I learned a new word today.

[craig01020]

I just booked a round-trip cruise from Cartagena, Colombia scheduled for January 2024 and was surprised at two things:

• There were only a handful of cabins left!
• This cruise departs from Colon, Panama too!

 

I learned a new word: "interporting".

[leaveitallbehind]

Just to clarify, "interport" means that there are more than one originating and terminating ports (2 in your case) for the same itinerary.  You can select either port and your itinerary will originate and terminate there, but will cover the same closed loop itinerary as the alternate departure port.

 

We were booked on a Western Mediterranean itinerary that offered both Barcelona and Rome as departure and termination ports and the itinerary was the same closed loop for both.

 

MSC does this as well in the Caribbean on one or two of their itineraries. 

[gottagoacruzn]

Huh, never heard of it!!!

[MeHeartCruising]

NCL has done it in the Mediterranean for a few years now.  The cruise can be started from either Barcelona or Rome.  Your disembarkment port is the same as the one you embarked from.  

[Mapleleafforever]

"Interporting" This is the first I've ever heard of it but it sounds like a pretty good idea. 

[Magicat]

Wonder if they are practicing for Coco Cay.  We have heard that Royal is building hotel rooms so people can stay over night.  Plan would be to book a cruise with a night or two at Coco and then grab a ship to go home.  We don't know details or anything concrete.  So far this is just speculation.

[leaveitallbehind]

14 minutes ago, gottagoacruzn said:

Huh, never heard of it!!!

It's not real common within the cruise line's itineraries and not prevalent with all cruise lines to my knowledge.  As mentioned RCCL, MSC, and NCL are three that I am aware of.

[Mapleleafforever]

26 minutes ago, Magicat said:

Wonder if they are practicing for Coco Cay.  We have heard that Royal is building hotel rooms so people can stay over night.  Plan would be to book a cruise with a night or two at Coco and then grab a ship to go home.  We don't know details or anything concrete.  So far this is just speculation.

I'd be down for something like that!! Sometimes you wanna just wake up and go right to the beach.....and do it again the next day. But 7 days of it can get monotonous, same as a cruise I guess. Best of both worlds. 

[gumshoe958]

22 minutes ago, leaveitallbehind said:

It's not real common within the cruise line's itineraries and not prevalent with all cruise lines to my knowledge.  As mentioned RCCL, MSC, and NCL are three that I am aware of.

MSC are the masters of interporting. On some of their 7 night Med itineraries you can embark/disembark at Genoa, Civitavecchia or Barcelona.

[SG65CB]

3 hours ago, craig01020 said:

There were only a handful of cabins left!

 

If you delve into the reservations you'll find that any given cabin can only be booked to sail from Cartagena or only booked to sail from Colon. 

 

They must know that a  lot more people will book to sail from Colon because a lot more cabins are allocated to Colon than Cartagena. 

 

If you go try to book your cruise on the same week from Colon you'll see there are a lot more cabins available than if you book from Cartagena. 

 

They're doing this same thing in early 2024 with Jewel of the Seas able to book every Saturday from Puerto Rico and every Monday from Barbados. A lot more cabins are available if you book from Puerto Rico. 

 

 

[soremekun]

And what do we do when we hear the word of the day?

 

[topnole]

Carnival used to go western itinerary from Tampa and it included a stop in New Orleans.   You could start your cruise in either city.  It was weird meeting people who just boarded when you were in day 5 of your week cruise.  

[pspercy]

Costa Concordia interported as well.

Some passengers had not done their safety briefing yet when it struck the rocks.

[kochleffel]

1 hour ago, SG65CB said:

If you delve into the reservations you'll find that any given cabin can only be booked to sail from Cartagena or only booked to sail from Colon. 

 

They must know that a  lot more people will book to sail from Colon because a lot more cabins are allocated to Colon than Cartagena. 

 Similarly, NCL allocates more cabins to Barcelona than to Rome -- and during each sailing, the days are counted in the Freestyle Daily from Barcelona.

[DukeASUGirl]

That's actually really cool!

[little britain]

6 hours ago, gumshoe958 said:

MSC are the masters of interporting. On some of their 7 night Med itineraries you can embark/disembark at Genoa, Civitavecchia or Barcelona.

You can actually embark/disembark at all ports on their 7 n loops - so add Marseilles, Palermo and Valletta to the list!

 

Its great as you can fly to which ever airport is easier/ cheaper. I have boarded MSC in Marseilles several times. Only a few hundred board there which makes the process even smoother. 

