Transatlantic Cruises

A transatlantic voyage takes you back to the golden era of ocean liners before jet travel. They have rather romantic connotations of casting off from the daily grind of the UK on a wonderful cruise adventure.

Why Choose a Transatlantic Voyage?

• Simply as a means of transportation to get from one side of the Atlantic to the other. After all, a seven-night voyage on a luxury ship in a comfortable ensuite stateroom on full board with waiter service can sometimes be the same cost of an economy flight and a fraction of the cost of business or first-class flights.
• To enjoy the journey in itself as a way to relax perhaps without the interruptions of ports of call and/or to escape the distractions of daily life.
• As part of a greater holiday experience in North America instead of flying – combining a cruise with a more traditional land-based stay. For this reason, Transatlantic Crossings are ideal for people who like their land-based holidays but want to try out the cruise experience.

Westbound: Travel to the United States Of America in Style. For five days of any crossing - Each day at sea is 25 hours long and so you will arrive refreshed in tune with local time ready to step off your ship after breakfast and enjoy a full day. That is without the jet lag - wanting to go to sleep five hours before everyone else and waking up in the early hours of the morning.

Eastbound: Enhance your holiday or travel experience and the journey home from the USA with the knowledge that you have not got to go through long security queues at the airport and have the patience to endure a relatively cramped flight overnight back to the UK. Why subject yourself to all of this aggravation when you can turn this overnight flight home into the most comfortable and relaxing journey home possible? Also, the potential to shop and buy things that you would not normally buy because of the flight home is irresistible. No restrictive airline luggage weight allowances and much less chance of breakages if your purchases are not being thrown into the hold of an aircraft or squeezed into the overhead storage lockers.

Who are they suitable for? If you want a regular cruise with ports of call or badly suffer from the effects of motion – then these cruises are probably not for you. These cruises are ideal for those of you who are well traveled, have cruised lots of times before or are looking for something different. They are also perfect for people who lead busy lives in the work or home environment and want to totally relax without distraction and let someone else do all the work. For these reasons, you tend to meet a very different type of passenger on a Transatlantic crossing than on a regular cruise with ports of call.

What is there to do? Cynical people would say: Eat, Sleep & Drink - perfect !!!!!   But there is so much more too:

• Switch off from the outside world; put the mobile down and shut the laptop!!!
• Have a wallow in the Thermal pool or detox in the Sauna.
• Try your luck at bingo or learn how to play Poker.
• Watch a feature film or attend a lecture by a guest speaker.
• Join a RADA acting class or pop in to see a matinee theatre performance.
• Compete in a golf simulator competition or learn more about computers.
• Join the pub trivia quiz or learn about mixing martinis.
• Make friends with Bill W or Dorothy.
• Work out in the gym or learn some dance steps.
• Take a brisk walk on deck or sunbathe in the solarium
• Check out the library or peruse fine works of art.
• Relax in a hot tub or have a splash in the pool.
• People watch with a Coffee or plan your evening attire.

When to go: Virtually all cruise lines who operate cruises from the United Kingdom will offer a Transatlantic Crossing at some stage during the year. They are generally offered as a repositioning cruise between cruise seasons:  you will find lots of offers in the spring when cruise ships are repositioning between their winter cruise itineraries in the Caribbean and their summer cruise itineraries in Europe and vice versa in autumn. These crossings can vary in length from seven to 15 nights - with the longer ones incorporating a handful of ports of call.

Cunard Queen Mary 2 offers a schedule of traditional transatlantic crossings throughout the year from May to early January between Southampton and New York. These crossings are usually for seven nights and can be taken simply as a seven-night crossing or as part of a longer land-based touring holiday in the USA.

Look out for our exclusive Cunard Queen Mary 2 Transatlantic offers featuring:

• Classic New York shopping
• New Year in New York
• Niagara Falls & Upstate New York
• San Francisco, Chicago & the Great Lakes
• Washington, Boston & New York
• Roundtrip USA – together with another Cruise Line for two ships in one holiday without flying.
• Roundtrip USA with Cunard QM2 both ways.In between simply spend the day shopping in New York City. Or add on another cruise such as the Caribbean or Alaska for a longer no flying holiday experience.
• Grand Circle USA - together with a selection of Amtrak train journeys linking New York, New Orleans, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
• Grand Music Circle USA - together with a selection of Amtrak train journeys linking New York, New Orleans, Memphis, Nashville, and Chicago.

Southampton: Most Transatlantic voyages operate to or from Southampton. If traveling by car take the M3 at junction 12 on the M25 London Orbital motorway. A train takes approximately 1.5 hours from London Waterloo. For those of you further afield in Belfast, Scotland, Manchester, Newcastle, and the Channel Isles - Southampton has an airport well served by domestic flights . Dock Gate 4 is the entrance to the original QE2 cruise terminal and the ultra-modern Ocean Cruise Terminal which serves Cunard Queen Mary 2. Dock Gates 8 and 10 are the entrances to the Mayflower, Horizon & City cruise terminals.

Go on - try a Transatlantic Crossing  – you will be surprised !!!!!!