Trans Atlantic

[chrismelissa]

Good Afternoon & Merry Christmas everyone,  We want to do a Trans atlantic trip for our anniversy , which one is better, departing from Europe heading west , or leaving from the States going east, ???

[Cactus527]

I was always told to think of it this way:

If you leave from the US to go to Europe, you wake up every morning with one hour lost. 8am becomes 9am. The next day, 8 am again becomes 9am. You keep losing time. You then also have to make the long flight back to the US when your cruise is finished.

If you leave from Europe to go to the US, you wake up every morning with one hour gained. 8am becomes 7am. The next day, 8am again becomes 7am. You are gaining time, and then you don't have the major flight/travel to get home (you did that prior to the cruise).

When I book a transatlantic someday, I'm definitely doing Europe to US!

[smokeybandit]

I've been told based on others experiences to always have the cruise end close to home.
 

That way when the trip is over you still don't have a transatlantic flight to deal with.

[Dad2Cue]

Some people do a cruise round trip to Europe and back.  Personally, I would like to do that and not have a transatlantic flight at all.  I find jet lag flying to Europe to be worse than flying from Europe.  

Atlantic storms are more likely from early June to late November, with mid-August to mid-October usually seeing the most activity. Most of Royal's transatlantic cruises seem to return from Europe in October.  It might be cool weather if there isn't a hurricane.

We are doing our transatlantic April 28th to May 11th, 2024.  I switched our stateroom to the starboard side because people say there will be more sun on that side. We will stay in Barcelona for a few days before doing a Mediterranean cruise to Athens.  We will be home by June 1st when the grass will need mowing but shouldn't be too long.

I don't know which way is better but I have given this a lot of thought.

Either way you go ... it beats flying.

[Va4fam]

Haven't done a TA yet, but prefer to go to Europe for a few days, and sail back to US.  T

I have a tendency to want to go home once cruise is over.

[PPPJJ-GCVAB]

Wow seems everyone here is partial to the opposite of what I am doing!  I’ve never done a transatlantic cruise but recently booked the April 27-May 11, 2025 on Odyssey.    Leaving from Bayonne (so driving and working with our TA to figure out best parking choice) and ending in Rome.  We will stay in Italy an extra 5 days once off the ship, touring Rome and Venice, and fly back to Newark from Venice.  I do hope we made the right decision on which way to sail…East to West.  Like @Dad2Cue we booked our balcony rooms on starboard side for the sunshine!  
In the meantime, I look forward to any transatlantic live blogs!

[Irieman]

i can agree on what has been said earlier but i will have to share that our first transatlantic was the "over to Europe" version last April and it was amazing! We loved it so much and got used to having the noon captain's update be the official time switch to 1pm.  We also enjoyed staying a couple of days in Amsterdam with no jet lag. Honestly, In would rather be jet lagged at work than on vacation time. 

We liked it so much we are doing another transatlantic this April to Italy and spending a few days in Rome and a layover day in Lisbon on the flight home.  

[barbeyg]

We are sailing TO Europe, because for us, it’s more important to be adjusted when we get there. We only have several days to enjoy Rome, and don’t want to lose the first day to struggling with the time change. We will be retired so really don’t care about the long flight home.  

That said, we will try the other way too, and figure out which we like more.  We will fly in at least a week ahead the next time, and know we will lose at least one day to adjusting. 

[smokeybandit]

1 hour ago, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

Wow seems everyone here is partial to the opposite of what I am doing!  I’ve never done a transatlantic cruise but recently booked the April 27-May 11, 2025 on Odyssey.    Leaving from Bayonne (so driving and working with our TA to figure out best parking choice) and ending in Rome.  We will stay in Italy an extra 5 days once off the ship, touring Rome and Venice, and fly back to Newark from Venice.  I do hope we made the right decision on which way to sail…East to West.  Like @Dad2Cue we booked our balcony rooms on starboard side for the sunshine!  
In the meantime, I look forward to any transatlantic live blogs!

Your vacation isn't over when the cruise is, so that's different.

 

[Last2Know]

Also sailing to Europe on Explorer in April.  I've crossed the Atlantic and Pacific several times on aircraft carriers and don't think the time change is a big issue.  First time doing this on RCL and looking forward to it.

[Cakemeister]

Typically, North America to Europe cruises are in the spring and Europe to North America are in the fall. 

My personal preference is Europe to NA, because of the time change, like Cactus said. I went east-to-west and loved it.

