Splendida in Tunisia today

[Deisemum]

Horrific. I'm due to sail on the Splendida in 2 weeks time and be in Tunis 3 weeks today.

 

May they RIP.

[Skier52]

I'm sorry for the victims :(

 

Safety aside, is Tunis worth such a heavy presence of MSC? They must get very good conditions for a port where so many people don't even dare going ashore. I visited the country years ago for a week and it's capital was not that interesting to me. There are plenty of other nice places in the western Mediterranean sea.

One of the major reasons for including Tunis as a destination is because it is outside the EU,so MSC don't have to levy VAT on services used during the cruise. i.e. drinks (the exception on drinks being when in Spanish waters, THe Spanish made it compulsory for their home waters irrespective of any other rules).

Therefore many Western Med cruises call at N. African ports and the EU special economic zone of Gibraltar purely for TAX reasons

 

 

Pete

Edited March 19, 2015 by Skier52

[Host Jacquelyn]

UPDATE: All Americans and Canadians are onboard and accounted for, but the return of passengers from other nationalities is still ongoing. Entire press release HERE

 

2:45am Local time - ship still in port.

[AllyVit]

Jacquelyn, according to MSC, they will only state that all American and Canadian nationals are safe back on board. That may have been what she meant. I am just sick for those people and that country. Prayers lifted for them, and the crews of the ships that are having to care for the passengers and wait for news...

[AllyVit]

Sorry, missed the second page od posts! Thanks for the link.

[roothy123]

Maybe they should just stop in Gib instead. Sad.

[AllyVit]

Costa left port, with 13 unaccounted for. That's devastating. I wonder if MSC will leave tonight as well. Gosh.

[alexkrn46]

secuirty onboard is very tight, most are Israeli commandos, Costa seems to have a cloud over its head.

[Host Jacquelyn]

secuirty onboard is very tight, most are Israeli commandos.

 

That's good to hear at least. I am sure the fear now is that one (or more) of these maniacs somehow made it onboard. It must be nerve wracking waiting in port.

[maryann2]

This is awful. I visited the Bardo Museum in Oct 2013 while on the MSC Preziosa - ship tour.

I would imagine the ships remain a target while in port.

 

This is so sad.

[sthelder]

Bardo was the highlight of our stop at Tunis back in April 2013. I have been recommending it to my friends ever since (in fact, only suggested it to a new cruise friend before the tragedy yesterday).

 

Prayers for the victim families and the country.

 

Hope the cruise lines will re-consider the safety issue and re-schedule near future sails to other port.

[riclop]

Prayers to the victims and there families.

[Cruise Junky]

9 dead from MSC. So,sad

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=6256

[Jenna1983]

My heart is heavy to learn the news that passengers lost their lives and as well for the people of Tunisia, who do not engage in any of this hate and carnage. If we could live in a world where none of this existed...what a dream. People go on vacation to escape the deluge of awful violence in the world- not live it and become part of the story. I am due to visit Tunisia in October on Divina and would be lying if I said I am not scared now. In my mind, I know MSC will make the right decisions for their passengers, crew and business going forward.

[first_time_30th_birthday_]

I've got my first ever cruise booked for November with MSC, as a special treat for my 30th birthday, calling at Tunisia. Now my husband wants to cancel the cruise as he doesn't want to even dock anywhere near the country, even if we don't get off the ship. Do you think all cruise companies will now avoid docking at Tunisia? I don't want them to say that by November it should be fine, as there is no way I will ever visit a country where there is the chance this kind of thing will happen to tourists. Really not looking forward to my cruise now :( Of course I am devasted for those involved, and my heart goes out to them all.

[babs135]

secuirty onboard is very tight, most are Israeli commandos,

 

Just curious, how do you know they are Israeli commandos and do you know when and how they boarded? Would they have been allowed into Tunisia?

