Passenger switch mid-cruise, is it possible?

[Niele da Kine]

Not sure if the rules would be different for different cruise lines, so I thought perhaps the HAL folks would know since we've booked a HAL ship.

 

Is it possible for a passenger to go for a portion of a cruise and then be replaced by someone else part way through the cruise? 

 

We've booked a relocation cruise and it goes past our home port early on in the cruise.  Our house sitter is near the starting port.  Would it be possible for our house sitter to take the early portion of the cruise and then get replaced by the person the cabin was booked for when reaching the port near to us?  It would still be the same amount of people in the cabin, it would just be different people than who started the cruise.

[chengkp75]

Where is the cruise?  Since you list Hawaii as home, are you talking about Hawaiian ports?  Since this is a HAL ship, it is a foreign flag ship, and most likely will not be allowed due to the restrictions of the PVSA, legally, and probably not just from a hassle to HAL for changing the manifest.

Edited May 4, 2022 by chengkp75

[rochelle_s]

I recently contacted HAL about the possibility of my mother leaving the ship early on an upcoming cruise. I was told that since COVID they do not allow any deviations.

 

This was my experience, you very well might get a different response.

 

Rochelle

[Fouremco]

As the cruise starts in Seattle, disembarking in Hawaii would be a PVSA violation. Administratively, I can't see HAL allowing passenger swaps part way through sailings as more and more people might want to "share" longer cruises.

[Niele da Kine]

Ratz!  I was hoping to have the ship bring our house sitter to us.  But it is a foreign flagged ship hauling a passenger between two U.S. ports so the PVSA would howl.  Wonder if just paying the PVSA fine would be less than airfare?  Although, we'd still have to get HAL to allow the passenger substitution in the first place.

 

Would a delayed boarding in Hawaii be a problem?  Possibly HAL wouldn't even allow that, tho.  Well, I like sea days so starting in Seattle is good with me.  Guess we will just start at the beginning and do the sea days down to our home port. 

 

Can we bring additional luggage on board mid-cruise?  That wouldn't be a problem, would it?

[billbunger]

Why don’t you ask HAL these question? People here can answer and say all they want but only HAL can give you the right answers. 

[chengkp75]

5 hours ago, Niele da Kine said:

Wonder if just paying the PVSA fine would be less than airfare?  Although, we'd still have to get HAL to allow the passenger substitution in the first place.

The fine is against the cruise line, not you, so HAL will not allow a willful violation (i.e. giving permission in advance).  The ticket contract allows them to pass the fine on to you, it is currently $750 per person.

 

5 hours ago, Niele da Kine said:

Would a delayed boarding in Hawaii be a problem?  Possibly HAL wouldn't even allow that, tho.

I don't believe any lines allow "downlining" these days due to covid restrictions.

 

5 hours ago, Niele da Kine said:

Can we bring additional luggage on board mid-cruise?  That wouldn't be a problem, would it?

This would depend on the ticket contract terms and conditions, if there is a luggage limitation.  This needs to be checked with HAL, and everything needs to be kept in your cabin.

[Niele da Kine]

Ratz on the $750 fine.  It'd be lovely to have my friend on the sea days since there would be more appreciation for sea days than with my SO.  Well, that won't work. 

 

There aren't any more passenger ships between the mainland and Hawaii.  The old ones ran as passenger ships and not cruise ships, now most if not all passengers show up on airplanes.  It would be nice if we had both.

 

I'm hoping to not have to take all our luggage with us on the airline to the start of the voyage if we can pick up part of it in Kona.  It would be the usual amount of luggage for a long voyage, just done in two parts instead of all at once.  Well, if we forget anything, we can zip home and get it.  We're an hour away from the port, but we can see anything on the island when we're home so we'd not need to do any excursions.  Maybe drop off any souvenirs from Seattle while we were here to save having to transport them home via air later.

 

It would be nine days into a 51 day voyage at that time.  Hmm, it'd even be nice to take all the dirty laundry home and run it through the washer and dryer and then bring it back to the ship.  Do they allow that, do you think?

[RuthC]

You should be asking HAL these questions; someone at HAL who has more experience and responsibility than a person who takes calls to book cruises. 
You are asking obscure questions that don't come up every day---or even every month, most likely. They certainly haven't come up on this forum since I have been reading it. 

There could easily be factors that people who haven't done this won't think of. One I can think of has to do with bringing dirty laundry home to wash, then returning it to the ship. In the past people have asked about bringing clothes off the ship in Alaska to mail home, and someone who knows what he is talking about suggested that there could be a Customs problem with that idea. 
Your thought is similar in that you would be bringing personal goods ashore in the US from a 'foreign country' (the ship, which is registered in the Netherlands). Customs doesn't know that you are returning the goods back to the ship.
I don't know if that is a concern or not in your case, but it seems similar enough to me that it could be. I doubt that you will get answers you can count on here. 

