Transatlantic cruises - what did you love and hate?

[MrsSmalls]

We are thinking about the Transatlantic in 2018. Probably Western bound since it comes back to NY. I think we'd have plenty to do for the 6 days at sea and the kids would love seeing Europe. And I'd love just having to unpack and pack for 5 people once!

We've been on one Disney cruise and it was on the Magic, which we loved.

 

[Gilland18]

Things I love: extra menus and evening entertainment, days on deck 4 watching the ocean go by, seeing new places.
Things I hate: the flight to Europe
We are doing our second WBTA in September. Barcelona is a great city to visit. Love the sea days. It would be an awesome trip if you decide to do it!

 

[mmouse37]

I loved everything about them. I have done two....one Eastbound and one Westbound. No cons in my opinion!!! The longer the cruise the better. Love the sea days, the different menus, the extra activities, the guest speakers and presentations...just everything!!!

MJ

 

[Disneypeach]

I loved the TAs I've done so far (SS Independence, SS Constitution, Disney Magic). Loved them so much that I'm going to do the EBTA (east bound) in May. On the last one I took (Magic) there was a Disney historian who presented several lectures which were awesome. In addition, the new Frozen deck party was being rehearsed and started up so we got to experience it first. Disney also had the producer and other people who were creating the new Tangled show and they also had a couple of presentations for us. Lot's of fun. The only thing I was disappointed in was that due to icebergs (seriously, lots of Titanic jokes on-board) Disney had to skip our planned stop in Iceland. But they added a stop in Norway and that was fun.
I hope y'all get to go!

 

[MrsSmalls]

Thanks everyone! Did you find the crossing to be more rocky than usual? ? ( for instance compared to a Caribbean cruise )

 

[jenpink]

We were on the 2015 EBTA and the crossing was smooth. We just had some pretty rough seas between Oslo and Copenhagen.

 

[bobbiwoz]

We have done a eastern TA, and we will soon be doing a second one. My husband had a hard time adjusting to the 23 hour days. I don't know how the adjustment feels going the other way.

We had beautiful seas, we were on the Galveston to Barcelona DCL cruise in 2013. It got a bit rough as we approached Europe after Funchal, but nothing very unusual.

 

[michellekcm]

I loved everything about them. I have done two....one Eastbound and one Westbound. No cons in my opinion!!! The longer the cruise the better. Love the sea days, the different menus, the extra activities, the guest speakers and presentations...just everything!!!

MJ

We've only done 1, but I totally agree with everything else MJ has said.

 

[MikeGS]

We are thinking about the Transatlantic in 2018. Probably Western bound since it comes back to NY. I think we'd have plenty to do for the 6 days at sea and the kids would love seeing Europe. And I'd love just having to unpack and pack for 5 people once!

We've been on one Disney cruise and it was on the Magic, which we loved.

We're in a similar position! Previously we've only been on one DCL cruise and that was on the Magic, and their is 5 of us. We are going to book either the WBTA or EBPC in 2018, we're just waiting for the dates to be released. I'm very excited, and started a similar thread a week or so ago.

Here's a link to the topic
https://www.disboards.com/threads/ebpc-or-wbta.3593699/#post-57339803

It might answer some of your other questions, as I was asking about the sea conditions as well.

 

[MrsSmalls]

Thanks! I was searching for transatlantic instead of using the acronym.

 

[MikeGS]

I must admit, when I joined this board I was confused by some of the acronyms. I'm kind of up to speed now, but will confess that my first guess one what EBPC was I had it as a Pacific Cruise

Easy done!

 

[clten]

We've done 4 EBTA and 2 WBTA and the only downsides have been the time change (while losing an hour on the Eastbound is worse, we still had some issues adjusting with the longer days on the westbound) and the long flight with sometimes crazy one way airfares (but at least when you are doing the WBTA you get that long trip over with first).

But all of that is far outweighed by the pros -- very relaxing vacation; atmosphere is fabulous as all the guests and all the crew look forward to being together for such a long cruise and all the special activities they have going on -- kids sleepovers, adults invading the lab/club, star gazing from the top deck, Officer's Wii Tournaments, special trivia, etc.

