2021 cruise- no Dubai/India?

[dg33]

I am not seeing the Dubai/India cruise being offered in 2021. Does anyone know why this was discontinued?

[mom says]

They've taken Connie off that route next year and will send her to Tampa for Caribbean runs. 🙄

Edited January 14, 2020 by mom says

[TeaBag]

Princess has a nice one, though it skips India, it goes to all the rest of the places we want to visit.  We bought FCC certificates for the 2021 season for this sailing and then learned that Connie was deployed to Tampa so we would have to find another place to use them  before they expired in Dec.

[Moby Jones]

4 hours ago, dg33 said:

I am not seeing the Dubai/India cruise being offered in 2021. Does anyone know why this was discontinued?

 

At the risk of sounding flippant, Celebrity decided they need even more ships in the Caribbean doing pretty boring itineraries.... 

[villauk]

11 minutes ago, Moby Jones said:

 

At the risk of sounding flippant, Celebrity decided they need even more ships in the Caribbean doing pretty boring itineraries.... 

 

 

Yes, the itinerary was removed and X decided that Tampa needed Connie for more Caribbean runs - obviously not enough ships sailing there already 🙄

[chemmo]

We did book this cruise for over a year ago and ended up deciding it was not for us. Many reviews indicated that the stopovers (in India in particular) had been too short and had involved a lot of travel...

 

We decided that  if we want to do India it will be on a land tour or a cruise that includes more ports and more of the Indian Ocean. I wonder how many other guests (like us) had initially thought it was a great itinerary but on reflection changed their minds...

 

The Emirates at the moment doesn’t seem popular either (lots of cheap cruise offers and hotel stays), perhaps another reason for the move...

 

It would have been nice if an itinerary offering ‘something different’ had replaced it...

[Moby Jones]

30 minutes ago, chemmo said:

We did book this cruise for over a year ago and ended up deciding it was not for us. Many reviews indicated that the stopovers (in India in particular) had been too short and had involved a lot of travel...

 

We decided that  if we want to do India it will be on a land tour or a cruise that includes more ports and more of the Indian Ocean. I wonder how many other guests (like us) had initially thought it was a great itinerary but on reflection changed their minds...

 

The Emirates at the moment doesn’t seem popular either (lots of cheap cruise offers and hotel stays), perhaps another reason for the move...

 

It would have been nice if an itinerary offering ‘something different’ had replaced it...

 

I'd say that's a very good idea. India is such a huge and diverse country that any cruise would barely even scratch the surface. It's ten years ago now but we visited Mumbai, Goa and then Kerala. In Kerala we used a company called Kerala Greenery who put together a tailor made package. We got to go off the beaten track to places where kids would stare at us as they hardly ever saw white faces. Spent the night in a tree house 80' up in a tree. Brushing my teeth one morning I saw monkeys swinging by in the trees from the bathroom window. 

Sailing around on a huge kettuvallam (house boat) with three crew for a night cost just £80 too and was a great experience. The 'butler' service was great. Press a button and he'd appear and serve you whatever you asked for. Not quite the Celebrity suite experience but most enjoyable all the same. 

We also spent a couple of nights in Periyar tiger reserve in an old converted maharaja hunting lodge on an island. You could sip tea ans watch the very abundant wildlife come down and drink at the lakes edge on an evening. We didn't see any tigers but plenty of other Wildlife including elephant, gaur and lots of sambar deer etc and very abundant wildlife. You'd get picked up by boat to sail around the lake or go back on land to do ranger led walks etc.

And then there's the authentic Indian cuisine which we loved. 

So yeah, I'd highly recommend a land tour there and Kerala is certainly one part of the country worth visiting. 



 

Edited January 14, 2020 by Moby Jones

[wynnne]

I know P&O cancelled all its cruises in the region this year due to security concerns. 

 

https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/news/4324/

 

I don't know if Celebrity have changed their schedule directly due to security or indirectly due to lack of bookings due to security concerns, but I suspect its related. 

[hcat]

1 hour ago, villauk said:

 

 

Yes, the itinerary was removed and X decided that Tampa needed Connie for more Caribbean runs - obviously not enough ships sailing there already 🙄

 

Maybe  it was done to avoid port congestion in Ft Lauderdale/Miami...????

 

At the Captain's presentation on EDGE in Nov, he mentioned something in passing  about  ship schedules in Ft Lauderdale,  and  a need for ships to sail  away / or return on days other than  usual weekend days...no details were given.

 

We are looking forward to having Tampa as a home port for Constellation.

Ft Lauderdale area and the  roads there are is getting very congested.

 

[villauk]

1 hour ago, chemmo said:

It would have been nice if an itinerary offering ‘something different’ had replaced it...

 

 

Definitely.

[chemmo]

52 minutes ago, Moby Jones said:

 

I'd say that's a very good idea. India is such a huge and diverse country that any cruise would barely even scratch the surface. It's ten years ago now but we visited Mumbai, Goa and then Kerala. In Kerala we used a company called Kerala Greenery who put together a tailor made package. We got to go off the beaten track to places where kids would stare at us as they hardly ever saw white faces. Spent the night in a tree house 80' up in a tree. Brushing my teeth one morning I saw monkeys swinging by in the trees from the bathroom window. 

