4 back to backs - likely to get boring?

[bedrick]

Hi, we are planning a trip to Scandinavia, Norway, Iceland and Britain in May 24. Trying to decide between 4 back to backs on Celebrity or 2 long itineraries on Holland America.  If we string together the cruises on Celebrity are we likely to get repeat entertainment and menus on each of the back to back cruises?  Thanks for your help.

[Orator]

The production shows will be the same. The entertainers may be different dependent on their contracts. The highlights should be the ports for your cruises. They most certainly aren't boring. You will most certainly get to know the officers and crew and that's a plus. The menus are on a 14 day rotation. They always start with menu #1 so you will have repeat meals. To break away from menus you can always go the the OV Cafe or book a specialty restaurant.

Edited November 15, 2023 by Orator

[mahasamatman]

You can also order something different the second time the menu comes around.

[mahasamatman]

38 minutes ago, Orator said:

You will most certainly get to know the officers and crew

 

Definitely the crew, but not necessarily the officers. We very rarely interact with any officers regardless of the length of the cruise.

[JLMcruise]

We are looking at the same. We aren't big show folks so - that's not important to us. The shows will be repetitive. If the shows are great - then you get to see them again. As for the menus - they do repeat but we try different entrees and look forward to having the ones we really like on the next cruise. What we love the most the crew gets to know you. Bartenders know how you like your drinks. We prefer B2B2B2B. On Celebrity you will find there are many B2B2B2B folks. 

[Jim_Iain]

We often do multi segments B2B2B's.    We no longer go to the shows so not important to us.  You will find it very comfortable to do a B4B as you get to know the staff and instead of trying to do everything you will find you meld into Life at sea and just enjoy things at a leisurely pace. 

 

Earlier this year we did a B2B Caribbean, Trans Atlantic and then took a one week break in Amsterdam and then rejoined the ship for the British Isle Cruise.  

 

As you said you will see the same menus.   They have a 15 day rotation and usually begin with day one on each cruise but sometimes they mix them up if they have a lot of B2B's  -  They also do shift them a bit to accommodate the Chic nights. 

[kwokpot]

We did a B3B last summer on Carnival totaling 31 days. Mediterranean and then Norwegian fiords. Happily we had zero repeating ports (We could have stayed on for a 4th sailing which wasn't reapeating but it was the Baltics which we've been to). Since they are separate cruises there will be repeating menus and production shows but the Headliner entertainment should change. European cruising is all about the Ports and there were several new to us ports especially the Norwegian fiords. One thing you do need to do is pacing with regards to long full day tours. In other words with so many Port stops resist the temptation to go full out all day strenuous tours. Wandering around on your own in the City Center exploring the streets, shops, etc is just as enjoyable as going on an extensive 8 hour busy guided tour. Carefully pick and choose the stops you want to do long full day tours. Both your pocketbook and your body will thank you for that! 

[the penguins]

3 hours ago, bedrick said:

Hi, we are planning a trip to Scandinavia, Norway, Iceland and Britain in May 24. Trying to decide between 4 back to backs on Celebrity or 2 long itineraries on Holland America.  If we string together the cruises on Celebrity are we likely to get repeat entertainment and menus on each of the back to back cruises?  Thanks for your help.

We did 5 B2B on Solstice 60 days and were never board.

Save speciality dining until the last cruise.

Book any time dining and share tables - your companions will keep changing which keeps things fresh.

Your bartenders or in our case coffee girls in Al Bacio will get to know you well.

As these are port intensive there won't be much interaction with the Officers.

An advantage of 4B2B, especially if you are Elite and over, is that your benefits start again with each cruise.

Also if you are shareholders you get 4 lots of OBC.

Be sure to spend the OBC on each sector- it doesn't carry over.

Above all enjoy.

[Denny01]

Wow…..and here I was so impressed with our B2B E Med 14N followed by a 13N W Med/TA!

