Disembark on the last port before original disembarkation port

[nho9504]

Have anyone had experience in requesting a Route Modification to disembark earlier than original disembarkation port?

 

I tried the search in this forum with various phrases, the only thread semi-relevant is for disembark early at an overnight port.

 

How long would take for Princess to process the request?

 

Here is the sudden need to modify our Sky Princess sailing to St. Petersburg, to disembark at Tallinn, the port before St. Petersburg -

 

We are dual nationalities with both US passports and Hong Kong Special Administration Region passports.  The latter has 14 days Visa Free entry to Russia.  So we dont need visa when booking the cruise back in 3rd week of January.

 

Fast forward to now - Russia announced on Feb 18 Asia Time, that it will temporarily suspend entry of ALL Chinese citizens, including Hong Kong and Macau to Russia, from Feb 20.  No end date is set, understandably.   Before that Russia has suspended eVisa for Chinese Citizens in Mainland China on January 30.  Now it does not allow anyone holding any Chinese nationals passports to enter Russia.

 

While in theory we could apply Russia visa with our US passports,  in reality there is not enough time.  We live in Florida.  Therefore the In Person at Russia Embassy in DC, is unrealistic.   The other method available to us is by Mail thru delegated agency (which is just changed from last year's company to this year's in Jan 2020).  On their website it indicates minimum 5 weeks to apply by Post.  On top of that, this agency called Russia Visa Centers, does not even list where their "centers" are, inside US.  The link listed, led to a screen showing locations all outside US!  They do not answer the calls to the phone number listed on their site.  Nor they answer my email inquiry.  

 

In light of the above, the easiest and the most logical method to salvage our cruise is to modify our disembarkation port from St. Petersburg to Tallinn the night before.  Both US and HKSAR passports have 90 days Visa Free entry to Estonia.  So there is no issue on travel document requirement.

 

After spending a lot of time waiting on the phone and finally talking to a guy at Customer Relations,  at first he refused to help saying that wasn't a valid reason,  that I need a proof of documentation of Visa denial.   I said it was due to the novel coronavirus infection to cause governments around the world make changes to impose temporary travel restrictions that cause disruption of travel,  and in our case, from No Visa needed to now cannot even enter the country  - how can you say it is not valid reason?!   

 

Then after putting me on hold for length time, he came back to say the request must be initiated by the travel agency which booked our cruise.  According to him, he called but there was no answer based on the phone numbers given to him  but he left a message...  Later when I called,  the first agent from the Travel agency was the same agent who handled our booking -  she said she did not receive any message from Princess...   Anyway,  she was very good, put me on hold and called Princess,  periodically came back to tell me she was still on hold with Princess...  eventually she came back to inform me she has submitted the needed Request.  Princess said to wait 10 to 14 business days to hear from them in the form of email.   This was before 12pm today.   I  called after 2:30pm trying to reach the guy whom I talked to in the morning to no avail,  but another Princess agent confirmed the Request for Itinerary Change is indeed in our booking now.  Same message to wait 10 to 14 business days. 

 

What I am hoping to find, are there any ways I could push Princess to speed up this relatively straight forward modification - just cut short the sailing by 1 day, disembark at a port that the passengers have Valid Travel Docs - so I could start figuring out the alternatives Post Cruise, now we would no longer fly out from St Petersburg, but from Tallinn.   Pretty sure the intra-EU flights 5 days post cruise from Petersburg to Nice via Zurich,  and later from Nice back to Zurich, are toasted.  Luckily this is the only loss.  Hotels and rental car are all fully cancellable.  No biggie.  But we want to know as soon as possible on the outcome of this Itinerary Change Request, so we can start to work on a replacement land trip. 

 

Any comments / data points on prior experiences are much welcome and truly appreciated.

[bagney]

Here is a recent link regarding this issue that I provided my experience with.

 

 

[nho9504]

Thanks.

 

Have you received your approval yet?  Or you are still waiting for such?

