Overlapping Europe Itineraries?

[iujen94]

I'm super confused - help please!  We are looking at taking a European cruise next summer (2024).  There's a 7-night Spain, France & Italy cruise we are looking at.  It leaves from Barcelona on June 16.  On day 5 (June 20), it stops in Rome.  Here's where I get confused - there is a separate itinerary for a 7-night Spain, France & Italy cruise on the same ship (Oasis) that leaves from Rome on June 20.  On day 4 of that cruise (June 23), it stops in Barcelona, where there is a separate itinerary for the SF&I cruise leaving out of Barcelona beginning June 23.  This repeats for multiple sailings. 

 

Can anyone explain what's going on here?  Are they going to debark half the ship in Rome/Barcelona and then board half of a new set of passengers at those stops?  

[Kathscof]

4 minutes ago, iujen94 said:

Can anyone explain what's going on here?  Are they going to debark half the ship in Rome/Barcelona and then board half of a new set of passengers at those stops?  

yes, they do have people getting on and off in both ports 🙂 

[Septemberbride07]

I believe the term is interporting. We are actually on the June 13, 2024 out of Civitavecchia disembarking there on June 20th. We prefer Civitavecchia to Barcelona which is why we chose the itinerary we did.

[iujen94]

Fascinating!  I've never heard of this before.  Thanks for clarifying.  @Septemberbride07, we may well cross paths for a few days!

[Septemberbride07]

We just might! I think it's a fairly new practice but it should be interesting. We figure the normal chaos of boarding day will be lessened as some will be embarking while others will be on tours. In Barcelona, we will be touring and the new cruisers will have time to explore Oasis. We were on Allure in November and loved it. Looking forward to Oasis. 

[gumshoe958]

Just now, Septemberbride07 said:

We just might! I think it's a fairly new practice but it should be interesting. We figure the normal chaos of boarding day will be lessened as some will be embarking while others will be on tours. In Barcelona, we will be touring and the new cruisers will have time to explore Oasis. We were on Allure in November and loved it. Looking forward to Oasis. 

While unusual in the US, interporting is actually very common in Europe. On some MSC Med cruises, new passengers embark at almost every port of call.

 

Royal, of course, makes a bit of a hash of it: it hasn’t yet found a way to make the app work for Civitavecchia passengers so they can only book shows etc once on board.

[lovesthebeach2]

25 minutes ago, Septemberbride07 said:

We just might! I think it's a fairly new practice but it should be interesting. We figure the normal chaos of boarding day will be lessened as some will be embarking while others will be on tours. In Barcelona, we will be touring and the new cruisers will have time to explore Oasis. We were on Allure in November and loved it. Looking forward to Oasis. 

I’ve seen it at least before Covid. Only then because I was looking at a cruise and saw it was doing that. I didn’t end up booking it.

[FionaMG]

5 hours ago, gumshoe958 said:

While unusual in the US, interporting is actually very common in Europe. On some MSC Med cruises, new passengers embark at almost every port of call.

 

Royal, of course, makes a bit of a hash of it: it hasn’t yet found a way to make the app work for Civitavecchia passengers so they can only book shows etc once on board.

I think I read a post saying the most recent update to the app had finally resolved this issue. I hope so, anyway, for the sake of all Civi cruisers on the interporting  itineraries.

[gavvy]

I did this last year. Got on in Rome well civitichia. The app would not work at all so had to book shows on board there was no issues getting what I wanted.

 

Logistics wise it's a lot easier to fly to Barcelona as the port is right in the city. Rome port is over an hour away and was a bit of a hassle to get too.

 

If you interport from Rome you get a funky orange seapass card rather than a blue one.

[RobInMN]

We did Symphony like this in 2018. We chose Rome as the "home" port. I believe that we were told the mix was about 2/3 Barcelona and 1/3 Civitavecchia. Barcelona is considered the true home port and the days are based off the itinerary out of there. So if you board in Rome, you'll do something like days 5-8 of one cruise and 1-5 of the next cruise. The welcome aboard party will be something like your day 4. Got the orange Seapass card also!

 

Here is a helpful thread:

 

[notscb]

8 hours ago, Kathscof said:

yes, they do have people getting on and off in both ports 🙂 

A la MSC