Staying overnight in Key West on a B2B cruise and not returning to FLL

Hi,

I have a B2B cruise booked on Celebrity,

Ship arrives in Key West on a Friday, returns to FLL on Saturday, 2nd cruise, same ship and cabin is back in Key West on the Sunday.

Is it possible to stay in Key West for the Friday and Saturday night, and get back on the ship when it docks again on the Sunday to continue the 2nd cruise ?

Thanks

No, that would violate the PVSA. You are not allowed to go from one US port to a different US port without visiting a Distant Foreign Port in between. The only distant foreign ports in the Caribbean are the ABC Islands or South America ports.

So basically, you would be asking if you can start in Fort Lauderdale and disembark in Key West. No that is not allowed. Neither can you embark in Key West and end in Fort Lauderdale. Not allowed in the PVSA.

The fact that you have a B2B cruise booked is not material in this case. Each is a separate cruise. You are trying to make cruise #1 into a Fort Lauderdale-Key West cruise, and cruise #2 into a Key West-Fort Lauderdale cruise and that won't work.

No, that would violate the PVSA. You are not allowed to go from one US port to a different US port without visiting a Distant Foreign Port in between. The only distant foreign ports in the Caribbean are the ABC Islands or South America ports.

 

So basically, you would be asking if you can start in Fort Lauderdale and disembark in Key West. No that is not allowed. Neither can you embark in Key West and end in Fort Lauderdale. Not allowed in the PVSA.

 

The fact that you have a B2B cruise booked is not material in this case. Each is a separate cruise. You are trying to make cruise #1 into a Fort Lauderdale-Key West cruise, and cruise #2 into a Key West-Fort Lauderdale cruise and that won't work.

The OP appears to be Canadian, so PVSA does not apply.

OP, I think you may just need to call and ask.

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The PVSA applies to all passengers. The PVSA is a law governing ships, and the nationality of the passengers is never mentioned in it, because it is not material.

No foreign flagged vessel can transport passengers between two US ports without visiting a DISTANT foreign port in between.

joyMouse, where did you get the idea that Canadians are exempt from the Passenger Vessel Act?

No, it would not be possible, as others have said, it would break the PVSA regulations.

The cruiseline cannot knowingly allow you to do this and there would be a fine on both ends involved if you decided to do it on your own. But, doubt if they would even let you back on the ship for the second leg as that would be a known violation of the PVSA for the cruiseline. Even 'In transit' or 'B2B' passengers have to go through immigration in FLL between the two cruises.

If it was a place such as Victoria, BC, they would most likely approve this 'jumping ship for a couple of days' but not another US island/port.

The OP appears to be Canadian, so PVSA does not apply.

Nope.

The same $764. fine (each time) is applicable for PVSA violations regardless of nationality.

The OP does not say what other ports they visited on the first cruise or which ones they will visit on the next. Last time we were on Equinox we sailed from Miami down to the ABC islands then back to Key West before returning to Miami. Disembarking in Key West would not violate PVSA because we had been to a distant foreign port. If the second cruise of a BTB also visits a distant foreign port, PVSA would not apply either. Of course, the only real answer is the one that comes from Celebrity.

Hi,

I have a B2B cruise booked on Celebrity,

 

Ship arrives in Key West on a Friday, returns to FLL on Saturday, 2nd cruise, same ship and cabin is back in Key West on the Sunday.

 

Is it possible to stay in Key West for the Friday and Saturday night, and get back on the ship when it docks again on the Sunday to continue the 2nd cruise ?

 

Thanks

You've gotten a lot of solid advice and opinions. I would confirm everything with Celebrity because if I were you, I would want to spend the 2 nights in Key West too!

OP, tell us which cruises you are booked on, please

On our last transatlantic some people disembarqued at a port before the final stop. It was allowed but there was a fee involved of about $65.

THats a totally different situation. You weren’t going from one US port to a different US port on a transatlantic, so the PVSA is not an issue then

The OP appears to be Canadian, so PVSA does not apply.

 

OP, I think you may just need to call and ask.

 

 

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PVSA is the same for all nationalities riding on ships in US waters, so the fact that he is Canadian makes absolutely no difference if PVSA were to apply.

The question is if the trip is viewed in its entirely FLL stop in Key West to FLL

or if it is viewed as two separate cruises FLL to Key West followed by Key West to FLL.

The first is legal, the second is not. I suspect that the cruise line would not allow it for 2 reasons. The first is that if for some reason the ship was not able to return to Key West for the early stop on the 2nd cruise, then a potentially legal stay would become a violation and the cruise line would not want to risk it. The second is the clearance of US customs and if they are doing that in Key West on the first cruise. The OP would have to clear customs there if he left the ship.

