quote:

---

Originally posted by generek:
Hi I really need some help. Ive been searching and searching and couldn't find anything on this. What I would like to do is, take a cruise to England and visit with someone, then return about a month later. I dont know if this can arranged or even where to start. Ive cruised before with friends to Jamaica so this won't be my first time on a cruise. The reason I want to do this is because im terrified of flying so I would much rather take a relaxing cruise there. I read something about if your going alone and basically just want to avoid flying then you could try cargo ship hopping, but I couldnt find any information on this. If anyone has any information It would be greatly appreciated Thanks.

---

You used to be able to do this on the QE2 from New York. Those in the UK used to get great deals on round trip crossings from Southampton, England to the States (New York) and back. I presume you could do similar roundtrips on the Queen Mary 2, with a months visit in England in between your return crossing to the US. I believe you can catch the Simplon Orient Express train from Southampton to London.

There are other cruise lines besides Cunard that do transatlantic crossings, but usually they are repositioning cruises and do not provide regular service. So it might be possible (close coordination of schedules required) to do the QM2 one way and another cruise ship coming home, or vice versa, as a means of spending a month's holiday in England without having to fly across the pond.

You would be advised to contact a travel agent (such as Joe at this website) and/or contact Cunard regarding schedules for the QM2's various east/west transatlantic crossings. Good luck, and if you are able to do a roundtrip, i am sure that you will love it. Let us know how it goes...please.

[ 01-03-2005: Message edited by: colt ]

First, welcome to CruiseTalk.

Second, this is certainly do-able but the details about which ship and the cost will depend on when you want to go. Cunard's QM2 has a number of crossings during the summer months and a number of other ships make crossings at the beginning and end of the summer season.

You can use our Cruise Search feature to get a sense of which ships are going when.

Hope that helps. If you provide more details about timing I am sure we can provide more info on options.

One off those lines is Holland America Line.

Look at there European cruises page at there site.
Holland America Line - destination Europe page.

Other lines profid also crossings to and frome U.S.A. to Europe and v.v.

The QM2 normally only crosses from NY to the UK, so you would firstly need to get there!

[ 01-03-2005: Message edited by: Malcolm @ cruisepage ]

quote:

---

Originally posted by lasuvidaboy:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Malcolm @ cruisepage:
[QB]In terms of fare, flying wins ever time! In terms of comfort a ship wins hands down.

In the 1950s it was the reverse. Flying was more expensive than the cost of a 1st class ticket on a fast liner. (of course, the transatlantic airliners then were all 1st class).

---

The big bang fore the liner industrie was around 1963 / ´65 whene airlines lower there prices so the second class passengers where able to travel by air. Whene you look at the passenger list of HAL frome that period you will spot a drop in passengers frome 1964 onwards (63´was a very good year with around 100.000 passengers) The liners finally lose out at the end off the ´60´s whene the first jumbo jets appears in the sky´s. Thene flaying became sheaper and sheaper. Frome that period only two company´s servived all others on the trans atlantic that was Cunard Line whitte there Queen Elizabeth and Polisch Ocean lines whitte there stefan Batory (ex Maasdam). Pol closed there passenger service to Canada in 1987.