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Changing starting port of a cruise?


alibabacruisers
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Hi everyone, I can use your help please. I thought I had read in previous threads, somewhere, about whether you are able to start the cruise at a different port, but cannot find using the search function.

 

I am thinking about booking a world cruise segment, but really want to start at a different port. The exact segment I am thinking about is not listed at this point. For example, starts in Southampton, but want to maybe start in New York or Fort Lauderdale. Is this possible? Has anyone got any experience they can share with this issue? How would you go about it? Or possibly end at earlier port than the segment actually ends?

 

Hope you can help. Thanks.

 

Barbara

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The availability of booking a segment comes and goes. Not all segments can be booked through each countries website or TA. The segment I'm doing never showed up on Cunard's website in Australia, nor any Cunard website, or International TA, but it showed up in my local TA's website. I think they must only offer it to local markets?

 

It all seems rather random. Which isn't much help.

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We have two people on our world cruise roll call who are embarking in Fort Lauderdale (which is not the start of a segment).

 

Cunard do offer Southampton to Fort Lauderdale and Fort Lauderdale to San Francisco on their UK website.

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We have two people on our world cruise roll call who are embarking in Fort Lauderdale (which is not the start of a segment).

 

Since I have a house at Boca Raton I prefer to start at Ft Lauderdale on south and eastern bound cruises - and I have never been refused. Specially on winter cruises it is much nicer to start from FLA soutwards instead of beginning at NYC and taking the risk of severe weather (as we had on Dec 21st 2009 returning from the Caribbean without visiting FLA). Unfortunately Cunard doesn't visit Florida now as often as I would like them to do.

 

Sometimes i had to pay the price listed for NYC departures though.

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To answer more precisely your question the answer is NO. If you want to start at another point or end at another point than those set up as segments by the Cunard you will have to pay as if you were doing the full segment. So it may be quite expensive. I wanted to do this 2 years ago and my TA told me that I had to book 2 segments. Obviously if the segment you are looking for is officially listed somewhere in another country it's another story.

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Since I have a house at Boca Raton I prefer to start at Ft Lauderdale on south and eastern bound cruises - and I have never been refused. Specially on winter cruises it is much nicer to start from FLA soutwards instead of beginning at NYC and taking the risk of severe weather (as we had on Dec 21st 2009 returning from the Caribbean without visiting FLA). Unfortunately Cunard doesn't visit Florida now as often as I would like them to do.

 

Sometimes i had to pay the price listed for NYC departures though.

 

Cunardaddict - The rules for closed loop sailing changed in the spring of this year. A closed loop sailing is one that leaves from and returns to the same US port. Originally, you were able to either join a ship late or get off early on a closed loops sailing. As of April/May 2013, this is no longer permitted with the exception of flight delays or medical/emergency leaves. The reason for this is that with a closed loop sailing a passport is not mandatory. By allowing you to join or leave at a different time, in the governments eyes, it affects the integrity of the immigration status of the entire ship. Unless its a set itinerary or segment, I foresee the theory of joining late a possible issue.

 

Karin

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To answer more precisely your question the answer is NO. If you want to start at another point or end at another point than those set up as segments by the Cunard you will have to pay as if you were doing the full segment. So it may be quite expensive. I wanted to do this 2 years ago and my TA told me that I had to book 2 segments. Obviously if the segment you are looking for is officially listed somewhere in another country it's another story.

 

I am not sure whether the above is true - it may depend on who you speak to. On World Cruise sectors when I have asked Cunard about this they have more options available to them than they could print in any brochure or display on any website. We have booked directly with Cunard in 2015 for a voyage from LA to Sydney (via San Francisco) where the brochure clearly shows the sector as starting in San Francisco and not LA (and didn't have to pay for two sectors). Also, I don't know, but perhaps the Australian brochure shows slightly different sectors, like LA to Sydney which gives Cunard reservations flexibility. The nearer the start of the voyage the more is the flexibility that might be introduced to fill the ship up.

 

Perhaps the person in the TA you spoke to lacked knowledge or intuition or both! Or may be he/she thought they could squeeze the cost of two sectors out of you!

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Well, LA is within the sectors SF to Sidney, just like Ft Lauderdale is within the sector NYC to LA...

 

I believe the World cruises are as follows:

 

2014 WC - Los Angeles is not a port of call

 

2015 WC - Los Angeles is a port of call BEFORE San Francisco

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Hi everyone, I can use your help please. I thought I had read in previous threads, somewhere, about whether you are able to start the cruise at a different port, but cannot find using the search function.

 

I am thinking about booking a world cruise segment, but really want to start at a different port. The exact segment I am thinking about is not listed at this point. For example, starts in Southampton, but want to maybe start in New York or Fort Lauderdale. Is this possible? Has anyone got any experience they can share with this issue? How would you go about it? Or possibly end at earlier port than the segment actually ends?

 

Hope you can help. Thanks.

