cbb Posted April 6, 2011 #1 Share Posted April 6, 2011 For those of you at home keeping score, O just sent us the official notice that Insignia will not be visiting Alexandria, Cairo and Tartous, Syria in 2 weeks. Those ports are being replaced with Santorini, Aghios Nikolaos, Antalya, and Rhodes and lose a sea day. I hate missing the pyramids but am relieved that I don't have to decide whether to leave ship or stay aboard. Now I'm off to madly research Antalya as we've not been there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orchestrapal Posted April 6, 2011 #2 Share Posted April 6, 2011 For those of you at home keeping score, O just sent us the official notice that Insignia will not be visiting Alexandria, Cairo and Tartous, Syria in 2 weeks. Those ports are being replaced with Santorini, Aghios Nikolaos, Antalya, and Rhodes and lose a sea day. I hate missing the pyramids but am relieved that I don't have to decide whether to leave ship or stay aboard. Now I'm off to madly research Antalya as we've not been there. Antalya is a lovely cliffside Turkish seaport town. It also has an interesting museum some what outside of the town center. Enjoy your time there and be glad your safe.:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonid Posted April 6, 2011 #3 Share Posted April 6, 2011 Smartest move O could have made. No one in their right mind would visit Egypt or Syria these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orchestrapal Posted April 6, 2011 #4 Share Posted April 6, 2011 Smartest move O could have made. No one in their right mind would visit Egypt or Syria these days. Agreed....;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanny18 Posted April 6, 2011 #5 Share Posted April 6, 2011 However........on our cruise on April 20th from Dubai to Athens WE WILL BE stopping at Safaga and Sharm El Sheihk because the State Department said that it is calm in the resort areas and safe for tourists...so we'll have that and not Cairo and Alexandria...Arlene Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaimedia Posted April 7, 2011 #6 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Me too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phlewt Posted April 7, 2011 #7 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Smartest move O could have made. No one in their right mind would visit Egypt or Syria these days. Guess we will agree to disagree. We have travelled with Overseas Adventure Tours many times and are aware that they have already put their Egypt land tours (including a Nile river cruise) back in place. I am not aware of any horrible things happening to those who have been and are currently touring Egypt. I would have no problem visiting Egypt right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redraider1966 Posted April 7, 2011 #8 Share Posted April 7, 2011 As passengers who booked this cruise in March 2010 as the back half of a B2B, we just got word that Port Said and Alexandria have been deleted from Marina's 9/19/2011 voyage from Istanbul to Athens. These calls have been replaced by yet another Greek island, Patmos, and a sea day. Order of the remainder of itinerary has also been juggled. My TA says Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Regent Seven Seas (now Oceania's sister line under PHC), and MSC, inter alia, have canceled calls at Eqyptian med ports for most in not all of 2011. Curiously, Holland America announced on April 5 that it has reinstated original cruise itineraries for all fall 2011 cruises scheduled to call in Egypt (this includes Port Said and Alexandria) and that MS Prinsendam's current 62-day Africa and Mediterranean Grand Voyage will sail the original published ktinerary (includes Port Said and Alexandria):confused:. http://www.hollandamerica.com/news/Main.action?tabName=Travel+Advisories According to HAL, this decision was rooted in "the recently amended recommendations by the U.S. Department of State for improved travel to Egypt . . . ." Given the demographic of HAL's clientele and HAL's generally conservative reputation, we are struck that HAL would be so out in front in restoring Egyptian port calls to its itineraries (even those in September and October) when so many others are moving in the opposite direction. As others have expressed, we remain hopeful that things will improve sufficiently in the intervening months to prompt Oceania to return to the original itinerary for this cruise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted April 7, 2011 #9 Share Posted April 7, 2011 I think if your government posts a warning you may want to take that in consideration http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_1764.html Canadian Government also has high risk for some of those Countries http://www.voyage.gc.ca/countries_pays/updates_mise-a-jour-eng.asp Just remember if you do go & have a problem your travel insurance will not cover you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mura Posted April 7, 2011 #10 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Guess we will agree to disagree. We have travelled with Overseas Adventure Tours many times and are aware that they have already put their Egypt land tours (including a Nile river cruise) back in place. I am not aware of any horrible things happening to those who have been and are currently touring Egypt. I would have no problem visiting Egypt right now. But OAT is dealing with far fewer participants on a tour than Oceania is on one cruise. Which could make a difference in their planning. I personally don't think many horrible things are happening, will happen, or have happened. But it doesn't take many horrible things to drive people away. Personally, I would prefer to avoid Egypt and etc. these days. I'm no longer young enough to run very fast! That being said, I certainly understand being unhappy when you book a cruise for the itinerary and then said itinerary gets changed after final payment has been made (or even worse, within a short time of sailing). We booked the non-Libya cruise in November 2005 just because it was going to Libya, and then literally at the last minute Libya was cancelled. We still had a wonderful cruise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbb Posted April 7, 2011 Author #11 Share Posted April 7, 2011 All of us on this cruise who wanted to go into Syria were required to get a visa--not a blanket visa--so we're out that money as well (or at least Americans were required to.) When you make a deposit on a cruise a year out these things can happen and I'm sure O staff has had lots of extra work lining up new ports and excursions. Next situation I'm watching is Israel and her neighbors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonid Posted April 8, 2011 #12 Share Posted April 8, 2011 I think if your government posts a warning you may want to take that in considerationhttp://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_1764.html Canadian Government also has high risk for some of those Countries http://www.voyage.gc.ca/countries_pays/updates_mise-a-jour-eng.asp Just remember if you do go & have a problem your travel insurance will not cover you Well said!! Only the adventurous would visit those places. