Getting Down to Cases on the Sojourn

The problem with back to back cruises is that one day in the middle is totally chaotic

Hello Dalliowner

Having just had a wonderful first cruise on Odyssey I am looking at a back to back, Lisbon to Barbados for repositioning and then 14 days in Barbados. Would you please explain the chaos! Thank you.

Our last back-to-back was Manaus to Monaco with the changeover in Fort Lauderdale. We just took a tour for the day thereby avoiding the "chaos" if there was any.

Hi Chancerand Dancer

The chaos ( if that is the right word ) is that in the early morning you have lot of guests waiting around with luggage waiting to get off the ship and at lunch time onward lots trying to get on and in the middle the staff trying to get cabins ready. The best thing as Roxburgh says is to take a tour.

Saying that our next cruise is two cruises back to back but at least we know what to expect'

The guilty pleasure of lying in bed knowing you don't have to rush because you're staying on board. As everyone else is sad to be leaving you're excited to meet new people :)

Henry

Two great options for turnarounds UBS day on a back-to-back.

1) Get up early, get the heck out of the way by going into the port city, then come back late in the day just in time for the safety drill.

2) Sleep in, go enjoy a very quiet morning in one of the public areas alone, head back to your cabin and order room service lunch and watch movies.

Not Seabourn related, but we did a turn-around day on a large ship (NCL in Miami) earlier this year and we go tvto watch behind the scenes what it takes to turn one of the really big ships around in less than 4 hours. It was such a finely tuned operation... as someone who works in strategy/logistics, I was impressed with the mechanics of it all, including the dockside operation. We even walked down with the purser to watch as they settled out passenger counts with ICE and offloaded old crew and boarded new crew. They not only flipped 2,500 passengers without blinking an eye, but they went from a three-day "party cruise" to a four-day Cuban cruise (during their inaugural run) which also required swapping out some decor, changing music, and the staff going from serving an "all-inclusive party crowd" to VIPs, execs, and shareholders onboard for the Cuba sailing.

I now want to stay on and watch a Seabourn change for comparison!

We will be on a back to back in June. I'm torn between leaving the ship for a tour or staying onboard to watch the changeover. I'll have to check and see where we will be. I think it may be Copenhagen, so we will probably take a tour. I think that is one of the ports where we will book a private guide to see as much as possible in one day. We've never been to Copenhagen. Any advice is very welcome.

We will be on a back to back in June. I'm torn between leaving the ship for a tour or staying onboard to watch the changeover. I'll have to check and see where we will be. I think it may be Copenhagen, so we will probably take a tour. I think that is one of the ports where we will book a private guide to see as much as possible in one day. We've never been to Copenhagen. Any advice is very welcome.

Copenhagen is very walkable and there is usually a shuttle bus into the center (although we walked). It is also pretty safe.

Depending on the weather, you can really do your own thing. While I understand the temptation of a private guide, a guide book might be a better investement. When we were there the weather was gorgeous. So we walked into the center and then took a boat tour all around Copenhagen (which is full of canals). Very interesting, very well done and very reasonably priced.

Thank you Roxburgh. Great advice.

I agree with Roxburgh that Copenhagen is a wonderful place to explore on your own.

We also like to walk and left the ship early when it docked, so we could walk past the Little Mermaid and get photos with no-one around. We then took one of the morning boat tours which we enjoyed getting the history both modern and olden time. When we went past the Little Mermaid on the tour it was mid morning and the crowd around her was quite thick, so I am glad I got my photos earlier.

The day we were there we were lucky as they had a small annual Viking Festival on and we got to check that out. This was in late August.

We really liked Copenhagen and hope to do a cruise that starts or ends there one day so we spend a few days exploring further.

Julie

We did a Segway tour of Copenhagen and it was fantastic! The tour office is directly across from where we docked. After the Segway you can take the shuttle into town and spend time in the venue of choice. My wife and I use the local Segway tours whenever possible, they are great fun and a great way to see the city.