West to east transatlantic infinitely better than a corresponding transatlantic plane trip with jet lag if you have the time. Everyone is different , but I barely noticed the time change other than adjusting my phone during the daily announcement. This was on the Queen Mary 2 which is built for this type of trip.
I've considered a repositioning cruise to avoid that awful overnight flight from the US to Europe. The cruise would cost about the same as lie-flat business class seats. We are retired, so we are not in a hurry. I think we could adjust to the time change if we had an easy travel schedule upon arrival.
We did a repositioning cruise West to East. We had perfect weather and actually liked getting to Europe with the gradual time change. My advice to readers is to take a lot of books or an eReader. We bought cheap second hand paperbacks and then left them in the library.
We have done a lot of Transatlantic cruises on different ships. Both ways. We live in Europe and either way we have to fly to get to a cruise port! So it does not really matter for us. Looking forward to the next one in just about 4 weeks ❤️
Good point about losing an hour a day traveling west to east. It didn't bother us though. Traveling east across the Atlantic in March the seas were super calm for us. But in the fall when ships travel west from Europe, it's hurricane season and the Atlantic can be turbulent.
Repositioning cruises sound perfect to me, less kids, quieter passengers, less showbiz and more sea days … perfect ❤ Trying to get the time off work to sail on one though is always my challenge 😢
Just getting ready to book a repo for May on Princess. I can’t sleep on a plane so the overnight flights to Europe totally mess me up for days. I’ll take my chances on 23 hour days and just try to go to bed a little earlier each night. Thanks for the tip to choose a cabin on the north side. Never thought of that.
Not all repositioning itineraries are equal. The first leg of our crossing from Miami to Rome was 16 days because we visited several ports, including the Bahamas, Bermuda, the Azores, Spain, and Monte Carlo. The mega ships can do the same crossing in 12 days but they might only visit a few ports.
We have done a west to east from the Caribbean to Europe plus East to West and back again. No problem at all, the issues being raised are minor and were of little consequence and I am not a great traveller. Our first one was a 25 years old ship, the latter was 18 months old and again there were no problems on any of them.
Hi Rob and Allie, thank you for this great video! I am thinking about exploring a cruise in 2026. Could you do a video about how solo travelers can avoid the single supplement or if that's even possible and where to find the best cruises?
I recently discovered CruisePlum which is a search engine that allows you to search for the best prices for solo cruisers among other things. It is super easy to use. CruisePlum gives you so much info easily and links you to the cruise line.
Thanks for the suggestion on which side of the ship your cabin needs to be on. I'd have thought you'd want a sunny balcony. OTOH, I've read the suggestion that a balcony isn't even a great idea on repositioning cruises. An ocean view cabin. is fine because you won't be on the balcony much due to frequent rough seas and wind.
It depends on what time of the year you are doing your cruise. Of course it is (in my eyes) silly to have a balcony in the middle of a Winter Transatlantic (for example with QM2), in the late spring it might be considerable. In general it is wise to question balcony or oceanview. If the price difference is okay, go ahead. We often find balconies too expensive anyway. We prefer to have more cruises per year than to spend a lot of money on a balcony.
Another reason repositioning cruises may not have everything the cruise usually offers is because they are picking up a new person or group once they get to their destination. For example, our last cruise of this type did not have a speaker or a manicurist as they were being replaced in the new position port.
