If miss departure in Miami will they allow boarding in San Juan?

I spoke with a customer service person prior to booking the cruise and was told that my son could initially board at the first stop. When I tried to do the final planning the emergency desk says that is not possible (or at least plan in advance). Apparently there is an issue with some PVSA act that prohibits embarking at one US port (San Juan) and departing at another (Miami) although I saw there was some exclusion about San Juan. We will try to change plans so he will depart from Miami but if he can't make the departure and I let Celebrity know on the day of departure, how likely would it be that he will be denied boarding at the first port if he travels there at his expense? I was willing to pay for a couple days of a cruise he could not make for a departure city timing I was certain would work rather than to chance him missing the official departure city. If he were driving to the port there would be no evidence of a delayed or cancelled flight to blame.

When is your cruise? Based on the reports of heavy damage to much of Puerto Rico, I would be surprised if the ship visits San Juan any time soon.

While it is true, as you've found, that there is an exemption to the PVSA for foreign flag ships to transport passengers between Puerto Rico and the mainland US, there is another concern that affects whether cruise lines allow "downstream" boarding at a later port.

The reason CBP allows travel on cruise ships with only a birth certificate and driver's license, rather than a passport, and why the disembarkation interview with CBP is so brief, is that CBP uses the entire time of the cruise, if necessary, to screen passengers through the databases. This gives them days, not hours or minutes as they would have for an international flight or land border crossing. They get the data from the passenger manifest the cruise line submits at sailing from the departure port. Now, whenever a passenger joins the ship late, or leaves the ship early, the ship must submit a new passenger manifest to CBP, and this makes the cruise no longer a "closed loop" cruise, since the new manifest would be from a different port to the disembarkation port. While this change in cruise status does not affect the passengers' ability to travel without a passport as they can do on "closed loop" cruises, it does trigger a new screening of the entire manifest, not just the additions or subtractions to the old manifest, and this is treated as though it were a cruise originating in a foreign country. This, in turn, leads to a different disembarkation interview with CBP, more like the ones done for international air flights, and this can lead to delays in processing all the passengers, with resulting missed flights, etc. For this reason, over the last 3 years or so (since CBP changed how they process the manifests), cruise lines have been reluctant to grant voluntary downstream boarding or disembarkation, as it costs them to produce and file the new manifest, and to get the additional CBP agents to process the passengers at disembarkation, and they don't want the complaints from passengers who missed their flights.

If you only let Celebrity know on the day of embarkation that he will miss embarkation, and the reason for missing is not out of his control (weather, mechanical failure of the aircraft), then I would say that his chances of downstream boarding will be nil, if they have already stated it isn't allowed, even if the CSR is using the wrong reason (PVSA violation).

I spoke with a customer service person prior to booking the cruise and was told that my son could initially board at the first stop. When I tried to do the final planning the emergency desk says that is not possible (or at least plan in advance). Apparently there is an issue with some PVSA act that prohibits embarking at one US port (San Juan) and departing at another (Miami) although I saw there was some exclusion about San Juan.

There was a long thread about this last year.

Here is a link: Missed Embarkation

But even though the downline embarkation was permitted in the situations described, the circumstances are different each time, so do try to obtain permission in advance if possible, just for peace of mind.

However, even if they do not allow downline embarkation to be planned in advance, they may permit it in "emergency" situations if someone misses the ship.

If your son goes without advance approval, expecting that he will be permitted to board downline if he misses the ship, it would be a good idea for him to have alternate backup plans....... just in case.

Thanks you for the thoughtful replies. I think this "closed loop" issue would be the likely justification for the response I initially got. What confuses me is the likelihood of a missed embarkation in the winter months on a full cruise ship so they will have this issue anyway. Maybe it is a closely guarded secret but I can't imagine a ship with 3000 passengers not having someone miss embarkation nearly every week (or have to not return to the original port because of illness or missed return to ship). Having an issue with an exact same manifest coming and going has to be a common occurrence. It seems pretty silly to me that they won't just require more thorough vetting of those few affected passengers and not change a ship status.

We missed our flight to Miami a couple of years ago and called Celebrity and let them know and flew two days later and joined the ship in San Juan. Celebrity worked with us and when we arrived in SJ at the ship everything was set to have us board. I hope this helps.

J.

It is an interesting question. Just thinking outloud, but the "Western Travel Initiative" of 2007, set forth the documentation requirements for a so-called Closed Loop Cruise....which refers to cruises that start and end at the same US Port. This is the only type International cruise that has an exception that allows US residents to travel without a valid Passport. But if you embark in San Juan, and then disembark in a Florida port it is no longer a Closed Loop Cruise....and passengers would normally need a valid Passport. One can imagine this is an issue in that you would be a passenger on a "closed loop cruise" but would have not satisfied the closed loop requirements. I have no clue if there are exceptions made for those that miss a closed loop cruise's embarkation port.

Hank

It is an interesting question. Just thinking outloud, but the "Western Travel Initiative" of 2007, set forth the documentation requirements for a so-called Closed Loop Cruise....which refers to cruises that start and end at the same US Port. This is the only type International cruise that has an exception that allows US residents to travel without a valid Passport. But if you embark in San Juan, and then disembark in a Florida port it is no longer a Closed Loop Cruise....and passengers would normally need a valid Passport. One can imagine this is an issue in that you would be a passenger on a "closed loop cruise" but would have not satisfied the closed loop requirements. I have no clue if there are exceptions made for those that miss a closed loop cruise's embarkation port.

 

Hank

As far as the WHTI documentation is concerned, someone doing downstream boarding in a US port would not need any different documentation (DL & BC). Even though the cruise becomes an "open jaw" cruise when the manifest changes, it does not require new documentation rules. What is different is the CBP clearance process at disembarkation.