Why do people do back to back cruises?

I am new and just learned the term "back to back?" I am curious why someone would do this? I genuinely want to understand.

If someone wants a longer cruise, why not book one? Why repeat the same itinerary? Is there an added benefit cruise ships give back to back customers?

Thank you for explaining!

Laura

I am new and just learned the term "back to back?" I am curious why someone would do this? I genuinely want to understand.

 

If someone wants a longer cruise, why not book one? Why repeat the same itinerary? Is there an added benefit cruise ships give back to back customers?

 

Thank you for explaining!

Laura

Very often the itinerary is not repeated - an example is Royal Caribbean’s Grandeur of 5he seas from Baltimore - alternating Bahamas with Caribbean itineraries. Ships on many Florida sailings from a given port will alternate eastern and western Caribbean —- so it’s being on the ship “back to back”, not covering the same ground.

I know this is pretty popular, but I’m with you. Don’t want the same menus, shows and itinerary....although some ships, like RCCL’S Oasis class alternate between western and Eastern Caribbean

Very often the itinerary is not repeated - an example is Royal Caribbean’s Grandeur of 5he seas from Baltimore - alternating Bahamas with Caribbean itineraries. Ships on many Florida sailings from a given port will alternate eastern and western Caribbean —- so it’s being on the ship “back to back”, not covering the same ground.

OH! That makes so much more sense. Thank you for explaining!

I am new and just learned the term "back to back?" I am curious why someone would do this? I genuinely want to understand.

 

 

 

If someone wants a longer cruise, why not book one? Why repeat the same itinerary? Is there an added benefit cruise ships give back to back customers?

 

 

 

Thank you for explaining!

 

Laura

B2B doesn't necessarily mean repeating the same exact itinerary.

For example, one of our future cruises consists of a Rio to BA cruise followed immediately by a BA to Lima one. In this particular instance, the two cruises are marketed as an "extended journey" by the cruise line and among the various benefits is a price for the two segments that is significantly less expensive than the two separate cruises together. For those multi-segment cruises that are not marketed as a single extended journey, one could still book the two (or more) segments as a B2B or B2B2B etc. There would also be discount in that situation.

FYI, while "world cruises" are marketed as such, they do consist of "segments" that are marketed as individual cruises or multiple segment "extended journeys" (or B2B).

I am new and just learned the term "back to back?" I am curious why someone would do this? I genuinely want to understand.

 

If someone wants a longer cruise, why not book one? Why repeat the same itinerary? Is there an added benefit cruise ships give back to back customers?

 

Thank you for explaining!

Laura

Back to back cruises do not necessarily have the same itinerary. The two different itineraries make a longer cruise that usually is different from others.

We did a b2b that was Northern Europe followed by transatlantic followed by Western Caribbean.

T

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My family has been wanting to do a back-to-back cruise on different cruise lines. We were thinking of doing a one-way up to Alaska on one line, then a one-way back down on another line, if such a thing is possible. That way we could experience two different ships and cruise lines. :)

I am not sure if that still counts as a back-to-back cruise, though.

We had one booked b2b2b

Sydney-Auckland

Auckland-Perth (across the bottom of Aus)

Perth back to Sydney (around te top end)

Why, because we wanted a circumnavigation and that was the only one fitting our requirements.

Had to cancel and did a more conventional circumnavigation the following season.

A lot of people don't like sea days, a 14 night back to back might have only 4 sea days. We like transatlantics because of sea days. Our upcoming Symphony transatlantic has 2 port stops over 12 nights. We have a 18 night transpacific booked for 2020 with 11 sea days. Perfect for us.

On my Land of the Midnight Sun cruise to Norway in June lots of cruisers were doing the B2B that followed to the Baltic’s . Only repeated Port was the return to Southampton.

I am new and just learned the term "back to back?" I am curious why someone would do this? I genuinely want to understand.

 

 

 

If someone wants a longer cruise, why not book one? Why repeat the same itinerary? Is there an added benefit cruise ships give back to back customers?

 

 

 

Thank you for explaining!

 

Laura

We did a b2b in Alaska, south from Seward to Vancouver, back north to Seward. Same ports. Different weather. Able to do different activities for each port. And, given the fine choices on the menu, we were glad to see the menu repeat so that we could try different dishes. If anyone offered a 14-day round trip from Seward, we would have done that instead.

(And by the way, a simple 7 day cruise is just too short in my opinion. Did that for our first cruise, hopefully never again.)

Stan

We do B2B's for various reasons. In Alaska, we always do B2B, as we drive to/from the cruise terminal in Vancouver. No flights required.

When crossing the Atlantic, we wanted some additional days, so we booked the previous cruise on the same ship.