I have never been on a repositioning cruise but can see how they are good to get from one side of the globe to the other. Thanks so much for the tips, I will keep those in mind when I book. 😊
Hello I’m a little bit late to this, but I thought I would answer you. Last year we did a transpacific cruise of 32 days from Seattle to Brisbane 🇦🇺 via Japan, Philippines, Indonesia and the north east of Australia. We had a balcony cabin, plenty of sea days which suits us. It took 11 sea days from Seattle to Sapporo top island of Japan, then Hakodate, Aomori, Yokohama, Hiroshima & Okinawa. We missed out on Puerto Princessa due to a cyclone, went through to Bitung Indonesia and onto Brisbane. Plenty of ports, we enjoy the seagoing journey. We didn’t do the Hawaii route on purpose. A word to the wise though, a lot of these longer repositioning cruises are an ocean going casino. Everything else onboard functions the same as a normal cruise, and yes it’s a very relaxing way to get from A to B if that suits. Prior to taking that cruise, we did a 7 day Alaskan cruise, we were at sea for 39 days. Would we do it again, yes! In fact we are doing a 22day Rep cruise in Feb/Mar next year from Sydney via PNG and South East Asia, ending up in Yokohama, visiting ports we missed out on, we were so impressed with Japan, thought we would have another look.
@@mkmariak as you may have guessed we are Australians. We have lots of beautiful white sandy beaches and tropical areas ourselves, minus the volcano activity 😊 Plus we have done what we call “the island hopper” cruises many times. After some research, we also found much like our Tasman Sea between Australia and NZ, the waters of the Pacific via Hawaii can be somewhat turbulent. Mother Nature can be a bit hit and miss, the ships of today have marvellous stabilisers for giving a smooth passage as possible. Upon talking to the crew who had been on the ship prior to its repositioning to the north west coast of USA, for its Alaskan stint, which was via Hawaii, it was not a good crossing. A third of the crew whom admittedly were new sailors, they were either cabin bound or green around the gills. The older, longer established crew covering for them whilst they attained their sea legs. It was so rough apparently that a couple of nights, the shows could not be performed, due to risk of injury. FYI the ship we journeyed on was the Carnival Luminosa (2010) a mid sized ship, passenger capacity of around 2500. It is a sister ship build wise, to Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria, similar in size to the HAL Westerdam, which we have also sailed on, if that helps. The Luminosa doesn’t have the water slides, giving the upper decks free view of the Alaskan panorama of the inside passage, or anywhere else it sails. It also has a roof over the pool area that can be closed with floor to ceiling windows, enabling passengers to view, if you get inclement weather. We did fly over to Seattle via Hawaii, arrived jet lagged beyond belief. Gave ourselves 2days prior to the cruise to play tourist. Sadly due to said jet lag, one day of those days was a total wipe out, we didn’t see as much of Seattle as we would have liked. Always travel west, if you can, you gain hours instead of losing them 😊
Thank you! We are going on a 17 day repositioning cruise next year. Port Canaveral through Panama Canal ending in LA (for us). It’s going up to Alaska from there. You gave some great info!
Agree with a lot of what you said, on time change its much easier going both ways on a ship then flying. On a ship its 1 hr per day, flying its 6-8 hrs all at once and that takes us a week to get back to normal. As far as sea sickness take along ginger chews, eat a green apple at the buffet, ad use the meds the cruise ship have, that should take care of most who get seasick, but you gotta stay away from booze!
You're right on about the older ships not having as much to offer. The repositioning cruise on Royal Caribbean Rhapsody of the seas from Barcelona really had us shocked. Staff seemed new, especially in the dining room. The entertainment was lacking variety, and a lot was construction paper crafts...really?
As a seasoned cruise ship officer I can tell you that most crew don't like repositioning cruises. For most job positions more time at sea equals increased workload. So it is a good time for newbies to jump in.
Funny that I choose flights to Europe with sunlight in mind too. Always sit on the right side. It gets the sunset & sunrise heading east, but it’s shaded side for the full day flight heading west.
I spit out my tea when I read your post. My husband and I did that very same mistake on the first transatlantic cruise we ever took. Took 2 days to get our car from the departure port. What a lesson THAT was! Wish someone had warned us in advance from the cruise line. We now park at the nearby airport and transfer for free to the port to get the ship. On the return, we can get on the highway at the airport real quick and no hassle. Sorry the same happened to you. My husband is still pissed but I laugh at it now. Just another travel adventure story to share. LOL 🤭
To old school is what you know, modern cruising is time change is ad 12 AM it becomes 1 PM so you still mis that hour but you do not miss sleep. And the crew too.!!
