Koningsdam in Albania - Premier Cruise

[Dasbeak]

Anyone know why Koningsdam is doing a 4 hour stop in Albania on the premier cruise? Maybe a new ship celebration?

[1ANGELCAT]

Also on this sailing with you. I mentioned it to my TA when I picked up documents for my Westy cruise in 2 weeks.

 

She had not received anything from HAL other than the email about port time changes.

 

It would be nice if it is a celebration for the premier sailing.

[unclerich]

Possibly to pick up passengers who have taken this shore excursion (rather than hydrofoil return to Corfu):

 

Albanian Adventure

 

 

Approximately 7 Hours

 

Leave the port of Corfu on a hydrofoil headed for Albania and the port of Saranda.

Switch to a motor coach and travel to the ancient town of Butrint. Ancient Butrint was an important Greco-Roman port city, and is now an impressive UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was inhabited continuously from the 7th century BC until it was abandoned in the 18th century AD. Its walls are reminiscent of ancient Mycenae in Greece, but its most noteworthy excavated remains are early Hellenistic and Roman.

Of special interest is the circular baptistery dating from the 6th century AD, paved with mosaics.

Enjoy lunch in Saranda; then, head back to the port to embark the hydrofoil for the return trip to Corfu.

Notes:

Travel time to Butrint is approximately 90 minutes each way. Hydrofoil schedule varies, which may affect departure and return time of the tour.

 

Just a supposition.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

I am on that call as well and I am pretty sure it is simply a Service Call picking up those from a Shore Excursion. My understanding is that passengers most likely will not be able to disembark. The four hour window is based on the unknown of the return of those on the shore excursion. I am sure once they are on board we will be on our way.

[Fouremco]

I am on that call as well and I am pretty sure it is simply a Service Call picking up those from a Shore Excursion. My understanding is that passengers most likely will not be able to disembark. The four hour window is based on the unknown of the return of those on the shore excursion. I am sure once they are on board we will be on our way.

That sounds very similar to the pickup in Soufrière of passengers taking a one-way shorex from Castries in St. Lucia. No one could get off in Soufrière, and the only ones they allowed to board were those on the HAL excursion. You couldn't take a DIY one way and board in Soufrière with the others.

[bishop84]

The call could be to enable the ship to call at a non-European Union port and thereby qualify the cruise as duty free?

 

I guess a purely service call, i.e. just to pick up the tour and get the papers stamped wouldn't qualify so they call it a proper call and enable other guests to go ashore for a short period of time.

Also they usually indicate if the call is just a service call but this one is marked TR (Tender Required) which would indicate that guests can go ashore.

Edited November 1, 2015 by bishop84

[Fouremco]

Also they usually indicate if the call is just a service call but this one is marked TR (Tender Required) which would indicate that guests can go ashore.

For St. Lucia, Soufrière was also indicated as a TR port, but the tenders were only available for those passengers being picked up at the end of their shorex. I would read too much into the TR designation other than it showing that you won't be docked.

[sail7seas]

That sounds very similar to the pickup in Soufrière of passengers taking a one-way shorex from Castries in St. Lucia. No one could get off in Soufrière, and the only ones they allowed to board were those on the HAL excursion. You couldn't take a DIY one way and board in Soufrière with the others.

 

For St. Lucia, Soufrière was also indicated as a TR port, but the tenders were only available for those passengers being picked up at the end of their shorex. I would read too much into the TR designation other than it showing that you won't be docked.

 

Right and right. :)

 

It's a lovely sail between the two St. Lucia ports and worth seeing the great Piton mountain peaks when going to pick up the tour passengers.

 

[Dave in NJ]

Too bad the call at Albania wasn't a full port of call, it's got plenty of interesting history and depending on your interests can be worth a day's visit. Here's some comments I made to myself when I was there on Prinsdendam in 2009.

 

Sarandë (or Saranda), Albania. Poor little Albania, said to be the poorest country in Europe and one of the poorest in the world outside Africa; just 3.5 million people, 18 years out from under the boot of the USSR and struggling mightily against what must seem overwhelming odds. Until 1990 a closed communist country, Albania caught the world’s attention as the last domino to tumble in Eastern Europe’s sudden series of democratic revolutions. Albania had chosen a curious form of isolation, submitting to a Stalinist-type dictatorship and relative dissociation for neighboring nations. Emerging from this has proven troublesome and the country spiraled into violence and anarchy in the late 1990s. Since then however the situation has improved enormously and it’s cautiously opening its doors again. Sarandë (pop. 32,000), on the Ionian Sea, is near the remains of the city of Butrint (ancient Buthrotum) dating from the 6th century BC and now a UNESCO World Heritage site and for foreigners it’s a convenient point to travel to Corfu, just 6 miles away. The city is covered with half-started and abandoned home construction, often poor roads, unreliable water and electricity supply, etc. As a reminder of the communist days the landscape is littered with thousands (tour guide said 250,000) of abandoned concrete machine gun pill boxes. Nothing much to see in Sarande so I took an all-day bus tour to Gijrokaster, a UNESCO World Heritage site largely dating back to medieval times. The ride itself was interesting, from sea level over a mountain range at about 7000 feet and back down the other side on Communist era roads, meaning narrow, winding with several switchbacks every mile, no guard rails, and really beautiful mountain scenery. Gijrokaster itself is built on a hill overlooking the surrounding valley of the Drinos River and mountains, quite scenic. The medieval castle/fortress on the top of the hill dates back to the 4th century, was later used by troops of Ali Pasha – ruler during the Ottoman times, and houses a quite impressive armory museum from the middle ages thru the two World Wars with many captured Italian and German field guns, small arms, and a cold war-era US military jet which crashed in Albania and was hauled up the mountain to display as a trophy. The fortress was also used as a prison as recently as 1970 by the Russians for political dissidents. We also toured the elegant and comfortable home of Enver Hoxha, the brutal former Stalinist dictator.

Edited November 2, 2015 by Dave in NJ

[Blue Mudshark]

... 18 years out from under the boot of the USSR ...

 

Although Albania was a totalitarian Communist state for several decades, it remained steadfastly outside the Soviet bloc, and was certainly never "under the boot of the USSR." It's important to maintain a distinction between history and mythology.

[Dave in NJ]

I didn't intend to propagate a myth, that was just my understanding at the time. Thanks for the correction.

Edited November 2, 2015 by Dave in NJ