Egypt and Tunisia cancelled

[Aruba]

Just received an email this morning from O saying that the stops in Tunisia, Alexandria, and Port Said have been cancelled from our Riviera itinerary in July 2012. They've been replaced with Ibiza Spain and Antalya and Alanya, both in Turkey -- I'm not familiar with either.

 

I was hoping that, because the cruise is still so far away, things would get better enough for Riviera to maintain its original schedule but no such luck.

[Mura]

Just received an email this morning from O saying that the stops in Tunisia, Alexandria, and Port Said have been cancelled from our Riviera itinerary in July 2012. They've been replaced with Ibiza Spain and Antalya and Alanya, both in Turkey -- I'm not familiar with either.

 

 

Interesting ... largely because we're do to have ports of call at Alexandria and Cairo in April 2012 on Riviera. And we haven't heard anything about cancelling ... at least not YET.

 

Ibiza is one of the Balearic Islands off Spain (Majorca and Minorca are larger). I haven't been to Ibiza but I've been to Majorca and Minorca and enjoyed both of them VERY much.

 

Likewise, I don't think you'll be disappointed in the Turkish spots. Haven't been there but I've heard great things about Antalya.

 

____________

 

 

SURPRISE! I just checked the webpage and Alexandria and Cairo have been replaced with Santorini and Marmaris (Turkey).

[Aruba]

Interesting ... largely because we're do to have ports of call at Alexandria and Cairo in April 2012 on Riviera. And we haven't heard anything about cancelling ... at least not YET.

I imagine it's only a matter of time before you hear, since we heard this morning and our cruise is 3 months after your's.

We booked through O directly so maybe if you booked through an agent the message will come through them.

[Mura]

As I just added to my first comment, checking the webpage showed that we've had a change as well.

[Paulchili]

We are on the Nautica Nov 2012 - scheduled to visit Port Said, Sharm El-Sheikh and Luxor (O/N).

Since that is a repositioning cruise, it will be interesting to see what happens to our Egyptian ports.

[RetiredFL]

We are on the November 2012 also. Cancelled the November 2011 cruise with the almost same itinerary with the hopes things will settle down.

Guess we will have to make a decision 90 days before the cruise.

[Senior Citizen]

We are on the Nautica Nov 2012 - scheduled to visit Port Said, Sharm El-Sheikh and Luxor (O/N).

Since that is a repositioning cruise, it will be interesting to see what happens to our Egyptian ports.

 

We just came back earlier this month from a 20 day cruise of the Middle East/Holy Land on Nautica. We stopped at Sharm El-Sheikh and took the ship's tour to St. Catherine's Monastery. We did overnight in Safaga and stayed at the Sheraton Luxor on a private tour. We had a wonderful time in Egypt and got some great pictures without lots of people in them. The tourists are mostly from Europe these days because Americans are afraid/unable/unwilling to travel there. Our guide was very, very grateful that we were there because the tourism infrastructure depends on us tourists!! We never felt afraid or threatened. People were just going about their everyday lives. Six people flew, on their own, to Cairo and toured there then met up with our ship in Sharm El-Sheikh. They really enjoyed their tour as well.

 

We were supposed to stop at Port Said and Alexandria. Instead, an extra day was added on to our port stop in Ashdod, Israel and we stopped at Kusadasi, Turkey and toured Ephesus.

 

All in all, we had a terrific cruise with such interesting ports of call.

[Mura]

We just came back earlier this month from a 20 day cruise of the Middle East/Holy Land on Nautica. We stopped at Sharm El-Sheikh and took the ship's tour to St. Catherine's Monastery. SNIP

 

 

I'm curious as to what you thought of St. Catherine's. We were there in November 2006 (on a private trip, not a ship's tour) and the monks were distinctly unfriendly to the tourists. They wanted our money but NOT our company.

 

I'm wondering if it's still the same, now that Egypt really is missing the tourists. Or maybe we were just lucky that day!

 

Mura

[dino2067]

We are on the Nautica Nov 2012 - scheduled to visit Port Said, Sharm El-Sheikh and Luxor (O/N).

Since that is a repositioning cruise, it will be interesting to see what happens to our Egyptian ports.

 

Paul,

 

Based upon the notification which Aruba mentioned (looks like we're on the same itinerary), the one port that you mention above that has the greatest possibility of changing is Port Said...the emphasis of the notice we received being upon "northern" Egypt:

 

"The safety of our guests, crew and ships is always our number one priority and as the political situation in northern Egypt and Tunisia remains in flux, we have decided the prudent course of action is to bypass Cairo, Alexandria and La Goulette."

