PROS and CONS of a Repositioning Cruise | CELEBRITY APEX

have you ever thought of taking a repositioning Cruise a transatlantic or a transpacific well today we're going to give you the pros and cons and share with you our experience of taking the celebrity Apex from Barcelona to Fort Lauderdale and here's a heads up it was a great choice for this Crossing we're JN and Bev and we are the retirement Travelers if you're just finding us we are a senior full-time travel couple and we are on the Move well not right now okay we're back home for the holidays but we've been on the move and we're heading back out on Christmas day starting in the Caribbean and then off to Asia and Africa now if you're wondering where in the world are we at as we travel you can always see our location on Instagram we keep it updated to our current location and we've had so many people reach out to us and ask about repositioning cruises they want to know if we've ever taken one what we know about them and if we would consider going on one you we've been in Europe since July and had planned to be in the Middle East after turkey and Israel but since our plans did change just a little bit we decided to hop on the celebrity Apex to get ourselves back home now this was our first trip on a repositioning cruise and we were very curious about it and what it would be like repositioning cruises also known as transatlantic or transpacific cruises are one-way voyages that move a cruise ship from one region of the world world to another to take advantage of seasonal demand as with any transportation industry moving trains trucks and planes around with no cargo or people does not make good Financial sense the cruise industry is no different you know rather than move empty ships the cruise companies would much rather move it full of passengers repositioning cruises are offered at a discounted rate and can be an affordable way to cross oceans they typically last around 2 weeks and have more sea days than normal Al cruises but they still try to make stops at great places it would be really wonderful if you could hop on a cruise to go to Europe any time of the year but unfortunately they only happen twice a year late spring and late fall basically the same seasonal schedule applies to the Pacific as well spring repositioning cruises are concentrated in April and May now in the spring ships are moving to the Northern Hemisphere where they can be used in northern Europe Alaska and the mediteran Anan fall repositioning cruises obviously head south and are concentrated in September to December the trips will be opposite of the spring cruises with ships heading to the warmer seas in the Caribbean and the South Pacific so what are the pros and cons well there are many reasons to try this type of travel but also a few drawbacks we had a wonderful time on our repositioning Cruise it was a chance for us to reset from our travels throughout Europe and actually stay in one place for a change number one it saves money now repositioning cruises can be a lot cheaper than normal you know costs vary by cruise line but prices are generally in the $50 to $100 per person per night range and these are very easy to find okay the the costs are actually quite affordable when you compare them to land travel where you pay for hotels food and airfare you know if you have the time to do it this is a great way to go or to return from a trip yeah sometimes you can even get better deals on L last minute bookings when cruise lines are trying to fill up their last Slots of a ship we knew someone last year who crossed from Europe to the US for about $300 per person this year we paid $1,100 each for 13 days on the celebrity Apex now we were way down in the bottom of the boat inside room so this was this was probably the cheapest room they had but we booked it about five weeks before the cruise date and had we been more patient we probably could have saved you know with this method by doing it last minute yeah now as far as how we felt about this Cruise compared to some of the cheaper options available to us we were thrilled with this ship you know it is a beautiful vessel and honestly it felt like we were walking around a spa all day long as far as the decor the Apex was outstanding number two less jet lag overall it is easier to adjust to a new time zone as you go and when we got back to the States it was seamless and we were back in the correct time zone yes we thought when we got on the ship that we would adjust each time zone gradually as we traveled but it turned out it wasn't magical and it was a bit more difficult than we had imagined you know we had several days in a row that we had a 1H hour adjustment so yes by the time we got home we were back on the correct Zone but the constant turning back of the clock was a bit of a challenge I mean we had been in Europe since July so we were pretty well set in our way so we just kept waking up at 4:00 a.m. our cruise was full but we have heard that many have fewer passengers on board this is great when you want a laid-back experience nobody wants to you know fight for lounge chairs or amenities on board you know that are booked up but our cruise was fairly full but it's still just didn't feel crowded we've seen the latest predictions of the number of Cruisers in 2024 and 2025 and according to the cruise industry they are looking at some Banner years now we suspect that repositioning cruises will we booked going forward especially on upscale you know mid-range cruises like the celebrity Apex a common misconception is that repositioning cruises have slim down amenities now this was not the case at all while on board passengers can take advantage of all the ships amenities we didn't see anything slim down in our minds in fact you know sometimes repositioning cruises look to bring in enrichment speakers and Apex did this with their beyond the podium lecture series you could learn about destinations the solar system and even Man's Best Friend the dog we heard announcements every day for what the speaker was offering you know one of the things that we saw every day were retirees reading books and just taking it easy you know this wasn't so much a party ship as it was people who just had the time to rest and relax yeah but we we