 

Added -

I found this 2015 thread on related topic

 

 

Edited February 20, 2020 by nho9504

[Essiesmom]

What had you planned to do in St. Petersburg?  If you travel on your US passport and take ships excursions, or excursions through other approved agencies, you don't need an individual visa.  It is handled as a group through the ship or the tour agency.  Which passport have you booked the cruise under?  I'm not sure you can do a cruise with a patchwork of passports of convenience.  If you used your US passport in your online checkin, that is what will be on the manifest that Princess submits to the Russian authorities.  If you used your HK passport, that is what they will see.  So what was your plan?

 

I rereading your itinerary, I realize that your cruise is to end in SPB.  Do you need a visa if you are in transit to the airport?  Had you planned to stay in SPB before flying home?    EM

Edited February 20, 2020 by Essiesmom

[lstone19]

I’m assuming you’re on the Transatlantic cruise starting in Ft. Lauderdale as that is the only cruise on Sky Princess that would allow disembarkation in St. Petersburg without having embarked in St. Petersburg (other than the beginning and end of season TA cruises, the Baltic cruises on Sky Princess are all sold only as closed loop cruises). The TA is also sold as ending in Copenhagen (both with and without a full Baltic itinerary) and in Warnemunde or Rostock (for Berlin). Would switching to the Warnemunde / Rostock version of the cruise be option? Same cruise except it ends three days earlier than your scheduled end in St. Petersburg.

[nho9504]

@Essiesmon

 

We travel on the Hong Kong SAR Passports on this cruise due to the 14 days Visa Free Entry to Russia.   The passports have Visa Free entry right on all the ports on this itinerary,  just like the US passports, and more - because US passport requires Russia Visa to enter, unless, as you said, join an organized tour and enter as member of a tour group with all the restriction. 

 

Regarding the "patchwork of passports for convenience" -  you misunderstand the matter, but that is not a big deal. 

 

Matter of fact,  I would like to point out that, YES, you definitely can travel all over the world using whichever passport you legally have, at your convenience.   We have friends who even have 3 nationalities, and they travel around with different passports based on the itineraries.  You may not be aware, US passports actually do not have as many Visa Free entries than quite a few other nationalities passports.  

 

When we did a Holy Lands cruise on Royal a few years ago,  we used HK SAR passports because it has Visa Free entry to Egypt. 

 

Besides, if you board the ship at a US port with a foreign passport - the cruise line would need to make sure you are legally in US before allowing you to get on board.   When we take advantage, (yes at our convenience) of Visa Free Entry of countries of some ports on the itinerary,  we always show both passports at check in.   Once on an Emerald TATL followed by a Med that disembarked at Istanbul after an overnight,  the check in staff kept flipping our HK SAR passports looking for some stamp or visa.  I asked what she was looking for - she then said,  HOW did you come to US?  I pointed to her the set of US passports on the counter...  She then took both sets to ask her supervisor... Of course came back to say everything was fine, and to finish the check in.  

 

Airlines check in agents know a whole lot better than Cruise line check in agents because airlines check in agents use the real time Timatic tool to check visa requirements,  while I saw Princess agents going by a print out sheet which is woefully incomplete.   I once saw the sheet used by the Princess contracted employee at Port Everglade.  The sheet has no distinction among Chinese passports issued by Mainland China,  issued by Hong Kong Special Administration Region, and Macau Special Administration at all.   However,  these 3 passports all have different Visa requirements with the HKSAR and Macao SAR, especially Macao SAR, enjoy A Whole Lot More privileges than the one issued by Mainland China.  They are not even in the same color and design.   The Princess Print Out only had China.

 

If you are curious to learn, you can find the Timatic tool on Delta and United websites.  It is a neat tool.

 

https://www.timaticweb2.com/integration/external?ref=b25123445626e872424db944237b61da&modify=1

 

https://www.united.com/web/en-us/apps/vendors/default.aspx?i=TIMATIC

 

The reason we traveled on the HK SAR passports because

1) It is Visa Free to enter Turkey on that Emerald cruise that ended at Istanbul (an overnight then we disembarked, flew to Vienna on the same afternoon.)