Sailing around on a huge kettuvallam (house boat) with three crew for a night cost just £80 too and was a great experience. The 'butler' service was great. Press a button and he'd appear and serve you whatever you asked for. Not quite the Celebrity suite experience but most enjoyable all the same. 

We also spent a couple of nights in Periyar tiger reserve in an old converted maharaja hunting lodge on an island. You could sip tea ans watch the very abundant wildlife come down and drink at the lakes edge on an evening. We didn't see any tigers but plenty of other Wildlife including elephant, gaur and lots of sambar deer etc and very abundant wildlife. You'd get picked up by boat to sail around the lake or go back on land to do ranger led walks etc.

And then there's the authentic Indian cuisine which we loved. 

So yeah, I'd highly recommend a land tour there and Kerala is certainly one part of the country worth visiting. 



 

 

Thanks for the advice! Over the last few years we have looked at various options including the Maharaja’s train...Your description reminds me of just how much we did want to visit...

 

We still love experiencing new cultures but I must say the older we get more we worry too about how exhausting land travel can be and health risks. A relation of ours not only had the second half of her holiday ruined by ‘Delhi Belly’ she was ill for a further six weeks on return...I think it was this that did make us consider an Indian cruise in the first place, only pack once and eat on the ship and only drink bottled water from the ship...I have been dubious about buying bottled water on land ever since we saw a group of young boys getting empty water bottles from a bin in Thailand, rinsing them under an outside tap and selling them on further down the road...

[villauk]

4 minutes ago, chemmo said:

I think it was this that did make us consider an Indian cruise in the first place, only pack once and eat on the ship and only drink bottled water from the ship...I have been dubious about buying bottled water on land

 

 

I know exactly where you are coming from. Sometimes it’s nice to visit certain places but know you can board the ship after a long day seeing the ‘sights’ 😉.

[chemmo]

30 minutes ago, villauk said:

 

 

I know exactly where you are coming from. Sometimes it’s nice to visit certain places but know you can board the ship after a long day seeing the ‘sights’ 😉.

 

Looking back over the years we have done land tours independently where over 15 days we only had two stops longer than one night and didn’t even think about it! We even felt relaxed and refreshed after these tours...They were non stop adventures!

 

We also happily ate street food in Cairo and areas of China without even considering the consequences, it just smelled so good!

 

Now it is hard work lugging cases, keeping to a schedule and we are aware that we take longer to recover from illnesses that in the past we would have seen as a ‘nothing’...

 

As you say a real ‘bonus’ of cruising is that it is nice after a busy day to just return to the ship, relax and be pampered...We even enjoy that you only have a very short walk on board to restaurants and bars and no worries about getting a taxi either!

 

 

[ECCruise]

1 hour ago, wynnne said:

I know P&O cancelled all its cruises in the region this year due to security concerns. 

 

https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/news/4324/

 

I don't know if Celebrity have changed their schedule directly due to security or indirectly due to lack of bookings due to security concerns, but I suspect its related. 

No, it had nothing to do with security.  They made the schedule change before there were any concerns.  

[Moby Jones]

2 hours ago, chemmo said:

 

Thanks for the advice! Over the last few years we have looked at various options including the Maharaja’s train...Your description reminds me of just how much we did want to visit...

 

We still love experiencing new cultures but I must say the older we get more we worry too about how exhausting land travel can be and health risks. A relation of ours not only had the second half of her holiday ruined by ‘Delhi Belly’ she was ill for a further six weeks on return...I think it was this that did make us consider an Indian cruise in the first place, only pack once and eat on the ship and only drink bottled water from the ship...I have been dubious about buying bottled water on land ever since we saw a group of young boys getting empty water bottles from a bin in Thailand, rinsing them under an outside tap and selling them on further down the road...

 

I think it's inevitable that Delhi belly will strike almost every visitor. We were extremely careful food and water wise. Before visiting I'd read that the local Coca Cola factory had been in trouble for using water from a local lake! We even met a couple of locals who refused to drink coke as a result. So yes I did experience illness for three days of our trip even after being cautious. I'd still say it was well worth it for us though. You've just reminded me of a very random fact, when calling at a local pharmacy immodium tablets cost just 6 pence each! lol 

Thankfully I didn't get ill in South East Asia though. Even after sampling the street food. Then again I visited Florida last august. A restaurant we've visited many times in the past was closed last year having been shut down for health code violations. So you never know wherever you are! 

[ipeeinthepool]

1 hour ago, ECCruise said:

No, it had nothing to do with security.  They made the schedule change before there were any concerns.  

 

There have been security concerns for most of my lifetime and things have only been getting worse.  Time to err on the side of caution. 

[ipeeinthepool]

9 hours ago, dg33 said:

I am not seeing the Dubai/India cruise being offered in 2021. Does anyone know why this was discontinued?

 

Because they can make more money in the Caribbean. 

