MV Discovery again - March 2012 - Singapore to Safaga - any changes to ship?

Back on our dear MV Discovery again as we made the final reservation for the Singapore to Safaga Grand Voyage and down close to our last cabin on the Coral Deck, in one of the slightly larger ones, but not our last one we had next to the dispensary which had to be the Discovery's best kept secret cabin on them all as it was relatively huge. Thanks to a Cruise Critic tip to tell us about that one. Great choice.

Wondering what changes we will find on board since our last Grand Voyage with them in Jan 2010. Have they refurbished the Coral deck cabin bathrooms or are are they still grim, industrial/functional only? Did they put in any real counter space or improve the lighting and cabinets in the bathrooms?

Any reports on room service as we missed that one totally and found we could only order from the dinner menu at the same time dinner was being served - and they had no "high seas" type menus for queasy stomachs. Has that changed?

We got wowed by the itinerary and the chance to get all those enrichment lectures seeing this engaging part of the world from the British history perspective. Best part of this trip will be knowing what to expect and how to pack 100% better than we did on our first Discovery Grand Voyage. There will be some repeats - running out of excitement for Phuket, but we can handle that one more time. Think we will just stay on the ship that day but who knows, that Thai spa day also sounds like a contender shore excursion.

But lots new in this itinerary and getting to see this remote part of the world from the comfort of our own ship is the way to go for us. Planning on hot and muggy again but can it really be worse than what we encountered last time when we traversed the equator - this time we will be a bit more north so maybe it will be better than directly over and around it.

This time I truly do get to leave half of what I had planned to take home. And best of all since we start in Singapore I know where all the discount gadget shops are to make cabin life for a long voyage (37 days) a little easier for us.

I'm always interested in your off-the-beaten-wave cruises on Discovery. Your report from the last voyage was fascinating. I think I've mentioned that I've sailed on her before, when she was the Island Princess. That was back in 1977. She is the sister to my ship of the heart, Pacific Princess. It's a tribute to their integrity, their masters and their owners that both are still going strong.

I look forward to your well-written reviews.

Mrs Muir

HI Swiss Myst,

We can't help you with your questions as we were on Discovery in 2009 but pleased to see you will be on half the trip we are on. We leave from Sydney and get off in Mumbai (39 nights) and then do the 3 night Indian extension. One of the appealing things to us about this trip is that we won't be jet lagged when we start! We have only the short hop across the Tasman (lovely) but will actually be spending a week in Sydney first staying with our daughter and son-in-law so will be able to be taken to the ship by them and leave in a relaxed state. You have written such comprehensive reports of your last trip and we will look forward to meeting you.

We are in cabin 4398. We had an inside cabin last cruise and decided to "splash out" on an outside one as we are on board so long this time. Hopefully it will be an OK one. We weren't offered a lot of choice.

Jean

We are on the same cruise first time discovery 4 of us,singapore to safaga then we are staying in egypt for 8days have you been informed what visas we require,one question will the visa that ship provides for egypt cover us for the extra days in egypt?

Hi Swiss Myst

We were on Coral Deck (3119) in July this year, the bathrooms were the same as the year before (when we were on Bali deck) no extra storage or surfaces just the small mirrored cupboards either side of the main bathroom mirror, but I did find it bright enough. I think all the bathrooms are being refitted November 2012 when in dry dock.

Haven't tried the room service so can't comment on that, but they do always have something simple like a jacket potato on the menu, I quite often asked for something simpler in the restaurant if I wasn't feeling great or hungry and got it, maybe it depends on who you know ;) I guess there might changes to room service if they make changes the dining (open dining) as reported.

We are on the same cruise first time discovery 4 of us,singapore to safaga then we are staying in egypt for 8days have you been informed what visas we require,one question will the visa that ship provides for egypt cover us for the extra days in egypt?

Great to hear you also thought this was one terrific itinerary. We are excited and half the fun is the planning and anticipation.

My own first guess is your ship group visa will not cover you for your 8 day land extension in Egypt, unless perhaps you remain with a ship's post-cruise extension tour group and remain under their umbrella, but my guess for this length of time you will need your own separate visa.

