Hi @Snowbird this looks fabulous. Have you taken any cruises through this site? I was wondering if you get the same service on repositioning cruises I.e. food and entertainment or are they a pared down version.
Hi @DKNZ No I haven’t but I’ve done a lot of dreaming, watching the prices and understanding how it works. At one time (then a ‘we’), we had planned to take one that would dock in Spain and travel from there. One problem is that I’m now a solo traveller, and often cabins are priced for two people. However, I also read that it can be quite turbulent crossing the Atlantic at times and I didn’t want to take that chance. I love the water and being on a boat, but a long time on a rolling cruise ship (done it once) is not my idea of a good time.
@DKNZ we’ve done four crossings, 2 in the fall months and 2 in the spring. The sailings have been very smooth, except maybe one day through the Straits of Gibraltar. The ships are very large, and most days you forget you are even at sea. We mostly cruise Royal Caribbean, and find there prices to be extremely reasonable. There is nothing different between crossings and any other cruise, except they have more daytime activities on the consecutive sea days. We have plans to take a transpacific cruise to Australia and New Zealand, from Vancouver through Hawaii and Tahiti, in the fall of 2023. Hope to secure some sits when we arrive for an extended stay.
The repositioning cruise we did, Costs Rica to Portugal, included all our fabulous food, alcohol and entertainment, though a Spanish comedian was a bit above our limited Spanish!
We loved it
That sounds fantastic, we are sailors so an Atlantic crossing is high on our bucket list.
I think we’re definitely going to have to include this in our travel plans
It’s the easiest form of slow-travel we’ve found!!!
Some airlines let you hold a ticket for up to 7 days for a very small fee, with iberian airlines it was £5, 2 years ago. That would be very last minute though not sure if the host or sitter could bear the suspense!!
When we left our house sit in Budapest in mid December, 2019, we were routed through Singapore to Brisbane. Prices were reasonable (pre -covid, of course) and we had a long layover. We were able to take showers and rest up for the rest of the long journey.
Oh yes! I had one booked for my return Rome to Orlando for October. Single person pays full price of cabin so I was looking at $1800 for 13 days all inclusive. Had to cancel as my plans changed but will definitely do coming back to UK. Love cruises! Lots of great deals now.
My trip to Oz was disrupted by the pandemic but I booked into Bali from London with a stopover in Thailand. Had 2 months there out of 3 planned then booked a flight to Sydney. It was less to do that way.
Look for where you can stop and hop and do sits on the way if you have the time.
You’re my hero
I looked for one, just for fun, but there don’t seem to be anything affordable from the UK or France to east coast of Canada. And the coast of flying home from eastern Canada makes it even less desirable. Ah well.
@BunnyCat I can’t give you advice from the UK, but I’ll give you an example of how we avoided the holiday season prices. Going from Canada to Hawaii for a Christmas/New Year sit a few years ago. We flew out about 10 days ahead of the sit, saving a significant amount that we applied towards a 7-day cruise around the Hawaiian islands, and had two nights in Honolulu. Yes, it cost more in total, but the price of a flight the week before Christmas was so high that we opted to spend a little more and extend our travels. We were headed to Australia for three months of house sitting. That sit was actually to break up the travel between Canada and Australia as I didn’t want to do the journey all in one go.
Be aware of when school holidays start in the Aus state you’re travelling to & fly before then.
Great point @TheMapleKiwi as state schools break up on different dates from 9 December in Qld to 20 December in NSW & Victoria. However, private schools break up earlier, end of November in Qld. Also avoid the Gold Coast between 19 November to 11 December due to the 3 weeks of schoolies for Qld, NSW & Vic school leavers. Uggh!
Hi @Joanne - It was really lovely to meet you both on Tuesday - You got us interested in trying a cruise, can I ask what company you use and what ship are you on this time?
Hey @Colin, great meeting you both as well. We typically cruise with Royal Caribbean, because our history with them is extensive, and we get lots of freebies/perks . We sail from Copenhagen on Sept 4th to Boston. Im very happy to say, we didn’t pay the ticketed price, as it was a previously canceled transatlantic, and they had to honor the prior fees (so we paid about 1/3). There are many other transatlantic cruises and cruise lines, returning to the states in the fall. I use Vacations-to-Go for research purposes, then always book directly with the cruise line. More than happy to answer any other questions you may have.
New discovery new tip that may help someone.
I have 3 international flights scheduled this year, one with 3 legs had the longest flight canceled with so far no other alternative other than a flight two days later. Yes this is happening.
I’m making the best of it and booked my self a two day deluxe holiday in Sao Paolo, Brazil which is less than the average cost of one night most any decent hotel. So for me this is exciting.
But because of this, I reviewed my other flights and saw that other eh, adjustments had been made with no notification. So I decided to explore other flights and wouldn’t you know, I found a flight for nearly half the price on the same day? Different route but wow.
I love little big surprises. Of course my flights were all changeable but also if an airline cancels or changes your flight you can usually change your flight at no additional costs.
Check often, keep your eyes open, be flexible, and enjoy the surprises.
I feel a lounge pass coming…
Feeling groovy.
Yeah I’m a happy hippy gal.
@amparo
excellent tips. Lots of changes - I check my future flights weekly - DL makes its changes on the weekend so Mondays are good days to check.
I also do regular rechecks of tickets and have come up with lower fares about 20% of the time. For US airlines, most fares are cancellable with no penalty so you can cancel and then rebook using the credit from the cancellation.