I think how rough the seas are depend on which route they take. The Westbound has typically been more southern so smoother sailing. We've always had great weather on the WB, not so great on the last couple EB!

 

[ludari]

I've done two WBTA cruises and I love everything about them. I prefer the longer cruises and I feel more relaxed on these longer cruise and all the special things that come with these cruises more sea days, great ports, more shows, special tours and extra activities for adults, kids and families.

 

[RedSox68]

Our transatlantic in 2007 was one of our favorite cruises. It was tied to a 10-day Med, so we were on the Magic for 24 days. We loved all the new menus they brought in, special entertainment and the fact that we only had to take the flight one-way. We had six straight days at sea back then (now they seem to split them up) and I was in heaven with all those days to relax, do activities, sleep late, etc. They were especially welcome because our 10-day med had been so port intensive. I also really liked the fact that we got to visit Gibraltar and Tenerife, Canary Islands. Those aren't places I would normally go to for vacation and they were just beautiful. It just seemed so much "calmer" on the ship as people had more time to just chill out.

 

[MissMet]

Loved everything about them. Totally smooth seas. I would reccomend the WB where you gain the hour each evening rather than lose the hour like you do on the eastbound. PLus, if you're coming from the states, I rather have the long flight at the start of my vacation than at the end.

 

[RedSox68]

Loved everything about them. Totally smooth seas. I would reccomend the WB where you gain the hour each evening rather than lose the hour like you do on the eastbound. PLus, if you're coming from the states, I rather have the long flight at the start of my vacation than at the end.

Oh yes, forgot about that wonderful time change gains on the way home. And we were very fortunate in 2007 as we had seas like glass all six days!

 

[kaseyC]

Absolutely love them. We've done 3 with Disney- 2 EBTAs and 1 WBTA. We've also done 2 with NCL both WBTA Inaugural cruises bringing new ships ton their homeports of NYC and Miami. My favorite thing about TAs are the sea days, multiple sea days where I can park my butt in a lounger with my Kindle, iPod and a cold drink is pure heaven for me. All of the extra activities and entertainment is great too. Even with all of the sea days it's we still never find time to do everything we want on board.

 

[kaseyC]

Oh yes, forgot about that wonderful time change gains on the way home. And we were very fortunate in 2007 as we had seas like glass all six days!

We were very fortunate with our seas in 2007. So smooth. We were a bit worried because the 2007 EBTA had a very rough crossing. @RedSox68 do remember the pictures folks were posting. The 2007 WBTA is still one of my all time favorite cruises. It was a last minute decision for us. It wasn't selling well so Disney offered these 999.00 pp Cat. 12 GTY. I took my oldest DD who was in 6th grade. Less than 2k for a 14 night Disney cruise and we ended up with a Cat. 9 on Deck 2. Those were the days.

 

[RedSox68]

We were very fortunate with our seas in 2007. So smooth. We were a bit worried because the 2007 EBTA had a very rough crossing. @RedSox68 do remember the pictures folks were posting. The 2007 WBTA is still one of my all time favorite cruises. It was a last minute decision for us. It wasn't selling well so Disney offered these 999.00 pp Cat. 12 GTY. I took my oldest DD who was in 6th grade. Less than 2k for a 14 night Disney cruise and we ended up with a Cat. 9 on Deck 2. Those were the days.

I remember the reports coming in from those on the EBTA that year -- it was horrid. I remember they had 35 foot swells and shows were cancelled and people were sick. As a result, I was in panic mode that our sailing would be the same (it was our first one of that length across open ocean) and I feared it would be tough. We were so lucky for sure. There were days when I looked out the windows on Deck 3 and thought the ship wasn't moving at all it was so smooth!

 

[kiford]

What's the weather like on deck? We loved our Baltic cruise but we never went into the pool because it was just too cold. We did sit out on deck huddled under the blankets that they put out but it would have been nice if it was warmer.