2)  Our US passports had very few pages left but still had almost 4 years to go,  we wanted to preserve the pages, at least 2 side by side full blank pages for Visa purpose in case we need it.

 

@Istone19

 

Yes we are on the Transatlantic that ends at St. Petersburg.  Since we dont need Visa, it would be nice to return to the beautiful city for a few days, especially after Princess left there would be only one ship and then no cruise ship for a couple more days.  That would make a huge difference at many sights, especially Hermitage.  Alas,  who would have thought there comes a pandemic ...

 

We actually have 5 days post cruise stay at St. Petersburg already booked (fully cancellable).  Then we will fly to Nice via Zurich, continue on our post cruise land trip in Europe - a week in NIce, then return to Zurich where we pick up an Avis to drive down to Lake Como in Italy for another week  -  then back to Zurich for our flight back to Miami.

 

We still try to keep the Nice and Lake Como parts but of course instead of flying out of LED,  we would find other way to get to Nice.  The intra-Europe tickets were bought,  and most likely toasted even though it is changeable with a fee.  May not be worthwhile to salvage but once I got Princess' decision I would talk to Swiss to see if they would accommodate us.   I thought about buying 2 one-ways instead of using Multi-Cities on the intra-Europe flights as I did have a tad of worry on the disease...  Alas, what is done is done.  Only $320 write off, not too bad.

Everything else booked for post cruise is fully refundable.

 

According to the phone rep Princess has received the Itinerary Change Request from our travel agency.  It is now sitting in our booking record waiting for the legal department to review it then make a decision whether to approve it or deny it.  

 

 

I hadn't thought about switching the cruise to disembark at German port.  It was after submitting the early disembarkation at Tallinn, I then realize that disembark at German port might be actually better - easier to find flights out from Berlin than from Tallinn, that is for sure.  As you said, it might also be an easy option for Princess to handle. 

 

Now I need to wait and hope to receive a decision from Princess hopefully in next 10 days.  If there is still no news I would follow up with another email to Customerrelations@Princess.com, and CC the head honcho of that dept,  with the added proposal to disembark at German port.  I just wish Princess can give a speedy decision so I can start working on the intra-Europe flights.

 

Since Princess sells the itinerary disembarks at Germany,  there should not be any issue about requesting Immigration officer's presence  from the local government, as the Immigration officers should be there due to it is a scheduled disembarkation port.

[nho9504]

UPDATE

 

Just logged in My Princess - while the listing of Upcoming Cruises still shows 20 days Northern Europe Passage,  once got in the Manage this Booking,  I saw the itinerary was modified. Now it is showing Tallinn being the disembarkation port.  St. Petersburg is removed.  ;)

 

Nobody calls us.   I have not checked with the Loyalty Travel Agency that handles the booking thinking about it is too early to check.

 

That is a quick handling from Princess.  I am pleased. 

 

Now we can take a wait and see approach - if Russia lifts the ban before April 11, that would be great - we can still go to St. Petersburg, even if Princess not allow us to modify itinerary again - because there are bus services between Tallinn and St. Petersburg.  My husband reminds me that was how we went on our first visit to St. Petersburg. 

In that case we would not need to redo our intra-Europe flights... 

 

Finger crossed, and wish all those currently are suffering, will get a relief soon.

[Two4Sea]

Glad that worked out nho9504. We have been "off ship" overnight or longer a few times. There are two things involved:

-the port has to have immigration facilities available to process you into the country. Some day ports only have the staff to allow blanket entries for day visits that don't need visas. Landing activity on the other hand may involve computer processing equipment. This port entry work is what customer service needs to talk to operations about. They through the port agents know what service is available.

