BtoB cruise info please

[lais]

Hi, I am booked on a BtoB cruise and will be changing staterooms. Can anyone tell me what the method is for a BtoB? Do I have to get off the ship with my luggage and check back in?

 

Also, has anyone done a long 30 day cruise on a Solstice class ship? I did one on a smaller ship and it was fabulous but wonder what it's like on a larger ship. Thanks

[rburns44]

lais, will be watching to see what others say, as we are doing a B2B and changing staterooms also. Have 2 different reservation #'s as we added a week. Hope others chime in!

 

Becky

[CathyCruises]

You do not have to take your luggage off the ship! Your room attendant or butler will help you move to your new stateroom, they will likely bring a rolling rack to move your clothes on hangers. You will have to leave the ship briefly and then will be allowed back on with a new sea pass card.

[lais]

You do not have to take your luggage off the ship! Your room attendant or butler will help you move to your new stateroom, they will likely bring a rolling rack to move your clothes on hangers. You will have to leave the ship briefly and then will be allowed back on with a new sea pass card.

Thank you. Good to know about the luggage.

[lais]

lais, will be watching to see what others say, as we are doing a B2B and changing staterooms also. Have 2 different reservation #'s as we added a week. Hope others chime in!

 

Becky

So where is your BtoB? Mine is in Australia in March/April.

[Lsimon]

Whether you have to get off the ship at all will depend on the location of your cruise turnaround day.

 

At USA ports all passengers must go through Border Patrol (customs & immigration) off the ship. They'll give you instructions on board which depend on whether you plan on spending the day in port or staying on the ship. If staying on the ship you'll need to meet at a designated spot towards the end of the general disembarkation and be escorted off the ship, through border patrol and back on as a group.

 

I believe that at some European ports you don't need to go through customs and immigration at all depending on the location and itinerary.

 

Also, check-in for the second leg will be taken care of on the ship. You'll receive full instructions for turn around day before the end of your first cruise. Discuss moving with your current cabin steward and the cabin steward for your new cabin.

Edited December 8, 2014 by Lsimon

[rburns44]

CathyCruises- thank you for the info. do you know when they do this? After everyone is off or do we still need to be out of our cabins early?

 

lais, ours is on the Eclipse leaving this Sat. the 13th. We were booked for Christmas week then saw the price for the week before and booked. Same ports but we don't care- we are on a cruise!

[GeorgesGal]

I'm also on a b2b in April. Spoke with X twice and received somewhat different info each time. First rep said everything must be packed up and taken to a special room in the port for 'in transits', then when ship is zeroed out, we re-board and get new sea passes with the new stateroom.

 

Second rep also said to pack everything up but to leave in stateroom for stewards to transfer to new room. We will have to disembark and go to the special room in port, as stated above.

 

Let me know what your experiences are, please.

 

P.S. Our turn-around port is San Juan, P.R.

Edited December 8, 2014 by George'sGal

[lais]

lais, ours is on the Eclipse leaving this Sat. the 13th. We were booked for Christmas week then saw the price for the week before and booked. Same ports but we don't care- we are on a cruise!

 

I wouldn't care either. Have a great Christmas vacation.

[lais]

Whether you have to get off the ship at all will depend on the location of your cruise turnaround day.

 

At USA ports all passengers must go through Border Patrol (customs & immigration) off the ship. They'll give you instructions on board which depend on whether you plan on spending the day in port or staying on the ship. If staying on the ship you'll need to meet at a designated spot towards the end of the general disembarkation and be escorted off the ship, through border patrol and back on as a group.

 

I believe that at some European ports you don't need to go through customs and immigration at all depending on the location and itinerary.

 

Also, check-in for the second leg will be taken care of on the ship. You'll receive full instructions for turn around day before the end of your first cruise. Discuss moving with your current cabin steward and the cabin steward for your new cabin.

 

Good info. Thank you.

[cruzzzinma]

We spent 29 days on the Solsrice in September and October and we did change staterooms.

 

We did not have to clear customs and we did not have to get off the ship. B2B guests were invited to a meeting about a week before the first cruise ended and got an overview of what was going to happen. We were told we'd receive an envelope the night before the cruise ended with new sea pass cards and instructions. We were supposed to use our old card to exit the ship and the new one to come back on. If we elected not to exit, we had to go to Quasar to "zero out" and get new pictures taken. We also got a transit pass to skip all the lines if we left for the day and came back. The instructions also said that we had to move before disembarking for the day or we had to make arrangements with the attendants to move our belongings.

