Two Way Transatlantic???

[SDCB432]

In trying to stay away from flying if possible......

Are there 2 way cruises from US to Europe or does it make more sense to book 2 separate cruises?

Also - any cruise options where sea days are less than 5 days at a time - more broken up or is it better to have more cruise days???

Just trying to get options for down the road.

 

[Hlitner]

Great question and the easy answer is "yes, sometimes."  We have done two way TAs a few times always using a combination of cruises (and even cruise lines).  In the Spring it is very normal for us to book a long TA/repositioning cruise from North America to Europe.  We use this as a fun way to get to Europe where we generally stay for weeks/months and do independent traveling.  We will sometimes look for a late Spring/early Summer return and this is a bit tricky.  There are only a limted number of west bound TA cruises in the Spring/Summer (there will be plenty in the late Fall as the ships reposition).  I use a cruise Agency's online data base which makes it easy for me to look at all the options.  So, for example, if I am looking for a way to cruise back to the USA in July 2023 there are the usual Queen Mary 2 crossings.  But there is also a HAL Rotterdam cruise that departs from Rotterdam on July 2  and arrives at Boston on July 22.  I had not noticed that cruise until doing a little research for this post and it immediately got my interest :).  

 

These two way trips are fun to plan.  We usually find two cruises (one each way) of interest and then start planning how to fill all that time in Europe.  Of course our Europe itinerary must start at our debarkation port (from the first cruise) and we than plan the most fun way to get to our embarkation port for the return cruise.    Obviously these kind of trips are reserved for folks that can spare the time (and can handle it within their budget).

 

There are other interesting ideas of a similar nature.  We once tried to do a two way cruise over to Australia.  It would have been about 10 weeks of cruising but did not work out because of a family obligation that conflicted with the timing.  In the end we just did a one way 40+ day cruise from Seattle that eventually got us to Auckland where we spent some wonderful time in New Zealand.  But that family obligation meant we had to fly home :(.

 

By the way, using the Queen Mary 2 is not such a bad thing.  It is actually possible to book a lower cost cabin on the Queen for less than Business Class Air.  And 6-7 days on the Queen is a lot nicer than even the best Business Class flight.

 

Hank

 

 

[TheOldBear]

18 hours ago, SDCB432 said:

In trying to stay away from flying if possible......

Are there 2 way cruises from US to Europe or does it make more sense to book 2 separate cruises?

Also - any cruise options where sea days are less than 5 days at a time - more broken up or is it better to have more cruise days???

Just trying to get options for down the road.

 

 

Our last two sailings, and our upcoming 'Norway and Northern Lights' sailing are based on QM2 round trip from NY to Southampton.

The basic crossing is seven days each way, or 14 for the round trip if no side trips are scheduled. The Northern Lights segment is a 12 day Southampton round trip. There are other options between different crossing pairs - currently the QM2 is doing a Mediterranean trip before returning to Southampton and then NY.

As mentioned in a previous post, it is usually possible to pair a repositioning cruise with a QM2 crossing - with a variable amount of time and distance between them depending on schedules. We like the round trips - e.g. 26 nights  and only need to unpack once.

 

As far as minimizing sea days - the QM2 could do a 5 day crossing, but Cunard has elected for slower crossings [lower fuel costs, greater onboard revenue] and we enjoy our time onboard. For us the time onboard is the major attraction.

 

Some repositioning and island hopping sailings will have fewer consecutive sea days, but the cruise will take longer overall [slower cruising speed, delays for the port visits]. You may want to take a look at sailings like HAL's "Voyage of the Vikings" - or for that matter some Viking sailings that stop in Iceland.

[Clay Clayton]

Just to add something I just heard about. NCL has Norwegian Sun heading TO Europe this fall and returning FROM there early Spring which is the opposite of most cruiselines.  We tried to make it work for a family land trip to Germany in December but alas it didn’t due to other conflicts with our schedule. 

[Rob_H]

1 hour ago, Clay Clayton said:

Just to add something I just heard about. NCL has Norwegian Sun heading TO Europe this fall and returning FROM there early Spring which is the opposite of most cruiselines. 

 

Yes.  The Norwegian Sun has to be repositioned from Alaska to Europe. A season of Asia cruises over the 2022/23 winter were cancelled (a couple of months ago) to be replaced with Canary Island trips from Lisbon and Malaga.  We're booked on the reposition. 

 

This reposition is virtually a world cruise segment at a very reasonable price (and more port intensive).  We get on in Seattle on Oct 11, go through the Panama Canal to Miami, then stay on b2b for the Oct 31 TA to Lisbon (multiple stops in ocean islands). Total 41 days. 

 

Some people on the roll call (for the TA) are taking a ship back to the US after (mostly MSC), a couple of them are using this TA as a way to get back to Europe from an earlier westbound TA. 

 

We're staying in Lisbon for six days then taking the Norwegian Star for our TA westbound, not to the US but to Rio then Buenos Aires (21 days).  

 

 

[Clay Clayton]

13 minutes ago, Rob_H said:

 

Yes.  The Norwegian Sun has to be repositioned from Alaska to Europe. A season of Asia cruises over the 2022/23 winter were cancelled (a couple of months ago) to be replaced with Canary Island trips from Lisbon and Malaga.  We're booked on the reposition. 

 

This reposition is virtually a world cruise segment at a very reasonable price (and more port intensive).  We get on in Seattle on Oct 11, go through the Panama Canal to Miami, then stay on b2b for the Oct 31 TA to Lisbon (multiple stops in ocean islands). Total 41 days. 

 

Some people on the roll call (for the TA) are taking a ship back to the US after (mostly MSC), a couple of them are using this TA as a way to get back to Europe from an earlier westbound TA. 

 

We're staying in Lisbon for six days then taking the Norwegian Star for our TA westbound, not to the US but to Rio then Buenos Aires (21 days).  

 

 

Sounds great!  We would like to be doing the same but family obligations are in the way 😢. We love the Sun-she is quirky but has a couple of great secret cabins that we were lucky enough to book a couple of times. 
 

Enjoy Lisbon-it was one of our favorite places when we lived nomadically for a couple of years and were there twice. 

Edited July 28, 2022 by Clay Clayton