Royal Transatlantic Questions

[Lisa353]

8 hours ago, Deep-Blue-Iris said:

I’m interested in this too - but as I’m from the UK I’d want to do an eastbound because then I don’t have to deal with the awful jet lag. 
 

I’ve cruised twice before, but I’m doing my first Royal cruise in May. If I’m enjoying it by midway through I’ll look at speaking to NextCruise about a TA as I booked direct with them. A TA has been on my list since I started cruising but with that many sea days I want to pick the right line. 

If you are thinking of doing one, then I would recommend doing it eastbound.  It was so good having the long flight there but then by the time you are back east, you are back in our time so don't have jet lag.  We sailed on Anthem last May from New Jersey to Southampton.  We had 3 ports and it was a 10 night cruise.  Each of the sea days they just moved the clock forward by a hour at lunch time so you didn't lose sleep.  It was so good when we got back to Southampton and only had the short flight home.

[firefly333]

I see excursions in 3 languages. We dont go to italy first leg, but we even have italian only excursions. 

[Jasukkie]

Fond memories of that Sete Cidades hike excursion above. I love long cruises with lots of sea days. Still, it's nice to have interesting ports too. I'm one of those people that struggled to wake up in the morning heading eastbound. It's only one hour but doing it day after day was hard for me somehow.

[ssb]

Consider for no flying over the pond

and four days in Portugal and/or Spain

 

• Adventure of the Seas
•       Oct 25 — Nov 6, 2024

                          12 nt portugal & perfect day crossing

1. ORLANDO (PORT CANAVERAL), FL
2. PERFECT DAY AT COCOCAY
3. TENERIFE, CANARY ISLANDS
4. LANZAROTE, CANARY ISLANDS
5. LISBON, PORTUGAL

• Voyager of the Seas
•       Nov 10 — Nov 26, 2024

                        16 nt transatlantic spain & portugal

1. BARCELONA, SPAIN
2. PALMA DE MALLORCA, SPAIN
3. VALENCIA, SPAIN
4. CARTAGENA, SPAIN
5. MALAGA, SPAIN 
6. MADEIRA (FUNCHAL), PORTUGAL
7. GRAN CANARIA, CANARY ISLANDS
8. TENERIFE, CANARY ISLANDS
9. ORLANDO (PORT CANAVERAL), FL

 

Edited March 29 by ssb

[Jetdriver787]

We are just embarking on our 6th TA cruise in a months time. One thing that hasn’t been mentioned but we have always found very useful, are airline loyalty programmes! Even if you aren’t currently signed up to one or don’t have many points, membership can give you a lot of flexibility and a considerable amount of extra comfort at a surprisingly low price.

 

One of the (many) frustrations of these programmes are the difficulty of finding available flights when you want them. Cruisers usually avoid this problem by being able to book a long way in advance at “quieter” times of the year. Another frustration with these programmes is often that when you find a flight you can use, it can be very difficult (if not impossible) to marry it up to a return flight. Obviously “one way” cruisers don’t have this problem.

 

As many people know (or discover) one way air fare is often significantly more expensive than a return journey. Reward tickets are very much geared to one way travel and proportionally priced per sector.

 

This type of ticket is also (usually) very flexible. In that you can change or cancel the ticket up to 24 hours before departure for a full refund of the points and around $100 change or cancellation fee. 
 

If you don’t have enough airline points within a scheme, you can often purchase up to a certain number a year. Often and particularly for premium class travel, this can be a very cost efficient way to obtain a suitable and highly flexible ticket.

 

we have used this method for all of our TA’s for air travel between Europe and the USA/Caribbean. Also used them for a lot of one way travel within Europe. 

 

Edited March 29 by Jetdriver787

[little britain]

@LB_NJ there is a low cost carrier called Norse which offers good one way priced flights from UK to many US cities and the Europeans carriers like TAP from Lisbon are reasonable too. 

Edited March 29 by little britain

[not-enough-cruising]

5 hours ago, Robo1098 said:

I stand corrected. Did they have new menu items or just a different combination?

New menu every night

[Toucanbritz]

As others have said, the one way flight cost can be high and almost the same as a return fare, so do factor that in when doing your costings. We did a westbound TA on a different line a few years back and loved it. Now booked for an eastbound one on RCI next year and really looking forward to it. 

[vjmatty]

1 minute ago, Toucanbritz said:

As others have said, the one way flight cost can be high and almost the same as a return fare, so do factor that in when doing your costings. We did a westbound TA on a different line a few years back and loved it. Now booked for an eastbound one on RCI next year and really looking forward to it. 

One solution is to book round trip with an open ended return until you find another transatlantic in the opposite direction. Or pick a random far out date and change it later. The change fee plus the round trip ticket can still be cheaper than the one way flight. 

