Booking 1st B2B

[greatestvalue]

Hello 

Hope everyone is doing awesome!

 

We are looking at booking our 1st B2B.  This will be for Australia/New Zealand on the Diamond Princess.

 

• Is there any maritime laws we need to worry about?
• Any easy way to book or are the normal channels fine (ie TA or direct)?
• Any price breaks when booking a B2B? 
• Anything we should consider and or ask for when doing so to make the trip convenient (ie staying in the same cabin)?

 

Thank you 

[DCThunder]

1. No

2. Normal channels are fine

3. Not really

4. The TA should be able to get you in the same cabin for both cruises.  

 

Is it truly a B2B with two booking numbers, or a 14 day (or 28 day) cruise with a return to the home port, but only 1 booking number?

[memoak]

36 minutes ago, greatestvalue said:

Hello 

Hope everyone is doing awesome!

 

We are looking at booking our 1st B2B.  This will be for Australia/New Zealand on the Diamond Princess.

 

• Is there any maritime laws we need to worry about?
• Any easy way to book or are the normal channels fine (ie TA or direct)?
• Any price breaks when booking a B2B? 
• Anything we should consider and or ask for when doing so to make the trip convenient (ie staying in the same cabin)?

 

Thank you 

If it does not touch the US them US laws would not apply. I have no idea if Australia or New Zealand have such laws. Before booking look to see if the cabin you want is available on both cruises before booking. I hate having to move in the middle of a cruise

Edited February 9 by memoak

[NavyVeteran]

If you book the same cabin for both segments, you may want to specifiy no upgrade, since upgrades would be handled separately for each segment. You cannot do this online. A TA or a Princess representative can do it.

[greatestvalue]

1 hour ago, DCThunder said:

Is it truly a B2B with two booking numbers, or a 14 day (or 28 day) cruise with a return to the home port, but only 1 booking number?

1st one goes RT Melbourne (various ports around Australia) - 7 days 

2nd one, leaves the day we get back from the 1st one.  Same ship, Melbourne to New Zealand back to Melbourne. - 14 days 

 

I was able to call and they linked the reservation, saying now I didnt have to disembark.  They put our Amex benefits on the reservation as well. And we were able to get the same room for the full 21 days. 

 

Love the idea of seeing Australia & New Zealand!

 

 

 

 

 

[greatestvalue]

14 minutes ago, NavyVeteran said:

you may want to specifiy no upgrade,

Would they ever upgrade if you didnt bid?

[nasa1974]

13 minutes ago, greatestvalue said:

1st one goes RT Melbourne (various ports around Australia) - 7 days 

2nd one, leaves the day we get back from the 1st one.  Same ship, Melbourne to New Zealand back to Melbourne. - 14 days 

 

I was able to call and they linked the reservation, saying now I didnt have to disembark.  They put our Amex benefits on the reservation as well. And we were able to get the same room for the full 21 days. 

 

Love the idea of seeing Australia & New Zealand!

 

 

 

 

 

We did a cruise tour of Australia/New Zealand back in 2016.Australia land portion was 7 days and then cruised around New Zealand back to Sydney. Loved it.

Just a suggestion. If you can afford business class to Melbourne, go for it. It was one heck of a long flight.

Enjoy your trip.

[greatestvalue]

1 hour ago, nasa1974 said:

If you can afford business class to Melbourne, go for it. It was one heck of a long flight.

I am fortunate to have the hobby of traveling on points &  miles. So business class is the only way we fly internationally. 

 

For this trip, we were able to catch 2 business class flights from the states to Auckland for a killer deal in points, and $97.00 in taxes. 

We will spend 7 days on the North Island New Zealand, fly to Melbourne spend 4 days prior to the cruise so we can do the Great Ocean Road. 

On the way back we will book business flights with a 5-7 day stopover in Fiji, also on points. 

So very excited!! 

Happy to share info on traveling on points/miles. 

 

 

[mahasamatman]

1 hour ago, greatestvalue said:

Would they ever upgrade if you didnt bid?

 

I don't know if they do it any more, but we took a cruise around Tasmania a few years ago and were upgraded to a full suite at the terminal.

 

Princess does B2B better than any other cruise line we've been on. You get one medallion at the beginning and you just treat it as one long cruise. No need to get a new cruise card, though your account will reset at the changeover point, so make sure you've used your OBC wisely and don't expect it all to accumulate for the second cruise.

[greatestvalue]

19 minutes ago, mahasamatman said:

make sure you've used your OBC wisely and don't expect it all to accumulate for the second cruise.