 

If visiting Cairo is of interest to you on this trip, it is still easily doable flying out of Sharm El-Sheikh which has a very nice, modern airport (the airfare is quite reasonable, too). It will just depend upon the time you have available to do so.

 

Kathleen

[Paulchili]

Kathleen,

I thought we had the same TA :) - I've heard nothing so far.

It would be great cruising with you and Paul again - let's hope so.

Or are you on the cruise with Aruba?

[dino2067]

Kathleen,

I thought we had the same TA :) - I've heard nothing so far.

It would be great cruising we you and Paul again - let's hope so.

 

We do have the same hardworking TA, but the notice was on a different itinerary...John and I are on the July 19th Riviera itinerary (with Aruba). I'm sure you will get some sort of notice soon about any anticipated changes for Istanbul-Dubai.

 

BTW, I do love the itinerary you're on...and if we could get the extra time off work (we're already slated to take a month off for the B-2-B) we'd be there with bells on (and pencils in hand for Trivia)!

 

Kathleen

[Paulchili]

We do have the same hardworking TA, but the notice was on a different itinerary..

 

BTW, I do love the itinerary you're on...and if we could get the extra time off work (We're already slated to take a month off for the B-2-B) we'd be there with bells on (

)"]and pencils in hand for Trivia[/color][/color])!

 

Kathleen

 

 

At least you would not get bruised on the Nautica :D

Yes, our TA is very hard working (and wonderful)! Thank you.

[Senior Citizen]

I'm curious as to what you thought of St. Catherine's. We were there in November 2006 (on a private trip, not a ship's tour) and the monks were distinctly unfriendly to the tourists. They wanted our money but NOT our company.

 

I'm wondering if it's still the same, now that Egypt really is missing the tourists. Or maybe we were just lucky that day!

 

Mura

 

Well, I didn't encounter all the monks but I can tell you about two: one was at the front of the monastery and someone asked him a question which he tore to pieces---I thought he was very condescending and demeaning for a monk and I felt sorry for the person who asked the question. The other monk worked as a cashier in the gift shop and was very warm and friendly---he was from Texas!

[tanny18]

Paul,

 

Based If visiting Cairo is of interest to you on this trip, it is still easily doable flying out of Sharm El-Sheikh which has a very nice, modern airport (the airfare is quite reasonable, too). It will just depend upon the time you have available to do so.

 

Kathleen

 

We were on the same cruise with Frances (Senior Citizen) and we toured together...Luxor was incredible and very safe!!! We had 6 people on our cruise who did fly from Safaga to Cairo, stayed overnight and then returned to Sharm el Sheikh. They too had no problems and felt safe altho they were only 6. As for our cruise not going to Port Said and Alexandria (Alexandria was an added stop when one day in Jerusalem was taken away, but then added so the only change was Port Said), it kept us, the crew and the ship out of harm's way. Much better to be safe than run into a problem. And if anyone needs tour guides in Luxor, Israel, Petra or Oman, just let me know -- we had wonderful guides throughout out wonderful holiday. Arlene

[Mura]

Well, I didn't encounter all the monks but I can tell you about two: one was at the front of the monastery and someone asked him a question which he tore to pieces---I thought he was very condescending and demeaning for a monk and I felt sorry for the person who asked the question. The other monk worked as a cashier in the gift shop and was very warm and friendly---he was from Texas!

 

I guess we should have gone into the gift shop! We didn't have any personal interactions with any of the monks, it was just my observation that they were more than stand-offish.

[orchestrapal]

I guess we should have gone into the gift shop! We didn't have any personal interactions with any of the monks, it was just my observation that they were more than stand-offish.

 

Monk's education does not include the social graces. Their lifestyle probably makes it very hard to interact with the public. In Italy when visiting several monasteries, known for their music, lay town's people attended to the needs of visitors.

[Mura]

Speaking only for myself -- certainly not the average tourist -- I don't need to have my "needs" assisted. I don't need an effusive greeting. If I ask a question, I'd like at least a civil answer. I can even accept with equanimity being ignored.

 

But the body language I noticed was outright hostility. And I can understand the monks not really liking to have all these strangers around. We live in a historic neighborhood in NYC and we get a lot of tourists here. It can be very aggravating, especially with large groups. But when people ask me a question I do my best to help them out with a smile. I don't want anyone to say, "You see, what they say about New Yorkers is true."

 

So, back to my point of beginning ... I was just wondering if what we noticed was an isolated incident or a pattern. There could have been some problem that we tourists were totally unaware of, in which case we WERE a bother.