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Overall I'm pretty pleased with Royal which is why I am here. This is how to make it better: Keep cruising affordable. Improve the website. Add free texting across the fleet using wifi based chat applications such as iMessage, WhatsApp or FB Messenger. More airlines offer this now for free. Time to allow it on ships. Stop trying to build chat into the Royal app and let people use what they use already. Royal talks about making vacation stress free, communicating with loved ones on board and at home makes vacations stress free. Migrate all ships to O3b Voom and leave the 1980 satellite technology where it belongs, in the past. Add technology to allow mirroring phones and tablets to cabin TVs Eliminate the Diamond happy hour binge drinking nightly event by removing it from the Diamond Lounge. This would solve the "How many Diamonds can you cram into a phone booth" effect in the lounge every night. Keep 3 drink coupons but expand the hours of use and quality of choices. Give Diamond members 30% off drink packages, move Diamond Plus to 40% off and Pinnacle to 50% off drink packages. Even at those rates there is still profit to be had. Currently many guests at these C&A levels don't buy drink packages or drinks at all, relying on the nightly happy hour for drinks. These changes would increase DX revenue and reduce happy hour costs, a combined win-win. Deal with chair hogs by actually enforcing the rules and do so consistently across the fleet Add USB outlets to all ships, add power outlets by the beds Clarify dining package rules. State exactly what is included, apply this consistently across the fleet Make all rules consistent and apply them consistently across the fleet. Be consistent with every thing across the fleet. Make Sea and Sky suite class available on all ships with consistent benefits across the fleet. Star class can remain exclusive to OA/QU. Smoke free casinos across the fleet. If Celebrity can do it, so can Royal.

I wasn't sure I would live blog this trip but Empress is secret favorite of mine and she doesn't get much attention here in the live blogs. Empress is a small ship yet she doesn't feel small on board, as long as you pick the right cabin. In the wake of the abrupt Cuba changes fares have been very reasonable including Junior Suite rates. On a small ship the added space and balcony of a Junior Suite goes a long way to not feeling the size of the ship. The fact that cruising solo in a suite will net me triple Crown and Anchor points wasn't lost on me. That's a whopping 42 points for the price of a 7 night cruise in a balcony on an Oasis class ship. Since I'm flying to the ship I always prefer a B2B. If I'm coming all this way I might as well cruise twice. I thoroughly enjoyed my last Empress cruise so given the great last minute rates and affordable suites I couldn't pass up the opportunity to sail this little beauty again. Itinerary 1 - 6 nights Key West, Costa Maya, Cozumel Itinerary 2 - 8 nights Key West, Costa Maya, Belize, Cozumel, CocoCay I like to scuba dive so the opportunity to visit Belize again was appealing. This will also be my first trip to see the new Perfect Day additions. Cozumel is a perennial favorite as is Key West. Costa Maya is also an easy port to spend a day at. Put it all together and the answer computed to... YOLO, why not? I am going to take a more relaxed approach to blogging this one. It is after all a small ship and I've got two weeks to spread my posts over so I may not be as active on this one as I have on other cruises. Flying in the night before my plane takes off in a couple of hours. Time to finish packing and get moving.

