B2B questions

[DSMVP]

I tried doing a search but couldn't find an answer so I apologize if this question comes up a lot.

I am looking into a cruise for my son and I in Aug 2017. (It will be our 3rd) I was interested in doing a B2B on the Dream: 3 nights followed by 4 nights. We have been on the Dream before so I'm not worried about being on the ship and running out of stuff to do or being bored with the same shows, we love the Dream!

My question is how exactly does the day we switch work? If I can manage to keep the same stateroom, do I have to pack up all of our stuff or can we just leave everything in the room? I read that we could request the same servers too, when do you do that? Also on the day we switch, if we don't have to worry about our bags, when do we have to be off the ship and when can we get back on?

Thanks so much!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I tried doing a search but couldn't find an answer so I apologize if this question comes up a lot.

I am looking into a cruise for my son and I in Aug 2017. (It will be our 3rd) I was interested in doing a B2B on the Dream: 3 nights followed by 4 nights. We have been on the Dream before so I'm not worried about being on the ship and running out of stuff to do or being bored with the same shows, we love the Dream!

My question is how exactly does the day we switch work? If I can manage to keep the same stateroom, do I have to pack up all of our stuff or can we just leave everything in the room? I read that we could request the same servers too, when do you do that? Also on the day we switch, if we don't have to worry about our bags, when do we have to be off the ship and when can we get back on?

Thanks so much!

The only definite about a B2B process is that the last night of the first leg you will receive a letter in your room outlining your particular procedures. They can vary.

Basically, if you have the same room, you may leave your "stuff" there, in the drawers and closets. Be sure to bring your necessary paperwork (IDs, reservation info) with you off the ship (everyone must debark). Then you will re-check in once in the terminal. Reboarding is after the Concierge guests and may be fairly quickly after you've gotten off or just before regular boarding begins (30 minutes to 2 hour wait).

Toward the end of the first leg, your head server will (should) talk to you and ask if you want to keep the same servers/rotation on the next cruise.

 

[rantnnravin]

We did a B2B on the Dream a few years ago. We kept the same stateroom, so we didn't have to pack. They will leave a notice in your stateroom the night before with instructions on where and when to meet a CM the next morning. You will be one of the last to disembark and they will escort your down through customs and back upstairs to check in. You will get to be one of the first onto the ship. We would have had the same serving team, but we requested a table to ourselves for the second leg, so we had a different team - but our other servers would occasionally check in with us - which was nice.

We really enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of doing the B2B - not having to worry about missing a MDR or theme night, skipping a show or two to see the next sailing, and of course - extra CC days! (We actually had 3 because we did a 5/4 with the 5 being a double dip!)

 

[DSMVP]

Thank you so much for the info!! It sounds great and the more I think about it the more I'm leaning towards doing it!

 

[Starwind]

We (2 adult sisters) did a B2B on the Dream (3n/4n) in December 2015 and really enjoyed it.

For shows, we only went to each once: we spaced them out over the course of the 7 days, deliberately deciding which to do when. On the no show days we took advantage of the time to relax, explore the ship, do the photography session and character meets on at that time,etc. It worked VERY well.

Our first Nassau day we treated as a t=day at sea and did not even get off the ship. take that back, that may have beent eh day we walked to the nearby Starbucks... so lets say we did not leave the port

If you get the cruise photos package (we call all photos on USB stick), you can prepurchase the package for the first cruise online and get a discount, and then on the second cruise bring your receipt from the first cruise and they will let you buy the same package for the second cruise for 1/2 price. You can only do it on board though. Remember to pick up the USB at the end of EACH cruise.

On each cruise we booked a placeholder for an undated future cruise; we have since moved that to specific crusies: B2B on the Fantasy (yep, two weeks on board! ) in December 2017.

We did not run out of things to do, and in fact there were still some things we have not managed to do, and those were our 3rd and 4th cruises.

For switch day.

We had the same stateroom, deliberately booked that way.

At dinner the last full day on board the head server came and quietly asked us how things were going and if we satisfied with our table and servers or wanted to change; we were fine with them so stayed with them. It was actually pretty neat having them "again" since they alreade knew our preferences.

For switching: the last full day you receive a letter explaining what you need to do.

We left our luggage in our room, no need to repack, since we were staying in the same room.

We took a small daybag with us for things we needed or thought we might in the terminal. Also things to entertain us.

The letter said we had to be off by I think it was 915. We had late breakfast so this worked well. We walked off, went thorugh US Customs, then back upstairs into the main part of the terminal. We had to wait a bit until they opened a checkin counter. Then we checked in and were directed over to where the conceirge people waited.