[Miller3000]

I've got my first ever cruise booked for November with MSC, as a special treat for my 30th birthday, calling at Tunisia. Now my husband wants to cancel the cruise as he doesn't want to even dock anywhere near the country, even if we don't get off the ship. Do you think all cruise companies will now avoid docking at Tunisia? I don't want them to say that by November it should be fine, as there is no way I will ever visit a country where there is the chance this kind of thing will happen to tourists. Really not looking forward to my cruise now :( Of course I am devasted for those involved, and my heart goes out to them all.

 

I believe that all companies will avoid docking in Tunisia from now on. Even if they do, you would be safe on board of the ship. So don't stop looking foward to your cruise!

 

My parents were in Tunis with the Splendida yesterday. Luckily they made another excursion but it were some tough hours until they called me that everything was fine. They came back from their excursion at 1pm local time. The ship should leave the harbor at 4pm, there they said that there was an announcement that not all busses were back and they had to postpone the departure. When my parents went back to their cabin, they saw that some busses came back to the ship accompanied by police cars and one ambulance. They still didn't know what was going on. They realised what has happend not until they switched on the TV in their cabin. Then they saw that we tried to call them several times and called me back.

 

Two persons of the group they are travelling with made the excursion to the museum that was attacked yesterday. Seems that those two guys had a lot of luck and left the museum early enough before the attacks.

 

Life on board goes on but there was of course no show yesterday. 15 min before 1 am there was an annoucement, that MSC will do all what is possible for those who were left back. I am not sure if the passengers on board know that 9 passengers are dead and 12 injured. Sounded like they were not informed by MSC what is the best in my eyes. I didn't tell my parents but I think other guests will get information from home and soon the whole ship will know it. On 6 am the ship departed.

[davidcraig2003]

I've got my first ever cruise booked for November with MSC, as a special treat for my 30th birthday, calling at Tunisia. Now my husband wants to cancel the cruise as he doesn't want to even dock anywhere near the country, even if we don't get off the ship. Do you think all cruise companies will now avoid docking at Tunisia? I don't want them to say that by November it should be fine, as there is no way I will ever visit a country where there is the chance this kind of thing will happen to tourists. Really not looking forward to my cruise now :( Of course I am devasted for those involved, and my heart goes out to them all.

 

I get your apprehension but to be honest, this could happen in any city. New York, Madrid, London, Paris, Oslo.......

 

I would stand by MSC's decision. They will have much more intelligence of the current situation at that point in time than any of us will have. You always have the option to stay onboard and enjoy a relatively quiet pool deck.

[Miller3000]

Just curious, how do you know they are Israeli commandos and do you know when and how they boarded? Would they have been allowed into Tunisia?

 

Securities on MSC ships are usually from Israel. Don't know why. There are rumors that they had their education at Mossad. But I don't know if that's true.

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

I get your apprehension but to be honest, this could happen in any city. New York, Madrid, London, Paris, Oslo.......

 

 

I basically agree with you there ... but keep in mind, that Tunisia is the number one country when it comes to sheer numbers of accounted for warriors who joined the fighting for those Extremist Islamic state people.

 

If and only if this horrific attack was them... then you might have a hotspot here in the upcoming years.

 

Usually these people are no good at communication on eye-level, have below average education and act out their frustration of a low self-esteem in violent acts of terrorism. Nothing to do with religion at all anyway. Just an excuse to feel powerful and important for once in their lives. Pitiful. But it is a fact that ca. 3000 Tunisian residents have joined the fights in and around Syria and Irak...more than any other foreign country. Now imagine those people who survive coming home and seeing a starting up democracy ... where you have to communicate, have wits and patience and a good amount of tolerance ... they will feel very angry and jealous and I bet we'll see more violence... not only in Tunisia, but in every somewhat functioning country into which these traumatised and not witty to begin with people return to.

 

Stef

[davidcraig2003]

I basically agree with you there ... but keep in mind, that Tunisia is the number one country when it comes to sheer numbers of accounted for warriors who joined the fighting for those Extremist Islamic state people.

 

If and only if this horrific attack was them... then you might have a hotspot here in the upcoming years.