Mrs. Cake went west-to-east once with her sister, and she said the time changes were done in the middle of the day and were awkward. I don't recall her saying anything about the difference in weather between the spring and fall.

If the time of year makes a difference so that a spring cruise is better for you, don't hesitate to book west to east. 

[Riley]

16 hours ago, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

Wow seems everyone here is partial to the opposite of what I am doing!  I’ve never done a transatlantic cruise but recently booked the April 27-May 11, 2025 on Odyssey.    Leaving from Bayonne (so driving and working with our TA to figure out best parking choice) and ending in Rome.  We will stay in Italy an extra 5 days once off the ship, touring Rome and Venice, and fly back to Newark from Venice.  I do hope we made the right decision on which way to sail…East to West.  Like @Dad2Cue we booked our balcony rooms on starboard side for the sunshine!  
In the meantime, I look forward to any transatlantic live blogs!

We've done it both ways and there are good points to both. I'm a night owl so the Eastbound "losing an hour each day" was a bit much, but it made up for it by going through the Straits of Gibraltar early one morning; on the way West we went through at night and - whereas the lights were pretty - the sunrise Eastbound trip was amazing. Find out from Guest Services what time you're scheduled to go through and if it's even remotely light out GO up on deck to see. (Side note: I could not believe how windy it was... be ready!) You also won't have as brutal jet lag to deal with  so that's like getting an extra day in Italy beyond what you'd normally enjoy.

[Doug_Texas]

We did Rhapsody OTS east (Barcelona) to west (Barbados) and loved that we got an extra hour every day and also liked that every day was a bit warmer making the pool a bit more inviting each day.  The one thing we learned about our preferences was the "sea day after sea day" on the Vision class with only a Centrum for the evening was more boring than we would like.  We just booked another east to west transatlantic on Independence OTS under the belief that the Royal Promenade will be helpful with all those consecutive sea days.

[Shanethegriff]

Would the seas generally be any calmer in either direction or based on time of year?

[Atlantix2000]

8 hours ago, Shanethegriff said:

Would the seas generally be any calmer in either direction or based on time of year?

You don't really get any choice in the time of year.  Royal's ships don't keep going back and forth across the ocean.  They only cross each way once per year so that a ship could spend the summer in the Mediterranean and the winter in the Caribbean (for example).

[PPPJJ-GCVAB]

1 hour ago, Atlantix2000 said:

You don't really get any choice in the time of year.  Royal's ships don't keep going back and forth across the ocean.  They only cross each way once per year so that a ship could spend the summer in the Mediterranean and the winter in the Caribbean (for example).

so my husband has no participation (other than joining me) in planning our trips…cruises…excursions…etc!  When I told him about our April 2025 TransAtlantic …he thought we were also coming home via TA cruise!  I told him only if he planned to stay in Europe until October but I would fly home!  You see he hates flying and that is why I chose this type of cruise because now there is only one flight to deal with!  Especially because we can drive to Bayonne so no flying to our departing port, either!

[Doug_Texas]

4 hours ago, Atlantix2000 said:

You don't really get any choice in the time of year.  Royal's ships don't keep going back and forth across the ocean.  They only cross each way once per year so that a ship could spend the summer in the Mediterranean and the winter in the Caribbean (for example).

I think the question was whether eastbound (~April) or westbound (~Oct/Nov) had calmer seas.  I have not seen any specific reference other than Oct/Nov is the tail end of hurricane season but the sailing isn't in the riskiest part of the Atlantic - still a thought though.   

[Shanethegriff]

5 hours ago, Doug_Texas said:

I think the question was whether eastbound (~April) or westbound (~Oct/Nov) had calmer seas.  I have not seen any specific reference other than Oct/Nov is the tail end of hurricane season but the sailing isn't in the riskiest part of the Atlantic - still a thought though.   

Yea, that's exactly what I meant. I'm sure any TA will have some at least a couple of rough sea days but I'm sure some sailings are more prone due to season.

[Pattycruise]

I did one, each way and I thought both were fine.  I adjust fairly easily to flying to Europe and "fixing my sleep".  This go around we took a morning flight and landed in the evening, as opposed to an overnight flight.   Either way I belive in a "good nap" and that it can fix things.  So if I did the overnight flight I would have trouble sleeping on the plane (always do) and I would take a 3 hour nap once I got access to my hotel and then force myself awake and go out for a few hours and then back to bed my midnight and the next morning I am good to go.  
When I did my TA going over I had already been to Barcelona so just flew home.  No issues with adjusting to being back in the US.  

