Departing ship "Early"?

[flviking]

We arrive Mumbai at 0900 Tuesday morning.  The ship overnights and the cruise officially ends Wednesday morning. If we carry our luggage is there any restriction on when we can leave the ship and head to the airport?  Our preferred flight departs at 0400. We have been to Mumbai and have no reason to stay another day just to leave the hotel at 0100.  Has anyone been through this type of situation with an overnight at the last port on the itinerary?

[cruisestitch]

This request for an early disembarkation is handled differently in different ports.  It will all depend on permission granted from the local authorities.  You start with contacting Celebrity.  There will be a form to fill out and possibly a fee, usually around $65 per person. 
 

also there is no refund for the missed night on the ship.

[anniegb]

8 hours ago, flviking said:

We arrive Mumbai at 0900 Tuesday morning.  The ship overnights and the cruise officially ends Wednesday morning. If we carry our luggage is there any restriction on when we can leave the ship and head to the airport?  Our preferred flight departs at 0400. We have been to Mumbai and have no reason to stay another day just to leave the hotel at 0100.  Has anyone been through this type of situation with an overnight at the last port on the itinerary?

Yes but it was Hong Kong for similar reasons.

I advised Celebrity via my TA prior to embarkation and my file was noted.

 

It was in 2016 no form and no fee in those days.

 

Annie

[Jim_Iain]

I've done the same in a number of ports including Yokohama, Singapore and Buenos Aires.    I let Celebrity know of my desire pre cruise.   I also followed up with the Retreat Concierge. 

 

The ship will work with local authorities to facilitate.    They will need to know approximate time you wish to leave so they can arrange for a customs agent to be available.

 

Personally I would check early as Indian Customs can be more difficult that some locations. 

[flviking]

Thanks Jim.  I will have my TA contact Celebrity.  I know cruisers are "special cases" for day visits to many countries.  It just seems odd that we are free to leave the ship when we are "expected" to return but there is a different process to "finally" leave the ship from the same dock.  Although it seems odd we will be cautious and hope to get the ok from Celebrity in a timely manner.  We want to use our frequent flyer miles so we want to book as soon as the airline opens for booking that date.  Unfortunately no Retreat for us this cruise. A Sky Suite is the same cost per day as the RS we were in on Reflection last month. Not within our value proposition.  Hope you're enjoying Mexico.

[vslparis]

On 12/10/2022 at 9:34 AM, flviking said:

Thanks Jim.  I will have my TA contact Celebrity.  I know cruisers are "special cases" for day visits to many countries.  It just seems odd that we are free to leave the ship when we are "expected" to return but there is a different process to "finally" leave the ship from the same dock.  Although it seems odd we will be cautious and hope to get the ok from Celebrity in a timely manner.  We want to use our frequent flyer miles so we want to book as soon as the airline opens for booking that date.  Unfortunately no Retreat for us this cruise. A Sky Suite is the same cost per day as the RS we were in on Reflection last month. Not within our value proposition.  Hope you're enjoying Mexico.

Disembarking a ship is very different situation than getting off for the day . For disembarking the cruise line must work with the local customs and immigration authorities to make sure that there is an official present to clear you to disembark as you are essentially being let loose  into the country. There are ports where that is not possible.  This is why the request needs to be done in advance and approved by the cruise line and local authorities. In a large port such as Mumbai where international flights leave at all times of the day, I imagine that this would not be a problem but is certainly something that needs to be approved in advance.  

[Jim_Iain]

Officially when you overnight at the end of the cruise you are intransit (like a stop on the cruise).    When you disembark you are officially entering the company and must comply with Customs and Immigration regulations. 

 

My understanding is that ships security would not let you off the ship with you luggage unless you had arranged for early disembarkation and is fed into their computer.

 

We wanted to leave on the first day in Buenos Aires as we arrived on December 24 and were traveling with friends that we were hosting for Christmas Dinner.   We needed time to shop an get things setup. 

 

Initially I thought we could just get off with our luggage and return to the ship that night.   We learned that we could do it without our luggage but if we had luggage they would disembark us and take our key when we left the ship and could not come back on. 

[flviking]

Thanks for the info.  I emailed our TA to get this arranged or told we can't.  Just one more thing I don't have to understand but must comply with.  I just want a definitive answer so we can arrange our all too scarce frequent flyer tickets.  Being en route for 24 +/- hours we would sure like to find some lie flat seats.  Then the trip home can be a relative pleasure rather than a necessary evil.

Edited December 12, 2022 by flviking
typo

[Jim_Iain]

8 hours ago, flviking said:

Thanks for the info.  I emailed our TA to get this arranged or told we can't.  Just one more thing I don't have to understand but must comply with.  I just want a definitive answer so we can arrange our all too scarce frequent flyer tickets.  Being en route for 24 +/- hours we would sure like to find some lie flat seats.  Then the trip home can be a relative pleasure rather than a necessary evil.

 

That was the main reason we departed in Tokyo a day earlier.   Could get a lay flat seat for 1/2 the points.    It went very smoothly.  

[Lastdance]

I asked Celebrity to do this for my cruise in Europe next May and was told that they do not allow this anymore...will they again?  This surprised me because I wanted to disembark in Naples instead of Civi.

[cruisestitch]

59 minutes ago, Lastdance said:

I asked Celebrity to do this for my cruise in Europe next May and was told that they do not allow this anymore...will they again?  This surprised me because I wanted to disembark in Naples instead of Civi.

It isn’t so much a question of Will celebrity allow it again but will Italy allow it again. The country involved is the deciding factor.

[flviking]

This is the answer I received.  Based on flight schedules from Mumbai to US I'll be interested to see if Celebrity Air follows the same restriction meaning that a hotel night will be required after the cruise.

 

Thank you for contacting Celebrity Cruises. First and foremost, we wish to apologize for our delayed reply. It has been a very challenging time in the travel industry, and during the past several months, we’ve been inundated with phone calls. Regretfully, our email response time has suffered as a result, and we deeply regret that prevented us from being able to respond to you promptly.

We understand you wish to disembark early that the scheduled time. We will no longer allow cruise passengers to pre-plan early debark or late embarkation for any of our ships.

Many countries continue to implement travel restrictions like denying non-citizens from entry, closing their borders and requiring mandatory quarantines with little or no advance notice. In an abundance of caution for the safety and security of our guests, all requests for modified guest movement will be denied.

We appreciate your understanding and patience.