Can you leave a cruise early?

[Guinness1000]

We are booked on Silhouette December 22nd. It turns out my husband has to get home earlier than we thought. Ideally he would fly home from St. Kitts on Dec 31st. I would stay on for the duration of the cruise. Is this allowed?

 

Thanks in advance.  🙂

[jelayne]

9 minutes ago, Guinness1000 said:

We are booked on Silhouette December 22nd. It turns out my husband has to get home earlier than we thought. Ideally he would fly home from St. Kitts on Dec 31st. I would stay on for the duration of the cruise. Is this allowed?

 

Thanks in advance.  🙂

Check with Celebrity.  It is normally not a problem, but in some ports it requires advance notice and planning.  We have done it in India and Europe.

[cruisestitch]

It’s called a downline disembarkation and there is a fee involved and not all countries allow it so contact Celebrity to see whether you can do it

[hrhdhd]

If it's allowed, he will need a passport to fly home.

[Guinness1000]

7 hours ago, hrhdhd said:

If it's allowed, he will need a passport to fly home.

We always have our passports with us. 

 

Thanks! I think I will have to call them.  🙂

[1025cruise]

Is this a round trip from a US port? If so, it may not be allowed. Though not a violation of PVSA, it changes the cruise from a closed loop to open jaw, so it could cause issues for other passengers when the ship returns. 

[Alakegirl]

There are no issues for the other passengers.

 

what one passenger does has no effect on the others.

 

There is also no issue for the involved passenger with an open jaw cruise starting in the US and ending outside of the US.  

 

The only issues with open jaw trips come up in going from one US port to another US port.  

[cruisestitch]

1025cruise, I think you may have misunderstood a few things about the PVSA.  

 

It only restricts travel from one American port to another.  Since the OP’s husband would be going from a US port to a port outside the US, the PVSA isn’t involved at all.

 

now if, say, he wanted to start in Miami and get off the ship in Key West, that would be a violation of the PVSA.  But his proposed itinerary is fine as long as the island of St.Kitts allows it.

 

also he should know that Celebrity does has a paperwork fee for this, and they don't give refunds for any missed cruise days. 

Edited July 1, 2019 by cruisestitch

[GeorgesGal]

The fee for early embarkation is $65 usd.  I've just been given permission to disembark one day early from a Med cruise this coming September.   It took about a week for the approval to come through (which by the way came out of parent company's e-mail, Royal Caribbean).  It was called a GFO-Downline Request.

 

I would get started on this soon, as who knows how many might be requesting early disembarkation.  Better early than too late.

 

Donna

[1025cruise]

I very explicitly said it wasn't a PVSA issue.

The issue is that if he leaves the ship not at the home port, it does change the cruise from closed loop to open jaw. CBP can perform more extensive examinations when the ship returns. Will they? Can't say for certain, but they can.

 

Please note that what can happen in the Mediterranean is completely different than what can happen on a closed loop cruise from a US port. 

[Alakegirl]

Sadly, on nearly every cruise in the Caribbean, Someone is put off the ship for illness.  Or someone has to leave the ship early due to an emergency back home. Or someone passes away, and their family leaves the ship. This does not mean that the voyage has suddenly become an open jaw itinerary for the ship or its remaining passengers.  

[Jim_Iain]

Yes you may be able to leave the ship early.   You will need to apply to the Emergency Travel Team at the contact below.   There is a $60 fee to process and they check country regulations and make sure their no violation to the cabotage act.   Fairly easy and quickly processed.   After approval you will receive a letter from them.

 

 

Emergency Travel Team
AirSeaGFO@rccl.com
Domestic: 1-800-256-6649 (prompt #1)
International: 305-539-4107
3

[Guinness1000]

14 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

Yes you may be able to leave the ship early.   You will need to apply to the Emergency Travel Team at the contact below.   There is a $60 fee to process and they check country regulations and make sure their no violation to the cabotage act.   Fairly easy and quickly processed.   After approval you will receive a letter from them.

 

 

Emergency Travel Team
AirSeaGFO@rccl.com
Domestic: 1-800-256-6649 (prompt #1)
International: 305-539-4107
3

Thank you! I will do so. 🙂

[ggo85]

Just out of curiosity, what if the ship has arrived at its final port and the final overnight in port is part of the itinerary.  So, for example, ship pulls into its final port of Hong Kong on Tuesday.  The cruise officially ends on Wednesday.  I assume there would be no issue if you wanted to leave on Tuesday.

