Back to back...pros and cons?

[NYCMommy]

We are still coming off our Feb Fantasy high....and thinking about next February. The thought of anything less than 7 nights makes me sad. The 7 night Fantasy timing isn't ideal, and the price tag is steep two years in a row. However, the 4 night Wonder/3 night Wonder back to back could work.... Any seasoned back to back with insight? Realistically, it is this or a 4 night on the Magic out of Miami. The way I see it...

Pros

1. Two visits to Castaway Cay!
2. Cheaper than the traditional 7 night (~1k cheaper)
3. Option for almost 2 hours onboard before others board
4. Same basic schedule so opportunity to go "back" and do things we didn't get to do the first cruise
5. We would hit gold for the 3 night cruise
6. Port Canaversl vs, Port of Miami
7. Uniqueness of it would make it special, and nothing we have done on a cruise before

Cons

1. One day of being in port when switching over, instead of at sea or a port
2. If we could not book same room, would need to pack up and move
3. Only get the 10% on board credit for one of the two cruises
4. No formal night, captains gala, and probably the same shows during each cruises/overlap
5. Not as many bells and whistles as the Fantasy 7 night
6. Two visits to Nassau, which we would turn at least one into "sea" day
7. Broken up with different passengers..no continuity of fellow guests

Realistically, a 4 night is more in our budget but I would love to hear others experiences on pros, cons and whether they would recommend something like this?

Thanks!

 

[Imahikergirl]

I've been thinking of a similar scenario as you. Another pro that I was thinking of was that each cruise in the B2B gives the opportunity for an OBB. For me that would be another definite cruise and a placeholder.

 

[Hundredacre]

Any time we have looked at this there has been no price advantage. But I have read other people said it made financial sense. That would be the draw for me. That and cc.

 

[clten]

Not to put a damper on one of your pros but the chances these days of having 2 hours on board without other guests is slim. Yes, we've had a bigger gap on the classics than the newer ships but even in the classics the last couple of b2b's we've done, we have been on board less than 1/2 hour before new guests started boarding. Many years ago, we did have several hours of quiet onboard. Could you have longer than 1/2 hour, sure, but wouldn't count on it.

The other con to me, and maybe you kind of capture it in your continuity of guests, is the atmosphere. It is more harried on shorter cruises than longer ones. So you will have that same atmosphere over both your cruises. Sure you can relax but just as you hit the relaxation point on cruise 1, things get switched up and a new batch of cruises frantic to get everything done is on board.

The other pro is the crew -- the crew seems to genuinely love having back to back guests!

 

[n2mm]

We just did a b2b last month and we were off the ship at 9:30AM and let back on at 10:40AM.

Pros: 2 chances to book placeholders for future cruises, 2 castaway gifts, pay parking for only one cruise (we paid for the 3 nights and did not have to pay for the 4 nights parking at Disney's parking lot). If you don't have the same cabin, the hostess will move your luggage to your new cabin for you (according to the letter we received). You can choose to keep your dining staff....arrangements can be made with the head server. 2 nights of fireworks. We enjoyed doing this. our only downside was that it was late Feb/early March and the water at castaway cay was too cool for us. The next time we do it, it will be a different time of year.

 

[CamColt]

I've done B2Bs twice now and I enjoy it. When I have checked specific pricing however I did not find it less for my cruises as most cruisers find. I am looking to do B2Bs again in 2017 if the price is less than a 7 night.

 

[RedSox68]

Not to put a damper on one of your pros but the chances these days of having 2 hours on board without other guests is slim. Yes, we've had a bigger gap on the classics than the newer ships but even in the classics the last couple of b2b's we've done, we have been on board less than 1/2 hour before new guests started boarding. Many years ago, we did have several hours of quiet onboard. Could you have longer than 1/2 hour, sure, but wouldn't count on it.

The other con to me, and maybe you kind of capture it in your continuity of guests, is the atmosphere. It is more harried on shorter cruises than longer ones. So you will have that same atmosphere over both your cruises. Sure you can relax but just as you hit the relaxation point on cruise 1, things get switched up and a new batch of cruises frantic to get everything done is on board.

The other pro is the crew -- the crew seems to genuinely love having back to back guests!

