Sharing B2B Celebrity Cruises and Stays prior/after

[Denny01]

OK guys. After posting on a B2B2B thread when it was thought they were cancelled, we got into a discussion on extended cruises and what was being done before/after cruses. I thought it might be interesting to share what types of cruises, Celebrity Cruises by the way, we’ve booked together, B2B’s and B2B2B’s, and how it all worked for us. The plus and minus.

 

And what we’ve done prior to a cruise and after beyond the normal  night stay prior or right after a cruise.

 

Let’s keep this focused on Celebrity cruises and ports of call. This Is the Celebrity forum.

 

So please jump in. Post the cruises you’ve done that were connected. How it went and what tips you may have. And share extended stays in the port of departure/arrival areas that you took advantage of. But also please keep this focused on Celebrity cruises. 

 

I’ve been on 4 Celebrity B2B’s, and I’ll start with our most recent B2B: on Celebrity Edge in March 2019 Eastern Caribbean followed by a Western Caribbean:

 

This may be the most common. Get to see a great mix of islands and Mexico/Cen American ports of call. Ours was two 7N cruises for a 14N cruise. Same SR and loved sitting the night prior entering FLL and knowing it was ‘just another port’!

 

You do have to leave the ship and go through security and then you can head off on a tour or back on.  This may change due to COVID requirements, but it wasn’t a big deal.

 

The big positive of all B2B’s is you get a more varied mix of ports, and you get to explore a ship more and enjoy what you find as your favorite venues and events over and over onboard. And it was neat to be able to just relax after the first itinerary and that night and the next day is ‘just another port’! All of this while everyone else is scurrying around packing and getting ready to depart. Nice!

 

I’ll post more other B2B’s especially the European B2B’s and extended stays in Celebrity departure/arrival ports of call if this thread has a ‘life’.

 

So please jump in and share.

 

Den

 

[gbphipps]

We will be on the Edge B2B on July 24 and 31.  We have done other B2Bs but all precovid.

[Kathy53]

We are on a B2B on the Silhouette in May, 2022 in Europe.  We will leave out of Southampton for a 7 night Norwegian Fjords cruise, return to Southampton to and then do a 12 night Scandinavia/Russia cruise.  Thankfully, we have the same stateroom for both cruises.  Both cruises are quite port intensive so we'll have to pace ourselves.  I know that you would like to keep this discussion as it relates to Celebrity but would like to know if anyone has experienced a river cruise following an ocean cruise as once we leave our Celebrity cruises, we will be travelling to Amsterdam for 3 days and then board a Viking river cruise on the Rhine - 8 days, Amsterdam to Basel.  A river cruise in Europe is a first for us.  From my research, there is a vast difference between the 2.

[travlr21]

43 minutes ago, Kathy53 said:

anyone has experienced a river cruise following an ocean cruise

 

Hi from the Okanagan.  Back in 2016 we did Viking Amsterdam to Budapest, followed by a TA on the Silhouette, Rome to Ft Lauderdale. We spent a few days in Budapest and then a few more in Rome before the TA. In 2019 we did a TA on Regent to Barcelona and then flew to Paris for a river cruise on Uniworld.

 

We love both types of cruising, and they do have some differences. I would say timing is more structured on the river cruise since most people take the included tours. For meals there is usually a window when breakfast and lunch are served. In our experience, there is a presentation by the cruise manager before supper every night that everyone usually attends in the lounge, then everyone goes to supper at the same time. The presentation goes over the timing for the activities the next day. Your itinerary will show where you will be on a specific day, but you typically don't see specific times in a 'port' as you would on an ocean cruise. Have you checked the river cruise forum? Ask away if you have any specific questions.

[Kathy53]

3 minutes ago, travlr21 said:

 

Hi from the Okanagan.  Back in 2016 we did Viking Amsterdam to Budapest, followed by a TA on the Silhouette, Rome to Ft Lauderdale. We spent a few days in Budapest and then a few more in Rome before the TA. In 2019 we did a TA on Regent to Barcelona and then flew to Paris for a river cruise on Uniworld.

 

We love both types of cruising, and they do have some differences. I would say timing is more structured on the river cruise since most people take the included tours. For meals there is usually a window when breakfast and lunch are served. In our experience, there is a presentation by the cruise manager before supper every night that everyone usually attends in the lounge, then everyone goes to supper at the same time. The presentation goes over the timing for the activities the next day. Your itinerary will show where you will be on a specific day, but you typically don't see specific times in a 'port' as you would on an ocean cruise. Have you checked the river cruise forum? Ask away if you have any specific questions.

Much appreciated.  We added the river cruise to our itinerary a few months ago since we'll already be across the pond, so to speak.  I've checked the river cruise forum but there are no current posts.  Thank you again and stay safe, away from the BC wildfires.

[Denny01]

We did the Rhine cruise and spent 7 days in Amsterdam, and 2 in Basel, then trained to Munich and spent a week there. I would not spend time in Basel again. OK, but not great. Zurich would be much better or another Swiss area.

 

For Celebrity, We did a TA out of Southampton in 2019 and spent 8 days in the Cornwall area prior in October. Loved it. Drove ourselves which was ‘challenging’, not just the left-side driving, but many And I do mean Many of the Cornwall roads are very small, heck a few had one lane, and I mean one lane for both directions. Loved the sign telling us to be cautious of oncoming traffic…..No Kidding!!!

 

We spent a few days in Penzance and visited the areas around including St Ives and the Merry Maidens prehistoric stones. then over nearer to Southampton and stayed in the Hampshire Hog near the Buster Ancient Farm where they had reconstructions of historic buildings, homes and prehistoric huts. Fantastic.

 

Visited Portsmouth and the off to Celebrity Silhouette for a TA. Celebrity makes it quite easy to stay prior or after. You can use their programs, or on your own. And if you use their Air program, you can fly into or out of other cities instead of just the one set for your departure in case you want to try another area. So do some of the river cruise lines. You get charged a bit more, but not bad and allows you more flexibility. 

 

Den

[Jim_Iain]

We have done a number of B2B's and B2B2B's after retirement allowed us to  get away without the restrictions of limited vacations. 

 

One of our favorites was Fort Lauderdale through the Canal and then onto Buenos Aires.  We were traveling with out best friends from Sydney.      We arrived in BA on Christmas Eve and spent two weeks in Buenos Aires.    BA is a double port on the final day but we decided to leave a day early leaving our friends aboard so we could do the shopping for a nice Christmas dinner.   Amazing time both at sea and on land.    We were lucky enough to get box seat tickets for the Nut Cracker and a Tango show at a nice theater.  

[NantahalaCruiser]

Did a 50th Anniversary B2B Fall of 2016 from Yokohama to Hong Kong and Hong Kong to Singapore.  Wonderful itinerary with 2 days/1 night in Hong Kong and a day/night in Singapore before disembarking.  Also added 3 nights pre-cruise in Japan and 1 night post-cruise in Singapore.

 

4 weeks with the same excellent waiter in Blu was outstanding.

[miched]

The biggest bonus for us is that we get to attend 2, yes 2 muster drills.  🤗

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