Schengen and cruises out of London?

Not exactly sure what the problem is. The UK is not in the Schengen Area, so your days in the UK do not count against your Schengen allowance. The UK has a separate limit.
And on the ship you are not in any country, no limits apply.

The maximum time a non-EU/Schengen Area citizen can stay in the Schengen Area is "90 days in any 180". That means multiple entry and exit allowed, so long a the total does not add up to more than 90 days.
I am guessing your three port calls in Norway are all day trips (not overnight). That is 3 days. You will still have 87 days to travel around the Schengen Area after your cruise.

BTW, it is Southampton, all one word.
And Southampton is not London! You are not cruising out of London!

For context, here is Julie's post about her extended trip to Europe. She's already planning to max out her 90 days before she heads to England, so if the cruise takes her back into the Schengen zone after that, that would indeed be disallowed (I think - I'm not an expert on this by any means).

I think it is a potential problem since the cruise ship collects passports and those passports are process by local immigration authorities prior to departing the ship. I would not risk it.

What happens if the ship either departs the old port after midnight or arrives in the new port before midnight? (Perhaps not possible because of distances--I've never cruised.) Be very, very careful.

Julie -
It appears as if your itinerary has changed from your other post. You originally had the cruise incorporated into your schedule with your days in the UK at the end of your trip. If you've changed things, it would be helpful to post your current plan in order to get better feedback.

Keep in mind that Schengen time is based on a rolling 90 day period. Has your original schedule has been adjusted to move days 62-69 cruising to the end after 14 days England, 5 days Scotland, and 12 days Ireland?

At this point, the cruise we've settled on is of the British Isles with ONE stop in France. Ugh! LOL We will probably exit Schengen at day 88-89 and still not get off the ship in France. It's a long cruise and we'll need some down time, and will have already spent 12 nights in France seeing what we wish to see during this trip. I'm going to give the cruise line a call and see if they can tell us what happens if we do not get off the ship at all.

@TC Thank you. Yes, it is changing.

Being new on the boards, would it be better to add it to my original thread? or post a new thread?

In a nutshell, I'm looking at the possibility of Days 1-88/89 Schengen. One cruise within that time period out of Italy and stops within Schengen.

If we exit France day 88/89 to London, we'd then have 7 days London, then catch a 12 day British Isles cruise which stops at ports in England, Ireland and Scotland and ONE day in France. I need to figure out if we don't get off the ship in France, are we cool?

This option will bring us to excursions in places we already want to go without worrying about our 90 days in Schengen area, breaking up stays during that time due to cruise date constraints and embarking location, and still satisfy my husband's desire for a 2nd cruise.

If you get off the boat, this time will eat into your 90 day Schengen allowance.

You should contact the cruise company direct and ask the question what happens if you don’t get off the boat, but stay onboard whilst in port to your Schengen days. Don’t rely on what posters here think - you don’t want to breach the limit, as the penalties can be severe. Personally, I would question the point of a cruise where you didn’t get off to explore the various ports of call, which to me is the point of a cruise.

@jennifer. This is a 12 day, 9 port cruise. We are considering staying on ship for just one of those 9 ports. We very frequently cruise and do not get off the ship for every port. 9 ports is exhausting...even 8 will be, so we still feel we'll get the full benefit of a beautiful cruise if we miss a port where we've already visited that area on land. Even during our land time we have many "chill" days figured in.

I am going to call however. I hope someone on the phone can give me a definitive answer.

FOLLOW UP: I called Princess cruise line to ask about Schengen rules if we do not get off the ship in France. She could not answer my question at all. Told me that once I booked the cruise, the contract would tell me documents required. I already know that I need a valid passport and about the Schengen visa rules .

We have changed the itinerary that the 2nd cruise will commence AFTER we have completed all of our travel within Schengen Area. We will plan to leave probably day 85 or so to allow for “life”

Technically speaking, this would leave us a few more visa days to use and if we did do the France cruise port, by my understanding we would be fine.

I just would hate to be denied boarding the cruise (starts and ends in U.K. with all but ONE port bring U.K., Ireland and Scotland.

At this point I don’t know how to find out from an authority how passports are handled.

I considered actually visiting the French consulate here in Boston to ask since we have plenty of time.

I mean, the itinerary calls for one day in Schengen territory so one would think only one day would be counted on the cruise. Even if I don’t get off the boat.

Anyone have personal experience as a traveler with how European cruises process passports?

Also, doesn’t the final issue come down to when you are EXITING Schengen ?

Your dilemma about cruise days in port and Schengen perhaps could be answered with authority by someone on Cruise Critic’s website. I would have been surprised and in disbelief if anyone at Princess had ever even heard about Schengen. A clueless lot in my opinion.

EDIT. You could, of course, arrange to leave the ship in Edinburgh or whichever is the last UK port, and get back to London from there.

@norma

True! Lol i wasnt holding out much hope for a definitive answer from the cruiseline! I will see what i can find out on cruise critic.

