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We are doing our first B2B on Liberty (June 15th - 20th & 20th - 24th). How does this work in between cruises?  We also didn’t book both at the same time so we have 2 different rooms. The main questions (as well as any other helpful info you’d like to provide) are…

- Do we have to get off the ship between cruises?

- How does our luggage get to the new room?

- Do we have the same servers for dinner?

- Any other helpful info?

Thanks!!!!

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Each reservation is treated as such. That means nobody but guest services will know you ate booked on consecutive cruises. If you have a different room, your attendant will help you move.

The ship has to reach Zero guest count, so you will be escorted off and then back on.

Whether or not you have the same server, may depend. I have heard they assign traditional tables by room, so you could be seated in a different area of the dining room. With MTD it's possible.

There are a ton of live blogs and topics devoted to B2B, feel free to search the blogs and have a wonderful cruise.

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I do B2B cruises all the time.  You usually need to vacate you stateroom by a certain time, say 8-9am.  When moving to another room the attendant will move your things.  You can leave shoes, hanging clothes as they are.  They bring in a rolling cart and can hang clothes.  I just throw in my toiletries and smaller things into a suitcase.    You cannot get into your new cabin until everyone else does, 1-2pm usually.   You will be escorted off the ship in a group and go thru customs and escorted back onto ship.  Usually right away.  They will give you your new seapass cards at that time.  You will need to do muster again, and probably not have same dining table.

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When you board the first cruise, make sure you check at Guest Services at some point to make sure they have you on the list of B2B Cruisers. They will give you a letter with instructions of where/when to meet on turnaround day.  Speak to your room steward and they will let you know how to handle getting the luggage moved to your new room. Usually you can keep hanging stuff on hangers and just pack everything else. Keep your passport and valuables with you.

You will get your new SeaPass card when you meet up on the designated place/time on turnaround day. They will have you ding off the ship with the old card and ding in with the new one. They may or may not actually have you walk off and back on the ship. Sometimes they can handle it without you having to leave the ship but more often they make you get off as a group and back on again.

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They offer you a B2B lunch in the MDR after you get back in at 1130. Don’t go there.

Sounds like something special like the Chops Lunch Key members get. After all, aren’t you proving how loyal to Royal you are by buying two cruises in a row?

The lunch is rubbish. About five items total as I recall (two appetizers, two mains, one dessert). Almost insulting to offer it. While simultaneously in the other half of the dining room the Key members are eating very well!

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Last Lion said:

The lunch is rubbish. About five items total as I recall (two appetizers, two mains, one dessert). Almost insulting to offer it. While simultaneously in the other half of the dining room the Key members are eating very well!

Your choice - you can eat that lunch, prefer to get off the ship and have some lunch at the port, or fight through the WJ. 

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Can anyone chime in who's recently done a B2B if the MDR lunch is still being offered?

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2826602-no-more-dining-room-lunch-for-b2b-passengers-fleet-wide-change/

Reading through the thread first is important. From OP over there on page 4.

"The officer in charge of in transit guests was checking us off her list as we showed up for testing. I mentioned the B2B letter did not say anything about lunch and she confirmed since there were so few doing B2B it was decided not to have one.

 

The F&B manager told me they have a cutoff number and if that number is not reached or close, the lunch is not scheduled."

Edit 3: Page 4 has a picture of what the B2B MDR menu looked like in early 2022.

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56 minutes ago, Last Lion said:

Two weeks ago. B2B. 52 of us. Approx. 12 went in for the B2B lunch at 1130. Nine walked out on seeing the menu. 

Meanwhile, as I said above, 40 feet away in the MDR at the same time Key folks were enjoying a nice Chops like lunch.

Is it really too much to ask that loyal B2Bers be offered the same meal?

 

 

I'm curious as to what was on the menu? Any chance there's a picture of it? As it sounds more like jealousy at this point than a lousy MDR lunch menu.

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Didn’t take a picture but as I said only about Five items total. As a point of reference, the new MDR dinner menu has a total of 19 items nightly.

No jealously here. Just pointing out that simultaneously in the MDR they are serving two different menus. This seems impractical if nothing else.

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1 hour ago, Last Lion said:

Didn’t take a picture but as I said only about Five items total. As a point of reference, the new MDR dinner menu has a total of 19 items nightly.

No jealously here. Just pointing out that simultaneously in the MDR they are serving two different menus. This seems impractical if nothing else.

You point is moot because specialty restaurants are also serving lunch, complementary venues as well, and they are serving different menus....... so are they impractical as well?

