Need advice on catching ship after it leaves port

[lcumpire]

We have a family situation where we might need to attend a funeral on the day the cruise leaves San Juan this Sunday. We were thinking we could catch up with the cruise in St. Thomas on Monday.

 

Would appreciate any advice on dealing with this situation with Carnival.

 

Thanx

 

 

 

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[winddawn]

We have a family situation where we might need to attend a funeral on the day the cruise leaves San Juan this Sunday. We were thinking we could catch up with the cruise in St. Thomas on Monday.

 

Would appreciate any advice on dealing with this situation with Carnival.

 

Thanx

 

 

 

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It is unlikely, but you would need to call Carnival directly and ask. There are crazy cabotage laws involved that state that Carnival must pay fees to allow this, and that isn't likely to happen. And typically they want plenty of advance notice if it is even possible.

 

https://www.goccl.com/~/media/Files/Irman/bookccl/booking_procedure/TheJonesAct_ThePassengerServicesAct.htm

[Love Cruising With My Hon]

From the first paragraph mentioned under the Jones Act:

"The Jones Act (also known as the Passenger Services Act) prohibits ships of Non-U.S registry from embarking and debarking guests at two different U.S ports. Such travel would constitute point-to-point transportation between two U.S ports, which is prohibited on foreign flagged ships. Note: Puerto Rico and the U.S Virgin Islands (St. Thomas; St. Croix; St. John) are not in the category of U.S ports under this act.

Don't know much about this subject, but from the reading above it sounds like you would be all set.

Call carnival so they can confirm and that you folks would not be in SJ on embarkation.

Hope all goes good for your party and enjoy your cruise. Great cruise to take. We loved it last Feb.

[welldone60]

Call Carnival. This cruise also has a embark/disembark at Barbados Iten. You might be able to change to that.

[ZJ13820]

This is one of those occasions I would call Carnival and ask (and document) versus going with what information you are going to get here. It's going to be like the passport questions where everyone thinks they are the expert on the topic and there are 30 posters with 30 different responses.

Edited January 29, 2015 by ZJ13820

[getupgo]

We did it about 10 years ago. We missed our flight to San Juan and we caught the ship at its first port in St Croix. U don't remember there being any problem with it. Just ask.

[lcumpire]

Thanx to all who responded - will call Carnival

 

 

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[Shmoo here]

Thanx to all who responded - will call Carnival

 

 

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Please let us know what they say.

[chengkp75]

While missing the ship and rejoining in St. Thomas would not violate the PVSA, there are other reasons that this is not likely to be allowed. In the past, this was fairly common, but with Homeland Security's involvement, there are a whole new set of rules. The WHTI (Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative) allows US citizens to travel on cruise ships that only call at Western Hemisphere ports to travel without a passport. To accomplish this, CBP uses the passenger manifest created at embarkation to screen and clear the passengers during the cruise, so that at disembarkation, the CBP screening is merely pro forma. Whenever someone leaves, or misses the ship during a cruise, or joins after the original embarkation, this requires a completely new passenger manifest to be prepared and submitted to CBP, and this can then trigger more stringent screening of passengers when disembarking (think of US citizens getting off a cruise from Europe). All of this causes extra cost to the cruise line (as well as possibly frustrating passengers who have close air connections at disembarkation, bad PR for the line), so nearly all of the major lines have decided to blanket disallow late embarkation.

[Shmoo here]

While missing the ship and rejoining in St. Thomas would not violate the PVSA, there are other reasons that this is not likely to be allowed. In the past, this was fairly common, but with Homeland Security's involvement, there are a whole new set of rules. The WHTI (Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative) allows US citizens to travel on cruise ships that only call at Western Hemisphere ports to travel without a passport. To accomplish this, CBP uses the passenger manifest created at embarkation to screen and clear the passengers during the cruise, so that at disembarkation, the CBP screening is merely pro forma. Whenever someone leaves, or misses the ship during a cruise, or joins after the original embarkation, this requires a completely new passenger manifest to be prepared and submitted to CBP, and this can then trigger more stringent screening of passengers when disembarking (think of US citizens getting off a cruise from Europe). All of this causes extra cost to the cruise line (as well as possibly frustrating passengers who have close air connections at disembarkation, bad PR for the line), so nearly all of the major lines have decided to blanket disallow late embarkation.

 

Thank you. I couldn't remember how it worked, to explain it.

[RuthlessBoss]

When and how were you getting to SJ? Don't the ships leave at 10 pm there?

[abcsteward]

My deepest condolences...

 

I would for sure call Carnival... See what they suggest...

[thinfool]

It is likely that, if this is allowed, passports will be necessary for all rather than the BC/ID that many use in the Caribbean.

