Is this something new RCI is doing?

[nursemom2]

The Allure of the seas has a cruise that is starting out in Barcelona June 8,2025, then stopping in Rome June 12 and picking up new passengers, continuing on to Barcelona, unloading the June 8 passengers and continuing on to Rome to drop off the June 12 passengers. 2 overlapping cruises. I’ve been cruising with Royal for over 15 years and never seen this happen! I was confused when I met a person who was doing the June 8, 7 day cruise. Thought I had my dates wrong 😱 hope I’m making sense!!

Edited August 23 by nursemom2

[Shocked91]

No not new.

[RobInMN]

It's called "Interporting". It's typically done on the Western Mediterranean Itinerary on Oasis class ships between Barcelona and Rome.

There was only 1 other reference that I've seen where RC does this, but I can't remember what that was.

 

Here's some discussions:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/?q=interporting&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=51

 

I did this in 2018 on Symphony. Probably 2/3rds of the passengers were Barcelona to Barcelona (it's official "home port"), but we were with the other 1/3rd that did Rome to Rome.

 

[smokeybandit]

It's also being done on the Panama/Colombia cruises.

[FamilyCruiserUK]

Have a look at MSC version of interporting esp on a European cruise. Everyday is day one for some passengers...its crazy but strangely fun to see newbies everyday 😄

[kdnurs]

This occurred on our Med Cruise (Barcelona Roundtrip) in 2018 😁

[smokeybandit]

Actually, isn't interporting common everywhere except North American homeports?

[Biker19]

7 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Actually, isn't interporting common everywhere except North American homeports?

It’s mostly a European thing. Don’t think that happens much if at all in Australia or Asia. 

[cruise_co]

We did this cruise in 2019 on Oasis. We boarded in Rome/Civitavecchia.

[cruiseguy1016]

On our cruise this past March on Jewel, which for us started/ended in San Juan, we had passengers disembarking/embarking in Barbados.

[FionaMG]

12 hours ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

Have a look at MSC version of interporting esp on a European cruise. Everyday is day one for some passengers...its crazy but strangely fun to see newbies everyday 😄

And also to see luggage out in the corridor for departure and know it's not you (yet). 😄

[lovesthebeach2]

They do this frequently 

 

edit to add that on an Odyssey TA to Rome back in 2022, it appeared they picked people up from one of  ports in Spain, because we started to notice lots of people that we hadn’t seen on most of the TA from Fort Lauderdale 

Edited August 24 by lovesthebeach2

[nursemom2]

Thanks everyone for all your answers. Isn’t it crazy how cruising just keeps evolving!

[Biker19]

1 hour ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

edit to add that on an Odyssey TA to Rome back in 2022, it appeared they picked people up from one of  ports in Spain, because we started to notice lots of people that we hadn’t seen on most of the TA from Fort Lauderdale 

If that happened, it was not an interporting stop, but a downline embarkation - slightly different scenario from the OP.

[lovesthebeach2]

5 hours ago, Biker19 said:

If that happened, it was not an interporting stop, but a downline embarkation - slightly different scenario from the OP.

I’ve never heard of that. I did think it was odd because it was a TA.

thanks!

[dunedinmaiden]

I didn't care for our interporting cruise.  Their IT department couldn't handle properly reserving shore excursions, etc. because of the two different embarkation ports.  In addition, it was difficult getting a taxi one day when other passengers were debarking.

[gavvy]

13 minutes ago, dunedinmaiden said:

I didn't care for our interporting cruise.  Their IT department couldn't handle properly reserving shore excursions, etc. because of the two different embarkation ports.  In addition, it was difficult getting a taxi one day when other passengers were debarking.

 

 

The app thing is supposedly fixed now, I found it a pain as well as it was set up for Barcelona only so had to make all show bookings once on board, though it wasn't an issue doing so.

 

The main difference with interporting is you get an orange sea pass!

[FionaMG]

2 hours ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

I’ve never heard of that. I did think it was odd because it was a TA.

thanks!

It could potentially have been a fam trip for European travel agents.

[Mimiya11]

OP  We had the same exact confusion when we were planning our Med cruise on the Oasis, which we just got off a couple of weeks ago. 

 

What we didn't like about inter-porting (our first time) was that our embarkation in Rome is seen as day 5? and Barcelona is considered the first day 1 of the cruise. 

 

As a result

- there was no sail away party for those getting on in Rome  

- the teen meet and greet that our granddaughters were looking forward to was not until Barcelona which happened near the end of the cruise.  So by then the teens who had met in Barcelona on Day 1 had already made friends. 

- when we got off the ship in Barcelona, the same line to get on the ship for people embarking and those of us who just wanted to spend a day in port was a crowded mess.

