14 day Caribbean on CB -Question

[Cruzin19792014]

Good afternoon all,

Has anyone done the 14 day on the CB this summer? When we booked I was told by Princess that we would not have to disembark on the turnaround day, however on all if the b2b postings I have seen state that we will need to disembark even for a short time.

 

However since this is booked as a 14 day, does anyone know the truth?

 

Thanks for your help.

[-Lew-]

If turn-around day is in Ft. Lauderdale, the truth is that you'll need to get off the ship to go through immigration. You have the option of being part of a group consisting of all doing B2Bs or doing it on your own at a time convenient to you. If you do it on your own, you'll likely need to wait to reboard until boarding starts for those embarking on the second leg of your cruise.

 

By the way, although you're not new to CC, I see this is your first post...welcome! You might want to join the Roll Call for your cruise where you'll meet others cruising with you.

 

To find the Roll Call for your cruise: click on the Find your PRINCESS Roll Call link above the first post on this page.

 

Enjoy your cruise...

 

Lew

Edited June 14, 2014 by -Lew-

[ggprincess2004]

WElcome to Cruise Critic!

 

The 14 day Caribbean turns around in Ft. Lauderdale. You will have to get off the ship, but you won't have to pack up and take your luggage off. So maybe you got the correct answer depending upon how the question was interpreted.

 

At the end of the first segment, Princess has to zero out the ship, which means that all passengers must leave the ship. Only then can they begin to embark passengers again. A day or two before the end of the first segment, you will get instructions on where and to meet with others who are doing the 14 cruise or Back to back, whatever you wish to call it. Take your old cruise card and the "new" cruise card you will receive the evening before with you. You will disembark as a group and reboard before the "new" passengers are allowed to begin embarkation.

 

A suggestion - while you don' t have to pack up anything I recommend taking a minute or two and removing all your personal items from your bathroom. Your cabin steward is likely to have a helper on turnaround day, and they may not know you are staying on board. To avoid losing anything you, just take it out of bathroom and tuck it away somewhere. It only take a minute or two to replace things afterward.

 

Also, you may want to consider doing something on turnaround day in Ft. Lauderdale. There are lots of things there that are interesting. Why? Well, Princess is selling the 14 day cruises as separate 7 days, and also 14 dayers. There will likely be a lot of the ship doing the b2b. Our experience with almost half of the ship on a b2b has not been good - some people don't bother to read the instructions or think the rules don' t apply to them. It should only take 15 to 20 minutes to do the get off, get back on, but it took over an hour the last time we had to do it. They had to track down the stragglers and and get them off the ship - OMG! This time (we are doing 14 days this August) we will disembark early and enjoy a tour!!!!

Edited June 14, 2014 by ggprincess2004

[JF - retired RRT]

If you return to the original US port (FLL?) and leave again you will almost certainly have to get off and get back on.

We just did a 20 day on the Emerald (10 + 10) and had to do this. They do a great job taking care of you. You will receive info a day or 2 before your return to FLL. You get off, are led through the port by Princess and go back to the boarding lounge. You will be one of the first to board. We have done several B2Bs and the wait is from 15 min to maybe 1/2 hour.

[skynight]

As others have mentioned you will have to get off and go through immigration on turn around day. Don't worry it is painless and you will receive instructions a day or two before. It usually happens around 10am.

[geoherb]

When we took out b2b cruises on the Ruby in December, we had to wait too long because a couple of passengers did not show up on time. After an hour wait, the Princess reps finally led us down to Immigration. We had to show our passports. You don't have to fill out a customs form yet since you're staying on the ship. The two women who they'd been paging repeatedly still had not shown up, so we waited as a group for another 15-20 minutes.

 

We enjoyed lunch in the dining room before heading out to Total Wine to restock our supply. It's about a mile away from the port area, if your ship is docked at Pier 2 or 4.

[Cruzin19792014]

Thank you all for your assistance!!!

[mrell345]

We did this in February on the Crown for the first time, really nice day, got off by ourselves and walked out to starbucks (we were at the pier closest to the main road). We came back in and were one of the first ones back on. Then we spent the day at the aft pool soaking up the sun. It was really nice not having to rush to the airport and not having to get off the ship :p

 

Oh and in case it hasn't been mentioned, keep your in transit cards. They are also your get out of muster ticket for the second segment. :D

[Sanibel*Gal]

Thank you Mrell345 about the "In Transit" card and the muster drill - we are doing our first B2B in 2 weeks and we were curious how that works.

 

Since this will be our first B2B I also have a couple of other questions if anyone can help....

 

This will be our first cruise with Tender Ports since we have been elite & I have read various comments on how this works. Some posts here say we will have priority tender tickets in our cabins - others say show your elite card at the tender station, can someone clarify please??

 

Also - the mini-bar set up - does it matter if you booked this as one cruise or does it have to be booked as two cruises with two booking numbers in order to have a set up the 2nd week??