[taglovestocruise]

We have done several TA'S and always used Royals Air2Sea. One way international flights are about as low as you can find anywhere.  Several times for weather related flight delays Royal has easily switched airlines and rebooked us at the last minute. We have always been able to reserve our seats the same day by going on the airlines website.

[radarcruiser]

If you have them, consider using miles to book a one way transatlantic flight. Easy to do one way at half the cost of R/T.  

Edited March 29 by radarcruiser

[taglovestocruise]

3 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

We have done several TA'S and always used Royals Air2Sea. One way international flights are about as low as you can find anywhere.  Several times for weather related flight delays Royal has easily switched airlines and rebooked us at the last minute. We have always been able to reserve our seats the same day by going on the airlines website.

 We have flown one way LAX to Rome, Barcelona and Southampton using Air2Sea. Booked Air France, Lufthansa, Delta and Virgin, found Air2Sea to have the best prices for economy plus.  

[MtnSeaGirl]

I would like to thank each of you for the sage advice you gave.  I truly appreciate each piece of insight.  I do have one more question if anyone circles back to this thread.  I saw one poster say that some repositioning cruises are during iffy weather.  I realize no one can predict weather so I won't hold anyone responsible LOL, but as a general rule for transatlantic cruises are the months to be concerned about diff than the Southern Carib cruises or are there particular months in general that are the worst?  I understand TA cruises are when they are and may not sail every month. Most of our cruises have been in Nov, Jan, late April, early May, one in June.  All have been from Florida except one from San Juan. I live in Fl; they just seem to have the ports we like.   I don't get sea sick as a general rule ( hope I did not just jinx myself for our  Carib cruise next week ).  DH rarely gets sea sick.   And, if anyone has further advice, I will continue to read.  Thanks again for all and have a wonderful weekend.  

[OceanCruise]

I know it depends on the weather etc., but are the transatlantic cruises generally a lot rougher than going from NY to Bermuda? We always found the Bermuda routes worse than the Caribbean with the ship rolling quite a bit. Obviously a transatlantic sailing would be in the same ocean but is ship movement a lot more pronounced? We have sailed from Vancouver to Honolulu 5 sea days in a row and that, surprisingly, was pretty smooth sailing. I am not concerned about being bored on a transatlantic but am more concerned about having to endure 4-5 days of rough waters. Also, if there is a medical emergency in the middle of the Atlantic, how quickly can a person get evacuated?

[Jasukkie]

My TA was March/April, out of Miami. I expected we might have some heavy seas on the crossing but it was very smooth. The last two nights in the Mediterranean were the worst of the trip as far as rocking but not awful. Of course weather matters a lot so you never know.

[cruisegirl1]

22 hours ago, Robo1098 said:

I stand corrected. Did they have new menu items or just a different combination?

In our experience, there are new menu items with a few items repeated.  I recall seeing prime rib offered several evenings.   

M

[Biker19]

1 hour ago, MtnSeaGirl said:

as a general rule for transatlantic cruises are the months to be concerned about diff than the Southern Carib cruises or are there particular months in general that are the worst?

Weather can happen at any time - no diff when you sail. Like other sailings, if bad enough, they'll try to go around/away from it.

[Galveston Cruiser]

As stated, weather occurs everywhere and no way to predict weeks or months in advance.  Ships try to steer clear of storms. We have 19 transatlantics behind us with 3 more scheduled.  We don't get seasick and were basically raised on water.  All the TA's have been great, choppy seas in the Mediterranean and Gulf of Mexico, but nothing extraordinary.  Just like flying, there is no way to predict turbulence.

 

In regard of medical evacuation, if the ship is relatively near a port, it will circle back.  In the middle of the ocean, the medical staff will do all they can.  We have found medical care is

to be excellent.  They not only serve passengers, but all the staff.

 

I believe if one is so concerned about seas and medical, cruising is not the ideal vacation,

 

[firefly333]

3 hours ago, MtnSeaGirl said:

I would like to thank each of you for the sage advice you gave.  I truly appreciate each piece of insight.  I do have one more question if anyone circles back to this thread.  I saw one poster say that some repositioning cruises are during iffy weather.  I realize no one can predict weather so I won't hold anyone responsible LOL, but as a general rule for transatlantic cruises are the months to be concerned about diff than the Southern Carib cruises or are there particular months in general that are the worst?  I understand TA cruises are when they are and may not sail every month. Most of our cruises have been in Nov, Jan, late April, early May, one in June.  All have been from Florida except one from San Juan. I live in Fl; they just seem to have the ports we like.   I don't get sea sick as a general rule ( hope I did not just jinx myself for our  Carib cruise next week ).  DH rarely gets sea sick.   And, if anyone has further advice, I will continue to read.  Thanks again for all and have a wonderful weekend.  

