Transatlantic repositioning Cruise

[wowpeople]

 My husband and I have been on over 40 cruises during the last 36 years.  We used to do one week cruises but many years ago decided it’s too short. We now enjoy 12 to 14 day cruises with port intensive itineraries. We are both 66 years old and considering our first transatlantic repositioning cruise. In need of some info or opinion.  Presently looking at Oceania Riviera 16 night Rome to Miami. Wondering if we will get “cabin fever” or go stir crazy! It sounds exciting and daunting at the same time.  We have sailed on Riviera twice and enjoy it. Do they provide extra entertainment/shows/events on all of the sea days?  Normally on cruises we are active and enjoy swimming and snorkeling the most. But also enjoy socializing and meeting new fun people.  Would like to get feedback from anyone who has done this as we contemplate a cruise like this.  The price of course is excellent. Thanks in advance for advise!

[marco]

Does that itinerary include any ports along the way? I'm assuming if it's 16 nights, it does.  Maybe 6 or 7 "sea days" in a row?  Sea days are very relaxing and low key.  Look at the itinerary,  see where you doi stop and how may sea days there are and if you enjoy the sea days on any other cruise, you might enjoy this.  As with most repo cruises, the prices per diem  are quite attractive, so I'd say....give it a go.

[CruiserBruce]

I would be asking on the Oceania board, here:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/29-oceania-cruises/

 

for the types of activities they might have.

 

I would think, after 40 cruises, you would know your needs for activities, or your ability to entertain yourself. We have only been on 22 cruises, and know whether we could do a cruise with 4 or 5 consecutive sea days. We can.

[LHT28]

We did  a TA on Marina in April   they offer  about the same activities they offer on any sea day

we had 4 sea days  in a row due to weather  was suppose to be 3

 

I would ask on the O forum 

 

[Go-Bucks!]

I love sea days and, no matter which cruiseline I'm on, each one seems to go by so quickly. Even the small R-class ships on Oceania had plenty of things to do each day and evening, plus 3 meals/day. Then there were my own "personal" activities...reading, knitting,  needlepoint, casino, lying out at the pool, working out in the gym, steam room, spa treatments, napping, etc! Whew...I'm tired just remembering all I did each day!😊

[rkacruiser]

I have sailed on trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific re-positioning cruises and have thoroughly enjoyed them.  I love sea days and the more the better!  On both Princess and HAL, the daily program is "ramped up" more than on a 7-10-14 day itinerary.  If you are an fan of other Oceania cruises, then, I think you would enjoy this cruise you are considering.

[skrufy]

2 hours ago, wowpeople said:

 My husband and I have been on over 40 cruises during the last 36 years.  We used to do one week cruises but many years ago decided it’s too short. We now enjoy 12 to 14 day cruises with port intensive itineraries. We are both 66 years old and considering our first transatlantic repositioning cruise. In need of some info or opinion.  Presently looking at Oceania Riviera 16 night Rome to Miami. Wondering if we will get “cabin fever” or go stir crazy! It sounds exciting and daunting at the same time.  We have sailed on Riviera twice and enjoy it. Do they provide extra entertainment/shows/events on all of the sea days?  Normally on cruises we are active and enjoy swimming and snorkeling the most. But also enjoy socializing and meeting new fun people.  Would like to get feedback from anyone who has done this as we contemplate a cruise like this.  The price of course is excellent. Thanks in advance for advise!

We are in our late 60s and early 70s and only do 10 day or more cruises. The 7 day cruises are too short for the distance we travel. I can’t tell you about transatlantic cruises but we sailed 5 days to Hawaii and 5 days back. Enjoyed the sea days very much. There are lots of activities to keep you busy, and meet people. Our last 14 day we played card games on sea days with people my wife met on Facebook.The part of the Hawaii  sea days cruise I did not enjoy was the cool weather and semi rough seas. 

Edited September 27, 2019 by skrufy
Correction

[wowzz]

We have done round trips to the Caribbean from Southampton,  which often mean that 50%+  of the days are sea days. All cruise lines are different,  but if you want constant entertainment,  activities etc, you may be disappointed. 

First of all the weather can be iffy, so you cannot guarantee you can swim or sunbathe every day.  Yes, there will be guest speakers,  but you may not be interested in the subjects they are talking about, and in any case, the talks are only about an hour long.

There will be "sports" activities - quoits,  table tennis, cricket (if you are lucky) but again, these can be weather dependent. 

But, if you are happy to watch the sea from your balcony, stroll round the decks, and just be comfortable doing nothing for a few days,  cruises with a lot of sea days are fantastic!

