Why Do Ships Make Repositioning Cruises?
One of the aspects of the cruise business that makes it so successful is that a cruise is two vacations in one. The first part is the ship itself, and the second part is the ports of call on the cruise itinerary. Most non-experienced cruisers have the misconception that cruise ships repeat the same itinerary all year long. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most people in the Northeast and Midwest want to cruise in the Caribbean during the cruelly cold winter months. Meanwhile, cruise lines can only offer Alaska cruises from May to September. And so we have repositioning cruises. All ships have to come from somewhere, and all ships have to be somewhere. It is only logical that the cruise lines would re-deploy their fleets where they are needed on a seasonal basis — because ships can so easily move to the places where they are needed most. Almost every ship in any fleet makes regular repositioning cruises to a new cruising region at least twice a year. Generally, repositioning cr
