Is there a benefit to a back2back cruise rather than a longer one?

[mom2miracles]

Title says it all. I see so many people talk about b2b cruises, and I wonder why they wouldn't just book a longer length cruise instead. So, is there a benefit/perk of a b2b rather than just booking longer? Aside from the obvious of some cruises only doing cruises of x amount of days. 

[BND]

11 minutes ago, mom2miracles said:

Title says it all. I see so many people talk about b2b cruises, and I wonder why they wouldn't just book a longer length cruise instead. So, is there a benefit/perk of a b2b rather than just booking longer? Aside from the obvious of some cruises only doing cruises of x amount of days. 

Our last b2b (In April) was 20 nights total.  A 12 night followed by an 8 night, so we did both a b2b and longer cruises 🙂

 

[brillohead]

Not many longer cruises offered by larger ships.  Not everyone wants to cruise for a long period of time on a tiny ship without the amenities of a bigger ship.  (Personally, Voyager class is as small as I like to go.)

And when there isn't a longer cruise to choose from, consecutive cruises (back to back or side to side, or a combination of both) are the way to go.  As someone who has to fly to the port, each consecutive cruise I add on effectively reduces my per-cruise cost.  A $1000 cruise with a $500 flight costs me $1500/cruise, but two $1000 cruises in a row with that same $500 flight costs me $1250/cruise.

[swmichigan cruiser]

We have 2 b2b cruises booked right now. The first b2b is on the Quantum to Alaska but itinerary changes slightly from one week to the next. The second b2b is on the NCL Escape and one week does western Caribbean and other week does the eastern Caribbean.  Can't always find longer cruises that does the ports that I want to go on that fit my schedule.

[RobInMN]

If you are talking like a 3 night and a 4 night Caribbean cruise that basically hit the same ports (like CocoCay & Nassau), that's a valid question, but most of the B2B I hear about are longer than most individual cruises. If you're taking a multi-week holiday, your actual cruise choices are severely limited if you wanted to book it as a single cruise. Almost every time I hear people talking about B2B, they are talking about mostly new ports, not the same ports over & over.

For instance. B2B 7-day Eastern, then 7-day Western Caribbean. Or like for us, we are doing 12-night Arctic Circle (Norway), followed by a 12-night Iceland and Ireland. There isn't a single long cruise that does both. Or I've heard of doing a 7-ngiht Western Mediterranean, followed by the 12-14 night Trans-Atlantic back to the Caribbean. If we do A Trans-Pacific someday, it's almost guaranteed we will look at whatever Australia/New Zealand cruise is before it.

[CGinMTL]

I am on a b3b

Same as above.

Driving from mtl to NYC for 5 day is not enough.

So decided 2x5 days.

We added the 3rd leg because the price had dropped. 

 

Ideally  I would have preferred a longer cruise ,))

[John&LaLa]

19 minutes ago, RobInMN said:

If you are talking like a 3 night and a 4 night Caribbean cruise that basically hit the same ports (like CocoCay & Nassau), that's a valid question, but most of the B2B I hear about are longer than most individual cruises. If you're taking a multi-week holiday, your actual cruise choices are severely limited if you wanted to book it as a single cruise. Almost every time I hear people talking about B2B, they are talking about mostly new ports, not the same ports over & over.

For instance. B2B 7-day Eastern, then 7-day Western Caribbean. Or like for us, we are doing 12-night Arctic Circle (Norway), followed by a 12-night Iceland and Ireland. There isn't a single long cruise that does both. Or I've heard of doing a 7-ngiht Western Mediterranean, followed by the 12-14 night Trans-Atlantic back to the Caribbean. If we do A Trans-Pacific someday, it's almost guaranteed we will look at whatever Australia/New Zealand cruise is before it.

 

Ultimate World Cruise😁

 

Leg 4 is about 60 days and does Ireland,  Norway, and Ireland 

 

Leg 2 is 80 days and does LA to Dubai

Edited May 31, 2022 by John&LaLa

[RobInMN]

3 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Ultimate World Cruise😁

 

Leg 4 is about 60 days and does Ireland,  Norway, and Ireland 

 

Leg 2 is 80 days and does LA to Dubai

Touché🤣

 

I've drooled over that quite a bit. Not quite close enough to retirement, but when we do....😁

[John&LaLa]

4 minutes ago, RobInMN said:

Touché🤣

 

I've drooled over that quite a bit. Not quite close enough to retirement, but when we do....😁

 

Hopefully they'll do another, but not quite as long. Huge time commitment 

[OCSC Mike]

1 hour ago, RobInMN said:

If you are talking like a 3 night and a 4 night Caribbean cruise that basically hit the same ports (like CocoCay & Nassau), that's a valid question

As a weirdo who is doing a B2B in July with that exact itinerary, I’ll answer…

 

1. We only live an hour from Port Canaveral and have little interest in having to drive all the way to Ft Lauderdale or Miami.

 

2. We’re on a Harmony 7-nighter right now courtesy of family.

 

3. We don’t love the Harmony itineraries this summer.

 

So when I got a very good deal through a TA for shorter cruises on Indy we decided we’d rather stop at Cococay twice & save quite a bit of money rather than pay more to go on Harmony again.

