Repositioning cruises: love 'em or hate 'em?

[calikak]

DH and I live in Seattle, so we take a lot of repositioning cruises, because they're cheap and very convenient for us. The downside is less time cruising and often less services. How do others feel about them?

[bdjam]

DH and I live in Seattle, so we take a lot of repositioning cruises, because they're cheap and very convenient for us. The downside is less time cruising and often less services. How do others feel about them?

I voted for love…the reason is that I take the longer repositioning cruises (more than 10 days) with extended sea days. I don’t like the short 3 and 4-day cruises.

[Cruise38]

I voted for - love them - and I also take the longer ones. They usually have pretty interesting ports and more sea days.

 

Barbara

[wander]

Most of my repositioning cruises that I loved were over 10 days as well. I did enjoy one short one - but too short to be worth the effort.

[spongerob]

The short repo cruises to satisfy PSA provisions seem to generate more than their fair share of complaints.

[critterchick]

We cruise between LA (where we live) and Vancouver once or twice a year. It gives us a good idea of what a particular ship is like, and it's helping us get to Princess Elite status relatively quickly!:D We've done 3-7 days, but have our eyes on some of the transatlantic cruises, maybe when we're nearer to retirement.

[cruiserforlife]

The only one we ever did was a 15-day Panama Canal cruise which sailed from Ft. Lauderdale back to San Francisco which is close to where we live.

 

Loved it,only had to fly once!

[susancruzs]

Love them! I live in the midwest so only done ones that are over 10 days. I've never done short cruises (less than 7 days) because of air fare, flight times, etc!

 

I just love those sea days the repositioning trips have! I've been onboard for 13 days with 5 ports! Woohoo, my idea of cruising!

 

Susie

[relevart]

Love them! Took a 30 day one on the Star Princess this year from Bangkok to Venice. WOW! A couple of years ago I took one from Ft. Lauderdale to Barcelona for 12 days. The longer the better!

[Liner]

LOVE them! Recently did a 15-day from San Francisco to Miami via the Panama Canal! 9 days at sea...ahhhhhhhhhh:D

[Jeepers385]

Love them. We've done a couple so far and really enjoyed them especially when one was out of San Juan and did various islands, Bermuda and back to NYC. Not far to travel to home in NJ.:D

 

Debbie

[seattlekckckc]

I too said LOVE THEM! I live in Seattle also, and to be able to hop on a two night cruise it is a perfect getaway! Some say they are to short, but it is still better than two nights around home and work!!! Added benefit, I got to Elite very quickly also.

 

Casey

[Bestbubba]

Just love them! Sea days are the BEST and transatlantic is just so relaxing!!:) No "quickie" cruises available for us in the UK so although we tend to take longer cruises, elite status is a long time coming!!:(

 

Sue x

[PINEVIEW01]

Love the Sea days. Love the price. I've only done one but, my co-cruises said the only "hate" things were common. The port of calls aren't normal and seem to cause confusion and the ship that runs on a set schedual of say 7 days, doesn't seem to know how to handle the additional days.

 

The love out ways the hate. I did a 15 day Panama Canal cruise last September and came home and booked a 16 day transatlantic for next October:D I'm still working so it pushes the vacation time:(

[jlsdunn]

I'm new to crusing. Could someone explain exactly how these work. I know you start at one port and end at another, but how are they different besides that?

 

Less services? How so.

 

Thanks for your help. :)

 

Jennifer

[Tunagold]

Like JlsDunn, I too wonder about these cruises. I can see where the two or three day repositioning cruises may have less staff, because I doubt they are able to fill the ship. But what about the longer ones...do they typically fill the ships on those? They have to take the ship from one destination to another when they are repositioning, so even if they only had a few passengers, they would still go. But I am curious as to how crowded they typically get. And I would think that pricing would be great...especially as you get closer to departure if the ship still has a lot of open cabins. So what can you expect for a price?

[WCAB]

We did a coastal cruise in September. The ships were repositioning from the Alaska cruise to the Mexican cruise. It was seven days. I loved it. price was right. I have found that these cruises are very popular and they do sell out.

