14 Day Itinerary vs. 7 day Back to Back Cruises

[PoohUnderstands]

I was interested in a 14 day cruise on the Enchanted, but I really wanted a WS (with only two onboard I knew it was a long shot) and when I went to book there were none available.  However, when I looked up this same itinerary but in two 7 day itineraries, not only was there a WS available, it was the same one!  So I went and booked the two 7 days instead of the one 14 day cruise.  It cost me a tad more but not that much and I got my WS!!!  

 

My question is this.  Since Princess is selling this as a 14 day cruise too and I have the same stateroom, will I have to get on and off between the two cruises?  Never having done a Back to Back before what will I have to do on "turn around" day?  Thanks for your patience with me!

 

Pooh

[patrickmoran]

You will receive instructions about meeting time and place on turnaround day. After all other passengers debark, the group will be taken off the ship to immigration officers to process your passports. You then get back on the ship and are ready to go.  You may leave the ship if you want to see things or pick up supplies.

[skynight]

1 hour ago, PoohUnderstands said:

I was interested in a 14 day cruise on the Enchanted, but I really wanted a WS (with only two onboard I knew it was a long shot) and when I went to book there were none available.  However, when I looked up this same itinerary but in two 7 day itineraries, not only was there a WS available, it was the same one!  So I went and booked the two 7 days instead of the one 14 day cruise.  It cost me a tad more but not that much and I got my WS!!!  

 

My question is this.  Since Princess is selling this as a 14 day cruise too and I have the same stateroom, will I have to get on and off between the two cruises?  Never having done a Back to Back before what will I have to do on "turn around" day?  Thanks for your patience with me!

 

Pooh

Ft. Lauderdale? If yes, then you will have to go through immigration on turn around day. It does not matter how you booked the cruise. The immigration requirement is a U.S. regulation, unrelated to your booking. There will be instructions delivered to your cabin. Follow them exactly. If even one person is missing from the b2b'ers the entire group is unable to clear immigration and return to the ship. All your belongings remain in your cabin and your cabin will be serviced just like any other day. There will be hundreds of passengers doing the turn around.

If your turn around is in Europe then it's just like any other port day.

Edited May 17, 2019 by skynight

[paul929207]

I did not see an indication of where you will be on turnaround day. If you are on the early Enchanted cruises, you will be in Europe and you will not go thru immigration that day. You will not have to get off the ship that day.

[mrell345]

1 hour ago, skynight said:

Ft. Lauderdale? If yes, then you will have to go through immigration on turn around day. It does not matter how you booked the cruise. The immigration requirement is a U.S. regulation, unrelated to your booking. There will be instructions delivered to your cabin. Follow them exactly. If even one person is missing from the b2b'ers the entire group is unable to clear immigration and return to the ship. All your belongings remain in your cabin and your cabin will be serviced just like any other day. There will be hundreds of passengers doing the turn around.

If your turn around is in Europe then it's just like any other port day.

are they making everyone get off the ship now?  last time we did the b2b in fort lauderdale if we wanted to stay aboard we met in the theatre for 10 am an the immigration agents cleared us there

[SargassoPirate]

I'm always amused at all of the attention directed to getting continuing and disembarking passengers cleared through customs and immigration in US ports.  If anyone really wants to sneak into the US, certain areas are wide open.

[skynight]

11 hours ago, mrell345 said:

are they making everyone get off the ship now?  last time we did the b2b in fort lauderdale if we wanted to stay aboard we met in the theatre for 10 am an the immigration agents cleared us there

Yes and no. Sometimes immigration comes on board and you go through immigration on board. Sometimes they do not come on board and you have to file past them in the terminal. It all depends on the immigration officials. We did two turn arounds this past winter in L.A. and in 2018 we did two in F.L. In all our cases we had to leave the ship and were cleared in the terminal.

[Coral]

Not sure where your cruise is but it doesn't matter if you book as a 14 night or (2) 7 night, if there is immigration, you must go through with it.

 

Sometimes there are benefits to booking the cruise as (2) 7 night cruises. I think you have a better chance of price going down over a 14 night, and with FCD and OBC, it may work to your benefit. Not fully sure. I was looking at a longer cruise and it did make more sense to book it as 2 cruises than 1.