 

-passenger lists sometimes have to be submitted 1-3 days ahead of arriving in a port. The Purser needs to know your plan in order to prepare his paperwork correctly. In one port when he met with the officials they recorded our entry in their visa data base and that lead to us having to see an exit passport control officer when we rejoined the ship. The other passengers in town that day could just walk back aboard because they had been scanned off with their ship card at the terminal gates that morning and the gates let them back through in the afternoon. The gate rejected our cards however.

 

In another case everybody had to go ashore for immigration screening regardless of plans for the day. The passengers were divided into groups according to "staying on the ship", "day tour" and "overnight tour" and handled one group after another because it affected seeing that the stay and day people returned their passport to a ship's officer for processing when the ship sailed that evening. And of course that exit manifest should not be showing the overnight people ...details details.

 

For your return, at Tallinn there are overnight ferry services to Stockholm and Warnemunde.

 

Bill

[nho9504]

1 hour ago, Two4Sea said:

 

 

 

Thanks Bill for the details as well as the ferry information.  I do not know about the one between Tallinn and Warnemunde. 

 

On the first case you mentioned, I am confused on why you returned to the ship? 

 

On the second case we had similar set up on a TPAC Tokyo to Vancouver on Celebrity's Millie last Spring.  We had a Russian port that was Visa Free to cruiseship passengers but everyone needed to indicate his wish on whether going on shore or not.  Passorts were turned in and sorted for different processing.  There were a lot of confusions as to when and how to turn in the passports the few days before hitting the actual port...  instruction kept changing and the sheet was not delivered to the cabin in a timely manner... In short, big confusion abound.

 

I know there are overnight ferries between Stockholm and Tallinn.  In fact years ago on a long trip we took the overnight ferry from Stockholm to Riga, spent a few days there then took a bus to Tallinn, versus took the ferry to Tallinn as we wanted to see Riga as well.  Several days later we took a long distance bus (7.5 hours) from Tallinn to St. Petersburg.  The border crossing was kind of interesting...  Estonian's officer went on the bus to got everyone's passports, then came back to return the docs.  We at first thought that was it... Turned out that was on the Estonia side, then the whole car's passengers were directed to get off and to go thru Russian's immigration in a complex near by...  So it was like a moment of "Oh,  we are not done yet..."  lol.

 

As long as the ban is lifted before we arrive Tallinn,  we can still take the bus to St. Petersburg if we opt for that.  My husband actually reminded me that was how we went for our first visit to St. Petersburg. 

 

I  will give it till Mid March before making arrangement on how to go from Tallinn to Western Europe - deep in mind I dont want to give up the week in Nice / Cote d'Azure,  and the week in Italian lake district,  but it all depends on how the transportation logistics look like - we can change places where we will spend the 2.5 weeks post cruise.  The only thing that is fixed, is our return from Zurich back to Miami - that can be changed, but the issue is not only the change fee, but more importantly, the business class award seats availability on a Transatlantic flight back to US  (we used Aeroplan miles on this award, so it is Star Alliance flight.)

 

The best thing that could happen, though highly unlikely, is that Russia lifts the ban early enough before sailing, or days before we hit Copenhagen (the 14 days mark, also the end of the TATL itinerary Princess sells on this sailing.)  Then we can plead if we could return to our original booking to get off at St. Petersburg...  Fat chance though.

 

This is the site maintained by John Hopkins, updated every night when data is released by China.

 

https://systems.jhu.edu/

 

The pop up window has Track Now.  It would bring up the latest data.

 

The rate of increase is slowing but still not showing any promising abating.

 

Japan of course  has become a major source of worry from every country outside China.

 

 

Edited February 22, 2020 by nho9504

[Steelers36]

@nho9504, read your saga with some interest.  If you indeed have unofficial confirmation of the early disembark, you might want to make sure you receive the email from Princess - either directly or from your TA.  That was quite fast service - and perhaps they are able to do the early disembarks quicker than mid-cruise deviations.

 

I had to wait over a month to get formal approval for our Route Deviation request (we are leaving a ship during the voyage and then re-joining the ship at a future port prior to the end of our booked voyage).  Forgetting the time lost due to the first Princess rep screwing up our request form, it took close to four weeks more to get it done - and I was following up.  Ultimately, when I informed our TA office, things happened.  (I had been told by Princess originally I could simply call in and make the request directly). 

