Quality of Experience on 14-Night Sailings that are Really B2B 7-Nights

[jag82177]

My family and I booked a 14-night Mediterranean cruise for this summer, which we later discovered was essentially two back-to-back 7-night cruises. I've previously enjoyed 12-night Princess cruises and 14-night Celebrity cruises, appreciating the extra attention to detail on longer voyages. Since this will be our first time on a longer cruise without a ship-wide beginning and end, I'm curious about the overall quality of the experience.

 

1. A few questions for discussion: Does the overall vibe of the cruise change due to Princess' sales tactic? For example, I'm used to everyone sharing the excitement at sail away, but I imagine this might not be the case on a cruise sold in 7-night segments.

2. Do things become repetitive or boring? I assume MDR menus and entertainment lineups are repeated. Does Princess make an effort to vary the experience for passengers like us, such as bringing in guest entertainers related to the ports of call?

3. Does Princess scale back "day 1" activities (e.g., welcome aboard announcements, spa tours) when many passengers are staying on the ship, or should we expect to see these twice?

 

I'm hoping it's still a fantastic experience and look forward to hearing your thoughts!

 

Edited March 27, 2023 by jag82177

[memoak]

Yes the menus will be repeated and probably most of the show will be also unless they change out some of the guest entertainers 

[Rick&Jeannie]

3. There will not be any "scaling back" of announcements or such.  They will present everything on the second leg as if all are new passengers...which is really the only way to approach this.

[wowzz]

We did a 14 day cruise in the Med last year,  which we purchased as a single cruise, but was also a b2b. We did not notice any difference to a normal 14 day cruise,  apart from noticing some change of passengers in the second week.

Menus were not repeated, nor was the entertainment. 

And sail away parties are very low key on Princess these days, so didn't notice any difference.

[VibeGuy]

Here’s my perspective as someone who no longer sails fewer than two segments at a time:
 

1) Yes, a little.  True 14-night sailings do get passengers into a groove and reduce the workload on some customer-facing staff and crew.  Changing out the majority of the passengers every seven days does affect the vibe.  I wouldn’t say that there’s less excitement at sailaway - people who enjoy sailaway are probably happy to get twice as much.   My idea of the perfect sailaway is probably different than the majority view.  

 

2) The MDR menus do repeat.  This has upsides  (yay, porcini mushroom soup again!) and downsides (ugh, the sailaway dinner menu *again*, which I’ve seen in substantially indistinguishable variations since the last big menu update ca 2009). However, with paid alternative venues, on-deck dining, the buffet and sometimes just snacky grazing, I really don’t get bored by it (and we have done five or six 7NTs in a string) because I gave up on my previous insistence on MDR dinners most nights. 
 

3) Absolutely not.  They still desire to extract maximum revenue from newly-boarding passengers.  
 

Actual entertainment policies vary, and we’ve had them vary from sailing to sailing on the same ship, so there’s no predicting.  Guest entertainers may or may not swap out.  

[wowzz]

1 minute ago, VibeGuy said:

Changing out the majority of the passengers every seven days does affect the vibe.

I would just say that on our particular cruise,  a large percentage of the passengers had booked it as a true 14 day cruise, and probably only 25% of the passengers disembarked on day 7. 

Because of this, the menus were not repeated.

[tobyt]

We did a cruise like this in 2019 ahhhh cruising pre COVID like you not knowing until after I booked. We will do another leg of the full 21 day this fall. Unlike most cruises in my opinion (like Alaska’s cruise) this trip is about the ports. We normally love games, entertainment, food options as our favorites on cruising….these trips are all about the ports, excursions, what makes the best use of our time.

 

Someday when time and money are hopefully easier and work schedules are a thing of the past, than maybe I will sit onboard in Italy and just enjoy the view like I do now in the Caribbean but for now all about the planning and the sights and dreaming of days of a longer leisurely stay….

 

Post dinner, post a brief entertaining event or show and some adult beverages was early to bed and happily dreaming of the next adventure! I worry less about the food, ship and onboard experience than at other times!

[wheezedr]

We did 21 days on the Med shortly after the Royal launched.  People came on and off every Saturday.  Those were the days for Athens, Rome and Barcelona.  Some were on for 7, some for 14, others 21 but not necessarily the same 21 as us.  The groups just blended.  We were off on day trips when others embarked and disembarked so we never paid any attention to that.  As previous posters have noted you are going to be so busy touring that meals, entertainment, etc take a secondary role on this cruise.

[Essiesmom]

If Princess (and HAL) sell a cruise as 14 days, even though you can also book it as 7 days, the menus will be a 14 day cycle, or even 21 days.  Occasionally a dish will be repeated, but never the same full menu.  If you book a B2B of two 7 day cruises with the same weekly itinerary, the menus will be on a 7 day cycle, so will repeat.  EM

[PescadoAmarillo]

We have always loved the energy that new passengers bring on board on turnaround day. We joke that the pervious passengers have spent all their money and miss their dogs and grandchildren, and it’s time for them to leave. There is also something to the “familiarity breeds contempt” thing. We’ve done everything from 3-night to 31-night cruises, usually B2Bs, and people do get more complain-y as time goes on. 
 

We have never minded menu repeats. We order favorites again or try something different. 
 

Entertainment repeats can get a little boring but there are always game shows and live music to change things up. As others have said, on port intensive itineraries, it gives us an excuse to go to bed a little earlier to get ready to do it all again the next day. 

[Ken the cruiser]

We were on a 21-day Med cruise on the Regal last July, which was really 3 separate 7-day cruises - Barcelona to Rome, Rome to Athens, and then Athens back to Barcelona. It also happened to be the cruise the Real Love Boat TV series was filmed on. If you expand my below signature area, you’ll see the Live From thread I posted to the entire cruise, which includes references in part to the theater entertainment and game shows we experienced throughout the cruise. For reference we were in a Club Class mini-suite. Hope this helps.

[CruiseCrabs]

We thoroughly enjoyed our B2B that were two seven day trips in the same cabin. We didn’t have to disembark so we had fun hiding out on our balcony with coffee watching the disembarkation shuffle. None of our shows were repeated so perhaps we were just lucky.

[jag82177]

It sounds like Princess is pretty good about creating a good experience for everyone, especially on itineraries where there are a lot of people on longer journeys. 
 

Our 14-nighter is sold out (both 7-nighters are still available), so hopefully that encourages them to use the different menus/vary the entertainment!