Transatlantic cruise

kcowan said:
(We have also suspended cruising until we can appreciate elevators.)
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We generally use an elevator maybe once a voyage.....when we're hauling our own luggage off.
 
kcowan said:
and at every stop it take 20 minutes for everyone to get off the bus. Private tours for us too, maximum 8 people. We find those others on cruisecritic.com and the other 6 people remain specials friends for the duration of the cruise.

(We have also suspended cruising until we can appreciate elevators.)
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Right. I figure we will get back into more cruising when the bike trips get too tough. It used to be that cruises were pretty exotic, fairly upscale travel. This is much less the case now with the very large ships and much lower pricing. The last couple were fairly disappointing. Still work well if you are going with a group of friends or family
 
I've only been on one cruise of the "standard" sort. It was a Holland America deal on what to me seemed an enormous ship (1,400 pax). My only comment is "Never again!!!" just because of this. And frankly, there weren't all that many slowpokes on the ship; it just seemed that way.

Otherwise, I've been on a couple of Lindblad cruises. Despite their extremely high cost, they were worth it. When you have only enough passengers that you can practically know everyone's name by the end of a week, the ship is loaded with kayaks and Zodiacs for your enjoyment, and there are no "formal dinners" to think about, it's a completely different experience.

On my Alaskan expedition with Lindblad, the ship stocked every single style of beer made by the Alaskan Brewery, which is one of my favorites. How can you go wrong with that? And the National Geographic photographers on board were absolutely awesome. Incredibly helpful, even if you didn't know a Leica from a lens cap.

We have already booked a Lindblad cruise to the Galapagos for next year, and I'm looking forward to it. This is from the guy who (after that Holland America experience) said "I'll never set foot on another cruise ship."
 
Nemo2 said:
Further to post #40, VTG now shows a day later, (same cruise), departing from Cartagena, Colombia:
<snip>
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Cartagena was a port of call on one of cruises and we loved it. Itching to go back, particularly after seeing it as a recent leg on TAR.
 
YVRRocketSurgery said:
Cartagena was a port of call on one of cruises and we loved it. Itching to go back, particularly after seeing it as a recent leg on TAR.
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I was there in 1979....went up to the fortress, saw the old shoes, went out on a day snorkelling trip...be interesting to see, (maybe not this year), how things have changed.
 
Danmar said:
Right. I figure we will get back into more cruising when the bike trips get too tough.
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As a compromise, we have booked a bike/barge trip down the Moselle River in June for 8 days, biking every day then dining on board. 12 passengers. Have room for one more couple if you are interested?
 
kcowan said:
As a compromise, we have booked a bike/barge trip down the Moselle River in June for 8 days, biking every day then dining on board. 12 passengers. Have room for one more couple if you are interested?
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Sounds great. Barging/biking is on our radar but we are biking in Umbria in June. Interested in knowing how it goes. Suspect the biking is fairly tame unless a guide takes you to some hills? Which company is running the trip?
 
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FIYes said:
We are looking at a transatlantic-repositioning cruise to Europe. I recall folks mentioning that they have done this. I would be interested in comments or tips from experienced travelers on this topic. We have cruised before....longest cruise was 9 days...this would be a bit longer. Seems like a heck of a deal ...cheaper than flying. We will use frequent flyer miles to get back. Being ERed give us the time and flexibility to take advantage of a deal like this.
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So we have cruised 7 times so far pre-retirement with the longest being 15 days roundtrip to Hawaii. We loved every one of them. We are planning to take a transatlantic cruise, but what we are thinking about is to fly over, enjoy whatever parts of Europe we have our sights set on then take the transatlantic cruise back so as to not deal with any over weight luggage issues on a plane. I just have to believe that we would be picking up stuff on our trip, usually lots of stuff.
Seeing as their are no cruise ports where we live once we hit the USA :rolleyes:, we can ship any excess stuff back home before we fly back.
 
We did the transatlantic cruise and thoroughly enjoyed it. What a relaxing way to get to Europe! The time on board ship went by quickly. Would definitely recommend this.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum
 
FIYes said:
We did the transatlantic cruise and thoroughly enjoyed it. What a relaxing way to get to Europe! The time on board ship went by quickly. Would definitely recommend this.
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+1
It's great to be ER and to have the time!
 
FIYes said:
We did the transatlantic cruise and thoroughly enjoyed it. What a relaxing way to get to Europe! The time on board ship went by quickly. Would definitely recommend this.
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I think we're going to try it next year.

Current plans: Fly to NYC, QM II to Southampton, train to York, York to Edinburgh, Royal Scotsman "The Whisky Journey" roundtrip train around Scotland, then a couple of days in Glasgow before flying home on Iceland Air with maybe a stop in Reykjavik. Would also like to work a stop in Lockerbie to visit the memorial there, so maybe not York...

Still just thinking this through, too early to book anything. We'll see.
 
Booked our upcoming (Nov 19) trip Malaga-Miami on the Rhapsody of the Seas on Dec 07/2015 @ $689 US (Not including Gov't taxes), for an Oceanview. (With a $225 onboard credit.)

Today's price, on VTG, 'cheapest Oceanview' $1,338 US (Not including Gov't taxes), with a $200 onboard credit.
 
Nemo2 said:
Booked our upcoming (Nov 19) trip Malaga-Miami on the Rhapsody of the Seas on Dec 07/2015 @ $689 US (Not including Gov't taxes), for an Oceanview. (With a $225 onboard credit.)

Today's price, on VTG, 'cheapest Oceanview' $1,338 US (Not including Gov't taxes), with a $200 onboard credit.
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Better check that departure date, Nemo. Your ship departed 10 months ago!
 
Meadbh said:
Better check that departure date, Nemo. Your ship departed 10 months ago!
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It's like this: The upcoming trip is Nov 19, (which is next month), and we booked it on Dec 07/2015.
 
Nemo2 said:
It's like this: The upcoming trip is Nov 19, (which is next month), and we booked it on Dec 07/2015.
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Oh, now I get it! Sorry, my bad. I hope your sciatica improves before the trip.
 
brett said:
We have done a fair amount of cruising. We have only done one transatlantic cruise. For us, there were too many at sea days in a row. After day three we were ready to jump!
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Been on 6 cruises. I'm ready to jump the 2nd sea day. Cruises for me are only to get to places for a day that I'm unlikely to go to on my own.
 
Meadbh said:
Oh, now I get it! Sorry, my bad. I hope your sciatica improves before the trip.
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Thanks...it's vastly improved since we came back from Spain in the Spring....and I hope it stays that way. :)
 
What is meant by the term "repositioning" cruise? Is this when the cruise line company wants to move a ship from one part of the world to another,so rather than travel empty they offer low fares?
 
HadEnuff said:
What is meant by the term "repositioning" cruise? Is this when the cruise line company wants to move a ship from one part of the world to another,so rather than travel empty they offer low fares?
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Exactly. They are going from A to B anyway, so they might as well take some passengers and make a profit.
 
We took a repositioning cruise from Boston to Florida. It was 13 days but had 5 stops. I looked at some of the ones between London and here and some are all sea days. I look forward to visiting the ports even though we enjoy some sea days. Have a great cruise Nemo:))
 
Teacher Terry said:
Have a great cruise Nemo:))
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Thanks.....I just wish we'd known about the Star Pride (post #70) earlier though, because we'd've booked it instead......only ~208 passengers......and the price is about a 90% discount from list.
 
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