A change in Egypt visa policy?

[anniebj90290]

There was a post on our roll call from someone who just returned on a cruise with the same itinerary. Poster reported there was a problem with entry into Alexandria, Egypt. Generally, this poster said, the cruise ships provide you with a "quick stamp" but apparently the Egyptian officials weren't honoring them this time. Some compromise was worked out at the last minute, but poster said this may be a new rule change and suggested getting visas ahead of time.

 

I'd prefer to not have one more thing to do, so I'm just wondering if anyone else has encountered this problem. This was on a RCL ship, but I suspect that if it's a policy change, it would affect everyone.

I plan on calling RCL tomorrow, but since I'm here now: Anyone else have a problem? I don't mean to start a panic here, just looking for confirmation/denial.

Thanks.

[engineer38]

Don't panic.

Visas in Egypt are really more of a form of taxation, most nationalities can buy a visa at the port of entry for cash, so even if the "quick visit" stamp which cruise ships usually get, is changed, you will only have to hand over a few dollars. euros, pounds sterling or even egyptian pounds to get a different sort of stamp (more colorful). It really isn't worth the stress of applying in advance. The only risk is if the Egyptian authorities decide at short notice that they want to hassle certain nationalities to make a political point, in which case let the ships team handle it. (Cyprus is really quite nice!) but it won't happen, they NEED tourists.

[vivian02]

I was on the May 26th entry into Egypt on Legend of the Sea. The only problem I remember was the Cruiseline taking all Passports when boarding the ship in Itally. My wife wasn't happy about it but it worked out very well. Passports were given back to passengers before going into Egypt with the passports stamped. After Egypt we had to return the passports to the cruiseline again to show we returned to Greece. It sure beat standing in a long line waiting for the Egyption officials to give you the go ahead. That would have taken forever. I hope this helps. Tim

[Keith1010]

We were in Egypt in March and visited two ports and did not have a problem. The ship took care of our visas and before we reached the first port of call we had to fill out some information for each passenger including the amount of money we would be carrying with us into port along with specific information regarding cameras, video equipment, etc.

 

Keith