Can We Disembark Before Cruise Is Finished?

[florida lover]

Is it possible to disembark at a port of call before the cruise is finished?

 

Thank you!

[Colo Cruiser]

Is it possible to disembark at a port of call before the cruise is finished?

 

Thank you!

 

It all depends on the port/country/local laws/Princess rules.

You have to ask Princess permission first, you can't just get off or you may subject yourself and Princess to a hefty fine.

[Cruise Junky]

We need cruise details

[florida lover]

We need cruise details

 

No specific cruise. Just a question in general.

 

I have seen passengers join a cruise in progress so I was curious for future reference.

 

Thank you.

[Cruise Junky]

No specific cruise. Just a question in general.

 

I have seen passengers join a cruise in progress so I was curious for future reference.

 

Thank you.

 

Much harder to do with one involving North America, much easier in Europe but the cruise lines need to know and grant permission

[Working 2 Cruise]

No specific cruise. Just a question in general.

 

I have seen passengers join a cruise in progress so I was curious for future reference.

 

Thank you.

 

Those may have been entertainers boarding the ship. Or crew. Some passengers are also asked to disembark due to bad behavior.

[waltd]

Remember if the port is a tender port it could be missed due to bad weather. Could screw up flight reservations if you have them.

[Pam in CA]

Ports are never guaranteed that the ship will make it so take that into consideration. No matter what, you'll need to pre-request and receive approval for an early disembarkation. Under normal circumstances, you have to go through Immigration and Customs and not all ports have that capability. If you disembark without telling anyone or without permission, you could wind up in deep doo-doo legally and Princess could charge you a hefty fine for deliberate delay of ship.

 

Sometimes, passengers and/or crew and entertainers embark or disembark at other than the embarkation or disembarkation ports.

 

On the Sapphire 3/1 cruise, some passengers missed the ship in LA due to flight delays and lousy weather. They embarked at our first port, San Diego. To avoid violating the PVSA, they disembarked in Puerto Vallarta to fly back to the US. I think just a few chose this option.

[caribill]

Remember if the port is a tender port it could be missed due to bad weather. Could screw up flight reservations if you have them.

 

Even a port where the ship would dock can be missed.

 

This does not mean you should not arrange such an early disembarkation in advance, it means have a plan B if the ship does not make port.

[Holomoku]

Is it possible to disembark at a port of call before the cruise is finished?

 

Thank you!

 

We did this on our last cruise and it worked out fine. Had there been bad weather it would have made it really difficult for us as we were getting on another ship in that port. We requested written permission from Princess ahead of time and it was granted, the Customs authorities in that country came on board and checked us and the other 8 passengers and all was good. My DW and I walked off the Princess ship and onto the other ship. Three hour overlap made it very close time wise. A Room Steward came and took us and our luggage all the way to the other ship, wonderful service from Princess.:D

[paul929207]

No specific cruise. Just a question in general.

 

I have seen passengers join a cruise in progress so I was curious for future reference.

 

Thank you.

Since you are not talking a specific cruise, we can not give you a helpful answer. For some cruises, yes you can leave it early. For some cruises, you could leave early in some ports, but not in others. You would need to talk to Princess, in advance, to determine if you can leave where you want to. They would handle arrangements for you to be met by immigration and customs officials at you port of debarkation.

[david,Mississauga]

My experience is with Cunard, but it may be of interest. There is a westbound Atlantic crossing of Queen Mary 2 in June which, exceptionally, is calling in Halifax, Nova Scotia, en route to New York. We want to disembark in Halifax and return to Toronto by train. Cunard's first answer was: "It can't be done." I didn't believe that, so I contacted the Canadian Immigration service. I was told that as we are Canadians we have the absolute right to enter our country at any port we choose and no-one can stop us. With that information our travel agent went "up the chain" and without difficulty got permission for us to "land" in Halifax without having to complete the voyage. We now have documents from Cunard indicating this.

 

I don't know if it would have been more difficult if we were not Canadian or if we were trying to disembark at a foreign port. But I have read blogs from UK citizens who have disembarked in European ports and had no trouble getting permission. Dealing with US ports can be difficult if it involves the Jones Act. There is a fine of $300 per person for leaving a ship that has taken passengers between two US ports without calling at a foreign port.

[florida lover]

This is all very interesting. The obvious potential problem is the consequences of missing the early disembarkation port due to weather or other problems and missing your connection. Not sure I would want to sweat that out.

 

On our last cruise our final port of call was Aruba and it got us to thinking how nice it would be if we could stay in Aruba for a week and then fly back to Ft. Lauderdale from there.

Edited March 12, 2014 by florida lover

[vantec]

We left the ship early on our last Coastal Cruise. We find Vancouver to be such a mess we decided to leave the ship in Victoria, instead. We did get permission from Princess first. It all worked out fine, but it was a worry about what would happen if we missed Victoria - which sometimes happens. It was an experiment for us that was problem free, I don't know if we'd do it again.