[zgscl]

On 5/3/2022 at 11:59 PM, Niele da Kine said:

Not sure if the rules would be different for different cruise lines, so I thought perhaps the HAL folks would know since we've booked a HAL ship.

 

Is it possible for a passenger to go for a portion of a cruise and then be replaced by someone else part way through the cruise? 

 

We've booked a relocation cruise and it goes past our home port early on in the cruise.  Our house sitter is near the starting port.  Would it be possible for our house sitter to take the early portion of the cruise and then get replaced by the person the cabin was booked for when reaching the port near to us?  It would still be the same amount of people in the cabin, it would just be different people than who started the cruise.

I am almost positive this is not permitted. Take a look at Celebrity. Limited dates but all of their Hawaii cruises are one way between Vancouver & Honolulu so that might be an option for you. 

[Ferry_Watcher]

Substituting passengers within the same stateroom part way thru the cruise would wreak havoc with the manifest that needs to be submitted to various governments and their agencies.

[Niele da Kine]

On 5/8/2022 at 1:37 PM, RuthC said:

You should be asking HAL these questions; someone at HAL who has more experience and responsibility than a person who takes calls to book cruises. 
You are asking obscure questions that don't come up every day---or even every month, most likely. They certainly haven't come up on this forum since I have been reading it. 

There could easily be factors that people who haven't done this won't think of. One I can think of has to do with bringing dirty laundry home to wash, then returning it to the ship. In the past people have asked about bringing clothes off the ship in Alaska to mail home, and someone who knows what he is talking about suggested that there could be a Customs problem with that idea. 
Your thought is similar in that you would be bringing personal goods ashore in the US from a 'foreign country' (the ship, which is registered in the Netherlands). Customs doesn't know that you are returning the goods back to the ship.
I don't know if that is a concern or not in your case, but it seems similar enough to me that it could be. I doubt that you will get answers you can count on here. 

 

Hmm, they usually let us lug all kinds of souvenir stuff onboard at each port, so bringing an additional luggage bag would be about the same as bringing a pile of shopping, one would think?  That way we could fly to Seattle with just carry on luggage and only have to pay for checked luggage from Sydney back home.

 

Does Kona even have Customs?  It's not a big port.

 

Guess I should ask Holland about how much stuff - if any - we can take off the ship at each port.  Not that I really want to zip home and do laundry, but it's nine days into a sixty some odd day cruise (we're adding a B2B after the 51 day cruise) so it would seem that laundry is gonna have to be figured out at some point.  It's pretty expensive to have it done on the ship, isn't it?

[jayhawk66]

You might want to consider the possibility that the port stop in Kona could be missed due to weather issues. Laundry isn’t that expensive. Unlimited laundry is available for $7/day per cabin, or $30 for a stuffed laundry bag which holds a lot of clothes.

[RuthC]

5 hours ago, Niele da Kine said:

 

Hmm, they usually let us lug all kinds of souvenir stuff onboard at each port, so bringing an additional luggage bag would be about the same as bringing a pile of shopping, one would think?  That way we could fly to Seattle with just carry on luggage and only have to pay for checked luggage from Sydney back home.

 

Does Kona even have Customs?  It's not a big port.

 

Guess I should ask Holland about how much stuff - if any - we can take off the ship at each port.  Not that I really want to zip home and do laundry, but it's nine days into a sixty some odd day cruise (we're adding a B2B after the 51 day cruise) so it would seem that laundry is gonna have to be figured out at some point.  It's pretty expensive to have it done on the ship, isn't it?

You must have missed where I said it was bringing your clothes into Kona that could be the Customs problem; not back to the ship. It's US Customs who might get involved. 
Are you aware that Kona is a tender port, and even on days when you can get ashore, it can be very difficult to board the tender? Adding in a suitcase to deal with just adds to the danger (although the crew might be helpful.) 

As Jayhawk said, you can get an unlimited laundry package for $7/day times the number of days in the cruise. That means it costs you the same to send laundry every day, with very little in it, as it does to wait until a bag is full. Come in from your day, change for dinner, and send what you want right then. It will likely be back the next afternoon (or sooner). 
But in the US, the bag at a time price is $20, not the $30 posted (unless it went up since cruising started again, but I haven't read that it did.) 

[Essiesmom]

Two thoughts:  

$7/day doesn’t sound like a lot until you multiply it by a 51 day cruise.  But there are those who say if you can afford that much cruise you can afford the laundry.  If you could limit it to two $20 bags a week, it would be less.

   How far into the cruise is the stop in Kona?  Perhaps if you took a collapsible/packable backpack or duffle and wore them off the ship filled with your dirty laundry, it might make it and satisfy needs for a few days.