The CMs apologized for the wait -- there was a film crew on board and that was causing the delay (we saw the crew filming at different places thorughout the 2 leg cruise). Eventually we were led back onto the ship; I think 11-something.

We basically pretty much had the ship to ourselves (well, except for that film crew, CMs, and about 20 B2Bers) for a while before they started boarding for the new cruisers.

We enjoyed being able to just relax and not have to do things that day -- no visiting dining services, we ate lunch when the restaurant opened, etc. Muster Drill takes time but is no big deal to do again -- I would rather repeat it lots and lots and know what to do should their be an emergency than not have "practised" enough so you forget when it counts.

Bottom line: we really enjoyed it and recommend it. Our next cruise will be B2B 7n on the Fantasy: eastern and western Caribbean.

SW

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We (2 adult sisters) did a B2B on the Dream (3n/4n) in December 2015 and really enjoyed it.

For shows, we only went to each once: we spaced them out over the course of the 7 days, deliberately deciding which to do when. On the no show days we took advantage of the time to relax, explore the ship, do the photography session and character meets on at that time,etc. It worked VERY well.

Our first Nassau day we treated as a t=day at sea and did not even get off the ship. take that back, that may have beent eh day we walked to the nearby Starbucks... so lets say we did not leave the port

If you get the cruise photos package (we call all photos on USB stick), you can prepurchase the package for the first cruise online and get a discount, and then on the second cruise bring your receipt from the first cruise and they will let you buy the same package for the second cruise for 1/2 price. You can only do it on board though. Remember to pick up the USB at the end of EACH cruise.

On each cruise we booked a placeholder for an undated future cruise; we have since moved that to specific crusies: B2B on the Fantasy (yep, two weeks on board! ) in December 2017.

We did not run out of things to do, and in fact there were still some things we have not managed to do, and those were our 3rd and 4th cruises.

For switch day.

We had the same stateroom, deliberately booked that way.

At dinner the last full day on board the head server came and quietly asked us how things were going and if we satisfied with our table and servers or wanted to change; we were fine with them so stayed with them. It was actually pretty neat having them "again" since they alreade knew our preferences.

For switching: the last full day you receive a letter explaining what you need to do.

We left our luggage in our room, no need to repack, since we were staying in the same room.

We took a small daybag with us for things we needed or thought we might in the terminal. Also things to entertain us.

The letter said we had to be off by I think it was 915. We had late breakfast so this worked well. We walked off, went thorugh US Customs, then back upstairs into the main part of the terminal. We had to wait a bit until they opened a checkin counter. Then we checked in and were directed over to where the conceirge people waited.

The CMs apologized for the wait -- there was a film crew on board and that was causing the delay (we saw the crew filming at different places thorughout the 2 leg cruise). Eventually we were led back onto the ship; I think 11-something.

We basically pretty much had the ship to ourselves (well, except for that film crew, CMs, and about 20 B2Bers) for a while before they started boarding for the new cruisers.

We enjoyed being able to just relax and not have to do things that day -- no visiting dining services, we ate lunch when the restaurant opened, etc. Muster Drill takes time but is no big deal to do again -- I would rather repeat it lots and lots and know what to do should their be an emergency than not have "practised" enough so you forget when it counts.

Bottom line: we really enjoyed it and recommend it. Our next cruise will be B2B 7n on the Fantasy: eastern and western Caribbean.

SW

We did the Fantasy Eastern/Western B2B in 2014. It was great.

 

[DSMVP]

Thank you so much Starwind for that detailed report!! And I'm so jealous!!! A B2B on the Fantasy for 2 weeks??!! Lucky you!

 

[Imahikergirl]

http://www.wdwinfo.com/disneycruiseline/the-pros-and-cons-of-back-to-back-disney-cruises/

When I was reading up on B2B cruises, this guy made me want to try it out!

 

[Starwind]

Thank you so much Starwind for that detailed report!! And I'm so jealous!!! A B2B on the Fantasy for 2 weeks??!! Lucky you!

Most welcome.

The B2B is our compromise:

We cruise in winter, we are flying from Canada (so, high airfare and WINTER!), so pre/post cruise hotel costs and airfare adds up to at least as much as a cruise itself. No kids and flexible ability to take vacation (eg I can "roll over" some of my vacation allotment from one year to the next if I don't take it the first year), so we can go when things are cheaper.

