The Joy of Repositioning

4 reasons why we love a repositioning cruise

1. The ship is the star

With a repositioning cruise, you can really get to know and appreciate the ship.
On huge modern cruise ships, there can be more bars and restaurants than the number of nights you’re onboard, therefore unless you really love eating in the main dining room, you’ll need to be really selective when planning your alternative/speciality dining, cocktail hour and evening entertainment.
With a repositioning cruise, we find you can suss out which bars and restaurants you really want to try, especially as a number of speciality dining venues will also be open for lunch (usually at a cheaper rate per person than dinner) due to the number of days you are at sea...and there can be quite a few sea days.

2. The cost can be very tempting

We’ve been costing a number of newly built ships to try in 2024/25, however we've found inaugural cruise seasons are very pricey to due to the shiny new ship factor.
With a repositioning cruise, the pricing can be a lot less scary, plus you get to take full advantage of both the exciting and relaxing parts of the ship due to the length of cruise and number of sea days.

3. You can learn something new

Make it stand out

When taking a repositioning cruise, we’ve often attended a number of enrichment classes. From painting or cooking, to sushi making and mixology, there’s usually a small surcharge for the class when equipment or supplies are required.
However, we do feel to get value for money, as we've found the cruise line will usually serve complimentary alcoholic drinks during the session, and Linzi has definitely drunk more than the cost of the enrichment class in sommelier selected fancy wine, although her chicken gyozq weren't the most attractive.

4. The thrill of the chase

If we are not on a cruise, we are planning or booking one. However, when considering a repositioning cruise, we find the research element brings an additional amount of excitement.
The reason being, not only do we get to binge on YouTube cruise videos, we find it really fun to check out the cruise websites and see where the shiny new ships are going and what the cost will be compared to the usual there and back again itineries.
When it comes to searching for a repositioning cruise, we have a date range in mind and filter the results to show 12+ night itineraries which are departing in March, April and May, along with September, October and November.
Plus to simplify things further, we usually select a home port like Southampton, to see which cruise lines are starting or finishing there, meaning we'll only need to cost for a flight to or from the ship.
That being said, our 2023 November repositioning cruise on celebrity Apex, starts in Barcelona and finishes in Miami, but we really wanted to try her but she can be very pricey.
We hope you’ll take a look at repositioning cruises and find a ship you've never tried before (but always fancied) at a great price with a fun itinerary.

Thank you for reading and have a lovely day!

Linzi and Mark