Israel

Our next door neighbor's are about to depart on Celebrity to the Med. The Israel stop has been canceled due to the troubles.

Understandable considering current conditions there. :(

We are leaving next week for embarkation on the Connie in Istanbul...and our itinerary has 3 days in Israel (10/27-10/29)...how soon would Celebrity notify pax on that sailing? I guess I'm asking when did your neighbors get notified? Our itinerary was changed a few weeks ago when they took away our overnight in Istanbul and we are now getting a day at sea for our 2nd day. And there were many on our roll call who were quite upset by that already.

I understand safety comes first...but many (like us) booked this sailing specifically 'cause it gave us a few days in Israel.

So I'm kinda waiting for the 'other shoe to drop' since it doesn't seem like events there will calm down in the next 2 weeks...

Happy sailings...

Israel was cancelled for the Silhouette which would have been there 10/22-24 - leaves tomorrow (Sat 10/17)....seems to be pretty much a day or two before thing....

We are leaving next week for embarkation on the Connie in Istanbul...and our itinerary has 3 days in Israel (10/27-10/29)...how soon would Celebrity notify pax on that sailing? I guess I'm asking when did your neighbors get notified? Our itinerary was changed a few weeks ago when they took away our overnight in Istanbul and we are now getting a day at sea for our 2nd day. And there were many on our roll call who were quite upset by that already.

I understand safety comes first...but many (like us) booked this sailing specifically 'cause it gave us a few days in Israel.

So I'm kinda waiting for the 'other shoe to drop' since it doesn't seem like events there will calm down in the next 2 weeks...

 

Happy sailings...

Unfortunately the cruise line or the capt of a ship can cancel a port call at any time including right before docking. It happened to us a few years ago midcruise about 24 hours before we were to dock in Egypt. At least the ship went to Istanbul, another interesting port instead,

Israel was cancelled for the Silhouette which would have been there 10/22-24 - leaves tomorrow (Sat 10/17)....seems to be pretty much a day or two before thing....

Shame. Could have transferred to Haifa which offers amazing places to tour in the Northern region.

I can understand their concerns cancelling stopping in Ashdod, so that tourists won't go to Jerusalem.

I would be disappointed too & personally I think pretty stupid.

So much to see in Haifa & the North, such as Nazareth, Sea of Galilee etc etc.

I was on the Silhouette 10/3 to 10/17. On 10/16 we were told that the ports in Israel were closed and that the ship would not be visiting Israel on the 10/17 cruise. Not a good time to be in Israel.

Our next door neighbor's are about to depart on Celebrity to the Med. The Israel stop has been canceled due to the troubles.

Celebrity had cancelled the call of the Constellation that was schedule to next week.

I was on the Silhouette 10/3 to 10/17. On 10/16 we were told that the ports in Israel were closed and that the ship would not be visiting Israel on the 10/17 cruise. Not a good time to be in Israel.

the ports weren't closed, celebrity just chose not to stop there.

Several other cruises lines have continued. The Holland America Rotterdam was in Ashdod yesterday. Regent Seven Seas was here last week.

the ports weren't closed, celebrity just chose not to stop there.

Several other cruises lines have continued. The Holland America Rotterdam was in Ashdod yesterday. Regent Seven Seas was here last week.

We cruised on Thomson Spirit last March 2015. Everyone was wondering if our 2 days in Ashdod would be cancelled because of violence in Jerusalem a couple of days before. We discussed safety in the tour briefing and were told that some cruise lines, particularly the big American ones, cancelled their visits more often than British ones because government travel advice differed.

We visited Ashdod. We went to Jerusalem on a private tour and had a brllliant time! The 'violence' turned out to be a couple of youths throwing stones in a park. I'm so glad the stop was not cancelled because of that!

We are cruising on the Thomson Spirit again on 16 March 2016. We are supposed to visit Crete, Turkey and Ashdod. With the current turbulent situation in the Middle East it seems that the visits to Turkish Alanya and Marmaris, and Israel Ashdod could be under threat. As we only have one other port and we live in Cyprus, the cruise could be completely ruined if the ship did not dock at any of these ports.

We cruised on Thomson Spirit last March 2015. Everyone was wondering if our 2 days in Ashdod would be cancelled because of violence in Jerusalem a couple of days before. We discussed safety in the tour briefing and were told that some cruise lines, particularly the big American ones, cancelled their visits more often than British ones because government travel advice differed.

 

We visited Ashdod. We went to Jerusalem on a private tour and had a brllliant time! The 'violence' turned out to be a couple of youths throwing stones in a park. I'm so glad the stop was not cancelled because of that!

 

We are cruising on the Thomson Spirit again on 16 March 2016. We are supposed to visit Crete, Turkey and Ashdod. With the current turbulent situation in the Middle East it seems that the visits to Turkish Alanya and Marmaris, and Israel Ashdod could be under threat. As we only have one other port and we live in Cyprus, the cruise could be completely ruined if the ship did not dock at any of these ports.

i'll keep my fingers crossed for you :)

you're a short flight away, so you could always do a land holiday.

last time i was in cyprus, it was a half hour stop.

there was a slowdown strike in the airport here, so air canada loaded enough fuel to fly from toronto to tel aviv and then continue to cyprus, where they did the full refuel.

It was rather entertaining.

we sat out in the middle of the tarmac (not at the terminal).

a truck and car pulled up.

A guy got out of the car, pulled out a folding chair, opened it and sat next to the plane (i could see him from my window)

he was the supervisor, supervising the guys filling the plane.

meanwhile, i was the only person in first class so i had a most disturbing view.

The pilot came to sit near me, i guess so that he'd have more room.

He had a workboard and a calculator.

What was he doing?

Calculating how much fuel to buy in cyprus.

Enough to get us across the atlantic and to toronto.

I have to say, i found it most disturbing that he was hand calculating how much fuel to buy.

Huh? What if he makes a mistake and we run out halfway through our 10 hour flight? (over the atlantic)

anyway, that was my visit to cyprus. And that was in the middle of the night.

but all my friends have been and love it!!

and one of my friends is on relocation there with his family and he adores it there.