Have you checked this online with the Egyptian embassy? - that is always my first and best resource when I start looking. I think it is the ship's best practice to require passengers themselves to ensure final responsibility in these matters.

My own cynical conclusion is visas are far more a profit center for countries than any security check point hurdle for "aliens" like they may have been in the past.

We have to get an India visa ourselves, just like we did last time. Also just starting to look at the others but assume the ship will cover most other smaller stops.

Thanks to all your prior posters for all the kind words about my own prior Discovery posts back in 2010 - there was such a dearth of practical information before we took our 2010 Grand Voyage that I did want to at least provide some planning information and descriptions of life on board so others could know what they would find because this is such a unique cruising experience.

Sorry to hear the bathrooms will still be grim but we now know to bring some of those 3M "Command" cabin enhancement hooks, shelves and shower caddies to perk things up a bit to make it more serviceable.

Good news is this trip I won't have to count how many coat hangers fit into the tiny closets or measure drawer space. Bad news is I will still probably over pack and there will never be enough room even though I came home with half my items unworn.

Since we are going back to these hot and humid areas again I am sticking to far more linen which we found worked the best and I stuck to only the same few items day after day with evening hose downs in the shower and dry and ready to go the next day with the "wrinkles" smoothed out by hand until they immediately wrinkled up again but for the tropics it was just the right thing to be wearing.

I bring some of those foam travel hangers for this shower bath laundry for my linen things. As well as lots of wire coat hangers so I can pack more in the closets because all they offer are heavy wooden hangers which take up too much room themselves.

I kept the great hanging shoe rack from our last Discovery trip which helped a lot too so that will be in the bottom of my suitcase on this next trip.

My biggest packing error was watching the marketing video and seeing women in "outfits" during the day so I packed twin sets and skirts and ensembles only to find tee-shirts, shorts/capris and sandals were pretty much the uniform of the day during the day and while on shore.

Petra is going to be our biggest challenge - i see there is a tour that gives you (only) three hours inside the valley and we hope to ditch the tour and go out on our own as I had spent two days there in the past so we can reach some of the more remote upper locations.

Not sure how that will work time wise but that is such a special place I don't want to just wander around the valley floor with a group. That is the stop I wish had been the overnight stop because it is hard to do justice to the place on a whirlwind one day long distance drive from Aqaba.

Let the planning fun begin. Meanwhile I think I have another cruise inbetween that should start getting some attention to as well ......... but this Discovery one is the biggie - off to far away places and strange sounding names ... calling, calling me ... and thee!

(Moved here from another thread)

Originally Posted by adaminaby

Hi swissmyst,

we are sail on this cruise we are australian,are you getting your own visas before leaving or using the ships option,have read in cc it can take a couple of hours to get them on the ship at each port,does your itinerary say we go to jeddah march31?

Wow, thanks for making me take a look. The Saudi stop was one of the reasons we chose this trip and just last night I was picturing what I would look like in a burka, but looking this morning at our itinerary printout I see March 31 is listed as an "at sea" day. Boo. Just checked the brochure and indeed it shows and list the Jeddah stop. We need to explore this more and see if this is just a temporary removal or permanent. That puts a big hole in this trip.

__________________

Dear Swissmyst,Since you have sailed on discovery before with regards to visas,did you do any independant sight seeing,if so did you get visas before you left or get them as visa on entry at each port,and are the visas that the cruise supply at a cost allow you to go independantly,i thought the cost for the Jordian visa was a bit steep 39 pounds for 6 hrs,do you know if the Egypt visa is a transit visa or a tourist visa?:confused:

Dear Swissmyst,Since you have sailed on discovery before with regards to visas,did you do any independant sight seeing,if so did you get visas before you left or get them as visa on entry at each port,and are the visas that the cruise supply at a cost allow you to go independantly,i thought the cost for the Jordian visa was a bit steep 39 pounds for 6 hrs,do you know if the Egypt visa is a transit visa or a tourist visa?:confused:

We did India (Mumbai) on our own on a prior cruise and had to get the separate visas. We might be taking the Agra/Delhi extension on this cruise so not sure if we will need them or not, if we are on the ship's own excursion arrangements.