 

My original request was ahead of the Coronavirus outbreak and the correction was ahead of the CB's Norovirus situation (and now I hear it has struck again), but service was impacted for these requests because the same team was involved with those disrupted cruises.  Anyone applying for a deviation in Feb has to expect a longer service cycle than is normally the case.

 

Edited February 22, 2020 by Steelers36

[nho9504]

Hi Steelers36,

 

Princess from the outset told me the request has to be from the travel  agency because the cruise is not booked directly with them,  despite I pleaded with the customer relations rep that our travel agency is not the traditional TA, but a bank's loyalty travel dept (outsourced to a company specializes in such business).  He would not budge.

 

Our request is directly related to the pandemic because the suspension of entry made by Russia government is to prevent spreading the infection inside Russia.   When the rep at customer relations at first told me this was not an urgent request when Princess needs to take care of the disrupted passengers first.  I pointed out that my request is also a result from the outbreak, and my request is very straight forward.  After putting me on lengthy hold, he came back to tell me to get the TA to initiate the request.  He reluctantly agreed to call the booking company while having me on the phone for a conference call, but came back to tell me nobody answered the phone and he left a message...  He lied as later when I talked to the rep at TA, she said she had no message from Princess.

 

Later I contacted the TA to make the request.  They too had a long time wait before Princess picked up the call but the request was made.  She was told Princess said it would take 14 business days to get a decision which would then be emailed to the TA.  Several hours later I called Princess and the rep told me yes, the request is already in the booking with the same tune about  it would take 14 business days before decision.  I asked for an email address so I could write to follow up.  She gave me the customerrelations@princess.com.  In the evening I checked with my regular cruise agent if this was the only email address.  She said, yes, there was only one email address.   She told me the request has to be made by the TA but it does not hurt to write them, and make it URGENT as Princess customer relations is SLOW in replying. 

 

Then I wrote Princess an email, explained the reasons behind the request, provided the links to the Russia Consulate Hong Kong webpage, one showing the 14 days Visa Free Entry,  the other showing the current temporary suspension of this privilege.  Then I told them Russia Visa Center in US told me it would take a minimum 5 weeks to get the Visa with our US passports when apply by mail since we are not anywhere near the 4 Russia Embassy / Consulates in US we cannot apply In Person.

 

This all happened on Wednesday.

 

Because of the "14 business days" message,  I did not even think about to check My Booking on Thursday.  Today I logged in for something else - then I saw the cruise shows Ft. Lauderdale to Tallinn...  That is a totally unexpected quick outcome.

 

Later in the evening Princess customer relations actually called us when I was fixing dinner.  I did not pick up the call when phone rang as I was in the kitchen with wet hands... plus there are so many marketing junks everyday so we normally dont take calls - then I heard the caller started leaving message - by the time I went to pick it up and said "Hello",  she just finished and hang up - just missed her by 3 seconds.

 

Regardless, her message was very clear.  She gave her name, calling from customer relations.  She said Princess received my email, mentioned our travel agency already called to make the request.

 

She said now our disembarkation port is changed to Tallinn,  no need to worry about Russia any more.  She further told us to contact our travel agency to get the confirmation email.   That is what I would do tomorrow morning, as it was after 5:30pm when the call came. 

 

As mentioned above, our Travel Agency is not a regular Travel Agency, but is a company specializes in handling travel bookings with credit card reward points nowadays are quite prevalent among US banks' credit cards, such as Chase Ultimate Reward points,  Citi's ThankYou points,  US Bank's and Wells Fargo's just to name a few.  AMEX has its own travel dept therefore Membership Reward travel bookings are handled in house.  

