Repositioning Cruises

If you've want a real sea voyage with an unusual itinerary at a bargain price - try a repositioning cruise. These are the one-off voyages that cruise ships make when transferring from one cruise region to another. Many ships, for example, spend spring and summer in the Mediterranean, then transfer to the sunshine islands of the Caribbean for the winter months. Cruise lines are keen to fill them with fare paying passengers and so they offer good value prices, and often include themed activities like photography or dancing lessons to make them more attractive. Some points to note:

• They are not normally called repositioning cruises in the brochures - Discovery, Crossing, Eastbound, Westbound or Voyage may be included in the cruise name.
• Spring and Autumn are the usual times for these cruises and they are easy to find if you use the Cruise Finder on our Ocean Cruises page (see navigation bar above).
• You will spend a lot more days at sea than you might on a normal cruise.
• You will experience occasional choppy weather as you travel from one part of the world to another.

Repositioning cruises can be found in the following regions on our databases:

Transatlantic
Hop aboard a ship sailing to spend winter in the Caribbean and you can enjoy the best of the Mediterranean and autumn sailing across the Atlantic before arriving in the Miami. Other cruises will cross the Atlanic at the start (usually calling at Madeira or the Canaries) and visit several Caribbean islands before reaching the new home port. Cruises from the Mediterranean to South America via the Azores are also available.

Africa
Look out for ships cruising down either side of Africa that will be wintering in Cape Town or Mombasa.

East Coast US/Caribbean
Many ships spend the autumn cruising New England and Canada before going south to the Caribbean for the winter. These combine the late Autumn days of the East Coast with the battlefields of Colonial USA with the sun and fun of the Caribbean islands.

Panama Canal
Going through the Canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean is one of the world's great travel experiences. Not only do you get to see one of the world's most magnificent engineering feats but you get some fascinating ports en route. Ships moving from a winter season of Caribbean cruises to spend the summer touring Alaska or Hawaii from ports in California have to transit the Panama Canal to get there. A typical repositioning itinerary will visit Jamaica or Aruba before passing through the Canal and then call at Acapulco and the Mexican Riviera before arriving in Los Angeles or San Francisco.

South America
From the Caribbean to South America Ships sailing south from the Caribbean to spend the winter months at the southernmost tip of South America will take you down through the Caribbean and either through the Panama Canal to Ecuador, Peru and then Chile or down the Brazilian coast past the Amazon to Argentina.

Worldwide
There are also cruises listed in this region that are really repositioning rather than world cruises. Ships moving to cruise the Far East may sail eastwards through the Mediterranean, Suez Canal and Red Sea to India and the Far East.