partied in our minds right yes well we went to B at 9:00 got got so we weren't really partyers not really were we were there to relax and work on our blog so be sure you check out our blog one of the best things about this Cruise were the people that we met not just the crew they were wonderful and ready to talk about their home countries when we ask but other passengers we met two other couples and another gentleman that we met up with for dinner and sat and talked during the day and we found that people on the ship were very friendly I think that when you're traveling with more Cay people are just more willing to speak to each other and make an effort to make friends and we really like this this Cruise had a few families but celebrity is known as a cruise line that caters to adult Cruisers most activities are geared toward couples but they did have a children's camp as the cruise went on we noticed children hanging out with other kids that they had met at camp but most of the time repositioning cruises happen during the school year now that's not going to be the case on our cruise at Christmas time with with all eight grandchildren and a million others on Royal Caribbean but that's another that's another day the biggest downside to this type of cruising is probably the weather now since this was an end of thee Crossing weather really wasn't great every day you know sometimes the cold rain made it quite uncomfortable to be outdoors you know unlike a Caribbean cruise where the rains are short but very warm the Rainy Days seemed to happen all day long and they were quite cold yeah we had great hiking weather in jalar but there were other ports that were cold and windy the aors were nice and Bermuda was okay but they weren't the tropics that you would expect when taking a cruise just keep that in mind you need to pack some pants and jackets you're really in the shoulder season so it's just not the same as a you know a cruise that you would take to to a tropical location that's right now this is probably true with every ocean Crossing but rough Seas can happen now we encountered a few days where the boat was pretty Rocky they did leave us some barf bags sitting around that's right when there's barf bags set out you know you're in trouble now but for the most part the ship handled it beautifully with its stabilizers you know they advised us that we might not be able to land at a couple of the ports but our captain managed just fine probably because I coached him up a little bit gave gave him some pointers you're real Ted lasso you know yeah one of the reasons we took this Cruise was so that we could experience Bermuda and when we heard that we might skip it because of rough Seas we were so bombed I that's another thing that you have to remember ships can get ports if they feel it is unsafe or really for any reason ports are not guaranteed we had been traveling near another repositioning Crews and they didn't attempt to dock in Bermuda they passed it but our captain and crew did great yes we're so glad we got to see it while additional travel wasn't an issue for us we needed to get from Europe to the States but for most people a repositioning Cruise isn't Transportation it requires additional one-way travel either before or after your cruise you know you have to fly at the end or the beginning yeah you we met some people who had you know been in Europe for a week before the cruise but then we met others who had arrived just a couple of days early and having traveled for months and seeing some amazing places on trains and fairies and planes and buses you know we kind of felt a little sad that they didn't take advantage of the ability to travel more before they hopped on the boat to return the other downside to this Cruise was the laundry now we don't want to give you a heads up here here you better take a second mortgage out if you plan on doing bu of laundry on a c cruise ship so when we took the Oceana last year they offered a laundry room for the guest to use this was fabulous and it's one of the reasons that we'll be doing Oceana again yeah you know we're kind of single-minded folks where can we get our laundry done but really doing the laundry is an issue when you're on a long cruise now most people took boatloads of of of luggage and bow loads of clothes we saw them lined up in the hallway it was unbelievable so but for us this is kind of a negative we only travel with a week's worth of clothes and we had to either wash it in the sink or send it out now we didn't have an issue with more SE days because we were heading home but for people who want to stop every day well there there's just not a lot of options in the middle of the ocean I guess you need land I think you do if you traveling on a repositioning cruise from Australia you have many stocks through the South Pacific but after Hawaii it's really just C days yeah I I think one of the biggest drawbacks for the cruise stops were that they're so short you know we sometimes only had a half a day at a place and we're used to having at least a week you know you have to treat it like it's a sampler menu and yeah we're pretty good at that we love sampler menus you know you get the sample of place on the cruise with the possibility of returning now we had a short stop in the azors and this is an example of a place we want to go back to for a long time week two weeks or maybe even a month or two it was beautiful we hope this video today has at least piqued your interest to learn more about repositioning cruises and to build them into your travel itinerary in the future if you are an experienced Cruiser and you have thoughts on this topic we would love to hear from you in the comments so leave them there and and we will enjoy reading them let us know which ones you've taken and which ones you recommend we'd also like to give the crew of the celebrity Apex a big shout out you know we had a great time and it was all because of you guys so thank you so much and we'll see you next week be sure to hit subscribe and follow along on our retirement Journey around the world

Channel: Retirement Travelers

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Id: 0IYkQt4jDKI

Length: 12min 15sec (735 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 09 2023