back to back cruises

[gramgill]

we have just returned from the mariner and booked while on board a back to back for January on the Explorer, i have heard different views on what to do in the middle some say you can just stay on board and enjoy the quiet ship (my preferred option) others say you must leave the ship then wait to rejoin, others said you have to go through immigration somewhere. we have got the same cabin for the two weeks and hopefully the same dinning table. i would like to hear from people who have done this and there experiences as if we have to leave the ship i would organise a tour instead of waiting to get off then to get back on, seems a waste off a day. any advice appreciated

[FaithsAngel]

Me and mum did a back2back on the Mariner last year....we did have to get off the ship to go through immigration, it took bout 20 mins. It wa sgreat tho,m because as soon as we had been through we were back on the ship and the pool was empty and we got osme great seats :) You do have the option to go on a tour, most of the ship tours do end at the airport tho :(

 

Gem x

[superjerryw]

We recently did B2B on the Jewel. On the last day all the B2B passengers will be told to meet in a specific lounge at a specific time (10:00 AM). A member of the crew will then escort everyone through the terminal to the U.S. Customs people. You will then go out the door of the terminal and back in the other side ofthe building and then you can reboard the ship. The entire process just takes a few minutes.

[cme]

superjerryw is correct, that is what we did on the Navigator in Oct.

 

One thing that I did while all the passengers were getting off was to go and look in all of the different cabin catagories. The cabin attendents were more then happy to let me take a peek in the rooms. It was so much fun knowing that all the people were getting off and you were one of the few lucky ones to be able to cruise another week.

 

Carrie:p

[Gchatz]

Do you need to pack and then unpack?

[Nothin' But Sun]

Any discounts for back/back cruises?

[gramgill]

also will i recieve two Crown and Anchor discount books one per week?

[KamloopsCruisers]

We did a B2B on the Voyager this year. No discount, but we did receive new coupon books for our second week. We were fortunate to have the same cabin for both sailings and as our luck would have it, during the second week the "new" menus were introduced, so we didn't have the same menus for both weeks.

 

We had a great time - hope each of you also have great cruises.

[PescadoAmarillo]

Exactly what YOU will have to do between cruises depends mostly on immigration requirements. I've been on B2Bs where we didn't have to go through immigration at all, I've been on them where we went through immigration on the ship (along with everyone else) and I've been on them where we had to disembark, go through immigration, and then could get right back on the ship. Ditto customs - sometimes we've gone through between cruises, and sometimes not.

 

If you will be in the same cabin, you won't have to pack/unpack between cruises. If you are in different cabins, it's best to work with your old and new cabin stewards about timing for getting you moved. We usually do it around 9-10 am.

 

Some ships have requested that if we disembark to do sightseeing, we don't try to re-embark while the bulk of the new passengers are coming on. Most of them have not placed any restrictions at all on our coming and going as long as we meet immigration requirements, wait until the ship is cleared upon arrival, and get back on board by the time specified on the sign at the exit.

 

Princess and Royal Caribbean do a great job of outlining what you'll have to do to get through the immigration process; Celebrity is not quite as organized and we've always had to be fairly pro-active to get answers from Guest Relations about what we need to do. RC even helped us a couple of weeks ago, when we went from the Serenade in San Juan to the Constellation, putting us in touch with the port agent who would have stored our luggage for a couple of hours between cruises, if we had chosen to go sightseeing.

[gramgill]

thank you for all your valuable information

[gramgill]

sorry i am restarting this thread with another question. What is open on the ship on that day? is the gym open and the cafe promanade?

[CRUSINGFAMILY]

Okay, I have to answer to this because all I read here are the good stories. We did back to back on Serenade in 2003 and the immigration process was a nightmare. The port was San Juan and we had planned a day trip to the rain forest. We did have the same cabin for both sailings so we did not have to pack and unpack. That was the only good thing about it. We were treated like crew who were leaving the ship that day for their break to go back home. We were put in the showroom and waited and waited and waited. It was close to noon before we got off. We were really upset by that because then we didn't have enough time for our trip before departure. On the ground we were told to join the line of boarding passengers!!!! We were furious and went to the front of the line and told them we had already done the paperwork and registration onboard the day before. After alot of battling we did get moved to the front of the line and finally back on board. I lay blame for our poor experience with both RCI and the port authority. RCI did nothing for us and for being on board for 17 days total you would think there would be a better treatment of passengers.

 

Then when we returned to the ship (other passengers were boarding at this time) we come back to our cabin and find our door wide open with our personal belongings sitting all over for people to just grab if they were so inclined. We were livid and blasted the room steward for it. Totally unacceptable. We were lucky though nothing was missing.

 

So for us the experience of back to back was miserable. However, back to back cruising is great ...... we love long cruises.

 

We were given the same dining room table for both weeks and requested a move because our first week table was not comfortable for us.

 

In fairness there seemed to be big problems with the San Juan port authority for everyone. Disembarkation for everyone was very slow. But that doesn't excuse why we were treated like crew and received no friendly treatment by RCI. We did write to RCI about that experience and we received a kind reply.