Majestic Princess in Papeete, Tahiti, en route to Auckland, New Zealand
I’m behind on blogging as we settle into our year back in Paris. Still, I do want to write about our time in New Zealand (which included 2000 miles of driving!) before too much time slips by. So, first here’s a quick recap of the Princess repositioning cruise that got us there:
The Covid-19 pandemic canceled a three-week trip to New Zealand we’d planned to start in March 2020, within days of New Zealand shutting down. With the pandemic mostly behind us and New Zealand again opening, we were finally making the trip.read more
The 8 “Sweet Sixteen” port-side cabins on Celebrity Millennium class ships are just above the “S” through the blue space after the “N” in “CONSTELLATION” the photo above.
As part of our 3-month around-the-world journey, we spent one month on the Celebrity ship Constellation. This was actually two 2-week, back-to-back (“B2B”) cruises. The first two weeks were more a traditional cruise with many stops: Phuket, Thailand; Colombo, Sri Lanka; Cochin, Goa and Mubai, India; Muscat, Oman; Dubai and Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. The second two weeks were more along the lines of a repositioning cruise, i.e., fewer stops and a bargain price as the ship moved from one region to another for a season. This cruise took us from Abu Dhabi back to Muscat, Oman, through the Suez Canal, to Piraeus (Athens) and Katakolon (ancient Olympia), Greece, and dropped us off at Civitavecchia, Italy (the port nearest Rome, although we did not go back to Rome on this trip, but rather picked up a rent car to spend a couple weeks in Umbria and Tuscany before flying from Florence to Belgium).
Upcoming posts covering the cruise period will have more information on ports, directed to cruisers, in addition to regular travelogues. [I’m not that into cruise ship activities and such, but tend to view ships as moving hotels and chose cruises based on itinerary, i.e., ports-of-call and transportation from one point to another. Click here for an earlier post on my philosophy on cruising as well as tips for finding the best deals.] I had some misgivings that a month might be too long on a ship, but we had an amazing time and my only regret is that I can’t do it all for the first time again!
With regards to Constellation, one of Celebrity’s Millennium class ships: I once again booked one of the “Sweet Sixteen” cabins about which I blogged when we sailed trans-Pacific on Constellation‘s sister ship Millennium. [Click here for that post.] These cabins offer a suite-type, double-sized balcony for the price of a regular balcony cabin. For some reason, the extra-large balconies do not appear on the ships’ diagrams and the cabins are categorized as regular balcony staterooms. I prefer the rear-most of these cabins because they offer extra privacy from the cabin just sternward and a more open view. (Both times I booked one of these staterooms, the booking agent had no idea that these cabins existed.)
My personal verdict on ship vs. plane when crossing an ocean: Boat may be way slower, but this is way better than any airplane seat I’ve ever had!
I’ve been on quite a few cruises over the years, but they’re the minority of my travels. Very occasionally we just want an easy getaway, but most often lately we use cruises as transport from one point to another. I’d eyed “repositioning” cruises with envy for years, but could never take advantage of them due to my sons’ school schedules. With my boys off on their own now and David and I both retired, I’m loving taking advantage of these seasonal moves of ships from one “theater of operation” to another. Prices on these cruises are usually much lower than comparably-long regional cruises. The lines are basically trying to make some money while relocating their ships. The trade-offs for the passengers are fewer ports and frequent time changes (albeit incremental–an hour a day or so–rather than the large time-changes you get with an overseas flight).
We meet lots of people who take repositioning cruises and then fly straight home, but for us they’re a way to launch travels on another continent. When it’s time to come home, we use miles and/or points to buy one-way tickets home. (While one-way plane tickets purchased with cash can be ludicrously expensive–often more than a roundtrip ticket–, most mileage programs allow one-way tickets at a simple and fair one-half of the roundtrip mileage cost.)
Not only are repositioning cruises one of the best travel values out there, they’re a great way, if you’ve got the time, to get somewhere far away, comfortably and with no jet-lag. A trans-ocean cruise can give you 2 weeks (or more) of room, board and entertainment for much less than a first class flight and sometimes for less than a business class flight. (Any cruise ship cabin is infinitely more comfortable than either a first or business class seat on a plane…and economy seats are hardly worth a mention in a discussion of “comfort.”) This is especially true if, like us, you don’t gamble, don’t drink much alcohol, don’t like soft drinks, don’t do the overpriced cruise excursions, aren’t tempted by “specialty” restaurants, spas, “duty free” shopping, onboard internet, or any of the other myriad ways cruise lines seek to pull more money out of you. For us, they’re primarily moving hotels where we enjoy our time alone together and meeting new people, reading and watching the water from our balcony, disconnected from the rest of the world for a while. We also plan our own time ashore. If you love all those cruise extras– and many do–your costs can be substantially higher. It’s a matter of choice and preference, of course, just be aware.
Cruise stops are, by their very nature, a quick peek at a location. Often no more than a classic “toe-touch”, say-I’ve-been-there, remain-in-a-protected-bubble kind of affair (usually a pet peeve of mine), they can be fun and they do have their place in my travel plans. The ports can be limited on a repositioning cruise, but we look at them as an added bonus. And, like Dutch Harbor, they can be unusual–and unusually remote–locations.
Visiting somewhere via cruise can also be a good option if it’s a place you’d like to see, but aren’t really sure you want to spend an extended amount of time there. Cruise ports of call also make for good reconnaissance; sometimes I find a place begs for a longer return visit. And, of course, if mobility is an issue, cruises can be perfect for people who would otherwise find their travel wings clipped.
“Sweet Sixteen” cabin balcony: Not on the deck plan, but twice the size for the same price as a regular balcony.
Anyway, since they’re not my focus, I don’t plan to do too much in the way of cruise reviews. I will share, though, if I come across a particularly good deal or interesting angle. E.g., see my review of the “Sweet Sixteen” cabins on Celebrity’s Millennium-class ships: double-large balconies that don’t appear on the ship deck plans and for which there’s no extra charge. Since we prefer to avoid cruise ship excursions and do things on our own or in smaller tours, I’ll also document port details if the port of call is one (like Dutch Harbor) for which I had trouble finding information, pre-trip, on one of the many cruise-focused web sites.
There are lots of web sites out there that offer cruises, but I find vacationstogo.com to be one of the best sites for exploring cruise options and I always start there. They often have the best prices, too, but if not…well, I can be bought!
