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B2B Cruises - Why do you do it?


Grommet
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Just curious as to the reasoning behind taking a back to back cruise on the same ship. Convenience? Price/an offer you can’t refuse? Itinerary? Love the ship?

 

Why not spend your money on a different ship or cruise line to try something completely new?

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The reason I do B2B cruises is, most cruises go by fast. And I have to fly to get to port. First part by the time cruise one is over I am just getting into cruise mode. So cruise two is more enjoyable. I am unwound from Travel. Second part flying. Flying is a pain anymore, I only fly first or business class. So a round trip can be pricey. So to me it makes sense to stay for a few cruises. And most ships do different itinerary like oasis, one week east Caribbean next week is west Caribbean. So not the same stops over 14 days.

 

 

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We do it for many of the reasons you mentioned. Did 9night/5night b2b on Navigator last year. 5 night was Western, 9 night was ABC islands so quite a difference. Also had the added advantage of not having to change ports or ships on turnaround day just a quick trip through customs and right back on. We're doing another b2b on Brilliance in January too. Most ships alternate itineraries week to week so it's a good mix of convenience and variety, especially when it's a ship we really love.

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Agreed - flying is a pain. I also fly Business Class - so if I'm going to fly cross country - I want the cruise to be long enough. Although I do what I guess is called a Side by Side . . Going to do that in January - first a 5 day on Royal, then a 9 day on Celebrity. Yes it's a pain to have to repack and unpack, but in the long run - it's worth it!

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Just curious as to the reasoning behind taking a back to back cruise on the same ship. Convenience? Price/an offer you can’t refuse? Itinerary? Love the ship?

 

Why not spend your money on a different ship or cruise line to try something completely new?

Same cabin, two different itineraries, longer is better, what's not to like. Have you done a B2B cruise?

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The two back to backs we’ve done have been 5day/4day and 5day/5day.

In both cases we started off seeing a great deal on a 5 day on a ship that was new to us in driving distance.

Within a few weeks, we had buyers remorse because we came to the realization that 5 days just wasn’t enough.

Both times when we went back, the 2nd leg ended up being cheaper and in one case the price of our original leg had gone down a bit and we got OBC to boot!

 

 

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Just curious as to the reasoning behind taking a back to back cruise on the same ship. Convenience? Price/an offer you can’t refuse? Itinerary? Love the ship?

 

Why not spend your money on a different ship or cruise line to try something completely new?

One plane flight, twice as long on the ship.

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I cannot relax when only being on a ship for 7 days, it takes me til day 10 to get fully in vacation mode. I like the ability to fly once (minimum travel time is 7 hours in the air, and 5-9 hours in airports) and see several different locations. As Bob says fly once and stay twice as long.

 

 

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I just did a B2B on a different cruise line. 11 Days NY to Quebec and 9 days Quebec to NY. I LOVED it. I have never been able to spend so much time ON the ship. All my prior cruises always were running around ports every day. The RT airfare was awesome and the deal for the 2 cruises was too good to pass up. It was the BEST cruise I ever had. The people, the entertainment, the ports. Sadly, NCL food is AWFUL ... consistently. Oh well.

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We did a B2B a few years ago on Celebrity Infinity, First leg was an 11 nighter, started in San Diego and ended in Vancouver (Pacific Coastal Cruise) First leg was in a side Balcony Cabin, Second leg was an 7 Night Alaska Cruise starting and ending in Vancouver. For that leg we had an awesome corner aft balcony facing the wake. Amazing views!

 

Switching cabins was a breeze, left our bags in teh first cabin and our room steward took them to our new cabin for the second leg, worked well...........even getting on and off the ship between cruises was great, we left the ship in the crew line and even rentered the ship for the second line by using the the crew entance line. Gave up about 7 hours to explore Vancouver between cruises.

 

Then we figured since we were flying all the way from Philadelphia, why not add on a few more days on to our vacation, rented a car in Vancouver and headed south through Washington and Oregon checking out the different Twilight (Movie) sites that the movie was filmed at.. We flew hone from Portland, Oregon.

 

All together we were gone 23 days. It was an amazing and relaxing vacation.

 

Jimbo:)

Edited by Jimbo
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I just did a B2B on a different cruise line. 11 Days NY to Quebec and 9 days Quebec to NY. I LOVED it. I have never been able to spend so much time ON the ship. All my prior cruises always were running around ports every day. The RT airfare was awesome and the deal for the 2 cruises was too good to pass up. It was the BEST cruise I ever had. The people, the entertainment, the ports. Sadly, NCL food is AWFUL ... consistently. Oh well.

 

Royal Caribbean does this itinerary. :)

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We did our first b2b last fall on Oasis. Originally one eastern, one western but the hurricanes took care of that and we ended up on two western- Labadee twice, Falmouth Jamica twice, Nassau once and Cozumel once. But, we originally booked it because we like the idea of being onboard 14 days in the same cabin. We're doing our next b2b in Nov 2019 on Harmony. One of the reasons we love cruising out of the Northeast is the longer itineraries so when going out of FL, we can get the length out of b2b. Once we retire, we plan to do more b2b's and maybe even b2b2b's. More cruise days are better than less.

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We have done one b2b, Alaska on Celebrity. Seven days south, then seven days north. Because seven days is just too short, and this allowed us to see the same ports twice. We now have three b2b scheduled. One is a Med Cruise +TA, one is around South America and on to San Diego, one is New Zealand to Australia and back. All three are 3-4 weeks total, because we like cruising, we enjoy the ships, and a few long trips is easier than many short trips.

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We are doing our first b2b in March on the Grandeur. One is a 9 night visiting heading to Bahamas stopping along the way in the US and then a 12 night to the Southern Caribbean. We love the Grandeur and we will not have to change cabins. The longer the cruise the better we like it.

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Totally different experience on the first day of the second leg. Much more relaxing not having to rush around the ship and get all of those first day errands completed. Kick back with a drink and people watch.

Edited by davekathy
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