This cruise is booked with Chase Ultimate Reward points out from the Sapphire Reserve card account, that has a value of 1.5x per point, literally gives us 33.33% discount versus booking it the traditional way.  i.e.  For the same amount of points if redeemed for cash, (to pay back the charge on a credit card) it worths 1x, versus if redeemed for travel, it worths 1.5x, when and if, the price is the same. 

 

If this is handled by our regular cruise agent, I would have received the email soon after Princess sends it to her.  On our cruise bookings she normally just forwards me the cruise lines emails directly as this is much more efficient.

 

Your deviation is more involved than ours, as ours is simply a day earlier to leave the ship than scheduled, at a port apparently there is immigration officers on duty on the port day. 

 

I think if one's request is related to the coronavirus infection,  it will still be handled swiftly, as long as you can provide the background in an email to the customer relations. 

 

 

[Steelers36]

57 minutes ago, nho9504 said:

Princess from the outset told me the request has to be from the travel  agency because the cruise is not booked directly with them,  despite I pleaded with the customer relations rep that our travel agency is not the traditional TA, but a bank's loyalty travel dept (outsourced to a company specializes in such business).

Tuesday this week was the first time any Princess rep I spoke with concerning our request mentioned doing it through the TA (I had several calls to Princess following up on status).  I told the rep I was informed I could do it myself by calling Princess (I specifically clarified back in Jan that I didn't need to engage the TA) and I didn't intend to bother the TA until it was completed and then I was going to send them a copy of the approval email. 

 

It certainly makes sense that the TA is aware of it, but it doesn't affect the fare or payments, so IDK.  Perhaps Princess prefers it that way.  Not everything to do with a cruise booking has to be handled by the TA and our TA is a discounter with expectation of less hand-holding, which I don't need, so I didn't want to bother them about it.  Nonetheless, they are always accommodating and our TA is wonderful.  I can say that shortly after I advised them, the fantastic back-office person at my agency contacted Princess and within two days we had the approval email.  Go figure.

 

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, nho9504 said:

As mentioned above, our Travel Agency is not a regular Travel Agency, but is a company specializes in handling travel bookings with credit card reward points nowadays are quite prevalent among US banks' credit cards

Yes, I understand and had one of those once (I have a couple of US-based Visa's, but similar situation with Cdn bank cards).  Had to use the bank's agency of record.  It worked fine for that reward trip several years back.  Fortunately, nothing unusual came up for them to deal with.

 

Edited February 22, 2020 by Steelers36

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, nho9504 said:

If this is handled by our regular cruise agent, I would have received the email soon after Princess sends it to her.  On our cruise bookings she normally just forwards me the cruise lines emails directly as this is much more efficient.

Yup.  Probably not the same TA, but same service.  I am always trying to do things myself when I could just ping them.  Lived and learned for next time.  Looking forward to extra days in Dubai and attending the World's Fair.

[nho9504]

6 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Tuesday this week was the first time any Princess rep I spoke with concerning our request mentioned doing it through the TA (I had several calls to Princess following up on status).  I told the rep I was informed I could do it myself by calling Princess (I specifically clarified back in Jan that I didn't need to engage the TA) and I didn't intend to bother the TA until it was completed and then I was going to send them a copy of the approval email. 

 

It certainly makes sense that the TA is aware of it, but it doesn't affect the fare or payments, so IDK.  Perhaps Princess prefers it that way.  Not everything to do with a cruise booking has to be handled by the TA and our TA is a discounter with expectation of less hand-holding, which I don't need, so I didn't want to bother them about it.  Nonetheless, they are always accommodating and our TA is wonderful.  I can say that shortly after I advised them, the fantastic back-office person at my agency contacted Princess and within two days we had the approval email.  Go figure.

 

 

I hear you.  Princess even a basic matter of changing cabin to the same category requiring to go thru TA.  I dont know what is such a big deal as you said, it does not affect the travel agency's commission or anything related to the fares.

 

Celebrity isn't like that last Spring when our Tokyo to Vancouver was also booked with the Chase UR pts, i.e. the same loyalty travel company.  We had direct communication with Celebrity on miscellaneous matters.  No need to get TA involved.

