Transatlantic cruises

[dlorjones1]

Has anyone ever taken a transatlantic cruise from United States to overseas and the one returning from a overseas port to the US?  How to find these cruises?

[Capt_BJ]

QM2 does this regularly

 

just go to the Cunard web site

 

https://www.cunard.com/en-us/cruise-destinations/transatlantic

 

 

[leaveitallbehind]

Most of the mass market cruise lines also do this periodically each year in moving some of their ships to different regions of the world for seasonal cruise itineraries which are called re-positioning cruises.  The transatlantic ones that you are referring to would typically take place in the fall and spring moving ships between the Mediterranean and the Caribbean.  

 

You would just need to go to the different cruise line'es websites (RCI, Celebrity, HAL, Princess, NCL ,etc.) and do a search for re-positioning cruises to see their scheduled itineraries.   Or contact a travel agent and they can assist you with finding different itineraries that would work for you.

[Essiesmom]

Start here:  https://www.cruisetransatlantic.com/cruises.html.  It is not a cruise agency site...

 

You can also research using www.cruisetimetables.com using departure ports and dates.  EM

 

 

[Shmoo here]

2 hours ago, dlorjones1 said:

Has anyone ever taken a transatlantic cruise from United States to overseas and the one returning from a overseas port to the US?  How to find these cruises?

Do you mean back to back cruises?  Or just taking it one way, spend a little time in Europe, and then cruise back?

[TheOldBear]

I would join the chorus recommending Cunard for at least one leg of a transatlantic round trip. This fall, we did a 19 day round trip [NYC, Southampton, Hamburg, Southampton, LeHavre & back to NYC].

Some folks followed the eastbound crossing with another line's repositioning cruise to Florida.

Another group left the ship in Southampton for a 'Road Scholar' Normandy tour, rejoining in LeHavre [and monopolizing the laundry on deck 5 the next day].

Its possible some other folks had independent travel in place of the Southampton to LeHavre leg of the round trip.

[FredT]

Well......  If the OP was simply interested in cruising both ways, I would simply join on the Cunard bandwagon.  If however they are looking for a great deal (As of course you can find with many re positioning cruises) it gets a bit harder, as almost every "cheap" re positioning cruise in the fall is going west bound, and every one in the spring is going eastbound.  

 

I know both my wife and daughter have used the "cheap re positioning " cruises to get back from European  trips in the fall, both times scoring 12 days trips that were cheaper than any TA flights at the time.   But going over?    Not in the fall!

[marco]

One option could be a one way repo sailing on any line repositioning ships between Europe and the US  and the other way on Cunard's QM2.  Eastbound repos are pretty much in the spring with lines putting their ships in Europe  and westbound repos pretty much in the fall with the ships mostly  being put in Caribbean sailings.  As the QM2 goes back and forth with some regularity,  coordinate sailings between a repo sailing and a QM2 sailing. However for the most part one way will probably be out of Fla and the opposite NYC. Or.....come and go each way on the QM2 with time in Europe in between. As they intersperse cruising between T/A's you could be in Europe from anywhere between  a few days and a few weeks.

Edited November 6, 2019 by marco

[LocoLoco1]

Answer: Yes.   They are called 'Repositioning' or Transatlantic cruises in every Cruise lines' brochures and Web-sites.

[ShawninFL]

Celebrity has two transatlantic cruises going B2B In August of 2020.  I believe the first leaves from Bayonne and goes to Dublin, then turns around and leaves Dublin and goes to Boston.  I'm hoping the do something like that again for 2021.

[BarbinMich]

4 hours ago, ShawninFL said:

Celebrity has two transatlantic cruises going B2B In August of 2020.  I believe the first leaves from Bayonne and goes to Dublin, then turns around and leaves Dublin and goes to Boston.  I'm hoping the do something like that again for 2021.

True, but Dublin is the only European port; the other ports are Greenland and 2 Canadian ports.  Most of us who have done TAs wouldn't consider that the usual EB TA which has 5-7 days at sea and then 5-6 ports in Europe and the usual WB TA has 5-6 ports and then 5-7 days at sea.  A person could plan to spend time post-cruise (or pre-cruise, as the case may be) touring Ireland or other European countries.

[ShawninFL]

36 minutes ago, BarbinMich said:

True, but Dublin is the only European port; the other ports are Greenland and 2 Canadian ports.  Most of us who have done TAs wouldn't consider that the usual EB TA which has 5-7 days at sea and then 5-6 ports in Europe and the usual WB TA has 5-6 ports and then 5-7 days at sea.  A person could plan to spend time post-cruise (or pre-cruise, as the case may be) touring Ireland or other European countries.

 

True, it's not a typical TA having 5-7 sea days in a row, but it does does go to Canada, Greenland, Iceland and Ireland and you don't have to do the back to back.  But if someone was looking to sail over, tour for a month or two and then cruise back, this would be a very nice option as other than Cunard, most other TAs leave in April or May.

