Have to get off in Miami when doing B 2 B?

[Deckers]

Does anyone know if NCL requires passengers to get off and back on again in Miami when doing back to back cruises?

[terrymtex01]

Yes, you will have to get off the ship, but they take you to the VIP lounge and once the ship is cleared to accept new pax, you will be the first to board. I have read that they will close out your onboard account and have you start a new one, but I can't confirm that for sure.

[Deckers]

Thanks terrymtex01. Great to get an answer so quick.

[travel_lover]

What ship are you doing? When we did the Sky nobody new what to do with us...nobody had any answers...finally about 9:30AM that morning they told us to just get off the ship go through customs...once the ship clears will be allowed back on...we werent escorted to any VIP lounge or nothing but I think it was because we were the only ones doing a B2B from that Cruise. We did have the ship to ourselves for about a half hour...was nice.

[anniebell]

We did a B2B on the Pearl last February and everyone had to get off the ship so that it could clear customs. I actually booked an excursion for that day so it didn't make any difference to me as I was leaving the ship anyway.

 

However, there was an info session the day before for everyone doing B2B (there were about 100 of us at the meeting) and they explained that we would all have to leave the ship and go through customs but would be able to re-board the ship once it was cleared. Look out for the time of it in your Freestyle Daily and it was a very informative session, didn't last too long but explained exactly what you need to know and the times, etc for leaving the ship.

[boeckli]

Even though you will be allowed back on board as soon as the ship is cleared, you may not have access to your cabin until all cabins have been finished by the cabin stewards (even if you stay in the same cabin for the 2nd leg). So plan accordingly ;)

[hazeleyes]

Yes, you will have to get off the ship, but they take you to the VIP lounge and once the ship is cleared to accept new pax, you will be the first to board. I have read that they will close out your onboard account and have you start a new one, but I can't confirm that for sure.

 

When we did the b2b on the Sky in December our onboard account was left open. I did not like that idea and knew right then and there we were going to have a problem. First i was worried that they wouldnt count the sailings as 2, but that was the least of my worries, what did happen was we had on board credit on each sailing that was given to us by our TA. On the first sailing we had no problem, but when we got back on i asked them to print me out a new sheet to make sure we had gotten the on board credit as promised by our TA, it did not show up. I asked them to close the account and reopen with new sailing, and they said they couldnt. Eventually after talking several different days with the reception desk and showing them the proof that we were owed the $. They said we were not entitled to it. Once we got home we called our TA and explained what happend, our TA said that NCL never called them as we were assured that they did speak with our TA by the reception desk people. In the long run our TA had to handle the problem after we had been home for a few weeks. In the end NCL did the right thing and give us future credit on our next sailing. They gave us a letter and we have to bring it on board and give it to the front desk when we board so they give us the $ as credit.

 

But my point was that if we didnt have another on sailing with NCL then we might not have gotten anything back at all.

 

In the long run since were sailing again all things are good. But it was upsetting that we wasted so much time of our vacation trying to fix the problem while we were on board. No worries we still enjoyed our vacation, but still.

[hazeleyes]

Even though you will be allowed back on board as soon as the ship is cleared, you may not have access to your cabin until all cabins have been finished by the cabin stewards (even if you stay in the same cabin for the 2nd leg). So plan accordingly ;)

 

Yes that is true we were alowed back in our cabins about 2pm.

[hazeleyes]

We did a B2B on the Pearl last February and everyone had to get off the ship so that it could clear customs. I actually booked an excursion for that day so it didn't make any difference to me as I was leaving the ship anyway.

 

However, there was an info session the day before for everyone doing B2B (there were about 100 of us at the meeting) and they explained that we would all have to leave the ship and go through customs but would be able to re-board the ship once it was cleared. Look out for the time of it in your Freestyle Daily and it was a very informative session, didn't last too long but explained exactly what you need to know and the times, etc for leaving the ship.

 

Maybe since we were the only ones on our sailing doing the back to back could be the reason that we did not have a meeting and no one knew what to tell us? We just hug out until the very end and then went back to the reception desk to ask again what to do and then thats when they told us we had to disembark then reboard after the ship was cleared. They did not put us in any lounge to wait.