[George C]

Had friends that did this in Europe on celebrity 

[WestLakeGirl]

no issues....except you lose a night on the ship and there’s no refund

[Gonzo70]

39 minutes ago, ggo85 said:

Just out of curiosity, what if the ship has arrived at its final port and the final overnight in port is part of the itinerary.  So, for example, ship pulls into its final port of Hong Kong on Tuesday.  The cruise officially ends on Wednesday.  I assume there would be no issue if you wanted to leave on Tuesday.

 

I did this in Buenos Aires; it was a much easier process than gaining permission to debark at a different port. I did not have to make arrangements prior to the start of the cruise; I just spoke to the Micahel's Club Concierge early in the cruise (guest relations would have sufficed if I was not in a suite). They requested I provide the approximate time I would be debarking. There was no fee and it was a simple, hassle free process. Not sure if it is this easy in all ports where there is an overnight in the port-of-debarkation, but at least in Buenos Aires it was not any more complicated than debarking on the final day.

[Ranasa]

I have not done this on Celebrity but my husband disembarked early from an NCL cruise we took last summer (a Bermuda only cruise roundtrip from Boston).  I completely stressed out about the impact it might have to the rest of the family who stayed on-board and whether there might be charges, etc.  I called NCL customer service to pose the hypothetical and NCL didn't give me very clear information or instructions before we embarked so we decided to roll the dice. 

 

The night before he disembarked (5 days into a 7 night cruise), we went to Guest Relations and explained he needed to return home for an emergency (it was a work emergency that we did know about a week or so in advance but he would only miss the last two days of the cruise and still wanted to come since it was a big family trip).  No questions asked.  We provided his passport information, his flight information and no charges were incurred.  The GR staff member asked if we needed any assistance in helping him disemabark and even recommended we take the cruise provided ferry to get closer to the airport instead of taking a cab across the island.

 

I know this isn't a Celebrity example but just wanted to provide some comfort to the original poster that this probably happens more often than you think.  GR didn't even blink and had a form to handle the situation.  I had searched on the  CC NCL page at the time and got pretty nervous by some of the responses people posted.  Every situation is different but usually things have a way of working out.  Good luck.  My husband was very glad he could enjoy most of the trip.

[di T]

2 hours ago, WestLakeGirl said:

no issues....except you lose a night on the ship and there’s no refund

Correct we did this last November on Celebrity we left the ship the night before to fly home when she was overnight in Abu Dhabi, there was no charge only downside we missed a day of the cruise

[Jim_Iain]

3 hours ago, ggo85 said:

Just out of curiosity, what if the ship has arrived at its final port and the final overnight in port is part of the itinerary.  So, for example, ship pulls into its final port of Hong Kong on Tuesday.  The cruise officially ends on Wednesday.  I assume there would be no issue if you wanted to leave on Tuesday.

I've done that a number of times.   For your scenario you do not need to apply in advance.  You do however need to advise the ship of your intention so they can make sure there is immigration available.    There is usually a check box for this on the questionnaire you get about flight time etc. 

[GeorgesGal]

5 hours ago, ggo85 said:

Just out of curiosity, what if the ship has arrived at its final port and the final overnight in port is part of the itinerary.  So, for example, ship pulls into its final port of Hong Kong on Tuesday.  The cruise officially ends on Wednesday.  I assume there would be no issue if you wanted to leave on Tuesday.

 

Did this in Papeete with no problems!  Left the ship after dinner, our butler assisted us with our luggage to a taxi and that was it!  Easy peasy

[Guinness1000]

Just an update. I did call Celebrity and I was told my husband can leave early. I just need to call them beforehand and it's $65.  🙂

[Fly and Sail]

Any idea if this is still allowed under current conditions?

 

I'm currently booked on Solstice from Seattle and would prefer to get off on the last stop in Victoria, taking the Float Plane over to Vancouver for a social event that evening.

 

I know the answer will most likely be "Call Celebrity" but maybe someone has experienced this recently.

 

Obviously you can come up with some emergency or simply miss the ship but I don't want to give the crew on board more trouble than necessary.

[Jim_Iain]

Yes they do but you need to apply to Celebrity in advance and pay a fee of about $60 to process the request.   They check to make sure it is legal as well as make sure Customs and Immigration will be available.

[DCPIV]

The last I heard, this is no longer allowed. @Jim_Iain, have you seen differently? I'm all for them changing it back, but I haven't seen that.