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1st B2B cruise booked

soloadventurer

By soloadventurer,
in Royal Caribbean International

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atb

atb

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First they said - if you get a balcony - you'll never go back.  And that is SO correct.

Then they said - B2B cruise - and you'll be spoiled for less.  And that is also SOOOOO correct.  

We have 7 B2B cruises booked thru spring 2021.

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dominicr

dominicr

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When you do back to backs they don’t make you get off and check back in?  I know there are a lot of people on here that talk about them but I’ve never read those topics as up until now it’s never really been anything that’s interested me.  Now being older, having more money, and more time off it might be something nice to look into.  

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maria1122

maria1122

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23 minutes ago, dominicr said:

When you do back to backs they don’t make you get off and check back in?  I know there are a lot of people on here that talk about them but I’ve never read those topics as up until now it’s never really been anything that’s interested me.  Now being older, having more money, and more time off it might be something nice to look into.  

 

It depends on what ship and port you are on.  We have been on B2B on the Anthem.  We meet in the lounge and customs come up there and check passports and you then get your new key card.

 

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davekathy

davekathy

Posted
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1 hour ago, dominicr said:

When you do back to backs they don’t make you get off and check back in?  I know there are a lot of people on here that talk about them but I’ve never read those topics as up until now it’s never really been anything that’s interested me.  Now being older, having more money, and more time off it might be something nice to look into.  

A day or two prior to your TAD you will receive in your cabin a detailed letter outlining where to meet, what time to meet and what to bring. Ours have always been very well organized. We have been escorted off and also stayed on the ship during the TAD process.  The TAD process is done as a group not individually. The staff running the TAD process will be issuing you your new Sea Pass cards. Just remember each leg is considered two different cruises. So your ship board account will be closed after the first leg and a new account opened for the second leg. Any nonrefundable OBC must be spent or you loose it. Any unspent refundable OBC will be credited back to you and not carried over for the second leg. Once the TAD process is complete you are free to roam the ship if you elect to stay on. You can go back to your cabin anytime after the TAD process. The fire doors will be closed not locked.  You are allowed to open them to gain access to your cabin. Just remember to close the fire door. We have always had a consecutive cruises lunch in the MDR in the afternoon after the TAD process. 

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dominicr

dominicr

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28 minutes ago, davekathy said:

A day or two prior to your TAD you will receive in your cabin a detailed letter outlining where to meet, what time to meet and what to bring. Ours have always been very well organized. We have been escorted off and also stayed on the ship during the TAD process.  The TAD process is done as a group not individually. The staff running the TAD process will be issuing you your new Sea Pass cards. Just remember each leg is considered two different cruises. So your ship board account will be closed after the first leg and a new account opened for the second leg. Any nonrefundable OBC must be spent or you loose it. Any unspent refundable OBC will be credited back to you and not carried over for the second leg. Once the TAD process is complete you are free to roam the ship if you elect to stay on. You can go back to your cabin anytime after the TAD process. The fire doors will be closed not locked.  You are allowed to open them to gain access to your cabin. Just remember to close the fire door. We have always had a consecutive cruises lunch in the MDR in the afternoon after the TAD process. 

 

That was my biggest question I was going to ask.  Are you allowed back in your room when everyone else is not allowed beyond the wall.  Im not a huge fan of embarkation day as the crowd on deck is usually huge.  I would eat some lunch then go take a nap. 

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davekathy

davekathy

Posted
Posted (edited)
4 minutes ago, dominicr said:

 

That was my biggest question I was going to ask.  Are you allowed back in your room when everyone else is not allowed beyond the wall.  Im not a huge fan of embarkation day as the crowd on deck is usually huge.  I would eat some lunch then go take a nap. 

Enjoy. Don't get to comfy as you will have to attend another muster drill before sail away.  

Edited by davekathy
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davelinde

davelinde

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I'm no expert as we've only done one and we changed cabins too.  In our case we wanted to see the city (Barcelona) where we were going b2b so cabin access was not an issue.  It was great to have a new key in hand as we left the ship so reboarding was faster.