Were you on NCL Joy TA from dry dock Feb 24? We did this cruise with our 2 children, there were 50 children onboard. Largely home educating families. We preferred rccl likely not sail with NCL again. But was fine asa ferry to Disney.
How do you guys normally go across as the oceans? Do you normally take a cruise… or do you wait to get to Asia and then fly to Europe. I look at these cruises and I keep wondering if it would be easier to fly
Another tip... if you like to swim on your cruise, pick a ship with a fully enclosed solarium, especially if you are traveling in November. Then you are not dependent on good weather to use the pool. Some ships have "solariums" but they are not fully enclosed and they still get cold. Regarding crossing the Atlantic in November or April/May, a big factor is the weather. November leaving FL or the northeast, the weather/water can be much worse than leaving in April/May. That's the specific reason with picked East to West. Good info about the direction your cabin faces... I never even thought about that. I'm going on my first TA late April into May and luckily, I picked a port side cabin so we'll be facing north. 😊
You know that most fall repositioning cruises head to America (east to west) and most spring cruises go toward Europe (west to east), right? Evidently not.
Everyone is different as has been mentioned already. We hate sailing East to West. Adjusting to a string of 25-hour days is much harder than simply getting up an hour earlier for a few days. Also, the weather is normally better in the Spring than the Fall.
Halloween absolutely loved her to transatlantic. It's way better to lose an hour a day for several days and you arrive in Europe fresh and ready to go. So for me I'm just quite the opposite of you . I then fly back to the States and that messes you up. I would rather do cruising through time zones then fly in any day in either direction
Need to compare west-to-east repositioning to west-to-east overnight flight, not vs east-to-west cruise. You lose 5-6 hours whether you cruise or fly east. If you can't sleep on overnight flights, that's a consideration. Also, having a medical emergency Mid-Atlantic is also a consideration.
Don't be nervous. We have cruised up and down the east coast. Weather is out of your control and captains have flexibility to go faster or slower to avoid rough seas. We are going Florida to NY in May. Can't wait!
Our only (so far) repo cruise was From Port Everglades to Copenhagen on a 20+ year-old cruise ship. We absolutely loved it and the ocean was smooth the whole way across. We're doing another in May. I'm not arguing that any of your points are wrong, but when you have time off from work in April/May and not in October/November, a repo cruise can be great. Even if it's going the "wrong" direction.
This couple talk “all theory” . We have been cruise couple times from Miami/NY to Europe both ways. We been cruised from Seattle/Long Beach to Japan both ways. We have been cruise from Seattle to Australia both ways, we have no affect by what they said . The two things difference are (1) Reposition cruise in Pacific you will cross the Date Line. (2) Reposition to Australia you will cross the equator and the date line. BTW, we took the advantage of the free room up grade to get the balcony cabin and we never had the problem of the sun is too hot to overcome the cabin AC, have you ever seen the window cabin without curtain to block the sun ? All theory……..
West to east transatlantic infinitely better than a corresponding transatlantic plane trip with jet lag if you have the time. Everyone is different , but I barely noticed the time change other than adjusting my phone during the daily announcement. This was on the Queen Mary 2 which is built for this type of trip.
I've considered a repositioning cruise to avoid that awful overnight flight from the US to Europe. The cruise would cost about the same as lie-flat business class seats. We are retired, so we are not in a hurry. I think we could adjust to the time change if we had an easy travel schedule upon arrival.
We did a repositioning cruise West to East. We had perfect weather and actually liked getting to Europe with the gradual time change. My advice to readers is to take a lot of books or an eReader. We bought cheap second hand paperbacks and then left them in the library.
We have done a lot of Transatlantic cruises on different ships.
Both ways.
We live in Europe and either way we have to fly to get to a cruise port! So it does not really matter for us.
