Several months ago, our travel agent sent us the cruise newsletter saying that there would be this GREAT, and CHEAP cruise out of Galveston. What a bargoonie it is at $799/person for 13 days! We've heard that the ultimate bargain is the "repositioning" cruise. Why is this so? Well, it's really a "dead" time for the cruise ship.

Repositioning means that the ship is going from one region to another. Normally, ships stay in a region (let's say the Caribbean or Mediterranean) and they either go back and forth or round trip and keep repeating essentially the same itinerary/interaries in the region for the entire season. Then, to increase revenue, the cruise company moves (or "repositions") the ship to another region because that region is more popular in a different season. In this case, summer season is more profitable in the Mediterranean and winter season is more popular in the Caribbean. So, there are two repositions a year...one from the Caribbean to the Mediterranean and one from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean.

Why is it so cheap? Well...let's think about this, it takes the ship approx 9-10 days to do the movement. This is longer than the average cruise of 5-7 days. This means that fewer folks want to take such a cruise. Also, there are many sea days with no where to stop. Many cruisers want fancy beaches to stop at. The other thing...there's 1 way airfare to deal with and frankly, that's trouble, particularly with security the way it is today (not to mention the COST of one way airfare).

Normally, the cruise line would feel that moving the ship is a loss...that's why they try to fill it with a few happy folks, cook some food, play games, add an extra few stops to the trip and make it into the once again profitable "repositioning cruise". :)

Back to the story...we heard about this CHEAP cruise and thought "Oh, we can't get off work to take such a bargoonie cruise" and forgot about it. Well...several months later, we realize that we CAN indeed get time off work (and don't we need a good GooseBreak?) and decided to book it. It's on the fantabulous Voyager of the Seas (better than the Brilliance of the Seas...which was FAB).

Voyager = roller blading, ice skating, Johnny Rockets!
Brilliance = fancy ship, with 9 hole mini golf, no roller blading, no ice skating and no Johnny Rockets!

Voyager was the top of the line ship several years ago when we went on the Brilliance of the Seas. Now, Voyager has been topped by a few other ships. But those ships are expensive and only hang out in the Caribbean. Nothing wrong with the Caribbean, but it's a place where there are lots of stops (and we want lots of sea days) and it's expensive, unlike sailing the empty Atlantic, which is cheaparoonie. We still can't imagine what else you could put on a ship...we're happy enough with Roller blading and ice skating!

For those of you who have to know what the ship looks like in advance, this guy has great photos: http://www.romain-moisescot.com/voyagerclass/

Another great "gotta know in advance" site is: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/
and check out the Royal Caribbean links.

Other cool info about the Voyager:
http://www.cruisemates.com/articles/feature/voy-activities.cfm
http://www.cruisemates.com/articles/reviews/rci/voyager.cfm
http://www.cruisemates.com/articles/memreviews/rci/index.cfm#Voyager