 

im a piker!

 

den

[chemmo]

No hesitation doing extended cruise holidays…always something new to do on a cruise ship…

 

However, as Jim suggested, it can be nice to break up the full experience with a land stay. For example, in my opinion, the best bits of the UK are not visited on a cruise. If you didn’t want to drive around the UK there are coach companies that offer tours some of which offer specific areas or interests. These are not cheap but probably not as expensive as a cruise leg and would add variety to your experience. Alternatively you could simply choose just one area of the UK to focus on (London, Dublin, Edinburgh and fly there from Southampton….Just an idea…

[Denny01]

I agree with stays in a port area. Traveled through Cornwall for a week prior to a TA out of Southampton and stayed in Munich after the river cruise from Amsterdam to Basel.

 

But my preference is to stay prior for a number of days, not between some B2B’s. Id hate to enjoy a relaxing cruise, pack up and go ashore and unpack in a hotel or travel around then go through the check-in on another cruise…..and so on.

 

There are so many ways of doing this: the classic ‘touring’ the area as we did in Cornwall; staying in one hotel and doing day trips as we did in Munich and Amsterdam….and Rotterdam by the way - really different and loved it.

 

We stayed 3 days in Chitivecchia and just relaxed. Very nice small town. Great restaurants and nice hotel. Just relaxing instead of sightseeing Rome and so on. Hate to miss seeing famous sites, but nice place to just soak in the local ‘feel’. 

 

And dont forget a real jewel, Bordeaux. We did the river cruise there and the city itself is fantastic. Staying in a hotel in the middle of town right near the trams. Walking Only shopping streets; great restaurants, architecture and museums. Friendly…very friendly and relaxing. And less expensive than Paris…..but Nothing is ‘cheap’. An idea: fly to Paris; stay a few days seeing the famous museums and so on; train to Bordeaux and Enjoy!

 

Enough. So many ways of adding to a cruise….along with Adding cruises!!

 

Den 

[the penguins]

4 hours ago, chemmo said:

No hesitation doing extended cruise holidays…always something new to do on a cruise ship…

 

However, as Jim suggested, it can be nice to break up the full experience with a land stay. For example, in my opinion, the best bits of the UK are not visited on a cruise. If you didn’t want to drive around the UK there are coach companies that offer tours some of which offer specific areas or interests. These are not cheap but probably not as expensive as a cruise leg and would add variety to your experience. Alternatively you could simply choose just one area of the UK to focus on (London, Dublin, Edinburgh and fly there from Southampton….Just an idea…

As usual no right or wrong.

Most round Britain cruises include: Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Lerwick plus one or two stops in Ireland - which is a pretty good mix.

Coach tours are a no for us: too many hours in the coach, most hotels outside of the towns (not centrally located). Most start from London and have a limited baggage allowance which adds to the logistical issues.

The best are expensive.

If the British cruise includes Lerwick I know a great guide (for details email: geoffanita at hotmail dot com) who gets booked up very early. Geoff

[paulh84]

Doing excessively long cruises seems a bit like a strange Cruise Critic flex. We’re far from retirement and have other obligations so it’s not even an option or consideration for us.  Realistically I think around 10 days is my limit. I have no desire to tour that much or eat ship food (whether it’s good or bad) for that long. I also don’t have the time to commit to that much advance planning. 

[Denny01]

I’m not sure what is an ‘excessively long cruise’ as a description but only as a very subjective opinion. 
 

a cruise beyond a month would be too much….for me. I have friends who a 7N cruise would be too much. And I have friends booked on World cruises. 
 

den

[PTC DAWG]

27 minutes ago, paulh84 said:

Doing excessively long cruises seems a bit like a strange Cruise Critic flex. We’re far from retirement and have other obligations so it’s not even an option or consideration for us.  Realistically I think around 10 days is my limit. I have no desire to tour that much or eat ship food (whether it’s good or bad) for that long. I also don’t have the time to commit to that much advance planning. 