 

Usually these people are no good at communication on eye-level, have below average education and act out their frustration of a low self-esteem in violent acts of terrorism. Nothing to do with religion at all anyway. Just an excuse to feel powerful and important for once in their lives. Pitiful. But it is a fact that ca. 3000 Tunisian residents have joined the fights in and around Syria and Irak...more than any other foreign country. Now imagine those people who survive coming home and seeing a starting up democracy ... where you have to communicate, have wits and patience and a good amount of tolerance ... they will feel very angry and jealous and I bet we'll see more violence... not only in Tunisia, but in every somewhat functioning country into which these traumatised and not witty to begin with people return to.

 

Stef

 

Completely agree.

 

I would hope that all cruise lines are making large investments in security intelligence which will allow them to make informed decisions on the security/stability situation in each port. Not just on a grand scale, but on a day-to-day/port-by-port basis.

 

(Stef: greetings from Greenock!)

[ducklite]

Costa left port, with 13 unaccounted for. That's devastating. I wonder if MSC will leave tonight as well. Gosh.

 

Not unaccounted for. Just not on board. They could have been family members of the injured or deceased, or people who for whatever reason decided not to continue the journey. Costa has never stated that they weren't aware of the whereabouts of those passengers or that they were missing, simply that the ship is continuing it's journey without them.

 

It was a wise move to get out of that port where the ship was a sitting duck. It allows the Tunisians to free up the security forces deployed to protect the ship in order to use them for other needs. Holding the ship in port indefinitely would serve no purpose.

[anniegb]

I believe that all companies will avoid docking in Tunisia from now on. Even if they do, you would be safe on board of the ship. So don't stop looking foward to your cruise!

 

My parents were in Tunis with the Splendida yesterday. Luckily they made another excursion but it were some tough hours until they called me that everything was fine. They came back from their excursion at 1pm local time. The ship should leave the harbor at 4pm, there they said that there was an announcement that not all busses were back and they had to postpone the departure. When my parents went back to their cabin, they saw that some busses came back to the ship accompanied by police cars and one ambulance. They still didn't know what was going on. They realised what has happend not until they switched on the TV in their cabin. Then they saw that we tried to call them several times and called me back.

 

Two persons of the group they are travelling with made the excursion to the museum that was attacked yesterday. Seems that those two guys had a lot of luck and left the museum early enough before the attacks.

 

Life on board goes on but there was of course no show yesterday. 15 min before 1 am there was an annoucement, that MSC will do all what is possible for those who were left back. I am not sure if the passengers on board know that 9 passengers are dead and 12 injured. Sounded like they were not informed by MSC what is the best in my eyes. I didn't tell my parents but I think other guests will get information from home and soon the whole ship will know it. On 6 am the ship departed.

 

Thank you for posting. Your English is much better than my German.

 

Best wishes to you and your family.

 

Annie

[sidari]

A very sad day for the whole cruise industry, the ship may have been held in port while it was searched or possibly because of the numbers of missing people being unaccounted for.

 

Seatrade insider reports 9 have died from the MSC cruise, 12 injured and 6 still not accounted for.

 

Costa say that 13 people are not accounted for.

 

http://www.seatrade-insider.com/news/news-headlines/nine-msc-passengers-reported-killed-in-tunis-terror-attack.html

[ducklite]

I get your apprehension but to be honest, this could happen in any city. New York, Madrid, London, Paris, Oslo.......

 

I was in Paris last week. I'll be honest, there was a vibe going on in Paris that made me feel somewhat uncomfortable, particularly around Notre Dame and Gare Du Nord. They have closed all but the main entrance to Pere Lachaise and are searching vehicles and stopping people with anything larger than a medium sized messenger bag or backpack for search.

 

There is an elevated para-military police presence in London with many police armed with automatic weapons. There are two officers stationed outside the French Embassy with machine guns from around 6:00 am until 6:00 pm daily, and a heightened presence in many other areas.