Budget travelers are looking for cruise repositioning with flexible hours and some extra time away from home. In its simplest form, these cruises can be defined as semi-annual tasks that cruise lines must perform to be efficient and profitable in the market.
Twice a year, you can clean the garage or attic. Perhaps you visit relatives in winter and summer.
If you have a cruise line, you must also change the position of many of your ships twice a year.
Because there is not a great demand for fjord cruises in January, your ship that spent the summer in Scandinavia or Alaska could find more profitable waters in the Eastern Caribbean or the Mexican coast during the colder months.
Alaska cruises could spend the winter in San Diego, a base from which to explore Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta while Sitka trembles.
When spring comes, the process is reversed. They are known as repositioning cruises or “repos” in the travel industry.
Most travelers never considered this internal duty quite mundane. They only look for the ships that sail when and where they want to go.
But this is more than cruise industry trivia. You can bet that the owners of those ships want as many paying passengers on board as possible when the ships need to be moved. Savvy travelers book those cabins and take trips they couldn’t otherwise afford.
Perhaps it is time for you to “reposition” your thoughts on the cruise.
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Repo Cruise Examples
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Consider a typical repositioning cruise that took passengers from Genoa, Italy to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 16 days.
The first week, ports of call included Genoa, Italy; Marseille, France and Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands. Not bad!
But four of the first seven days on that cruise, there were no stops.
This is not the standard rate for most traditional itineraries. It will appear a day at sea or two on most cruises, but it will rarely have four or more consecutive days at sea. Bring reading material and an appreciation for the open sea.
The ports you visit may not see cruise ships at any other time of the year. You will find exceptional opportunities to visit African or South American cities off the beaten track. These are ports that generally only see cargo cruise passengers.
Another example: Celebrity offers a large number of transatlantic cruises at prices under $ 1500, and some include an ocean-view cabin. Think how difficult it is these days to find a quality cruise for $ 150 / person per day or less. When you start in Europe, you’ll enjoy an itinerary loaded with stops, and then you’ll have many days at sea crossing the Atlantic, with the opposite of repo cruises heading to Europe in the spring. A typical cruise from Europe to the United States could include an itinerary similar to this: Rome (Civitavecchia), Florence / Pisa (Livorno), Provence, Barcelona, ​​Palma de Mallorca and Tenerife, Canary Islands in the first eight days.
Fall or spring? Which of these is correct for you? A key consideration is whether you want your ports at the beginning or end of the trip. Either way, you will spend more than a week at sea.
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Prices
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Because trips take longer, the total price may be equal to or higher than what you would expect to pay for a standard cruise. But when you start to divide the money into days, the daily costs are attractive.
Not all repo cruises are cheap. The $ 150 / day standard can be met, but will often not come close to the actual cost. These trips can cost as much as $ 3,000 USD / per person. But remember that daily costs go down because you spend more time on the ship and travel a greater distance.
Another way that repo cruise costs add up is overspending on board during those days at sea. Learn to control your cruise expenses while enjoying the sun and surf.
More information: What to expect on a repositioning cruise.