Great tip. Most of us may not think thru that. 

 

Thank you 

[Torfamm]

One thing to be aware of if your itinerary leaves Australia is that once you board on the day the ship sails, you are considered to have left Australia and can’t leave the ship again to visit the embarkation port that day the way you can in other countries. 

 

One cruiser ran into problems on turnaround day in Melbourne when he went through the back to back process of leaving the ship in the morning with the B2B cruisers and checking back in for the next leg, which was going to New Zealand. He went out later in the day to visit the city, as he would in any Australian port, and was told he’d violated immigration regulations when he had to go through passport control when he tried to return to the ship. They were really upset with him. (I feel pretty sure he wasn’t carrying his passport and don’t know if that would have solved the problem)
 

The easiest thing is to only leave the ship once on turnaround day if it’s an international cruise. 

[greatestvalue]

13 minutes ago, Torfamm said:

One thing to be aware of if your itinerary leaves Australia is that once you board on the day the ship sails, you are considered to have left Australia and can’t leave the ship again to visit the embarkation port that day the way you can in other countries. 

So you can get off the ship once but not a 2nd time, is what youre saying?  Since Ill be in Melbourne for a  few days prior to the 1st leg of the cruise, and the rep said we wouldnt have to check back in for the 2nd leg of the cruise and youre added tip, I think its best we stay on the ship if we can...LOL 

 

I would have never known that.  Thank you so much.

 

 

[Torfamm]

20 minutes ago, greatestvalue said:

So you can get off the ship once but not a 2nd time, is what youre saying?  Since Ill be in Melbourne for a  few days prior to the 1st leg of the cruise, and the rep said we wouldnt have to check back in for the 2nd leg of the cruise and youre added tip, I think its best we stay on the ship if we can...LOL 

 

I would have never known that.  Thank you so much.

 

 

On the turnaround day in Melbourne, if the ship is sailing to another country, back to back passengers are required to leave the ship, then go back in through Australian immigration. You are only supposed to leave and enter the ship once that day. 
 

Either just going into the terminal and reboarding with the group in the morning per instructions you’ll receive in you cabin or going out for the day on your own or on a tour are both fine. 
 

If the ship’s second leg is only in Australia, it’s like any port day and there are no formalities regarding immigration.

 

You don’t have to check in with Princess for the second leg in either case

[NavyVeteran]

10 hours ago, greatestvalue said:

Would they ever upgrade if you didnt bid?

 

9 hours ago, mahasamatman said:

 

I don't know if they do it any more, but we took a cruise around Tasmania a few years ago and were upgraded to a full suite at the terminal.

I've also been upgraded at no cost in the past. I don't think they do it as often anymore because they would rather sell the upgrade on a bid; however, it could happen. They continue to sell lower cost cabins even if they sell out, as long as they have other cabins available. If they sell more lower cost cabins than they have and they don't have enough bidders for upgrades, then they will upgrade someone. They're better off selling another inside cabin and giving someone a free upgrade than sailing with an empty cabin.

[nasa1974]

9 hours ago, greatestvalue said:

I am fortunate to have the hobby of traveling on points &  miles. So business class is the only way we fly internationally. 

 

For this trip, we were able to catch 2 business class flights from the states to Auckland for a killer deal in points, and $97.00 in taxes. 

We will spend 7 days on the North Island New Zealand, fly to Melbourne spend 4 days prior to the cruise so we can do the Great Ocean Road. 

On the way back we will book business flights with a 5-7 day stopover in Fiji, also on points. 

So very excited!! 

Happy to share info on traveling on points/miles. 

 

 

Sounds like a trip of a lifetime. Have a wonderful time. When we did our trip, I scratched something off my bucket list. I was able to dive the Great Barrier Reef.

[Bwana Tom]

11 hours ago, greatestvalue said:

Would they ever upgrade if you didnt bid?

Absolutely they still upgrade without bidding for an upgrade. We were upgraded in November of 2023 from a balcony cabin to a mini suite on an Enchanted transatlantic cruise. Unfortunately it was a B2B cruise and we were only upgraded on the first leg and not the second. Nevertheless, we were happy to get such a great upgrade anyway. Like someone else mentioned though, it might happen as often since they adopted the bidding system. If you do want to take the chance to get a free upgrade just be sure and tell your travel agent to mark it that way, or if you are booking on your own you need to do it yourself. 

[Thrak]

Just be sure to obtain your visas for Australia and New Zealand well in advance in case there is any sort of a holdup. Tip: When the application asked for our address for Australia I just listed Grand Princess and it was fine.

