Back to Back Cruises now available

[MMDown Under]

I’m currently following a cruise in Alaska. The person has booked a B2B cruise on Majestic Princess. Covid testing is not required before second cruise as long as passenger is not sick.

 

Cruising conditions are gradually improving.

[getting older slowly]

Cruising... now there is a great idea...... and the great B2B......

 

Just dreaming.... our last cruise was B2B.......

 

But the 2022-2023 season is a long way off....

God only knows what will happen between now and then....

[NSWP]

In mid 2018, we did a B2BB2BB2B, what's that a triple?  On Sapphire Princess x 2 - Baltics/Scandinavia then Royal Princess - British Isles.  All preceded by a niece's wedding in Lower Slaughter - ye olde Cotswolds, cruises were followed by a month touring UK by car.   If you go that far and we did several times, you need to make it worthwhile. Remember that when life returns to normal.

[Rassa]

Yes the B2Bs give me hope that our around Aust will go as a 28 day cruise but will it go in March/April (perhaps too early) and will the WA Premier open WA borders due to wanting 0 cases - I think not.

[sewgood]

We have a B2B2B booked for November 22 on the Grand Princess.

Out of Sydney and Melboure.

It will be interesting to see if we are allowed to do 3 in a row.

[Russell21]

2 hours ago, NSWP said:

In mid 2018, we did a B2BB2BB2B, what's that a triple?  On Sapphire Princess x 2 - Baltics/Scandinavia then Royal Princess - British Isles.  All preceded by a niece's wedding in Lower Slaughter - ye olde Cotswolds, cruises were followed by a month touring UK by car.   If you go that far and we did several times, you need to make it worthwhile. Remember that when life returns to normal.

That's the attitude we, and our group, are applying to our 35 dayer to Hawaii, see everything because we will only be doing it once.

[getting older slowly]

Hopefully one day they will offer some good cruises to make B2B or more

 

Had a great one planned until cancelled  starting and ending in Melbourne, went to SA and Tassie and an in and out from Sydney......

[OzKiwiJJ]

3 hours ago, Russell21 said:

That's the attitude we, and our group, are applying to our 35 dayer to Hawaii, see everything because we will only be doing it once.

Wanna bet?  You might get hooked on it, like us, and want to do it over and over again! 😁That cruise will be our second time doing that itinerary.

[Rassa]

18 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Wanna bet?  You might get hooked on it, like us, and want to do it over and over again! 😁That cruise will be our second time doing that itinerary.

We have been everywhere on that one also, but not as a single cruise, rather a number of them doing bits of it.  Picking it also had to do with leaving and returning to Sydney - no international flying.   We only feel like cruising 'locally' for a while once cruises start.

[OzKiwiJJ]

25 minutes ago, Rassa said:

We have been everywhere on that one also, but not as a single cruise, rather a number of them doing bits of it.  Picking it also had to do with leaving and returning to Sydney - no international flying.   We only feel like cruising 'locally' for a while once cruises start.

We're doing the same, only cruises leaving and returning to Sydney.

[MMDown Under]

7 hours ago, NSWP said:

In mid 2018, we did a B2BB2BB2B, what's that a triple?  On Sapphire Princess x 2 - Baltics/Scandinavia then Royal Princess - British Isles.  All preceded by a niece's wedding in Lower Slaughter - ye olde Cotswolds, cruises were followed by a month touring UK by car.   If you go that far and we did several times, you need to make it worthwhile. Remember that when life returns to normal.

That sounds like a great cruise and land content.  

My last B2B cruise was to Greenland from Germany, then East Coast USA.  Agree you had to make those long haul flights worthwhile. Once I took a friend back to Poland to see family she had never met. Did we just go to Poland, oh no?  First we went to Paris, then we caught the train to Poland.  In Poland, we travelled by train to meet various relatives on both sides of her family.  Then we went to London.  Then we caught a ship from Dover  on a return cruise to the Baltics, inc. Saint Petersburg.  Then we flew home from London.  Sound familiar?

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

The really annoying thing is when you book a longer cruise as one cruise, not a B2B, then discover it's also sold as two separate cruises and operated as two separate cruises. That happened to us in the Med. We booked a 21 night cruise that operated as an 11 night cruise and a 10 night cruise. So instead of 21 night of differing menus, they started back at menu 1 on the 12th night. I think they repeated some of the entertainment too although we were too busy and/or tired to go to any. 

[MMDown Under]

11 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

The really annoying thing is when you book a longer cruise as one cruise, not a B2B, then discover it's also sold as two separate cruises and operated as two separate cruises. That happened to us in the Med. We booked a 21 night cruise that operated as an 11 night cruise and a 10 night cruise. So instead of 21 night of differing menus, they started back at menu 1 on the 12th night. I think they repeated some of the entertainment too although we were too busy and/or tired to go to any. 

I met a couple in Alaska on a cruise like that.  They couldn't understand why they had to pay the tips half way through their cruise.  

