Visas for Middle East

[travelbugBOP]

My partner and I have booked on the Costa Luminosa trip from Dubai to Savona in March 2011. We are New Zealand citizens but have booked the cruise through an agent in the US. We have been advised by the agent to obtain our own visas for ports of call. When looking on web sites it appears that we can obtain all of these at the borders (which will be UAE, Oman, Yemen, Jordan, Egypt and Italy) however on previous cruises have had to hand in our passport for the duration of the trip and the cruiseline seemed to take care of this as a group visa (although have only cruised in the Pacific and Mediterraean). Can someone advise how they got on with this? Thanks.

[Essiesmom]

The cruiseline takes your passport and keeps it to speed up the process of clearance when arriving at the ports. If there is a port/country where you need your passport to go ashore, they will notify you to come and pick it up. the best place to go here on CC is to the Ports of Call area for the MIddle East. Also go to a bookstore or library and check tour books/travel guides. They will have the latest information on visas. And you have a pretty sorry travel agent if he can't tell you what visas you need, even if it is your responsibility to obtain them. EM

[travelbugBOP]

Thanks for the reply. I have looked in the Ports of Call Middle East forum and there are some questions/comments regarding this but mainly from members from the UK and the US. The agent is in the US and obviously doesn't want to get involved with what is required for NZ!!! I've emailed the Consulates today so will see what I find out from them. The only country that seems to require a visa prior to arrival, from what I can make out, is Yemen - and unfortunately there is no consulate in NZ. Will need to use Australia. We have a week staying in Bahrain with friends prior to the cruise so perhaps we could get one there. Will keep investigating.