[lcumpire]

Contacted Carnival and they said Federal regulations will not allow me to do what I want to do

 

 

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[Elaine5715]

While missing the ship and rejoining in St. Thomas would not violate the PVSA, there are other reasons that this is not likely to be allowed. In the past, this was fairly common, but with Homeland Security's involvement, there are a whole new set of rules. The WHTI (Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative) allows US citizens to travel on cruise ships that only call at Western Hemisphere ports to travel without a passport. To accomplish this, CBP uses the passenger manifest created at embarkation to screen and clear the passengers during the cruise, so that at disembarkation, the CBP screening is merely pro forma. Whenever someone leaves, or misses the ship during a cruise, or joins after the original embarkation, this requires a completely new passenger manifest to be prepared and submitted to CBP, and this can then trigger more stringent screening of passengers when disembarking (think of US citizens getting off a cruise from Europe). All of this causes extra cost to the cruise line (as well as possibly frustrating passengers who have close air connections at disembarkation, bad PR for the line), so nearly all of the major lines have decided to blanket disallow late embarkation.

 

This is why debarkation is also delayed at times due to passengers missing the ship home

[chengkp75]

Contacted Carnival and they said Federal regulations will not allow me to do what I want to do

 

 

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Yeah, unfortunately, you get this a lot, where they will give a "half truth" and blame someone else, when it all comes down to not just not wanting to deal with the headache themselves.

[jamon]

lcumpire: You stated that you contacted Carnival and they won't let you do what you wanted to do and catch up with it in St Thomas. What did they say you can do, like catch it at another port or are you just out. Just looking for the end result of their conversation. thanks

[ata1976]

Contacted Carnival and they said Federal regulations will not allow me to do what I want to do

 

 

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Instead of notifying them ahead of time, what if you actually missed your flight and missed the ship, what are your options? You wouldn't be allowed to catch up?

 

 

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[Shmoo here]

Instead of notifying them ahead of time, what if you actually missed your flight and missed the ship, what are your options? You wouldn't be allowed to catch up?

 

 

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Most likely you would not be allowed to, now. Used to be OK, but, as chengkp75 explained, most cruiselines don't want to deal with the paperwork involved if the cruise changes from a "closed-loop" cruise to a "foreign itinerary" cruise.

 

Yes, just one passenger embarking in a foreign port (and debarking in a US port) changes the paperwork.

[Rena921]

You will most likely not be able to do this. There have been a couple threads in the recent past where people have not been able to catch up to the ship after missing it at embarkation.

[justlaff69]

We were on NCL last April when passengers carried their luggage on board, they said they missed embarkation due to a funeral.

 

So cruise lines allow it.

 

Did you call the Customer Service number or the number listed on your boarding pass, you know the one that states something like 'Running Late Call .....'?

 

The Customer Service line is known for distributing misinformation.

[manmachine]

While missing the ship and rejoining in St. Thomas would not violate the PVSA, there are other reasons that this is not likely to be allowed. In the past, this was fairly common, but with Homeland Security's involvement, there are a whole new set of rules. The WHTI (Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative) allows US citizens to travel on cruise ships that only call at Western Hemisphere ports to travel without a passport. To accomplish this, CBP uses the passenger manifest created at embarkation to screen and clear the passengers during the cruise, so that at disembarkation, the CBP screening is merely pro forma. Whenever someone leaves, or misses the ship during a cruise, or joins after the original embarkation, this requires a completely new passenger manifest to be prepared and submitted to CBP, and this can then trigger more stringent screening of passengers when disembarking (think of US citizens getting off a cruise from Europe). All of this causes extra cost to the cruise line (as well as possibly frustrating passengers who have close air connections at disembarkation, bad PR for the line), so nearly all of the major lines have decided to blanket disallow late embarkation.

I did it in 2009. Ship left Port Canaveral. Called Carnival, they let me fly from DC and meet ship in Nassau. No problem at all.

[chengkp75]

I did it in 2009. Ship left Port Canaveral. Called Carnival, they let me fly from DC and meet ship in Nassau. No problem at all.

 

Since the WHTI did not go into full effect until June 2009, I don't doubt that you were allowed to do this. I can say that in the couple of years I've been here on CC, I've seen several threads about this, and cannot remember seeing any here on the Carnival board where the people were allowed to board late. I believe that RCL has changed their policy within the last year or so, and don't routinely allow this. NCL may still allow it, but I've seen instances here where they have not.

[Nate123]

This is what travel insurance was made for.

[winddawn]

We were on NCL last April when passengers carried their luggage on board, they said they missed embarkation due to a funeral.

 

So cruise lines allow it.

 

Did you call the Customer Service number or the number listed on your boarding pass, you know the one that states something like 'Running Late Call .....'?

 

The Customer Service line is known for distributing misinformation.

I believe RCCL allows it too, but when you start reading all the fine print, there are tons of restrictions on it.

 

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/customersupport/faq/details.do?pagename=frequently_asked_questions&faqId=623&faqSubjectId=322