Get off Le havre instead of Dover

[Kotuku]

My cruise finishes at Dover but I want to get off in Le Havre as the rest of the holiday will be spent in France so I don,t want to go to Dover and then catch the Chunnel train to Paris. However my TA says that the Sun Princess won't let me because of the lack of customs faciliite provided. I see advice from other CC's saying get off cruises in Le Havre rather than going onto Dover or Portsmouth or Southhampton. What advice can anyone give me about this as it is my first cruise.

[John Bull]

However my TA says that the Sun Princess won't let me because of the lack of customs faciliite provided..

Jumping-ship in Le Havre near the end of a cruise is frequently done by pax cruising with other cruise lines, though I've no personal experience. It's an international port, with customs/immigration facilities. Passengers using the frequent ferries from Portsmouth pass through customs/immigration in Le Havre.
In any case, if you boarded your cruise in a european port, its possible that you won't have to go through immigration/customs - most european countries (Spain, France, Italy, but not the UK) are signed-up to the open-borders "Schengen agreement" (google it). A port-of-call at a non-Schengen country, such as Gibraltar or Tunisia, may foul-up that theory.

I'm no expert, but its worth checking it out.
Your cruise line may have its own rules on the matter, or your T/A may be mistaken. Well worth asking your T/A to double-check with Princess, or get the info direct from the horse's mouth.

If it's not possible to jump-ship, carry on to disembark in Dover & you can be in Paris by mid-day next day using Eurostar, but it will cost around £100 total for two.
See my response just an hour ago to a vaguely-similar question http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1545138

If in Le Havre for the day, you could take the opportunity to visit the nearby fishing/tourist port of Honfleur (taxi or van from the pier), or the D-Day beaches (self-drive car or organised tour), or Rouen (train).
There's more to France than just Paris :)

Good huntin'

JB :)

[srpilo]

OP.. I just did this in May on the Grand Princess... Princess sends you a simple document before you sail, basicly changing your cruise doc's by shortening your cruise by one day and ending your cruise in Le Harve instead of Dover, it's easily done and based on our cruise which had about 30 people doing it, quite common.



Your TA is flat out lying to you
Srpilo

[cruise8x+]

We would like to get off in Le Harve, go on a D-day ship's tour, return to ship get our luggage, disembark, catch a taxi to catch the 8:00pm train to Paris. Am I dreaming, or is this possible?

[John Bull]

We would like to get off in Le Harve, go on a D-day ship's tour, return to ship get our luggage, disembark, catch a taxi to catch the 8:00pm train to Paris. Am I dreaming, or is this possible?

Certainly its possible, folk do jump-ship in Le Havre for the same reason.

Three potential snags:

What time is the tour due back? It's likely to be at least an hour before sailing. Tho I guess there's later trains if it doesn't work out.

You'll need to get an OK from the cruise line - not normally a problem.

I don't know what french Customs do in these circumstances.
Knowing the French,they may not bother to do anything :rolleyes:.
But you really need an answer from someone who's left their ship in Le Havre.

Going back aboard to collect your luggage may make departing the ship complicated. Thinkin' immigration/customs, not logistics.
But I'm guessing ship's tour will be on a full-size coach - it will have huge luggage lockers, empty except for mebbe one or two wheelchairs, so plenty of room to take your luggage on the tour. If you get on well with the driver, when he's dropped your fellow-cruisers back at the ship you may even end up with a free 48-seater taxi to the station ;)

JB :)

[binkysmom]

I've done it on a past transatlantic. Our last port was to be Dover but we decided to get off at Le Havre and spend a week in Paris. We just arranged it with the cruise line (Celebrity) ahead of time.

[srpilo]

We would like to get off in Le Harve, go on a D-day ship's tour, return to ship get our luggage, disembark, catch a taxi to catch the 8:00pm train to Paris. Am I dreaming, or is this possible?

I can only speak for our experience on the Grand Princess, they held all the passenger's (and passports) who we're disembarking/leaving the ship in Le Harve until after 8:00am so the French immigration could clear and stamp all our passports. Other then that slight delay, it was a simple process to disembark and grab a taxi to the train station for our 10:15 am train to Paris


Basicly once you're clear in the morning, you're free to go
Srpilo

[LEtue]

I can only speak for our experience on the Grand Princess, they held all the passenger's (and passports) who we're disembarking/leaving the ship in Le Harve until after 8:00am so the French immigration could clear and stamp all our passports. Other then that slight delay, it was a simple process to disembark and grab a taxi to the train station for our 10:15 am train to Paris

Basicly once you're clear in the morning, you're free to go
Srpilo

Checking the schedules for the upcoming months it appears that there is non stop train from Le Havre to Paris that leaves at 9:59 am. Is it reasonable to assume that we can be off the ship shortly after 8 am and make this departure?