Cruise Information :

    Looking for a cruise bargain that includes long, wonderful days at sea? How about a repositioning cruise? When the weather changes in the spring and the fall, many cruise ships join the whales and other seagoing creatures and migrate either north in the summer or south for the winter. Cruise lines must reposition their ships from Alaska to the warmer waters of the Caribbean in the fall, and then move them back to Alaska in the late spring. Some cruise lines that spend their summers in Europe will cross the Atlantic in the late fall to winter in the Caribbean and then reverse the process the next spring. Rather than sail the ships without passengers, cruise lines discount these "repositioning" cruises.
    Why are repositioning cruises so popular? As expected, price is one of the major factors.
    The per diem repositioning cruise price is often much less than for cruises that embark and disembark in the same port. Next, these cruises are usually longer than a week and include more sea days, which gives passengers a relaxing cruise vacation, unencumbered by frantic days in port. What are the negative aspects of repositioning cruises? The downside of repositioning cruises is that many cruisers love those frantic days in port and really don't want to spend most of their precious vacation time only on a cruise ship. In addition, embarking and disembarking from different ports, often thousands of miles apart, can make airfare more expensive. Finally, many working cruise vacationers can't afford to take 9 to 18 days off from work at one long stretch.
    How do you find a repositioning cruise? Look north to Alaska first. Any ship that spends the summer in Alaska will almost always feature a repositioning cruise in the spring or fall that will include time in Hawaii, the western coast of the Americas, and/or a transit through the Panama Canal. The second place to look for a repositioning cruise is northern Europe or the Mediterranean. Many ships sailing in Europe will cross the Atlantic to the United States or the Caribbean in the fall and return in the spring.