 

We had the same cabin attendants for both legs. We put all of our stuff in the drawers into our luggage. We wanted access to our new cabin safe before we left the ship. The cabin attendants knocked our door once the previous occupants had left and they cleaned the cabin. They kept an eye on our new cabin and cleaned it as soon as it was vacated. They moved almost all of our stuff for us because they were faster than we were.

 

We waited almost until the end of debarkation to leave the ship so we did do the 2 minute exit through Quasar and get new pics taken drill.

 

If you research the back to back procedures, they all say "every ship is different." That is true, but they all provide you with specific instructions.

[cruzzzinma]

We stayed in our cabin until our new cabin was ready. It made for a lot less drama!!!!

 

We might not have been able to do that if we hadn't had the same cabin attendants.

[Lsimon]

CathyCruises- thank you for the info. do you know when they do this? After everyone is off or do we still need to be out of our cabins early?

 

lais, ours is on the Eclipse leaving this Sat. the 13th. We were booked for Christmas week then saw the price for the week before and booked. Same ports but we don't care- we are on a cruise!

 

On our experience at Port Everglades, a few years back on Connie, we had to meet at 9 or 9:30. We waited until the last disembarking passenger was off then all b2b passengers staying on board did the walk through customs. We didn't change rooms but our friends did - just down the hall. By the time we got back to our room after customs the cabin stewards had moved all their stuff for them. I think all they had left was to move contents of their safe.

 

I'm also on a b2b in April. Spoke with X twice and received somewhat different info each time. First rep said everything must be packed up and taken to a special room in the port for 'in transits'' date=' then when ship is zeroed out, we re-board and get new sea passes with the new stateroom.

 

Second rep also said to pack everything up but to leave in stateroom for stewards to transfer to new room. We will have to disembark and go to the special room in port, as stated above.

 

Let me know what your experiences are, please.

 

P.S. Our turn-around port is San Juan, P.R.[/quote']

 

First rep is way off. I've never even read of an experience like that and never read of anyone having to take their belongings off the ship. Second rep is more on point although I've never heard of a "special room in port" for b2b guests. But maybe they do that somewhere. The stateroom attendants will let you know the extent that you have to pack. Usually you need to have everything not hanging in the closet ready to move one way or another, in luggage, bags, boxes, etc. The stateroom attendants usually tell you to leave stuff hanging in closets alone and they'll move it on a rack to the new closet.

 

Of course if you are not changing cabins then nothing needs to be packed or moved.

 

As I said above you'll be fine and know what to do between reading the directions you'll receive on board and discussing the move with your new and old stateroom attendants.

Edited December 8, 2014 by Lsimon

[rburns44]

Thanks to all whom replied! After reading this to my sister, she said, "but we're going on the Reflection!" That is true. Eclipse is TA in April! Guess we will wait to see how it works out! Thank you again!

 

Becky

[Northern Aurora]

Since we live in the middle of Alaska and so fly to every cruise port we usually do B2B (or B2B2B) cruises as it just seems like a better use of the air fare. We've done B2B cruises on C-class ships, M-class ships and S-class ships.

 

The number of B2B passengers has ranged from about twelve to over three-hundred. There is a great variety in how the turnaround day is handled but the one constant is that when the departing passengers receive their disembarkation packets the B2B passengers will receive a succinct letter of instructions. If you have any questions about that letter go to Guest Relations for clarification.

 

And to lais -- where is your turnaround port in Australia? We just did a turnaround day in Sydney last October. We spent a week in Sydney several years ago and love the city. It was a great city for a turnaround day as we were docked at the OPT so there were a number of sights and places of interest to just walk to for a few hours.

[lais]

 

And to lais -- where is your turnaround port in Australia? We just did a turnaround day in Sydney last October. We spent a week in Sydney several years ago and love the city. It was a great city for a turnaround day as we were docked at the OPT so there were a number of sights and places of interest to just walk to for a few hours.

 

We will be in Sydney. First to Fiji which we have done before and then to Hawaii. I just loved Australia and especially the people. We also flew to Port Douglas that trip and I highly recommend it. Met the most awesome Aussies on that cruise and will reunite with them when we arrive. I'm just hoping I can handle 30 days on a solatice class ship. I usually go for the smaller ships so I'll have to wait and see.

