Canary Islands in February

[laudergayle]

The Epic sails out of Lisbon to the Canary Islands along with a stop in Casablanca and Gibraltar, and a few other ports in Spain.  But they only sail in February 2024. No other sailings as of now.

 

Curious why such a limited #of sailings…and why February?  Has anyone done this itinerary or something similar in January/February?  Or any other time of the year.

[lepidoptera]

I feel like NCL usually has the Epic spend the summer in the Med, then spends the winter doing the Southern Caribbean runs from San Juan. However, next winter the Viva will be in San Juan. NCL must have decided it made sense to keep the Epic over in Europe, I know very many American’s really hate her bathroom set up and maybe they are hoping to do better with her being in Europe. 

 

Even though the Canaries are not a frequent cruise port on NCL or other cruise lines marketing to Americans, they are a very popular destination in Europe. I believe cruise lines like P&O sail there frequently, there are ferries and car ferries from the Spanish mainland and they are a frequent stop on transatlantic cruises. So it is very possible that the other cruise lines have agreements that favor them and that is when NCL could get in both in the Canaries or in other ports. Also NCL is competing against both package holidays and the other cruise lines, they might feel like they won’t be able to fill the ship the whole winter. 

 

Also I think NCL is tending to push more and more into the shoulder season for the seasonal cruises.  My TA on her (cancelled by the cruise line) was supposed to be in December, which is very late for a ship to be crossing the Atlantic. I am sure NCL has her stopping Med cruises comparatively late and starting up early compared to the other cruise lines, especially since they won’t have to reposition her to Europe. 

 

I did stop in the Canaries on my RCL TA this year. We weren’t going there originally, but deserted due to weather. I did like them a lot, and would go back. 

[complawyer]

by the way, ncl offers a cruise on the dawn march 2024 sailing from capetown with stops inthe canary islands as well as morocco. 

[GLYNAGP]

The Canaries has been a popular Winter destination for Europeans for many many years due its warm climate. I have booked a cruise on the Epic departing 05th Jan 24 at a very reasonable rate, even taking into account I travel solo. Lisbon is a great place to start the Cruise ,it cut out at least 2 sea days each way compared with departing Southampton (UK) and is just a short flight from the UK.  

[KeithJenner]

NCL used to do regular Canary Isles cruises through the winter. Usually the Spirit (we did two of them from Barcelona).

 

We we’re also booked on a similar one on the Epic a few years ago but the ship got repositioned and they were all cancelled.

 

There haven’t been any scheduled for a few years, and it will be good to see them return. We would certainly do the itinerary again.

 

As for the weather, we went at Easter and it was cool in the Med but nice and warm by the time we got to the Canaries. We have sailed on the Med in December and it was quite nice but we did need a jacket at times.
 

 

The seas can be a bit rough during the winter and Casablanca is apparently a challenge in rough seas.

Edited May 10, 2023 by KeithJenner

[di T]

12 hours ago, laudergayle said:

The Epic sails out of Lisbon to the Canary Islands along with a stop in Casablanca and Gibraltar, and a few other ports in Spain.  But they only sail in February 2024. No other sailings as of now.

 

Curious why such a limited #of sailings…and why February?  Has anyone done this itinerary or something similar in January/February?  Or any other time of the year.

We did a b2 b this February and March from Lisbon to these ports, weather was lovely and we had a few nights in beautiful Lisbon before flying home.Enjoyed it so much have booked next February on the Epic from Lisbon to Rome, nice short flights for us Brits.Think the Epic is doing this cruise as a reposition to the Mediterranean.

[Huntingdon1701]

I've been there twice (Azamara, MSC) at those times and the weather was mostly excellent. We had rough weather one day, but that's always a risk. They were great trips and I'd recommend them as a destination.