Anyone do b2b on different ships??

[Sea and Me]

I'm just wondering if anyone ever did a b2b on different ships?? Has anyone did a b2b starting with one cruise line and then switching to another (example first Princess then another line) or one Princess ship and then another Princess ship. I'm anxious to hear your experience if you did.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

Carol

[Druke I]

We've not done it, but have friends who did a cross pier transfer between a Princess ship and a Holland America ship, at Canada Place, Vancouver, several years ago.

[PescadoAmarillo]

We've done this, but not with Princess.

 

We once did a 7 night Caribbean cruise on RC's Serenade OTS in San Juan, disembarked, rolled our luggage through the terminal to another entrance and boarded the Celebrity Constellation (ironically, the ships were docked back to back) for a 7 night cruise. I'm glad we did this, at least once. We enjoyed the view of one ship from another up high off the back open deck areas.

 

It's really not that different than a B2B where you have to change cabins. The ship experiences were quite different, and we liked that too, although admittedly one has to be very open minded and flexible when you have such different experiences so close together. Lucky for us, most of the ports were different between the two cruises, although we have been know to cruise the exact same itinerary from one week to another.

 

We are Diamond in RC's Crown and Anchor society (their past passenger program), with access to the Concierge Lounges, and the Serenade's concierge made the logistics very simple. We were the last to leave the Serenade, and the first on the Constellation, as she had contacted the Captain's Club representative on the Constellation and let her know we were on the way.

[chrysalis]

We did it a few years ago....Did the Golden out of FLL for a week (Saturday to Saturday) and then got on the Grand the next day for a Sunday to Sunday cruise.

 

Princess had a program then that if you did that kind of a B2B, they would transport you to the hotel (which they paid for for the one night) and transport you back to the ship the next day...all at no cost.

 

It sounds great in theory, but packing up all your luggage, going thru disembarkation, getting on a bus, arriving at the hotel early with rooms unavailable, being stuck out near the airport, staying one night in a hotel, getting back on a bus and going thru embarkation all again and the unpacking for 7 days. No thanks...would never do that again.

 

Since that lesson, we have stuck with B2Bs on the same ship. Very civilized.

[EricJ]

We've done this twice and loved it both times. It's nice to have different menus and shows on the second half of your vacation. This makes up for the hassle of packing and lugging for the changeover day. If you lived near a major cruise port, you might not feel the same.

 

When we changed from RCCL to Princess within the Fort Lauderdale port, we still had to take a taxi because the ships weren't anywhere near each other. The taximan was very pleasant about the small fare but we also made sure to tip nicely because we knew he had to wait in a long queue hoping to take someone to Miami.

 

I was glad to have a good book on changeover day because there was a lot of waiting around on what's supposed to be a vacation day.

 

Make sure to have a plan for doing laundry because it's definitely easier on some ships (Princess) than others (Celebrity).

 

I can't wait to do it again.

[Sea and Me]

Thanks so much for your quick replies. We are considering doing a b2b in '09.

[kadiebug12]

We just returned from one.

 

We did 1 week on the Freedom of the Seas (RCCL) out of Miami then disemarked that ship and embarked the Caribbean Princess in FLL the same day. We were a group of 6 so we arranged a limo transfer (cheaper than 2 taxis and plenty of luggage room) to take us from Miami to FLL. We waited to be last off the Freedom, our limo picked us up, we checked in for the Caribbean Princess and got right on. Everything went very smoothly and we loved ending one trip and having the other to look forward too! We really enjoyed all the activity on the Freedom ship and then wrapped it up with a relaxing week on Princess. We would love to do it again in the future, but might try to stay on the same ship next time. The packing/unpacking would have been nice to skip.

[cheezwhiz]

We just returned from one.

 

We did 1 week on the Freedom of the Seas (RCCL) out of Miami then disemarked that ship and embarked the Caribbean Princess in FLL the same day. We were a group of 6 so we arranged a limo transfer (cheaper than 2 taxis and plenty of luggage room) to take us from Miami to FLL. We waited to be last off the Freedom, our limo picked us up, we checked in for the Caribbean Princess and got right on. Everything went very smoothly and we loved ending one trip and having the other to look forward too! We really enjoyed all the activity on the Freedom ship and then wrapped it up with a relaxing week on Princess. We would love to do it again in the future, but might try to stay on the same ship next time. The packing/unpacking would have been nice to skip.

 

Was the food better on RCCL or Princess. We are going on our first trip with Princess in a couple weeks. Have taken RCCL 10 times.

[DeepWaterMariner]

We did it once years ago on Royal Caribbean. The first week was on Sovereign of the Seas, eastern Caribbean, and the second week was Song of America, western Caribbean. We were looking for a two weeks cruise but couldn't find one so we had to get creative. The first cruise ended on a Saturday and the second began on Sunday so Royal Caribbean put us up at the Hyatt in Miami. Since RCCL ships don't have self service laundries we spent part of our day in Miami doing laundry. The Hyatt didn't have a self service laundry so we hauled our stuff to a Howard Johnson and did it there even though we weren't guests. This was in the days when we cruised with our kids so the first week we shared a room. When we checked in for the second cruise we were surprised to find we were upgraded and given two cabins, one for us and one for the kids next door. Nice bonus for doing a b2b.

[luckylulu]

We've done this, but not with Princess.

 

We once did a 7 night Caribbean cruise on RC's Serenade OTS in San Juan, disembarked, rolled our luggage through the terminal to another entrance and boarded the Celebrity Constellation (ironically, the ships were docked back to back) for a 7 night cruise. I'm glad we did this, at least once. We enjoyed the view of one ship from another up high off the back open deck areas.