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunding Posted April 9, 2011 #13 Share Posted April 9, 2011 For those of you at home keeping score, O just sent us the official notice that Insignia will not be visiting Alexandria, Cairo and Tartous, Syria in 2 weeks. Those ports are being replaced with Santorini, Aghios Nikolaos, Antalya, and Rhodes and lose a sea day. I hate missing the pyramids but am relieved that I don't have to decide whether to leave ship or stay aboard. Now I'm off to madly research Antalya as we've not been there. Four years ago, sailing from Cyprus to Antalya aboard the Insignia, we decided to sign up for a ship's tour of Perge and Aspendos, having no idea what or where they were -- very last-minute, very "what-else-are-we-going-to-do?" Don't miss these two extraordinary sites! They (and, in fact, Turkey, in general) were a revelation to us, and experiencing them was one of the highlights of our cruise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbb Posted April 9, 2011 Author #14 Share Posted April 9, 2011 Yes, thanks! I had already discovered Perge & Aspendos as places I would like to see; we also have found a walking tour of Antalya that we can do ourselves. We also visit Alanya and Aspendos is one of the places that can be visited from there so we have a choice. (I've spent 2 days researching our new ports!) Thanks for your great suggestions! c Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meow! Posted April 9, 2011 #15 Share Posted April 9, 2011 It may be best to avoid that part of the world for the foreseeable future. There are lots of other safer and interesting places to go to! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mke Posted April 9, 2011 #16 Share Posted April 9, 2011 More changes to the itinerary this morning - arrival & departure times have changed again with an overnight in Haifa instead of Ashdod. Put a lot of time into researching all of the ports and now have to make changes with only two weeks to go. Not a happy cruiser! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbb Posted April 9, 2011 Author #17 Share Posted April 9, 2011 I have had the Jerusalem Post tabbed on the computer for 2 days watching what the Israelis and Hamas are doing and wondering how this would affect the cruise...now I know. Now I have to choose between Jerusalem and Masada for our one day in port. We're doing a b2b and leave tomorrow. I wonder if it will change again: score so far--1 day in Cairo=gone, 1day in Alex=gone, 1 day in Syria=gone, 1 of 2 days in Jerusalem=gone. That will teach me to purchase a year out!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbb Posted April 9, 2011 Author #18 Share Posted April 9, 2011 Also just checked the arrival and departure for the ports and just about every single one has changed-- some by 2 hrs. Feelings about cruise....changed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mura Posted April 9, 2011 #19 Share Posted April 9, 2011 Jerusalem and Masada are both marvelous. But you can't possibly do Jerusalem in one day (not that I'm suggesting you would have tried to do so) -- you can do Masada in one day. So factor that into your considerations! There's so much to see in Jerusalem that I would find it awfully hard to choose amongst them. Here's another wrinkle: you can easily go into Bethlehem from Jerusalem if you would be interested in seeing the Church of the Nativity. Just be sure to take your passport with you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbb Posted April 9, 2011 Author #20 Share Posted April 9, 2011 Since the itinerary keeps changing we've decided to do O excursions at Jerusalem & Haifa (any other planning at this point seems impossible). We've decided to do Jerusalem and Bethlehem as Ashdod excursion and Nazareth & Sea of Galilee as one out of Haifa. Perhaps our 2nd day in Haifa we'll take the 1/2 day tour to Acra. I know we're just barely seeing Jerusalem but this might be our only chance for a while. (Israel being bombed as I write and so is Gaza) Trying to stay positive here....it is just vacation...it is just vacation.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mura Posted April 9, 2011 #21 Share Posted April 9, 2011 My one time in Israel was in November 2006 where we were guided by my husband's cousin who is a licensed tour guide. Based on what we did with her, this sounds like a good plan to me -- especially going to Nazareth. In addition to the dicey situation in Jerusalem right now, there is the fact that you really need several days to see even SOME of it. You will get a nice variety of sights with what you are planning. And Bethlehem really is interesting. As a professional singer I've done many a Messiah in my day. I really got a chill when our (Christian) guide in Bethlehem literally said to us, "And there were shepherds in the field" ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
potterhill Posted April 13, 2011 #22 Share Posted April 13, 2011 Regretfully we decided to cancel our November cruise that was supposed to go to Egypt. Egypt was a major factor in choosing this cruise and it was the most expensive per diem we have booked, so we decided to try again in a year or two if/when things settle down. Mo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaimedia Posted April 13, 2011 #23 Share Posted April 13, 2011 More changes to the itinerary this morning - arrival & departure times have changed again with an overnight in Haifa instead of Ashdod. Put a lot of time into researching all of the ports and now have to make changes with only two weeks to go. Not a happy cruiser! And it is half an overnight. Arrive Haifa afternoon too late to do a tour. Also the sabbath many retail and restaurants may be closed. so from three full days in Israel it is basically two. I asked Miami about the change. They said they lost their berth in Ashdod. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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