By Mike & Darlene Jordan
Repos have a bad name. A lot of the time, the word implies run-down real estate or a clunker that someone couldn’t make the payments on. But wait! We’re not talking about cars or real estate repossessions…we’re talking about cruises.
In cruising, “Repo” is short for repositioning and it’s a great way to see some pretty exotic locales or take a little longer trip for a lot less money.
Cruise lines frequently have to move ships from one locale to another. For example, most cruise lines have ships sailing Alaska itineraries from mid-May to mid-September. Unfortunately, cruising Alaska isn’t much fun after that since the days start lasting about an hour and it gets pretty cold up there.
So, what do the cruise lines do with all those ships? They move them. Some to the South Pacific, some to the Caribbean, some to South America. It costs a lot of money to sail a cruise ship…they’d just as soon move it someplace with paying passengers aboard.
Repositioning cruises are hard to market, though. Since most cruises sail an itinerary over and over again for a period of time, consumers can pick and choose when they want to go to fit their schedules. Repositioning cruises, on the other hand, generally sail their particular itinerary only once a year. So, consumers have to really want to sail from Vancouver to Honolulu on Royal Caribbean on September 17. That’s the only day it sails that itinerary. And, what happens when someone really wants to sell something, but there are a limited number of people who can buy it? The price goes down.
We’ve taken some pretty nice cruises on repositioning voyages. Our first was actually a ship moving to Alaska from the Caribbean. We caught the cruise in Ensenada, Mexico, and sailed 6 days up to Seattle. Since many repositioning cruises sail fairly long itineraries, the lines may break the trip up into shorter segments. In our case, we were on the middle section of the trip. Some of our fellow passengers had boarded in Florida and had sailed through the Panama Canal. Others were continuing on to Anchorage after we disembarked in Seattle.
Of course, Alaska isn’t the only place from which repos sail. A few years ago, Norwegian Cruise Lines moved a ship from weekly around-Hawaii sailings all the way to Barcelona, Spain—and changed the ship’s name along the way. When we got on in Miami the ship was no longer the Pride of Hawaii but had become the Norwegian Jade. Norwegian even built a new casino for the ship while we were onboard! Since this was truly a one-time itinerary, we got it for a song and took a lot of people with us.
Next October, we’ll be doing another repo when Royal Caribbean moves the Mariner of the Seas from Rome all the way back to Galveston, TX! We’ve never been to Rome and we like long cruises. Along the way we’ll be stopping in Palma de Majorca, Spain, Cartagena, Spain, Funchal on the autonomous Portuguese island of Madiera, the Canary Islands, and Nassau. We hope to take a lot of folks with us on that one, too.
While repos to and from Alaska are fairly predictable, finding one like the Norwegian Jade mentioned above isn’t easy. However, they are usually the least expensive and are worth looking for. Here’s where your travel agent can be invaluable. He or she has all of the cruise line’s news and itineraries at their fingertips. They’ll know about a redeployment as soon as it’s announced—and it could be any time of year.
The least expensive are usually the east-bound trans-Atlantic trips; probably because the long crossing comes first and the long flight home comes at the end. On the westbound trips travelers get the long flight over with first, tour like crazy on shore excursions in Europe, rest up during the crossing and take a short flight home—no jet lag!
If you’re looking for a long, relaxing getaway to an exotic port at a cost that won’t break the bank, contact your travel agent and tell them you want to talk to the “repo” man.
Until next time…get out the map!
Mike and Darlene Jordan are registered agents of Cruises Inc., and are based here in Southern Colorado. You can contact them at 800-267-7613 or by email at cruisesinc@gojade.org.
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