We did stop at one port, in Astoria, where the cruise ships do not normally stop.

In a way, it was very nice. The whole town put out the red carpet for us. I did not notice any loss of quality in the service. I would do one again.

[mringenoldus]

Since we live in AZ and can get to the west coast ports inexpensively (thank God for Southwest Airlines!), we have taken the Sun Princess and the Sapphire on short repo trips. We are also scheduled for the Coral in May 2006.

 

We treat ourselves to suite level rooms on these trips - since they wouldn't typically be in our budget on a longer trip.

 

It also gives us the chance to try out many different classes or new ships.

 

The only part I hate is getting off so early!

[Deloresgardella]

I am taking my first repositioning cruise in April, but what I have read on these boards it will be great.:) Going through the canal from FLL to S.F. I am really looking forward to it. This is something that I have always wanted to do.:cool:

 

Delores

[calikak]

A repositioning cruise is one where the ship has to get from one region to another at the beginning/end of a region's season. Since Princess doesn't want to lose money by sailing a ship empty when it could have sailed it full, they market these repositioning sailings as a cruise. On the west coast, they're usually Vancouver to San Francisco or Vancouver to LA, or vice-versa. A lot of transatlantic sailings are the same thing, the ships are finishing up their summer sailings in Europe and transitioning to the Caribbean.

 

Sometimes there are very good deals to be had on these cruises, I guess because Princess thinks the public won't be as excited about the itineraries, particularly on the shorter repo cruises. For example, in September, there was a repo cruise on the Sapphire that was only one night long (Seattle to Vancouver) that was in the $60/person range for an inside cabin by the time the sailing date got close. The downside was that it was only one night, so there weren't nearly as many activities as there usually are. The spa was open, though, and so was Sabatini's, and there was plenty of dancing going on in Skywalkers.

[karfest]

Last year the Dawn Princess repositioning from Florida to Alaska was broken into 10,7 and 3 day segments. We took the 7 day from Acapulco to LA and it was fantastic. We met some people who had been on board from Ft. Lauderdale and were going all the way to Vancouver, others had gotten on in San Juan and went through the Panama canal, another CC member went from Fll to Acapulco and then took a land vacation in Mexico.

 

I didn't see any ships breaking it down that way for 2005, I liked the 7 day option as it is difficult for us to get away for a 10 day cruise.There is something more adventuresome about starting and ending in different places! I will definitely do a repositioning cruise again when the right one comes along.

[Druke I]

Big fan of repositioning cruises here, both the short Left Coast trips, and the ones from one hemisphere to another.

 

The shorties are a great way to spend a long weekend and try out a new ship.

 

The longer ones quite often have a very attractive price.

[rwilk1129]

Would love to try a repo cruise but hate the thought of paying more for airfare than the cruise itself.

[LARGIN]

Love them here.. one way flight to Ft. Lauderdale, then 15 days back to San Francisco.. Less than a one hour drive back home.. We have done this 4 times and are planning to do it again in 2006 when the Coral moves from the east coast to the west coast in May.

[Johanna7]

Our last one was a 14 day repo cruise from Barcelona to Tampa. It was super fantastic, great weather, great crew, great tablemates.

 

The price was about the same as 1 week in the Caribbean when you consider the cost of the cruise and the slightly higher air fare. We got a great deal on both and flew with KLM to Barcelona via Amsterdam and home from Tampa with Air Canada.

 

The first 2 nights on the ship were on Barcelona, a lovely city. We visited Alicante which was a great place, then Malaga which we hardly saw except to drive through as we went to La Alhambra near Granada for the day and then through the strait of Gibraltar and to Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Just super. Then 6 days at sea which were NOT boring as they had Academy at Sea with a choice of 4 courses but only recommended you take 2 as they conflict.

 

There was the usual trivia, crafts, and all the other usual cruise things including able to swim outdoors nearly every day.

 

After the 6 days at sea, a full day in Nassau which was nice and then Tampa.

 

We have also done a Panama Canal cruise for 10 days from Fort Lauderdale to Acapulco. It was good too but a lot more expensive.