A question was asked, folks tried to give good answers..no flex that I can see. 

[rcrabb1513]

There are studies on just about anything.  I read one recently that proposed we get more regenerative benefit from more frequent vacations, not longer vacations.  It also suggested 8 days of vacation away from home was the sweet spot.

[Cruise a holic]

I surely wouldn't be bored!  May (probably) will gain weight.  As long as your cabin/suite is a good size.  I might go crazy in a tiny cabin.  We did a b/2/b on the Apex and we weren't bored- in a sky suite.

 

Enjoy your cruises.  

Edited November 15, 2023 by Cruise a holic

[bedrick]

Wow - Thanks so much for the incredibly helpful replies.  14 day turnaround for menus is great, we recently did a 21 day cruise on P & O Australia and the main dining room only had two different menus for the whole trip, that is why I was concerned.  I agree about having time on land too.  We will be touring Spain, Italy and Switzerland by train before we head north.  We also want to relax and spend time in ports, definitely won’t be doing excursions every day.  We were trying to decide between HAL and Celebrity for this part of the trip.  HAL has better itineraries but we know it can be very quiet at night and it is considerably more expensive than Celebrity.  The amazing responses to my question has helped us decide on Celebrity - you are the kind of people we want to spend time with.  Thanks again.

[OnTheJourney]

19 hours ago, Denny01 said:

Wow…..and here I was so impressed with our B2B E Med 14N followed by a 13N W Med/TA!

Impressive enough for me! Any vacation - cruise or land - that gets close to or beyond 3 weeks is more than enough for me. Ready to go home by then. We just did Viking's Mississippi cruise - 3 weeks in all - and, while we enjoyed it (except for missing 8 out of 11 ports - long story), it started to FEEL long. I can't say that for just about any other trips. Probably due to so many "sea" days on the river without even being able to get off the ship.

 

Each to his/her own!  Something like B4B, etc. would be way too much for me. What also enters into it is, does one cruise primarily for the sake of cruising (like basically for whatever the ship offers) or is one more port oriented regardless of ship or line? Surely there are infinite gradations for either preference, but I've spoken to cruisers who definitely seem to orient towards one or the other. We did a Baltic cruise (about 2 weeks) that is about as 'port intensive' as you can get - only one sea day as I recall. The other extreme, comparatively, was the recent MS cruise. The latter surely far more relaxing (almost too much though - never read so much during a cruise.

 

Between 2-3 weeks on any ship would likely be about my limit. As I get older, I'm starting to like shorter trips as well - even a week or less. Another factor is - are we talking closer domestic or international travel? If I'm going over to Europe or farther, I hate to spend the money for less than 2 weeks. For DIY car trips (still my favorite mode of travel), I can get alot closer to being away 3 weeks and it doesn't feel near as long as the equivalent time on the water.

Edited November 16, 2023 by OnTheJourney

[OnTheJourney]

6 hours ago, rcrabb1513 said:

I read one recently that proposed we get more regenerative benefit from more frequent vacations, not longer vacations.  It also suggested 8 days of vacation away from home was the sweet spot.

Most interesting. I'd read posts here that refer to people's "sweet spots" relative to how long they prefer their vacations to be. For those traveling here in the US who come from AUS or NZ, it's surely not unusual to spend several weeks traveling. Again, as I alluded to in my other post, distance from home factors in. Somehow can't see going from here in the states down to AUS for much less than 3 weeks. I'd surely not do well on a world cruise. By about a month in, I'd be ready to jump overboard.

[OnTheJourney]

20 hours ago, the penguins said:

is that your benefits start again with each cruise.

This whole tier system / gaining points towards the next level or increased benefits and so forth is another motivation that I guess I'd say falls under what I referred to as 'cruising moreso for the ship than the itinerary'. It is cruise line marketing mentality at its finest and most alluring. "Only 3 more 9-day cruises and I'm at the next level !!! Yippee!!!"  

