Disembarking a day early

[e-cruiser]

I'm considering an 11 day cruise in and out of Rome.

The 10th day is in Florence (Livorno). I would like to disembark a day early while in Florence and go to Cinque Terre for a few days instead of continuing back to Rome the next morning.

Am I allowed to do this?

Thanks,

[valleyvillage]

There are all kinds of rules and laws about this. You are about to hear them all. You should  probably check with NCL.

[havenfan]

We just did something similar last month, one of our party chose to fly from St Thomas (USVI) back to NYC rather than spend 72 hours sailing.  We knew PVSA didn't apply to USVI so we went to guest services the day before the early departure and told them about it.  They made appropriate immigration arrangements and all was well.

 

More generally, NCL can't and won't stop someone from leaving a cruise before the final port.  After all, you can just get off the ship and not return.  However, there can be immigration implications as cruise ship passengers often enter a country on something like a transit visa, not a visitor visa or visa waiver.  In some situations you might find that you can't leave the country because you didn't enter it correctly.  Cruise lines have to be prepared to handle the paperwork in case of, among other things, medical situations where a passenger is no longer fit to sail.  But if they get hit with any sort of penalty because of cabotage laws, they will charge your account for it.

 

4 hours ago, valleyvillage said:

There are all kinds of rules and laws about this....You should  probably check with NCL.

 

You certainly should, but it may take a while before you get through to someone who actually knows the relevant rules.  Two of the four NCL Miami reps we spoke with were of the opinion that the Jones Act would cause penalties to be imposed if we left in USVI.  They were wrong on multiple counts.

 

As for your specific case of a passenger embarking in one Italian port and disembarking in another on a ship that might not be permitted to carry passengers between two Italian ports, I'm afraid I don't know.

Edited May 5, 2019 by havenfan