Moira Posted November 22, 2020 Report Share Posted November 22, 2020 Spotted that Harmony of the Seas September 2021 offering departures from Barcelona and from Rome on the same weeks - seems bizarre to offer mid cruise onboarding in light of our present circumstances and likely continued "danger" though 2021. Any ideas? I am booked on 5 September 2021 departure with onboarding expected in Rome half way through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAAAYTOOO Posted November 22, 2020 Report Share Posted November 22, 2020 Inter porting has been a fairly common practice in Europe in the past but who knows what they will do/allow in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moira Posted November 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted November 22, 2020 Yes, was aware in the past. The Rome departures have just been added. Truly hope they are not getting way ahead of themselves with this - just going to be a lot more disappointed passengers if it goes pear shaped - me included since this booking is a lift and shift and I have two others I rescheduled which possibly will not come off in spring. Cannot wait to get back on board.................... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FionaMG Posted November 22, 2020 Report Share Posted November 22, 2020 Hi @Moira, welcome to the boards. As @WAAAYTOOO says, this is common practice in Europe, not so much on Royal, but very, very common on MSC and Costa, who often have boarding at 3 or even 4 ports on a 7-night itinerary. The oddest thing about it in practice is that all the onboard events are out of kilter unless you board in what is considered the "main" departure point. So, for example, if the main departure point is Barcelona then, for those boarding in Rome, the welcome aboard party will not be on the first day and the farewell party will not be on the last night. I'm not sure why you haven't noticed the Rome departures until now unless you were perhaps restricting your search to Barcelona departures, in which case the Rome ones wouldn't show up. I can assure you both departure points have very definitely existed and been on sale since at least back in May when I switched our Allure cruise from September 2020 to Harmony in September 2021. As far as the Covid-related safety issue is concerned, MSC's philosophy appears to be that it is better to have fewer people boarding at each of several different departure points than a whole mass of humanity boarding at a single one, since that makes it easier to ensure distancing measures can be properly implemented. emmef, rjweber3 and JLMoran 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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