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The "in transit" subject came up in another discussion but after some of the responses, it seems a good one on its own.You may have seen the term "in transit" associated with various aspects of a cruise. You may only see it mentioned briefly but if it applies, you get additional information delivered to your stateroom prior to the end of your cruise.
In your personal experience, how has in transit status been handled?
"I am interested to hear DebbieVi's experience in FLL. She is taking the same trip as we are booked on in February. We booked it as one 2 week cruise but there is an option to book the same time periods as 1 week cruises. On the transition day halfway through, I'm not sure what we are going to have to do."
Everyone clears customs which is purely dependent upon the whim of that custom agent that particular day or if a passenger on the list is red-flagged. He/she will either come on board - the passengers enter Princess theater by checking in with their "old" cruise card and once word is given, they all exit with their "new" card being scanned. They have everybody fill out a customs form "just in case" tho I have never had to hand it to anyone (I was told they do this because one agent may choose to ask for it and if not everyone has one, it really bogs down the process.
Meeting time was 10:45 and we were out of the auditorium by 11:10.
If you have never been to Ft. Lauderdale and want to see the Everglades, I would suggest doing a shore excursion for the day in which case you will meet as a group and disembark like any other port. Your in-transit card allows you to breeze through security to get back on the ship without waiting in line to check-in.
For Royal Caribbean, our 2015 experience went like this...
We received a letter to our stateroom a few days into the cruise to confirm our in transit status and to let us know more details would be forth coming toward the end of the cruise. The night before the end of cruise #1, we received detailed instructions which included the next morning's anticipated schedule and our group's meeting place. All in transit passengers gathered in the designated lounge, we were accounted for by name and cabin number. We were processed off the first cruise by doing a last time check out with the pass card from cruise #1 We were handed new cards for cruise #2 and did a first time check in with the new pass card.For in transit passengers opting to take an excursion or head off on their own for the day, they received a special pass to re-board the ship and were able to bypass the standard check-in and pick up their cruise pass card. In all, it went very well.
My experience with several B2B cruises was the same as described above bu CruisCM. We did not get new cards the night before we arrived at the terminal. We received them last.
In transit to me mean I get to stay on the ship!!!!
The worst is when I had someone come up to me thinking he was on a B2B, but he was not in the system for this leg, and the room he was previously in was checked in by someone else... He said he left all the stuff there too... OOOOppppppssss
When I did a B2B on Carnival on the west coast I never had to leave the ship. They told me to meet them at guest services at 10am and they would escort me to customs, but when i got there they said customs cleared me already and I didn't have to leave. On RC, I ran into a pinnacle who stayed on a ship for 4 months one time and on this Oasis trip he was on the 2nd leg of a B2B. He had to leave the ship, go through customs and then wait in the terminal like everyone else. They boarded first, about 18 of them he said, before star class, weddings, pinnacle, etc.
There really doesn't seem to be a consistent approach. We just roll with the punches.
When I did a B2B on Carnival on the west coast I never had to leave the ship. They told me to meet them at guest services at 10am and they would escort me to customs, but when i got there they said customs cleared me already and I didn't have to leave. On RC, I ran into a pinnacle who stayed on a ship for 4 months one time and on this Oasis trip he was on the 2nd leg of a B2B. He had to leave the ship, go through customs and then wait in the terminal like everyone else. They boarded first, about 18 of them he said, before star class, weddings, pinnacle, etc.
On a related note...
Some people may notice the terms "in transit only" or "disembark only" as a requirement of some shore excursions. These excursions are set up for passengers who are doing B2B cruises and want to explore the point of embarkation rather than sit around the ship all day. It also alleviates some transition issues resulting from harried new cruisers boarding and getting familiar with the ship.
The "disembark only" excursions are only for passengers who have ended their cruise and are not reboarding. Most of these include airport transfer as that is where they conclude.
This is all very excellent information. Thank you so much.
All great information. In recent discussion on B2B and the In transit, i'm starting to blend 2 of my desires possibly together... a panama canal cruise and B2B... I'm still researching , but what i've come across is most Panama cruises are 1 ways, not a loop...
Interesting.... In transit means more to me than some as I see that term every day when dealing with freight. But I can see Debbie's point. When we did the Panama, the B2B portion was from San Francisco, but we did not get the cards. Instead those who were staying on board went to breakfast and had to stop on the way with some customs folks and then all was fine. I think getting off and on the ship would be dumb if you booked the two or three cruises as one.
I think I understand what you are getting at, johngold.
My thought about "getting off and on the ship" is that customs authorities do not make a distinction in booking type. They just see each transition as a new cruise on which every passenger is subject to the same boarding requirement and not all customs authorities are willing to come on board for processing in transit passengers. We lucked out with that in Copenhagen even though it was two separate cruises.
I am interested to hear DebbieVi's experience in FLL. She is taking the same trip as we are booked on in February. We booked it as one 2 week cruise but there is an option to book the same time periods as 1 week cruises. On the transition day halfway through, I'm not sure what we are going to have to do.
I think getting off and on the ship would be dumb if you booked the two or three cruises as one.
Not really dumb when you consider not all B2B cruises return to the departure port of cruise 1. As an extreme example, you might book an around the world cruise as a single cruise of 100 days while I booked only a portion of your trip as a series of B2B cruises that lasted 50 days. My end port will be just another one of your many ports of call.
As another example, in the early 90s I sailed on a ship that made a Caribe circuit every 7 days. For me it was a vacation that returned to my starting point in Montego Bay, Jamaica. For others, it was inter-island transportation with embarkation and disembarkation at any of the island and South American ports of call.
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