[Northern Aurora]

We will be in Sydney. First to Fiji which we have done before and then to Hawaii. I just loved Australia and especially the people. We also flew to Port Douglas that trip and I highly recommend it. Met the most awesome Aussies on that cruise and will reunite with them when we arrive. I'm just hoping I can handle 30 days on a solatice class ship. I usually go for the smaller ships so I'll have to wait and see.

 

During the time we spent in Australia last fall (following thirty-five nights on the Century) we flew out to Uluru for four days. Next trip I want to fly into WA since we've never been, then spend a week in Uluru before boarding in Sydney for the TP back to North America.

 

While we like smaller ships we have spent over thirty days on a Solstice class ship, and had no problems. But I have always thought that there is no "perfect" cruise ship and as long as I am on the ocean I'm a happy camper.

[sharhu22]

We are doing a B2B on the Silhouette in January. We have never done a B2B on any other cruise lines we have been on and this is our first time on Celebrity so I was anxious to hear what we might expect. We will be moving from a Sunset View cabin to Aqua so I doubt we would have the same steward. Guess that would have made it easier.

 

 

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[h & m]

You do not have to take your luggage off the ship! Your room attendant or butler will help you move to your new stateroom, they will likely bring a rolling rack to move your clothes on hangers. You will have to leave the ship briefly and then will be allowed back on with a new sea pass card.

 

 

In terms of moving rooms, this is what has happened to us on the Solstice,, it was quite painless. We just packed everything not on hangers, everything hanging was moved to the new stateroom. As they had not finished cleaning the new room, we went back later to unpack, but were able to use the safe to stow our valuables.

 

As far as going off the ship, it really does depend on the local port, and there are many variables, such as whether you have already cleared immigration for that country.

 

One exception on the Solstice, we did a BTB Sydney - Honolulu- Ensenada - Seattle, 39 days which we loved.

 

There was a Noro outbreak on the first leg. All passengers were required to be off the ship for several hours for a deep cleaning in Honolulu. For the BTB passengers we were given a free tour in Hawaii. Luckily we were not changing cabins that time, those passengers were required to pack everything, and their cases were removed from their rooms for the cleaning process. Not sure whether the cases were stored on board or in the terminal, but they were not to be accessed until the cabins were available (about 6pm) due to the cleaning.

 

This is not the norm, but it may be why you are getting conflicting information.

 

Hilary :)

[themutis]

Arno has been posting about his Reflection B2B cruise (Thanks Arno) and posted the info he received on board.

 

Here is a link to his post

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=44915954&postcount=51

 

Hope this helps.

[lais]

Arno has been posting about his Reflection B2B cruise (Thanks Arno) and posted the info he received on board.

 

Here is a link to his post

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=44915954&postcount=51

 

Hope this helps.

Beautiful! I take pics of everything too and I love it that Arno thought to take a photo of this. Thank you

[happymom]

Thanks for the info. We are on Back to Back in January. Can't wait. We were lucky enough not to have to change cabins. :):):)

[Ruthk]

We are on a BtoB this Feb. on the Eclipse and it sure would be nice if we didn't have to get off the ship and could be processed in one of the lounges.

also it seems we can have lunch in one of the other restaurants. Is that complimentary?

[lais]

Thanks for the info. We are on Back to Back in January. Can't wait. We were lucky enough not to have to change cabins. :):):)

 

Even if I could change cabins I wouldn't because the price of my cruise went up $2000 total :eek: I booked the Sydney to Hawaii on board my cruise last year (I now like booking on board) and I booked the first segment a couple of weeks ago. I have CC cabin for the first leg so I could get all of the 123go promo and the second leg in SV cabin way way way on the back of the ship a million miles from the elevator. Love the aft cabins but I think I am going to love my near the evavators cabin more for this ship.

[ladytaekwondo]

We have done a B2B only on RCI, but we have one scheduled with Celebrity in January.

 

Captain's Club told me over the phone (we have the same cabins for both cruises), that it will be just like on RCI since it is a US port.

 

We leave the room as is, go to a designated spot in the port, get new Sea Passes, and may go off the ship to explore or go back to the ship. We will not be able to access our cabins till everyone else does though due to cleaning, etc. We just hang out at the pool and loved it!

 

If we had a different cabin, we would just pack up and the cabin stewards will move the luggage...same for everything else.