   So, a question for @RuthC:  do you have to buy the laundry package at the beginning of the cruise, or can you buy it later and only be charged for the remaining days?  EM 

Edited May 16, 2022 by Essiesmom

[Essiesmom]

More thoughts.  The cruise leaves from Seattle, first port of call is Honolulu.  No foreign ports visited.  Another Hawaiian port or two before Kona.  No foreign ports (despite what some Americans may think).  There should not be any customs issues taking stuff ashore, including souvenirs from Seattle (hopefully not made in China…) nor bringing bags back on the tender.  But I would avoid very large bags and maybe soft side luggage, one per person.  Perhaps since you live in/on Kona, you should keep track of how often a ship misses the port, to give you an idea if this is possible/practical.  EM

 

I see Pride of America calls every Wednesday.  Only ship calling until Westerdam, Oct 11.  EM

Edited May 16, 2022 by Essiesmom

[WriterOnDeck]

I've been on a cruise to Hawaii that skipped Kona. A passenger was injured early on the cruise, we backtracked toward California to get close enough to offload her on a helicopter, and they dropped Kona. I would just fly to Seattle with your luggage and sail from there. If you wanted to drop something off at home, I doubt it would be a problem if backpack size and not a suitcase.

 

Check the laundry price and do it by the bag if not by the day. It's amazing how much you can get in the bag if you roll it tightly. Then cruise like crazy till you get 4 star! 🙂

 

BTW, I just signed up for this cruise this morning!

[RuthC]

4 hours ago, Essiesmom said:

 So, a question for @RuthC:  do you have to buy the laundry package at the beginning of the cruise, or can you buy it later and only be charged for the remaining days?

I never tried that, but believe from everything I have read over the years that you have to purchase for the entire cruise. 

3 hours ago, Essiesmom said:

The cruise leaves from Seattle, first port of call is Honolulu.  No foreign ports visited.  Another Hawaiian port or two before Kona.  No foreign ports (despite what some Americans may think).  There should not be any customs issues taking stuff ashore, including souvenirs from Seattle (hopefully not made in China…)

You're forgetting that the ship itself is outside the US, since it is registered to a foreign country. There is plenty of opportunity to purchase declarable goods on all those sea days. 

I'm not saying this is definitely a problem, but am saying that HAL is the place to ask the question, since the question is obscure, and posters are not likely to have experience with the details. 

[RD64]

A few years ago on a cruise to Bermuda (roundtrip from Boston), a couple from Boston were continuing on to Montreal.

 

There intent was to drop off a suitcase of laundry with relatives at the pier in Boston. This would eliminate one checked baggage fee for the flight home. Due to US customs regulations, they were unable to take the suitcase off the ship.

[Niele da Kine]

On 5/16/2022 at 5:28 AM, RuthC said:

You must have missed where I said it was bringing your clothes into Kona that could be the Customs problem; not back to the ship. It's US Customs who might get involved. 
Are you aware that Kona is a tender port, and even on days when you can get ashore, it can be very difficult to board the tender? Adding in a suitcase to deal with just adds to the danger (although the crew might be helpful.) 

As Jayhawk said, you can get an unlimited laundry package for $7/day times the number of days in the cruise. That means it costs you the same to send laundry every day, with very little in it, as it does to wait until a bag is full. Come in from your day, change for dinner, and send what you want right then. It will likely be back the next afternoon (or sooner). 
But in the US, the bag at a time price is $20, not the $30 posted (unless it went up since cruising started again, but I haven't read that it did.) 

 

Hmm, that'd be about $357 worth of laundry for the cruise if we did the $7 per day.  Guess we will just send in the occasional bag of laundry and do some in the cabin as well.  So, I should buy some soap in Seattle before we get on the ship.  Guess I'll get the clothespins then, too.  I should make a list of all the little stuff to get before we get on the ship.  Laundry soap, clothespins, suntan lotion, sunburn creme, etc, the basic little stuff that lives in the medicine cabinet that would be ferociously expensive to buy onboard.  Some of our ports would have shops with that sort of things.  On this itinerary, it looks like some of them won't.

 

Kona is in the lee of the island and it's almost always calm on that side so it shouldn't be a bad tender port at all.  It comes into a dock once it gets into Kona, right where they start the swimming part of the Ironman triathlon.  So, should be easy enough to bring another suitcase.  It would save on a checked bag from Hawaii to Seattle which runs about $50 these days, I think.

 

For the Kona port, once you get off the tender, you're literally right in the middle of town and Kailua-Kona is the tourist town on the island.  Should be a really easy port to just wander around and not have to have an excursion.  Honolulu is the same way, although there the cruise ship is at a dock so it's even easier.