[mrell345]

If you are military or a Vet, you are better going with the 14 day option on the B2B, each 7 day cruise only gives you $100 OBC for a total of $200 combined, if you do the 14 day you get $250.00 OBC.

Edited May 18, 2019 by mrell345

[JF - retired RRT]

13 minutes ago, mrell345 said:

If you are military or a Vet, you are better going with the 14 day option on the B2B, each 7 day cruise only gives you $100 OBC for a total of $200 combined, if you do the 14 day you get $250.00 OBC.

The same applies for the Shareholder's OBC.

[phabric]

I will be on the new Sky in Oct.  The cruise can be booked as a 7 day or 14 days.  I am booked as a 14 day.  When the itinerary was released, the cabin I wanted was for the 7 day cruises, my agent was able to get Princess to release the cabin for the 14 day.

 

The turn around day is in Barcelona on a Sunday for new passengers.

 

I want to get tickets for Sagrada Família for around 10:30-11am.  Since it is a Sunday, the Sagrada Família area will be crowded. I plan on taking a taxi from the ship to the church.

 

First time doing a 14 day, what will we have to do?  

Do we get new sail cards?

Being Elite, I will get 2 mini bar set up?

Being Elite, I get free internet minutes, is it - 7 day for 150 minutes or 8-20 days for 250 minutes?

 

Edited May 18, 2019 by phabric

[skynight]

13 hours ago, paul929207 said:

I did not see an indication of where you will be on turnaround day. If you are on the early Enchanted cruises, you will be in Europe and you will not go thru immigration that day. You will not have to get off the ship that day.

Not necessarily. The Enchanted is doing 7 day cruises in Europe, summer 2020, and then sails to F.L. in November doing 7 day Caribbean voyages. OP did not mention which port which is important to the question.

[beg3yrs]

1 hour ago, phabric said:

...

 

First time doing a 14 day, what will we have to do?  

Do we get new sail cards?

Being Elite, I will get 2 mini bar set up?

Being Elite, I get free internet minutes, is it - 7 day for 150 minutes or 8-20 days for 250 minutes?

 

 

If Passenger Services is on the ball, the cruise card you receive at your initial embarkation will reflect the length of your whole cruise (as long as you're not changing cabins).

 

You will get a second mini-bar set up.

 

Internet minutes, in our experience, may vary. On our last cruise we were booked as a single booking and received additional minutes at the turnaround day anyway. I recommend that you do visit the Internet Cafe manager a day or two before the turnaround and let him or her know you're staying on and would like any unused minutes rolled over. Some do this automatically and others do this upon request. To specifically answer your question, I think you'll get 150 on the first leg and another 150 on the second.

Edited May 18, 2019 by beg3yrs

[paul929207]

2 hours ago, mrell345 said:

If you are military or a Vet, you are better going with the 14 day option on the B2B, each 7 day cruise only gives you $100 OBC for a total of $200 combined, if you do the 14 day you get $250.00 OBC.

The presence or absence of one type of OBC should never be the sole criteria to determine how to book. You should look at the total package to see which comes out the best.

[paul929207]

1 hour ago, phabric said:

I will be on the new Sky in Oct.  The cruise can be booked as a 7 day or 14 days.  I am booked as a 14 day.  When the itinerary was released, the cabin I wanted was for the 7 day cruises, my agent was able to get Princess to release the cabin for the 14 day.

 

The turn around day is in Barcelona on a Sunday for new passengers.

 

I want to get tickets for Sagrada Família for around 10:30-11am.  Since it is a Sunday, the Sagrada Família area will be crowded. I plan on taking a taxi from the ship to the church.

 

First time doing a 14 day, what will we have to do?  

Do we get new sail cards?

Being Elite, I will get 2 mini bar set up?

Being Elite, I get free internet minutes, is it - 7 day for 150 minutes or 8-20 days for 250 minutes?

 

Nothing special since turnaround is in Europe.

Cruise card or Medallion will be good for all 14 days

Yes, 2 setups. one at the beginning of each week

two 150 minutes.

[PoohUnderstands]

On 5/17/2019 at 6:28 PM, paul929207 said:

I did not see an indication of where you will be on turnaround day. If you are on the early Enchanted cruises, you will be in Europe and you will not go thru immigration that day. You will not have to get off the ship that day.

