Requirement for overnight at hotel during cruise

[DYU]

Hi - I've booked a cruise that has an overnight in Egypt and in Israel. We plan to stay at a hotel not booked through Princess and probably booked on our own. My travel agent is giving me a little bit of a hassle about this. I have just received the following from her.

 

2) You need to request in writing via fax (which I will provide to you) permission from Princess Cruises to disembark the ship in Egypt, or any other port, stay overnight and re-embark at the next port of call if you choose to travel independently and not use Princess' Overnight Tour options that are available to you.

 

What does this mean? Is it really necessary to get Princess' permission first?? From reading all of the posts here, it doesn't seem like anyone has had any problems doing this. I have been back and forth about this for the last 3 days and I am getting pretty aggravated. I will call Princess in the morning but am afraid of even what they will tell me!! Please help!

[cruisemom42]

I and several other recent Princess cruisers have already answered you regarding overnight stays. Yes it's possible and even somewhat common.

 

I don't think it's unusual for Princess to require that you let them know you are going off on your own on the overnight. If I recall, the ship is actually sailing from Alexandria to Port Said during the overnight in Cairo. They would definitely want to have all passengers accounted for. If they know you are traveling on your own and won't be back to the ship, then they can leave port without worrying that they are leaving you behind.

 

I think your TA may be overstating the case a little. It's not that you're asking "permission" it's that you are informing them officially of your plans.

 

Also, be aware that Princess reps don't always give accurate information in these circumstances either. You could get two different answers from two different reps. :cool:

[Andiamo!]

Having just taken a group of over a hundred from our roll call for the Star on a Cairo Overnight, I may be able to help out here.

 

A Princess Rep told me that I needed to request permission from the dispatcher to be away from the ship for a night on a private excursion. When I asked why I was told that some countries charge the ship for those passengers who do not stay on board overnight. I verified on my own that that was not the case with Egypt through our tour operator (Nile Blue Tours) and did nothing more about it.

 

There is also a great deal of misinformation regarding the need for visas for Egypt if you are doing it on your own as well. Princess Reps have told people that they need to get their own visas for Egypt if they are not doing a Princess tour - this simply is not true. Princess collects ALL passports on the ship and returns them the day before arriving in Egypt with a stamp that identifies you as a cruise ship passenger in the country for less than 72 hours. Under those circumstances you do not need an actual visa, but some people call it a "stamp visa".

 

In defense of the Princess Reps, I believe that they are told to give general answers that cause them to err on the safe side. They are dealing with a huge number of countries and prefer not to be specific about legal and immigration matters that can change from one day to the next.

 

One person who spoke to Princess about another matter mentioned our Cairo overnight trip and he was told that the ship did not have to let us back on the ship if we didn't do the overnight with them. That was obviously ridiculous since it would be very counterproductive for Princess.

 

On board the ship, the Princess staff was more than accommodating. I supplied them with a list of all the passengers who were on the Cairo overnight excursion with me a couple of days before arriving in Egypt. In the Princess Patter it said that people on the Princess overnight or my (Vicki's Cairo Overnight) did not have to leave information about staying away from the ship in Egypt (since I had already done it), but that those in small groups did. Princess even gave me stickers to facilitate our disembarkation onto the three buses in groups. I wouldn't count on that happening every time, but it was a nice gesture on their part.

 

I have been away from the ship at night in Egypt both last year and this year and even though there were all kinds of discouraging rumours flying, everything went extremely smoothly with Princess both times.

 

Obviously things might be different in Israel, so you will want to check that out.

 

Go and have a fantastic time!!!

[roscoe39]

Hi - I've booked a cruise that has an overnight in Egypt and in Israel. We plan to stay at a hotel not booked through Princess and probably booked on our own. My travel agent is giving me a little bit of a hassle about this. I have just received the following from her.

 

2) You need to request in writing via fax (which I will provide to you) permission from Princess Cruises to disembark the ship in Egypt, or any other port, stay overnight and re-embark at the next port of call if you choose to travel independently and not use Princess' Overnight Tour options that are available to you.

 

What does this mean? Is it really necessary to get Princess' permission first?? From reading all of the posts here, it doesn't seem like anyone has had any problems doing this. I have been back and forth about this for the last 3 days and I am getting pretty aggravated. I will call Princess in the morning but am afraid of even what they will tell me!! Please help!

 

I dont know about Princess lines but if you do decide to stay on your own can I recommend you look at the Marriott in cairo....for a unique experience of staying in a palace, and youll be in a safe environment close to all the sites and sounds. Its an incredible city...I hope you do it.

roscoe

[dpro]

Hi - I've booked a cruise that has an overnight in Egypt and in Israel. We plan to stay at a hotel not booked through Princess and probably booked on our own. My travel agent is giving me a little bit of a hassle about this. I have just received the following from her.

 

2) You need to request in writing via fax (which I will provide to you) permission from Princess Cruises to disembark the ship in Egypt, or any other port, stay overnight and re-embark at the next port of call if you choose to travel independently and not use Princess' Overnight Tour options that are available to you.