[Niele da Kine]

On 5/16/2022 at 7:37 AM, Essiesmom said:

More thoughts.  The cruise leaves from Seattle, first port of call is Honolulu.  No foreign ports visited.  Another Hawaiian port or two before Kona.  No foreign ports (despite what some Americans may think).  There should not be any customs issues taking stuff ashore, including souvenirs from Seattle (hopefully not made in China…) nor bringing bags back on the tender.  But I would avoid very large bags and maybe soft side luggage, one per person.  Perhaps since you live in/on Kona, you should keep track of how often a ship misses the port, to give you an idea if this is possible/practical.  EM

 

I see Pride of America calls every Wednesday.  Only ship calling until Westerdam, Oct 11.  EM

 

Oh, I hadn't thought about not having gone to any foreign ports, although we will have sailed through international waters.  So maybe we can. 

 

Yeah, you're right about how a lot of folks think Hawaii is a foreign port.  We always try to buy stuff online from the mainland United States just to be told by the seller that they won't ship to a foreign country.  Sigh!

 

We don't actually live in Kona, but over on the other side of the island about an hour away.  Which might make it more of a hassle than not to get any laundry done.  We'd have to have someone come pick us up at the port and then an hour home, then several hours worth of doing laundry, then an hour back to the port.  Hmm, it would work although it would be a lot of driving for our friends.  This will be nine days into the cruise and it would be a lot more fun to see Kona with some other folks on the ship since things are new and interesting when seen with folks who haven't seen it before.  Is it possible to have non-passengers visit the ship?  It would be a lot of fun to be able to let our friends come onto the ship, but somehow I doubt that would be allowed.

 

Pride of America is the ship that does the inter-island cruises so it shows up pretty frequently.  It just circles the state and might pop down to Kiribati or somewhere for a 'foreign' port.  Or maybe they got a dispensation or some other way around the Jones Act, I've not paid attention.

[Niele da Kine]

On 5/16/2022 at 8:42 AM, WriterOnDeck said:

I've been on a cruise to Hawaii that skipped Kona. A passenger was injured early on the cruise, we backtracked toward California to get close enough to offload her on a helicopter, and they dropped Kona. I would just fly to Seattle with your luggage and sail from there. If you wanted to drop something off at home, I doubt it would be a problem if backpack size and not a suitcase.

 

Check the laundry price and do it by the bag if not by the day. It's amazing how much you can get in the bag if you roll it tightly. Then cruise like crazy till you get 4 star! 🙂

 

BTW, I just signed up for this cruise this morning!

Yay on just signing up!  I think it's gonna be a lovely cruise no matter where the laundry gets done.

 

I hadn't thought about missing the port entirely!  Guess we should just pack everything along to Seattle and start at the beginning. 

 

Wonder how little luggage is actually necessary on a two month long voyage?  I keep adding things to my 'to pack' list.  "Snorkel, fins and underwater camera" were yesterday's addition to the list.

[Niele da Kine]

On 5/4/2022 at 8:33 PM, billbunger said:

Why don’t you ask HAL these question? People here can answer and say all they want but only HAL can give you the right answers. 

 

True, but where would the fun be in that?  Also, sometimes by chatting with folks, one finds new and different questions, too!

[Caribbean Chris]

8 hours ago, Niele da Kine said:

 

 Is it possible to have non-passengers visit the ship?  It would be a lot of fun to be able to let our friends come onto the ship, but somehow I doubt that would be allowed.

 

Pride of America is the ship that does the inter-island cruises so it shows up pretty frequently.  It just circles the state and might pop down to Kiribati or somewhere for a 'foreign' port.  Or maybe they got a dispensation or some other way around the Jones Act, I've not paid attention.

It’s usually not possible to bring non-passenger guests aboard. 
 

The keel of Pride of America was laid in a US shipyard and the ship has US registry so flies the American flag, which is why it can legally carry passengers between US ports.

 

As far as bringing snorkel gear, we did that once for a cruise years ago and stopped. Takes up a lot of suitcase room and you can find fins for rent at almost any public beach in the world where the snorkeling is good. Masks are worth bringing for a guaranteed good fit.

 

[chengkp75]

54 minutes ago, Caribbean Chris said:

It’s usually not possible to bring non-passenger guests aboard. 
 

The keel of Pride of America was laid in a US shipyard and the ship has US registry so flies the American flag, which is why it can legally carry passengers between US ports.

Since Covid, non-passenger guests are not allowed, due to covid restrictions.  Prior to that, it was allowed, strictly on a cruise line by cruise line basis, further on a ship to ship, and port to port basis.  If the cruise lines security plan allowed for visitors, and the port in question security plan allowed for visitors, then if you applied in writing, in advance, and provided ID for the visitor, the Captain could allow visitors. 

 

Despite the hull of the POA being nearly completed in the US, it is not considered to be of sufficient US build to qualify for PVSA compliance, so an act of Congress gave it a waiver of the US built clause of the PVSA to allow it to be compliant.  It does not need to go to Fanning Island (Republic of Kiribati) as the other NCL ships that used to do Hawaii did.