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Ask our expert: to the US by boat
Alison Thomson wants to take her son to California, but is scared of flying
I am scared of flying but want to take my son to California. Are there any cruises we can take from the UK? Alison Thomson, Edinburgh
Times Online cruise expert Carolyn Spencer Brown responds: There's not such an easy answer to this question. Traveling to the U.S. West Coast and back, without flying, is possible but depends on the time of the year.
The challenge you face by not flying is you relegate your journey to cobbling together a couple of cruises in each direction. For instance, you could cross the Atlantic on a Queen Mary 2 voyage or opt for seasonal repositionings of ships from Europe to the US east coast or the Caribbean, which occur in the autumn.
To get to California itself, you may want to find a full Panama Canal cruise that would take you from southern Florida to San Diego or Los Angeles, and to get home just take the reverse route. Plan your trip during the world cruise season, which begins in January. At that time, cruise lines like Cunard will sail round-the-world from the UK and could get you as far as California if you buy segments of the voyage rather than the whole 90-day plus trip. However, you would still need to find a way back.
A simpler option may be to take the Queen Mary 2 to New York and hop on a train to California and do the reverse on the return trip.
There is also one more idea if you have the time and cash, although it's only one-way. A couple of UK-based lines are cruising from England to California during the winter. P&O has a 20-night Southampton to San Francisco cruise departing on January 8 and if you really want to plan ahead check out this one: Fred Olsen's 32-night Dover to San Francisco trip (leaves January 5 2010).
Carolyn Spencer Brown is Editor in Chief of CruiseCritic.co.uk. Send your cruising questions to Carolyn at yoursay@timesonline.co.uk
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