leave early on Carnival ship

Has anyone left a Carnival cruise before end of trip. Would like to get off a day early and stay awhile in St. Maarten. Called Carnival customer services and they said we couldn't...something to do with "Jone's Law"?

They used to allow this but they've now put a stop to it. Arrangements need to be made ahead of time. I've been told it also messes up debarkation for everyone else.

Don't know how the PVSA would come into effect as St Maarten isn't a US territory.

The Jones law actually applies to cargo, not people and the correct law (PVSA) does not apply if you get off in a foreign country, so it might be worth your while to call back and restate your question. The issue is actually that Carnival would need to arrange to have immigration and customs at the pier to admit you as a multi-day visitor to the island. This may or may not be a big deal, but it is up to Carnival to allow or not.

Not suggesting this as a course of action AT ALL, but people miss the ship in this port all the time. If you get another 'no' answer, ask them how they handle the immigration for people who miss the ship departure and ask them to explain why they cannot pre-plan this for you. Gentle and polite pushing might yield a different response, possibly with a fee, but it might allow you to do as you desire.

Everyone above is correct, that it is the PVSA, not the Jones Act (despite the fact that the cruise line employees continue to use the term).

Not only would Carnival be required to arrange for Customs and Immigration in St. Maarten, the real problem, and why Carnival and most lines do not allow this anymore is the clearance of passengers when the vessel returns to the US under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI). WHTI is what allows the use of DL/BC documentation on a closed loop cruise totally within the Western Hemisphere.

When you check in at embarkation, your ID information is used to create the passenger manifest which is submitted to CBP before the ship sails. CBP then uses this manifest to screen all the passengers while the cruise is ongoing, so that when the ship returns to the US, there is only a cursory examination of documents when disembarking, rather than a full CBP clearing.

If a passenger leaves the ship before the return to the US, a new manifest must be prepared by the ship's purser, and submitted to CBP for screening. This new manifest costs time (money) to prepare, and there is an additional fee for processing a second manifest. This is why the cruise lines have stopped giving permission to leave the ship early.

Generally, people leaving the ship early will not affect the disembarkation of everyone else at the end of the voyage, it is when a person joins after the first port that the voyage no longer is a closed loop (even though it is closed loop for 99% of the passengers), and this triggers a more thorough screening at disembarkation.