Mideast 2015

Booked Mideast cruise, latter part of 2015, UAE and Israel. I am not concerned, but friends tell me I should be. I welcome any thoughts from others reading this post.

Yes, you need to be a little concerned - not about your safety but about whether ports, lately in Israel and perhaps the Gulf states in the future, might be cancelled in the interests of your safety and the safety of all passengers, crew and the ship.

Cancelled ports are a significant risk on any cruise due to weather, mechanical issues, industrial action, civil unrest.

Civil unrest is more likely in your itinerary than in most.

But it's always a risk anywhere. We put off cruising to Israel for literally decades waiting for the area to settle down before we came to the conclusion that we'd not see a settled peace there in our lifetimes, so we booked. No problems, no cancellations, great cruise and great experience.

I say go for it, but accept the increased possibility of late changes in your itinerary.

Bear in mind that if there's unrest in the area where you've booked a hotel your vacation gets cancelled. But a cruise ship can simply sail to an alternate, so is perhaps the best form of vacation in such places.

Just MHO as always

JB :)

Yes, you need to be a little concerned - not about your safety but about whether ports, lately in Israel and perhaps the Gulf states in the future, might be cancelled in the interests of your safety and the safety of all passengers, crew and the ship.

 

Cancelled ports are a significant risk on any cruise due to weather, mechanical issues, industrial action, civil unrest.

Civil unrest is more likely in your itinerary than in most.

But it's always a risk anywhere. We put off cruising to Israel for literally decades waiting for the area to settle down before we came to the conclusion that we'd not see a settled peace there in our lifetimes, so we booked. No problems, no cancellations, great cruise and great experience.

 

I say go for it, but accept the increased possibility of late changes in your itinerary.

Bear in mind that if there's unrest in the area where you've booked a hotel your vacation gets cancelled. But a cruise ship can simply sail to an alternate, so is perhaps the best form of vacation in such places.

 

Just MHO as always

 

JB :)

Thanks John. Agree with you. First time to Israel was 1971, shortly before war, so no guarantees. Never a "safe" time, I suppose, but so much strife in the mideast overall now, but yeah, we're gonna go for it. Aren't we all, after all, risk takers?? And even the most careful and prudent are never assured of safety.

I also say go for it. We tried to get to Egypt in early 2011 & at the last minute the ship was diverted to Istanbul. We tried again in April, 2013 and had a great time in Cairo and Luxor.

We've signed up for a cruise in the fall of 2015 that has 3 days in Israel and hopefully we will dock there. Interesting, we haven't been to Israel since 1971 also.