How to miss the ship and meet it at next port with permission

[ABmom]

My husband and I are hoping to get off at Vigo Spain, rent a car, see the countryside, spend the night in Porto and make our way to the Lisbon to meet up with the ship. I want to inform them instead of just "missing" the ship since that is unfair on crew and passengers if they are waiting/looking for us. How do we get permission to do this? I emailed RCI and got an email back that I am not allowed.

"We do not allow guests to disembark early and re-board the ship. We cannot assist in approving your request to do so."

I doubt this is true since I have read of other people getting permission to miss the ship and get on at a later port and I also have gotten wrong information from RCI them in the past. Should I wait and email later hoping to get a different response or is there someone specific to talk to for an odd request like this?,

Thanks in advance for any ideas or tips that you can think of,

Sarah 

[SpeedNoodles]

You could try messaging them directly on any of the social media platforms.  They tend to answer much quicker than email. However I thought that I heard that they no longer allow this practice.

[Jill]

This is no longer allowed post Covid. I’m not sure of the exact reason but it’s a new policy since the re-start 

[Matt]

More info on not allowing downlining anymore https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2021/12/15/royal-caribbean-will-no-longer-let-passengers-get-or-the-cruise-ship-different-port-of

[Pattycruise]

Had people want to do that in Maine, and it was a good thing she asked, it would have been $800 per person, essentially a fine.  It had to do with the jones Act and PSva.  Not sure what stands in the way in Europe.

[FionaMG]

I thought that rule applied to actually disembarking (never to return) at a port prior to the final disembarkation port, which would potentially involve the need for customs and immigration, hence the additional charge to do so in the past.

But what happens if someone misses the ship? Are they not allowed to catch up with it under their own steam and reboard anymore?

In the OP's case, they're planning on driving from one Schengen Zone country to another so there would be no involvement of authorities. Fir the sake of argument,  what if they called the port agent in Vigo and said they'd got themselves lost and no way were they going to make it back in time for sailaway (thus avoiding the scenario of inconveniencing the entire ship potentially waiting for them)? Would they be denied boarding if they turned up at Lisbon having not reboarded in Vigo?

Of course, it's a huge risk anyway because if for any reason the ship didn’t make its scheduled call in Lisbon then they would be stuck playing catch up at the next port after that. 

[CruiseGus]

4 hours ago, FionaMG said:

I thought that rule applied to actually disembarking (never to return) at a port prior to the final disembarkation port, which would potentially involve the need for customs and immigration, hence the additional charge to do so in the past.

But what happens if someone misses the ship? Are they not allowed to catch up with it under their own steam and reboard anymore?

In the OP's case, they're planning on driving from one Schengen Zone country to another so there would be no involvement of authorities. Fir the sake of argument,  what if they called the port agent in Vigo and said they'd got themselves lost and no way were they going to make it back in time for sailaway (thus avoiding the scenario of inconveniencing the entire ship potentially waiting for them)? Would they be denied boarding if they turned up at Lisbon having not reboarded in Vigo?

Of course, it's a huge risk anyway because if for any reason the ship didn’t make its scheduled call in Lisbon then they would be stuck playing catch up at the next port after that. 

Still NOT allowed since the Covid Re-start.

[ABmom]

Thank you everyone, our cruise is still a year away so fingers crossed it will be allowed before we go.