I'm disappointed to hear that. We did a b2b in 2007 in Barcelona and were allowed to stay onboard completely -- didn't have to get off the ship at all. We had four hours to ourselves in the adult pool and up on deck and it was glorious. We were also allowed to go back and forth to our room. Sorry to hear that they don't allow you to stay onboard anymore

 

[belac]

We will be doing that soon and luckily got the same room, try as hard as possible to do that, our TA managed that. We did the OBB for the one, got the credit and discount. Switched to TA got partial TA OBC from them for original OBB and full TA OBC for the second one they booked. We received 2 beautiful gift baskets from TA. It worked out to have 2 different itineraries, so not the same ports except CC.
I like the fact that we can skip a show and catch it later, I can give up Princess and Frozen meets on one of them, if DS want to.
I was told (by CM, we will see...) that you can get off in Miami and look around and get on later in the day (like a port day) since you are already settled in your SR or get right back on in an hour or so and enjoy the ship for a bit. Having the same crew is good too, as long as you like them and their service.
The negative would be having to get off for that hour or so to go through customs, have to go through 2 muster drills, and the opportunity to buy more stuff LOL

edit - price was way less for us than a 7 day, a little over 1K less for the cruise itself and it is 9 days aboard, not to mention the airfare was less, but I think that was due to gas prices.

 

[Trera]

We just did a b2b last month and we were off the ship at 9:30AM and let back on at 10:40AM.

Pros: 2 chances to book placeholders for future cruises, 2 castaway gifts, pay parking for only one cruise (we paid for the 3 nights and did not have to pay for the 4 nights parking at Disney's parking lot). If you don't have the same cabin, the hostess will move your luggage to your new cabin for you (according to the letter we received). You can choose to keep your dining staff....arrangements can be made with the head server. 2 nights of fireworks. We enjoyed doing this. our only downside was that it was late Feb/early March and the water at castaway cay was too cool for us. The next time we do it, it will be a different time of year.

We always book the same room on B2B cruises and tell our stateroom host to do the deep clean while we are on CC so when we get back to port, he can turn our room quickly.

Then when we reboard..........we can go straight to a clean room if we want to.

 

[n2mm]

We always book the same room on B2B cruises and tell our stateroom host to do the deep clean while we are on CC so when we get back to port, he can turn our room quickly.

Then when we reboard..........we can go straight to a clean room if we want to.

Yes we had the same cabin on both trips. We had a great room hostess who knew our plans. We took very good care of us. I don't think I would've booked thus if I had to change cabins....I hate packing and packing.

 

[NYCMommy]

Good to hear these perspectives and exactly what I was thinking too...different vibe but the "uniqueness" of it might make it worth it. The one we are looking at is $1K less than the Fantasy 7 night....big difference...

 

[n2mm]

Good to hear these perspectives and exactly what I was thinking too...different vibe but the "uniqueness" of it might make it worth it. The one we are looking at is $1K less than the Fantasy 7 night....big difference...

Very similar for us too....of course 2 cruises put us 1 cruise away from Platinum too!!

 

[magicmommy]

We are on the Disney bus headed to the Port for our first back to back. Very excited!!!

 

[Hundredacre]

Good to hear these perspectives and exactly what I was thinking too...different vibe but the "uniqueness" of it might make it worth it. The one we are looking at is $1K less than the Fantasy 7 night....big difference...

At 1k less I would definitely do it

 

[Jennifer777]

We are likely doing this on our next cruise. The Dream is the only ship we haven't been on and we want to cross it off the list but short cruises are just not long enough. Another perk to a B2B is it counts as two cruises so you can get to the next Castaway Club status faster. For us, a B2B will get us to gold status, whereas a 7 day on Fantasy would still have us in silver.

 

[NYCMommy]

We are likely doing this on our next cruise. The Dream is the only ship we haven't been on and we want to cross it off the list but short cruises are just not long enough. Another perk to a B2B is it counts as two cruises so you can get to the next Castaway Club status faster. For us, a B2B will get us to gold status, whereas a 7 day on Fantasy would still have us in silver.

Same with us - the second cruise will be gold for us as the first will be our fifth...

 

[2boysmommy]

We did a B2B on the Magic 2 years ago. Your pros and cons are pretty spot on. Ours was also ~$1,000 less per stateroom (we had 3 staterooms with extended family) so definitely worth it.

I would add:
The duplicated shows were a "pro" to us - we saw every show on the first cruise and then had that "extra" time on the second cruise for additional fun!

If you have kids, the Club/Lab is open only as Open House on the turn around day until about 5:00 PM. This was a major bummer to our kids who wanted to go in and play like normal without all the Open House/First Day chaos. For that reason we wouldn't do it again until they were older and out of that area.

We were able to stay in the same room and our attendant allowed us back in as soon as we re-boarded. (Our boarding was drastically delayed due to computer issues but we were still back onboard about 1 1/2 hours before everyone else since the computer issues delayed their boarding process as well!) I did all our laundry during that time and sat on my balcony enjoying the sun. DH and the boys played basketball...for 2 hours!

