Repositioning Cruises Can Cut Down on Flying Time

I've talked about what repositioning cruises are before, so check out that post if you're not familiar with them yet, but today I wanted to cover one of the perks.

Depending on where you live, you may be able to cut down on your flying time by booking a repositioning cruise. This is because these cruises depart from a different port than they return to.

Here's an example:

My parents live in Seattle, and they'd love to do cruises that visit Mexico and the Caribbean, but most repositioning cruises leave out of Florida (with a few from Texas and other states with ports close to the Gulf). Anyway you slice it, that is a long flight from Seattle.

However, they're looking at taking a repositioning cruise that starts in Florida but ends in Seattle (ships will do this type of thing when they're moving from one area to another, such as from doing Caribbean cruises in the winter and spring to doing Alaska cruises in the summer). This would mean my parents would only have to fly one way, and not only would they get to see the ports in the Caribbean Sea, but they'd also get to experience the Panama Canal and some of the sights on the Pacific Ocean side of Mexico.

Of course, repositioning cruises usually only happen a couple times a year and not for every cruise ship, so you do have to watch for them and be prepared to fit your schedule around them. But if this sounds like a fun vacation to you (and you're not crazy about flying), then it may be worth rearranging your schedule to take a repositioning cruise that starts or stops at a port near you.