When I took my first cruise on Vision in March 2015, I could not have predicted that I would be sailing her again so quickly as my 7th cruise and my 3rd one this year!!! While I think this is the last hurrah for a while (we have rhapsody scheduled for next spring break, but the family wants some land trips to disney and london and my credit cards are screaming in agony lol), it is going to be an amazing trip. The set-up: 2 years ago ish, we started looking at Europe Itineraries. We were getting ready to turn 50 and had wanted to do Europe forever, but Disney kept getting in the way 🙂 As soon as the itineraries came out, we saw the 12 day on Vision. I truly wish that we were on a different ship in that I really wanted to try radiance class, but I enjoyed Vision as my first ship. We wanted to do something different though, and we looked at the ultra spacious family room. We only had 3 people traveling...more on that in a sec...and Sharla at MEI was able to grab 4032 for us. It has a separate little bunk room for our 16 year old and a large couch/seating area. There will be tons of storage and room to move around. I don't usually care about our space much, but this will be nice since the whole trip will be 16 days with our pre-cruise stay in barcelona. Those of you with teenagers know that some space will definitely be needed! We thought about a balcony, but because Vision is so small and older, the balcony rooms are a lot pricier than on some of the newer ships. In some ways I wish we'd tried jr suite...we'd have gotten 24 points!...but this trip is already a huge reach for us, so we will enjoy our different room with a big window and enjoy the ocean breezes on the outside decks! The travelers: Jane (mom2mybugs), Jeff (the husband who doesn't love cruising as much as I do but is really looking forward to the ports) and Madison (16, who is very much excited for Europe). In retrospect, we should have also booked our 22 year old and 20 year old on the cruise as well. 2 years ago, we figured they'd both be working, but Morgan is still finding her perfect post-college job and John just got back from a study abroad in Germany and can't find a 6 week job. I'm not sure we could have afforded to bring them with air-fare, excursions, etc, but booking them at the beginning would have given us the flexibility if it wanted them to come. I looked at adding them a few months ago, and the muster stations were full and the cost to put them in another room (even interior) was insane. So they will be staying with the 2 members of the family that I will be missing dreadfully (the 2 schnauzer puppies!) and basically keeping the house hopefully standing! Madison is usually a huge teen center kid...we hardly see her at all on the cruises because she meets people and ditches us immediately. We aren't expecting nearly as many teens on this trip as we see in the Caribbean on spring break cruises. However, she is not as stressed because the port days are so long and she is planning on lots of family time. I am hopeful that she will find a couple girls to hang with in the evenings and on the sea days, because Jeff and I are pretty boring and we'd also like a little us time! The itinerary: Amazing! July 24--Fly out of Chicago O'Hare at 630pm, arrive Barcelona at 9:50 July 25-28 Barcelona. We have a barcelona city card, a barcelona day tours 1/2 day tour (they will pick us up from the airport) and a segrada familia ticket. We will just roam around and eat/drink! We are staying at an airbnb very close to the segrada familia. It has a tiny balcony, 2 bathrooms and bedrooms and is out of the tourist area. We thought about staying near the ramblas, but really wanted to not exhaust ourselves before the trip. We can easily metro it looks like and we should be able to see a fair amount. We are still trying to decide if we will go to Tarragona (Roman Ruins), Sitges (beach town) or both on a day trip (train out by ourselves, or do a 100 euro tour)...I still can't decide. I don't want to race around, but i will regret not seeing the aquaduct and other ruins. I'm very worried about the heat in europe though...my daughter tends to drag/mope/get herself sick in heat and my husband isn't in great shape. We may just do the tour because it is easy and the van will be air conditioned. Oh yeah, and Jeff and I will celebrate our 29th anniversary on the 28th! July 29 Board Vision of the Seas early....yep...I'm one of the those people who are there before security opens! I am so excited! July 30 Cannes No tour scheduled. Either we will do the public crowded beach or take a taxi out to a more quiet location. Didn't want to spend a ton here since the other excursions are crazy expensive. July 31 Florence (well La Spezia). I know someday I will get back to Italy. After Paris it is a true bucket list trip. However, i am trying to tell myself that I will go back over and over. It is going to be hot, crowded and we are cruising into a port a fair distance from Florence, Rome and Athens. So we did all tours with Royal. We are skipping Pisa since time is limited, and just doing Florence. I really really wanted to buy an Uffizi ticket on my own but I can't quite figure out how much free time we have and I know that I wouldn't have more than a couple hours. I think we are better off just finding one of @Traveler's gelato places and relaxing. It will kill me...I'm a go/go/go hit every museum person but I'm trying to make my mantra "Pace/pace/pace!" Aug 1 Rome (again...not actually rome but far out). We did a tour that will get us into the vatican museum and st. peters and I will see the Sistine chapel along with a gazillion of my close