Time cross-ocean cruises right
Once in my cruising lifetime, I cruised across the Atlantic Ocean. Since then, I’ve developed what I describe to friends as my “sea days phobia.” Three or four consecutive days at sea and I’m ready for a port, any port — even a fishing village.
For the thousands of you who love sea days, you will believe I am the loser in this.
While I can fly to meet a ship and cruise through Europe, I’m missing a lot of ports, in Greenland and Iceland on the northern routes, and Madeira, Malaga and the Canary Islands on the southern routes as examples of some. These ports are part of ocean-cruising routes and seldom available on typical back-to-back European cruises.
My phobia also means I’m missing out on great pricing, a chance to unwind, make new friends, watch first-class entertainment, develop a hobby, or catch up on some reading. Not to mention having my every whim catered to by staff I should know on a first-name basis by the time the ship crosses the ocean.
But come 2015, trans-oceanic cruisers might find prices less enticing. Last spring, I noticed prices as low as $40 to $50 a night on dash-across-the-ocean-with-few-stops cruises. But that won’t be the case next spring.
On the low end of the scale, most prices range from $60 to $80 a night — still a great deal, yet part of an upward pricing trend in many markets. And if you’re sailing on premium and luxury brands, you can multiply those prices by three or four times — $250 a night and up.
If you’re going to make a transatlantic voyage, consider a budget-loving combo cruise that combines a ship’s last (or first) cruise before starting or ending a season with another cruise. In Europe, that could be an ocean cruise linked with the first regular cruise in the Mediterranean, or Northern Europe and the Balkans. The corresponding cruise in North America would be a week in the warm Caribbean before leaving for Europe.
Holland America’s Eurodam has one such cruise leaving on March 29, from Fort Lauderdale. It’s a seven-day Caribbean cruise followed by a 14-day trip across the Atlantic with four stops in Spain before the Eurodam arrives in her home port, Barcelona, to start the European season. Starting price is under $1,500.
Always check transatlantic or transpacific cruises with a good cruise travel agent. Among four major lines, I counted nearly 50 Atlantic cruises in 2015 ranging from seven to 35 days.
All cruise prices were available at the time of writing. Visit portsandbows.com, sponsored by Expedia Cruise Ship Centers, 1-800-707-7327, www.cruiseshipcenters.com, for daily updates on the cruise news, best deals and behindthe-scenes stories from the industry. Sign up for an email newsletter for more cruise information. Reimer may be contacted directly at portsandbows@gmail.com.