Quick facts:
I organize a cruise for a group of our friends (30is people - families with kids)
About 6-7 previous cruises for this group - all 7 day Caribbean on RCCL
We like Freedom class or above ships
A mix of cruising for the ship amenities & activities AND ports
Here are 2 options for summer 2024:
A 7-day cruise on Oasis to Caribbean with ports none of us care about (1 Honduras and 2 in Mexico). Love the ship
A B2B on Independence (3+4 days) that would stop at Coco-cay twice (we all love it). Like the ship
I was leaning towards a B2B because of Coco Cay but then started thinking of the cons. Can any seasoned B2B pros share some opinions on these CONS:
Turnaround day - do you feel like you lose a day of vacation? You have to go through customs, may have to change rooms (meaning pack and unpack again), second muster drill, 1st day crowds on the ship (until they open cabins) are painful. Can you even get in your cabin during that time?
Dining menu - would they repeat for the 3 and 4 day cruises? We always do the dining room and like the food there. But would this mean we'd repeat the same 3 menus twice?
No lobster - I don't think they do lobster on shorter cruises, right? Our group is all about lobsters
Formal nights - we're those rare people that love to dress up nicely and take photos. Shorter cruises do have "dress to impress" nights but I think the attitude is a lot more lax (shorts and flipflops) than on longer cruises.
Shows and game shows - would the headliner and guest shows repeat? Also, I guess, there would also be 2 of each main activity - love & marriage, belly flop, sexiest man, and the likes… We do like ship shows and activities.
Service - maybe it's me but I always felt that service was better on longer cruises where the staff (cabin steward, bartenders, dining room) felt like getting more involved (probably more tips in mind). On 3 & 4 days, I felt like they were just churning over batches of passengers.
PROs
2 days at Coco Cay! We'd spend a week there if we could. We probably wouldn't even disembark on the longer cruise (which gets really boring).
Twice the Diamond benefits - internet days, wine coupons, photos… (we have a few Diamonds in the group)
The B2B is slightly more expensive (about $150/pp) due to addl. set of port fees but it's not the biggest factor.
Any advice would be greatly welcomed!!