Looking forward to the next one in just about 4 weeks ❤️
Good point about losing an hour a day traveling west to east. It didn't bother us though. Traveling east across the Atlantic in March the seas were super calm for us. But in the fall when ships travel west from Europe, it's hurricane season and the Atlantic can be turbulent.
Repositioning cruises sound perfect to me, less kids, quieter passengers, less showbiz and more sea days … perfect ❤ Trying to get the time off work to sail on one though is always my challenge 😢
Just getting ready to book a repo for May on Princess. I can’t sleep on a plane so the overnight flights to Europe totally mess me up for days. I’ll take my chances on 23 hour days and just try to go to bed a little earlier each night. Thanks for the tip to choose a cabin on the north side. Never thought of that.
Not all repositioning itineraries are equal. The first leg of our crossing from Miami to Rome was 16 days because we visited several ports, including the Bahamas, Bermuda, the Azores, Spain, and Monte Carlo. The mega ships can do the same crossing in 12 days but they might only visit a few ports.
We have done a west to east from the Caribbean to Europe plus East to West and back again. No problem at all, the issues being raised are minor and were of little consequence and I am not a great traveller. Our first one was a 25 years old ship, the latter was 18 months old and again there were no problems on any of them.
Hi Rob and Allie, thank you for this great video! I am thinking about exploring a cruise in 2026. Could you do a video about how solo travelers can avoid the single supplement or if that's even possible and where to find the best cruises?
I recently discovered CruisePlum which is a search engine that allows you to search for the best prices for solo cruisers among other things. It is super easy to use. CruisePlum gives you so much info easily and links you to the cruise line.
Excellent points on losing/gaining time and when the sun shines. We will be mindful. Thank you.
Also repositioning to and from Alaska for the summer season.
Thanks for the suggestion on which side of the ship your cabin needs to be on. I'd have thought you'd want a sunny balcony. OTOH, I've read the suggestion that a balcony isn't even a great idea on repositioning cruises. An ocean view cabin. is fine because you won't be on the balcony much due to frequent rough seas and wind.
They are also lower and have less sway… I agree.
It depends on what time of the year you are doing your cruise.
Of course it is (in my eyes) silly to have a balcony in the middle of a Winter Transatlantic (for example with QM2), in the late spring it might be considerable.
In general it is wise to question balcony or oceanview. If the price difference is okay, go ahead.
We often find balconies too expensive anyway.
We prefer to have more cruises per year than to spend a lot of money on a balcony.
Another reason repositioning cruises may not have everything the cruise usually offers is because they are picking up a new person or group once they get to their destination. For example, our last cruise of this type did not have a speaker or a manicurist as they were being replaced in the new position port.
I have never been on a repositioning cruise but can see how they are good to get from one side of the globe to the other. Thanks so much for the tips, I will keep those in mind when I book. 😊
Do you have any plans to do a transpacific cruise? I would love to hear what you think about them.
Hello I’m a little bit late to this, but I thought I would answer you. Last year we did a transpacific cruise of 32 days from Seattle to Brisbane 🇦🇺 via Japan, Philippines, Indonesia and the north east of Australia. We had a balcony cabin, plenty of sea days which suits us. It took 11 sea days from Seattle to Sapporo top island of Japan, then Hakodate, Aomori, Yokohama, Hiroshima & Okinawa. We missed out on Puerto Princessa due to a cyclone, went through to Bitung Indonesia and onto Brisbane. Plenty of ports, we enjoy the seagoing journey. We didn’t do the Hawaii route on purpose. A word to the wise though, a lot of these longer repositioning cruises are an ocean going casino. Everything else onboard functions the same as a normal cruise, and yes it’s a very relaxing way to get from A to B if that suits. Prior to taking that cruise, we did a 7 day Alaskan cruise, we were at sea for 39 days. Would we do it again, yes! In fact we are doing a 22day Rep cruise in Feb/Mar next year from Sydney via PNG and South East Asia, ending up in Yokohama, visiting ports we missed out on, we were so impressed with Japan, thought we would have another look.
