Disembark at an earlier port on TA

[Cruizann]

My DH and I are looking at a transatlantic cruise on the Eclipse and would like to disembark in Lisbon rather than Southampton. Would this be possible and would we be able to book a flight through choice air. Thank you for your advise.

[az_tchr]

Possibly. Depends on the rules in this case of Portugal. You would need to contact Celebrity and arrange it. If you did that I would think it very unlikely you could book a return flight through choice air as you did not complete the cruise. Choice Air has pretty stringent limitations on fights they can book. I can suggest taking a look at Condor for your return as they have inexpensive flights and much better seating than Rouge to Canada if you leave the cruise early. Understand flight cheap from London and not so cheap from Lisbon.

[rose6]

You need to contact Celebrity and receive written permission from them to arrange for early disembarking in Lisbon. On other transatlantics I have met people who had permission to leave the cruise before the last port. I suggest you call the customer service not the reservation department at Celebrity. Better yet, if you have sailed with Celebrity before, call the Captions Club number and they will assist you or direct you to the correct department at Celebrity. Good Luck.

[Kamloops50]

My DH and I are looking at a transatlantic cruise on the Eclipse and would like to disembark in Lisbon rather than Southampton. Would this be possible and would we be able to book a flight through choice air. Thank you for your advise.

 

No you won't be able to use Choice Air from Lisbon . Choice Air has contracts with airlines from certain ports . On a TA to Southampton only London or Gatwick would be the airports of choice.

[Holly g]

We did the TA on the Eclipse last year and disembarked in Le Havre while the ship went on to Southampton . We traveled for two weeks by train, had a great time, ending our journey in Venice!

 

As far as getting off early, you have to email Royal Caribbean (the parent company) and get their permission. Easiest way to do that is to call Celebrity and they can give you the email address. You will be asked to give the name of the ship, cabin number, date you want to disembark, etc. make sure you talk with guest relations when you get on board to make sure they know about your plans.

 

And Yes you can use Choice Air. We took a flight back to New York from Venice using Choice Air booked through Celebrity. They have flights from many different airports through several select carriers. We flew Luftansa back to NY and had a great flight

 

Good luck.

[SheriffJoe]

While it is obviously the correct way to handle it by notifying RCCL its not like you need their "permission" you aren't a hostage and frankly there is nothing they can do to keep you from packing your suitcase and walking off in any port. Again notifying them is the right procedure but I wouldn't call it "asking permission"

[Keith1010]

You need to contact the cruise line and if they allow this you need to get it in writing.

 

Keith

[Holly g]

While it is obviously the correct way to handle it by notifying RCCL its not like you need their "permission" you aren't a hostage and frankly there is nothing they can do to keep you from packing your suitcase and walking off in any port. Again notifying them is the right procedure but I wouldn't call it "asking permission"

 

Wow!!! That's a little hostile! And yes I was told by Celebrity that they must be notified of anyone leaving the ship before the ending port. You can calm down now on the asking permission "quote".

[Cruizann]

Thank you very much for your very helpful information. We will contact Celebrity and proceed from there.

[SheriffJoe]

Wow!!! That's a little hostile! And yes I was told by Celebrity that they must be notified of anyone leaving the ship before the ending port. You can calm down now on the asking permission "quote".

 

LOL hostile?????? me thinks you be a little touchy and might need a cocktail..:rolleyes:...and yes of course X is going to tell you that you must notify them but my point is there is nothing they can do to stop you from leaving the ship at any time when in any port, you don't pay to be held hostage...

[sandav]

While it is obviously the correct way to handle it by notifying RCCL its not like you need their "permission" you aren't a hostage and frankly there is nothing they can do to keep you from packing your suitcase and walking off in any port. Again notifying them is the right procedure but I wouldn't call it "asking permission"

 

I would tend to disagree here. You just can't walk off a ship whenever you like. Countries have immigration laws and rules.

[sandav]

My DH and I are looking at a transatlantic cruise on the Eclipse and would like to disembark in Lisbon rather than Southampton. Would this be possible and would we be able to book a flight through choice air. Thank you for your advise.

 

Immigration might be an issue here as Lisbon would be your point of entry into Europe. While travel within Europe is border control free, you have to clear immigration at external borders which in this case would be Lisbon. On last year's TA immigration officers boarded the ship and cleared everyone before the ship reached Southampton. I don't know if they would be onboard before you disembarked.

[SheriffJoe]

I would tend to disagree here. You just can't walk off a ship whenever you like. Countries have immigration laws and rules.

 

I agree, but immigration is a totally different issue, I was merely commenting on whether or not you can leave the ship early which you certainly can though the country you are getting off on may or may not have issues with you suddenly showing up! :p

[Fouremco]

Perhaps "advising Celebrity of your intentions" would be a more accurate phrasing, but the bottom line is that having Celebrity onside makes a big difference. For medical reasons, in 2014 we had to disembark the Eclipse in St. Lucia to fly back to Canada. The GR staff did a great job in making this work, including dealing directly with St. Lucian Immigration to get us the necessary permission to enter the country. Cruise passengers are quite a pampered lot, more often than not wandering on and off ships in foreign ports with no thought given to the host country's entry regulations and the ease of entry extended to cruise passengers, facilitated in large part by the cruise lines. When a passenger wants to disembark and not return to the ship, that may or may not be allowed by the foreign country in question.