Late flight arrival / boarding question.

[brightonbuoy]

We will be arriving into Venice for Sept 17th Silhouette Med cruise at 4pm, which probably means reaching ship about 6pm. The ship stays overnight in Venice for the first night. My question is.. Are we still able to do check-in etc at 6pm? The info pack says checkin until 4pm. Do we carry our own bags on? Have checkin staff gone home? Will cabin still be available or will they think we are not coming and give it to someone who wants to move? Just being paranoid!

[4774Papa]

Suggest checking with X.

[Lsimon]

This definitely sounds like a question for Celebrity.

Logically it would seem that you wouldn't have an issue since the ship isn't sailing until the next day. But there could be a whole host of regulatory or policy issues that could cause you to lose your cabin or even the right to sail if you don't check in on time. I wouldn't leave it to chance nor an opinion from someone on the internet for this one.

[brightonbuoy]

thanks, i'll get in touch.

[dcinmb]

We're also on this sailing and have the same issue as we're training it in from Slovenia and will most likely not arrive until 6:30 or 7:00 pm. I spoke with Celebrity customer service who told me that we have to be on-board by 6:00 pm because that's when the port authority/customs officials leave for the day. I explained that when I boarded the Celebrity Summit at 7:00 pm back in 2009 (as with this sailing, the ship was overnighting in Venice) we had no problems; all we had to to was carry our own luggage aboard. The customer service rep's only response was that we should not have been allowed to board that late, so I gave up and called the Captain's Club who told me that we can board as late as we want.

 

I'm very interested in hearing what response you get from Celebrity.

 

Diana

[brightonbuoy]

Diana, I will let you know. A while back I did ring Celebrity and they said no problem. I have now emailed Captains Club and will let you know the response. Can't see them not letting you on. The gangplank is there. The ship is there. What will they do, tell you to go away? I think not.

[Alg63]

Warning! Be really careful. It's not when the ship departs it's when immigration cut off time is for passengers. Trust me on this, when Delta flight did not take off and even though we would have made it to ship before depart time, it was past immigration cut off time. We missed 4 days of our cruise and had to join ship at the next port.. 4 days later.

[Lsimon]

Warning! Be really careful. It's not when the ship departs it's when immigration cut off time is for passengers. Trust me on this, when Delta flight did not take off and even though we would have made it to ship before depart time, it was past immigration cut off time. We missed 4 days of our cruise and had to join ship at the next port.. 4 days later.

Was this in Europe? In Venice or Italy? Was the ship overnighting before leaving the embarkation port the next day?

[brightonbuoy]

Here is the reply received his morning.....

 

[brightonbuoy]

Not sure that worked.....anyway..... No problem checking in that late as ship is in dock. They even said that should we check in in middle of the night there will be no porters. So I now have written ok to check in late.

[dcinmb]

Thanks, brightonbuoy! That's pretty much what they told me when I spoke with them on the phone. Guess I should follow your lead, though, and get it in writing, just in case . . .

 

Diana

 

P.S. Our roll call is having a sail-away meet-and-greet on the 18th at 5 pm on the port side of the Sunset Bar, just in case you're interested in joining us.

[brightonbuoy]

Diana,

 

Many thanks for the invite. Looking forward to a great cruise. Been on the other Solstice class, but never the Silhouette. Interesting itinerary too. Ship looks to be sold out. Hope to see you onboard. Kelvin....& Peter.

[dcinmb]

Kelvin~

 

It's a great itinerary. But I'm pretty new to cruising (this will be my second as an adult) and still can't get used to the concept of having only 8 - 10 hours in a port, which is why I'm doing a driving tour of Croatia and Slovenia before the cruise!

 

Wishing you and Peter safe travels!!

 

Diana

[RickT]

I did this with Princess last year (although I got there mid-afternoon) when my wife couldn't make it until after 10:00 PM. they checked her in onboard and rang our cabin so I could come down and help her with her luggage. They even said she could show up the next day as long as it was earlier than an hour before sailing.

 

As Celebrity has said, the pier will be empty and you'll have to handle your own bags (even when you get on the ship).

[Alg63]

Was this in Europe? In Venice or Italy? Was the ship overnighting before leaving the embarkation port the next day?

 

No it was Caribbean out of NJ. But the issue is the SAme, immigration is not at your disposal, you are at theirs. Can you imagine if 3000 passengers decide they can check in anytime they like from 11am to the next morning before the ship leaves? Policies are in place for a reason, forewarned is forearmed and I am talking from personal experience of losing 4 days on the cruise.

[Lsimon]

No it was Caribbean out of NJ. But the issue is the SAme, immigration is not at your disposal, you are at theirs. Can you imagine if 3000 passengers decide they can check in anytime they like from 11am to the next morning before the ship leaves? Policies are in place for a reason, forewarned is forearmed and I am talking from personal experience of losing 4 days on the cruise.

 

The customs and immigration requirements are different between USA ports and EU ports for embarkation and disembarkation.

 

I do not believe you go through immigration when boarding at ANY port - at least not ones I've been to in the USA and Europe. However, in the USA there are requirements that the cruise line submit a final manifest to US Boarder Patrol (immigration) after all passengers have checked in and/or boarded. This has to happen a certain amount of time before the ship's departure. I do not know if there is a similar requirement in the EU, or any EU countries, or not.

 

So the issues would be different between ships departing from the USA and those from Venice. They would also probably be different for ships departing on embarkation day and those overnighting and not sailing until the afternoon of the following day.