Back to Back Transatlantic

[Margaretealexander]

I am considering doing a cruise from the US to Europe and then returning on another cruise back to the US. Does anyone have any experience with this type of sailing? I am assuming that the turn around is the same day as arrival? Any information would be useful.

[TheOldBear]

We have done three transatlantic round trips so far, with a fourth booked for next October.

 

Cunard offers a variety of scheduled round trip crossings on the Queen Mary 2, with different length 'side trip' cruises scheduled after the initial Southampton arrival.

The basic round trip crossing includes a one day visit to Southampton, with the return crossing starting the same day last the eastbound crossing ends.

There are also options with cruises to Norway, Hamburg, or even Mediterranean ports between the crossings.

Last year we had one of the longer options - 26 nights including a 12 night Norway sailing between the two crossings.

 

Other options that are sometimes discussed on this forum are some combination of a repositioning cruise, a land tour and perhaps a QM2 crossing - but we prefer the option of unpacking *once* for our entire vacation.

[Hlitner]

9 hours ago, Margaretealexander said:

I am considering doing a cruise from the US to Europe and then returning on another cruise back to the US. Does anyone have any experience with this type of sailing? I am assuming that the turn around is the same day as arrival? Any information would be useful.

We have done it without missing a meal :).  A few years ago we were on a long HAL TA cruise that ended in Harwich, England,  We disembarked after breakfast, got in our reserved van (which we shared with another couple doing the same thing) and drove directly to Southampton where we boarded the QM2 for the return voyage to the States.   We were on the QM2 in time for lunch, so no missed meals :).

 

We joked about that day since we did not have time to spend any money in England (other than paying for our transportation).  

 

We have also posted that we have, multiple times, done round trip cruises to Europe with varying time between the two cruises.  For us, it is the best of both worlds since we get two nice TA voyages and some time on land (this has varied from a few days to a few months).  We often take a TA repositioning cruise from the USA to Europe in the spring, and always look to see if there is a good option for a return voyage.  Sometimes yes, and sometimes no.  This coming year we could not find a reasonable return voyage that worked for our land itinerary, so our return is via air.

 

The only underlying issue is that we cannot spend more than 90 days (out of 180) in the Schengen zone, so this is a limitation on our independent land travel (unless we leave the Schengen countries and go to a place like Montenegro).

 

Hank

[Margaretealexander]

Thanks for the input. I’m hoping dates will work out and I can sync up this back to back vacation. 30 days on a ship seems amazing. Happy sailing!

[Galveston Cruiser]

We have sailed 18 TA's/repositioning cruises; some B2B2B of 28 - 33 days.

Next October we are taking the Adventure of the Seas from Port Canaveral to Lisbon then Voyager of the Seas from Barcelona back to Port Canaveral with 4 nights between.

Of course there is another TA B2B2B in the spring from Florida ending in Italy and several shorter cruises prior to this...

[Margaretealexander]

7 hours ago, Galveston Cruiser said:

We have sailed 18 TA's/repositioning cruises; some B2B2B of 28 - 33 days.

Next October we are taking the Adventure of the Seas from Port Canaveral to Lisbon then Voyager of the Seas from Barcelona back to Port Canaveral with 4 nights between.

Of course there is another TA B2B2B in the spring from Florida ending in Italy and several shorter cruises prior to this...

Yes this is exactly what I’m looking to do!

[pajazz28]

On 12/4/2023 at 10:10 PM, Galveston Cruiser said:

We have sailed 18 TA's/repositioning cruises; some B2B2B of 28 - 33 days.

Next October we are taking the Adventure of the Seas from Port Canaveral to Lisbon then Voyager of the Seas from Barcelona back to Port Canaveral with 4 nights between.

Of course there is another TA B2B2B in the spring from Florida ending in Italy and several shorter cruises prior to this...

Can you share details on this trip. My DW and I are starting to have discusion of what we want to do for our retirement trip and this is my suggestion. But I have tried starting to research and it has not been very succesful. I would like to go to Europe spend some time and visit different Europe countries and then return an another cruise. How can I reasearch this? Do yuo have a written intinerary of this trip? Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

[Galveston Cruiser]

On 12/12/2023 at 8:44 AM, pajazz28 said:

Can you share details on this trip. My DW and I are starting to have discusion of what we want to do for our retirement trip and this is my suggestion. But I have tried starting to research and it has not been very succesful. I would like to go to Europe spend some time and visit different Europe countries and then return an another cruise. How can I reasearch this? Do yuo have a written intinerary of this trip? Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

Sorry for the delay in responding; just off a cruise this morning.

I have traveled all my life so I find it easy to plan trips; never have a written itinerary.  DH books the cruises once we decide where we want to go; I plan air, lodging and rental car.

There are sites that list all available cruises as well as recommendations for lodging and transportation.  Many prefer trains when traveling through Europe but I lived in several countries and prefer the freedom of driving.   Maps are available for each and every country, region and city .for planning lodging.  Plan your budget and  go from there.