B2B process on Celebrity

[AMTDGT]

We are doing our first B2B on Celebrity. We are staying in the same cabin for both legs. Our recollection is we will need to get new sea passes on the change over date, and that we will be instructed to attend some meeting room on board to facilitate that.

 

Am I correct in my assumption, and if so how long does the process usually take and how early in the morning can one start the process. We are trying to plan shore ex's for the change over date.

 

Also, does the cabin staff reset the cabin for the second leg...eg another bottle of sparking wine (we are C1), new captain's club discount coupons, etc.

 

Thx

[TeaBag]

We have done 3 B2B's and only attended a meeting on one of them because there were 400 of us. You will get notification of the changeover procedure to your cabin a day or two before the end of the first cruise. We got our new passes from guest services.

 

I don't know where you are doing the B2B. When we did it in San Juan, we simply got off the ship and apparently missed a huge snafu where the sea passes were not ready for some reason. We went on our tour and when we got back, they had our sea passes at the check-in desk.

 

I think if you want to do a tour, you should tell guest services at the beginning of the first cruise and they will look after you.

 

Yes, you get a full set of everything again as if you were new people boarding.

[RMSeadog]

If in states you must clear customs and immigration, the ship will have everything you need the night before, paperwork, new cards, where to meet if you are staying aboard. If in Europe you will get your stuff the night before and you will be free as soon as the ship is cleared. It is a brand new cruise so you will get everything required again. You will need to have your picture taken again and have to stop by Guest Relations to give up your credit card again for the new cruise's chargers. ~ Ric

[Northern Aurora]

This past spring we did B2B cruises. We also were in the same stateroom for both legs. If my memory is correct there were 12 B2B passengers. We assembled in a room about 10 AM, were given our new sea pass cards, escorted off to clear customs and then taken to the front of the boarding line to have new photos for the sea passes. Since each leg is treated as a separate cruise we received another set of elite coupons, tote bag, and sparkling wine.

[Orator]

If in states you must clear customs and immigration, the ship will have everything you need the night before, paperwork, new cards, where to meet if you are staying aboard. If in Europe you will get your stuff the night before and you will be free as soon as the ship is cleared. It is a brand new cruise so you will get everything required again. You will need to have your picture taken again and have to stop by Guest Relations to give up your credit card again for the new cruise's chargers. ~ Ric

 

This is all you need to know. Enjoy your cruise.

[Denny01]

Not to disagree with Orator and RMSeadog (never a good idea!), but my experience (in Europe) was a bit different...we didnt need a 2nd photo. They brought our new SeaPasses to us in our SR the night before and that was that. Except for that, our experince was the same.

 

our B2B was out of Rome so no customs or meetng in the morning.

 

The switch over was just like another port.

 

Den

[fleckle]

We have found that the procedure can vary depending on the turnaround port and the number of b2b passengers. It can even vary somewhat from one time to another at the same port on the same ship.

 

Sometimes they ask all the b2b people to meet together as a group and sometimes they don't.

 

In any case, you should receive a form near the beginning of the cruise where they ask for your end of cruise plans.

All you do is indicate that you are staying over and turn in the form.

 

Then close to the end of the first cruise, they will give you instructions with the procedure to be followed in your situation on your particular cruise and you should have no problem at all.

 

As for planning shore excursions that day, talk to the shore excursion people and they should be able to give you a good idea of the earliest time you should be able to get off under normal conditions.

(But of course there is always a possibility that unusual conditions may occur.)

If you are taking one of the ship's excursions, they will tell you where to meet and they will just wait and start the excursion later if there is a delay.

 

If taking a private excursion, bring along a cell phone so you can keep in contact with your tour operator if necessary.

 

Before booking a private excursion under such circumstances, or even at a port where we will need to tender, we always contact the tour operator in advance to discuss our situation and don't book with them unless we get assurance that they will either wait for us if necessary, transfer us to a later tour, or refund our money.

 

As for the second leg, you should get all the same perks you would receive if originally boarding there.

Sometimes we get the new seapass card the night before, and other times the next day. It really doesn't matter.

 

They should give you a transit pass to use at the turnaround port so that you can board the ship when you return without needing to wait in line with the new people who are checking in for the first time.

 

 

 

[Orator]

Not to disagree with Orator and RMSeadog (never a good idea!), but my experience (in Europe) was a bit different...we didnt need a 2nd photo. They brought our new SeaPasses to us in our SR the night before and that was that. Except for that, our experince was the same.

 

our B2B was out of Rome so no customs or meetng in the morning.