 

Third - someone here mentioned removing personal bathroom items on turn around day. I know we will be sure that our room Steward knows we are staying on, so is that really necessary since all of our other belongings (clothes, shoes, etc) will still be in the cabin??

 

Thanks everyone in advance for any help!!

[mrell345]

We left everything in the bathroom and had no issues on turn around day.

 

I wasn't aware our steward had an assistant, not that I saw anyways. We had a balcony cabin on the Crown. My understanding is they have cut staff back and they have more cabins per steward now with not to many assistants.

[seamanfs]

Priority tender tickets have never been in our cabin. The letter from the Captains Circle person usually just had us go to the embarkation area with our black cards out to show when getting on the tender. We have booked as one cruise and got extra mini bar setups each turn around day. It surprised us the first time as we figured we would only get the one! We have not removed any items from the bathroom but reminded the steward we were staying!! No problems YET!!

[dorisis]

Thank you Mrell345 about the "In Transit" card and the muster drill - we are doing our first B2B in 2 weeks and we were curious how that works.

 

Since this will be our first B2B I also have a couple of other questions if anyone can help....

 

This will be our first cruise with Tender Ports since we have been elite & I have read various comments on how this works. Some posts here say we will have priority tender tickets in our cabins - others say show your elite card at the tender station, can someone clarify please??

 

Also - the mini-bar set up - does it matter if you booked this as one cruise or does it have to be booked as two cruises with two booking numbers in order to have a set up the 2nd week??

 

Third - someone here mentioned removing personal bathroom items on turn around day. I know we will be sure that our room Steward knows we are staying on, so is that really necessary since all of our other belongings (clothes, shoes, etc) will still be in the cabin??

 

Thanks everyone in advance for any help!!

We have booked a 14 day cruise on CB but we booked it as 2 cruises. Since we are in a suite, we will get 4 mini bar set ups which we can exchange for coffee cards, wine or candy. We also automatically get double cruise credits (4 in all). If booked as one see the Circle Host to get the extra credit

[Sanibel*Gal]

Thanks so much everyone for your responses!!

Edited June 15, 2014 by Sanibel*Gal

[ggprincess2004]

Thank you Mrell345 about the "In Transit" card and the muster drill - we are doing our first B2B in 2 weeks and we were curious how that works.

 

Since this will be our first B2B I also have a couple of other questions if anyone can help....

 

This will be our first cruise with Tender Ports since we have been elite & I have read various comments on how this works. Some posts here say we will have priority tender tickets in our cabins - others say show your elite card at the tender station, can someone clarify please??

 

Also - the mini-bar set up - does it matter if you booked this as one cruise or does it have to be booked as two cruises with two booking numbers in order to have a set up the 2nd week??

 

Third - someone here mentioned removing personal bathroom items on turn around day. I know we will be sure that our room Steward knows we are staying on, so is that really necessary since all of our other belongings (clothes, shoes, etc) will still be in the cabin??

 

Thanks everyone in advance for any help!!

 

You have answers to the tendering, mini-bar, but not the bathroom. There have been people who were doing b2b's and have left items in the bathroom, in particular, prescription meds, in addition to other items, and returned to find them gone. They were removed and incinerated. A lot of cabin stewards still have pantry boys that help out on turn around day and don't even really look at the inside of the cabin, simply go in and do the bathroom. Hence, to be on the safer side, you may wish to take minute and just remove the personal items from the bathroom and stash them somewhere else in the cabin. We routinely remove our items, as we would prefer not have to replace our air flossers, electric toothbrushes and the like as well as some medications, and other toiletries.

Edited June 15, 2014 by ggprincess2004

[Lovetocruiseprincess]

Thank you Mrell345 about the "In Transit" card and the muster drill - we are doing our first B2B in 2 weeks and we were curious how that works.

 

Since this will be our first B2B I also have a couple of other questions if anyone can help....

 

This will be our first cruise with Tender Ports since we have been elite & I have read various comments on how this works. Some posts here say we will have priority tender tickets in our cabins - others say show your elite card at the tender station, can someone clarify please??

 

Sometimes they give you tender tickets but we never used them if they were in the cabin. I you're departing early just go to the tender location on deck 4 & join the line at the end or most times if no one has arrived just board the tender.

Also - the mini-bar set up - does it matter if you booked this as one cruise or does it have to be booked as two cruises with two booking numbers in order to have a set up the 2nd week??

You'll get a second setup no matter how you booked the cruise.

 

Third - someone here mentioned removing personal bathroom items on turn around day. I know we will be sure that our room Steward knows we are staying on, so is that really necessary since all of our other belongings (clothes, shoes, etc) will still be in the cabin??

 

As someone has said the cabin steward's helper might have cleaned up not knowing they were a B2B couple. Seems strange especially if there were tooth brushes, hair brushes, shaving cream, etc.

Thanks everyone in advance for any help!!

 

See above.