I've done B2B and the lunch in a quiet place is a perk, regardless of the menu. Those people who left could have been on B2Bs and were tired of the menu.  It happens. I don't get why, when each reservation is treated as such, B2B guest need a Chops level lunch as a perk.

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Sigh. We are talking the same kitchen serving the same dining room at the exact same time.

”Those people who left” - 75% of B2Bers- voted with their feet that the offering was unacceptable to them after seeing the menu.

Let’s not denigrate the commitment passengers make when they pay for B2B cruises. For most this means two weeks of vacation used for example.

Providing a lunch on turnaround day is the only linkage between the two cruises. The only recognition of appreciation given a “double” customer.

All I am saying is therefore make the meal reasonable. Not the tiniest menu you will ever see in a cruise ship.

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I'm not sure why a B2B customer who might be doing a sailing like that once a year should be treated any differently than someone who is not B2B but cruises one week out of every month.  Do we now need to have a frequent lunch club?  Should they provide the Key benefit without you paying for it if you have had lunch on the same ship in the past year?  And why not apply the same philosophy to Voom?  "I bought Voom last week, so I should get it free this week"... If you're loyal to Royal, is it only because they are giving you a freebie?

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8 hours ago, Last Lion said:

Sigh. We are talking the same kitchen serving the same dining room at the exact same time.

”Those people who left” - 75% of B2Bers- voted with their feet that the offering was unacceptable to them after seeing the menu.

Let’s not denigrate the commitment passengers make when they pay for B2B cruises. For most this means two weeks of vacation used for example.

Providing a lunch on turnaround day is the only linkage between the two cruises. The only recognition of appreciation given a “double” customer.

All I am saying is therefore make the meal reasonable. Not the tiniest menu you will ever see in a cruise ship.

My point is someone who books a B2B is not entitled to anything......but whatever they give is a boon. A person who books the B2B does so because they like the ship, itinerary, have the time etc. Not for a turnaround day lunch. Also, the Chops lunch for the Key and lunch most places is a very limited menu. 

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to answer the original poster's question.....B2B works pretty well.  Just did ours mid February.

We booked our cruises separately and had to move cabins between cruises.  Room attendant was very helpful and all items safely arrived in our new cabin.  

We gathered in the Cosmopolitan lounge (on Navigator) at 9 AM and walked off ship together, thru customs, a brief wait, and then allowed back on ship with new sea pass cards.   We never considered MDR lunch and went to Playmakers!   Worked great!

 

 

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On 3/17/2023 at 8:44 AM, Train4304 said:

We are doing our first B2B on Liberty (June 15th - 20th & 20th - 24th). How does this work in between cruises?  We also didn’t book both at the same time so we have 2 different rooms. The main questions (as well as any other helpful info you’d like to provide) are…

- Do we have to get off the ship between cruises?

- How does our luggage get to the new room?

- Do we have the same servers for dinner?

- Any other helpful info?

Thanks!!!!

- Do we have to get off the ship between cruises?

On our recent Wonder B2B we had to leave the ship and go through customs and then wait in the terminal for about 20 minutes before we were brough back onboard

- How does our luggage get to the new room?

We had to pack up our drawers and put back into our suitcases but they transferred all our hanging stuff.  We left all of our stuff in our room and they moved it to our new room...All except for our safe contents.

- Do we have the same servers for dinner?

No but you may be able to request them.  Our second week we had several family members joining us and months before our cruise, we emailed Royal to make sure we had a big enough table to accommodate all of us.  We received the reply from Royal before our cruise, so we knew what table we had for the second week and checked it out the first week to make sure it would work.  First week was on the 3rd floor dining room and the second was on the 4th.

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On 3/17/2023 at 5:03 PM, Ampurp85 said:

Each reservation is treated as such. That means nobody but guest services will know you ate booked on consecutive cruises. If you have a different room, your attendant will help you move.

The ship has to reach Zero guest count, so you will be escorted off and then back on.

Whether or not you have the same server, may depend. I have heard they assign traditional tables by room, so you could be seated in a different area of the dining room. With MTD it's possible.

There are a ton of live blogs and topics devoted to B2B, feel free to search the blogs and have a wonderful cruise.

I think leaving the ship is dependent on the the Coast Guard policies at the particular port.  We did a B2B out of Seattle last August and we did not have to leave the ship between the sailings.  In fact, our cabin had already been cleaned (we had the same for both sailings) by the time we finished the between sailing activities and we hung out there until the lunch venues opened.

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