More specifically my TA advised me not to book a forward facing balcony on the pool deck. He said the ship is going full speed and it is more windy than going slow. It's not a matter of bad weather, it's just windy. He choose a balcony a little further back toward the elevators to cut the wind. 

[barbeyg]

15 hours ago, radarcruiser said:

If you have them, consider using miles to book a one way transatlantic flight. Easy to do one way at half the cost of R/T.  

This. Our TA this spring to Europe, we booked a return trip with Air Canada, business class, for transferred points from AMEX credit card, and $75 each in cash.  

Edited March 30 by barbeyg

[dad son team]

22 hours ago, Jetdriver787 said:

We are just embarking on our 6th TA cruise in a months time. One thing that hasn’t been mentioned but we have always found very useful, are airline loyalty programmes! Even if you aren’t currently signed up to one or don’t have many points, membership can give you a lot of flexibility and a considerable amount of extra comfort at a surprisingly low price.

 

One of the (many) frustrations of these programmes are the difficulty of finding available flights when you want them. Cruisers usually avoid this problem by being able to book a long way in advance at “quieter” times of the year. Another frustration with these programmes is often that when you find a flight you can use, it can be very difficult (if not impossible) to marry it up to a return flight. Obviously “one way” cruisers don’t have this problem.

 

As many people know (or discover) one way air fare is often significantly more expensive than a return journey. Reward tickets are very much geared to one way travel and proportionally priced per sector.

 

This type of ticket is also (usually) very flexible. In that you can change or cancel the ticket up to 24 hours before departure for a full refund of the points and around $100 change or cancellation fee. 
 

If you don’t have enough airline points within a scheme, you can often purchase up to a certain number a year. Often and particularly for premium class travel, this can be a very cost efficient way to obtain a suitable and highly flexible ticket.

 

we have used this method for all of our TA’s for air travel between Europe and the USA/Caribbean. Also used them for a lot of one-way travel within Europe. 

 

I agree that the one-way tickets can be outrageous.  Many will do 2 TA's and utilize one RT ticket.  Example: sail Miami to Barcelona in May, fly home, then fly back to Barcelona in September and sail back to Miami.  Requires one RT Barcelona-Miami-Barcelona.

 

I am doing something similar but have no intention of using my return flight.  Barcelona-NYC one way was $3k, but RT with a September return was $782.  

[snaefell]

Our one previous TA was at the end of March from the Caribbean to the UK,stopping at the Azores.

We didn't experience any really rough weather,the big thing was the drop in temperature during the last couple of days as we neared the UK which had experienced mega blizzard conditions,happily the worst had gone by the time we arrived!

We had an aft facing balcony which with being sheltered by the superstructure meant we could sunbathe comfortably while the towels & beds were being blown about by the pool.

My overwhelming memory of the journey involved the very talented Caribbean band that made the journey to the UK with us,they played by the main pool late each night but didn't seem quite so colourful & magical during the last few nights as the temperature plummeted,the crowds dwindled & they performed wearing coats,hats,scarves & gloves!😆😆

 

 

[hellsop]

On 3/29/2024 at 6:44 AM, not-enough-cruising said:

They have more than a 7 day menu, was on a 10 day trip last fall, and no repeats

There's at least ten here: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2024/01/09/royal-caribbean-menus

[LB_NJ]

My comment about iffy weather was not really about storms, although they are possible, it is that depending on the route in can be cold and rainy.

This is not the Caribbean or a summer cruise TA cruise.

 

As others have said it is the luck of the draw.

 

As long as you understand that weather can be unpredictable go for it.

 

Fyi, cruises that start in the US and end in the Mediterranean or vice versa can be up to 15 days long.  It is like a Mediterranean cruise coupled with a 7/8 day TA.

[MtnSeaGirl]

54 minutes ago, LB_NJ said:

My comment about iffy weather was not really about storms, although they are possible, it is that depending on the route in can be cold and rainy.

This is not the Caribbean or a summer cruise TA cruise.

 

As others have said it is the luck of the draw.

 

As long as you understand that weather can be unpredictable go for it.

 

Fyi, cruises that start in the US and end in the Mediterranean or vice versa can be up to 15 days long.  It is like a Mediterranean cruise coupled with a 7/8 day TA.

Thank you.  We are actually good with lots of sea days.  DH's job - he is on call 24/7 every day except when on vaca.  The church has a no call back policy for vacas. So, the idea of having him all to myself without fear of the phone ringing in the middle of dinner or the night or any other time....although very selfish sounds TERRIFIC!  We love his job and the work it entails but rest for weary souls would be very nice. Days and days of sitting in a chair reading, actually having a conversation....LOL  we would either end up on another honeymoon or in divorce court!