Boarding late into a cruise

[peder]

Anyone have experience doing initial boarding after a few days into a cruise? We have a tight travel window that we're trying to make work, and the cruise is sold out at the port we'd like to embark at. Has anyone booked from an earlier, different port then boarded later?

[Preziosa]

If it is a Cruise in Europe MSC Pick up new passengers  nearly in every port

[Ottawa_Cruiser]

It would depend where you are cruising from. If it leaves from the US and you want to get on at a US port, that will violate The Passenger Vessel Services Act.

[peder]

Looking at the Bellissima in Japan, trying to finagle what would effectively become a back-to-back but can't make the dates work exactly.

[Morgsmom]

If you miss embarkation the balance of the first cruise would most likely be cancelled. 

[peder]

3 minutes ago, Morgsmom said:

If you miss embarkation the balance of the first cruise would most likely be cancelled. 

 

I wasn't sure if anyone's been able to arrange anything with MSC beforehand so that the cruise doesn't start until a later date

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

As mentioned above, their European cruises embark at nearly every port along the route. But you have to book it that way; you can't just show up at an earlier or later port. I remember last year, on NCL, I had booked a cruise out of Los Angeles and inquired if we could just not get on there but show up at a later port which was Puerto Vallarta. Absolutely not was the response. So none of us know about Japanese ports. If they're selling the cruise from the earlier port, then you can book it from the earlier port and get on there. If it's not for sale from that port, they're not going to let you book it from a later port but show up early.

[1kaper]

5 hours ago, Ottawa_Cruiser said:

It would depend where you are cruising from. If it leaves from the US and you want to get on at a US port, that will violate The Passenger Vessel Services Act.

 

I spoke someone in my last cruise that had missed the embarkation in the US and met the ship at the first port. 
while it was possible it was a HUGE hassle because they entered via plane and were leaving via ship.  They had to go into the town that wasn’t as close to the port, go to the immigration office there and then back to port. She couldn’t do whatever she had to do at the port. 
She said if she had known how much of a hassle it was she would have just skipped the cruise. 

[CruisingFox27]

We were booked on a cruise from Dubai but due to severe weather our flight was cancelled. We flew 2 days later and embarked in Abu Dhabi. I called MSC and obviously was able to provide proof of the situation and it wasn't an issue. 

 

So if there are extenuating circumstances, it's possible. 

[RD64]

Every country will have its own cabotage rules. May work in Europe or the Middle East but Japan may / may not allow it.