Bringing Guests onboard

I wonder if anyone can help... I'm sure I read a while back about someone wanting to bring a guest onboard a SB cruise for a few hours for lunch.

I have done an advanced search but am unable to find anything.

Does anyone know how feasible this is? Our daughter is due to be in Cape Town when we are joining a cruise on Sojourn. When looking for our next SB cruise she picked this particular one out for us saying 'Mum, you would LOVE this itinerary!'

We booked the cruise and then find out she plans to be in South Africa at the same time and it would be wonderful if she could come on board for a Colonnade lunch and see what we are always raving about!

If anyone has done this, I would like to pick your brains! Who should I contact? Would it be SB Head Office in Southampton? What will be required? We are UK based by the way.

Thank you for your help in advance. :)

Think it’s discretionary and you have to provide information like passport details etc.

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Mauzac, have you looked at this thread?

Visitors onboard

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2472517&highlight=visitors

We plan to invite some rellos to lunch on Sojourn when we dock in Victoria BC in June. Our TA emailed me a form from Seabourn HQ which allows us to nominate up to 4 guests which we have to submit to guest services once on board along with copies of relevant passport photo pages. Guests must be met at the gangway by their host who must accompany them at all times and they will need to leave at least an hour before departure. The captain has the final say about if and/or when visitors are allowed on board so be aware the best laid plans can sometimes go awry.

We invited some guests (friends we met on a previous Seabourn cruise) onto the Encore last year. It was an easy process. We contacted Seabourn in Australia, they emailed a form to complete (names and passport details) and our request was approved within a week. Our guests were given visitors passes on boarding and were able to have lunch and drinks with us. They stayed on board for about 4 hours. It was a lovely experience, particularly as they were known to some of the staff.

Actually having just done this I can tell you that it also depends on the local authorities. I am bringing long time a Seabourn passengers on board in Singapore and before the Captain approved it he needed to get approval from the local immigration authorities. My understanding is this is easier in some places than others.

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Thank you FlyingScot - that was the thread I was looking for, I used the wrong search parameters and couldn't find it.

And thank you everyone else. Sojourn is in Cape Town overnight and for 2 days and we only embark on the first day so would be looking at the second day for our daughter to come onboard. Obviously there won't be much time to sort out anything when we get on, so I shall start putting the wheels into motion well in advance!

All your comments are appreciated, it sounds do-able!

Do it as far in advance as possible; a fair bit of admin. to deal with, especially the passport nos. etc. And obviously your daughter would need to bring her passport with her on the day. If you can organise it, it is a lovely thing to do.

Thank you! I shall organise well in advance, as soon as the flights are out and we're booked up and our daughter has decided on her arrangements. It will be wonderful if this can happen. :):)

I've not yet been on Seabourn, but having had guests join us on Regent it is obvious that they consider it an opportunity to convince people to cruise with them. The staff went out of their way to make our guests feel welcome. I'd be surprised if Seabourn didn't have a similar idea about guests as an advertising opportunity.

We plan to invite some rellos to lunch on Sojourn when we dock in Victoria BC in June. Our TA emailed me a form from Seabourn HQ which allows us to nominate up to 4 guests which we have to submit to guest services once on board along with copies of relevant passport photo pages. Guests must be met at the gangway by their host who must accompany them at all times and they will need to leave at least an hour before departure. The captain has the final say about if and/or when visitors are allowed on board so be aware the best laid plans can sometimes go awry.

You might want to make some adjustments if you expect your guests to step foot on the ship.

You might want to make some adjustments if you expect your guests to step foot on the ship.

Please explain?

Finalize clearance prior to boarding.

Finalize clearance prior to boarding.

We didn't get clearance prior to boarding when we had guests come aboard in 2014. We didn't get clearance till after we boarded. We are visiting Sojourn next week and clearance happened after our friends boarded Sojourn.

So if your saying you need to finalise clearance before you board otherwise it won't happen, this isn't my experience.

Julie

As usual oregron50 posting wrong info. It is not necessary to finalize prior to boarding.

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Did I write that you cannot gain permission to bring guests on board while aboard? Others have posted about doing this successfully. People read what they want to see.

Did I write that you cannot gain permission to bring guests on board while aboard? Others have posted about doing this successfully. People read what they want to see.

I also read it the same way Chairsin did.

We went through this process recently (Jan 2018) when we were going to be in Melbourne where cur daughter lives. As indicated you need to get the relevant form from Seabourn and complete this with ID for the guest/s - this is a copy of passport and drivers licence. This needs to be submitted before your board. Preferably about a week ahead.

It is then up to the Captain as to whether this will be approved. You are not generally notified until a day or so prior to the requested date.

When our guest came on board they had to be checked in at 2 points shore-side (Harbour authorities and immigration, both of which had a list of approved visitors) and then boarding the ship. Passport had to be presented.

My understanding is the capacity for the Captain to allow guests varies between ports, and may also be affected by the number of “corporate” visitors eg travel agents.

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Thank you everyone.

I would like something to be set up before we board as we are hoping our daughter can come onboard the day after we get on Sojourn. (And Guest Services are always so busy at the start of a leg)