Repositioning Cruises 2027: The Full Schedule by Month

Repositioning cruises in 2027 follow two big waves. Our repositioning cruise finder lists 422 one-way sailings departing in 2027 on 12 cruise lines and 129 ships. March to May accounts for 163 of them and September to November for 156. April is the single busiest month with 87 departures, and July is the quietest with 8.

Every sailing below was checked on the cruise line’s own website in late September 2026. The counts in this guide are a snapshot from that check. Lines add sailings all the time, especially for late 2027, and occasionally drop or change one, so treat the finder as the current list and this page as the map of how the year works. The 12 lines in the data are Carnival, Celebrity, Cunard, Disney, Holland America, MSC, Norwegian, Oceania, Princess, Regent Seven Seas, Royal Caribbean and Viking. A line with a low count here may simply have fewer sailings we could confirm, so read the numbers as a guide to who is busy rather than a census of the whole industry.

2027 repositioning cruises by month and route

The table counts sailings by departure month. “Other” covers Europe to South America and back (21 sailings), Suez and Middle East moves (12), three Tahiti voyages, and 67 coastal and regional moves such as New York to Miami, Barcelona to Reykjavik and Cape Town to Lisbon.

Each month name links to the finder filtered to that month, with the full list of ships, dates and ports. Half of all 2027 sailings run 12 to 17 nights, and the median is 14 nights.

Spring 2027: Florida to Europe in April

The eastbound transatlantic season is short and dense. Of the 58 Europe-bound sailings in 2027, 43 leave between March and May, and 30 leave in April alone. Nineteen depart in the two weeks from April 16 to April 29, which is when most lines move their Caribbean ships to the Mediterranean and Northern Europe for summer. About half of the remaining eastbound sailings are Queen Mary 2, which crosses from New York to Southampton in 7 nights through much of the year, plus a few summer crossings from New York to Reykjavik.

Florida dominates the departures: 33 of the 58 leave from Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Port Canaveral or Jacksonville. New York and Cape Liberty in New Jersey account for 17, Norfolk for 1, San Juan and Martinique for 4, and there are single departures from New Orleans and Galveston. On the European side, Southampton receives 18 (half of them Queen Mary 2), Barcelona 16, Civitavecchia for Rome 7 and Lisbon 5.

Leaving Queen Mary 2 aside, the eastbound crossings run 12 to 22 nights, and 35 of those 49 are 13 to 15 nights. Several of the lines’ headline ships make the trip: Legend of the Seas sails Fort Lauderdale to Barcelona on April 25, Disney Wish sails Port Canaveral to Barcelona the same day, and Celebrity Ascent and Norwegian Prima cross in April, and Sun Princess on March 28. For ports, lines and costs on this route, see our guide to repositioning cruises to Europe, or open the April 2027 eastbound list.

If you disembark in Southampton, you are entering the UK, and US citizens now need a UK Electronic Travel Authorisation. GOV.UK lists the fee at £20 and warns against imitation sites that charge more.

Spring 2027: Panama Canal and the Pacific coast north

The Panama Canal is the one route with a long winter season. Thirty-eight of the 59 Panama Canal sailings in 2027 depart between January and April, then nothing departs from May to August, and 21 run from September to December. Princess notes that the dry season, mid-December to mid-April, gives the best conditions, and that the canal crossing itself takes 8 to 10 hours.

The winter sailings run in both directions, because ships like Island Princess shuttle between Fort Lauderdale and Los Angeles all season; Island Princess alone makes 10 Panama Canal crossings in 2027. In March and April, 14 one-way sailings head west to California or Seattle as ships move up for the Alaska season. Six of the year’s sailings connect directly with Seattle, on Carnival, MSC and Norwegian, and run 16 to 22 nights. Sixteen nights is the most common length overall, with 24 of the 59 sailings. Our Panama Canal repositioning cruise guide covers full and partial transits and which side of the ship to book.

Once ships reach California, a second wave carries them to Vancouver. Seventeen Pacific coast sailings leave Los Angeles or San Diego between April 3 and May 15, every one of them northbound, in just 4 to 7 nights. Princess runs 7 of them. Three more ships arrive in Vancouver from Honolulu in late April and early May, and seven come across the Pacific from Tokyo between April 23 and May 9.

Fall 2027: Europe back to Florida

The westbound transatlantic season is the mirror of April, a few weeks wider. Forty of the 61 westbound sailings in 2027 depart between October and December, and 17 of them leave in the 11 days from October 29 to November 8. Barcelona is the main departure port with 18 fall sailings, followed by Southampton with 8, Civitavecchia with 7 and Lisbon with 5. Florida receives 24 of the 40, split mainly between Fort Lauderdale (11) and Miami (10).