On the Discovery Grand Voyage from Hong Kong to Capetown we did not need a single visa as I recall. Everything was handled by the ship, but we also did a lot of shore excursions. I don't think there was much problem needing independent visas for US citizens on that collection of countries.

For that cruise i went online and learned from all their visa office what the requirements were and was surprised for the number of countries we would be visiting we did not need a single visa.

Last minute worries about cholera vaccinations being required out of Madagascar, but that got cancelled before we left but after we had made our appointments to get the shots. Cancelled that appointment too.

Have not yet looked into the Jordan visa situation, but we plan on taking the shore excursion to Petra so we will have to find out if the "group visa" concept will work for that too, or if we need a separate visa even though we will be traveling on the shore excursion. Again, thanks for the heads up.

Petra is such a wonderful place if you have not been there that it is worth the extra costs and that clearly does need to be done as a shore excursion because of the limited time.

Aqaba has little charm in itself so one would wonder if it was worth the extra cost for a visa just to see that. But it does have some nice opportunities and food to explore. it IS Jordan and Jordan overall is one of my favorite countries. The people are terrific and welcoming in the nicest way. There is historical merit to visit Aqaba as well. Lawrence of Arabia and all that.

We plan on the shore excursion that gives you 3 hours on the Petra valley floor, where we plan on ditching the tour and explore it more on our own.

Sure hope before this itinerary gets finalized they find a way to add an extra day in Jordan for the one they took away in Saudi Arabia. Giving Petra an overnight excursion would be my preference, so getting that Jordanian visa if we need it may still be a requirement

Still time for all of this to sort out - - and who knows who or what will be blowing up or getting hijacked in this part of the world by then (March 2012)--- which is why we are going there, right? :p I really appreciate you doing so much homework ahead of time and giving me all these alerts.

We have another cruise coming up first before I start digging into the specifics of the Discovery one next. We really look forward to be back on her particularly for all the enrichment lectures that make what we see even more magical because of the context and history they provide.

Please, I hope you keep sharing what you find on this thread. We are into this adventure together now and it will be great.

We did India (Mumbai) on our own on a prior cruise and had to get the separate visas. We might be taking the Agra/Delhi extension on this cruise so not sure if we will need them or not, if we are on the ship's own excursion arrangements.

 

Hi Swiss Myst,

There is a Roll Call for Discovery that covers some of the visa information. I have also started a Roll Call for Sydney to Mumbai with the extension but nobody has replied yet. However as regards a visa for India you do need one, I think even if doing ship's tours, but definitely if doing the Golden Triangle extension. More info is in the Roll Call thresd.

Jean

Hi Swissmyst

Emailed TRAVELFORUM and this might interest you in regards to jordan visa,obtaining voa is usually cheaper and easier than on board,if you arrive at Aquaba you will either be issued a transit visa or an ASEZ visa but in either case there will be NO VISA FEE, i had previously read this on the Jordian website,so why is cruise line charging $60 aud?If they cancell Jeddah and go to Sharm el Sheikh which is quite possible i wonder if we will have to have multi entry visa for egypt?:confused:

Hi Swissmyst

Emailed TRAVELFORUM and this might interest you in regards to jordan visa,obtaining voa is usually cheaper and easier than on board,if you arrive at Aquaba you will either be issued a transit visa or an ASEZ visa but in either case there will be NO VISA FEE, i had previously read this on the Jordian website,so why is cruise line charging $60 aud?If they cancell Jeddah and go to Sharm el Sheikh which is quite possible i wonder if we will have to have multi entry visa for egypt?:confused:

Sharm el Sheikh is such an artificial Egyptian tourist oddity that I wonder if they put up any barriers at all for tourists to visit. These visa questions is getting to be very interesting challenge for this trip and also wonder because visa's are waived for some countries that any ship quoted prices might be for passengers from countries that are not included under the waivers.