So we decided to try cruising every two years instead of each year, but do a B2B: 2 cruises, but only "one" set of airfare, hotels, and pre/post meals and such. We fly in on Wednesday for a Saturday departure, which gives enough time that if Winter decides to cancel the flight worst case we could get in the car and drive down and still make the cruise. For Dec 2017, 2 nights at Poly, one at Hyatt MCO, B2B cruise, then a final night at Wilderness Lodge before the trip home.

SW

 

[DLM1980]

I'm curious about the customs thingie. You come off the ship are escorted threw customs and back up to check-in. Does that mean you declare things you bought the first time around and then get to declare new things a second time, or does customs says a B2B is 1 declaration of "quality merchandise" that you brought in to the USA.

Is that a way to skirt the personal allowance (not that I'm ever reaching close to that spending limit)

 

[clten]

I'm curious about the customs thingie. You come off the ship are escorted threw customs and back up to check-in. Does that mean you declare things you bought the first time around and then get to declare new things a second time, or does customs says a B2B is 1 declaration of "quality merchandise" that you brought in to the USA.

Is that a way to skirt the personal allowance (not that I'm ever reaching close to that spending limit)

You will have to declare everything and you can decide how you want to do it. You can declare everything you bought after each cruise or you can declare nothing the first cruise and declare everything after the second cruise. What most people don't realize is that your personal allowance is for all re-entries into the US for a 30 day period -- it is not for each trip. So if you declare some after the first cruise and some after the second, eventually in the system, they will see the total that was declared over the 30 day period. If you went over your allowance, I'm sure they will be in touch to collect the unpaid duty!

What we do is declare 0 on our first pass through customs. If they question it, we tell them that we are getting right back on the ship because we haven't finished vacation yet. They've always accepted that and on 2nd trip through customs, declare everything -- we are never near our personal allowance either. (Once we did have the same customs officer and he did remember us from the week before and did make a comment that he was glad to see we did put our purchases on the second customs form.)

 

[kiford]

I'm curious about the customs thingie. You come off the ship are escorted threw customs and back up to check-in. Does that mean you declare things you bought the first time around and then get to declare new things a second time, or does customs says a B2B is 1 declaration of "quality merchandise" that you brought in to the USA.

We simply declared $0 after the first leg since we weren't taking anything off. Then we declared it all upon our final disembarkation.

We weren't escorted at all. We were only one of three families who were doing B2B so they just told us to get off by 9:15, go through customs and go back upstairs and check back in. We had to wait about 10 minutes to check back in while they finished off the prior cruise accounting. So we ended up chatting to one of the CMs stationed at the counter who explained to us about what closing off a previous cruise entailed, some of the issues that they can run into (i.e., people who haven't paid for their expenses) which we found very interesting. Then she checked us in and put us into the Concierge lounge. We then reboarded prior to Concierge about 10:30. This was a few years ago so that might have changed now and you might board after Concierge or maybe there just weren't a lot of people with that early of a PAT.

We liked the B2B. It gave me an opportunity to both try some of the dishes at dinner that I didn't on the first leg as well as repeat those that I liked. We went to the show every second night so didn't miss any. Did both Palo and Remy and were able to spread them out over a week instead of 3 or 4 days. Kept the same servers so they knew our preferences (had the BEST assistant server ever - she was psychic or something. Always knew almost before I did that I wanted another drink or a refill).

Some people have said that you "lose" the day when reboarding but I don't agree (at least for us). We sat in the Concierge lounge in the port for about an hour and sat reading, which I would have done on board. Then we reboarded and we spent a few hours in the Cove Cafe reading, chatting, watching CNN and having a coffee or two. Which we would have done anyway. But it was very quiet so we had a chance to chat with some of the staff in the Cove Cafe (including a CM who recognized us from a prior cruise on the Magic).

Then we had a chance to get to the dining room for lunch before the crowds came. So we found it to be a nice relaxing turnaround day. But that's the kind of cruise we had decided to do so it fit with our plans.

 

[Floridatinaherb]

Reboarding is after the Concierge guests and may be fairly quickly after you've gotten off or just before regular boarding begins

We did B2B last year and were back on the ship before the port even opened...definitely not after Concierge guests since there were none checked in. Well I guess technically that wasn't true as we were Concierge, but it was a good hour and a half after we boarded the ship before we saw any other travelers in the Concierge lounge. While we were the only ones in there we got to tour the Royal Suites which was awesome, not that we will ever be able to afford that!

