Repositioning Cruises

[Krteczech]

My husband and I are planing to take repositioning cruise to Europe (Barcelona) in April 2019. I was wondering if paying for balkony is a justifiable or if ocean view is all what one needs on repositioning cruise? Frequent cruisers, please chime in.

 

[Passepartout]

You probably won't get a lot of use from the balcony, but on that cruise you'll stop in the Canaries and Lisbon or Malaga and/or Majorca. You might enjoy some balcony time then. We do.

Having done several of these both directions (the value is great!) our first one was the same as you are taking. And EVERY night after the show, the MC says " Thanks for coming, tonight set your clocks ahead an hour. For 6 in a row! So I said, 'I can beat this system- we have to fly one direction anyway, so the net Nov, we flew to Europe and sailed back, and every night we got an extra hour of sleep! Only problem, by the time we got to NYC, we were up at 4:00 a.m.!

Jim

 

[VacationForever]

Our minimum stateroom is a balcony so I am probably not the best person to give you feedback. One huge advantage of a balcony is that when you slide open the door, you can feel the temperature when pulling into a port or even during a sea day and you can dress appropriately for it. We use the balcony even on our transatlantic, as it is nothing more peaceful than sitting out on the balcony and hearing the waves. We did hit rough seas and bad weather for 2 days last April during our Transatlantic and it would be wise not to go out to the balcony. Guests were warned against going out on public area balconies during that period.

There are always lots to do, even on sea days. There are multiple activities that if you wish to join, they are there for you. Typically the cruise lines have guest speakers talk about the ports and history etc. We enjoy those speaker series. Our typical sea day routine is have a nice sit down breakfast, walk around a bit and hit the gym at around 10am unless there is an activity that we want to go to and gym will have to move to the afternoon. Go back for a shower and head down for lunch. There are always something going on in the afternoon if we want to participate but otherwise we just head back to the room and surf the web and enjoy the balcony or whatever... We then head down for dinner that usually ends up with a long affair because of other folks whom we have met and we sit there and chat. I would prefer to go to the theatre for shows at 7pm, and most of them are very good. 9pm shows are too late for us as we are early sleepers and risers.

We will be doing a transatlantic in April of 2019 and a transpacific in April of 2020. We love sea days.

We were on a cruise in Europe this April and doing a cruise in Southeast Asia this December. As you may already realize, we love cruising.

 

[Krteczech]

Brrrr, NYC at 4 AM in late November. I am glad you managed.
There is several ships to choose from. Which, from your experienced cruiser view, could give us the most enjoyable experience. RC Rhapsody, RC Oasis, Norwegian Epic, Norwegian Star, Celebrity Infinity or Celebrity Silouette?

 

[VacationForever]

Based on ratings, Celebrity is hands-down the best of the 3 cruise lines. Unless you pick a Haven stateroom on Norwegian, it is generally rated lower than Royal Caribbean. I personally would not go on Norwegian unless I am in Haven but Haven is very expensive. Royal Caribbean will be in the middle of the 3 cruise lines. I have yet to cruise on either Norwegian or Royal Caribbean although we are booked with Royal Caribbean on their Radiance class for our 2019 Transatlantic (Serenade) and 2020 Transpacific (Radiance). We are going on these 2 cruises because our friends are booked on these cruises, otherwise we would stick with Celebrity.

The nice thing about all transatlantic cruises is that there are not many children and the crowd is generally older/retired. I don't know your age but older/retired crowd is our preference.

Celebrity Silhouette is in the Solstice class which is a larger, but not crazy large, and newer ship when compared with Celebrity Infinity which is older and in the Millennium class. You cannot go wrong with either one but if everything is the same, I would pick Silhouette over Infinity.

 

[Passepartout]

Brrrr, NYC at 4 AM in late November. I am glad you managed.
There is several ships to choose from. Which, from your experienced cruiser view, could give us the most enjoyable experience. RC Rhapsody, RC Oasis, Norwegian Epic, Norwegian Star, Celebrity Infinity or Celebrity Silouette?

We are Celebrity loyalists and did Panama Canal and S. America on Infinity and a T/A on Silhouette's inaugural voyage- as well as 3 more. I'd choose Silhouette. But I'm biased.

 

[bizaro86]

I have cruised Norwegian and Celebrity, and have enjoyed Norwegian more. We mostly book Balconey staterooms. I thought the food was better on NCL, and I liked the more flexible dining. Anyway, Celebrity is the consensus opinion this board, but I liked NCL better. That may be an age thing, I'm a generation younger than the average TUGger. I'm sure you'll have a great trip either way. For a transatlantic, I would spend time checking out the activities on board each ship before you book, as you'll have lots of time.

