B2B questions....

[raphael360]

Two questions regarding cruising on B2B cruises:

1. Are B2B cruises booked separately and

2. When sailing B2B, does one have to disembark and reembark the ship between legs?

 

My normal TA doesn't work with VV and I haven't found a replacement TA yet so I've been booking directly with VV.

 

Thanks in advance for the advice.  

[jon81uk]

I’ve not done it but from what has been said on here and the subreddit, if doing B2B at Miami you need to wait for all other passengers to disembark and then you are walked off the ship, through immigration and back on. 
Whereas in Barcelona I think I’ve read you can stay onboard, they do all the check in on the ship. No need to redo immigration as the ship didn’t leave the EU.

[cantgetin]

Yes, each cruise is booked separately.  If you book thru a TA or by calling VV (rather than on line), you can get the same cabin for both legs.

 

The policy regarding disembarkation/re-embarkation is up to Customs and Immigration at each port.  The discussion above reflects my experience on other lines, but I have not done a B2B on Virgin from Barcelona.  We were able to do a second check in on the ship and did not need to leave at all.  At ports where disembarkation is required, there is typically a meeting place where all B2Bs meet at a given time, are escorted off the ship, go thru Customs, right to check in and back on the ship.  The only issue is that you have to wait till everyone is off before you can get back on.  If only one or two cabins are doing B2B, you may just get instructions on doing it on your own, rather than being escorted thru the system.  Those stragglers who can't get off the ship on time are not your friends.

[_tacocat_]

long reply alert!

 

you can book together or separately.  the one i just got off of, we had the second part booked for months (had booked onboard last summer), then added the first part after the bar tab offer started and combined with a MNVV offer (we booked that one directly onboard too).  they compare the manifests and give every B2Ber a notice under their door before the last night with instructions.

 

you can book online too, but you do it individually and get luck of the draw with rooms.  if you call them or go thru a TA, you can try to get the same room on both legs.  that makes it a lot easier, as you don't have to pack a thing between voyages.  if you do change rooms, it's not the end of the world, but you have to pack everything, they move your bags to your new room, then you have to unpack again. 

 

for this one, we actually moved our original room so we could stay in the same room the whole time.  if you want to do a suite as part of it, you might want to try to snag that one for the first leg, then you can use the rest of your in room bar in your non-suite cabin.  did that once (seriously to an XL) and it was fine!

 

confirming that in miami, you have to get off the ship, but they walk you to customs, customs looks at your passport, and the VV crew tells you to either go back up to check in in the terminal or to go to miami for the day (but then you have to wait through the whole check in process again, kind of defeating the purpose of a B2B!)

 

the annoying part is that this should take maybe 1 hour total.  you meet at sip at 10:30, and you should be back on the ship by 11:30 latest.  i've done 3 B2Bs, and i've only had that experience once though.  the first time, we had to test between, so that took a bit of time, then we had a decent contingent of passengers that were arguing over their bills and not getting off.  we still got back on before noon and had a decent amount of solitude on the ship.  the second time was easy breezy, no testing and got off the ship at 10:45 and were back on before 11:15!

 

the one i just got off of was absolutely bonkers.  we got down to sip at 10:30, and the disembarkation line went all the way from the door to the red room.  apparently no one stuck to their departure time, and everyone wanted to milk their vacation for a few more minutes.  that line finally got past sip by like 11:15, and the crew member said we'd be off in a jiffy. 

 

nope.  they have to get to zero count passengers before they let the B2Bers off.  two rogue passengers decided the latest 10:45 disembark time just wasn't suitable for them.  at 11:50, the crew finally rounded them off and got them off... over an hour after everyone was supposed to be on the ship. they should just start blasting classical music at top volume in the offenders' cabins till they get off hahaha.

 

as these idiots glacially made their way through the terminal with overstuffed suitcases and garbage bags full of whatever (plus a few of the to go containers from the galley - they really took "to go" to a new level), we all had to stay behind them while they putzed through customs.  we finally got back up to the ship after re-check-in close to 1pm - a 2ish hour ordeal.

 

they should really start incentivizing middle-of-the-period disembarkation and penalizing late people.  like if you get off between 8:30-9:30, you get $25 off your cabin's bill, if you are on the ship after 10:45, you get charged an extra $25 per person.  hotels have late check out fees, why can't virgin for these self centered dolts?  

[cantgetin]

And depending on what was in those "to go" boxes, they likely lost them going thru immigration.....the whole no plant or animal products bit.  Depending on the port, they can be VERY strict.  At Port Canaveral, I had to fish the lemon wedge out of my ice tea (tea was OK, lemon was plant material.). I sure hope the lemon wedge in my tea didn't have bugs or plant viruses.

[aimee0715]

2 hours ago, _tacocat_ said:

long reply alert!

 

you can book together or separately.  the one i just got off of, we had the second part booked for months (had booked onboard last summer), then added the first part after the bar tab offer started and combined with a MNVV offer (we booked that one directly onboard too).  they compare the manifests and give every B2Ber a notice under their door before the last night with instructions.

 

you can book online too, but you do it individually and get luck of the draw with rooms.  if you call them or go thru a TA, you can try to get the same room on both legs.  that makes it a lot easier, as you don't have to pack a thing between voyages.  if you do change rooms, it's not the end of the world, but you have to pack everything, they move your bags to your new room, then you have to unpack again. 

