Back to Back annnnduhhh Belly to Belly, redux

[Pianoman6582]

When I was a CC newbie waaaay back about 6 months ago, I posed this question to the board. I'd like to now answer it and add to the general discussion a few thoughts and complaints I have with the B2B procedure, now that My Lee and I have done it twice, and are scheduled to do it again. So here was the original question that the me of 6 months ago asked:

Sorry about the title, the announcer for the New York Yankees, on the radio, John Sterling, says "Back-to-back, annnnd-uh Belly to Belly" when two yankees hit b2b homeruns....

So I asked about the mechanics of the B2B, now tell me how to do it.... I'm looking at all kinds of combinations. There doesn't seem to be a way to go b2b these days without doing the same cruise twice.

 

We had thought lengthening our January Cruise by doing the one nighter that follows, but there's a problem: there will be no porters coming off the one nighter, and we will have ten days worth of luggage, souvenirs and whatnot.

 

And what of customs? With only one night, surely they'll assume no one else has left the country but us, and do a good thorough once over our bags because they have nothing better to do....

 

The other trip we'd like to do is the trans-atlantic... do any of the Norwegians do B2B's "across the pond?"

So here we are: our Trans-Atlantic is booked, followed by our revisiting of the Bahama Islands and Florida (Sans Grand Bahama, which is just as well, given it was only a five hour stop anyway). Then in 2010 we'll be doing the Epic East-West B2B. We've done two B2B's already: the one I suggested in the original post, tacking on the one-day onto the 10-day; and the Dawn's One-day-two-day-Three-step at the end of April and beginning of May. We've learned three things about B2B:

1. No one (ship's crew members that is) KNOWS what the exact procedure is

2. Several crew members may in fact know pieces of the procedure, but not all of it. Those that do (& and even some who don't), fill in the gaps with answers that seem logical to them, but are often made up guesses.

3. There IS NO PROCEDURE!

Let's start with the 10-day+1-day in January. We asked EVERYONE. From the front desk people down to the room stewards (who actually, you know, make the magic happen). Each person we asked gave us a different answer. What wound up happening is this: complete confusion. We were meeting her father, so we knew we'd have to get off and go through customs and out. Everyone has to go through customs, but they told us we all had to go together. Er? First, they told us to meet down at the front desk--which makes sense. Fine. We got to the front desk, and the told us to go up stairs to Tequila. Fine. We get up to Tequila, and we're told we're just waiting for a lady in a wheel chair. Fine. In the meantime, someone gives us our new room keys. Cool. Uh-oh. The new room cards are wrong and show us getting off the boat without doing the B2B. ::sigh:: Chuckles, whose name I never got (obviously), apologizes and runs down stairs to get us new key cards. Now they tell us, they can't find the lady in the wheelchair. (Oh dear) But they'll take us off the boat anyway to get us through customs. Oh good. Now, we (as in the whole group of like 15) are waiting for Chuckles to bring My Lee and I our new cards. Great. So we FINALLY get off the ship. Halleluiah! Who is the first person we spot when get to customs? The little old lady whose been off the boat for HOURS. This just gets better. So apparently, we all had to get off the boat in a group--except the people who decided not to-this being Freestyle Cruising after all..... With that little fiasco straightened out, we proceeded out to go find Dad. After that the one-night continued without a hitch. My Lee, her father and I stayed in our first AB Penthouse that has 2 Bedrooms, and FOUR TV's. OMG! We played Bingo (and lost), and Bowled. After bowling, and having a truly good time, all three of us realized why we don't bowl more often - we suck at bowling! So at 9:00, I sat down at a Blackjack table. I didn't get up until 3:00 am when I passed out in our beautiful AB. Me Lee and Dad soon followed. When we got up the next morning and were headed off the boat, they stopped us at the gangway. It seems we had an unresolved credit issue and would have to go back to the front desk... So NOW we're "stuck" on this boat until our credit issue is straightened out. My Lee went to take care of that, while Dad and I chatted with the Galaxy's Greatest Cruise Director, Ray Carr (There was a vote), and some of his wonderful staff, Jade Wilmott, Charlane Edwards, and Maria Luca. All three of these women (and Ray too) were so friendly and wonderful, I'm still in contact with all four of them. Then Captain Michael Hildan came around and chatted with us for a few minutes. That was REALLY cool! When My Lee finally came back, there were very few passengers left on the ship. The descrepancy? Like 4 bucks... in OUR favor! Oh dear... But that was ultimately fine.... So that was our first forray into the B2B world. I was a little confused. "Surely," I thought to myself, "that was a fluke. Surely they must do back 2 backs all the time and have a smooth procedure that just went a little awry this time." Then I heard myself reply. "You must be out of your mind. And please, don't call me Shirley." Badum bum