 

[TravelTime]

Cruising with a balcony, even if you don't use it all the time, is worth it. You get a better view, as you probably know, from the bigger glass from the sliding glass doors. And being able to open up the doors and feel the ocean breeze is priceless. When you are able to sit on the balcony, it will be heaven but you probably will not regret getting one even if you never sit on it.

 

[pedro47]

The best thing about a reposition Cruise is the costs and the extra sea day’s. They are very reasonable in costs; some cabins are under a $100 dollars per day(inside cabins). We sail Celebrity and always choose Aqua or a Sky Suite just for the extra perks.

 

[isisdave]

Yes to the balcony. On a 3000-passenger ship, it's going to be your only private outdoor space. Consider whether you want the shady or sunny side of the ship.

Our favorites are Celebrity and Princess. RCI was great too, but we last sailed with them in 2009; we had enough cruise nights to get Elite on Celebrity, and they're a little more upscale. Norwegian has some good dining, but since last year you cannot bring on ANY beverage, not even water, at embarkation or any port. That killed OUR golden goose for sure. What cheapskates. Plus, their ships are tending to the larger side, and we think 2500-3000 is just plenty.

TA cruises are bargains, but unless you book them a year in advance, you're not going to get perks like free beverage package or Internet. You'll still save. You might if you book one onboard a previous cruise. You have to be the kind of cruiser that likes sea days, as there'll be at least 6 or 7 of them.

We came eastbound in April 2017 on Celebrity Silhouette, and today we're westbound on Celebrity Reflection, somewhere between Rome and Barcelona. See you in November.

Oh, nowadays the internet is pretty darn good, but they've started selling it not by the minute but per-cruise. It's about $15-20 per day but there are discounts for loyalty club members. For us, 14 days is $220. As always, read cruisecritic.com forums for TUG-like insight.

 

[vacationhopeful]

My first cruise was a QE2 crossing in August for about $550 per person with a porthole window. (Yes, decades ago).

 

[SmithOp]

We prefer oceanview window fore deck 9 or above. If I want to stare out at the sea I go up a few floors to the spinnaker lounge, its usually empty because most people prefer getting drunk and lounging at the pool deck or stuffing themselves at the aft buffet. Not worth it to me to have a tiny balcony to stare out at the Atlantic for 5 days.

We like NCL freestyle, just got back from Cuba and western carib, never experienced any crowding on a 2,000 passenger ship. I avoid the 4,000+ behemoths.

The only time we had a balcony was Alaska, it was worth it then in Glacier Bay.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[JohnPaul]

As you are gathering, much is personal preference/matching yourself and your likes to the cruise.

Are you an on the go all the time person who will probably not do much in your room besides sleep and shower? Save money and go inside or ocean view - outside the cabin it's the same ship for everyone (mostly - a few things on some ships are suite people only or Aqua class only - that's a Celebrity thing).

If you like spending time in your personal space then go for the balcony.

I'm onboard with Celebrity being wonderful. We have sailed them through the Panama Canal and around South America. I've taken short cruises on Princess, Norwegian and RCI. They were fine but I'll stick with Celebrity.

For me, a transatlantic cruise with lots of sea days would for sure mean a balcony as there would be lots of time to just hang out and I like hanging out on the balcony. I realize that will often mean being bundled up.

 

[VacationForever]

As you are gathering, much is personal preference/matching yourself and your likes to the cruise.

Are you an on the go all the time person who will probably not do much in your room besides sleep and shower? Save money and go inside or ocean view - outside the cabin it's the same ship for everyone (mostly - a few things on some ships are suite people only or Aqua class only - that's a Celebrity thing).

If you like spending time in your personal space then go for the balcony.

I'm onboard with Celebrity being wonderful. We have sailed them through the Panama Canal and around South America. I've taken short cruises on Princess, Norwegian and RCI. They were fine but I'll stick with Celebrity.

For me, a transatlantic cruise with lots of sea days would for sure mean a balcony as there would be lots of time to just hang out and I like hanging out on the balcony. I realize that will often mean being bundled up.

We are also Celebrity loyalists. Our minimum stateroom is in Aqua and when sky suites can be had for reasonable amount, we upgrade to a sky suite. We will be in a Sky Suite on Millennium for our Dec Southeast Asia cruise. We are looking forward to the cruise.

 

[Talent312]

... I said, 'I can beat this system- we have to fly one direction anyway, so the next Nov, we flew to Europe, sailed back, and every night we got an extra hour of sleep!

Great tip. That's an extra 5-6 hours of cruising time!
.

 

[Passepartout]

Great tip. That's an extra 5-6 hours of cruising time!

Well yeah. And in the best possible way. 6-25 hour days vs. 6-23 hour days in a row. It's a no brainer to me.

 

[am1]

Well yeah. And in the best possible way. 6-25 hour days vs. 6-23 hour days in a row. It's a no brainer to me.

Plus for most of us you are getting closer to home after most likely spending time traveling around Europe. The cruise back would be a nice way to relax.