The OP is on the roll call for the Equinox cruise that boarded yesterday. It does not visit Key West, so probably not talking about that cruise - but may not be back to see comments until after the cruise. EM

THey are two separate cruises as far as the cruise line is concerned. Two booking numbers, two seapass accounts.

You can’t go from Fort Lauderdale to Key West without visiting a distant foreign port in between (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao or Cartagena).

You can’t go from Key West to Fort Lauderdale without a distant foreign port in between. (See above)

ALL THE OTHER caribbean ports, as well as Mexico, Honduras, Belize, Costa Rica are not classifies as distant foreign ports.

THey are two separate cruises as far as the cruise line is concerned. Two booking numbers, two seapass accounts.

 

You can’t go from Fort Lauderdale to Key West without visiting a distant foreign port in between (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao or Cartagena).

 

You can’t go from Key West to Fort Lauderdale without a distant foreign port in between. (See above)

 

ALL THE OTHER caribbean ports, as well as Mexico, Honduras, Belize, Costa Rica are not classifies as distant foreign ports.

Not necessarily. The cruise line will look at the complete duration of the stay on the ship during B2B cruises.

That is why someone cannot take an LA to Vancouver, Vancouver to Seattle route. As individual cruises they are fine, but as the complete route is a violation. Now I once did that route because I did a Panama canal cruise that ended in LA then did 2 more cruises. Princess's computer tried flagging the LA to V and V to Seattle and said that it was an illegal route. However, because I started in FLL and had a far stop it was allowed. The system had to be manually over ridden.

PVSA does not care about the cruise number, seapass acounts, bookings, etc. All the law cares about is where the person started the trip and where they ended the trip on a particular vessel or combination of vessels under the same company, without a break is travel.

Even though the complete combination would be legal, the cruise line probably would not allow it due to risk of complications that would make it a violation as well as the increased customs complexity. It also might not be allowed because the two night stay might be enough to be considered to be a break in travel.

THey are two separate cruises as far as the cruise line is concerned. Two booking numbers, two seapass accounts.

 

You can’t go from Fort Lauderdale to Key West without visiting a distant foreign port in between (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao or Cartagena).

 

You can’t go from Key West to Fort Lauderdale without a distant foreign port in between. (See above)

 

ALL THE OTHER caribbean ports, as well as Mexico, Honduras, Belize, Costa Rica are not classifies as distant foreign ports.

Done Key West to FLL directly many times

But did you embark in Key West and disembark in Fort Lauderdale?

But did you embark in Key West and disembark in Fort Lauderdale?

No, I think your earlier post was a bit misleading, I took it differently than I guess what your intent was

Lets see if this is clearer:

You can’t embark in Fort Lauderdale and disembark in Key West without the distant foreign port in between, nor can you embark in Key west and disembark Fort Lauderdale without visiting that distant foreign port in between.

Lets see if this is clearer:

 

You can’t embark in Fort Lauderdale and disembark in Key West without the distant foreign port in between, nor can you embark in Key west and disembark Fort Lauderdale without visiting that distant foreign port in between.

Agree

Hypothetically speaking, if the cruise originated in Miami and visited a distant port and Key West was the last port before returning to Miami and then the first port on the second sailing, would one be able to spend two nights in Key West off ship between sailings? With Celebrity’s OK of course...

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So this hypothetical scenario would be

Cruise 1 FLL-Aruba (or equivalent) - Key West - FLL

Cruise 2 FLL -Key West - Aruba - FLL

Is that what you are positing?

Lets ask the question different way.

In your interpretation of the law would this cruise be legal?

FLL - some caribbean islands, 2 night stop at Key West - some Caribbean islands - FLL

Basically a round trip FLL to FLL with a 2 night stop in Key West.

That is exactly the same as what the OP wants to do. The Law does not care about individual cruises or any other structure that the travel company uses. It does care where the trip starts and where the trip ends sold as a continuous trip. So if the cruise line was willing to sell a continuous trip, even as a B2B with 2 trip numbers, it would be a legal trip because the OP is not ending his trip in Key West, it is an intermediate port in the longer FLL to FLL trip. The key factor is the OP being booked for the entire trip FLL to FLL.

With that said I doubt that the cruise line would sell it, because if they could not call at Key west on the second leg it would become a violation. The risk of that is too high. Also it would require customs to approve it and for him to clear the B2B customs clearance in Key West instead of FLL.

I think the OP might be on B2B 4/5 night cruises on Infinity. EM