But seriously, NCL should have some kind of mechanism in place for people who are doing two cruises in a row, and they don't. Then, like I said before, the people that REALLY aggrevate me are the people who PRETEND to know the information you seek, when they're really just taking their best guess. And it is this group of people which allows me to segue beautifully into the next b2b: 3 Nights on our Wonderful Dawn.

We are truly Dawn-philes (if you will). The Dawn has been our "Home away from home" 3 previous times to these two "mini-cruises." So when we got to the piers, we had an expectation. We thought, "Surely our Dawn will be just like it was the first three times. Well, it wasn't QUITE up to her usual standards of excellence. Not BAD mind you, just a little off. So When we got to the pier, we checked in. As we were checking in, I asked the woman with an NCL badge on, if we would have to disembark in between. She didn't even think about it. She just gave me the canned line, "Everyone must get off the ship to prepare for the next blah blah, plus Customs, blah blah." OK. But wait? Aren't we not technically leaving the country? I didn't want to argue with the woman as we were checking in, so I let it go. On board, I again asked people from the front desk clerks to the cruise director. It was our concierge that finally assured us we wouldn't have to disembark if we didn't want to, but we could if we did. So once again, there was no clear mechanism in place for this, a completely different breed of B2B.

All this is not to scare anyone from B2B-ing. Indeed, it was the COOLEST thing to be on board the Dawn with about 100 other people. The boat felt DESERTED! Plus, you're GOING ON TWO CRUISES! WAHOO! I'm just preparing anyone who tries this for "playing it by ear." Two different people on board may tell you two different things. It's best to not get overwhelmed or angry. That's what the Comment Cards are for. So with that, I say to you Happy Cruising

JWK: B2B-meister

[LOWTYD]

When I was a CC newbie waaaay back about 6 months ago, I posed this question to the board. I'd like to now answer it and add to the general discussion a few thoughts and complaints I have with the B2B procedure, now that My Lee and I have done it twice, and are scheduled to do it again. So here was the original question that the me of 6 months ago asked:

 

 

So here we are: our Trans-Atlantic is booked, followed by our revisiting of the Bahama Islands and Florida (Sans Grand Bahama, which is just as well, given it was only a five hour stop anyway). Then in 2010 we'll be doing the Epic East-West B2B. We've done two B2B's already: the one I suggested in the original post, tacking on the one-day onto the 10-day; and the Dawn's One-day-two-day-Three-step at the end of April and beginning of May. We've learned three things about B2B:

1. No one (ship's crew members that is) KNOWS what the exact procedure is

2. Several crew members may in fact know pieces of the procedure, but not all of it. Those that do (& and even some who don't), fill in the gaps with answers that seem logical to them, but are often made up guesses.

3. There IS NO PROCEDURE!

 