personal friends. It will be packed. I will be heartbroken if things are too crowded or the pope closes something, but again, I'm telling myself nothing is a have to...I will be back!!! We will drive past the coliseum, but i traded that entry for the religious art! Aug 2 & 3 Sea days! Much needed relaxation in my happy place on my sky deck chair near the bar! I have my paperback books, my sunscreen and my chair clips! I am tempted to do the thriller dance class which i think would be fun, but might involve me getting off my deck chair or not getting one in time, so maybe not! Aug 4 Athens! I heard they closed the acropolis for 6 hours because of the extreme heat. I am hoping this doesn't happen while we are there, but they will find something for us to do. This is the port I'm the most worried about heat and water consumption. Hoping nobody gets heatstroke. Aug 5 Mykenos Jeff will celebrate his 51st birthday in Greece! Because he is a high school social studies teacher, one of my majors was history and Madison is looking at anthropology/archaeology as a potential college major, we are going to the ancient ruins in Delos. This will also be hot. Really Really hot. Hoping the fact that we are done by noon will help. This will be a very cool port stop though! Aug 6 Santorini This is the stop that originally i was really pumped about, and now I'm hoping we survive. There are 4 or 5 ships in port that day, so it will be crazy crazy crowded and hot. We are simply going to do a tour of Oia, walk around a bit, and then hit a cafe for some wine. I think this stop will be a take pictures and soak up atmosphere because I feel like it will be over-tourists. I don't think we will get back to Greece, and so I hope we can see what we want and enjoy whatever we are able to do. Aug 7 Sea day! I loved this itinerary because it gave me sea days to relax on a port intensive cruise. Again, Vision is a bitty ship, so I think we will enjoy some trivia, my deck chair will call my name and I will spend my $20 on the quarter game in the casino. Aug 8 Valetta, Malta We are doing the blue grotto and fishing village tour. It will be relaxing, we will see the beautiful caves and water, and I'm actually looking very forward to not having a lot of ships here. Apparently they filmed some of Game of Thrones here? Means nothing to me but since Jeff and my son have been binge watching the first few seasons this summer, he might recognize something! Aug 9 Last Sea Day. And that dreaded day of having to get packing! Ugh. I have never done a cruise over 7 days and I think it will be amazing. However, I will not be looking forward to going back to work (in education, August is gear up for the year time lol!). Aug 10 Back in Barcelona. We have a 355 flight so we had some options. We didn't want to hang at the airport all day so we considered the option to stay on the boat. I thought that would be pretty depressing...all these excited people just starting their trip and we would have to be going home. So we decided to do the montserrat trip and airport transfer. We had been trying to figure out montserrat earlier and decided it would be a fun last day activity and we wouldn't have to worry about the airport transfer or catching a cab. It says it is good for any flight after 3 and will get us to the airport by 1215. I will be stressed about getting through security but i know really we have plenty of time. Dining and Extras: We bought a 4 day dining pkg. I would have considered the udp, but there are only 3 specialty restaurants on vision, and we don't want to do them that much. We will go to giovannis on Jeff's bday, chops, izumi and I think chops a 2nd time. I've never gotten fish at chops, so i'm tempted to try it one time. Chops is a trickier restaurant for my vegetarian girl, but she can live on the sides!!! And the dessert!!! Jeff and I also are doing Chef's table again. We have done it twice before, and I know this is a repeat menu but I enjoy it a lot, and I'm hoping I get the world again for dessert! We are going my time dining this time, and expect that we will hit the windjammer a couple nights (esp. Rome and Athens) because we will be tired. We booked middlish times...630ish...because if madison does want to meet people, she can, but we didn't want to do too early. We are kinda getting tired of the scheduling specialty at 530 or 6 for her, so we might schedule stuff a bit later and tell them she is leaving. Then we can have dessert and coffee together. I haven't really checked out show times, etc., since the compasses out there have been pretty old. However, again, we can either try to get an earlier table at my time, or skip the dining room if there is something we really want to see. We are going team drink pkg as usual...it is close for jeff in terms of price, and i totally benefit. I also think we will be drinking a ton of water, so that will totally make up the difference, plus sending jeff for my morning latte! We snagged it on a sale for $48 and then upgraded to $57 for the voom. Voom will be spotty...vision is not known for its good internet...but i want to be able to check email and facebook message the kids back home. Plus, if we get signal, I will try and periscope for sure (I think I'm mom2mybugs there). I will also try to blog. I have to try and find the email that had the info on the picture compresser thing. So that is it....I'm doing a week long babysitting live-in job that pays for a lot of our plane tickets so i'm crazy busy until Sunday. Then its drs appointments, last minute pedicures and on our way wednesday!!!!! So can't wait to share my first experiences in these amazing ports. Jane

