How to Get Bargain Basement Prices on a Repositioning Cruise

My Aunt Gigi is a 72 year old retired elementary school teacher who is hooked on travel. Although she lives in southern Illinois, she doesn't just drive to downtown St. Louis and back. No, Gigi is a world traveler. The world of long-duration cruises that is.

Gigi and her husband Wayne take at least two long cruises a year. And it is easy to do. They are on a number of direct mail lists, so they wait for the bargains to come to them. Like this coming November, after Thanksgiving. They will take a 30 day cruise from Greece, to Italy, Spain, Morocco, the Canary Islands, across the Atlantic Ocean to St. Thomas and Jamaica. Quite an itinerary, isn't it? And all of this for only $3,300 a person, that includes airfare. Gigi and Wayne are hooked on repositioning cruises.

Repositioning cruises are most simply described as when the cruise ships move from north to south or south to north depending on the weather. A repositioning cruise offers the best bargains available for people who love to sail on a big ship. Repositioning is the way a cruise line makes money while transferring a ship to its new base. They're known as repositioning or "repo" cruises in the travel industry.

When you take a repositioning cruise ship, you will spend less time at ports and more time on the ship. Other repositioning itineraries will journey to Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Plus, repositioning voyages tend to be long (some nearly a month.

Ships sail year round, but the peak season is from November to April. Though some ships spend 365 days a year sailing the same itinerary, or at least in the same region, many relocate a few times a year depending on the season, from Canada/New England to the Caribbean, or Alaska to Hawaii, for example. Another example is the ships that sail in the Mediterranean and Northern Europe that often cross the Atlantic in the spring or fall. Therefore, the cruise lines offer some very attractive packages to ensure that their ships sail with as close to their full passenger capacity as possible during these twice-annual repositioning cruises.

In springtime, the repositioning of cruise ships is generally from the Caribbean to Alaska, which involves a westbound transit of the Panama Canal, or to Europe, which could include cruises to Scandinavia and other north European ports, or the Mediterranean, including the very popular and romantic Greek Isles.

The spirit of being with your friends or family at sea during an extended cruise is a unique experience. Repositioning cruises often incorporate lots of days at sea, providing a relaxing vacation without hectic back-to-back port calls. And because the daily rate is often lower on a repositioning cruise, sailing on one allows mainstream cruisers to make the leap to luxury at discount cruise prices. An extended cruise is frequently the better value.

Who should take an extended cruise? If you are self-sufficient and are free to travel and live months or years without depleting the bank account, this cruise is for you. The cost for a modern extended cruise is cruise quite inexpensively in some areas. But depending on where you cruise, it makes sense to budget more if you can afford it. For example, preparing for a year long cruise will your world in an unexpected way. These extended cruises can also travel from one destination to another, and frequently have a large number of other activities too.

Although cruising has never been more popular—some 31 million people are expected to take cruising vacations over the next three years—the additional capacity on these ships means good deals are out there. A repositioning cruise frequently involves ports not regularly visited and presents an opportunity to take a longer cruise for less money.

Cruise prices usually include airfare in one direction or the other, or, you can make your own arrangements for the air portion, and pay proportionately less for the cruise itself. Most travel agencies and Web sites that sell cruises can supply information about other repositioning cruises, which generally take place in spring and fall.

Consider taking an extended or repositioning cruise on your next vacation. Who knows? Maybe you'll get hooked like Gigi and Wayne.