B2B2B on Carnival Destiny

[Bloopmnstr]

My boyfriend and I are planning on a b2b2b on the Destiny January 2013. I read that if we book the same room we should be able to keep our stuff in the room, is this true for all Carnival ships? Also, do we have to get off the ship and go through customs, security and the lines to get back on? And finally, would we have to go through the muster drill 3 times?

 

Any answers and advice would be appreciated, Thanks!

[MSRussell]

If you have the same room, tell the Steward, and you will be able to leave all your stuff in your room. What I did, I printed out all my boarding passes, made it easier when I was walked off and on the ship.

If you leave the ship for an hour or so, when you come back, tell an employee that you are on a B2B, you will be walked around everyone to get back on board.

Someone will walk you off, through customs, and right back on.

Before the Italian disaster, sometimes we could hide out in the room during Muster drill after the first cruise, they may have gotten stricter now.

Melanie

[Bloopmnstr]

Ok, that sounds easy enough. As for the muster drills I can understand that. At least they're pretty quick and easy. Thanks for your help!

[ncbeachteacher]

We just completed a B2B on Carnival Legend. We unpacked once (AWESOME!) and our steward was great about letting us hang out in the cabin that morning when others were getting off.

 

We did have to present to the customs agent early in the morning but were in a small group that went first. We were given a pass that would allow us to leave the ship and return without any issues but we didn't use it.

 

As far as the muster drill goes, we did both of them and did not attempt to hide out in the cabin. It is not a big deal really and we didn't have an issue with doing it again!

[PaulMedik]

.......

Before the Italian disaster, sometimes we could hide out in the room during Muster drill after the first cruise, they may have gotten stricter now.

Melanie

 

 

We've been excused from muster, attended muster, and got excused after arriving at muster on our B2B cruises. In all three cases we never mentioned it; on the one we were excused from our steward delivered a note advising attendance was optional and the ship staff recognized us standing in formation beside the boats at the beginning of the one we were excused after arriving and told us we could return to our cabins. The last one that we were excused from and did not attend was held in a lounge.

 

Our next muster will be in April on Liberty. We'll have our same cabin area as our last three sailings on her, but our last muster was in the aft dining room and was kinda lax. I hope we'll have to don our vests and report to our boarding locations for muster and I REALLY hope it's before sailaway. The only musters I despise are those held during sailaway. :o

[mountainbreeze]

My new husband and I took a B2B on the Destiny last May for our honeymoon. We booked the same cabin for both cruises and we did get to leave our things in our room.

 

For the turnaround instructions, we received a letter in our cabin the night before we docked back in Miami. Here is what our letter said:

 

 

May 7, 2011

Stateroom 6186

Dear Mr & Mrs ------,

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for choosing the CARNIVAL DESTINY for your vacation. Our guests are very important to us and we appreciate your patronage. We do hope you enjoyed your stay with us so far and we hope Carnival Cruise Lines has lived up to its reputation for providing a quality cruise vacation that exceeds the expectations of our guests.

 

As you are sailing with us again next cruise, we would like to provide you with some information that you will need for your arrival into Miami.

 

All guests sailing back-to-back are required to disembark the vessel in order to be processed through US Customs and Border Protection. Please have your passport and customs declaration completed, ready for inspection.

 

If you have plans to enjoy your day in Miami you are welcome to leave the ship anytime between 7:30am and 9:30am. Upon your return to the terminal, please proceed to the "VIP Lounge" for our priority VIP check in, anytime between 11:15am and 3:00pm.

 

If you prefer to remain onboard during embarkation morning we kindly ask that you come to the Palladium Lounge located in deck 3 fwd at 9:40am to be presented to US Customs & Border Protection.

 

Please note that your Sail & Sign account and your cabin keys do not continue from one cruise to the next cruise - you would need to activate a new Sail & Sign account as soon as the new voyage is loaded in our system. Please stop by our Concierge desk or use our S&S kiosks, located in Lobby Deck 3 and Promenade Deck 5 forward. Your S7S account has a period of grace which will allow you to make purchases before your account gets activated.

 

Again, thank you for choosing Carnival. Should you require further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact Guest Services located on Lobby deck 3 or by dialing extension 7777.

 

We do hope you have an enjoyable day in Miami.

Sincerely,

Guest Services

Carnival Destiny

 

 

This is how our turn-around day went for us:

We woke fairly early that morning, my husband ordered coffee from room service, which was delivered quickly.

 

 

We went to the Lido deck around 8:00am and went through the buffet line for breakfast.

 

Around 9:30am, we took our old S&S cards from the previous 5 days, our new boarding passes (we had printed them at home before the cruise), our passports, customs forms, I.D's, and our camera, and we went to the Palladium Lounge.

 

The lounge was fairly empty, there was another couple there who were also doing a B2B.

 

There was also a group of about 10 others who were family of some crew members.

 

We waited in the Lounge for about 10-15 minutes, and a few crew members came to get us. They escorted us off the ship, and into a huge area (I think this was a baggage area). The crew member (Officer) presented us to a customs agent who checked over our passports and our customs declarations.

 

After we were cleared, which only took a minute or two, the Officer handed us all our new S&S cards for the next cruise. Then we all walked back onboard and entered into the ships lobby. Our new S&S cards were swiped into the machine, and we were done.

 

We were back on board by 10:15 am and we had the ship to ourselves for a few hours.

We walked around and explored the ship and took some great pictures.

 

Around noon we went to the Lido deck and got lunch, by that time the new passengers were starting to make their way to the buffet too.

 

After we ate lunch, we decided to try to get back to our cabin, even though we knew passengers weren't allowed to go to their cabins yet. We used the stairs, and we had no problem getting to our cabin.

 

We spent a few hours in our cabin, making phone calls and relaxing.

We did go to the Muster Drill. We had asked our cabin steward the day before if we would have to go to the drill, and he told us we should go, so we did. It only lasts about 15 minutes, and it's painless.

 

Back in our cabin, we received a bottle of wine and a fruit basket from guest services, a gift for doing the B2B. :)

[WinnipegCruiser]

We are doing the Destiny Back to Back to Back....in just a few days...

 

You have all the 411 on how this works, so I really don't have anything to add, I just like telling people about my B2B2B....heh.

[ItsAllAboutTheSass]

We did the B2B2B on the Destiny as well. I have no more information to give you as others have described it pretty well. We were seated in the same same area in the dining room each cruise. By the third cruise we had quite a few waiters coming over and talking to us.

[Bloopmnstr]

Oh wow, thanks for all the info, especially that letter from Carnival, that explains a lot. I like to know exactly what to do and expect, I'm kind of a nervous traveler.

[Bloopmnstr]

Oh WinnipegCruiser, have a great time on your cruise! It's gonna be nice after the first cruise knowing that you don't have to go home yet. I'm super jealous ;)