When the Port Is Not the Only Point of a Cruise

Are you a big but budget-conscious fan of the cruise experience, and do you regard ports of call as secondary or even of no importance? If so, you might want to take advantage of several twice-a-year cruise-industry rituals: the spring and fall transfer, or repositioning, of ships from one part of the world to another. In April, for example, many ships will move from the Caribbean across the Atlantic to Europe, or from the Mexican Riviera to Alaska.

A look at the map will make it clear that a repositioning cruise involves a lot of time spent at sea rather than visiting ports. This allows more time for relaxing and enjoying what the ship has to offer instead of hopping from shore excursion to shore excursion, which can be a lot of work.

Still, many repositioning cruises manage to squeeze in plenty of ports before or after they cross the big blue.

Best of all, from a budget perspective, these one-way trips offer some of travel’s top values. Why? Because their duration (usually two weeks) and shortage of ports make them less popular among most cruise passengers. The rates run about $100 per person per day and sometimes less. The cruise lines usually have air fare deals as well.

Here are some examples, for inside cabins (no windows); port charges and taxes not included:

* Costa Victoria, of Costa Cruises, sails April 30 from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to Genoa, Italy. Spend 14 nights on the attractive, informal, 1,928-passenger ship, the biggest in the Italian-owned Costa fleet. Price: from $1,379. Stops include Nassau, Bahamas; Tortola, British Virgin Islands; Antigua; the mid-Atlantic Portuguese island of Madeira; and Malaga on Spain’s Costa del Sol. Air fare from Los Angeles to Florida, and from a choice of cities in Europe back to L.A.: $1,085.

* Splendour of the Seas, of Royal Caribbean International, departs April 21 for 14 nights from Miami to Barcelona, Spain. Cost: $859. Enjoy roomy cabins and above-average services and amenities on this 1,800-passenger boat. Ports of call: St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands; Madeira; Tenerife (Canary Islands) and Malaga. Optional air package from L.A.: $899.

* Noordam, of Holland America Cruises, departs April 12 for 10 nights from Fort Lauderdale to Lisbon. Along the way, it calls at the Azores (also part of Portugal) and at Holland America’s own Bahamian islet, Half Moon Cay. This ship offers its 1,213 passengers excellent service and spacious cabins. Cost: $685 per person; optional air fare package, $933.

* Nordic Empress, of Royal Caribbean International, departs April 28. Combining a smattering of the Caribbean with a trawl up the Atlantic seaboard, one of Royal Caribbean’s best ships spends nine days carrying 1,600 passengers from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to New York City. The first few of those days are spent island hopping: St. Thomas, Franco-Dutch St. Maarten and Bermuda. The per-person cost starts at $649. Round-trip air from L.A.: $549.

* Norwegian Sky, the Norwegian Cruise Lines’ newest ship, departs Miami on April 16 for a 14-day itinerary that goes through the Panama Canal. First are stops at the Caribbean Cayman Islands and at Cartagena, Colombia, with its beautiful colonial quarter, then at Costa Rica’s beach resort of Puntarenas, and on to Acapulco and, finally, Los Angeles. Rates start at $95 a day, for a sea-only total of $1,325.

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Contact one of these cruise brokers for the repositioning cruises: Cruises of Distinction, telephone (800) 434-8811; Cruise Value Center, tel. (800) 231-7447; GalaxSea Cruises, tel. (800) 662-5450, Internet https://www.cruisestar.com.