@@blacksorrento4719 Thanks for your input! Did you not do the Hawaii route because you'd already been there or for other reasons?
@@mkmariak as you may have guessed we are Australians. We have lots of beautiful white sandy beaches and tropical areas ourselves, minus the volcano activity 😊 Plus we have done what we call “the island hopper” cruises many times.
After some research, we also found much like our Tasman Sea between Australia and NZ, the waters of the Pacific via Hawaii can be somewhat turbulent. Mother Nature can be a bit hit and miss, the ships of today have marvellous stabilisers for giving a smooth passage as possible. Upon talking to the crew who had been on the ship prior to its repositioning to the north west coast of USA, for its Alaskan stint, which was via Hawaii, it was not a good crossing. A third of the crew whom admittedly were new sailors, they were either cabin bound or green around the gills. The older, longer established crew covering for them whilst they attained their sea legs. It was so rough apparently that a couple of nights, the shows could not be performed, due to risk of injury. FYI the ship we journeyed on was the Carnival Luminosa (2010) a mid sized ship, passenger capacity of around 2500. It is a sister ship build wise, to Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria, similar in size to the HAL Westerdam, which we have also sailed on, if that helps. The Luminosa doesn’t have the water slides, giving the upper decks free view of the Alaskan panorama of the inside passage, or anywhere else it sails. It also has a roof over the pool area that can be closed with floor to ceiling windows, enabling passengers to view, if you get inclement weather.
We did fly over to Seattle via Hawaii, arrived jet lagged beyond belief. Gave ourselves 2days prior to the cruise to play tourist. Sadly due to said jet lag, one day of those days was a total wipe out, we didn’t see as much of Seattle as we would have liked. Always travel west, if you can, you gain hours instead of losing them 😊
Travel router tip is brilliant!
I love this channel. Your content is always so great. Thank you for all of this good info!
Thank you! We are going on a 17 day repositioning cruise next year. Port Canaveral through Panama Canal ending in LA (for us). It’s going up to Alaska from there. You gave some great info!
With the reposition cruise room on the wrong side, was there that many that they couldn't move you to the other side?
Agree with a lot of what you said,
on time change its much easier going both ways on a ship then flying.
On a ship its 1 hr per day, flying its 6-8 hrs all at once and that takes us a week to get back to normal.
As far as sea sickness take along ginger chews, eat a green apple at the buffet, ad use the meds the cruise ship have, that should take care of most who get seasick, but you gotta stay away from booze!
You're right on about the older ships not having as much to offer. The repositioning cruise on Royal Caribbean Rhapsody of the seas from Barcelona really had us shocked. Staff seemed new, especially in the dining room. The entertainment was lacking variety, and a lot was construction paper crafts...really?
As a seasoned cruise ship officer I can tell you that most crew don't like repositioning cruises. For most job positions more time at sea equals increased workload. So it is a good time for newbies to jump in.
Funny that I choose flights to Europe with sunlight in mind too. Always sit on the right side. It gets the sunset & sunrise heading east, but it’s shaded side for the full day flight heading west.
Very helpful and unique information. Thank you very much!
Mistakes ... like parking your personal car at the departure port, and then realizing it won't be there when you disembark... 😢
I spit out my tea when I read your post. My husband and I did that very same mistake on the first transatlantic cruise we ever took. Took 2 days to get our car from the departure port. What a lesson THAT was! Wish someone had warned us in advance from the cruise line. We now park at the nearby airport and transfer for free to the port to get the ship. On the return, we can get on the highway at the airport real quick and no hassle. Sorry the same happened to you. My husband is still pissed but I laugh at it now. Just another travel adventure story to share. LOL 🤭
How silly is that??? 🤣🤣🤣
😱
To old school is what you know, modern cruising is time change is ad 12 AM it becomes 1 PM so you still mis that hour but you do not miss sleep. And the crew too.!!
Kewl.....I'm learning more and more about my forthcoming virtual around the world tour.....Thanx.....
Where do you find info about the ship regarding going into or out of dry dock?
