Karen2

My husband and I have done this a number of times and, believe me, none of it has anything to do with your being Canadian, in your case. We sailed from London to NYC, getting off for good in St John's, Newfoundland. No problems BUT the cruise company definitely wants to know in advance. You pay as if you were going to the normal port to depart. More recently, we sailed on P&O, a British line which, again wanted to know in advance BUT actually insisted on returning our pre-paid tips for the one day early we took off. We tried to get them to leave the tip but they could not figure out how to do that! My son-in-law left a Caribbean cruise at the half mark, no issues but definitely no refund even then of the days missed. Don't expect it. Notify your travel agent, if you have one, who will take care of all this for you BUT will agree with all of us that the cruise ship company wants to know well before you board. I can't imagine their insisting you leave in Halifax if you change your mind. In case of early departure, you do carry your own luggage off whenever you want to depart. I wouldn't make an issue by trying to disembark before they open up the ship for excursions as many times they are showing passports to on board port authorities. IF they keep your passport. Cruise ship companies differ on that one. The best thing is to verify your early departure early in your cruise. Then, check in again the night before you leave so they can get your docs ready. It is only courteous. It is a favor to you and requires extra staff time. That is important to remember when dealing with the company.

Travel & Leisure

Calling for an opinion is fine, but email is way better! Get all agreements in writing. I was once told I could not board until 2 p.m. when embarking a port late (after clearing it all pre-cruise), only to be left standing dockside by a ship that left 20 minutes earlier. The port agent was shocked, the local travel agents were shocked, my travel agent was shocked, and I was pissed. I had to pay for a 'local' flight from Madeira to Canary Islands and the associated excess baggage fees (350 euros), spend another night on Madeira waiting for the flight, pay meals, and taxis, all with questionable hope of getting it back. However, it was all in writing, and my U.S. based agent had even sent me some of the details, so even he had it. I never expected to get it reimbursed, but I got all of it. It was all because of an impatient captain on a three star ship.
My husband stepped off a world cruise for a month in 2009 with no problem, and on our first cruise ever, we got off a port early in England. Everyone just has to be on the same page, literally, and don't expect to get any money back or discounts.

pretzlaff

We have gotten off early on both Royal Carribean and Celebrity. There is an official way to request it prior to sailing. Some ports are more trouble than others based upon the type of immigration procedure that they do for the pax. Sometimes there is a small fee.

In some countries there has been no immigration processes, others, it is cruise ship passenger simplified, other times it is on board before port, others times it is the full, real thing. Sometimes there is no stamp in our passport. I suspect since this is Canada and a real port that there will be real immigration people there to stamp you in.

so, I would come down someplace between letting them know before the cruise and letting them know two days before port. If you try simply to walk off, you will probably not be in possession of your passport. They have kept our passports for the entire cruise for at least our last 6 cruises. We just got home yesterday from a Celebrity cruise to Thailand and Vietnam. At all 5 stops we only had copies of our passports when we went ashore. Got our passports back the last night.

The cruiseline can't put themselves in a position where some abbreviated immigration process has occurred but you just keep going.

Not only do crew get off all the time, but the entertainers are always being swapped out.

GeezerCouple

About the "Not only do crew get off all the time, but the entertainers are always being swapped out."

Unless there was a emergency, these are ports that would typically have been arranged in advance, with regard both to immigrations issues and also reasonable access to travel facilities home (to a possibly very distant location).

GC

Frizzy

I haven't been on any international cruises, but I do know that before you disembark with your luggage, they want to check you have paid all your bills. So regardless of immigration formalities or having your passport or other things, you do need to arrange in advance that you are leaving, otherwise security will be there to stop you.

Badenoch

The cruise ship will not deny a request for a passport. I don't enter a foreign country without my passport and they will quickly provide it if you ask.

747FC

You are missing the point, which is not surprising given your tone throughout this thread. Every reader contemplating departing a ship at a non-scheduled debarkation point must contemplate that they can't just immediately leave whenever they want and expect the passport to magically appear for them: They must make prior arrangements for acquiring their passport through the ship's guest services department.

bicker

And indeed, lack of immigration staff is a reason why sometimes ports-of-call are cancelled. The expectation that government authorities are always on-duty for any service they may need to perform is unreasonable.

theddo

Why do people keep responding to this thread? Badenoch has decided to be a dick about the whole situation, and that will presumably work out for him because the cruise will aid him. He has been utterly unwilling to listen to a single advice given.

bicker

I agree that pandering to the OP's exploitative inclinations is counter-productive, but making that clear to other (casual) readers of the thread has some value.

Romelle

Selfish request here:

If OP goes through whatever the particular cruise line proper procedures are, that will be one less name on the loud announcement list I have to hear " Will A___, Badenoch, C____, etc. please report to the Service Desk". And that list is read quite a few times before departing a port. It does get a bit shorter as some of the people comply, but walk-off-no-returns will get called over and over again until that big horn sounds.

Please.

txirish

Definitely let the staff know you are getting off permanently even if you haven't pre-arranged it. I was on a ship where a few thousand passengers were held up 90 minutes because one passenger couldn't be located. By the time people heard her name announced for the 50th time, they were ready to form search parties, find her, and throw her overboard. (Apparently she turned up asleep somewhere other than her cabin.)

Badenoch

LOL. You haven't posted in this thread until now which confirms you have nothing to offer other than to hector other posters for responding and to insult me.

Much of the information in this thread was either not accurate or wildly overstated and eventually disproved by my own inquiries to the CBSA and cruise lines. The advice that is worth taking is the inadvisability of just walking off and the benefits of advance notice which is now my intention.

Cruise ships are more than prepared to accommodate early departures and in my specific situation there is no problem with customs and immigration. It isn't quite the high drama that some posters would have you believe.

theddo

The only suggestion you have received, that you have so far been utterly reluctant and rude about, is to call ahead and it will not be any problem what so ever but the cruise line would presumably want some warning so the can prepare everything before you leave.

That is a reasonable suggestion to most normal human beings. Consider why you don't find it that way.

Often1

Hopefully OP when he says "cruise lines" means the cruise line and CBSA means CBSA for Halifax at the date and time of his cruise.

The rest was just being difficult.

Not only is that foolish, but it can have all manner of consequences, not the least of which is assuring that the ship's paperwork does not manifest him on entry to the US. A no show there may yield all manner of problems for him in future should he ever wish to travel south again.