YouTube video (Dec 4, 2017) by Nate Buchanan documenting Kara and Nate Buchanan traveling from London to Southampton to board a 15-night repositioning cruise to Barbados and the Caribbean. They describe logistics (flew into Terminal 4, stayed at the Yotel), booking details (booked five days before departure; paid about $54/night quoted or $120/night for both including tips), reasons for choosing the repositioning cruise (cost, visiting multiple countries, timing for a wedding), cabin upgrade from inside to window, ports to be visited (Portugal, Granada, Antigua, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts, Barbados), and on-board experiences (safety drill, multi-course meals).
Questions this video answers
15 nights
Five days before it left
$54 a night (quoted)
$120 a night for both of them (including tips)
Barbados (they are going from London to Barbados)
Chapters
We have a window.
We booked an inside cabin.
Oh, my gosh. What's happening right now? Please explain what's happening right now.
Okay, you want to sit?
Yes.
This morning we are in the London airport. We actually flew in last night and we stayed in a hotel in the airport called the hotel. But this morning we're actually not getting on an airplane.
We are getting on a bus which is taking us to Southampton. Then we're getting on a boat.
Now we just have to find the bus.
Personal music devices is permitted, but please.
Be considerate of others around you.
We are on the bus. We have a two hour ride to Southampton.
I just can't believe how convenient this has been. We flew into Terminal 4 last night. We slept in a hotel in Terminal 4 and then we got on the bus from Terminal 4 and now we're.
Heading to Southampton and the Yotel gave us coffee. It's been smooth sailing.
Shade Southampton, it's a bit chill.
The bus driver just called me out for looking miserably cold on the camera, because I am. It's not exactly boat weather.
So the reason we are in Southampton, which is a super cute city it seems, by the way, is because we are going on a cruise for 15 nights.
It's not just any cruise, it is a repositioning cruise. And for those of you who don't know, a repositioning cruise is when a cruise line is moving from one region to another. So it's usually pretty long.
Which we're fine with.
And there's also usually quite a few days at sea. So we're going from London all the way to Barbados in the Caribbean. So we're going to be crossing the entire Atlantic on the boat, which means a lot of days just like stuck on the boat and not stopping in port. But it makes the cruise a lot cheaper, which is one of the main reasons that we ended up booking it.
We're only paying $54 a night.
If you include like tips that you have to pay. We're paying $120 a night for both of us, for everything.
Accommodations, traveling back to North America, food, which is entertainment.
It's not like super cheap. But for a cruise, it's really, really cheap for it being all inclusive.
I can't wait.
We got here about an hour before we were supposed to be on the cruise. The cruise port is like a mile walk from the bus station. So we're gonna need a little exercise before we eat at buffets every day for the next 15 days.
That's our ship. That is the biggest Cruise ship we've ever seen just gave our bags to some guy. I hope they show up on our boat.
To the ship.
To the ship. Wow. It's huge.
It's quite large.
From the ship.
Scoopers. Our bags aren't here yet. Maybe they will be soon.
We have a window.
We booked an inside cabin.
Oh, my gosh. What's happening right now?
So we booked this cruise five days before it left. And I was talking to the guy who was helping me book it, and he was like, well, I can either secure you an inside room like the one you paid for, or you can just kind of let the ship choose. And maybe if all the inside rooms fill up, then maybe they'll give you a room with a window or you'll get upgraded a little bit. And we did.
We got upgrade a little bit.
We were supposed to be stuck in the inside of the ship for the next 15 days, and now we have a massive window. There's a lifeboat outside of it, but we have a window.
I don't even care. And there's champagne. This is fuzzy robes and slippers.
This is fantastic. The only issue is the twin beds.
I think we can fix that. I think we can squeeze them together.
Okay. Hopefully. So this is gonna be a long time to not sleep together.
This is crazy. As if I wasn't already so excited. We have a window.
We get excited about the little things.
Oh, chocolates too.
I can't believe I'm so exc. I was just happy we got a spot on the show, much less a room with a window.
Now that we're settled into our room, we thought we should tell you how we ended up on a 15 day repositioning cruise. Because we know it's a little random and it was not the original plan.
Going to Italy kind of threw off our original plans. We really didn't know what we were going to do, but this was not something we had been thinking about. However, repositioning cruises are always on our radar. Nate refreshes the website. What, like weekly?
Maybe? So I discovered the idea of repositioning cruises a couple years ago. And ever since then, I just check websites occasionally just to see if there's ever one that fits in our itinerary. Because we went on a cruise for one of our first vacations ever together, we absolutely loved it. So the idea of, like spending 15 days on a cruise ship sounds really exciting to both of us.
We've wanted to do one ever since Nate discovered them. It's just never been the right time or the right price. Or the right location until now. This one was so perfect for us for three reasons.
First, repositioning cruises are pretty cheap. And so this fit within our budget. And we were already planning on going back to the U.S. so this cruise is going to get us close. Not quite all the way, apparently, like, back to that side of the world. And this is much more fun than flying.
Second is we get to visit five countries.
Can't remember what they are.
I do. Well, first, tomorrow is.
No, let's don't go through full 15 days. Let's just do the countries first.
We start in Portugal, which we've already been to. Then we go. I don't know the order.
I'm just gonna be impressed if you know the countries.
Portugal, Granada, Antigua, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts.
There's one more because you said Portugal, and we have five new ones.
Barbados.
Where are we in? So five Caribbean countries, and these are countries that are recognized by the un So a lot of the islands in the Caribbean aren't technically countries, they're territories of other countries. So this specific cruise worked out extremely well for us because by the time we get to the end, we will have visited 67 countries. Yay.
And the third reason is my friend is getting married and we'll be back just in time.
It's been this, like, huge discussion the past few months of whether or not we were going to go back for this wedding because it's one of Kara's best friends. But at the same time, we were on the other side of the world and it didn't really make sense to pay for plane tickets to go there and back. So thankfully, as soon as this cruise popped up, that pretty much answered the question for us.
And now it's time to do that thing that all cruises do. We have to take your life jacket up to the deck. Talk about all the safety stuff.
This is the bridge for exercise. For exercise. For exercise.
Thank you.
A head covering. The safety notice.
Feeling nice and safe. We learned all of the instructions for Something bad happens, and now we're about to have a sail away party. It.
Saving.
Leaving. It's happening. 15 days. No turning back.
The menu is amazing. I want everything. I'm gonna have to do some major working out on this boat so I can eat more. And there's a cheese board. I don't know what to get. What are you getting?
We are in trouble. That was five courses. They were all delicious. And we had 15 more days of this. I think we're gonna get off in Barbados and we will have each gained at least. Least £10 by the time we get there.