[MommaBear55]

Pro of doing a B2B vs a longer cruise: double the benefits of whatever C&A level you are at. Drawback, wasting part of a day doing the turnover and coming back to the same port another time

[neverbeenhere]

Back to back cruises allows you to rid the ship of fodder, of course sometimes the fodder is traveling back to back also. 
 

Back to back allow for a reload of items. Be that wine, toothpaste, second wife or other missing items. 
 

back to back allow you time to tour the embarkation city. 
 

 

[Coralc]

3 hours ago, mom2miracles said:

Title says it all. I see so many people talk about b2b cruises, and I wonder why they wouldn't just book a longer length cruise instead. So, is there a benefit/perk of a b2b rather than just booking longer? Aside from the obvious of some cruises only doing cruises of x amount of days. 

Not really. It cuts down on airfare (to Florida) for us. You get laundry bags for both weeks. We have the same cabin (which is a cruddy one on this particular B2B) But it will be fun, and nice to get away for a couple of weeks.  We seem to kind of have low expectations anymore. 

[ONECRUISER]

36 minutes ago, Coralc said:

Not really. It cuts down on airfare (to Florida) for us. You get laundry bags for both weeks. We have the same cabin (which is a cruddy one on this particular B2B) But it will be fun, and nice to get away for a couple of weeks.  We seem to kind of have low expectations anymore. 

Agree. Last 20yrs have only Cruised B3B or longer ALWAYS in same Cabin and except for last month each leg has been 10 Days or longer. Don't like to pack/unpack more then once or pay for Airfare/Hotel more then have to and way Airfare Prices starting creep up I'm ahead of the Game. Yes, the free Laundry Bag saves on me having to bring 3-4 Dozen pair Underwear!

[CRUISEFOUR]

15 minutes ago, ONECRUISER said:

Agree. Last 20yrs have only Cruised B3B or longer ALWAYS in same Cabin and except for last month each leg has been 10 Days or longer. Don't like to pack/unpack more then once or pay for Airfare/Hotel more then have to and way Airfare Prices starting creep up I'm ahead of the Game. Yes, the free Laundry Bag saves on me having to bring 3-4 Dozen pair Underwear!

Are you getting free laundry bags because of your C&A status or because it’s a B2B?

[Coralc]

2 minutes ago, CRUISEFOUR said:

Are you getting free laundry bags because of your C&A status or because it’s a B2B?

C&A Diamond +. But it is limited to socks, underwear, T-shirts, shorts, PJ's...not really laundry, laundry.

[joeyancho]

To answer the OP's question:   no

[Ashland]

We've always loved doing a B2B out of San Juan Southern itinerary. Usually we've only repeated one port stop and that's either been St Maarten or St Thomas. We did an amazing one this past March.

[Funkytown83]

After the first cruise you get to wave goodbye to all the miserable passengers leaving and can think for yourself „This was only halftime, awesome“! 😅😎 (I am kidding, but there actually is some truth to it, it is a good feeling!) 

[Jimbo]

11 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Hopefully they'll do another, but not quite as long. Huge time commitment 

As of now are you still all in, or still debating maybe just do a leg or 2?

[TexasRon]

Not a high level C&A, so just getting points and lower bennies for now.  We chose a B2B 3/4 because the port works for us, it fits a Friday-Friday timeframe due to an event on Saturday (10 mile beach run for my wife), and we enjoy the ship.  We’ll stay on the ship at least for one of the stops in Nassau.

 

So, no real benefit for us except that we get to cruise for a week and keep our other plans!

[PigsCanFly]

13 hours ago, mom2miracles said:

Title says it all. I see so many people talk about b2b cruises, and I wonder why they wouldn't just book a longer length cruise instead. So, is there a benefit/perk of a b2b rather than just booking longer? Aside from the obvious of some cruises only doing cruises of x amount of days. 

We often do b2b based on club royal offers that provide casino free play for each half as well as 'comped' stateroom.  ( I avoid the 'free stateroom' reference because I fully realize that I get the comped stateroom due to my extended residence in Casino Royale when it is open.)  

We also benefit each week from the free wash & fold for D+.  

Our only negative experience on a b2b was last November on Symphony of the Seas where they decided to make our b2b bookings into a single cruise onboard.  Guest services seemed to have a hard time dealing with it being 2 separate bookings, which caused some strange issues.  I spent more time at guest services than I preferred.  That has not happened before or since , so we are still booking b2bs when possible.

[Billy Baltic]

14 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Ultimate World Cruise😁

 

Leg 4 is about 60 days and does Ireland,  Norway, and Ireland 

 

Leg 2 is 80 days and does LA to Dubai

So good they went there twice 😎

[vjmatty]

It depends..... sometimes it is cheaper as one long cruise, sometimes it's cheaper as two separate cruises.  OBC promotions can be doubled if you book it as two separate sailings as a B2B instead of one long cruise. Same with suite and loyalty amenities, they can be doubled if booked separately. Another thing, and I don't know if this is true on Royal like it is on Princess, some cabins are bookable for only the two separate cruises and others for the single long cruise.

[John&LaLa]

5 hours ago, Jimbo said:

As of now are you still all in, or still debating maybe just do a leg or 2?

 

I'm all in, Laura is on the fence past leg 1