1st time transatlantic cruise.

[Clay Clayton]

10 hours ago, RGEDad said:

I absolutely love TAs and TPs. I fell in love the first time I did a Circle Hawaii out of San Diego (back in the day when I was still working, working, over-working). The first 6 days of just cruising sold me right then and there.

Since then, we do at least two trans-ocean cruises a year, and now that I have retired done some really long 40 and 50 day cruises with mixed tour/trans-ocean cruises (Pre-COVID of course).

One of our biggest expenses is business class airfare to (or from) the far-away land so I now look for possible sets of cruises to get over and then back with a different cruise with minimal time in the far-away land. They are not often available - but sometimes they show up - typically different lines. For about the cost of the business class airfare we can get another week or so cruise.

I have only met one person who truly disliked TA/TP cruises - he stated he was bored silly the entire trip - so I guess it does happen. 

You sound like us! Well except for the part about taking 40 and 50 day cruises. We haven’t done that yet…have our eye on Viking’s 33 day roundtrip LA cruise to Hawaii and French Polynesia but it sold out so fast…fingers are crossed that they decide to put on another or someone cancels. 
 

Regarding biz airfare, we have found that one way to lower the cost is to buy a roundtrip ticket that commences in Europe-usually not one of the obvious cities. For example, in 2018 we cruised from San Juan to Barcelona in March, flew back from Copenhagen via Lisbon to Miami, then in September flew back to Copenhagen, did a baltic cruise then spent a few weeks on land in Europe before sailing back to the US from Rome.  Those flights were on TAP and cost $1300 per person roundtrip. Of course we had to pay for the flights to and from Copenhagen which cost about $200 roundtrip per person. But $1500 and a little effort was a lot better than the one way or even roundtrip air fares we found leaving from the US. 

[RGEDad]

1 hour ago, Clay Clayton said:

Regarding biz airfare, we have found that one way to lower the cost is to buy a roundtrip ticket that commences in Europe-usually not one of the obvious cities

At first that sounded like a really good idea, unfortunately (or fortunately) we typically save our Credit Card points for international AA points flights. AA has very limited allocated seats for Points based business/first class seats and those open up 331 days before the AA flights. I have my calendar marked up on when the flight points reservations open up so I can be sure to catch two of the available seats. Getting sets of tickets separated by some months over and back would be darn near impossible. 

I mean - it is good to be able to use points, but sometimes they charge a LOT of extra points to get a flight when and where we like. Earlier this year I was looking for seats to fly to New Zealand. Business class were like 180,000 points each. We are to the point where we are going to be trying out the AA Premium Economy (domestic first class like) seats on our next flights. The NZL premium economy were 40,000 points and we caught two of those. Then of course New Zealand and Australia all closed down and the cruises were all cancelled. Such is life.

Cruise moved by cruise company to 2023.

 

[Clay Clayton]

2 hours ago, RGEDad said:

At first that sounded like a really good idea, unfortunately (or fortunately) we typically save our Credit Card points for international AA points flights. AA has very limited allocated seats for Points based business/first class seats and those open up 331 days before the AA flights. I have my calendar marked up on when the flight points reservations open up so I can be sure to catch two of the available seats. Getting sets of tickets separated by some months over and back would be darn near impossible. 

I mean - it is good to be able to use points, but sometimes they charge a LOT of extra points to get a flight when and where we like. Earlier this year I was looking for seats to fly to New Zealand. Business class were like 180,000 points each. We are to the point where we are going to be trying out the AA Premium Economy (domestic first class like) seats on our next flights. The NZL premium economy were 40,000 points and we caught two of those. Then of course New Zealand and Australia all closed down and the cruises were all cancelled. Such is life.

Cruise moved by cruise company to 2023.

 

We have gotten the best deals on AA with points by catching one of their web sales. And since there isn’t a penalty with award tickets for one way, we grab the seats when we can. Don’t have to wait fir the return leg to open up.  And while they open up 331 days before hand, the algorithms are constantly modifying what’s available.  ExpertFlyer can help by notifying you when an award seat becomes open. But, if we can buy rt biz for $1500, we will save our points!

[Surfguyxxx]

On 8/11/2021 at 12:08 PM, 4774Papa said:

We never found the time changes to be problematic.  Cruising across the Atlantic is far better than the time changes due to flying and jet lag.

I'm with you on this one.  I'd rather have cruise lag than jet lag 🤣

Edited April 21, 2022 by Surfguyxxx

[CSMissouri]

Hello--so much good information here.  We are planning our first TA on Princess, October 2023.  My question is about evening dress.  On non-formal nights, do passengers tend to dress more or less casual, more or less dressed up?  TIA for your comments.

[2boxers]

On 8/9/2021 at 11:21 AM, justcrusn said:

The biggest negative is the time change. (If going eastbound) it’s plus if traveling westbound.

One really cool thing (on eastbound) is seeing the change in weather. On departure in Florida you’ll be given a towel by the pool, later in North Atlantic you’ll be given blankets. At least in April that’s how it goes.

Thanks for the info!  We're going to UK in April; expected the weather to be what you mentioned.

[shipgeeks]

On 9/25/2022 at 11:03 AM, CSMissouri said:

Hello--so much good information here.  We are planning our first TA on Princess, October 2023.  My question is about evening dress.  On non-formal nights, do passengers tend to dress more or less casual, more or less dressed up?  TIA for your comments.

Our TA experiences go back several years, but we always found them to be dressier in the evening than, for example, Caribbean cruises.  Maybe because there were no port days to be tired out from?  Evenings were just very festive, from pre-dinner music and drinks right through to bedtime.

[Tmc1512]

The chic / formal night, people dress very nicely. We often focus our sea days on the indoor pool and happy hour on the back patio bar ~ we are super, super casual for the crossing! 😊 I worry so much about packing nice clothes and I live in a bathing suit, a swing dress over it and maybe knit pants and a sweatshirt 🤣

[4774Papa]

On 9/29/2021 at 9:58 AM, Clay Clayton said:

You sound like us! Well except for the part about taking 40 and 50 day cruises. We haven’t done that yet…have our eye on Viking’s 33 day roundtrip LA cruise to Hawaii and French Polynesia but it sold out so fast…fingers are crossed that they decide to put on another or someone cancels. 
 

Regarding biz airfare, we have found that one way to lower the cost is to buy a roundtrip ticket that commences in Europe-usually not one of the obvious cities. For example, in 2018 we cruised from San Juan to Barcelona in March, flew back from Copenhagen via Lisbon to Miami, then in September flew back to Copenhagen, did a baltic cruise then spent a few weeks on land in Europe before sailing back to the US from Rome.  Those flights were on TAP and cost $1300 per person roundtrip. Of course we had to pay for the flights to and from Copenhagen which cost about $200 roundtrip per person. But $1500 and a little effort was a lot better than the one way or even roundtrip air fares we found leaving from the US. 

I have frequently used my DeltaSkymiles for the one way flight when doing a TransAtlantic or TransPacific cruise.