My First Back to Back - Have Questions

[roothy123]

Doing my first B2B.  First cruise is 16 nights; second is 14.  We go B2B in Sydney, Australia. My questions are:

 

Will we have to do another muster drill?

 

Will we have to get off the ship and get back on?  I remember reading that on some cruises, lines, or ports, this is the case.  Our B2B port is Sydney.  Or do we simply turn in our new key card and get a new one?

 

Anything else I should know?

[Mura]

Yes, you will have to do a drill every 14 nights.  They DO check.

 

When we've done B2Bs (not often but most recently last May) we did NOT have to leave and get back on.  When we did our first Oceania cruise back in 2004, they strongly urged us to leave the ship on turn-around morning.  They have us "free" tours to encourage us to do so.  (We were docked in Costa Rica at a port where there was NOTHING to do.)  But most recently, no.

 

On our May 2018 Riviera cruise we did NOT need to get a new key card.  We did NOT have to re-register.  Likewise in 2004, no new key card was needed.

 

There will probably be a lunch on board for continuing passengers that is only open to continuing passengers by invitation only.  In our case it was in the GDR.  When I first heard about this, it was in Jacques.  I don't know what ship you are on, but in our case it obviously was an "O" ship.  If you are on an "R" ship, this lunch would have to be in the GDR.   If you want to be off the ship at lunch time, obviously this won't affect you.  If you are in Sydney you may well wish to be off the ship!

 

Can't think of anything else ...

 

Mura

 

 

 

[cbb]

we've been on several b2b and we always tell our room attendant not to "do" our room at the end of the first segment. 

 

He/she is usually really busy trying to get the cabins ready for the next bunch of passengers so we just say "our room is fine, we have plenty of towels, we can make our own bed, see you in the morning."

 

 Not only do they have to turn those cabins around quickly but they also meet with everybody in each cabin they serve.  Every single attendant we've had has been so appreciative. 

[Paulchili]

You may not have to get off the ship but I certainly would in Sydney I’ve been there many times but I always find something to do. Love the Dim Sum there (called Yam Cha by locals).

I think the getting off and back on is usually in US ports b/o customs and immigration?

If you have a single booking number for your B2B you will not need a new card. In either case, your account will stay open for the next segment and will be settled at the end of the cruise.

[Mura]

Based on your comment to this effect after your 2016 ATW we told our cabin attendant the same on our May B2B.

 

She wasn't concerned and our room was taken care of early!

 

But I still agree it's a good thing to tell the attendants on turn-around day when they have so much to do.  We were in an OC which may have been why she reacted that way.  And of course we were on board for 15 days, not 180!

 

Mura

[Mura]

I agree with Paul that getting off the ship in Sydney is well worth the visit, especially if you are just there overnight.  When we did our Auckland-Sydney cruise in 2008, we had an overnight in Sydney and the follow-on cruise to Bangkok may well have had an overnight there as well ... although come to think of it we saw the ship sailing off into the distance when we had a beachfront dinner out of town but that might have been the night AFTER we left the ship.  We were dining with friends from our cruise who also stayed on after we left Nautica.  (In checking my diary I see that Nautica DID leave port on the day we left the ship, so no two-day stay for new passengers on that cruise.)

 

Sydney is fabulous (which is one reason why we stayed on there for a few more days) so it would be a pity to skip seeing Sydney in order to have a free lunch on board ... UNLESS the ship is staying on in port for another day, in which case ... maybe then I'd stay on for lunch.

 

Check your itinerary!

 

I remember walking down towards the Opera House in port and overheard some people who were on a megaship in port commenting on how small Nautica looked ... I told them 684 passengers.  They were amused, I think.  She didn't look that small to me!

 

Mura

 

[cbb]

I agree;  leave the ship.  Even if you've been there many times there are so many places to visit or revisit.

 

There are so many things to do in Sydney depending on where you're docked.  If you're at the Circular Quay you can walk around the Rocks, take the ferry to Manly, (which is amazing), catch a city bus to Bondi Beach, (which is beautiful), walk across the Bridge, climb the bridge, walk a couple of blocks away from the Harbor in any direction and there is something wonderful to see.  

 

Darling Harbor is filled with lots of shops and restaurants as well as cool historical things to see.

 

See the Opera House, the National Park is right there filled with great trees, flowers, and birds that you don't see in North America....well, I could go on and on.  I could live in Sydney....it's just that cool!

[LHT28]

usually  a few days before the end of the 1st segment you will get instructions for turnaround day along with a new card (if needed)

 

YES on the muster drill

IME

Some ports it is required to get off while the ship is "zeroed" 

but  for Sydney  why would you stay onboard  ..go enjoy the city

If you do need to get off as in Miami  they take  you in the terminal building  for about 1 hr  then you can reboard

[ORV]

The one time we were in Sydney it was an embarkation. There was an odd quirk that once you checked in and got on the ship you were not allowed back off. I don't know if you will be affected by this on a B2B.  It was okay as we had been there for a week already. Loved it. 

 

Anyone else experience this? 

[Paulchili]

We embarked in Sydney twice (not on O) and did not experience this “problem”. One of the times was a segment of a WC and it was an overnight stay.

[cbb]

On ATW16 we were allowed to leave the ship in Sydney on an overnight but on Insignia last December when we boarded at Sydney for the beginning of the cruise we were warmed that once we boarded we would not be allowed to leave the ship again.

[Mura]

We were there in February 2008 on Nautica and over nighted in Sydney (our last port, although there were a goodly number of passengers who were continuing on to Bangkok).  We were able to come and go, but that may well have been because it was the last port AND we were there for two days.  According to my itinerary, we arrived at 6:30am on February 6th and left the ship on the morning of February 8th.  We then spent a few more days in Sydney on our own before flying home.

 

Is embarkation different from debarkation?  Or possibly back in 2008 there wasn't the problem of not being able to leave the ship.

 

It would be hard to justify making everyone on our cruise stay on board once arriving in Sydney, doncha think????

 

I remember Australia was fussy about the catnip gifts I'd brought with us for friends' cats.  We knew about the problem in advance so we reported the items to customs.  (At the time many packages containing catnip were rejected by Customs.)

 

Leaving the ship in Melbourne with our gifts we met a young lady who was bumfuzzled by our explanation of having catnip toys, so she sent me to her supervisor a few feet away.  He wanted to know what the catnip was used for.  I said for cats!  I don't think I said it's an aphrodesiac for cats, though.  At least he waved us on through and didn't confiscate the catnip.

 

But when we were leaving the ship in Sydney the customs people wanted to know if we still had the catnip with us.  don't know what they would have done if we still did, other than to confiscate it.  I wonder what the policies are these days ...

 

Mura

 

[LesSails80435]

13 hours ago, cbb said:

On ATW16 we were allowed to leave the ship in Sydney on an overnight but on Insignia last December when we boarded at Sydney for the beginning of the cruise we were warmed that once we boarded we would not be allowed to leave the ship again.

 

We had the same experience on Regatta in Sydney--once aboard, you couldn't get off again; in other ports on back-to-backs (Barcelona, Venice) we could stay on or get off. No new key was needed, and unused shipboard credit carried over (except for TA credit, we were told). The musters are every 14 days no matter how long the cruise--maritime rules, I guess.