Yes, sorry.  turnaround day is Barcelona, Spain.

 

Pooh

[PoohUnderstands]

On 5/18/2019 at 6:16 AM, Coral said:

Not sure where your cruise is but it doesn't matter if you book as a 14 night or (2) 7 night, if there is immigration, you must go through with it.

 

Sometimes there are benefits to booking the cruise as (2) 7 night cruises. I think you have a better chance of price going down over a 14 night, and with FCD and OBC, it may work to your benefit. Not fully sure. I was looking at a longer cruise and it did make more sense to book it as 2 cruises than 1.

Technically, I am losing about a total of $100-200 OBC and it is about $300 more expensive to do as two 7  days vs. the 14 day.  However.........  by doing the two 7 days, I get the stateroom I wanted (one of the two window suites), and I get 300 vs. 250 internet minutes, 4 cruise credits rather than 2(Elite here I come sooner!), and two mini-bar set-ups rather than 1.  But the most important thing is that I was able to get an S7 Window Suite! And if prices go down as you mentioned, it won't affect me as, of course, with only two, my category will be sold out the rest of the time!

 

Pooh

Edited May 22, 2019 by PoohUnderstands

[Steelers36]

On 5/18/2019 at 11:31 AM, paul929207 said:

Nothing special since turnaround is in Europe.

Cruise card or Medallion will be good for all 14 days

Yes, 2 setups. one at the beginning of each week

two 150 minutes.

The poster was asking about SKY, which is going to be Medallion Net from the get-go.  Are they still offering the free minutes for a ship in that situation, or is it the 25% discount for all-inclusive package?  (I booked us Medallion Net package for Regal in June and not interested in 150 free anymore).  I do agree that the customer would get the offer for both segments if indeed still available.  I am thinking Princess will phase out the free bit of minutes offered - perhaps when Medallion Net is on all ships.

 

[Steelers36]

2 hours ago, PoohUnderstands said:

Technically, I am losing about a total of $100-200 OBC and it is about $300 more expensive to do as two 7  days vs. the 14 day.  However.........  by doing the two 7 days, I get the stateroom I wanted (one of the two window suites), and I get 300 vs. 250 internet minutes, 4 cruise credits rather than 2(Elite here I come sooner!), and two mini-bar set-ups rather than 1.  But the most important thing is that I was able to get an S7 Window Suite! And if prices go down as you mentioned, it won't affect me as, of course, with only two, my category will be sold out the rest of the time!

 

Pooh

You would get the same cruise credits either way (when cruise is sold two ways).

[skynight]

3 hours ago, PoohUnderstands said:

Technically, I am losing about a total of $100-200 OBC and it is about $300 more expensive to do as two 7  days vs. the 14 day.  However.........  by doing the two 7 days, I get the stateroom I wanted (one of the two window suites), and I get 300 vs. 250 internet minutes, 4 cruise credits rather than 2(Elite here I come sooner!), and two mini-bar set-ups rather than 1.  But the most important thing is that I was able to get an S7 Window Suite! And if prices go down as you mentioned, it won't affect me as, of course, with only two, my category will be sold out the rest of the time!

 

Pooh

For reference if you book two cruises b2b in a full suite with two booking numbers or one booking number either way you would receive a total of 4 cruise credits, 2 for each segment, and two mini bars one for each segment. 

[Coral]

5 hours ago, PoohUnderstands said:

Technically, I am losing about a total of $100-200 OBC and it is about $300 more expensive to do as two 7  days vs. the 14 day.  However.........  by doing the two 7 days, I get the stateroom I wanted (one of the two window suites), and I get 300 vs. 250 internet minutes, 4 cruise credits rather than 2(Elite here I come sooner!), and two mini-bar set-ups rather than 1.  But the most important thing is that I was able to get an S7 Window Suite! And if prices go down as you mentioned, it won't affect me as, of course, with only two, my category will be sold out the rest of the time!

 

Pooh

Well - I did say "sometimes". :)  I didn't realize you were in a WS. 

 

Glad you got the cabin you wanted.

Edited May 22, 2019 by Coral