Noticed your comments about the cabins - do you recommend taking items for storage/hanging. Did you manage washing in your room without having to use the laundry service. I see that there is a specific mention that a travel iron is not permissable and was wondering if they have a pressing service as opposed to a full laundry service.

Is this the correct forum to seek out passengers wanting to share travel arrangements on land as opposed to taking the ship excursions?

Noticed your comments about the cabins - do you recommend taking items for storage/hanging. Did you manage washing in your room without having to use the laundry service. I see that there is a specific mention that a travel iron is not permissable and was wondering if they have a pressing service as opposed to a full laundry service.

 

Is this the correct forum to seek out passengers wanting to share travel arrangements on land as opposed to taking the ship excursions?

Hi, we did all our laundry in the cabin but we had that larger one next to the dispensary so we had an empty corner to set up this great drying rack we bought in Singapore at a 99 cent type store.

It set up like an umbrella with a tall center stem and folding tripod legs with two tiers of spokes with built in clothes pins. We hope we find another one for this next trip. We also got a small room fan and sometimes we would run the fun under the trip pod to hasten the drying but with the A/C system just about everything dried overnight. It somewhat looked like this but had a second lower tier and built in clothes pins on the arms. It was great! http://compare.ebay.com/like/250915015995?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar

You can also string something across the room for drying as well and do your laundry in the sink and hang it in the bathroom on all the protuding pipes. (Very industrial). We bought a squeeze mustard bottle again at the 99 cent store in Singapore and filled it with detergent and this served us very well to do things in the sink. At lot of underwear and socks mainly, and night clothes.

We also ended up wearing a lot of linen things over and over when we were out touring on this Indian Ocean trip (hot, hot, hot) which we just hosed down in the shower and hung up dripping wet on a puffy hanger and smoothed out the wrinkles and left to dry, almost in a few hours. That is my new travel fabric and when left to dry naturally it does pass rather respectively in its tropical rumpled state.

Did not have or need a travel iron and used the steamy closed bathroom to get any packing wrinkles out and packed fairly durable travel fabrics for the most part. This is not a "fashion forward" ship - shorts and tee shirts during the day and serviceable dinner wear at night with some degree of glitter and formality.

Thanks for the tip on the roll call. I will have to go on over there to see what more I can learn. But first I get to do a trans-atlantic for 23 days before I have to start thinking about returning to our dear Discovery again.

I do think some organizer baskets for the drawer, those shoe pocket hangers, and those 3M 'On Command" hanging hooks and even little racks and shelves for the shower can make a huge difference in cabin comfort. If you have time in you embarkation port, look for a cheap variety store and stock up on these cabin helpers.

We took a look around the cabin after we got on and had a few days in Hong Kong and then a week later in Singapore to get things pretty well tricked out for our 42 day haul. Both those port cities specialize in tiny apartment space saving items which worked perfectly in these very small Discovery cabins.

But if you don't have time, then do pack some of those extra closet storage helpers that can take advantage of any free wall space either in the room or cabin, as well as some of those travel hangers made out of sturdy foam (not inflatable which collapse under wet weight) so you can dry things on a larger diameter surface hanger. There are some stretchy drying cords even with little clothes pins built into them that would be the way around drying things in your cabin or bathroom.

We never tried the laundry but I don't think it was cheap. The good thing is between segments you often have up to 3 days in the same port so you can find a laundromat or laundry services to get some of the bulk of things done during that time in port if you want to get around the onboard ship laundry charges.

But I think the best thing is to pack with laundry ease in mind, and start picking up local port logo tee-shirts rather than washing things out. The dress up clothes only get worn a few hours every week or so, so that is really not too burdensome to make those last for the whole trip. It was the underwear and the hot climate touring clothes that needed the most washing and that really was not all that hard to get done in room.

Hi swissmyst, just read this after posting Q about Coral deck!

Is it noisy down there from the engines? One of us is light sleeper and had cruise ruined by cabin directly above engine room ( it was a freighter ). Cant bear the thought of enduring the noises, especially the pistons again for 33 nights!

Thanks