- luckily we were able to figure out the booking of shows on the website rather than the app which helped. 

 

Overall though our group of 15 had a terrific time but would not board in Rome again.    

   

[RobInMN]

34 minutes ago, Mimiya11 said:

but would not board in Rome again.    

   

There's a few threads where it's discussed whether Rome or Barcelona is better home port. All of your points are valid, but for us, I would still chose Rome every time. Well, maybe if I did Rome enough, eventually I might try Barcelona. 😄 

There are pluses and minuses for and against each port, and it just depends on which pluses are more important to you.

For instance, if you fly in the day before and don't plan on spending any time in the home port city, then Barcelona is the clear winner. If you are going to spend extra time before or after, then it just comes down to which city interests you more. Whichever port you chose, the other port is the port that you do "in a a day", and for my preferences, I could never do Rome "in a day", but Barcelona "in a day" is plenty for me. Others may have the opposite preference. When we did this in 2018, we chose Rome, and spent a week in Rome before, and it was not long enough.

[little britain]

On 8/23/2024 at 8:06 PM, nursemom2 said:

The Allure of the seas has a cruise that is starting out in Barcelona June 8,2025, then stopping in Rome June 12 and picking up new passengers, continuing on to Barcelona, unloading the June 8 passengers and continuing on to Rome to drop off the June 12 passengers. 2 overlapping cruises. I’ve been cruising with Royal for over 15 years and never seen this happen! I was confused when I met a person who was doing the June 8, 7 day cruise. Thought I had my dates wrong 😱 hope I’m making sense!!

Not new. They have inter ported in Europe for about 10 years… 

[Mimiya11]

14 hours ago, RobInMN said:

There's a few threads where it's discussed whether Rome or Barcelona is better home port. All of your points are valid, but for us, I would still chose Rome every time. Well, maybe if I did Rome enough, eventually I might try Barcelona. 😄 

There are pluses and minuses for and against each port, and it just depends on which pluses are more important to you.

For instance, if you fly in the day before and don't plan on spending any time in the home port city, then Barcelona is the clear winner. If you are going to spend extra time before or after, then it just comes down to which city interests you more. Whichever port you chose, the other port is the port that you do "in a a day", and for my preferences, I could never do Rome "in a day", but Barcelona "in a day" is plenty for me. Others may have the opposite preference. When we did this in 2018, we chose Rome, and spent a week in Rome before, and it was not long enough.

 

My comment was on the concept of inter-porting and our experience.   

Our Rome embarkation was strictly based on the availability of our group of 15 and timing to start the cruise.    

We love both Rome and Barcelona (been to both places a few times for several days - not in the summer).    

 

[Tatka]

16 hours ago, Mimiya11 said:

OP  We had the same exact confusion when we were planning our Med cruise on the Oasis, which we just got off a couple of weeks ago. 

 

What we didn't like about inter-porting (our first time) was that our embarkation in Rome is seen as day 5? and Barcelona is considered the first day 1 of the cruise. 

 

As a result

- there was no sail away party for those getting on in Rome  

- the teen meet and greet that our granddaughters were looking forward to was not until Barcelona which happened near the end of the cruise.  So by then the teens who had met in Barcelona on Day 1 had already made friends. 

- when we got off the ship in Barcelona, the same line to get on the ship for people embarking and those of us who just wanted to spend a day in port was a crowded mess.

- luckily we were able to figure out the booking of shows on the website rather than the app which helped. 

 

Overall though our group of 15 had a terrific time but would not board in Rome again.    

   

When we did similar cruise in 2004 we sailed out of Barcelona. If I wanted to do similar I would sail out of Rome and this is what I recommend to everyone. 
 

Why?
 

This type of cruise for many people especially from overseas is not your typical Caribbean cruise when ports are only somewhat important, and you don’t even spend most of your time there.

 

Doing a good exploration of Rome from Civitavecchia is not an easy task. Even though we just started cruising back then we prepared as much as we could. Grouped with other 4 people and requested a private excursion where driver would pick us up from the port in a small van for 6 pax, deliver to Rome … bring us to all POI and get us tickets to Colosseum and Vatican museum. Even though everything was perfectly organized and we even saw a Pope… even though we were 32 years olds we were dead tired even before our excursion ended. Large tour buses with tourists from cruise tours couldn’t even get close to many POI and people looked very tired. We did cruises in Eastern Med and from Southampton later and none of them was as sightseeing intensive as this one. By Naples we were so tired we only sailed to Capri and had HOHO bus after in Naples as we had to drop Pompeii, Sorrento etc.

 

If I could redo this cruise I’d start from Civitavecchia and explore Rome for 2-3 days then everything else as a part of our cruise. 
 

Edited August 25 by Tatka