 

The switch over was just like another port.

 

Den

 

There can always be slight differences due to ports;however, I've always needed to walk through and have a picture taken. Each year I do two TAs combined with either the crusie prior or after the TA. I've departed from Rome, Southampton, Barcelona and Istanbul. I've also had to resubmit my credit card. The first time I didbn't know about the process and was called down to Guest Relations. Let's do a TA together and see what happens :)

[cruisestitch]

No one has mentioned yet a particular quirk that shows up sometimes on the second leg of a B2B -- your on-board account (and some of the TV channels) won't show up. You can't order rooms service via the TV, can't book shore excursions, can't pay-per-view movies -- it's a glitch in the accounting system. If this happens, go immediately to Guest Relations -- someone in the technical department has to "reset" something to free up the TV. It doesn't always happen, but sometimes it does.

 

Also, if you register for new Internet time you will need to choose a new user name and/or password -- can't use the ones from the cruise before.

[Denny01]

There can always be slight differences due to ports;however, I've always needed to walk through and have a picture taken. Each year I do two TAs combined with either the crusie prior or after the TA. I've departed from Rome, Southampton, Barcelona and Istanbul. I've also had to resubmit my credit card. The first time I didbn't know about the process and was called down to Guest Relations. Let's do a TA together and see what happens :)

 

Sounds great....lets do it. And by the way' I think you are closer to what is always done. My wife just reminded me we went down to get our chargecard set for the 2nd leg of our B2B in 2009. No photo, but did go to the Front Desk for the cc....so much for my memory.

 

Den

[seasearider]

We've done a number of b2b and they have varied wildly. In Boston we only needed to walk out on deck and get our new sea pass cards as a group. In Bayonne had to board the bus to customs and then wait for the ship to board. Fort Lauderdale had to wait for the ship to clear and go through customs again.

 

Good luck, hope you have our Boston experience.

[Hlitner]

The key to B to Bs is whether its in the USA or darn near anywhere else. If it is in any US port you will have to leave the ship, go through immigration, and then either leave the port or wait until the ship is cleared and you are allowed to reboard. If you decide to wait in the terminal building it could anywhere from about 30 min to several hours until you can reboard.

 

If you are in most other parts of the world it will just be like any other port day except you will need to be issued a new seapass card. Some cruise lines such as Holland America will actually issue a seapass card that is good for both cruises, but the last we heard Celebrity issues a separate card for each voyage.

 

Hank

P.S. We are soon doing back to backs in Europe (on X) and will try to remember and post how it goes.

[AMTDGT]

The key to B to Bs is whether its in the USA or darn near anywhere else. If it is in any US port you will have to leave the ship, go through immigration, and then either leave the port or wait until the ship is cleared and you are allowed to reboard. If you decide to wait in the terminal building it could anywhere from about 30 min to several hours until you can reboard.

 

If you are in most other parts of the world it will just be like any other port day except you will need to be issued a new seapass card. Some cruise lines such as Holland America will actually issue a seapass card that is good for both cruises, but the last we heard Celebrity issues a separate card for each voyage.

 

Thanks for the info.

We will drop by guest relations when we notice there isn't a line to get the process. Yes friends use cruise HAL a lot (and are currently on HAL in the Med) say they only get 1 card for the entire cruise on B2B's. I suspect the reason X changes cards is the card has information that may change e.g. colour on a cabin change, drink package status, captain's club level, etc.

 

The port is Dubai so we'll see. We have a private shore ex laid on at 15:00 but we want to do a few things in the morning, probably by cab. As this is really just a mid repositioning port (rarely visited) they may not have an actual process in place. As well, most of the folks on board (and the ship is pretty much sold out) are on B2B's so best guess is more than 1000 people will be staying for the next cruise.

[navyrotorhead]

We've done a number of b2b and they have varied wildly. In Boston we only needed to walk out on deck and get our new sea pass cards as a group. In Bayonne had to board the bus to customs and then wait for the ship to board. Fort Lauderdale had to wait for the ship to clear and go through customs again.

 

Good luck, hope you have our Boston experience.

 

Does it indicate you do ONLY b2b cruises?!:D

[Keith1010]

Thanks for the info.

We will drop by guest relations when we notice there isn't a line to get the process. Yes friends use cruise HAL a lot (and are currently on HAL in the Med) say they only get 1 card for the entire cruise on B2B's. I suspect the reason X changes cards is the card has information that may change e.g. colour on a cabin change, drink package status, captain's club level, etc.