 

[belac]

You may get the chance to actually use the pool with it all nice and clean and no one else in it. On our B2B this year that was the only time we ever swam in the pool. We were there for maybe an hour before others showed up.
Process was we were told to go to a lounge the night before via letter, waited there for all guests to de-board. We then were taken to the port, checked back in and we were back on before Concierge Guests (as some were there when we were called back on). We were also concierge but some in our group not. That took maybe an hour to hour and a half.

Edited to add: we were back on before pool was actually open and I used that time to get some great photos of the ship with no one in sight. DS loved be the only kid on board for a while. He allowed me to take all the pics I wanted to get with him. After swimming we went to our stateroom, after asking our host first.

 

[n2mm]

We did a B2B on the Dream a few years ago. We kept the same stateroom, so we didn't have to pack. They will leave a notice in your stateroom the night before with instructions on where and when to meet a CM the next morning. You will be one of the last to disembark and they will escort your down through customs and back upstairs to check in. You will get to be one of the first onto the ship. We would have had the same serving team, but we requested a table to ourselves for the second leg, so we had a different team - but our other servers would occasionally check in with us - which was nice.

We really enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of doing the B2B - not having to worry about missing a MDR or theme night, skipping a show or two to see the next sailing, and of course - extra CC days! (We actually had 3 because we did a 5/4 with the 5 being a double dip!)

This was our experience too....exactly. We were asked by the head server if we wanted to keep our dining team and we said yes. The head server also asked us if we wanted a table to ourselves and we did. We were lead off the ship at 9:30am and waited in the concierge lounge and let back on at 10:35am. We hung around an empty adult pool until folks started arriving at noonish. It was a great experience and we would do it again, and may in March 2017. We just did this in February 2016 on the magic and had the same stateroom.

 

[FigmentSpark]

You will have to declare everything and you can decide how you want to do it. You can declare everything you bought after each cruise or you can declare nothing the first cruise and declare everything after the second cruise. What most people don't realize is that your personal allowance is for all re-entries into the US for a 30 day period -- it is not for each trip. So if you declare some after the first cruise and some after the second, eventually in the system, they will see the total that was declared over the 30 day period. If you went over your allowance, I'm sure they will be in touch to collect the unpaid duty!

What we do is declare 0 on our first pass through customs. If they question it, we tell them that we are getting right back on the ship because we haven't finished vacation yet. They've always accepted that and on 2nd trip through customs, declare everything -- we are never near our personal allowance either. (Once we did have the same customs officer and he did remember us from the week before and did make a comment that he was glad to see we did put our purchases on the second customs form.)

What if you aren't an American resident? Would the claim system be the same?

 

[DSMVP]

So much great info, thank you everyone!!

Here's another question. If we are joined by another family on the 2nd part of the B2B cruise, (hopefully getting connecting rooms & keeping same room we had on the first part of the trip) when we are asked if we want the same dining team & private table, could we just say we want to be with our friends (in this case it would be my boyfriend & his 2 kids) and tell them the room number they have? Just curious how this would work cause he wants to do the cruise but not sure if he will do the B2B but if not it would be nice too cause then my son & I would have that first cruise as a bonding time for just him & I

 

[belac]

you can link the reservations for dining for the second leg of the b2b, be sure to mention your reservation with his for the second half, if you want the same serving team then request that while on your first leg and be sure to mention you are linked with your BF in SR #xxxx.

 

[GPaLarry]

We have a B2B coming up in September out of Barcelona. Our flight over gets into Barcelona a day and half early so that we can see the city. We were hoping we could see a little bit more of it during the B2B break. However, it sounds like you only get to leave the ship long enough to zero out the ship then return, via Disney directives. Would we have a chance to revisit Barcelona for a few hours during the B2B break?? Appreciate any help here.
We are keeping our same stateroom for both cruises.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We have a B2B coming up in September out of Barcelona. Our flight over gets into Barcelona a day and half early so that we can see the city. We were hoping we could see a little bit more of it during the B2B break. However, it sounds like you only get to leave the ship long enough to zero out the ship then return, via Disney directives. Would we have a chance to revisit Barcelona for a few hours during the B2B break?? Appreciate any help here.
We are keeping our same stateroom for both cruises.

On our B2B Med/TA cruises that the turn around day was Barcelona, the ship sped up the last night of the first leg, so that it arrived in Barcelona early. This allowed anyone who wanted to to get off the ship and walk around (but it was nighttime). There were also excursions available for those doing the B2B (we had over 300 of us) to take during the day when everyone else was departing/arriving. Only available to those on the B2B.

The leaving the ship to zero out is only a US turnaround port requirement. You may not be required to actually depart the ship in Barcelona. We did in 2010, but other cruise lines don't require it.