Grandeur Confusion Sept 2012 - Double Sailings?

[PamUK]

Hi

 

Is this normal or am I just totally confused!.....

 

A few weeks ago we booked the Grandeur 2nd Sept 2012 sailing from Palma de Mallorca. Last week I went to check to see if there was a price drop but was surprised to see that our sailing is showing as 'Not Available'. I was convinced that it couldn't be full already so had a look at the previous and next sailings which got me totally confused as it is showing the previous sailing to be from Provence and doesn't finish until the 3rd Sept, and the next sailing is starting on the 3rd Sep from Provence. This means that my first night would be the last night for people on the previous cruise, and our second night would be the next cruisers first night! I rang RCI UK and the first person I spoke to said yes this was right but they had just stopped taking bookings on our sailing. I rang back a few minutes later and spoke to someone else (following CC's advice that if you don't get the answer you like first time, ring back;)) The 2nd person said that this certainly was not the case and that RCI never run 2 cruises at the same time. There must be an error on the website.

 

Now I'm just totally confused! If you look at the UK website its definitely showing our cruise as not available, and through end of Aug / beginnning of Sep its showing the Grandeur doing 2 cruises at the same time just with slightly different start/end dates, although the ports match up.

 

Has anyone else come across this? Does this actually happen? It all just seems a bit odd, not sure if I want to go on a mix n match cruise.

 

Thanks

 

Pam

[Elizanessie]

Hi

 

Is this normal or am I just totally confused!.....

 

A few weeks ago we booked the Grandeur 2nd Sept 2012 sailing from Palma de Mallorca. Last week I went to check to see if there was a price drop but was surprised to see that our sailing is showing as 'Not Available'. I was convinced that it couldn't be full already so had a look at the previous and next sailings which got me totally confused as it is showing the previous sailing to be from Provence and doesn't finish until the 3rd Sept, and the next sailing is starting on the 3rd Sep from Provence. This means that my first night would be the last night for people on the previous cruise, and our second night would be the next cruisers first night! I rang RCI UK and the first person I spoke to said yes this was right but they had just stopped taking bookings on our sailing. I rang back a few minutes later and spoke to someone else (following CC's advice that if you don't get the answer you like first time, ring back;)) The 2nd person said that this certainly was not the case and that RCI never run 2 cruises at the same time. There must be an error on the website.

 

Now I'm just totally confused! If you look at the UK website its definitely showing our cruise as not available, and through end of Aug / beginnning of Sep its showing the Grandeur doing 2 cruises at the same time just with slightly different start/end dates, although the ports match up.

 

Has anyone else come across this? Does this actually happen? It all just seems a bit odd, not sure if I want to go on a mix n match cruise.

 

Thanks

 

Pam

 

It is called Interporting I believe and there are sailings like that this year too.

[kernow]

We've never done it on RCL but have been on Carnival and Costa cruises that have done this and have an NCL cruise booked for New Year that also has 2 ports of embarkation. It seems to be getting more popular, I believe a few of the RCL ships in the Med this summer were doing it.

 

I wouldn't worry about it, once we have been onboard we really haven't noticed much difference and its nicer on the day you leave as there never seems to be the mad rush with the whole ship getting off. On the Costa med cruise we did there were people getting on and off at all the ports bar one:)

 

Julie

[kc320]

We had a similar cruise years ago...we boarded in Aruba but there were other's onboard who had boarded at an earlier port...1st & only time we've had that happen, but it was not a problem...

[uksimonusa]

as others have said, this has been happening on European sailings, I think it started this year, we were looking at a Mariner cruise that had 2 Italian ports of embarkation, seems a good idea to be able to spread the amount of people joining and leaving the ship

[argentinita]

Sailings from Colon (Panama) have another port of embarkation (Cartagena).

And the itinerarys of the Brilliance of the seas from San juan (Winter 2013)will have another port of embarkation (Guadalupe).

[Bobal]

We've sailed twice with RCL in Europe this year (different ships, different embarkation ports) and both had 2 embarkation days. It seems to be something they're trying out increasingly in the Med.

[Jimnbigd]

Hmmmm...So when do the Royal Caribbean Singers and Dancers perform "Until We Meet Again"? :rolleyes:

[PamUK]

Thanks for all your responses, I feel better about it now, it will be another cruising experience for us. The web is still showing the whole cruise as Not Available so I presume they've met their quota for embarking at Palma. As long as we're on it, we're happy :)