Back to back cruises

[Ranger]

We are planning to cruise on a 4 night voyage and a 3 night cruise back to back on allure of the seas, in January what is the most likely timeline on the debarkation/ embarkation day and will there be lunch as soon as I get back on the ship.

[Ampurp85]

9 hours ago, Ranger said:

We are planning to cruise on a 4 night voyage and a 3 night cruise back to back on allure of the seas, in January what is the most likely timeline on the debarkation/ embarkation day and will there be lunch as soon as I get back on the ship.

Welcome to the blog!

You are not doing a back-to-back but in your case a side to side. A B2B involves staying on the same ship, in that case you would be escorted through customs and returned back on the ship before any new cruisers board. They often have a consecutive cruisers lunch, which you won't have because you will be on two different ships.

In any case Royal treats each cruise as a separate reservation, in your case with two different ships you have two reservations, and they aren't linked in any capacity. Therefore, you are subjected to the same rules as everyone else. You need to make sure you have the earliest check-in time for Allure and then do the latest debarkation for Voyager, or vice versa depending on which ship you sail first. Again, because you aren't doing a B2B the lunch times will be based off of the second ships schedule. Most places will be open around 11am. Depending on the port you sail out of; you may be stuck waiting outside the terminal as they may enforce check-in times. 

 

[OCSC Mike]

9 hours ago, Ranger said:

We are planning to cruise on a 4 night voyage and a 3 night cruise back to back on allure of the seas, in January what is the most likely timeline on the debarkation/ embarkation day and will there be lunch as soon as I get back on the ship.

I've only done one B2B but from my research, it varies greatly. In some ports you don't even have to get off the ship.

We sat in a lounge on Indy (they had coffee, juice, pastries), waited for the ship to be emptied, then went through the terminal in maybe 10-15 mins and were back on the ship with new sea pass cards long before boarding started for the next cruise.

It was kind of cool and a bit spooky being on a nearly empty ship. But in any case, no, we had quite a bit of time with the ship to ourselves (only 25 or so B2Bers with us) before boarding began and venues began opening for lunch. We wandered for a bit, saw crew doing various turnaround chores, then relaxed in an empty Solarium for a bit until we could go eat lunch.

[OCSC Mike]

4 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

You are not doing a back-to-back but in your case a side to side.

I'm not sure if he typoed voyageR or was just saying a 4-night voyage, lol. Obviously I read it as a B2B.

To the OP... If Ampurp is correct, please ignore my response and follow theirs.

[Ampurp85]

I may have read that as Voyager, my bad. 

 Even though OP has a B2B they still need to remember that each reservation is such. Other than being allowed back on before new cruisers and the lunch, there is little difference. I recall the lunch is after 11:30, closer to 12 but there should be coffee, juice and pastries when you wait to do the whole customs thing. 

[OCSC Mike]

2 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

I may have read that as Voyager, my bad. 

 Even though OP has a B2B they still need to remember that each reservation is such. Other than being allowed back on before new cruisers and the lunch, there is little difference. I recall the lunch is after 11:30, closer to 12 but there should be coffee, juice and pastries when you wait to do the whole customs thing. 

Neither of us did anything wrong, you could easily be right.

Ah, another difference, we skipped the B2Bers lunch b/c my wife is picky and didn't like the menu so I answered as if they were talking about WJ, Park Cafe, etc.

Oh well, between all our responses, I think we helped, lol. There's plenty of info there.

[twangster]

The timing for long you will be off the ship is dependent on US CBP.  They require a ship in the US to reach a zero guest count before they will authorize the next cruise to commence boarding.

One time they took us off the ship to meet with CBP but them some departing guests didn't leave on time.  They had to hold us as consecutive cruisers in the terminal as they searched the ship for them.  Once they found them they had to usher them off the ship, they were in no hurry to leave.  We were held in the luggage holding area and we saw them finally slowly walk to get their luggage and meet with CBP.  About 15 minutes later we were cleared to reboard.  It was just over an hour off the ship.  

Rarely CBP can decide to come on board to process consecutive cruisers.  That isn't very common but it could occur depending on the people that are consecutive cruisers.

It is up to the ship to offer a lunch for consecutive cruisers.  At this point no one knows if Allure will do that when she begins the three and four night cruise rotation.

If there are not many consecutive cruisers one sailing they might not offer one.  A lunch for consecutive cruisers is not an official offering that is published as a perk.  Many times over the years there has not been a lunch offered in my experience.  There is no way to know in advance.