Is it time for a vacation, but money worries are delaying the much needed R&R, repositioning cruises might be the answer.
Repositioning cruises are named because they start from one departure point and end at another. For example, a repositioned Carnival cruise ship could start from New York and end in Monaco.
The are usually cheaper, due to the amount of time spent at sea with little to no time spent at port (stopping on land for a day or week excursion).
Due to the one-way travel, the passenger will also have to buy a one-way plane or another repositioned cruise back to New York, but with many cruise lines and travel agents combining the one-way airfare with the repositioned cruise, it still comes to a total price below the common-cruise rate and with cruise lines desperate to fill cabins, the prices have dropped even further.
The only catch:
Repositioning cruises are only offered during off-season travel.
However, no one can deny the saving--some recently listed rates are $30 per-person, from Avoya Travel of Miami, for a 10-day cruise starting in San Juan, ending in Lisbon. The cruise will also make port stops at St. Maarten, and at Tenerife in the Canary Islands, according to Frommers.com.
After the port stops, there is six days spent at sea with nothing to do, but relax.
Other rates include a two-week, $34 per-person voyage with the option of starting in either New York, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, New Orleans, or Galveston arriving at London, Barcelona, or Rome, stated on frommers.com.
That comes out to about $300-$600, per-person, for the duration of the cruise. If including another cruise or a one-way flight back to the point of origin, that total can jump to $1,000. That is still a steal of a deal.
So, for those who love cruises for the time spent at sea, enjoying all the entertainment the ship provides, like the fitness room, deck-side chairs overlooking the ocean, music concerts, waterparks, different types of shows, and maybe, depending on the cruise line, the ability to surf, thanks to the man-made wave machine, repositioning cruises are the way to go.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
