Possible To Join Cruise In Progress?

[Marialivia]

:confused: My relatives in England will be cruising from Southampton to Spain to Orlando and then visiting various ports along the US East Coast. I would love to possibly join them en route without going to England. Do cruise lines ever allow new passengers en route -- that is, at a port other than the original? My hope would be to join them at Orlando and cruise to Bar Harbor, Maine. Any suggestions would be very, very much appreciated. Thanks. ML:D

[haggis]

Yes, this can be done. Friends of ours joined a ship by arrangement with Princess at our second port of call. However, pricewise its a bit steep as they had to pay the full fare. This would mean paying the full fare from the UK etc. Also, in your case, I believe the Jones Act would apply which I understand to mean that a foreign registered ship has to call at a foreign port before being allowed to call back into America to disembark passengers.

Another problem, sorry, is booking your cruise. P & O isnt, as far as I am aware, promoted in America. The easiest way would be for your friends to do your booking. I've searched the P & O site but cant find any assistance there as its all UK orientated.

Maybe someone can be of more assistance.

I would post your query on the Princess site. I'm sure this has been done before.

Good luck. Jimmy

[haggis]

Hello again,

If you dont want to spend ages phoning P & O, try this address at Southampton.

reservations@pocruises.com

 

I'm sure they'll set the wheels in motion to assist you.

 

Jimmy

[Globaliser]

My relatives in England will be cruising from Southampton to Spain to Orlando and then visiting various ports along the US East Coast. I would love to possibly join them en route without going to England. Do cruise lines ever allow new passengers en route -- that is, at a port other than the original? My hope would be to join them at Orlando and cruise to Bar Harbor, Maine.

Cruise lines can do this, but I think it's very unlikely for what you want to do. The reason is the "Jones Act" (technically another piece of US legislation commonly referred to, erroneously, as the "Jones Act") which (in general) prohibits the carriage of passengers from one US port to another except by US-flagged ships. The ship that your relatives will be on is not US-flagged, so this will be a problem which I think the cruise line will be unwilling to work around.

 

The other problem is this: Cruise lines sell cruises as units. Each cabin is sold for the entire length of the cruise. If you want to do only part of the cruise, the cruise line would have to keep open a cabin for you for the entire cruise, even though you'd only be on for part of it. So you may get charged the fare for the whole cruise. This might not matter if you were only missing a day or two at one end, but it sounds like you only want to do a small part of the whole cruise. So this could work out very expensive, even if the first problem could be overcome.

[Marialivia]

Thank you so VERY much for responding to my query. You are correct about that Jones Act, so I will have to join them in the US at as many ports as possible.

Since I submitted my question here, my cousins have changed their itinerary, and their first stop will be Philadelphia, then New York. At present, I am planning to meet them in NY and spend the entire time with them, and then I'll meet them again at the two ports in Maine.

Thanks again. I appreciate your responses.

ML