10 Days Adrift: What Really Happens on a Transatlantic Repositioning Cruise

When I first saw the MSC Seashore repositioning cruise advertised for $399 per person, I thought I'd hit the jackpot. Ten days crossing the Atlantic from Barcelona to New York, with absolutely nowhere to port call except open water. My friends thought I was insane. "Ten days on a ship with nothing to do?" my coworker Sarah asked, shaking her head. But that's exactly why I booked it. After years of cramming shore excursions into every port stop, I craved something different. I craved sea days. What I didn't anticipate was how brutally honest a repositioning cruise would be about what MSC Cruises—and cruising in general—really is. The first two days were surreal in the best way. After boarding in Barcelona and watching the city fade into the distance, I stood on the Seashore's deck 14 with a complimentary drink (yes, I paid for the beverage package) and felt genuinely at peace. The ship is massive—5,152 passengers on a nearly 181,000-ton vessel—but with so many people focused on the fact that we were literally going nowhere, the atmosphere felt intimate somehow. I watched couples reading on lounge chairs, families playing cornhole, solo travelers like me just... existing. The Seasho…