[craig01020]

1 hour ago, little britain said:

Its great as you can fly to which ever airport is easier/ cheaper.

That's why I'm boarding in Cartagena instead of Colon.

[Surfguyxxx]

First I've heard of this too.  I'm going to have to re-read everything again as I just can't seem to wrap my head around it all.  😬🤔  I'll get back to you 😅

[leaveitallbehind]

3 hours ago, Surfguyxxx said:

First I've heard of this too.  I'm going to have to re-read everything again as I just can't seem to wrap my head around it all.  😬🤔  I'll get back to you 😅

It's really rather simple.  You have a standard closed loop itinerary with several ports of call.  Typically this would originate and terminate at one port of call.  Using my example of the Western Mediterranean cruise, that might typically be Rome to Rome. 

 

But within that itinerary is a port of call at Barcelona.  With an interport itinerary, in my example Barcelona would also be an originating and terminating port of call within that same itinerary and sailing dates. The closed loop itinerary, however, is the same with the same ports of call. 

 

The difference is with an interport itinerary a you would have the option of departing and terminating at either Rome or Barcelona.  As mentioned, the itinerary and overall date range would be the same, but it would either read as Rome to Rome, or Barcelona to Barcelona, with the departing and terminating port of call date matching that port of call date within the itinerary,

Edited April 21, 2022 by leaveitallbehind

[FionaMG]

13 hours ago, gumshoe958 said:

MSC are the masters of interporting. On some of their 7 night Med itineraries you can embark/disembark at Genoa, Civitavecchia or Barcelona.

 

6 hours ago, little britain said:

You can actually embark/disembark at all ports on their 7 n loops - so add Marseilles, Palermo and Valletta to the list!

 

Its great as you can fly to which ever airport is easier/ cheaper. I have boarded MSC in Marseilles several times. Only a few hundred board there which makes the process even smoother. 

 

I think I've seen Naples and Bari as well. And definitely Lisbon, Funchal and Malaga too, depending on the itinerary.

Essentially the ship becomes a floating camper van.

One downside is that you lose the sense of community that comes from everyone starting and ending their cruise in the same place on the same day. 

On the other hand, when you see other cruisers' luggage in the corridor and know you're not getting off just yet... 

[Surfguyxxx]

6 hours ago, leaveitallbehind said:

It's really rather simple.  You have a standard closed loop itinerary with several ports of call.  Typically this would originate and terminate at one port of call.  Using my example of the Western Mediterranean cruise, that might typically be Rome to Rome. 

 

But within that itinerary is a port of call at Barcelona.  With an interport itinerary, in my example Barcelona would also be an originating and terminating port of call within that same itinerary and sailing dates. The closed loop itinerary, however, is the same with the same ports of call. 

 

The difference is with an interport itinerary a you would have the option of departing and terminating at either Rome or Barcelona.  As mentioned, the itinerary and overall date range would be the same, but it would either read as Rome to Rome, or Barcelona to Barcelona, with the departing and terminating port of call date matching that port of call date within the itinerary,

Thank you for the explanation.  This sounds like a fascinating concept and look forward to trying it out.  Thanks again.

[JessyCruises]

I wish they still allowed downlining.  We are booked on Oasis on June 10.  We board in Bayonne.  We live in Saint John, NB literally across the street from the cruise terminal.  The Oasis is going to be here as a port stop of June 8.  We tried to get Royal to let us buy that cruise but let us board late but it was a no go.  Too bad because it would save a heck of a drive.

[dunedinmaiden]

Just be aware that the Royal IT department hasn't figured out how to display "interporting" itineraries on their app.  For instance, only the Wonder of the Sea Barcelona departures are contained within their app -- not the Rome departures.  Here was their response to me in this regard:

[flamingos]

And now I've seen it twice in one day.  I was going to ask what it meant. The other discussion, as referenced above, is here:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2847027-royal-caribbean-app-question/#comment-63073876

[LadyBeBop]

On 4/20/2022 at 9:49 PM, SG65CB said:

 

They're doing this same thing in early 2024 with Jewel of the Seas able to book every Saturday from Puerto Rico and every Monday from Barbados. A lot more cabins are available if you book from Puerto Rico. 

 

 

I can understand why. Americans don’t need a passport to cruise from San Juan to San Juan. But they’d need one to cruise from Barbados to Barbados. Plus I’d think airfare would be cheaper to/from San Juan. 
 

However airfare to/from Barbados might be cheaper for European travelers. And they’d need passports anyway.