We have done back to back to backs :). As has been posted, these usually involve a ship doing different itineraries. Those of us that do long cruises (for us it can be longer then 2 months) often need to string together segments to equal a long cruise. While some cruise lines do sell long cruises, others tend to do them on separate segments. Celebrity is a very good example...and they actually treat back to backs as different cruises and even issue different cruise cards for each cruise. Other lines like HAL view it as one long cruise with multiple segments. But even with those lines it can sometimes make sense to book separate cruises (back to backs) because there are various price and amenity issues that favor the separate bookings.

Hank

One more point to this discussion: when thinking about B2B, always consider the frequency of menu repeats. For example, on Oceania, you can pretty much count on no MDR main entree repeats over at least 21 days.

In some cases the cruise may be sold as one longer cruise plus two or more shorter segments. If you've booked the longer cruise you end up effectively doing a B2B whether you like it or not. This happened to us in the Mediterranean last year. There were definitely some disadvantages to having it operate as two shorter cruises.

To cruise for longer and se many more ports., not all itineraries repeat.

I am new and just learned the term "back to back?" I am curious why someone would do this? I genuinely want to understand.

 

If someone wants a longer cruise, why not book one? Why repeat the same itinerary? Is there an added benefit cruise ships give back to back customers?

 

Thank you for explaining!

Laura

My family has been wanting to do a back-to-back cruise on different cruise lines. We were thinking of doing a one-way up to Alaska on one line, then a one-way back down on another line, if such a thing is possible. That way we could experience two different ships and cruise lines. :)

 

 

 

I am not sure if that still counts as a back-to-back cruise, though.

We do BtoB cruises all the time, but usually we switch ships. In October we are doing a BtoBtoBtoB, all out of the Miami/Ft Lauderdale area. My wife just retired and we can now cruise "off-season". Why not four cruises after paying for air, hotels and rental cars? If you have the time, it can be very cost effective.

GeneralPorpoise -- North and southbound Alaska cruises tend to be cheaper than the R/T cruises, so yes, that's the way we do it. Try HAL or Princess northbound and Celebrity or NCL southbound and you will get a nice mix of ports and glaciers. We did 23 days, with a week in the Kenai/Anchorage area (land travel), on two different cruise lines.

Enjoy!

Kel:D

We love doing back-to-back cruises -- they do have different itineraries. Usually the only port repeated is the embarkation port.

Our first cruise(s) was (were) back-to-back back in the 70's. Loved going to so many new ports.

One time we did a 21 day Panama Canal repositioning cruise and then added on a 7 day Alaskan cruise -- a different version of a back-to-back.

Sometimes we got a small discount for doing them.

A number of years ago HAL changed many of their back-to-back cruises into Collectors Cruises. We did a small discount. The difference between a back-to-back and a Collectors Cruise -- back-to-back cruises you have 2 confirmation numbers where on a Collectors Cruise you have only 1 confirmation number.

There are also not a lot of choices for longer cruises. B2B 9 nighters, and you get 18 nights. Not a lot of them.

We have done b2b cruises on 4 different lines, a different itinerary each time with one exception, a Panama canal cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Sand Diego and back. Although the itinerary was the same, all the ports in between were different.

In Europe or the Mediterranean a b2b repeat is not uncommon.

1) Airfare is expensive so you want to maximize your time abroad.

2) Port intensive itineraries so you may want to skip a port to enjoy the ship

3) Lots to see in the ports so you get twice the opportunity , not as rushed

4) hotels are small & food expensive so there’s value in a b2b

5) many spring or fall cruises for $100us a day or less per person

We prefer cruises in the 10-14 day range; however, we've done two B2B's Eastern/Western Caribbean 7 day cruises equaling 14 days. We stay in the same cabin so turn-around day isn't a big deal. Frankly, one thing we do like about a B2B is the last night of the first cruise. Seeing the luggage in the hallway and knowing you have another week is its own little pleasure.

We have done a B2B out of San Juan. Only one flight and one night hotel expense.

Did two 7 night itineraries. First week had 6 ports & 1 sea day. Second week had 5 ports & 2 sea days.

Total of 3 sea days out of 14.

11 ports with only one repeat island in the Southern Caribbean and the starting port of San Juan.

One of our favorite cruises to date.

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One more point to this discussion: when thinking about B2B, always consider the frequency of menu repeats. For example, on Oceania, you can pretty much count on no MDR main entree repeats over at least 21 days.

With different menus each night of a 7 night cruise, and several different items being offered on each night's menu, repeating the same menu week to week is not the problem you imply it is. On week one just pick one entree on the menu, and the next week when that menu is repeated, just pick another item. No different than going more than once to a local restaurant at home which will have the same menu for months at a time.

Not being a food or cruise line snob, I have never had a problem encountering the same menu on a cruise ship. Sometimes that is even a blessing if I was pleased with an entree and wanted to enjoy it again.