 

It's really not that different than a B2B where you have to change cabins. The ship experiences were quite different, and we liked that too, although admittedly one has to be very open minded and flexible when you have such different experiences so close together. Lucky for us, most of the ports were different between the two cruises, although we have been know to cruise the exact same itinerary from one week to another.

 

We are Diamond in RC's Crown and Anchor society (their past passenger program), with access to the Concierge Lounges, and the Serenade's concierge made the logistics very simple. We were the last to leave the Serenade, and the first on the Constellation, as she had contacted the Captain's Club representative on the Constellation and let her know we were on the way.

Several years ago we did the B2B from the CB (Sat to Sat) to the Star (Sun to Sun). Princess told our travel agent we would be transported to the hotel at Fort Lauderdale, have a free nights stay and transportation to the Star the next day.

 

We asked at the pursers desk near the end of our first cruise and they assured us we would be taken care of.

 

Upon disembarkation we approached a Princess rep who told us we were not on the list to be taken to the hotel. After waiting in the hot sun for an hour or so, she finally arranged a limo to take us to the hotel. After that all went smoothly.

 

We do prefer to stay on the same ship for B2B cruises, but it was an interseting experience.

[DanJ]

I think you see more and more people doing the 2 ship back to back now. It used to be more frequent that each ship alternated itineraries from one week to the next, so people who booked a b2b would get eastern and western in 2 weeks. That was when the ports of call were quieter and it was easier to change days from one week to the next. Now it seems that the Saturday departure does the same itinerary week after week, while the Sunday departure sticks with it's itinerary. So if somebody wants to do both, they have to switch ships for it.

[spongerob]

We went back to back, Caribbean Princess first then onto the Golden Princess for the second cruise. It was really pretty easy. Princess does not assist with baggage transfer from one ship to the other.

 

The only difficulty we ran into was trying to pay the cab driver for the short ride between the two ships in FLL. He thought we'd been dropped off at the wrong ship and was furious; he wanted to know which driver made the mistake. There was a bit of a language issue...I finally convinced him that he should take the money.

 

We left CB as late as we could, around 10:00, but still had to wait in line for over an hour before we could get on the Golden. Be sure to have some drinking water, and an umbrella, just in case.

[kadiebug12]

Was the food better on RCCL or Princess. We are going on our first trip with Princess in a couple weeks. Have taken RCCL 10 times.

 

I think I would have to say I preferred the quality of the food on Princess just a little, but the RCCL buffet was set up with more variety and was so large you never had to wait for anything. Princess had better desserts. RCCL did have better french fries.

[Kim_and_Scott]

Isn't it funny when you're looking for a thread - one pops up!

 

We're dong a 7 day leaving next Sunday on the Caribbean Princess -

On Sunday when we get back, we're hopping on the Emerald Princess.

 

I've made several calls to Princess regarding this and was pretty frustrated with inconsistent answers.

 

The first person I talked to several months ago assured me that the cruises were linked and Princess would handle everything to get us to the Emerald.

 

I called last week to verify this and ran into the rudest Customer Service person on Princess's payroll! I moved up the ladder and received some information that was more helpful and less sarcastic.

 

What we were told is to talk to the Purser's Desk and let them know that we're cruising on the Emerald and would like to be the last group off the ship. We still have to go through customs. Once we do, we were told there would be a Princess person that would bring us (and our luggage) to the Emerald and we would be allowed to board.

 

Since they had only given us luggage tags for the Caribbean Princess, they are sending Emerald tags. We'll see how things go. Worst case, we hop in a taxi and lug our 4 large suitcases to the Emerald on our own - no big deal. Wish us luck. It doesn't seem like this happens often, as I've received 3 different answers from the same number of people at Princess. I'm not going to ask anymore:)

Later,

Kim

[Crzn-Life]

We do B2Bs on different ships/lines frequently. We have always arranged our own transportation between ships except 1x which was a totally unexpected bonus. In July there were about 11 people on the Grand transferring to the QM2 in Southampton. Two couples were convinced that someone had guaranteed them transportation between the ships so they spent days arguing and negotiating with the Princess staff and believe it or not it paid off...they arranged a shuttle for us. The best part was that once they agreed to the service for the two couples, they ran a passenger list match between the two ships and then notified everyone that they were providing the transfers.

 

We aren't nuts about long flights so whenever we are planning a cruise in Europe we ususally go back and forth between NYC and Southampton on the QM2. And really it isn't a whole lot more expensive than business class tickets and ever so much more enjoyable. If we have a few days between cruises and want to travel around we've found that hotels like Jurys in Southampton will accomodate our large cruise bags in Left Luggage for up to two weeks.

 

We actually try to plan B2Bs whenever we can. We've found great connections from NYC to Southampton on the QM2 to Princess ships sailing out of Southampton and once we even booked a Celebrity out of Dover between 2 Princess cruises sailing out of Southampton. Sure it's a lot of packing, but it's worth it.

 

Best advice is to plan on arranging your own transportation between ships unless it's a special deal Princess has offered on specific cruises.

 

When we book, Princess knows we're on several cruises and we get all of the luggage tags for all of the ships and take them with us and it has become easier now that Princess has online boarding passes. Our TA has to keep after Cunard to get all of the tickets and info to us, but she's a gem anyway. I expect that Cunard will have the online boarding passes in the near future if it doesn't have them yet.

[tinker 4]

We always do B2B on different ships. It is always with Princess and they put us up in the hotel for free on the Sat and then take us to teh ship on the Sunday. We love doing it this way