[valantine80]

6 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Wanna bet?  You might get hooked on it, like us, and want to do it over and over again! 😁That cruise will be our second time doing that itinerary.

We did that cruise in April 2015 and while we enjoyed the cruise on the whole, which we did from Brisbane so 37 days, there was a few disappointments on it.

 

The CD left a lot to be desired. He did a reading for the Anzac day service with no emotion or feeling at all and didn't allow some ex servicemen to take part in it at all.

 

My husband is an Essendon supporter and passengers had lobbied to get the Essendon/Collingwood game broadcast. Finally said it would be shown dependent on satellite reception. Oddly enough that was the only time in 37 days there was no satellite reception!.

 

There was only three production shows in the 35 days. We were told there was a new dance troupe on and they had to learn the routines.

 

Once we left Sydney, there was no yoghurt available though was available on the Brisbane to Sydney leg. Were told "We might get some in Hawaii" but it never appeared.

 

Pam

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

That's a shame, Pam. We had an almost perfect cruise in 2019. I've done enough Princess cruises to know that they do vary from ship to ship, depending on the senior crew. We were very lucky, I think, with a great Captain and an excellent Executive Chef. They even managed to cook the bacon so it tasted great instead of the usual greasy cardboard.

 

Princess now has an Entertainment Director and a Cruise Director. I think the Entertainment Director is the more senior spot. We were lucky in that the whole team were pretty good.

 

We had the full range of production shows, at least one a week, and culminating in the best Encore show I've seen so far. We also had some excellent solo entertainers, some of whom I actually recognized including a guitarist who we have been fans of for many years. The show band was brilliant and often doubled as a jazz band. 

 

I hope Coral Princess will live up to that standard.

[SuitesRbest]

B2B cruise are fantastic, our first one was the East then West Caribbean. We had another planned for Jan 2022, NZ then QLD coast. We have done the itinerary's many times, a cruise ship for us is a destination in itself we think. So miss it. 

[NSWP]

1 hour ago, SuitesRbest said:

B2B cruise are fantastic, our first one was the East then West Caribbean. We had another planned for Jan 2022, NZ then QLD coast. We have done the itinerary's many times, a cruise ship for us is a destination in itself we think. So miss it. 

Do you not get bored doing the same cruise itineraries time after time? Spread your wings and see the world.

[SuitesRbest]

6 hours ago, NSWP said:

Do you not get bored doing the same cruise itineraries time after time? Spread your wings and see the world.

Yes kind of wish we did, although with young family air fares killed that off. Hopefully we still can when COVID becomes the norm.

[OzKiwiJJ]

I just realised that if Princess cancels the March 2022 Round Australia cruise and offers us a moveover to the April 2023 one then we could do that B2B with the Hawaii/Tahiti cruise we're already booked on. 9 weeks at sea! Bliss!

[Rassa]

8 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I just realised that if Princess cancels the March 2022 Round Australia cruise and offers us a moveover to the April 2023 one then we could do that B2B with the Hawaii/Tahiti cruise we're already booked on. 9 weeks at sea! Bliss!

Too long for me.   I can only do one or the other, but quite happy to do the 28 day one first (which I would prefer and it is sounding more and more like the March 2022 cruise won't happen) which would mean doing the Hawaii one later in the year or in 2023.  We are keeping an open mind and happy to roll with the punches.  

[MMDown Under]

15 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I just realised that if Princess cancels the March 2022 Round Australia cruise and offers us a moveover to the April 2023 one then we could do that B2B with the Hawaii/Tahiti cruise we're already booked on. 9 weeks at sea! Bliss!

I call that a 5 star optomist!

[OzKiwiJJ]

18 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

I call that a 5 star optomist!

😁😁😁

[OzKiwiJJ]

21 minutes ago, Rassa said:

Too long for me.   I can only do one or the other, but quite happy to do the 28 day one first (which I would prefer and it is sounding more and more like the March 2022 cruise won't happen) which would mean doing the Hawaii one later in the year or in 2023.  We are keeping an open mind and happy to roll with the punches.  

We didn't want to get off the ship after doing the Hawaii/Tahiti cruise in 2019, so a B2B would be ideal for us.😊

[ilikeanswers]

On 8/19/2021 at 8:50 AM, NSWP said:

In mid 2018, we did a B2BB2BB2B, what's that a triple?  On Sapphire Princess x 2 - Baltics/Scandinavia then Royal Princess - British Isles.  All preceded by a niece's wedding in Lower Slaughter - ye olde Cotswolds, cruises were followed by a month touring UK by car.   If you go that far and we did several times, you need to make it worthwhile. Remember that when life returns to normal.

 

That has always been my travel philosophy🤗. Long haul flying is such a pain for me so if I am going to commit to such a flight I'm exploring as much of the area for as long as I can to make the most of it.

[MMDown Under]

On 8/22/2021 at 5:44 PM, OzKiwiJJ said:

We didn't want to get off the ship after doing the Hawaii/Tahiti cruise in 2019, so a B2B would be ideal for us.😊

I love not having to get off a B2B cruise after the first segment like the majority of people.