Westbound crossings run 11 to 22 nights, again mostly 13 to 15, and westbound means the clocks go back an hour on several nights. Many of the ships that crossed east in spring come back on this route: Legend of the Seas leaves Barcelona on October 31, Celebrity Ascent leaves Civitavecchia on October 29 and Sun Princess leaves Barcelona on November 7. A handful of fall sailings continue to Buenos Aires or end in San Juan instead of Florida. The westbound transatlantic guide covers weather and routing, and the finder has the October 2027 westbound list and the November list.

The Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30, and NOAA’s National Hurricane Center puts most activity between mid-August and mid-October. Late-October crossings arrive in Florida at the tail of the season, so a route change or a skipped Bermuda or Caribbean call is possible.

Fall 2027: Pacific, Asia and Australia moves

September is the busiest Pacific month of the year. The Alaska season ends, and ships scatter in three directions:

• South along the coast: 15 sailings from Vancouver to Los Angeles or San Diego between September 14 and October 19, again 4 to 7 nights.
• West to Japan: 7 sailings from Vancouver or Seattle to Tokyo between September 7 and September 28, on Viking, Holland America, Oceania, Regent, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian.
• Southwest to Australia: 7 sailings to Sydney or Brisbane between September 19 and November 17, either direct from Seattle and Los Angeles or via Honolulu after a Vancouver to Hawaii leg.

Some ships make the full annual loop and show it neatly in the data. Celebrity Solstice sails Sydney to Honolulu on April 9, Honolulu to Vancouver on April 23, spends summer in Alaska, then sails Vancouver to Honolulu on September 17 and Honolulu to Sydney on September 28. Our transpacific repositioning guide covers the North Pacific and South Pacific routes in detail.

Within Asia and Australia, 66 one-way sailings link Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bali and Sydney. They peak twice: 30 between February and April as ships head north toward Japan, and 23 between September and November as they head south for the Australian summer. Regent and Viking run the most of these.

Top departure ports for 2027

New York is the most varied of the US ports. Its 15 Europe-bound departures include nine Queen Mary 2 crossings, Regent sailings to Barcelona and Lisbon in late April, a 19-night Norwegian Gem crossing to Ravenna on April 13, and Viking’s summer crossings to Reykjavik. Its other 2027 departures are fall moves to Florida and Puerto Rico and two long Panama Canal voyages, Queen Victoria to Los Angeles in January and Norwegian Bliss to Seattle in April. Our guide to repositioning cruises from New York and Boston covers that port in detail.

Which lines have the most 2027 repositioning cruises

Cunard has the most Atlantic crossings, but 18 of its 23 are Queen Mary 2, which runs a scheduled line service rather than a once-a-year move. Among lines that cross only to reposition, Norwegian (16), Royal Caribbean (14), Princess (12) and Celebrity (12) lead. Princess has the most sailings overall because of its Pacific coast and Panama Canal program: 16 canal transits and 14 short runs between Los Angeles and Vancouver. Our Princess repositioning guide breaks that schedule down by ship, and the line-by-line comparison covers what each line is like on long runs of sea days.

Longest and shortest 2027 sailings

The longest one-way sailing departing in 2027 is Grand Princess from Los Angeles to Sydney, 50 nights from July 15. Holland America has the next two: Volendam from New York to Fort Lauderdale in 47 nights from October 11, and Zaandam from Fort Lauderdale to Buenos Aires in 41 nights from January 3. At the other end, three 2-night hops into Sydney from Brisbane or Melbourne on Carnival and Royal Caribbean are the shortest, followed by a 3-night Ovation of the Seas run from Los Angeles to Vancouver on November 5.

If 2027 is too far off, the remaining fall and winter sailings for this year are in our list of repositioning cruises left in 2026.

When to book a 2027 repositioning cruise

The calendar above also sets your payment deadlines. Royal Caribbean, for example, wants final payment 90 days before sailing for 5 to 14 nights and 120 days before for 15 nights or longer. For an April 25, 2027 crossing, that means late January 2027 for a 14-night trip and late December 2026 for a 15-night one. After that date, cancellation charges rise in steps to 100% of the fare, so the real decision point is the final payment date, not the sailing date.

Fares change daily, and there is no reliable rule for whether a given crossing gets cheaper or more expensive as the date approaches. The practical approach is to pick your month from the table, open that month in the finder, and compare the same route on two or three lines on their own websites before the final payment date arrives.