Let's start with the 10-day+1-day in January. We asked EVERYONE. From the front desk people down to the room stewards (who actually, you know, make the magic happen). Each person we asked gave us a different answer. What wound up happening is this: complete confusion. We were meeting her father, so we knew we'd have to get off and go through customs and out. Everyone has to go through customs, but they told us we all had to go together. Er? First, they told us to meet down at the front desk--which makes sense. Fine. We got to the front desk, and the told us to go up stairs to Tequila. Fine. We get up to Tequila, and we're told we're just waiting for a lady in a wheel chair. Fine. In the meantime, someone gives us our new room keys. Cool. Uh-oh. The new room cards are wrong and show us getting off the boat without doing the B2B. ::sigh:: Chuckles, whose name I never got (obviously), apologizes and runs down stairs to get us new key cards. Now they tell us, they can't find the lady in the wheelchair. (Oh dear) But they'll take us off the boat anyway to get us through customs. Oh good. Now, we (as in the whole group of like 15) are waiting for Chuckles to bring My Lee and I our new cards. Great. So we FINALLY get off the ship. Halleluiah! Who is the first person we spot when get to customs? The little old lady whose been off the boat for HOURS. This just gets better. So apparently, we all had to get off the boat in a group--except the people who decided not to-this being Freestyle Cruising after all..... With that little fiasco straightened out, we proceeded out to go find Dad. After that the one-night continued without a hitch. My Lee, her father and I stayed in our first AB Penthouse that has 2 Bedrooms, and FOUR TV's. OMG! We played Bingo (and lost), and Bowled. After bowling, and having a truly good time, all three of us realized why we don't bowl more often - we suck at bowling! So at 9:00, I sat down at a Blackjack table. I didn't get up until 3:00 am when I passed out in our beautiful AB. Me Lee and Dad soon followed. When we got up the next morning and were headed off the boat, they stopped us at the gangway. It seems we had an unresolved credit issue and would have to go back to the front desk... So NOW we're "stuck" on this boat until our credit issue is straightened out. My Lee went to take care of that, while Dad and I chatted with the Galaxy's Greatest Cruise Director, Ray Carr (There was a vote), and some of his wonderful staff, Jade Wilmott, Charlane Edwards, and Maria Luca. All three of these women (and Ray too) were so friendly and wonderful, I'm still in contact with all four of them. Then Captain Michael Hildan came around and chatted with us for a few minutes. That was REALLY cool! When My Lee finally came back, there were very few passengers left on the ship. The descrepancy? Like 4 bucks... in OUR favor! Oh dear... But that was ultimately fine.... So that was our first forray into the B2B world. I was a little confused. "Surely," I thought to myself, "that was a fluke. Surely they must do back 2 backs all the time and have a smooth procedure that just went a little awry this time." Then I heard myself reply. "You must be out of your mind. And please, don't call me Shirley." Badum bum

But seriously, NCL should have some kind of mechanism in place for people who are doing two cruises in a row, and they don't. Then, like I said before, the people that REALLY aggrevate me are the people who PRETEND to know the information you seek, when they're really just taking their best guess. And it is this group of people which allows me to segue beautifully into the next b2b: 3 Nights on our Wonderful Dawn.

We are truly Dawn-philes (if you will). The Dawn has been our "Home away from home" 3 previous times to these two "mini-cruises." So when we got to the piers, we had an expectation. We thought, "Surely our Dawn will be just like it was the first three times. Well, it wasn't QUITE up to her usual standards of excellence. Not BAD mind you, just a little off. So When we got to the pier, we checked in. As we were checking in, I asked the woman with an NCL badge on, if we would have to disembark in between. She didn't even think about it. She just gave me the canned line, "Everyone must get off the ship to prepare for the next blah blah, plus Customs, blah blah." OK. But wait? Aren't we not technically leaving the country? I didn't want to argue with the woman as we were checking in, so I let it go. On board, I again asked people from the front desk clerks to the cruise director. It was our concierge that finally assured us we wouldn't have to disembark if we didn't want to, but we could if we did. So once again, there was no clear mechanism in place for this, a completely different breed of B2B.

 

All this is not to scare anyone from B2B-ing. Indeed, it was the COOLEST thing to be on board the Dawn with about 100 other people. The boat felt DESERTED! Plus, you're GOING ON TWO CRUISES! WAHOO! I'm just preparing anyone who tries this for "playing it by ear." Two different people on board may tell you two different things. It's best to not get overwhelmed or angry. That's what the Comment Cards are for. So with that, I say to you Happy Cruising

JWK: B2B-meister

 

Shirley..that was a great B2B story. I have not gotten to that point yet where I can do a B2B but someday I will be ready for the chaos. In the meantime...Did they pay you back your $4 in world nickels?:)

[PokerDave]

 

Check it out, a Kingston Trio Classic...

[LOWTYD]

 

Check it out, a Kingston Trio Classic...

 

:) that's funny

[Pianoman6582]

 

Check it out, a Kingston Trio Classic...

 

That's the type of song that could get stuck in my head for 6 to 8 years or so... and I'll be randomly walking down the street looking for a brick wall to bash my head against to get the song out of it.... By the way, speaking of the Kingston Trio, check out "To Morrow." I couldn't find it on You Tube, but here is the muppets version...

 

Enjoy

And I Thank you

JWK: Manamanah!

[retiredonthesea]

We have seriously been thinking of doing a B2B--your story was most interesting and the one thing I totally agree is the no need to get angry or upset, it just makes the people your dealing with even a little harder to deal with!! Thanks for the info!!

