I only want to do 7 days of 10 day cruise

Norwegian Cruise Line 10 day Panama Cruise, the cruise starts and ends in Miami. 2016

I only have time to do 7 days of the 10 day cruise. The ports are as follows:

day 1 Miami

day 2 ocean

day 3 ocean

day 4 Aruba

day 5 ocean

day 6 Columbia

day 7 Panama Canal and Colon

day 8 costa rica I think

day 9 ocean

day 10 ocean

day 11 Miami

Of course I want to do the canal that is the whole point of the cruise.

As I see it there are two ways to do this:

A. Fly to Aruba with my luggage and board on day 4. The ship docks in Aruba from like 9am to 5pm so there is plenty of time to board. Return on the ship to Miami.

B. Board in Miami, get off in Panama after the canal trip, there is port in Colon for 3 hours. Fly from Panama City back home.

I can think of the following problems/questions:

1. will the cruise line allow me to board on day 4?

2. will the cruise line allow me to leave on day 7 in panama?

3. will flying out of Panama be a problem since I did not fly into Panama? And/or would I need to get my passport stamped on the Boat to show how I entered the country?

4. I assuming I would have to pay full fair for the 10 day trip, confirm or comment otherwise.

Please mention anything I may have forgotten.

Norwegian Cruise Line 10 day Panama Cruise, the cruise starts and ends in Miami. 2016

 

I only have time to do 7 days of the 10 day cruise. The ports are as follows:

day 1 Miami

day 2 ocean

day 3 ocean

day 4 Aruba

day 5 ocean

day 6 Columbia

day 7 Panama Canal and Colon

day 8 costa rica I think

day 9 ocean

day 10 ocean

day 11 Miami

 

 

Of course I want to do the canal that is the whole point of the cruise.

 

As I see it there are two ways to do this:

A. Fly to Aruba with my luggage and board on day 4. The ship docks in Aruba from like 9am to 5pm so there is plenty of time to board. Return on the ship to Miami.

B. Board in Miami, get off in Panama after the canal trip, there is port in Colon for 3 hours. Fly from Panama City back home.

 

I can think of the following problems/questions:

1. will the cruise line allow me to board on day 4?

2. will the cruise line allow me to leave on day 7 in panama?

3. will flying out of Panama be a problem since I did not fly into Panama? And/or would I need to get my passport stamped on the Boat to show how I entered the country?

4. I assuming I would have to pay full fair for the 10 day trip, confirm or comment otherwise.

 

Please mention anything I may have forgotten.

5. Most cruise lines are no longer offering what you propose. It really screws up ICE when the ship returns to its original US port.

Psva May be a problem, and even if possible you will pay for 10 nights.

These types of requests don't really occur that often so there isn't a lot of people that would have any direct knowledge about joining or leaving the ship mid cruise. Technically it would be "possible" but only the cruise line could tell you for sure if they would allow it. I don't know all the intricacies, but when a ship is doing a closed loop cruise out of the US, it is a much simpler task for clearing immigration and clearing their manifest with DHS if they have not taken on passengers en route. Nothing illegal about it or anything like that, the cruise line may just not want to bother with it.

Bear in mind these partial transit cruises just enter the Atlantic Locks, lock up to Gatun Lake within sight of Gatun Locks, tender passengers off for shore excursions and then sometime during the day the ship locks back down Gatun Locks and goes to the dock in Colon. You are only seeing about 8 miles of the 50 mile Canal and a lot of the good stuff would be left unseen. The cruise lines have a shore excursion that goes by a number of names, but what it is... a partial transit of the Pacific Locks and a passage through Gaillard Cut. By combining your passage through Gatun Locks in the morning and this shorex you will see a large part of the Canal. You could also just do a land vacation to Panama and arrange to do the partial transit of the Pacific Locks and Gaillard Cut on your own. If you schedule your trip correctly they even offer full transits at various times. I'll include a link to the company that operates the shorex for the cruise lines as well as partial transits/full transits not associated with a cruise.

I doubt you will have your pass port stamped on the ship (if the cruise line allows you to do this) that would more than likely happen ashore somwhere. You will have to have this done or you will really run amuck when you get to the airport to fly out. You may or may not have to purchase a tourist card, valid for thirty days, either way you would have to present your passport to emigration authorities at the airport to ensure you have entered the country legally.

Honestly I think you would enjoy the doing the cruise as is, it will really seem more like a vacation and certainly a lot less hoops to jump through. Your alternate plan and a stress free vacation can't be used in the same paragraph:D!

https://www.pmatours.net/pacific_queen/panama-canal-tour/panama-canal-partial-transit-tour.html

It may be possible to board later, but why go through the expense of paying for the entire cruise and flying to Aruba? Fly to Panama City (plenty of flights out of Miami) and do a local Panama Canal tour.

I met a couple who boarded our HAL ship in Mexico instead of San Diego for a Panama Canal cruise to Fort Lauderdale. They paid full fare and were assigned a left-over undesirable cabin in a noisy location. Lucky enough for them, another cabin opened up in Guatemala due to someone's disembarkation for medical reasons.

I don't know if this is feasible, but you WILL pay for the entire cruise, whether you use the ship the entire time, or not!