Why do people do back to back cruises?

Sail7Seas...I wasn't going to post until I read yours.....just hoping the best for you. A friend of ours once said "We'll cruise more after we retire". Same as your husband, they never made it to their retirement.

 

Wish we had discovered B2B's sooner. That's all we do now and more if we can string a few weeks together. Our reason is the same as some have explained: We have to fly to just about every cruise terminal...so it's just cost effective to do more cruises.

I am so grateful, we made a conscious choice to start serious travel when in our early to mid thirties. We thankfully knew no one comes with any guarantee and to go when were young and strong and could walk and sightsee and enjoy. We did a huge amount of world and domestic tgravel and when he became so ill we knew we were so Thankful for all those trips to Europe, etc, all those 100 + cruises.

When I hear someone say "when we retire" I wish them well and good luck Can be a big mistake

We celebrated our 35th birthdays on an HAL ship, b to b :)

I am so grateful, we made a conscious choice to start serious travel when in our early to mid thirties. We thankfully knew no one comes with any guarantee and to go when were young and strong and could walk and sightsee and enjoy. We did a huge amount of world and domestic tgravel and when he became so ill we knew we were so Thankful for all those trips to Europe, etc, all those 100 + cruises.

 

When I hear someone say "when we retire" I wish them well and good luck Can be a big mistake

 

We celebrated our 35th birthdays on an HAL ship, b to b :)

Agreed, I have always said, 'do it while you can' whatever it may be and travel certainly fits within that scope. Know too many people who have retired only to find health issues stopping them.

If B2B was an option (i.e.means double cost and double vacation), I'd totally be all for it. A 1week cruise goes so fast and you need er get everything done you wanted to... especially on the big new ships with tons of activities. Also if you cruise based on ship , then it may not have a longer itinerary from departure port.

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One other thought for the OP. Many North American cruisers spend most of their cruising time in the Caribbean where 7 day cruises are the norm. Just about every cruise line has ships alternating itineraries every 7 days... with one cruise in the so-called Eastern Caribbean and the other in the so-called Western Caribbean. This is done to encourage back-to-back bookings and has actually led to a big reduction in the number of true 14 day Caribbean cruises.

 

Hank

I had my 1st ever B2B booked this way, eastern itinerary first followed by the western. Before we left Miami, the Captain informed everyone on the ship that because of a small hurricane forecast to hit STT and SJU about the same time as when the ship would arrive, he was switching the eastern itinerary to a western.

So I wound up doing an unplanned western B2B. Still had a great time.

We did a fair number of 10 day Caribbean cruises.

PANAma Canal cruise from Florida, round trip is 10 + days,

Southern Caribbean cruises from Florida to Curacao, Bonaire and Aruba are 10 or more day cruises........... ABC islands are terrific and among my favoites.

My last b-2-b was Venice to Barcelona. Barcelona to London. Clearly no repeated ports here! The menus are varied enough that even after 28 days we weren't tired of the food. We sail small ships; the entertainment is more social than OTT. Quiet piano; some musical numbers; never get tired of these.

We often tag the last cruise of the season with a repositioning cruise, that way we can pre-cruise stay in one country and post cruise in another.

We often tag the last cruise of the season with a repositioning cruise, that way we can pre-cruise stay in one country and post cruise in another.

Good plan :)

Like many who posted, getting our travel moneys worth is the main reason. After the flights and hotel stay, just spending one week on a cruise is just not long enough. We have done a couple of B2B on the same ship with different itineraries and also on different ships (which I don't consider them B2B personally.) We are flying there anyway...might as well...:')

If the itineraries were different for both cruises then I do not see the problem.

Although I suppose if they repeated the entertainment choices that would be a negative.

We like doing cruises that are longer than the general week anyway (10+) days.

If the itineraries were different for both cruises then I do not see the problem.

 

Although I suppose if they repeated the entertainment choices that would be a negative.

 

We like doing cruises that are longer than the general week anyway (10+) days.

Some shows are worth seeing again but if not, there are plenty of other options aboard.

There aren’t any cruises longer than 7 nights apart from repos out of Galveston, so a B2B is the only way you’re going longer than 7 nights. And I’m not a fan of paying for 4 flights to another port when Galveston is right down the highway!

There aren’t any cruises longer than 7 nights apart from repos out of Galveston, so a B2B is the only way you’re going longer than 7 nights. And I’m not a fan of paying for 4 flights to another port when Galveston is right down the highway!

That would make it very hard to cruise other parts of the world though.

Longer cruises tend to have more sea days and an older population who are retired and able to take extended periods of time off. Back-to-back cruises tend to feature a wider demographic. A B2B out of San Juan is on my bucket list. There are SO MANY islands reachable from there that you'd get to visit many ports with no repeats - and sight-see in San Juan on turn-around day.

Longer cruises tend to have more sea days and an older population who are retired and able to take extended periods of time off. Back-to-back cruises tend to feature a wider demographic. A B2B out of San Juan is on my bucket list. There are SO MANY islands reachable from there that you'd get to visit many ports with no repeats - and sight-see in San Juan on turn-around day.

Longer cruises tend to have more sea days and an older population who are retired and able to take extended periods of time off. Back-to-back cruises tend to feature a wider demographic. A B2B out of San Juan is on my bucket list. There are SO MANY islands reachable from there that you'd get to visit many ports with no repeats - and sight-see in San Juan on turn-around day.

We’ve done a couple out of SJ, no b2b there yet. But several extra days before/after to enjoy San Juan.

That would make it very hard to cruise other parts of the world though.

That is so too bad to limit oneself to only seeing Caribbean

Few of us really love flying or paying for flights but many of us love, Rome, LIsbon, Athens, Boston, Halifax, Montreal Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Venice et etc so we buy airplane ickets in order to see those f(and other) incredible places.

There aren’t any cruises longer than 7 nights apart from repos out of Galveston, so a B2B is the only way you’re going longer than 7 nights. And I’m not a fan of paying for 4 flights to another port when Galveston is right down the highway!

From Galveston: Panama Canal 9 day or 14 days next year, 14 days the year after. When the Dream comes in it is going to have alternative 8 and 6 day cruises.

We prefer 14 night cruises and if the cruise line were cruising with doesn't offer a true 14 night cruise then we do a B2B when flying east. Two different itineraries and same cabin.

We only booked b -to-b when we could keep same cabin.

I am new and just learned the term "back to back?" I am curious why someone would do this? I genuinely want to understand.

 

If someone wants a longer cruise, why not book one? Why repeat the same itinerary? Is there an added benefit cruise ships give back to back customers?

 

Thank you for explaining!

Laura

Because they Can and they are usually not same itinerary

Because they Can and they are usually not same itinerary

Great answer:)

My sister and bil recently sailed for almost 2 months...….b2b2b and it was all different itineraries with the last one being a TA crossing from Europe back to the states. They saw many places on the first 2 legs...one was ASIA and the other Europe. Nothing was repeated.

We've taken back-to-back cruises twice. Neither time repeated itineraries. We did it because it was less expensive than booking the same number of days on one cruise. It was also nice to move up in the Princess loyalty program a little bit quicker.

And even though some shows repeated, we did have a new production show on the second leg once and different guest entertainers.