 

As to fly/cruise versus cruise/fly....I had always thought I preferred to get the flight out of the way and then enjoy my cruise back to the states. However, the last time I did that I got sick on the flight over from Typhoid Mary sitting next to me and it made me rethink my strategy!

[2theship]

What about flights to Europe for a westbound TA? I've heard they fly you in on the day you depart, something I'd never do on my own.

 

Choice Air allows you to select your departure date. For a westbound transatlantic, we always fly in several days early. Their prices are the best way to go for a one-way ticket.

[smtcan]

What about flights to Europe for a westbound TA? I've heard they fly you in on the day you depart, something I'd never do on my own.

 

You can choose when you want to travel, within reason. We went on ChoiceAir in September two weeks ahead of our cruise for less than $400 Toronto to Heathrow on British Airways. We couldn't get close to this price on our own.

[varoo]

An excellent Repo cruise is from FLL thru the Panama Canal then down the W. coast of South America to Chile. It is on Infinity.

..... and the best part comes when you remain on the ship for the next leg, continuing on around Cape Horn and up the east coast of South America to Buenos Aires.

 

[d4m]

What about flights to Europe for a westbound TA? I've heard they fly you in on the day you depart, something I'd never do on my own.

 

Nope. You pick the date you want to fly, unless you choose a package to have land tour included. Last time we went 10 days early and stayed in Barcelona. Some friends of ours have booked a fall TA and they are visiting Bucharest and then Barcelona before their TA.

 

The point is, it is a pretty cheap flight and way to visit Europe before or after a TA at a reasonable cost.

 

Having done it both ways, we much prefer to arrive there rested and refreshed, ready to enjoy Europe right from the start instead of flying over and arriving there jet lagged, groggy and exhausted.

 

 

We much prefer East bound TA's because the weather is more often warmer (in Mediterranean) and it is lighter so many more hours a day. I hate it getting dark at 4:30 and sometimes that shortens the amount of time you have on excursions. Even if a ship doesn't sail until 9 p.m., there's little you can see from 4:30 or 5 on.

 

The extra hour on our most recent TA was more bothersome than anything. My internal clock still told me what time to awake, so instead of 6 a.m. it would be 5 a.m. Very little going on that time of day on a ship. Next one will be another Eastbound because of the light and usually warmer weather.

Edited February 15, 2014 by d4m

[FortyNinerLiz]

We have done 3 so far with a 4th booked this November. 1 eastbound and 2 westbound.

 

We prefer westbound because you gain hours coming back. You do all the ports first and have 6 or 7 relaxing sea days before you get back. We always go a few days early and spend some time siteseeing at the departure port before boarding the ship.

 

Which one are you doing in November???

[CathyCruises]

We prefer eastbound because we love having a European vacation at the end of our cruise; it would be very depressing to me to end the cruise in FL and fly straight home.

 

We have had great success with ChoiceAir for our return flights, have flown home as much s a month after our cruise ended. We flew last April from Paris to San Francisco nonstop for $500 and change on Air France, a fantastic flight.

[TxnAquarian]

An excellent Repo cruise is from FLL thru the Panama Canal then down the W. coast of South America to Chile. It is on Infinity.

 

 

 

This is a fantastic repo cruise! We just did it this past December. Great combination of sea days and port days, and the 3-day Machu Picchu excursion from Lima is amazing! Plus, the fares for the cruise were very reasonable for Aqua Class.

 

 

 

Michael

[SPacificbound]

Do you have the option of Business/First are are Choice Air offerings Coach?

 

Thanks. :)

[CathyCruises]

Do you have the option of Business/First are are Choice Air offerings Coach?

 

Thanks. :)

 

They cover everything.

[Jaddy]

We will be on Equinox 3/3. If we do an on board booking of a fall TA can we also book the flight with Choice Air at the same time?

 

Can we get the best pricing for both components by doing anon board booking?

[CathyCruises]

We will be on Equinox 3/3. If we do an on board booking of a fall TA can we also book the flight with Choice Air at the same time?

 

Can we get the best pricing for both components by doing anon board booking?

 

I don't believe there is any advantage in booking air while on board, or in fact if it's even possible. Maybe at the computer lounge. But there are no package deals per se, so there's really no reason to do it. Last year I first checked Choice Air in mid-January; when we finally booked our air in early April, the fares were almost identical.

 

You may be early bookers, but take a look at the prices on the upcoming Tuesday special for the Spring Transatlantics, so you can see what happens to prices after final payment.

 

http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/Exciting_Deals/XcitingDeals_cel_tues.pdf