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Straits of Hormuz tension - impact on Seabourn cruises?


Jawmaster
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"The Telegraph" 3 days ago: "Cruise giant P&O cancels Dubai season amid rising Gulf tensions" 

"EU Today" 2 days ago: "UK & US stand firm in Strait of Hormuz: P&O cancel Gulf cruises as naval forces prepare for conflict"

 

All following Seabourn cruises will go through the Strait of Hormuz: What will Seabourn do? Some thoughts?

 

19-Day Holy Land & Arabian Gems Ship: Seabourn Encore Oct 2019

18-Day Jewels Of Arabia & India Ship:  Seabourn Encore Nov 2019

19-Day Route To Ancient Wellness Ship:  Seabourn Ovation Nov 2019

19-Day Pearls Of Arabia & India Ship:  Seabourn Ovation Dec 2019

 

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Probably nothing at all. They have to get the ships from Europe to Australasia for the winter season and I don't see them going around the cape! I would think they'll do what they (and other lines) have done before during other tensions including the spate of piracy a few years ago .. travel fast, travel in convoys and travel with extra security. If there's actual conflict they might skip Dubai and head directly for India, boarding and disembarking guests there .. that would be a logistic nightmare of course. They'd make that decision pretty late in the day I would think. 

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Calling in Dubai on the way to Asia is slightly different than P&O’s full winter season of Middle-East/Gulf cruises ex Dubai. Those cruises were probably not cancelled for safety reasons (regardless of what they say) but simply because they were selling poorly. 

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We're on the Malta to Greece to Dubai cruise aboard Ovation in November. I'm worried. Seabourn isn't commenting and my travel agent can't find out anything. I would think they must have an idea by now what they're going to do. The ship has to go on east to India and beyond. So I don't see how they can cancel. If they used their imagination, they could end my cruise without going through the straits, and bus us across land to Dubai. Would be a very interesting trip. Not really that far. We could then end up in Dubai, which is safe. The ship could then cruise on to India.   LittleRedJohn

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57 minutes ago, LittleRedJohn said:

We're on the Malta to Greece to Dubai cruise aboard Ovation in November. I'm worried. Seabourn isn't commenting and my travel agent can't find out anything. I would think they must have an idea by now what they're going to do. The ship has to go on east to India and beyond. So I don't see how they can cancel. If they used their imagination, they could end my cruise without going through the straits, and bus us across land to Dubai. Would be a very interesting trip. Not really that far. We could then end up in Dubai, which is safe. The ship could then cruise on to India.   LittleRedJohn

 

Bit early to be worrying, the situation can change SO much in 3 months. At this point Seabourn is most likely planning to do the trip as scheduled. There's a ton of difference between a Bahamian flagged passenger liner and a UK registered oil tanker and at this point there's more threat from the Somali pirates (who are less active than they used to be) than from a hostile act in the Straits of Hormuz. 

If a war actually breaks out and people start shooting at each other, as I said in my first reply, I'd expect the ship to head straight for India and Seabourn will compensate people for flight changes etc (they were *very* good about this when they cancelled Istanbul a few years ago and note they did that with 2 weeks notice after months of speculation). If it's just the Straits of Hormuz then perhaps everyone gets on and off in Oman and gets compensation and a bus to Dubai 

I'm sure Seabourn has contingency plans if things get problematic, however they aren't going to put them into effect, or even talk about what they might do, until closer to sail date unless there is an escalation in hostilities. 

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We are booked on the December 2 Ovation sailing from Dubai to Singapore. I'm resigned to the fact they Seabourn will likely change the itinerary and skip Dubai sometime closer to the sailing date if things have not cooled down significantly in the Straight of Hormuz by then. We had a similar issue in 2015 on Sojourn from Mumbai to Athens. In that instance all the Egyptian ports were cancelled about 6 weeks before the cruise which sent us into a mad scramble to figure out a pre-cruise trip to Egypt. In this case, I would not be particularly peeved by missing Dubai (been there) but it would require us to change our flight arrangements which are not through Seabourn. It'll be what it'll be, I actually wouldn't mind if a couple of ports in India are added to the itinerary instead.

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15 hours ago, claudiaYVR said:

I would not be particularly peeved by missing Dubai (been there) but it would require us to change our flight arrangements which are not through Seabourn. It'll be what it'll be

Be interesting to see what happens, my money is still on .. no changes unless things get a lot worse. Seabourn changed embarkation port on us from Istanbul to Athens about 2 weeks before one of our cruises and they were really good about refunding us all the flight change costs, every penny, and the airline we were flying (Emirates, via Dubai!) were not at all sympathetic or helpful and charged us the maximum they could for the change. So if they do make a change, I hope they are as professional about it as they were with us. 

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We were on the Quest from Dubai to Venice in spring 2012 (if memory serves me correctly). Somali pirates were the threat then & Quest was draped in razor wire below deck 5. We took on extra security in Oman & they disembarked in Egypt where the razor wire also disappeared. We were shadowed by a Navy vessel too. Seabourn handled everything very professionally then and we have confidence that they will deal with whatever the situation is at the time.

As others have said, the situation can change a lot in the time before our departure and we have the luxury of following about 3 weeks after the Encore which departed Athens on Oct 21st.

Let’s not speculate too much or read too much into P&O cancelling their Dubai based itinerary. They fly the ‘Red Ensign’ which has a Union Jack 🇬🇧 in one corner.

Think positive and we’ll see you all in Athens!!!

 

Aileen

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