Having a guest onboard in a port of call

[bcummin]

We succeeded in bringing our son and his family on board in our Washington State hometown in 2014. We all ate dinner in the MDR.  Later the same year we brought our daughter and husband on board in Seattle for MDR lunch.  I remember my DH contacting Seattle beforehand.  The front desk was ready for us with forms to complete after we boarded.  I remember writing down lots and lots of ID numbers, but nobody ever asked to see the  photocopies of their ID that we had brought with us.(passport, drivers license, or birth certificate)  

The sweet part was when our four-year-old grandson was surprised that the ship was not moving to go anywhere.

Barbara  

Edited July 2, 2019 by bcummin

[caribill]

12 hours ago, Alberta Quilter said:

What about the PG; would there be an additional charge above the usual surcharge?  (I have no issues paying such a charge, I just want to be prepared.) 

I would assume that if you made a reservation for x people and had it all charged to your cabin, your guests could eat at the specialty restaurant if time permits.

[chengkp75]

John;

 

Pretty surprised, that's a fairly lax ISPS code, especially if there is no time frame for vetting the visitor prior to approval.  I know ports will typically accept visitor lists sent from ships as being vetted and okay, but have you ever experienced a port turning down a pax visitor?  Does the agent need to be at port security to escort them to the ship?

[sail7seas]

5 hours ago, caribill said:

I would assume that if you made a reservation for x people and had it all charged to your cabin, your guests could eat at the specialty restaurant if time permits.

Pinnacle Grill is not always open for lunch on port days.  Don' count on it without confirming, in order to avoid disappointment.

[Alberta Quilter]

I have my booking through a TA.  Do I have to go through the TA to make the initial visitor request with HAL in Seattle?  Or can I do that directly through Ship Services (or someone else)?

[sail7seas]

You can skip the TA,   if you wish

 

 

 

 

Edited July 3, 2019 by sail7seas

[frankc98376]

I'm guessing that Mariner status and stateroom type don't hurt in the decision process.

 

To the post about bringing a TA onboard to visit.  If your TA wants to visit they should contact their HAL  sales rep and request a visitor pass. If they sell a lot of cruises I'm fairly confident it can be arranged.

 

I remember back when you got 6 or 8 visitor passes for embarkation day in your documents package.  If you needed more a call would get them mailed to you.  My, how times have changed- so sad.

 

[sail7seas]

11 minutes ago, frankc98376 said:

I'm guessing that Mariner status and stateroom type don't hurt in the decision process.

 

To the post about bringing a TA onboard to visit.  If your TA wants to visit they should contact their HAL  sales rep and request a visitor pass. If they sell a lot of cruises I'm fairly confident it can be arranged.

 

I remember back when you got 6 or 8 visitor passes for embarkation day in your documents package.  If you needed more a call would get them mailed to you.  My, how times have changed- so sad. 

Terrorist  attacks are so sad and so much in our travel adventures changed as a result of 9-11 and other events and attempts.      The world is very different than when my late DH and I started   'serious travel.'.   Many  Domestic  U.S.  cities/hotels and Caribbean  resorts   until  then

 

A whole new world since 9-11

 

Edited July 3, 2019 by sail7seas

[Copper10-8]

9 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

John;

 

Pretty surprised, that's a fairly lax ISPS code, especially if there is no time frame for vetting the visitor prior to approval.  I know ports will typically accept visitor lists sent from ships as being vetted and okay, but have you ever experienced a port turning down a pax visitor?  Does the agent need to be at port security to escort them to the ship?

 

Afternoon Cheng;

 

I have not personally encountered that scenario. I am assuming you are aware that DHS/CBP vets all passenger, crew and visitor lists. I have accompanied CBP in more than one port on their way to contact someone onboard because certain bells went off in their system. Some of those individuals disembarked with a pair of matching bracelets.

 

As far as getting to the ship, that's different depending on the layout and procedures of the port. In some ports, San Fran comes to mind, ship security sets up a table with the visitors passes inside the terminal. In other ports, that job is done by port security. All visitors are required to go through a metal detector, as well as have their personal belonging screened by an X-Ray machine, either in the terminal or onboard. Does/did NCL do thing differently?

[Copper10-8]

5 hours ago, Alberta Quilter said:

I have my booking through a TA.  Do I have to go through the TA to make the initial visitor request with HAL in Seattle?  Or can I do that directly through Ship Services (or someone else)?

 

Nope, your T/A has nada to do with that process. And just a reminder that visitor requests for the more routine 7-10-day Carib, Alaska and Canada/NE voyages are not usually approved

[chengkp75]

1 hour ago, Copper10-8 said:

 

Afternoon Cheng;

 

I have not personally encountered that scenario. I am assuming you are aware that DHS/CBP vets all passenger, crew and visitor lists. I have accompanied CBP in more than one port on their way to contact someone onboard because certain bells went off in their system. Some of those individuals disembarked with a pair of matching bracelets.

