How does overlapping 7 day cruises work?

[javalsu]

I'm going on a 7 day cruise leaving from Rome on the 24th.  But there's a 7 day cruise on the same ship leaving from Barcelona on the 21st and on the 28th.

This seems to work like this for a few weeks with overlapping.

Which means when I board the ship, people will already be partway through their 7 day cruise.

Am I joining their 7 day, or is it the other way around?  Will we have different sets of dailies?

[chengkp75]

This is called "interporting", and is fairly common on Med cruises.  Neither is joining the other's 7 day cruise, each is separate.  You will have the same dailies (since they can't have two sets of entertainment going on at the same time), it is just that you will experience the dailies in different order.  In other words, you would see dailies in this order (1,2,3,4,5,6,7), while the Barcelona passengers will see this order (4,5,6,7,1,2,3 (1,2,3 being from the next Rome cruise)).

[fabnfortysomething]

43 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

This is called "interporting", and is fairly common on Med cruises.  Neither is joining the other's 7 day cruise, each is separate.  You will have the same dailies (since they can't have two sets of entertainment going on at the same time), it is just that you will experience the dailies in different order.  In other words, you would see dailies in this order (1,2,3,4,5,6,7), while the Barcelona passengers will see this order (4,5,6,7,1,2,3 (1,2,3 being from the next Rome cruise)).

actually because Barcelona is main embarkation port its the other way round Barcelona is 1234567 whereas Rome is starting with day 4

some people have reported feeling left out boarding Rome as first night in Barcelona is when theatre on first night showcases acts for week ahead

 

However we did something similar for our Baltics cruise this year

thousands boarded in Copenhagen and a few hundred of us the next day in Warnemunde

I actually preferred that as embarkation and disembarkation was really easy and enabled us to spent a few days pre cruise in Berlin

 

really depends which city you want to spend more time pre/post cruise and ease of access to airport 

[dexddd]

Barcelona is the main port.  NCL was doing this way back as early as 2008 (possibly earlier) in Europe.  The past few years they've had up to 3 ports of embarkation for the various ships.  The one thing I had noticed, but haven't checked this year, is you could only book suites or Haven cabins from Barcelona.

[javalsu]

Thanks for all the replies.  I kind of like the idea of not being the main port as it won't be as busy when we embark and disembark.  Which works well because I'd rather get to my hotel as quickly as possible.  

 

That being said, will the ship be crazy with embarkation halfway through my cruise?  Will I have to go through another muster drill? 

[kochleffel]

If it's like my cruise on the Epic this spring, where I boarded at Rome/Civitavecchia, but far more passengers had boarded at Barcelona, it will seem as if you are joining a Barcelona itinerary that is already in progress. Then, before your cruise is over, all the passengers who boarded at Barcelona will disembark and new passengers will board. The Freestyle Dailies will count the days as from Barcelona, and information for the day the ship docks at Barcelona will be fragmentary because it will be oriented toward those disembarking. (For example, there was no listing for lunch aboard, which didn't matter to me since I would have lunch on shore, but those who stayed aboard or returned from shore excursions at midday might have been kept guessing.)

There will be a muster drill on your embarkation day for all those boarding from Rome. There will be another muster drill on the day the ship leaves Barcelona, but you don't have to attend it. If you want a drink or anything during the time of the Barcelona muster drill, get it before the announced time, because bars and, I think, everything else will close during it.

Because fewer people disembark from Rome, boarding there is easier and calmer than it would be at Barcelona, which almost makes up for having to get to Civitavecchia in the first place.

[TSS Alex]

Just did this in June on Royal's Symphony of the Seas. I would guess the procedures will be similar.

We boarded at Civitavecchia on the fourth day of the Barcelona cruise. Arrived at the port at about 10:45am and were the first ones there (very strange being the only non-staff in the terminal). On board by 11:00, but rooms still not ready until 1:00pm (don't understand this - we were the first interporting cruise - no one had been in the room since the ship left Barcelona). Muster drill in the theatre for all Rome cruisers; all other venues remained open for the enjoyment of Barcelona guests. The opposite would not hold true for the Barcelona muster - everything (restaurants, bars) was closed and everyone was constantly asked for their SeaPass cards to show they didn't need to be at the muster. Our ship's excursion tour tickets came in two groups: from Rome to Barcelona and Barcelona to Rome. The hard sell on dining and drink packages came on the Barcelona day - too late for us. At Barcelona, while 4500 people were disembarking with suitcases, we walked off, hopped in a cab (and had to stop him from heading to the airport) and headed downtown. That night, the piano player was surprised to see us and came over during his break. We explained the whole thing to him.

[rtkenmore]

15 hours ago, TSS Alex said:

Just did this in June on Royal's Symphony of the Seas. I would guess the procedures will be similar.

We boarded at Civitavecchia on the fourth day of the Barcelona cruise. Arrived at the port at about 10:45am and were the first ones there (very strange being the only non-staff in the terminal). On board by 11:00, but rooms still not ready until 1:00pm (don't understand this - we were the first interporting cruise - no one had been in the room since the ship left Barcelona). Muster drill in the theatre for all Rome cruisers; all other venues remained open for the enjoyment of Barcelona guests. The opposite would not hold true for the Barcelona muster - everything (restaurants, bars) was closed and everyone was constantly asked for their SeaPass cards to show they didn't need to be at the muster. Our ship's excursion tour tickets came in two groups: from Rome to Barcelona and Barcelona to Rome. The hard sell on dining and drink packages came on the Barcelona day - too late for us. At Barcelona, while 4500 people were disembarking with suitcases, we walked off, hopped in a cab (and had to stop him from heading to the airport) and headed downtown. That night, the piano player was surprised to see us and came over during his break. We explained the whole thing to him.

 

How do you know someone didn't debark from your room in Rome?  They could have been on the ship the last 7 days having boarded in Rome the week before.

[TSS Alex]

On 10/18/2018 at 10:55 AM, rtkenmore said:

 

How do you know someone didn't debark from your room in Rome?  They could have been on the ship the last 7 days having boarded in Rome the week before.

Because our cruise was the first time Symphony picked up passengers in Rome, according to its schedule and its staff.

[FSU Girl]

20 hours ago, TSS Alex said:

Because our cruise was the first time Symphony picked up passengers in Rome, according to its schedule and its staff.

It could be like my upcoming cruise. There is a 7 night leaving from Barcelona, but there is also a 3 night that ends in Rome that we are doing. I’m guessing the Epic has the shorter cruise so those rooms aren’t empty until Rome.