[ECCruise]

1 minute ago, ipeeinthepool said:

 

There have been security concerns for most of my lifetime and things have only been getting worse.  Time to err on the side of caution. 

True but they still went there for many years.  And no way we would have traded our cruise there for anywhere in the Caribbean. 

[Moby Jones]

2 hours ago, hcat said:

 

Maybe  it was done to avoid port congestion in Ft Lauderdale/Miami...????

 

At the Captain's presentation on EDGE in Nov, he mentioned something in passing  about  ship schedules in Ft Lauderdale,  and  a need for ships to sail  away / or return on days other than  usual weekend days...no details were given.

 

We are looking forward to having Tampa as a home port for Constellation.

Ft Lauderdale area and the  roads there are is getting very congested.

 

 

I doubt it. The Connie Indian sailings have been amongst the cheapest Celebrity cruises on a pppn basis for quite some time now and there always appeared to be a lot of late availability. I'm pretty certain it's because they expect to increase revenues from moving to the Caribbean. 

Edited January 14, 2020 by Moby Jones

[ipeeinthepool]

1 minute ago, ECCruise said:

True but they still went there for many years.  And no way we would have traded our cruise there for anywhere in the Caribbean. 

 

Apparently there weren't enough people with similar interests wiling to pay enough money to continue sailing in Dubai/India.

[dani negreanu]

1 hour ago, chemmo said:

As you say a real ‘bonus’ of cruising is that it is nice after a busy day to just return to the ship, relax and be pampered...We even enjoy that you only have a very short walk on board to restaurants and bars and no worries about getting a taxi either!

 

I couldn't agree more.

 

We came to cruising very late, at 60, after being based in Brussels for 5 years, doing a lot of land trips with the company car, thinking nothing of living "out of suitcases" and driving for hours from one place to another.

 

DH also doesn't like to "prebook" too much in advance, so, at about 4PM we were starting to look for a place to sleep and make a lot of compromises along the way....

 

So happy to find cruising much more fitting our age now...

[dg33]

Thank you for all who replied. I am so disappointed that this is no longer available. I will research other ship and land options.

[4774Papa]

5 hours ago, chemmo said:

We did book this cruise for over a year ago and ended up deciding it was not for us. Many reviews indicated that the stopovers (in India in particular) had been too short and had involved a lot of travel...

 

We decided that  if we want to do India it will be on a land tour or a cruise that includes more ports and more of the Indian Ocean. I wonder how many other guests (like us) had initially thought it was a great itinerary but on reflection changed their minds...

 

The Emirates at the moment doesn’t seem popular either (lots of cheap cruise offers and hotel stays), perhaps another reason for the move...

 

It would have been nice if an itinerary offering ‘something different’ had replaced it...

We did a great cruise in March/April of 2015 on Century from Singapore to Dubai that had four ports in SW India.  Also, port in Muscat, Oman.  We enjoyed the cruise and visiting India was good.  We have considered going back to India, visiting Dehli and the Taj, but frankly, I think we had enough of India.   The people were nice and we love Indian food, but the few times we were on tours where we had to travel on the highways, we found the trips to be near collisions every 15 seconds.  Still, I am glad we did the cruise.

Here is my review.

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=501167

 

[ECCruise]

35 minutes ago, dg33 said:

Thank you for all who replied. I am so disappointed that this is no longer available. I will research other ship and land options.

If you want to do India, I highly recommend a land tour. We've done both, 4 stops on a cruise (and 2 stops next month on Azamara) but the land tour was incredible. Gate 1 does some really great itineraries in India (and Nepal, which we did). And considerably less $$$ than many cruises.

[downsmead]

9 hours ago, chemmo said:

We did book this cruise for over a year ago and ended up deciding it was not for us. Many reviews indicated that the stopovers (in India in particular) had been too short and had involved a lot of travel...

 

We decided that  if we want to do India it will be on a land tour or a cruise that includes more ports and more of the Indian Ocean. I wonder how many other guests (like us) had initially thought it was a great itinerary but on reflection changed their minds...

 

The Emirates at the moment doesn’t seem popular either (lots of cheap cruise offers and hotel stays), perhaps another reason for the move...

 

It would have been nice if an itinerary offering ‘something different’ had replaced it...

We did this cruise a couple of years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. We flew out and had 4 nights in Singapore and loved the city and are waiting to go back. We had arranged to be part of various private tours at the Indian ports; Kerala cruising along the waterways was fabulous, Mumbai was fascinating to see, Phuket - we went out to Pipi (spelt wrong I know) island and again had a great day out. Goa we had already visited (attended a friends wedding there!). The UAE states were also great and included a sand dune safari. Since at that time, you had to apply for the 6 month visa, we ‘promised’ ourselves we would fit in a a Golden Triangle plus Tigers trip before the visa expired, but of course never did. However with the increase in prices from X and frankly, very few cruises we are interested in now, today I booked a land tour in India for the Golden Triangle, Tigers and hopefully an extension to Katmandu!! I still have a ‘placeholder’ Caribbean cruise booked for April 2021, the price of which is far cheaper than that now, so may very well actually sail on that cruise 👍.