 

So another interesting study is - how many cruises lines engage in this sort of thing? Viking, for one, doesn't. You don't attain any increased status regardless of how many or few cruises you do. There is no point system. No lapel pins handed out. That said, surely repeat cruisers are likely offered special deals or perks in one form or another. But there's no tier system like with RCL or X. Surely something to be said for attaining Pinnacle status on RCL I suppose, but the sheer number of cruises required to do it (especially if not booking suites) likely exceeds my tolerance levels. Big jump from D+ (which we are) up to P.  But, if for instance that's one's primary motivation, then I can see where even doing the SAME itineraries over and over again just to attain a certain level would make sense.

 

What we all gravitate to (or not) is surely a fascinating study, appropriate to not only travel but many different walks of life. Music / literature / art preference being not the least of them.

Edited November 16, 2023 by OnTheJourney

[the penguins]

16 hours ago, OnTheJourney said:

This whole tier system / gaining points towards the next level or increased benefits and so forth is another motivation that I guess I'd say falls under what I referred to as 'cruising moreso for the ship than the itinerary'. It is cruise line marketing mentality at its finest and most alluring. "Only 3 more 9-day cruises and I'm at the next level !!! Yippee!!!"  

 

So another interesting study is - how many cruises lines engage in this sort of thing? Viking, for one, doesn't. You don't attain any increased status regardless of how many or few cruises you do. There is no point system. No lapel pins handed out. That said, surely repeat cruisers are likely offered special deals or perks in one form or another. But there's no tier system like with RCL or X. Surely something to be said for attaining Pinnacle status on RCL I suppose, but the sheer number of cruises required to do it (especially if not booking suites) likely exceeds my tolerance levels. Big jump from D+ (which we are) up to P.  But, if for instance that's one's primary motivation, then I can see where even doing the SAME itineraries over and over again just to attain a certain level would make sense.

 

What we all gravitate to (or not) is surely a fascinating study, appropriate to not only travel but many different walks of life. Music / literature / art preference being not the least of them.

Interesting. However the OP was comparing 2 x HAL against 4 x Celebrity on similar itineraries so the benefits can make a significant difference.

Your comparison with Viking is comparing Apples with Oranges. A cruise line which is already “All Inclusive” doesn’t have much scope to offer the “benefits” available though the Captains Club.

We still cruise by itinerary and price but the benefits are very much part of our research. On X the free speciality tea/ coffee plus   the 240 mins Internet (we don’t drink alcohol) is a significant saving.

 

[Stockjock]

Yes.

[C 2 C]

I never get bored watching the ocean.  Menus might be a problem but I would be happy with a bowl of soup and a BLT every night.  It's the wine glass that makes me overlook any food shortcomings.  About entertainment:  HAL entertainment is horrible in the theatre.  You can only watch National Geographic pictures on the main screen once and get a book instead of going again.  If the right bands are playing, HAL has great live music. Entertainment on Celebrity depends on the quality of guest entertainers.  We've seen their production shows too often.  If the price is similar and you have no loyalty status, I would pick the HAL cruises.  Loyalty on X gives more perks than on HAL.

[someguyfl]

1 hour ago, the penguins said:

Interesting. However the OP was comparing 2 x HAL against 4 x Celebrity on similar itineraries so the benefits can make a significant difference.

Your comparison with Viking is comparing Apples with Oranges. A cruise line which is already “All Inclusive” doesn’t have much scope to offer the “benefits” available though the Captains Club.

We still cruise by itinerary and price but the benefits are very much part of our research. On X the free speciality tea/ coffee plus   the 240 mins Internet (we don’t drink alcohol) is a significant saving.

 

I'm just curious ... In order to get the value of the coffee/tea benefit, you would have to basically not even have the Classic beverage package (since that includes the coffees) .. What do you do for water?