Side note:  When I took the TA from England back to the US I was able to purchase wine and not worry about flying it home....and I was in a drivable distance to my home when we came back to the US, so I could bring back A LOT of wine!  Just ensure you have a method to carry it off the ship.

[Riley]

On 12/19/2023 at 9:04 AM, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

so my husband has no participation (other than joining me) in planning our trips…cruises…excursions…etc!  When I told him about our April 2025 TransAtlantic …he thought we were also coming home via TA cruise!  I told him only if he planned to stay in Europe until October but I would fly home!  You see he hates flying and that is why I chose this type of cruise because now there is only one flight to deal with!  Especially because we can drive to Bayonne so no flying to our departing port, either!

Quick note: if you're looking for a round-trip Transatlantic in October-November 2024 "Adventure" is going East for refurbishing. I know a lot of folks (including us) who are on the Eastbound leg for Adventure and then coming back a few days later on "Voyager". You have to get from Lisbon to Barcelona but it's a short flight and you get a true "round trip" adventure.

[PPPJJ-GCVAB]

8 hours ago, Riley said:

Quick note: if you're looking for a round-trip Transatlantic in October-November 2024 "Adventure" is going East for refurbishing. I know a lot of folks (including us) who are on the Eastbound leg for Adventure and then coming back a few days later on "Voyager". You have to get from Lisbon to Barcelona but it's a short flight and you get a true "round trip" adventure.

That would be a great plan…unfortunately we have 14 days booked in September to do Utopia (4N) and the next day Carnival Mardi Gras (7N) as well as 2 days before and 1 day after.  So…could never swing another loooong vacation so soon after!  Now…if that was in 2025…perhaps it would be a different story!  
Thanks for mentioning!

[Dad2Cue]

On 12/18/2023 at 7:26 AM, Last2Know said:

Also sailing to Europe on Explorer in April.  I've crossed the Atlantic and Pacific several times on aircraft carriers and don't think the time change is a big issue.  First time doing this on RCL and looking forward to it.

We appear to be doing the same TA.  I'm somewhat worried about Explorer being equipped for rough seas in terms of  age of ship , size of ship and those kinds of things. I was thinking an Oasis class ship might be better. Do you have any worries about Explorer relative to an aircraft carrier.  What class of aircraft carrier were you on?  An aircraft carrier wasn't an option but I would be interested.  I mostly chose Explorer because the price was good.

[Last2Know]

36 minutes ago, Dad2Cue said:

Do you have any worries about Explorer relative to an aircraft carrier.  What class of aircraft carrier were you on?  An aircraft carrier wasn't an option but I would be interested. 

I don't have any worries at all.  Carriers don't have stabilizers like the cruise ships.  Plus, I sleep better at sea with a little movement.  I was on USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63), USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), USS George Washington (CVN-73), and USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7).  I guarantee that the accommodations, food, and availability of adult beverages are better than on Uncle Sam's big grey boats.

[barjpoe]

1 hour ago, Dad2Cue said:

We appear to be doing the same TA.  I'm somewhat worried about Explorer being equipped for rough seas in terms of  age of ship , size of ship and those kinds of things. I was thinking an Oasis class ship might be better. Do you have any worries about Explorer relative to an aircraft carrier.  What class of aircraft carrier were you on?  An aircraft carrier wasn't an option but I would be interested.  I mostly chose Explorer because the price was good.

We did Jewel in this past fall, from Amsterdam to Bayonne, it was fine. Had to miss Reykjavik because of the remains of the hurricane  Franklin, and di run into some fog, some rain, cool days, but then a very hot day in Halifax.

[WAAAYTOOO]

12 hours ago, Riley said:

Quick note: if you're looking for a round-trip Transatlantic in October-November 2024 "Adventure" is going East for refurbishing. I know a lot of folks (including us) who are on the Eastbound leg for Adventure and then coming back a few days later on "Voyager". You have to get from Lisbon to Barcelona but it's a short flight and you get a true "round trip" adventure.

This is an awesome opportunity.  Unfortunately for us, it's too late to make these arrangements....but if anyone sees a similar situation for 2025 or 2026, please post ASAP !

Thanks !

[PPPJJ-GCVAB]

44 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

This is an awesome opportunity.  Unfortunately for us, it's too late to make these arrangements....but if anyone sees a similar situation for 2025 or 2026, please post ASAP !

Thanks !

Yes!  I second that….