travel agent on STT

I know glynnswife recently did the exact same thing last Xmas. Got on board the cruise on its second day when it stopped in STT. Hopefully she will read the email!

Jules,
I did a quick search on Cheap Caribbean and the Crown Princess has a seven night cruise out of San Juan that the last stop is in St Thomas. http://res.cheapcaribbean.com/travel/cruise/sailplan.rvlx?CruiseItineraryID=76781

Here is the link to princess.
http://www.princess.com/pb/searchResults.do?time=93&trade=C&duration=1&ship=KP&date=1207&orderBy=&filterBy=&resType=C&pageOffset=

I would just contact princess about early departure on the last stop in St Thomas. The worst case would be to book there air round trip to San Juan and book cape air to fly them from San Juan round trip at the end of the cruise if they can't disembark early.
Hope this helps.
Jay

Jules,

I suspect most cruise lines will be unaccommodating and will use antiquated and illogical cabotage laws as an excuse not to meet your needs. The Passenger Services Act of 1886 is the statute covering cabotage as it applies to passengers transported between U.S. ports. This act states, “Foreign vessels found transporting passengers between places or ports in the United States, when such passengers have been taken on board in the United States, shall be liable to a fine of two dollars for every passenger landed.” On February 17, 1898, the Fifty-Fifth Congress amended the penalty from two dollars to two hundred dollars. The law now appears in the United States Code under 46 App. USCA 289 (1996) as: “No foreign vessel shall transport passengers between ports or places in the United States, either directly or by way of a foreign port, under a penalty of $200 for each passenger so transported and landed.” In the past I have offered to pay the two hundred dollar per person penalty but my request was denied. Furthermore, any passengers not on board when the vessel arrives at the final port will rile Homeland Security to the point that all passenger disembarkation will be greatly delayed while the ship is searched, and it is almost certain that future travel by the missing cruisers will be forevermore a tribulation of extreme proportions. Your folks will probably be happier in the long run if they do a round-trip cruise from PR and hop a plane to STT afterwards.

Thanks all.

My parents did book a trip on the Crown Princess. That and the Carnival Destiny had good itineraries with stops in STT.

It's going to be really nice. They'll cruise first and get off the ship at its last stop in STT, staying with me over Christmas.

Yes, the cruise lines do allow you to embark at a point other than the posted port of embarkation and they allow you to get off short of the port of disembarkation. You have to pay for the whole cruise, of course.

Surprisingly, the airfare was actually cheaper doing a multiple-destination ticket rather than a round trip to SJU with a separate one-way hop from STT to SJU.

Glad to hear the cruise lines have finally found reason!

I knew someone who picked up a cruise here a few years back that was going trans-Atlantic to cruise the Med. for the summer. Thought that might be of interest to anyone who might want to do that. It was a really good deal but I can't remember the cost but it struck me as inexpensive & included a flight back from London after stops in a few countries first & a couple of days in London.