 

Two things I did not like so much.  First, on the initial leg of the trip our wait staff was awesome and the maitre d knew we were b2b and asked if we wanted to have the same table.  We said we did not care about the table but wanted the same staff... the system does not allow that.  The wait staff is paired differently on each cruise and they don't know the table assignments until the day of departure.

 

It was also not so easy to get back on board as I'd hoped - though that could have been the port...   when we arrived we were held at the xray screening because "they are too busy upstairs".  This maybe made sense for passengers who were checking in but for us we had keys already.  It was no big deal though as we were only held about 20 minutes and I knew that once we were being held by security there was zero risk of missing the sailing.

 

Our next B2B will be in Amsterdam in 2020.   And yes, looking forward to that one for sure.

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Cruisegirl6

Cruisegirl6

Posted
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1 hour ago, davekathy said:

A day or two prior to your TAD you will receive in your cabin a detailed letter outlining where to meet, what time to meet and what to bring. Ours have always been very well organized. We have been escorted off and also stayed on the ship during the TAD process.  The TAD process is done as a group not individually. The staff running the TAD process will be issuing you your new Sea Pass cards. Just remember each leg is considered two different cruises. So your ship board account will be closed after the first leg and a new account opened for the second leg. Any nonrefundable OBC must be spent or you loose it. Any unspent refundable OBC will be credited back to you and not carried over for the second leg. Once the TAD process is complete you are free to roam the ship if you elect to stay on. You can go back to your cabin anytime after the TAD process. The fire doors will be closed not locked.  You are allowed to open them to gain access to your cabin. Just remember to close the fire door. We have always had a consecutive cruises lunch in the MDR in the afternoon after the TAD process. 

You mean we can access our cabins before 1:30pm?

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travelplus

travelplus

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On 9/28/2019 at 10:30 AM, soloadventurer said:

After reading a great review on here we’ve booked a B2B on the Empress next April cant wait.

We are on a 22 night B2B first 7 nights around the Med and the second 15 nights on a Trans Atlatnic. I hope we can stay onboard the ship during turnaround day as I would love to see the behind the scenes how the ship is turned around.  Perhaps we will get a B2B lunch if there are enough people on the B2B.

 

It so fun to see the "Farewell" show on the last night of cruise 1 knowing we are continuing on the Brilliacne.

 

After this cruise my Father and I would have 37 Nights on the Brillance as we did the April 2018 Tampa Amsterdam TA.  My Mother's first Royal Cruise.

 

I can't wait to respond to the question "Are you getting off". And  I can respond"No were staying on" safe trip home".

 

Too bad I  don't have time to do the first Carribbean cruise of the season onboard the ship!

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travelplus

travelplus

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8 hours ago, atb said:

First they said - if you get a balcony - you'll never go back.  And that is SO correct.

Then they said - B2B cruise - and you'll be spoiled for less.  And that is also SOOOOO correct.  

We have 7 B2B cruises booked thru spring 2021.

We got the Royal Up for a Balcony for our Trans Atlantic went from an Oceanview to Balcony for $500 for the first 2!!! I am on the RoyalUp list for the first cruise from an Interior so we shall see!

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davekathy

davekathy

Posted
Posted (edited)
10 hours ago, travelplus said:

We are on a 22 night B2B first 7 nights around the Med and the second 15 nights on a Trans Atlatnic. I hope we can stay onboard the ship during turnaround day as I would love to see the behind the scenes how the ship is turned around.  Perhaps we will get a B2B lunch if there are enough people on the B2B.

 

It so fun to see the "Farewell" show on the last night of cruise 1 knowing we are continuing on the Brilliacne.

 

After this cruise my Father and I would have 37 Nights on the Brillance as we did the April 2018 Tampa Amsterdam TA.  My Mother's first Royal Cruise.

 

I can't wait to respond to the question "Are you getting off". And  I can respond"No were staying on" safe trip home".

 

Too bad I  don't have time to do the first Carribbean cruise of the season onboard the ship!

Nothing to see. Great opportunity to wander around the ship and get pictures/video without a lot of people in them.  Even if you have to get off the ship to clear customs consecutive cruisers are the last to leave the ship and the first to reboard the ship. 

Edited by davekathy
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