 

The port is Dubai so we'll see. We have a private shore ex laid on at 15:00 but we want to do a few things in the morning, probably by cab. As this is really just a mid repositioning port (rarely visited) they may not have an actual process in place. As well, most of the folks on board (and the ship is pretty much sold out) are on B2B's so best guess is more than 1000 people will be staying for the next cruise.

 

If Dubai is your back to back port it should in fact be like any port day and you and come and go as you please.

 

You should be able to get off the ship as soon as you want after it has been cleared.

 

That has been our experience in Dubai on a back to back on another cruise line.

 

Keith

[Hlitner]

Thanks for the info.

We will drop by guest relations when we notice there isn't a line to get the process. Yes friends use cruise HAL a lot (and are currently on HAL in the Med) say they only get 1 card for the entire cruise on B2B's. I suspect the reason X changes cards is the card has information that may change e.g. colour on a cabin change, drink package status, captain's club level, etc.

 

The port is Dubai so we'll see. We have a private shore ex laid on at 15:00 but we want to do a few things in the morning, probably by cab. As this is really just a mid repositioning port (rarely visited) they may not have an actual process in place. As well, most of the folks on board (and the ship is pretty much sold out) are on B2B's so best guess is more than 1000 people will be staying for the next cruise.

 

Must admit that we find the Celebrity procedures a bit strange. When we book cruises on HA we often do a long cruise and there are no hassles. Our last cruise (62 days) actually could be purchased in 12 differrent segments so folks were coming on and leaving in many different ports. Passengers were simply issued a cruise card that covered their entire voyage (the card actually stated the dates). But on Celebrity when we wanted to book a 25 day cruise they insisted we book it as two separate cruises (back to back) and we had to actually make 2 deposits, get different promotions on each cruise, etc. When our cruise documents were issued there were 2 totally different sets of documents dining arrangements were separate for each cruise, etc. So whereas HA (and some other lines) handle back to backs as one longer cruise....Celebrity often chooses to complicate things by calling it multiple voyages. We have been told that this happens because Celebrity's computer program (that governs reservations) is not sophisticated enough to handle all the different variations (not sure if this is really true).

 

Hank

[RMSeadog]

Not to disagree with Orator and RMSeadog (never a good idea!), but my experience (in Europe) was a bit different...we didnt need a 2nd photo. They brought our new SeaPasses to us in our SR the night before and that was that. Except for that, our experince was the same.

 

our B2B was out of Rome so no customs or meetng in the morning.

 

The switch over was just like another port.

 

Den

 

I had always wondered why the they needed a new photo when then could just copy the one in the system.

 

Each ship seems to do it a wee bit differently. The process is so much easier overseas. ~ Ric

[Orator]

I had always wondered why the they needed a new photo when then could just copy the one in the system.

 

Each ship seems to do it a wee bit differently. The process is so much easier overseas. ~ Ric

 

Just a guess: The photo is associated with a specific Seapass card and they don't have, or don't use technology that would migrate the photo from one card to another. Or, they may feel that your apperance changes too much from one cruise to another to be used. If they did it like HAL they could use the same card throughout. However, I don't know if I would like to change to that system since an accounting problem could be a nightmare. But, I would need to give it some thought.

[fleckle]

.....Or, they may feel that your apperance changes too much from one cruise to another to be used......

If they used a full body shot instead of just a head shot, for many passengers that would be true! :D

[Orator]

If they used a full body shot instead of just a head shot, for many passengers that would be true! :D

 

You're right about that :) Might need a wide angle lens.

[Nancyquilts]

What about a back to back where you are changing cabins? Does anyone have any experience with this? I imagine a room steward will move the hangared clothing, and everything else can be put into a suitcase, but timing might be a problem as both cabins would be getting cleaned at the same time.

[Orator]

What about a back to back where you are changing cabins? Does anyone have any experience with this? I imagine a room steward will move the hangared clothing, and everything else can be put into a suitcase, but timing might be a problem as both cabins would be getting cleaned at the same time.

 

I've done this quite a bit. You inform your cabin steward that you will be moving and he/she will inform the steward of the cabin you are moving to. The new steward will inform your old steward when the cabin is clear. We usually go along when things are moved. Sometimes the hangers won't be able to be transfered to the new cabin and clothes may have to be removed, but most times that can be avoided. They want you to switch to the new cabin prior to the end of disembarkation. The cleaning takes place after the transfer. You will receive detailed instructions about the move and rest assured that they do it every week.

[Nancyquilts]

Thanks for the info. Previously we had been in the same cabin, but it looks like this process will be quite easy.