No love for me. Deluxe bev pkg is still only $52 with BOGO50 / 25% off. C’mon Royal!! Where’s that intern with another $18 sale for all 2019 sailings?!?

Didn't bring my laptop so I couldn't do a live blog and my sausage fingers don't work so well on my smart phone. The Anthem was FANTASTIC and so was Bermuda. For those of you who have cruised her, you know what I mean. The 270 was a mind blower! Twangster was on point when he recommended getting something for breakfast or lunch at the 270 Cafe and eating in the 270 and enjoy the view. By the way, the Kummelweck sandwiches in the 270 Cafe were to die for! We did the Silent Disco there one night and saw Spectra's Cabaret twice, what a show. I wanted to meet the tech guy that ran the show before it began (Cush) but he wasn't there yet. But I did meet his assistant. Nice young man who graduated form the University of Vermont this year and has only been on the job for 4 weeks. I asked him how he liked it and he almost broke his face smiling! We had a junior suite (our first time) and it was nice, especially with a full bathroom and a half bathroom. Junior Suites from now on! We had dinner in the MDR Grande and the Coastal Kitchen, breakfast in the Solarium and lunch in the 270 (did I mention those fantastic Kummelweck sandwiches?). The first night when the head waiter came to our table I asked why there weren't any savory bite briskets and she told us that the bakers on all the Royal ships don't do those anymore because a lot of people didn't eat them. But, she said i we would like some she would talk to the baker and viola, every night we had them, even in the CK! We had the key and it worked like magic. Talk about dirty looks when we disembarked on the 18th with the Key guide and cut in front of line! Oh well....Will we do the key again, absolutely. Only complaint we had was about the Solarium. Very hot, even on cruise days. Could not open any windows. Explanation was after the the storm the Anthem went through in 2016 Royal decided to keep the Solarium windows locked shut. Apparently the ship took on a lot of water during that storm though the open windows which caused a lot of flooding and damage. Well, now Royal has their own meteorologist and it would seem to me that he could warn the Anthem about an approaching storm with enough time for them to "batten the hatches". Oh yeah, we went to Vintages for a Margarita and were told they didn't have ANY Tequila left. Seems as though a group from the previous 9 day cruise consumed all they had. Wonder who that was? PS - This cruise pushed us over the 80 points and we are now Diamond level!!!!!

It’s’ cruise day! Currently on the train from Anchorage to Seward. I had a detailed post from yesterday however, it wouldn’t let me post and I didn’t save my post. I realized because I wasn’t entering my email address. I think we were awake for almost 24 hours yesterday. Spent half the day traveling and half the day exploring the Anchorage area. The Crow Pass Trail to Crystal Lake was absolutely stunning. Took about 4 hours round trip. Took great photos and even saw a Dal Sheep. So excited for our day. The train ride is stunning so far. Doing a 6 hour wildlife cruise when we arrive in Seward and then starting our cruise. I will attempt to post photos on my phone. May need to wait till laptop access

Better functioning website.

I suspect the intern is triple checking everything, potentially at their new job somewhere else.

Got me!!!!. As my kids would say, don't I feel sheepish?!!!!

No. No. No. They're creepy and not like original cast creepy. I see the trailer and just get creeped out. Also, this just reminds me of Barf from Space Balls.

Hey you kids, GET OFF MY LAWN!!!

I have yet to be to Perfect Day at CocoCay but this pic is my desktop background. I have high hopes of the time we get to spend on the island. I invite others who have been there to share their favorite memories there here. I hope this doesn't sound too corny.

Here is something that will give everyone a chuckle. It seems that Royal Caribbean isn’t the only one with IT issues, or perhaps their recently released beverage package intern got hired by Amazon just in time for prime day. Amazon Prime Day pricing glitch meant people bought thousands of dollars' worth of camera gear for $94.50 https://bit.ly/2Gj9QsV

Great memory! This is all the group cruises - so far. How does the GC get decided - Matt and myself work together to find a cruise that works with his schedule, my schedule, but more importantly has interesting ports of call - something different. Sometimes there are several cruises that are held while we decide or wait to see what else is released by Royal. If can look at times that the boards, insiders, and comments to him will help make his decision, but in all the years we have worked on these group cruises - that really hasn't swayed him. Ultimately, he will do two GC a year, and he decides when he has all the factors that he is waiting on from Royal on ships and where they will be sailing.

At $18 each

Made it on-board the cruise and finally unpacked! Arrived to Seward shortly after 11am and took a shuttle ride over to the small boat dock where we boarded a boat for the National Park Tour. The tour was breaktaking and we witnessed so much sea life! We even saw Sea Lions fighting on the rocks. We also visited a glacier incredible how close we got. Time for muster drill. below are some iPhone photos from the day.

I've not seen this elsewhere and was a little surprised to see whales from Anthem of the Seas on Saturday 7/13. We had an obstructed balcony on Deck 6 on the port side of Anthem of the Seas. About 60-90 minutes out of port we saw multiple "blows" and then a large tail. I carry binoculars and this time had a spotting scope I use for bridwatching. I was blown away. When I got home I googled "New York City whale watching" and it appears that my sighting was not unusual. So if you are sailing out of Bayonne you may want to keep an eye out!