[HMK8273]

Story was awesome - but what happens if you are on a 14 day cruise that they also sell as two separate 7 day cruises? I am hoping by the time my 2 weeks on the Epic comes around this all gets worked out - but if I book the 14 day cruise that starts in Miami, then does 7 days in the Caribbean with going back to Miami and then does the next 7 days in the Caribbean (switching from East to West or West to East - don't remember right now) - what happens to those of us on the 14 day? Are they going to force the entire ship off for customs when the ship the first returns to Miami even though we booked the 14 days as one cruise? That seems stupid.

 

Does any of this B2B procedure get any easier if you are in a suite with concierge perks - do they coordinate this somehow for us so we don't have the issues you did? Just curious...

[lambs2]

What a story! Sorry I got a few chuckles at your expense!!:o

It was SO SIMPLE for us on our 21 day B2B in Europe on the Jade! We made all our arrangements and got our new room keys the night BEFORE the first disembarkment. Then we just walked off the ship (using our OLD room keys) in Barcelona. Then at the end of our day we walked back on the ship using our our NEW room keys. (We actually had the same cabin for both legs). Absolutely no hassel at all, and we had booked these as two separate cruises (a 9 day followed by a 12 day).

 

Our big SECRET: We did NOT have to participate in the second lifeboat drill. We had just gotten back on board when it started and I was in the shower the whole time! No knocks on our cabin door either!

[Pianoman6582]

Story was awesome - but what happens if you are on a 14 day cruise that they also sell as two separate 7 day cruises? I am hoping by the time my 2 weeks on the Epic comes around this all gets worked out - but if I book the 14 day cruise that starts in Miami, then does 7 days in the Caribbean with going back to Miami and then does the next 7 days in the Caribbean (switching from East to West or West to East - don't remember right now) - what happens to those of us on the 14 day? Are they going to force the entire ship off for customs when the ship the first returns to Miami even though we booked the 14 days as one cruise? That seems stupid.

 

Does any of this B2B procedure get any easier if you are in a suite with concierge perks - do they coordinate this somehow for us so we don't have the issues you did? Just curious...

 

I think our issues lay in the fact that

1. we didn't have the same room either time--but that still doesn't account for the group disembarkation fiasco. Plus, that we didn't have the same room wasn't a problem in and of itself. In fact, changing rooms physically was no problem at all. Our much underrated (IMHO) cabin stewards took the bags to our new rooms themselves.

2. the concierge couldn't help us because 1 or the other side of the b2b didn't qualify us for a concierge...

 

Also, for all my kvetching about this process, please note that our next FOUR scheduled cruises are two sets of b2b's. One of them will be the Gem's Autumn Repo back to NY, along with her first bahamas run. The other on the same type of 14-day (7+7) Epic cruise you're on. I don't know if they'll make us disembark. My experience tells me they will because customs has to "clear" the vessel, whatever the heck that means. I do know that even the folks in the Garden Villa have to get off the boat for clearance purposes. I'm hoping next time goes much more smootherly :D. Perhaps the two we've been have been the flukes.

And I Thank you

JWK: B2B-meister

[diel]

When we did our 14 day b2b in November of last year on the Jewel we had no problems at all. We met in the Stardust lounge with the others that were staying on, got escorted off through customs by one of the staff. (Took about 45 min) then went back on board. We even got to keep our same room and didn't have to pay until the last day.

 

Diel

[DavidPatrick]

Our B2B was Athens to Lisbon, then Lisbon to Ft. Lauderdale. In Lisbon we went on a tour and NEVER did anything about customs etc.:)

[njhorseman]

Our B2B was Athens to Lisbon, then Lisbon to Ft. Lauderdale. In Lisbon we went on a tour and NEVER did anything about customs etc.:)

 

 

It would be a different story if you were in a US port rather than Lisbon.

[HMK8273]

When we did our 14 day b2b in November of last year on the Jewel we had no problems at all. We met in the Stardust lounge with the others that were staying on, got escorted off through customs by one of the staff. (Took about 45 min) then went back on board. We even got to keep our same room and didn't have to pay until the last day.

 

Diel

 

Let's hope our 14 day B2B goes this smoothly. I have a feeling we will want to stay on board while everything gets turned around - not sure I want to explore Miami or not - been there already - so not sure I want to spend money on what NCL is calling an excursion. Will decide at some point later on.