Mediterranean with Egypt question

[Tina0922]

Hello all,

 

Can any recent travelers to Italy, Greece, Turkey & Egypt please let me know if VISAs are mandatory for us to obtain for our upcoming cruise. I am getting different answers... some RCI reps/travel agents stating no RCI has a "blanket VISA" using its manifest and others saying they had to obtain VISAs to these ports on their own. The website states we need to obtain on our own. PLEASE help so I know if it is on us to obtain & that I have enought time to contact these consolates if VISAs are needed. Thanks for your time & assistance.

 

Tina

[phred119s]

You don't need to obtain in advance. Egyptian officials will stamp passports on the ship.

 

You don't need one in Turkey because you're considered to be in transit.

[dz9yvr]

We were there last year and you do not need to get any visas before your trip. They collected your passports and got the Egyptian visa for you.

[dirtgirl]

I was on the Brilliance last month. They took away our passports at check-in, and we picked them up the day before we were to dock in Egypt. We never made Egypt, but our passports were stamped with their Visa! So obviously, you need to take your passport with you when you go off the ship in Egypt. It was no charge.

If you are not embarking or disembarking in Turkey, you do not need to purchase a Visa.

[Cruiser523]

We just got back from the 12/29 sailing of Brilliance of the Seas (which DID make it to Egypt this time around!) and the process was as described. When you check-in in Barcelona they take your passport which gets stamped with a "quick trip" visa by Egyptian officials and is returned to you before you dock in Alexandria.

[Tina0922]

Perfect....THANKS A MILLION for assisting with that. Much stress relieved now about that. Have a great afternoon.

 

Tina

[Cruiser523]

I will add that when we got off the ship in Alexandria, we were told to have our passports in-hand with the page opened to the Egyptian stamp. There was an Egyptian officer at the gangway checking as we left.

 

Enjoy your trip!

[FreshOffTheBoat]

I was on the Brilliance last month. They took away our passports at check-in, and we picked them up the day before we were to dock in Egypt. We never made Egypt, but our passports were stamped with their Visa! So obviously, you need to take your passport with you when you go off the ship in Egypt. It was no charge.

If you are not embarking or disembarking in Turkey, you do not need to purchase a Visa.

 

Does egypt get missed a lot? and if so why? I would be very upset if my upcoming cruise in November missed egypt.

[Cruiser523]

Does egypt get missed a lot? and if so why? I would be very upset if my upcoming cruise in November missed egypt.

It doesn't get missed a lot, my comment was in reference to an incident that happened 2 cruises before ours on the same ship, where where was an issue while pulling into port in Alexandria that resulted in internal damage to the ship, causing them to skip that port. The problem had to do with high seas, and I can say that on our cruise things were very calm for the vast majority of the trip.

 

Cruise ships do occasionally have to skip ports due to sea conditions or weather, but it's definitely not what I'd call common.

[FreshOffTheBoat]

It doesn't get missed a lot, my comment was in reference to an incident that happened 2 cruises before ours on the same ship, where where was an issue while pulling into port in Alexandria that resulted in internal damage to the ship, causing them to skip that port. The problem had to do with high seas, and I can say that on our cruise things were very calm for the vast majority of the trip.

 

Cruise ships do occasionally have to skip ports due to sea conditions or weather, but it's definitely not what I'd call common.

 

Yeah i can understand that, but I thought it had to do ports where you couldn't dock like coco cay. I guess the seas can get that rough that they can't even make it close to the port.

[Cruiser523]

This was something different. You can read a brief summary in the news section here: http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=4270

 

What happened was that Brilliance OTS rolled quite a bit while coming into the harbor due to high waves. The rolling was so bad that things were thrown around inside the ship and they decided not even to attempt to dock.

 

What you are referring to when is when it's not possible to tender in when anchored offshore. That is necessary only in relatively small ports which aren't large enough to accommodate cruise ships or won't allow ships to dock for other reasons (like in Grand Cayman, in order to preserve the marine life). The port in Alexandria is huge so it's not necessary there, but you still have to be able to get to the dock, which wasn't possible on that sailing.

 

In any case, it's not something that you need to worry about, but it does happen occasionally.