Wow, never thought about "ship lag".
Were you on NCL Joy TA from dry dock Feb 24?
We did this cruise with our 2 children, there were 50 children onboard. Largely home educating families.
We preferred rccl likely not sail with NCL again. But was fine asa ferry to Disney.
Good morning cruise family!
How do you guys normally go across as the oceans? Do you normally take a cruise… or do you wait to get to Asia and then fly to Europe. I look at these cruises and I keep wondering if it would be easier to fly
You mentioned ships going into or coming from dry dock. How do you know if the cruise you’re considering is about to go into dry dock?
Thanks for the review.
Another tip... if you like to swim on your cruise, pick a ship with a fully enclosed solarium, especially if you are traveling in November. Then you are not dependent on good weather to use the pool. Some ships have "solariums" but they are not fully enclosed and they still get cold.
Regarding crossing the Atlantic in November or April/May, a big factor is the weather. November leaving FL or the northeast, the weather/water can be much worse than leaving in April/May. That's the specific reason with picked East to West.
Good info about the direction your cabin faces... I never even thought about that. I'm going on my first TA late April into May and luckily, I picked a port side cabin so we'll be facing north. 😊
You know that most fall repositioning cruises head to America (east to west) and most spring cruises go toward Europe (west to east), right? Evidently not.
Everyone is different as has been mentioned already. We hate sailing East to West. Adjusting to a string of 25-hour days is much harder than simply getting up an hour earlier for a few days. Also, the weather is normally better in the Spring than the Fall.
Going into drydock--worst transatlantic!
Inaugural transatlantic--best four transatlantics eve! Best cruises!
Halloween absolutely loved her to transatlantic. It's way better to lose an hour a day for several days and you arrive in Europe fresh and ready to go. So for me I'm just quite the opposite of you . I then fly back to the States and that messes you up. I would rather do cruising through time zones then fly in any day in either direction
I find both way less jet lag than flying.
How does one get information on when these types of cruises occur? Thank you.
Need to compare west-to-east repositioning to west-to-east overnight flight, not vs east-to-west cruise. You lose 5-6 hours whether you cruise or fly east. If you can't sleep on overnight flights, that's a consideration. Also, having a medical emergency Mid-Atlantic is also a consideration.
At least mid Atlantic on a ship they have a doctor and health facilities. Mid Atlantic on a plane with a health emergency is a nightmare.
How do you know when a ship is coming out of dry dock to book that kind of a cruise?
I prefer west to east myself
Ooh now I’m kinda nervous going from NYC TO FLL in November
We've sailed from Quebec City to Miami in late fall. It should be fine because hurricane season is over by November. Enjoy!
Don't be nervous. We have cruised up and down the east coast. Weather is out of your control and captains have flexibility to go faster or slower to avoid rough seas. We are going Florida to NY in May. Can't wait!
We did this a couple of years ago and it was great
Our only (so far) repo cruise was From Port Everglades to Copenhagen on a 20+ year-old cruise ship. We absolutely loved it and the ocean was smooth the whole way across. We're doing another in May. I'm not arguing that any of your points are wrong, but when you have time off from work in April/May and not in October/November, a repo cruise can be great. Even if it's going the "wrong" direction.
This couple talk “all theory” . We have been cruise couple times from Miami/NY to Europe both ways. We been cruised from Seattle/Long Beach to Japan both ways. We have been cruise from Seattle to Australia both ways, we have no affect by what they said . The two things difference are (1) Reposition cruise in Pacific you will cross the Date Line. (2) Reposition to Australia you will cross the equator and the date line. BTW, we took the advantage of the free room up grade to get the balcony cabin and we never had the problem of the sun is too hot to overcome the cabin AC, have you ever seen the window cabin without curtain to block the sun ? All theory……..
What sites do you recommend to find repositioning cruises?
I use the search engine CruisePlum.
I didn't even know repositioning cruises existed.
Inside cabin lots of sea days balcony is extra money for not much benefit