We also had the same dining team and it made for a super fun time for us and them because we weren't in a hurry to "do" everything in a short amount of time. The menus are duplicated but most nights that allowed me to either make more adventurous choices or simply eat less since I knew I would have the menu options again in a few nights.

 

[Quellman]

I'm disappointed to hear that. We did a b2b in 2007 in Barcelona and were allowed to stay onboard completely -- didn't have to get off the ship at all. We had four hours to ourselves in the adult pool and up on deck and it was glorious. We were also allowed to go back and forth to our room. Sorry to hear that they don't allow you to stay onboard anymore

You cannot stay on the ship at US ports of call. You must disembark and go through customs. That is not the case in some foreign ports.

We are still coming off our Feb Fantasy high....and thinking about next February. The thought of anything less than 7 nights makes me sad. The 7 night Fantasy timing isn't ideal, and the price tag is steep two years in a row. However, the 4 night Wonder/3 night Wonder back to back could work.... Any seasoned back to back with insight? Realistically, it is this or a 4 night on the Magic out of Miami. The way I see it...

Pros

1. Two visits to Castaway Cay!
2. Cheaper than the traditional 7 night (~1k cheaper)
3. Option for almost 2 hours onboard before others board
4. Same basic schedule so opportunity to go "back" and do things we didn't get to do the first cruise
5. We would hit gold for the 3 night cruise
6. Port Canaversl vs, Port of Miami
7. Uniqueness of it would make it special, and nothing we have done on a cruise before

Cons

1. One day of being in port when switching over, instead of at sea or a port
2. If we could not book same room, would need to pack up and move
3. Only get the 10% on board credit for one of the two cruises
4. No formal night, captains gala, and probably the same shows during each cruises/overlap
5. Not as many bells and whistles as the Fantasy 7 night
6. Two visits to Nassau, which we would turn at least one into "sea" day
7. Broken up with different passengers..no continuity of fellow guests

Realistically, a 4 night is more in our budget but I would love to hear others experiences on pros, cons and whether they would recommend something like this?

Thanks!

I've talked about my B2B experience this past February (Ack I can't believe it has been 2 months!) in some of my previous posts. But not a real comparison.

Comments to your pros and cons:
Your pros were some of our as well. It was cheaper than a 7 day for this sailing. But for us it worked with our sailing group. Some people got off while we stayed on. The only unique thing about B2B is that is is Back to back to say you have done it.

We didn't find the turnaround day to be that much of a bad time. In my previous link I mention that we were off the ship for about an hour. Take a book or something to do. There were quite a few turnaround cruisers.

The packing up and moving was a minor hassle for us. We just left our bags packed in the room and the room stewards move them for you. For us we were 2 doors down, and our room was already clean by the time we reboarded. There is a semi-formal optional dress up night on the 4 day cruise. They still pull out the fancy backdrops, etc. The same shows do overlap which is a problem only if you don't like them, but for us, we watched villains tonight on both cruises. It was well worth it for us.

Not sure what you mean by bells and whistles. Do agree that Nassau is a tough port but we didn't get off either time. Well I lie, I got off, stayed on the pier, took a picture of the ship (since it is very difficult to get straight aft pictures while at Castaway) and then got back on.


Some other considerations:
We booked the 3 night first, it allowed us to really relax the second part of the vacation. People settle down quicker on the 4 day than the 3 day. You also pay less in parking this way.
The head waiter will come and see you during the cruise and ask if you want the same serving team. You can of course decline. They will also ask if you want to share table mates or not. I felt much more like royalty on the second sailing when it came to the dining room. There are more opportunities to experience things you may have missed or want to experience again. If you do the photo package there is a discount if you do a B2B.

Cruise staff around the ship will remember you from cruise to cruise.
We were kind of bummed to have the same dinner menus. Yes there are various things on them to choose from, but they are essentially the same menu. Having the chaos of two embarkations can be a bit of a downer. Remember the first day everyone is runing around acting a fool, but luckily you can just sit and enjoy it. Adult areas, enjoy the pools, heck, even just enjoy your room.

For our next B2B we are thinking about the Eastern/Western Carib cruises on the Fantasy.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

ot to put a damper on one of your pros but the chances these days of having 2 hours on board without other guests is slim.

Yep. On our Med/TA B2B we were only off the ship as long as it took us to check in again (boarded right away).

However, on our Fantasy B2B we were off the ship at 9:10 and didn't reboard until 11:10 (just before Concierge).

 

[Jennifer777]

Not trying to hijack the OPs thread, but I'm curious for those of you who have sailed B2B, did that give you the first chance to upgrade to concierge at the port for your second sailing, or do they not open the counter to upgrade until they open the doors and allow the masses to pile in? Getting the first shot at an upgrade would definitely be a perk for us too!