[BarbinMich]

21 hours ago, ShawninFL said:

 

True, it's not a typical TA having 5-7 sea days in a row, but it does does go to Canada, Greenland, Iceland and Ireland and you don't have to do the back to back.  But if someone was looking to sail over, tour for a month or two and then cruise back, this would be a very nice option as other than Cunard, most other TAs leave in April or May.

If you do a repositioning TA as we have done, both in spring and in fall, you fly to/from home, depending on the direction the ship is going.  The ship is either going east to start doing cruises in Europe for the late spring-early fall or going west to do the Caribbean in the winter.  Such Princess cruises are FL to Southampton UK or vice verse.  On fall WB TAs we have visited Canada, Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands (sometimes) and always Ireland.  EB TAs in the spring usually take the southern route to the Azores and then Europe (either Rome or Copenhagen being the disembarkation port).

 

Cunard also does Caribbean cruises in the winter and cruises to Alaska in the summer so they're no longer just a UK-USA or vice verse line.  However, it's too formal for us (I assume) and we prefer the more laid-back/casual Princess ships.

[leshil]

I have found a cruise for Oct 2020 on Azura, leaving from Southampton and calling at Madeira before going to Caribbean.  Has  anyone been on this cruise as there are many "ship"  days and also we wondered about the weather ? Thanks people

 

[taglovestocruise]

6 minutes ago, leshil said:

I have found a cruise for Oct 2020 on Azura, leaving from Southampton and calling at Madeira before going to Caribbean.  Has  anyone been on this cruise as there are many "ship"  days and also we wondered about the weather ? Thanks people

 

Not that ship but we did the 15 night Independence  Southampton to Miami Oct. 2017. Cold and rainy leaving Southampton, from day 2 on it was shorts and t shirts every day. It went from sunny and warm to hot in just a few days. Seas were like glass, knock on wood.  We are coming up on our 6th transatlantic, love the sea days, six in a row are fantastic. Westbound are are even better with five or six  25 hours days in a row.  For me the Azura would be way to small with not much to do, we find Oasis class to be fantastic. happy cruising

[leshil]

We did Independence a few years back to Canaries in Feb/March. Found it too big !  Thanks for your comments 

 

 

[Bankshot]

We live in south Florida and have met people from Europe who spend the Winter here.  Many come over in the Fall on a 14 day repositioning cruise, enjoy the Winter here, and return home on another repositioning cruise in the spring.  They can usually book these cruses for less than it would cost them to fly.  We have booked one for as little as $41/day, outside room.

[jocap]

1 hour ago, leshil said:

I have found a cruise for Oct 2020 on Azura, leaving from Southampton and calling at Madeira before going to Caribbean.  Has  anyone been on this cruise as there are many "ship"  days and also we wondered about the weather ? Thanks people

 

We've been on her sister ship, Ventura, a couple of times in January, but there and back again, after visiting 8 islands in the Caribbean. We've not had many problems with the weather, except for one storm, but we took a different route so missed the worst.

The sea days were full of activities and entertainment- usually 2 lectures a day, plus all the usual art& crafts, choir etc. Plus new film releases!

Never been bored; in Jan it's chilly until Madeira, but in Oct it should be fine once you are opposite Spain.

[wowzz]

3 hours ago, leshil said:

I have found a cruise for Oct 2020 on Azura, leaving from Southampton and calling at Madeira before going to Caribbean.  Has  anyone been on this cruise as there are many "ship"  days and also we wondered about the weather ? Thanks people

 

We've done a 24 day round trip to the Caribbean from Southampton,  and enjoyed it so much that we have booked a 35 day round trip that includes New Orleans and Miami.  Lots of sea days, obviously, and as Jocap mentioned,  there is a fair amount to do on those days,  but you need to be someone who does not constantly need to be entertained, and is happy to read a book, listen to music etc. 

The most important thing, from our point of view, is to have as large a cabin (and certainly a balcony) as you can afford. 

[Hlitner]

We have managed to cruise back and forth to Europe on about 8 occasions.  One easy way is to use a repositioning cruise for one direction and the QM2 for the other.  We have sometimes managed to find regular cruises (other then the QM2) for both directions.  For example,  early next August 8 the Island Princess is doing a 16 day cruise from NYC to Southampton.  One could then spend some time in Europe and return on the Sept 8 (from Southampton to NYC) on the MSC Meraviglia or on an Oceania Cruise on Sept 11 that also goes from Southampton to NYC.

 

There are numerous opportunities to do this kind of round trip cruising. 

 

Hank

[geoherb]

A couple on our westbound transatlantic Princess cruise arrived via a Cunard ship. Unfortunately, in my mind, they arrived  in and departed from Southampton the same day.