 

[Carole2313]

We have 10 sea days on our transpacific cruise next Apr/May.  Our roll call has scheduled a slotpull, cabin crawl, bar crawl and other activities like meetups for different card games and on sea days, in addition to what the ship has to offer.  

[evandbob]

The OP is headed in the right direction, w/b.  We did an E/B TA, and lost an hour several days in a row.  By the time we reached Spain, my stomach was looking forward to breakfast but they were closing up the lunch venues.

 

We did enjoy the 5 or 6 sea days in a row, but it's much easier to gain those hours and avoid some serious time lag changes!  

[angie7911922]

Those sea days will be filled with activities. I love these kind of cruises. Sometimes when we do those cruises with port days almost every day, we sometimes come home tired from travelling, if that makes sense. On a sea day there is nowhere to go so you just relax!

[2theship]

All of our transatlantics have been with Celebrity or Princess and they both provide a number of enrichment events every day. We like westbound transatlantics because we can run ourselves crazy in European ports then have a number of days to relax and recover before we have a short flight home.

[navybankerteacher]

On that sailing you would have 5 straight sea days, but Oceania has very good options for sea days. The itinerary looks great, the time of year is ideal - the Atlantic is at its warmest in the Fall - we’ve done six TA’s - three from Rome, three from Northern Europe -an ideal way to come home from travel in Europe.

 

We are looking at an Oceania TA next Fall from England to NY ourselves - more northern, via Ireland and Newfoundland , but in early September it should be fine.

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, navybankerteacher said:

We are looking at an Oceania TA next Fall from England to NY ourselves - more northern, via Ireland and Newfoundland , but in early September it should be fine.

Unless there is  a hurricane or tropical storm  😉

 

[navybankerteacher]

7 hours ago, LHT28 said:

Unless there is  a hurricane or tropical storm  😉

 

There is significantly less likelihood of a northern crossing - towards New York - being impacted by a hurricane - a significant percentage of storms go into the Gulf or towards the southeast coast.

[Hlitner]

We have witnessed a few folks suffer from bad cases of "cabin fever" including one lady who had a complete "melt down" and panic attack.   But the reality is that many folks (including DW and me) really love long cruises with lots of lazy sea days.  When we both retired we wanted to take long cruises but had the same thoughts expressed by the OP.  So we gradually lengthened our cruises until we got up to a 62 day cruise on HAL's smallest ship.  That itinerary had 22 sea days and we really had our doubts.  The last night of that long cruise DW and I looked at each other and agreed that we could easily do another 62 days :).

 

I will add another comment on a frequent topic.  Most of the folks we know who frequently take longer cruises have something in common....they do not even consider potential sea conditions or weather when booking their trips.  We know that when you cruise upon the sea you can have bad weather anywhere in the world and it is just part of cruising/travel.  We do pay attention to the normal climate at our ports (i.e. we do not want to go to Northern Europe in January) but don't even give any thought to the sea.  We have spent far more then 1000 days on cruise ships (all over the world) and have only had 4 or 5 really bad days with sea conditions.  Ironically, the worst was on a short cruise between NYC and Bermuda when we ran into a hurricane (this would be unlikely today since weather forecasting has improved).   The thing about sea conditions is that worrying about things for which you have absolutely no control is a real waste of everyone's limited anxiety tolerance :).

 

Hank

[rkacruiser]

5 hours ago, Hlitner said:

Most of the folks we know who frequently take longer cruises have something in common....they do not even consider potential sea conditions or weather when boo  We know that when you cruise upon the sea you can have bad weather anywhere in the world and it is just part of cruising/travel.  We do pay attention to the normal climate at our ports (i.e. we do not want to go to Northern Europe in January) but don't even give any thought to the sea.  We have spent far more then 1000 days on cruise ships (all over the world) and have only had 4 or 5 really bad days with sea conditions.  Ironically, the worst was on a short cruise between NYC and Bermuda when we ran into a hurricane (this would be unlikely today since weather forecasting has improved).   The thing about sea conditions is that worrying about things for which you have absolutely no control is a real waste of everyone's limited anxiety tolerance :).

 

I agree so much with your thoughts!  If the "ocean is not in motion" during my cruise, I am a bit disappointed.  I might as well have booked a land-based resort for my vacation and earned more loyalty points for that Brand.

 

King Neptune has been upset several times when I have sailed including crossings of the Tasman Sea, the waters between Tasmania and Australia, Northern Pacific waters off the Aleutians as well as just West of Vancouver Island after leaving Vancouver.  (That was quite a ride on the Volendam!  But, the ship handled it well.)