 

[isisdave]

It really is, And besides, the daily cruise tab is lots less than hotel, restaurant food, and entertainment in a big European city. Plus the airfare home.

 

[Krteczech]

Thank you all for your input. We narrowed it down to Norwegian Epic or Norwegian Star due to almost identical itineraries and departure date. We will for sure look at Celebrity next year. Since we retired exactly one year ago we made a lot of trips and TS stays and don’t plan to stop.
Here is few more questions for experienced cruisers:
looks like AAA Travel is quoting us much higher price than what i see on .... .com. Who do you buy from (no Costco members).
How do you determine which mid-priced balcony stateroom is the right one?
Is one port better than the other? We will fly from Denver a day earlier. Port Canaveral for Epic, Miami for Star.
What does a PERK beverage package on Norwegian really cover and cost?
Thanks in advance!

 

[Talent312]

Many here like Vacations To Go. I like "Best Price Cruises." They're not any cheaper, but they have good web-based booking and extra onboard credit... Any online broker will do better than AAA, which makes no effort to improve on the cruiseline.

I prefer mid-ship cabins on mid-level decks, as they tend to have a little less motion, and less walking to either end. But avoid cabins directly under or over entertainment venues and near elevators.

I'd want extra time in Miami - Much to do: South Beach, Little Havana, Coconut Grove...
Port Canaveral - You're driving to+from Orlando, not quite as charming, but it's low key.

We don't buy beverage-packages. We're happy with tea+water from dispensers, plus a drink or two.

.

 

[Passepartout]

Here is few more questions for experienced cruisers:
looks like AAA Travel is quoting us much higher price than what i see on .... .com. Who do you buy from (no Costco members).
How do you determine which mid-priced balcony stateroom is the right one?
Is one port better than the other? We will fly from Denver a day earlier. Port Canaveral for Epic, Miami for Star.
What does a PERK beverage package on Norwegian really cover and cost?
Thanks in advance!

We often SHOP on Vacationstogo.com, then frequently BUY from the cruise line directly.
Cabins: usually higher deck mid-ship trumps other choices. You don't want to have a lifeboat in front of your balcony. You don't want to be above the smoking section of the promenade deck. You don't want to be under the disco or pool deck. STUDY the deck plans. Go to cruisecritic for cabin reviews (honest they are there.)
We don't cruise on Norwegian. Once was enough- but it beats Carnival. Value depends on your alcohol consumption. If you want a bloody Mary with breakfast, a cocktail by the pool, a before dinner drink, wine with dinner, and a drink or two at the show and enjoy fancy coffee drinks, a drink package might pay off. If you hold it to a a couple or less a day, pay ala carte.

My answers probably don't apply to you. It's been a while since we price-shopped cabins and perks. After a certain number of nights on one line's ships, they give you enough perks that you just can't afford to try other line's offerings. So with us, it's Celebrity.

Jim

 

[Retiresoon]

If your choice is between NCL Star or Epic... go Epic!

Each cruiseline has it’s own flavor and we like NCL, however, we’d vote Celebrity Silli, but everyone is different with what they are looking for in a cruise. We’ve been on most of them and love them all.

 

[Retiresoon]

... and we tend to get inside cabins and use the savings for another cruise. Not as wonderful but keeps us cruising plenty!

 

[VacationForever]

Since you don't have Costco membership, you should look at Crucon.com. They usually throw in additional perks and sometimes have group/discounted pricing on a cruise and types of cabin. We have not used Crucon but I often look at their pricing and perks and compare. I have researched enough and read enough on cruisecritic to indicate that Crucon is very competitive in pricing/offers. They have probably one of the the best deals out there. However, they may charge change or cancellation fees but they also offer additional loyalty perks. I just do not like Crucon's website but it's best that you call after you have checked out their pricing and perks on their website.

We only use Vacationstogo to look at itinerary and cruise line options but we don't book with them. They are usually not the lowest in terms of price and perks. Costco gives you a gift card at the end of the cruise, which usually comes up to 8 to 10% of the cruise fare. If you have Executive membership, you get another 2% back on the membership anniversary.

We use Costco and a small independent one-person franchisee of an American Express company out of Miami. Costco is simple, you see exactly how much it costs, and what they offer as gift card and occasionally an additional on-board-credit. Costco's agents are always knowledgeable and available 7 days a week. We really like Costco's website and they do not charge change or cancellation fees. Our agent out of Miami matches Costco perks for most parts and his customer service is first class, always available on the phone, text and email about 12-14 hours per day.

 

[pedro47]

We liked Costco also for all the above stated reasons. Plus they give you some great OBC and they also include a Costco cash card as a perk.

Sailing from Europe back to Florida is great because you gain extra hours toward your vacation time.

Please enjoy your transatlantic cruise vacation .