[greatestvalue]

On 2/10/2024 at 5:49 AM, nasa1974 said:

I scratched something off my bucket list. I was able to dive the Great Barrier Reef.

That would be amazing! So blessed to be able to check that off the bucket list.  Your comment me realizing a comment I made to my husband, if we are going to Australia we cant skip the Barrier Reef. Just added that onto our trip. 
Thank you so much for sharing your experience.  You just brought ours up to a whole new level!

[J13C85]

We did our first B2B over Christmas/NY. Here are two things I wished I knew before the trip.

 

First, the MDR menus are the same each correspinding night of the 2 cruises. What I mean is the menu one night one is the same on both day ones. Day two will have a different menu than day one, but it will be the same on the second day two. Tip: if you are doing specialty dining on each leg, try not to repeat the same day. For example, if you have Premier and get 2 SDs per leg (we did) consider doing them on like day 2 and 4 of the first cruise and days 3 and 5 of the second one thus minimizing the repeating nature of the MDR menu.

 

The same can be said of the production shows. In our case, the cruise had the same shows each leg. We saw all thee on the first leg and in retrospect I wish we had spread them out over both legs.

 

Hope this helps and have fun. 

[DCThunder]

39 minutes ago, J13C85 said:

We did our first B2B over Christmas/NY. Here are two things I wished I knew before the trip.

 

First, the MDR menus are the same each correspinding night of the 2 cruises. What I mean is the menu one night one is the same on both day ones. Day two will have a different menu than day one, but it will be the same on the second day two. Tip: if you are doing specialty dining on each leg, try not to repeat the same day. For example, if you have Premier and get 2 SDs per leg (we did) consider doing them on like day 2 and 4 of the first cruise and days 3 and 5 of the second one thus minimizing the repeating nature of the MDR menu.

 

The same can be said of the production shows. In our case, the cruise had the same shows each leg. We saw all thee on the first leg and in retrospect I wish we had spread them out over both legs.

 

Hope this helps and have fun. 

It's even worse if you're doing 14 day B2Bs.  You can sort of tell the cruise directors jokes for them.

[greatestvalue]

3 hours ago, J13C85 said:

First, the MDR menus are the same each correspinding night of the 2 cruises. What I mean is the menu one night one is the same on both day ones

Yikes, we may have to strategize how we eat...LOL  Ours are 7 days, 14 days.  So we should get reprieve from the same menu on day 8 of the 2nd cruise?...lol

[MissP22]

On 2/11/2024 at 7:55 PM, greatestvalue said:

Yikes, we may have to strategize how we eat...LOL  Ours are 7 days, 14 days.  So we should get reprieve from the same menu on day 8 of the 2nd cruise?...lol

Maybe you should try the buffet at times if the DR gets to monotonous. 

[Thrak]

On 2/11/2024 at 2:14 PM, DCThunder said:

It's even worse if you're doing 14 day B2Bs.  You can sort of tell the cruise directors jokes for them.

 

We recently did 63 days on Grand Princess - 24 days, 2 days, 5 days, 14 days, 4 days, and 14 days. You are definitely sooooooooooooo right about the Cruise Director's jokes!!! Not only that but repeated Trivia and such. Repeats over, and over, and over... Not to mention the repetitive menu situation in MDR.😲

Edited February 13 by Thrak

[MissP22]

1 hour ago, Thrak said:

 

We recently did 63 days on Grand Princess - 24 days, 2 days, 5 days, 14 days, 4 days, and 14 days. You are definitely sooooooooooooo right about the Cruise Director's jokes!!! Not only that but repeated Trivia and such. Repeats over, and over, and over... Not to mention the repetitive menu situation in MDR.😲

I can buy the Cruise Director's jokes and repeated meals but didn't they switch the guest comedians from one cruise to the next?

[Thrak]

3 hours ago, MissP22 said:

I can buy the Cruise Director's jokes and repeated meals but didn't they switch the guest comedians from one cruise to the next?

 

We had comedians ranging from the best (by far!) I have ever seen on Princess to pretty horrid. We had other acts that had that same range. There was a musician on at the same time as the excellent comedian who was well above the range I've seen on Princess and one other musician at the end of the cruise who was also amazing. There was one "local" act they brought aboard for one night who left me feeling that somewhere there was a "open mike night" or a "college kegger" that was missing its band. So yes, they did vary the entertainment and some of it was quite good. There was a magician who "might" have been okay at a 3rd birthday party. He was by far the worst I have seen.