In the cruise industry, repo doesn’t mean that big hairy TV guy and his even bigger blonde wife will come storming up to your house and take away your car. It stands for repositioning, an annual practice that can mean real bargains for savvy senior travelers.

Some of our favorite summer trips have been on repositioning cruises. As retirees with no time limits, we’ve often waited until late summer to book our trips. Cruise lines have a system where, before the onset of winter and stormy seas, they must get many of their ships away from cold climates, such as Northern Europe, Scandinavia, Canada, Alaska and Russia. They move them to tropical and other warm climates for the winter cruising season.

It's called repositioning, and cruise lines don’t want to sail any ship anywhere without a load of passengers, so the one-way trip can be the most inexpensive of the year. For instance, we recently went on a seven-day, one-way Princess repo cruise down the West Coast from Alaska to Mexico for $700 each. The same trip would’ve cost us $2,500 in spring and early summer cruising.

Another advantage is that cruise lines expect that most repo cruise passengers are seniors, so many shipboard activities, entertainment and shore excursions are designed for their interests and physical limitations. The journeys are much calmer, because there are no kids nor young adults aboard acting loud and childish.

For more information about repositioning cruises, check with your favorite hometown or online travel agency, or contact cruise lines directly.