 

What does this mean? Is it really necessary to get Princess' permission first?? From reading all of the posts here, it doesn't seem like anyone has had any problems doing this. I have been back and forth about this for the last 3 days and I am getting pretty aggravated. I will call Princess in the morning but am afraid of even what they will tell me!! Please help!

 

 

Here is a quote directly from my TA. I contacted Leo via email, with our names, phone numbers, cabin numbers, the sailing, ships name, and dates in port, where we were staying, when we would return to the ship, etc. This was for a Holy Land cruise, with an overnight in Jerusalem.

 

"Regarding doing private tours in Egypt and Israel that is fine as long as you are coming back to the ship in those ports before it sails if you are not and planning on an overnight somewhere and then meeting up with the ship you have to go through Princess dispatch to get approval. This is something that you arrange yourself with them and here is the fax number that you send it to at Princess (661)753-0151and address the fax to Leo Segun and tell him exactly what you are doing and he will approval or not approve it."

 

Leo called me on the phone the next day and said he had taken care of the details. I think they just list your name as being away from the ship for that overnight. We haven't taken this cruise yet, but the post above who did the 100 or so for the overnight has it right, based on my discussions with Leo Segun from Princess for our sailing. His phone number is 661-753-0740

Regards,

 

RonC

[MercedMike]

I think your travel agent gave you the right information and seems to have it all under control. What is the problem? Get the form, fax it to Princess, they will make a note on the manifest, situation over. No problem.

 

Is it that you are chafing at it being called "permission"? Relax, it is just information. They really do need to know where their pax are, and they do need to know who will be off the ship. So send the form, and begin planning your great cruise. When you get on board, confirm it with the Guest Relations desk.

 

Take a look at our pics for a taste of what you have in store:

 

http://www.elite.net/~thehalls/holyland.html

[DYU]

Thanks to all those on this board and other boards who helped (and even to those who didn’t but just had to comment). My issue was not having a problem getting permission from Princess. My issue was whether they could deny it. I have a serious problem with the fact that (as mentioned by other cruisers), Princess did not seem to be able to give anyone a straight answer. If I’m paying a travel agent and I am paying the cruise line, I would sincerely hope that someone would have the correct information. I actually find it unbelievable that different Princess agents will give you different answers.

 

I had mentioned before that I specifically chose this cruise for the overnight in Egypt because I felt there was not enough time to travel into Cairo and see what we wanted to see in a day. This was the deciding factor in choosing this ship/line. For this particular itinerary, my husband has to get 5 separate visas (at great expense, time and general headaches to us). I realize we Americans travel around the world with ease, mostly unattended, unaccountable, whatever. That’s not the case with everyone. Since it takes considerable time to apply for and obtain all these visas, full payment is due to the cruise line before all the visas will be in hand. Even if we purchased travel insurance, it does not cover not getting a visa. So I guess we would just be out around $12,000 if for any reason he couldn’t get any one of the 5 visas. It would have been easier (and cheaper) for us to book a different cruise and go to Egypt on our own. I don’t have the luxury of time going back and forth with Princess to get “permission” if it’s going to be a hassle and take a long time. So that’s why I was trying to get the information, not because I “just didn’t want to do it”.

 

However, if anyone wants to cover my $12,000, well then I just won’t hassle about it at all! In any case, we’re looking forward to our cruise so we’ll take our chances.

[joybelles9]

Hi - I've booked a cruise that has an overnight in Egypt and in Israel. We plan to stay at a hotel not booked through Princess and probably booked on our own. My travel agent is giving me a little bit of a hassle about this. I have just received the following from her.

 

2) You need to request in writing via fax (which I will provide to you) permission from Princess Cruises to disembark the ship in Egypt, or any other port, stay overnight and re-embark at the next port of call if you choose to travel independently and not use Princess' Overnight Tour options that are available to you.

 

What does this mean? Is it really necessary to get Princess' permission first?? From reading all of the posts here, it doesn't seem like anyone has had any problems doing this. I have been back and forth about this for the last 3 days and I am getting pretty aggravated. I will call Princess in the morning but am afraid of even what they will tell me!! Please help!

 

Dont panic we were on the septeber 5th royal princess did an overnighter in both egypt and Israel all that is required is to fax princess line your names on passport and pasport number your cabin number where you will disembark where you will stay and the contact numbers of the tour company you will be travelling with and date ditto re-embark and the ship name and cruise number - piece of cake as for visas the ship provides them the day before disembarking they take your pasport get them stamped and you pick up before going ashore keep the copy you faxed and hand it into the pursers office on boarding the cruise

The only thing extra we had to do was get permission for our tour company van to be allowed into the wharf area in israel we had to supply the registration number whic the tour company emailed to another person travelling with us the day beore we went then he took this to the pursers office happy travellig dont stress you will love it we had a great time with both our private tours temo tours in egypt and genesis in israel and small groups make it a lot easier to get round more sites :)