I am not surprised that you are having trouble getting an answer. That is a very unusual situation. I doubt if the cruise lines see very many people who have used up their Schengen allotment days prior to a cruise. It could be so unusual that a definitive answer may not be available. If this was my situation and applying a little logic along with our experience from seven prior European cruises, I save enough days from the zone to cover any additional days in the zone on the cruises. Some thoughts -----

1. While you might not think it is a big deal to be a day or two over the limit. It is and should not be taken lightly. On this site a father reported that his daughter was fined $500 and miss her return flight home for being one day over. Another reported that they were fined and ban from the zone for seven years for being two weeks late. Some have reported no big deal because they didn't get caught. I got real nervous last fall when an exit immigration officer in France had a difficult time finding my entry stamp from two weeks earlier. He quickly found the entry stamp from early last spring, keep his thumb on that page and, finally, on the third time through the passport found the Sept stamp. He didn't not convey a happy attitude. So I would take the 90 day limit very seriously. I would cut it to 88 days just to have a little pad.

1. On all of our European cruises at one time or another the ships collected all of the passports. Sometimes the passports were kept for the entire cruise and other times for just three or four ports. Have seen the immigration officers in a large conference room going through and stamping each passport. So I know the passports are checked. Second, we have never been asked if we were or were not going ashore. But once you cross the 12 mile limit, you are consider in country so it probably doesn't matter if you go ashore or not. It still counts as a day.

2. Finally, given the length of your trip, I cannot believe that your schedule is so rigid that you cannot adjust a few days to save a couple of day for the cruise. Even if you don't, you might not have any problem. BUT what is the downside risk to you if you do have a problem?

PS. Cruise critic will not provide any better information since they are just a bunch of people with opinions who have been on cruises. You might get lucky with someone who had a similar situation but I doubt it. And depending on when that was, it could have changed. This whole immigration thing is being very charged and political - on both sides of the ocean. I would not take the risk.

My money is on the fact that as soon as the ship enters French territorial waters you are in the Schengen. Deciding not to get off the ship is irrelevant. But what do I know?

@Frank. Thank you for your comments.

At no time have I ever said or implied that I don't think a day or two over the 90 day limit is a big deal. I take it extremely seriously, hence the reason I'm trying to get the information. I'm not trying to figure out how to overstay my visa. :) I'm trying to plan a beautiful trip for my family. As we naturally do want to spend as much time as we can in Europe, all of our allowed days count!

I also stated above that we have adjusted our itinerary to exit the Schengen area to London at about day 85 or so to allow for some extra days. I'm also assuming that whether or not we got off the ship that one day, it counts regardless.

If the cruise is 12 days, I want to make sure that somehow they don't count all 12 days towards my Schengen visa when only ONE day is actually in the Schengen territory.

SO. Say I exit France to London on our day 85. That leaves 5 days.

We travel through London then on to Southhampton to catch our cruise. We embark, going through boarding etc. I'm assuming they will see we have spent 85 days in Europe within the Schengen area. I'm hoping we'll be able to board the cruise.

While it may be a bit unusual, I'm certain there are others in the past that have traveled through Europe before doing this. We can't be the first, nor the last.

I guess what it comes down to is will they count only one day as "Schengen" or do I need to have enough days to cover the whole cruise. Surely there must be some authority out there?

IMO, You are way over processing.

....We embark, going through boarding etc. I'm assuming they will see we have spent 85 days in Europe within the Schengen area. I'm hoping we'll be able to board the cruise.......

It is like checking into a hotel. You send in your passport information a couple of weeks, a month maybe, before departure. At checking-in you just show your passport. No one checks it other than to make sure you have one. It is two minutes -- probably take a picture for your ship ID, and your finished. No one is counting days in the zone. That is an immigration officer's concern.

The Schengen zone does not include ships on the high seas !!

We took a long trip to Europe last year, which included a transatlantic cruise both ways. When we were in Miami at the German consulate (for something else) I asked the woman there how Schengen days were counted on cruises, as I wanted to make absolutely certain my math was correct. (At the time we were also considering a Baltic Seas cruise in the middle of the trip.) She said they'd count if it was a Schengen port. So I counted them, on both ends, figuring them into my total. (No one at either cruise line had a clue.) I did indeed do a search on Cruise Critic, and no one there had a definitive answer, just the same question. They all advised counting them, just to be safe. If you find an actual, definitive answer, please let all know.

@Frank I am the QUEEN of overthinking! LOL I don't want to break rules! LOL

As one port day is in Schengen, I'll be certain to leave about 5 days ( allow for that port day and any other unforeseen circumstances)

I'm going to stop worrying about this and move on to the rest of the planning.

I'm sure there's plenty more obsessing to be had ;) Thank you!!

Hopefully you can relax when you got there but that probably will not happen.

I have always thought that a ‘round trip’ cruise means you fall under the requirements of the country from which you depart.
If you don’t have to clear immigration for your days spent in foreign ports, then you have not officially entered that country - a bit like a transit stop for airline passengers.
I’ll try and check that though.

.... a ‘round trip’ cruise means you fall under the requirements of the country from which you depart. .....

That doesn't make an sense. What do you do with one way cruises? Obviously you have to get into the country to leave on that cruise but beyond that each countries' immigration officers and the cruise ships have very special relationships to expedite the paper work. It is very streamlined to handle the thousands of people that are on cruise ships.