 

for this one, we actually moved our original room so we could stay in the same room the whole time.  if you want to do a suite as part of it, you might want to try to snag that one for the first leg, then you can use the rest of your in room bar in your non-suite cabin.  did that once (seriously to an XL) and it was fine!

 

confirming that in miami, you have to get off the ship, but they walk you to customs, customs looks at your passport, and the VV crew tells you to either go back up to check in in the terminal or to go to miami for the day (but then you have to wait through the whole check in process again, kind of defeating the purpose of a B2B!)

 

the annoying part is that this should take maybe 1 hour total.  you meet at sip at 10:30, and you should be back on the ship by 11:30 latest.  i've done 3 B2Bs, and i've only had that experience once though.  the first time, we had to test between, so that took a bit of time, then we had a decent contingent of passengers that were arguing over their bills and not getting off.  we still got back on before noon and had a decent amount of solitude on the ship.  the second time was easy breezy, no testing and got off the ship at 10:45 and were back on before 11:15!

 

the one i just got off of was absolutely bonkers.  we got down to sip at 10:30, and the disembarkation line went all the way from the door to the red room.  apparently no one stuck to their departure time, and everyone wanted to milk their vacation for a few more minutes.  that line finally got past sip by like 11:15, and the crew member said we'd be off in a jiffy. 

 

nope.  they have to get to zero count passengers before they let the B2Bers off.  two rogue passengers decided the latest 10:45 disembark time just wasn't suitable for them.  at 11:50, the crew finally rounded them off and got them off... over an hour after everyone was supposed to be on the ship. they should just start blasting classical music at top volume in the offenders' cabins till they get off hahaha.

 

as these idiots glacially made their way through the terminal with overstuffed suitcases and garbage bags full of whatever (plus a few of the to go containers from the galley - they really took "to go" to a new level), we all had to stay behind them while they putzed through customs.  we finally got back up to the ship after re-check-in close to 1pm - a 2ish hour ordeal.

 

they should really start incentivizing middle-of-the-period disembarkation and penalizing late people.  like if you get off between 8:30-9:30, you get $25 off your cabin's bill, if you are on the ship after 10:45, you get charged an extra $25 per person.  hotels have late check out fees, why can't virgin for these self centered dolts?  

Thank you for this explanation.  We have cruised a lot but will be doing our first VV cruise and first B2B cruise in May on Resilient Lady. I was curious how it works.  Thankfully we do have the same cabin on both trips.  I am absolutely astonished that passengers would have still been on the ship at 11:50!  Leaving with to go containers of food is beyond the pale as well.  In San Francisco last April, they would not let me off the ship with a to-go coffee.  

[raphael360]

Excellent advice and thank you all. I’m going to book some B2B cruises out of Miami in the fall as soon as the new rewards program is announced. 
 

I’ve lived in Florida most of my life and they have been fighting the citrus canker since the 70s so Florida is hyper sensitive to any citrus coming in to the state. 

[spookyfudge]

On 2/28/2023 at 8:40 AM, raphael360 said:

Two questions regarding cruising on B2B cruises:

1. Are B2B cruises booked separately and

2. When sailing B2B, does one have to disembark and reembark the ship between legs?

 

My normal TA doesn't work with VV and I haven't found a replacement TA yet so I've been booking directly with VV.

 

Thanks in advance for the advice.  

We just completed a B2B, when booking a cruise, contact sailor services to get the same room, if not you may need to backup at the end of the first cruise.  You will be given a sheet of paper to meet at a specfic time on the boat to go through customs at a specific time. You must be present to go as a group.  You get a new specfic armband that allows you to return immeditaly to the ship or you can go off and explore Miami.  We returned to the ship and enjoyed the quite.

[cantgetin]

Since you mentioned Resilient you should be aware that how a B2B works is up to Customs in the port where the transition occurs.  We have had this change from one year to the next on the same cruise line, same port.  US ports have always required us to disembark and reboard.  Whether or not this was handled as a group depended on how many cabins were doing B2B.  On one sailing, we were the only cabin doing B2b.  We were given an authorization letter to show in the terminal which allowed us to reboard quickly.

 

In Barcelona on DCL, one year we got off as a group of 125 cabins with an escort.  We went thru Customs and sat in a room for about an hour until they decided we could re-board.  The next year we were able to pick up our new KTTW cards at Guest Services and did not need to get off the ship at all (that was nice).   In Dover, we got off and sat for quite a while.  They had chairs lined up for reboarding, and the B2B people were allowed to reboard first, but it wasn't a fast turn around at all.  We sat for well over an hour!  In Japan we met with their immigration people in a room on the ship and didn't have to get off at all...but we did have to get our passports stamped again and get updated in their computer system.  Japan was very strict--as we had one port in Koren, we had to meet with the Customs officials both before and after that port.  Princess did make the process as painless as possible.

 

Yes, you can book B2Bs at the same time or you can add the additional leg at any time.  If you call the cruise line or your travel agent, they will try to put you in the same cabin for both legs (makes things easier as you don't have to pack up.  I've even seen people schedule the second leg as a booking on board during the first leg!