Back 2 back cruises?

[bearswife]

I have never heard of people doing this but I have been seeing a lot of comments on this. Is there some kind of a perk by doing this? Are you staying on the ship and doing the same exact cruise? How does this work? Thanks:)

[MonaCK]

Sometimes the same ship will do two different itineraries - one week western, one week eastern. So some people will stay on the ship to be able to do both itineraries. Or some people will do it to be able to have a 14 day cruise instead of a 7 day one. Others do it to be able to turn what would have been a short 4 or 3 day cruise into a 7 day cruise.

 

I'm sure that you can get some sort of discount for booking back to back. It probably depends on the cruise line.

[bearswife]

Sometimes the same ship will do two different itineraries - one week western, one week eastern. So some people will stay on the ship to be able to do both itineraries. Or some people will do it to be able to have a 14 day cruise instead of a 7 day one. Others do it to be able to turn what would have been a short 4 or 3 day cruise into a 7 day cruise.

 

I'm sure that you can get some sort of discount for booking back to back. It probably depends on the cruise line.

 

Thanks! 30 days and we are off!!

[chasetf]

Sometimes the same ship will do two different itineraries - one week western, one week eastern. So some people will stay on the ship to be able to do both itineraries. Or some people will do it to be able to have a 14 day cruise instead of a 7 day one. Others do it to be able to turn what would have been a short 4 or 3 day cruise into a 7 day cruise.

We like to do ones that have alternating itineraries so you can see some different ports. The ports can all be different, some can be the same, or all can be the same. They can also be longer that 7 day legs. We have done a 10/10 day B2B and my brother and his wife did a 12/12 day B2B.

I'm sure that you can get some sort of discount for booking back to back. It probably depends on the cruise line.

We, nor anyone else we know, who have done B2B's got any "special" break. Each cruise is priced independently (and can cost different prices)

[Keith1010]

All of this varies by cruise line. On some cruise lines you do get a savings by doing a back to back cruise while on others you don't. We have done back to back cruises on luxury cruise lines which tend not to repeat itineraries so it's a whole new set of ports. If you want to do a back to back, look for itineraries that do not repeat which are available on almost all cruise lines.

 

But the key is to book early so that you can stay in the same cabin. That is one of the advantages of the back to back that when the first cruise ends you don't need to pack up before the next cruise.

 

Keith

[susie2shoes]

We did a b2b this April. Miami to Barcelona 14 days and Barcelona to Venice and back to Barcelona 13 days. It was wonderful! You unpack once and just settle in. We obviously had the same cabin for both cruises. RC don't give a discount for doing 2 cruises though. Can't recommend it enough. Amazing experience. We hope to do another n the future.

[Sundagger]

One good place to do a back-to-back is Alaska. There are a lot of Seattle/Vancouver to Anchorage cruises (and vice versa), but you then have fly to or from Anchorage, which can be awkward depending on where you live. So you can do a Seattle to Anchorage, then Anchorage to Seattle cruise. Sometimes you can arrange it so that you don't duplicate all the ports/glaciers coming back.

 

Once in a great while HAL has special prices for back-to-backs, but like most lines they are sailing full, so don't have to give bargains often.

[paul929207]

We are doing a b2b2b on the Star Princess in March. First cruise is Buenos Aires to Santiago. The second is Santiago to Acapulco. The third is Acapulco to Seattle. No port duplication.

[Essiesmom]

I wanted to cruise so bad I could taste it, so I looked at B2B cruises on Celebration out of Jacksonville. However, my TA got me better rates on B2B Elation from Port Canaveral. It was the same itinerary twice, but if you don't want to go ashore again, just treat it as a sea day and relax on board. EM

[cruise_lover]

I have never done this but I am planning on a B2B when I retire in 2 years. I have friends who go on B2B every year. They arrange so for they get to stay on the ship while passengers are leaving and others are arriving. They request the same cabin so they don't have to pack and move to another cabin. They pick cruises that goes to one set of islands the first week and another set of islands the second week. There is also the possibilty that one of the islands might be a repeat but they still enjoy 2-3 new stops during the second leg of their journey.

 

Their Ship Board Card reflexs that they are on a B2B so they don't have to get off the ship and get a new card. From what I have been reading it all depends on what cruiseline you sail with.

[puffer46]

We like to do ones that have alternating itineraries so you can see some different ports. The ports can all be different, some can be the same, or all can be the same. They can also be longer that 7 day legs. We have done a 10/10 day B2B and my brother and his wife did a 12/12 day B2B.

We, nor anyone else we know, who have done B2B's got any "special" break. Each cruise is priced independently (and can cost different prices)

 

We will be on the Crown Princess on Jan.19 and Jan.26 and doing two different southen carribean itineraries (staying in the same cabin). When we looked into the prices for a back to back (2 seven day) vs a 14 day cruise. It turned out that by booking a 14 day we got a "better price" by about $100.00 per person. We only got credit for one cruise towards the Gold Membership. But that was ok with us as we tend to try different cruise lines anyway.

