Often we think of cruise ships as repeating the same itinerary or two over and over, but that isn't always the case. For one, some ships, especially smaller ships in the upper-premium and luxury end of the market, may roam around quite a bit, repeating an itinerary a few times, but not at all like a contemporary line may keep a ship alternating the same two itineraries for months or longer. More commonly though, a ship might spend one part of the year in one region, and the rest in a totally different part of the world. Let's look at the Royal Princess' 2016/2017 schedule as an example:
- November 6th through April 9th - sailing out of Port Everglades (Ft Lauderdale), alternating primarily between 10 and 20 night Southern Caribbean sailings April 19th - Port Everglades to Rome (28 nights) *repositioning* May 28th - sailing 7 to 21 night sailings out of Rome, Athens, and Barcelona October 21st - Barcelona to Ft Lauderdale (15 nights) *repositioning* September 22nd. - sailing out of Port Everglades (Ft Lauderdale), alternating primarily between 10 and 20 night Southern Caribbean sailings
As you see, when the Royal Princess has to change regions, she, just like other ships, takes on passengers for her voyage from Europe to North America. What if this was a ship like the Disney Wonder, which sails the Caribbean part of the year, and Alaska during the Summer? Those repositioning cruises go through the Panama Canal.