Wait, you married him without a trial run to make sure he loves cruising?? You're a brave woman! 🙂

Day 2 - Perfect Day at CocoCay (photos should speak for themselves):

Going through some pics this morning and realized that some never made it in.

Great live blog @Lovetocruise2002. It was fun to read all 18 pages of this live blog post being on this cruise. Not meaning to hijack, but a few of my random thoughts. It was fantastic meeting everyone on the Group Cruise. One of my favorite cruises so far...by far having 80+ other groupies to hang with was fun. As has been mentioned about eating in the Two70 Cafe is a hidden gem...the Solarium Bistro is another great place to avoid big crowds. One funny moment was on day 2 or 3 I was eating dinner up there, and I get a notification on my phone of @Matt doing a live periscope, and I look around the small room, and two other tables were listening in. Where ever I would go, I would usually see a friendly face, or a red MEI lanyard (thanks @AnnetteJackson .) As mentioned, the flow of people is not very good, especially around the Royal Theater. What made it worse, there were major shows/events scheduled when a major show ended, and another event started in 10 or 15 minutes afterwards. People trying to get in (and blocking the hallways) while the theater was letting out. Also noticed a few shows/events that started 10-15 (one was 20 or 25) late. I don't remember this happening so often on my previous cruises. Being on three Voyager class ships in the past, Anthem my new largest ship...I did miss the openness of a promenade. Looking forward to joining more group cruises in the future.

They have a really pricey option out there already that includes everything..it's called Star Class 😆

And last cruise I was on, I saw a woman in the Windjammer in her bikini carrying her coverup. I didn’t notice her shoes 😳

Featured on Royal’s Instagram page Congrats! @twangster 😊👏

Darn it John, I was JUST going to book that stateroom and YOU pulled it offline for 15 minutes with your mock booking. Shame on you! 😁😁

He’s a bot. He has no head

I remember the first time we ever saw Blue Planet. We thought it was the most wonderful show we had ever seen on a ship. That was Dec 2009. Now we don’t even bother with it anymore. They really need to change these things a bit more often. Yes, I am fully aware of the cost in both dollars and logistics for such changes. Don’t care. They still need to make more frequent changes. Cats ? Really ? STILL ?

This. It never ends well, never mind the fact no guest is in a position to tell other guests what to do.

@Lovetocruise2002 thinking of eating somewhere other than CK? I'm shocked. Not very on brand for the President of #TeamCK! 😂

I agree with @twangster I have seen the adults miss behave (Later in the day after many, many drinks) more than I have the older teens. Just got off the Anthem GC, and they had to close and pump out the main pool twice during the nine days because an adult had thrown up in the pool.

Proper punctuation can be life saving

Next cruise will be the first in a Jr suite and I was just curious if the tubs are standard size? It will be nice to move around and not have to take a shower in a phone booth! Although I would gladly shower ever day in one if it meant I was cruising! For all you youngsters out there that are asking, what is a phone booth? It's where we used to go to make a private phone call in public before they invented cell phones. Go ask your parents or grandparents. 😁

🎶 99 days til we go on the cruise! 99 days til we go! Sun goes down and comes back around, 98 days til we go on the cruise! 98 days til we go on the cruise! 98 days til we go! Sun goes down and comes back around, 97 days til we go on the cruise! 97 days til we go on the cruise! 97 days til we go! ... 🎶 😁

IT’S CRUISE DAY! At the terminal by 10:10am after a $20 Uber ride. Today we are using terminal E. Check in was smooth as an early bird and I was led to a small waiting room for suites. Three other guests were already waiting. Terminal E has a lot of Carnival signage and reminds me of Terminal G. Very similar. At 10:15am I heard a radio call that the ship had federal clearance. At 10:45am boarding commenced. First on the ship. #winning Deluxe drink package $63 per day. Empress doesn’t have a Diamond Lounge so I used my 30% D+ discount and bought the DX. It was $50 in the cruise planner so I saved a few bucks by buying it on board at $44 but this only works because I am D+. Most folks should buy the DX in advance except they were offering the BOGO50 for DX on day 1 only. The beverage package table in the Centrum had the new cups (no handle) while the other beverage package displays in other areas had the old beverage cups. DX packages offered on day 1 & 2 only. Booked Chops using my D+ BOGO. Normally this requires nights 1 & 2 but they allowed me night 1 and any port day for the return visit. I had a really good Chops experience on my last Empress cruise so it’s one of a select few ships where I’ll pay for specialty dining. It’s also the only specialty venue on Empress so there’s that too. Noted signage for the Key in the theater and at Chops. Cabins ready at 1:30pm with muster at 3:30pm. Waited until 11am for my first beverage since it was after noon on Canada’s East coast.