 

Our regular TA is a top volume agent of all cruise lines,  her own business with a helper, part of the Amex Consortium that is nothing more than providing marketing supports for the independent agents.  We are more like friends than a TA / client relationship despite we have never met in person, almost always thru emails, except making payments that would be over the phone.   We were on a Diamond Princess Circle Japan cruise before boarding the Celebrity Millie cruise from Tokyo to Vancouver.  The Diamond Princess cruise was booked thru our regular TA because UR prices were much higher than the prices our TA (and Vacationtogo showed).  Our bookings almost always flash sales, if not last minutes.  Never need her hand-holdings.  Usually it is when we want a cruise, then I check the usual suspects on what are available.  Once we narrow down the options I send her email for quotes on the particular cruises / cabin types.  We just need her to give the prices so I can do a comparison and decide which cruise to take.  That is why I can ask her what is the best way to push Princess to speed up the process without feeling awkward, despite this cruise is not booked thru her.   She knew I had booked this cruise with Chase travel dept using our points.

 

The company handles loyalty travel bookings have competent reps who handle both bookings and support functions.  Surely they would have back office too, but from last year's experience booking the Celebrity cruise to this year's Princess cruise,  both reps booked the cruises, calculated the cost of the points,  sent the Chase confirmation emails, all done on the same phone call.  This year's rep is even better than last year's.  Last year's agent either did not send the Chase confirmation email or the system failed to generate one.  He also told me that the cruise booking would show up in My Trips on Chase website a few hours later - it never showed up.  However the booking was on Celebrity when we were still on the phone so I did not care whether Chase own confirmation email would come or not.   This year's rep told me the booking would not show up in My Trips on Chase UR site, but i should receive a confirmation email from Chase, with the booking info,  phone number, agent's name and extension.   She is also quick and alert.   She secured the cabin first, before calling Princess to inquire if we could use the future cruise deposits on this booking.  (It would affect the final calculation on how many points deducted from the UR account.)   The Chase confirmation showed the 2x $100 future cruise deposit as payment made with credit card,  the balance was paid with points (with the 33.33% discount).

 

When I called again on the itinerary change request, it so happened the call was picked up by the same agent who booked our cruise 3 weeks ago.  She fully understood the process, and was quite considerate during the long hold time to get a Princess human rep, came back to reassure me a couple times that she was still on hold,  she did not forget me... nice rep.   Just realize tomorrow is Saturday,  not sure if I could get hold of her.  May be wait till Monday now the urgency is not there any more.

[Two4Sea]

Sorry nho, compressed writing in a hurry. The gate problem was when we rejoined the ship 3 days later down route. We got off at Kusadasi where day visitors don't need a visa while we did because we were going overland to Istanbul. Kusadasi is where we didn't know that we had been recorded in an entry database. When we finished our visit in Istanbul the ship had arrived and was doing a turnaround day. So the pier setup had been oriented to separating new passengers being checked in (and cleared through exit passport control) from the through passengers returning from day sightseeing. We were existing passengers from the ship's viewpoint but exiting passengers from Immigration's viewpoint. The aide at the check in line wouldn't let us in without a ship's ticket, the automatic gates at the day visit line wouldn't accept our ship's card and we didn't know that we had to see exit passport control, who were only available beyond the check in counters. A helpful security man at the day gate had to get the port agent out of his office to solve it, take us to passport control from the back side and convince the officer to process us.

 

I entered Russia by train from Warsaw to Leningrad back in the communist era, like you it was a day long exercise at the Russian frontier. Two customs guards came along to search our compartment for undeclared money but only one did the work. The other found and read the Road & Track car magazine I had bought in New York on my way and still had in my bag :) .

 

For your comment on making last minute changes after you cross the Atlantic I think you might do okay. Front desk staff can be stiff at times but if you can get to a knowledgeable assistant purser you might be okay as I think it's all their control at that point. I don't envy their job with the complex ever changing border rules.

 

Bill