 

Barbara

Hi Barbara,

Just me thinking aloud but have you contacted Cunard direct?

 

Another option might be to post the exact ports you are thinking of sailing from\to and then let the learned members of this forum investigate the local availability?? In other words if one country offers this exact cruise, then clearly it is available.

 

Good luck

John

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Thanks to the OP for asking this question as I was wondering the same thing. I know it may seem silly to some but I was wondering if it is possible to join the ship in NYC and debark in FLL. Cunard offers very little in the way of short voyages and I would like to test them out before committing to a longer voyage. I know the TA is not too long and it is on my dream list but one-way airfare to or from the UK is not the most cost effective right now.

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What about getting off (debarking) before your segment officially ends? I thought I remembered someone saying that their debarkation point was Shanghai, but they needed to get off prior to that and just let the pursers office know and they were allowed to get off.

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What about getting off (debarking) before your segment officially ends? I thought I remembered someone saying that their debarkation point was Shanghai, but they needed to get off prior to that and just let the pursers office know and they were allowed to get off.

 

Yes, I have done that on QM2, but Cunard needs to get prior approval from the local authorities before they can confirm it. Obviously the price is the same as if you do the whole voyage.

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Yes, I have done that on QM2, but Cunard needs to get prior approval from the local authorities before they can confirm it. Obviously the price is the same as if you do the whole voyage.

 

Hi Louise, how long before the requested port did you ask them and can you tell me what the process is?

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Hi Louise, how long before the requested port did you ask them and can you tell me what the process is?

 

I requested it at the time of booking with Cunard about six weeks prior to sailing. It took about 1 or 2 days for Cunard to get back to me with the approval.

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What about getting off (debarking) before your segment officially ends? I thought I remembered someone saying that their debarkation point was Shanghai, but they needed to get off prior to that and just let the pursers office know and they were allowed to get off.

 

Nobody can stop you leaving the ship except the local authorities.

As long as you wish to embark at a civilized place a notice given to the purser in the early evening on the day before will do.

 

If you want to disembark at a place with immigration restrictions make sure you have the appropriate visa, made the notifications if needed (US) and prepare the purser a few days before reaching the harbour.

 

In case of a medical issue Cunard will assist you to leave the ship asap...

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  • 1 month later...

I booked a final segment of Queen Elizabeth world cruise 2013, which started in New York and finished in Southampton. I should have preferred to start in Fort Lauderdale but problem was school holidays did not allow this. Other passengers on our table had boarded in Fort Lauderdale which made voyage about two days longer. Another couple had boarded in Auckland I think. My belief is that world cruises are initially divided into a small number of big sectors then later as filling ship is not totally successful they later introduce shorter sometimes overlapping shorter sectors until they fill ship as much as they can.

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I booked a final segment of Queen Elizabeth world cruise 2013, which started in New York and finished in Southampton. I should have preferred to start in Fort Lauderdale but problem was school holidays did not allow this. Other passengers on our table had boarded in Fort Lauderdale which made voyage about two days longer. Another couple had boarded in Auckland I think. My belief is that world cruises are initially divided into a small number of big sectors then later as filling ship is not totally successful they later introduce shorter sometimes overlapping shorter sectors until they fill ship as much as they can.

 

I think you're correct. For example, the QE 2014 world cruise originally just had San Francisco to Auckland or Sydney or Brisbane. Now they have released smaller segments such as:

 

  • Auckland to Sydney
  • Auckland to Brisbane
  • Sydney to Brisbane

Edited by Whitemarsh
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And they can charge a lot more per day for those small sector stops, but they try to fill the larger sectors first and then fill the ship.

 

Cunard released 3 and 4 day sectors for QM2 around Australia about a month ago and heavily advertised. Must have done the trick as they've largely disappeared. The TA's say they are very popular.

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  • 1 month later...
Nobody can stop you leaving the ship except the local authorities.

As long as you wish to embark at a civilized place a notice given to the purser in the early evening on the day before will do.

 

If you want to disembark at a place with immigration restrictions make sure you have the appropriate visa, made the notifications if needed (US) and prepare the purser a few days before reaching the harbour.

 

In case of a medical issue Cunard will assist you to leave the ship asap...

 

In June there is a crossing from Hamburg and Southampton calling at Halifax en route to New York. Cunard are not selling a segment that ends in Halifax. I have been in touch with Canadian Immigration/Border Services and they tell me that Canadian passport holders (which we are) may enter our country at any port we choose. The senior officer with whom I spoke went on to say it would be better if this was arranged in advance with Cunard so the manifest showed this and also to alert the US officials that we would not be landing in New York. So I am in the process of getting my TA to obtain Cunard's consent for this arrangement. It's no big deal that we will be paying for an eight-night crossing and getting off after six nights. It is worth it to be able to disembark from the QM2 in Halifax at the historic Pier 21 or 22 next to the statue of Sir Samuel Cunard and take a train back to Toronto - and a really nice train it is.

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