After a number of weather delays we finally boarded 2 hours late. Lining up to board there was a lady who had clearly spent the delay at a bar. Once boarding was complete there was another delay. Apparently somewhere behind me a drunk lady did something to draw the attention of the crew. The same lady I saw while boarding was removed from the flight. While not very dramatic it further delayed us. I was worried our flight crew would time out but eventually we took off. Thunderstorms along our flight path made for a beautiful nighttime show. The power of nature is amazing. Thunderstorms in Ft Lauderdale area slowed us down some more. At 2:25am we landed. After waiting for luggage I hailed an Uber for the $45 ride to my Miami airport area hotel. Finally in my hotel room at 4am. Thankfully that’s only 2am mountain time so not as bad as it sounds.

Congratulations and welcome to Diamond level! I can now resuming talking to you.

Got the email from Concierge this morning! @WAAAYTOOO, interesting, new Concierge, Carlington Barry? Is anyone familiar with him? He just implemented Suite guest get lunch in Main Dining room on Embarkation day which is great, we always booked Chops and had to pay for it. So far, Everything I've requested he's already returned my emails and confirmed bookings. We are so excited to be on this trip, hoping for no new huge issues with hubby! Our 25th Anniversary sailing into Boston Harbor where we got married!!

I wonder if Azamara includes the DBP... LOL! Ahhh... the things you research online while waking up to a cup of coffee on a SAT morning!

This is a prime example of the difference between cruisers who use the ship as a means of transportation and the ones that use it as a all-inclusive resort. Still others pick and choose parts of both. Isn't that the best part of cruising? Choices?

Thanks all for the very kind words and compliments. Thanks to you for all of your helpful and insightful advice, commentary and humor on these boards. I'm really glad we have this wonderful place to talk about the most important thing in the whole wide world.

Just signed up as an Insider. It was the least I could do after all the money Matt just saved me on my most recent booking. 😁

Yup..just did a thing..no more FOMO and YOLO.

Sooo..come on 2021-2022 deployment schedules and OA5 announcements!

Solarium is 16+ so if they were 16+ then technically they are allowed to be there. It's rarely good when guests try to interpret and/or enforce rules. Better to engage pool staff or security. If they decide the 16 yo's behavior is in violation of rules they can deal with it. I've seen older adults who have been enjoying adult beverage become loud in the solarium. It's not advertised as a quiet zone so the issue of acceptable versus desired is very subjective. Ultimately that's up to the ship to decide and enforce.

I think we're dating ourselves by knowing Eastern, Pan Am and TWA. And not asking who's that?

I heard that cabin was a....wait for it....wait for it a dump! Thank you! Goodnight! Try the veal and don't forget to tip your servers.

Dad? Is that you?

Man am I old and not tech savvy! When I first read this thread title, I thought it was a new term for a travel agent! I'm serious! 😂

I assume while the ship was docked in San Juan today, the investigators and lawyers did more investigating. This is probably when Winkelman or his team got their first look at the actual area in question. I'm looking forward to hearing an update from him saying, "Sorry, my bad. I realize now how preposterous my theory was." One can dream.

The #1 problem solved is the fact that most cruises are too short. For someone who has to fly to a cruise a B2B saves airfare compared to taking two distinct cruises. B2B allows you to unpack and unwind. You don't need to take in every show because you can catch one on the next cruise. Cruises are great but if you try to do everything offered in one cruise you may end up exhausted and need a vacation from your vacation. Take Oasis class. It's hard to participate in everything offered during a 7 night cruise. More often than not you have to pick something but miss out on something else. When you go a B2B you can do some things on one cruise and different things on the next. Really enjoyed one show? See it again! B2B also lets you try different things in repeated ports while exposing you to new ports that are not common to both itineraries. One visit you can go to a beach and relax, the repeat visit you can go on an ATV or tubing in a cave or you can stay on the ship and enjoy the ship empty of most guests. B2B solves the FOMO issue while leaving even more time to relax. B2B also means one more week of not doing the dishes, cooking or cleaning. I have a B3B booked. Three cruises in a row on the same ship. B2B is cool, B3B is the next level.