also called crew reposition cruise
A voyage a ship makes with little or no revenue purpose, in the sense of moving crew or equipment rather than being sold as a holiday.
In cruise and airline slang, deadhead means a ship or crew moving without paying passengers, repositioning rather than being sold as a holiday. That is nearly the opposite of a repositioning cruise, which is a real relocation voyage sold cheaply to travellers. Because the word deadhead sounds like a bargain sailing, people searching for a cheap relocation trip get confused and miss the actual deals.
You go hunting for a cheap one-way relocation sailing and keep landing on the word deadhead, thinking that is what you want. It is not; the discounted trip you are after is a repositioning cruise, and chasing the wrong term keeps the real deals just out of view.
In cruise and airline slang deadhead means repositioning without paying passengers, while a repositioning cruise is exactly the opposite, a real relocation voyage sold cheaply to travellers. Nomads searching for a bargain relocation sailing get confused by the deadhead term and miss the deals.
The difference is the whole point, so here is each one in a line.
These are ways to cross water that are not ordinary holiday cruises.
A repositioning cruise is a one-way sailing sold cheaply when a ship relocates between seasonal ports, and a deadhead cruise is a ship moving with no revenue purpose.
Freighter travel is booking a rare passenger berth on a cargo ship for long ocean passages, and ferry hopping is linking islands or coasts by successive ferries instead of flying.
LOOSELY DEFINED. This term is used widely but not consistently, and its precise meaning shifts by country and by who is speaking. Treat it as a lead, not a rule.
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