[simonv]

Smaller luxuary lines usually don't repeat itenararies, so it's easy to combine two, three even four segments. I did one a couple of years ago, two 14 day segments from Port Said, Egypt to Dubai, then through India to Singapore on Silver Shadow. It was a wonderful trip. From Singapore the ship was going to the Great Barrier Reef to Sydney. We'd have loved to stay on to Sydney, but couldn't quite manage.

 

Funny thing I learned. We flew from US West Coast to Egypt. That is one zone. But as we were coming back from Asia, another zone as far as airlines are concerned, we couldn't get a straight forward regular round trip fare. It had to be two one-way tickets that were much more expensive. Had a heck of the time getting a decent air.

[luvtahiti]

We love the b2b cruises, with airfare going out of sight, and flights so crowded we fly once and cruise twice. Our b2b have always had a different itinerary for each cruise, although there are some duplicate ports. There are no perks for booking b2b with Princess, don't know about other lines, but we do get better rates by being past Princess passengers.

[goofysmom99]

We're doing a 14-day repositioning cruise next year (Vancouver to San Diego) with an 11-day one-way Hawaii cruise. We don't get any break on the cruise fare, but we're saving on airfare. We're doing round trip Orlando/Seattle (FF miles), flying back to Seattle from Honolulu one-way. Hawaiian Air does one-way fares and it was the same price from Honolulu to all West Coast cities. Doing a B2B really stretches our air miles and dollars.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Have done quite a few of them. Our first cruises was a back-to-back.

 

Different itineraries. We book far enough in advance that we get to stay in the same cabin.

 

There was a time when the cruise lines would give you a discount for doing back-to-back cruises. Those days are long gone.

[sail7seas]

We also have done many back-to-back cruises and love it. We have done them with alternating East/West Caribbean itineraries; we have had b-to-b's that repeated the itinerary; we do b-to-b every summer on HAL's Maasdam from Boston to Montreal to Boston. We are from Boston so get to board close to home with no need to fly and love our turnaround day in Montreal.

 

We love b-to-b's.

[phish tales]

we did a b2b2b2b with rcl. each leg was a seperate cruise, thus no special price. but all 4 legs were greaaaaaaat.....

[LHT28]

We have done B2B and we got 5% discount on both cruises.

I guess it depends on the cruiseline

 

Lyn

[sail7seas]

We have never gotten any extra discount for doing back-to-back. The only lines we have done them is Princess and HAL.

 

We now cruise exclusively on HAL. :)

 

[jeannejj]

I have done B2B with the same itinerary, and alternating itineraries. Each has advantages. If you are doing the same itinerary the second week, you can go on the excursions you missed the first week. With alternating ports, you get to see more places. I love having the same cabin, so you don't have to move for 2 weeks.

 

Also, by the second week, the staff knows you, and it's fun being recognized, and you get even better service.

[Greselda]

We will be doing our first b2b in just over two weeks, with a little twist.

 

We will be on one ship for eight days, getting off for one day (doing laundry for sure) getting on another ship (same cruise line) the next day for a completely different itinerary for the next eight days....yipper:p

 

Since we are flying from CO to FLA, we wanted to take advantage of the long trip across the states.

 

Gotta love those b2b's:D

 

Rick and Janine

[sail7seas]

Sounds fabulous. Hope you have a grand time.

Technically speaking, I wonder if that is really a back-to-back? I usually think of b-to-b to mean same ship, consecutive sailings.

 

Enjoy.

 

[njmelis24]

How does disembark/embark work? We were thinking about doing a b2b on RCI next year and have read (can't remember which lines specifically) that some people have been escorted off the ship to briefly go through customs and others have said they have never had to get off.

 

Does anyone know what RCI does?? Any info wound be appreciated. :D

[Greselda]

Hi Sail7seas!

 

Yes, technically I suppose you are right about our cruises not being an actual B2B, however, we are borrowing that "name" as we think we are pretty close....;)

 

We just wanted to try one ship for 8 days and another for the second 8 days.....perhaps even experience different foods :) (depending on the chef's choices on each ship). Our friends are sailing with us on both cruises so we are really looking forward to it:D

 

Rick and Janine

[LHT28]

How does disembark/embark work? We were thinking about doing a b2b on RCI next year and have read (can't remember which lines specifically) that some people have been escorted off the ship to briefly go through customs and others have said they have never had to get off.

 

Does anyone know what RCI does?? Any info wound be appreciated. :D

 

We went through immigration on the ship then we had to disembark for at least 1 hr ..we just went site seeing so it was not a problem.

when you come back just go through check-point no need to check in at the desk