 

As far as getting to the ship, that's different depending on the layout and procedures of the port. In some ports, San Fran comes to mind, ship security sets up a table with the visitors passes inside the terminal. In other ports, that job is done by port security. All visitors are required to go through a metal detector, as well as have their personal belonging screened by an X-Ray machine, either in the terminal or onboard. Does/did NCL do thing differently?

Visitors were not allowed for passengers.  Crew visitors, or in many cases, tech reps, had to be cleared through port security by a senior officer and then escorted to the ship.

[bcummin]

Procedures change, but this is how ours worked.

After my DH phoned Seattle, I phoned our local port security.  They expected to receive a list of visitors to be allowed on the ship, so our son's family would probably be allowed through port security. 

On board, we were happy when our request for them to visit was approved.

After docking we walked out and met them on the dock, where they had already passed through port security.  We escorted them to Ship Security, where they traded drivers' licenses for visitor passes.  Everyone was happy to have children on the ship.

 

Seattle was different.  After docking, we walked off the ship to the terminal entrance.  A separate security entrance to the side processed our daughter and husband before we all boarded by way of the crew gangway.

 

These were both long cruises.

Barbara

Edited July 3, 2019 by bcummin

[sail7seas]

1 hour ago, frankc98376 said:

I'm guessing that Mariner status and stateroom type don't hurt in the decision process.

 

To the post about bringing a TA onboard to visit.  If your TA wants to visit they should contact their HAL  sales rep and request a visitor pass. If they sell a lot of cruises I'm fairly confident it can be arranged.

 

I remember back when you got 6 or 8 visitor passes for embarkation day in your documents package.  If you needed more a call would get them mailed to you.  My, how times have changed- so sad.

 

 

 

 

Maybe how well you are known makes a difference?  which,of course, likely goes  back to mariner status, as you said. 

[Alberta Quilter]

1 hour ago, Copper10-8 said:

 

Nope, your T/A has nada to do with that process. And just a reminder that visitor requests for the more routine 7-10-day Carib, Alaska and Canada/NE voyages are not usually approved

Thanks for the head's up.  I suspect that the fact that our cruise is 12 days won't make a difference...

 

I've sent an email to my friend to see if they are even interested in coming aboard.  If not, then I won't bother going any further with it.  If they are interested, well, I'll still ask; at least I'll have tried.

[sail7seas]

On 7/3/2019 at 5:39 AM, chengkp75 said:

John;

 

Pretty surprised, that's a fairly lax ISPS code, especially if there is no time frame for vetting the visitor prior to approval.  I know ports will typically accept visitor lists sent from ships as being vetted and okay, but have you ever experienced a port turning down a pax visitor?  Does the agent need to be at port security to escort them to the ship?

We have been ' the guests' and never had any interaction with port agent,  there always was a  visitor list and our  names and  vetting  was always checked

[sail7seas]

On 7/3/2019 at 3:21 PM, Copper10-8 said:

 

Nope, your T/A has nada to do with that process. And just a reminder that visitor requests for the more routine 7-10-day Carib, Alaska and Canada/NE voyages are not usually approved

 

 

I don't mean to 'challenge'  about short cruises, but from personal experience,  there are exceptions,  I know as I have been the exception (as have 'other people with whom  I am familiar ..... know well.)   🙂

 

I  prefer to not post much more info.

 

 

 

 

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

We had visitors on board at a stop in Victoria, BC, a few years ago.  When we filled out the form, we asked about lunch for our friends on the ship.  Guest Services  informed us there would be a flat fee per person, which was more than we felt it should be.  This was a while ago, so the fee is probably different, if they still charge it.  As it turned out, we just visited in the Crow's Nest and went to the Lido for coffee.  

 

We met our friends outside the terminal in Victoria and escorted them back to the ship.  Going through both port and ship security was easy and took very little time.

[rafinmd]

I assume visitors are not going to happen for a while.  Crystal has procedures to allow it pretty routinely, but they have been suspended until the coronavirus situation improves,

 

Roy

[jenp123]

We were able to have my father join is for dinner and a show on Victoria during an Alaska cruise.  We put the request in and it was approved 2 days later.  

 

We are at a specialty restaurant and we paid the cover fee for him.  If we had eaten in the dining room or lido, it would have been no cost for him to join us

 

[VennDiagram]

1 hour ago, rafinmd said:

I assume visitors are not going to happen for a while.  Crystal has procedures to allow it pretty routinely, but they have been suspended until the coronavirus situation improves,

 

Roy

 

This thread is 7 months old.  The new virus may cause the cruise lines to rethink allowing any visitors, even if THIS virus dies out.  It may be a wake-up call about permitting any guests onboard.