[geoherb]

A couple of weeks before our first cruise to Alaska, our ship missed Victoria due to high winds. A large group of people had planned to get off there for a wedding. They were upset that they couldn't.

[DougH]

Way back in 1999 I sailed on the Celebrity Mercury from Vancouver to Alaska that was the last cruise of the season and scheduled to end in Los Angeles. Last port stop was in San Francisco and about 20 of us disembarked here. Celebrity set up a time for us to meet with a Customs official to show passports etc and we were off. No refund/credit for the missed last two days but no fine or anything either. FYI I had asked if this was possible before booking

[Hlitner]

No specific cruise. Just a question in general.

 

I have seen passengers join a cruise in progress so I was curious for future reference.

 

Thank you.

 

This is actually quite common on longer European cruises. We are actually going to be doing this in a couple of months on a Princess cruise where we are debarking one day early in France, rather then finishing the cruise in its final English port. The normal procedure is to contact the cruise line (or have it done by your TA) well in advance of the cruise with your request. Some cruise lines have a written form for such a request and others just handle it via e-mail. In our case our request was immediately approved with the proviso that we give further advance notice to the Guest Relations desk once we are on our ship.

 

Another practice on European cruises is to spend a night off the ship. One common scenario is a cruise that might go between Civitavecchia and Livorno (on 2 consecutive days) where some passengers might prefer to spent the night in Florence and catch-up to the ship the next day. This is another situation where the cruise line likes advance notice (often just done at Guest Relations) but is normally not a problem.

 

Hank

 

Hank

[vantec]

Way back in 1999 I sailed on the Celebrity Mercury from Vancouver to Alaska that was the last cruise of the season and scheduled to end in Los Angeles. Last port stop was in San Francisco and about 20 of us disembarked here. Celebrity set up a time for us to meet with a Customs official to show passports etc and we were off. No refund/credit for the missed last two days but no fine or anything either. FYI I had asked if this was possible before booking

 

Like you said - no refund or credit for us getting off one day earlier, however, we were using FCC and Princess did decrease the amount of onboard credit we received. Since we turned the cruise into a six day, instead of seven day, they only gave us $25. Since we had to pay for the entire seven day cruise, which I expected, I didn't think it was fair to decrease the onboard credit, but I did not complain about it.

[RickEk]

This is all very interesting. The obvious potential problem is the consequences of missing the early disembarkation port due to weather or other problems and missing your connection. Not sure I would want to sweat that out.

 

On our last cruise our final port of call was Aruba and it got us to thinking how nice it would be if we could stay in Aruba for a week and then fly back to Ft. Lauderdale from there.

 

So yes, leaving in Aruba should be feasible, as long as Princess can get clearance from the Aruban authorities. As others have mentioned, you would have to pay the full cruise fare.

[Dietemann]

Like you said - no refund or credit for us getting off one day earlier, however, we were using FCC and Princess did decrease the amount of onboard credit we received. Since we turned the cruise into a six day, instead of seven day, they only gave us $25. Since we had to pay for the entire seven day cruise, which I expected, I didn't think it was fair to decrease the onboard credit, but I did not complain about it.

Did you have to pay daily hotel service charge for missed days?

[vantec]

Did you have to pay daily hotel service charge for missed days?

 

I don't think so, but I can't remember for sure. They actually changed our cruise to six days in the "My Planner" section, they listed our cruise as ending in Victoria.

[spyro1952]

My friend who lives in Dublin does this all the time on the east bound TA in the spring. She is an Irish citizen, gets off in Dublin, with permission of Princess. Now in 2015, I will get off in Dublin with her so I'm not sure what else I will have to do besides getting permission from Princess but my TA will advise me. And yes, you pay for the entire cruise, minus the nightly hotel charges.

I will only get off a cruise if there's only a day or two left for obvious reasons.

[Steviewonder1]

We were on a cruise to the British Isles (which we have cancelled) and there are two different groups that are getting off the ship at Leharve France on the next to the last day to go to Paris and stay a few days there and then fly back from CDG. All they did was ask and were told yes.

[Pam in CA]

We were on a cruise to the British Isles (which we have cancelled) and there are two different groups that are getting off the ship at Leharve France on the next to the last day to go to Paris and stay a few days there and then fly back from CDG. All they did was ask and were told yes.

This is fairly common, i.e., disembarking in Le Havre but there have been quite a few times when the ship was unable to dock. Yes, they will approve an early disembarkation there but it's always with the caveat of making port.

 

As for disembarking in Aruba, I know it can be done. :) As always, with prior approval.

[Colo Cruiser]

Well at least if they cancel you can continue cruising! :D