Chaos on Constellation!!

So.... we had to miss our last stop (Oman) this morning due to high winds. Fair enough. We made speedy progress to Abu Dhabi where we were due to dock tomorrow morning. NOT allowed off the ship, but spent a pleasant enough day chilling etc. Tonight at 10.15pm, an announcement was made that ALL passengers were required to have a face to face meeting with immigration THIS EVENING and hand in their passport - which had only just been returned to us.

TOTAL CHAOS ensued as the announcement neglected to tell us where to go!!! Eventually, by word of mouth and FINALLY an announcement, we sorted out what to do. Called by deck number, but of course most didn't wait for their deck to be called. HUGE queue to GET OFF (!!!!) the ship and go through immigration to hand in our passports - to add insult to injury, the nice immigration officer greeted everyone with 'Welcome to Abu Dhabi!"

Left wondering how we would get them back. About 15 mins ago (at 11pm) a further announcement - our passports would be ready for collection from the Rendez-vous lounge at our convenience from 4am!!!

Oh and of course we have to vacate our rooms by 7am in the morning!!!

If you are travelling on Celebrity in this part of the world - you have been warned!! More to follow when we get home re the fiasco in Mumbai!!

Seems you're going to need to get to bed EARLY tonight. :rolleyes:

How much the fiasco was Celebrity and how much was local authorities? Not a part of the world I would choose to see in the first place but after reading your post it is one I can just cross off all together.

Boarding a week from Monday and will see who causes what problems if any.

I've missed many scheduled ports for many different reasons and problems with immigration both on and off the ship. I don't know if any of the problems were caused by the Crew on the ships. Passengers:yes. Port officials: yes. A non functioning gangway: Yes. Weather: yes.

I understand that some parts of the world have more problems than others, but it's all part of the experience and I expect problems. Let's see if I've underestimated what I'm about to find. Thanks for the warning.

Just completed a 27 day cruise in Asia originating in Dubai on Azamara Journey. We had five stops in India alone with many different requirements at each port. Everything was handled beautifully by Azamara (under the direction of the amazing Heike Berdos, the hotel manager). While I realize that we were on a much smaller ship and that things can happen in the last minute (as happened on our cruise), we were always well informed and had schedules for appearing for face to face immigration and for picking up our passports. I'm sorry your cruise ended in such disarray.

Hope you enjoyed the rest of your cruise. What an intriguing part of the world!

Can you imagine the "chaos" that would ensue if there were ever an "emergency" aboard almost any cruise ship?

We know that everybody who attends the safety drill always pays attention, especially those passengers who are now on their 98th cruise.

I'm sorry, but I do not ever, EVER want to be even close to that sort of situation. I'm sure the OP's description of "chaos" was accurate enough not to mention what the ship folks had to do to "persuade" those passengers who decided they were too busy or too angry to participate.

Having been to Abu Dhabi and for the inagural sailing there, the local authorities do make this harder by requiring face to face drop off of passports. It could easily have gone something like this:

- Constellation arrives earlier than expected, local authorities say, we're not ready, no one can get off.

- She ship knows this is going to be ugly if they wait until morning, and continue to ask for immigration to occur before the morning.

- 10:30 they're told by local authorities that they're ready and we need everyone off to do a face to face

- Message is passed on, but part is missed and trouble ensures.

- You have to have your passport back in the morning, so they're going to go through and stamp them all overnight, and have them available at 4am. The original poster may need to be off, but not everyonoe does, we didn't even leave our cabin for breafkast until 7:59:59. Suite passengers, while not a huge number) don't have to pick them up as they will be delivered by the butlers.

I would be more worried about the line to have luggage scanned (by local authorities) than getting my passport back.

Happy sailing,

Jenna

Most - not all but most of the confusion in all these situations is becasue of lack of communication. If they would just tell everyone what is going on, what they need to do then things generally go a bit smoother.

Sorry you're having a bad time getting off but hope it all turns out for you.

From friend. I was pretty close. Amazing how fast information can travel in the information age ;) Not even December 10th here yet!

Happy sailing,

Jenna

Having been to Abu Dhabi and for the inagural sailing there, the local authorities do make this harder by requiring face to face drop off of passports. It could easily have gone something like this:Jenna

From friend. I was pretty close.

Jenna

Ms. Jenna,

I would say, you just about nailed the situation. :)

We were on the same trip, heard the announcement whilst having a post first show coffee, waited for our deck to be called and we were off and back on in less than 10 minutes. We had an early taxi booked so no issues with passport collection and we were off the ship in minutes, now at Dubai airport.

Back home next week and will post some further notes but overall an excellent cruise with just a few issues that we expected around Indian beuorocracy.

From friend. I was pretty close. Amazing how fast information can travel in the information age ;) Not even December 10th here yet!

 

Happy sailing,

Jenna

Nailed it :)

I was on the Suez cruise that ended up in Abu Dhabi with Jenna. The crew are having to react to some fairly arbitrary decisions by the local authorities (which were changing by the minute when we arrived too). Those of us who have travelled in this part of the world were less surprised and flustered than some, perhaps....

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We were on the same trip, heard the announcement whilst having a post first show coffee, waited for our deck to be called and we were off and back on in less than 10 minutes. We had an early taxi booked so no issues with passport collection and we were off the ship in minutes, now at Dubai airport.

 

Who did you use for transportation to the Dubai airport?

We were on the same trip, heard the announcement whilst having a post first show coffee, waited for our deck to be called and we were off and back on in less than 10 minutes. We had an early taxi booked so no issues with passport collection and we were off the ship in minutes, now at Dubai airport.

 

 

 

Back home next week and will post some further notes but overall an excellent cruise with just a few issues that we expected around Indian beuorocracy.

Nicely handled. I find how one behaves in unexpected situations (which will happen when traveling) determines at least 50% of the perceived "chaos".

Good letter from X too.

I would agree that the early arrival most likely created the problem. On Azamara last month we had zero problems with immigration in any of the ports including Abu Dhabi despite all the face to face inspections and having to turn in and pick back up our passports on no less than 3 occasions.

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How much the fiasco was Celebrity and how much was local authorities? Not a part of the world I would choose to see in the first place but after reading your post it is one I can just cross off all together.

These countries and ports are simply spectacular, but to each his own. Enjoy your 31st stop in Cozumel [emoji849]

Sorry, but I just find it disrespectful when someone who has never been dishes an entire county and culture.

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These countries and ports are simply spectacular, but to each his own. Enjoy your 31st stop in Cozumel [emoji849]

 

Sorry, but I just find it disrespectful when someone who has never been dishes an entire county and culture.

 

 

 

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In that part of the world you can get imprisoned, lashed or even beheaded for yor sexual orientation. That for me is a good enough reason to never visit anywhere in the middle east except Israel. Also two weeks ago a women was raped in Dubai she went to the police to report the crime and she was then arrested. If you were black would you have gone to South Africa in the 70's or 80's? I maybe being disrespectful in your eyes but in mine it's called survival.

ps I have never been to Cozumel

[quote=theborders. Also two weeks ago a women was raped in Dubai she went to the police to report the crime and she was then arrested.

I am sorry but you are incorrect-the rape was consensual as it turned out-she was on camera in the elevator with the 2 guys in question. They have all been released and returned home!

[quote name=theborders. Also two weeks ago a women was raped in Dubai she went to the police to report the crime and she was then arrested.

 

I am sorry but you are incorrect-the rape was consensual as it turned out-she was on camera in the elevator with the 2 guys in question. They have all been released and returned home![/quote]

 

Maybe it was conensual does not say in this article http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/22/british-woman-arrested-claiming-raped-dubai-free-go/

my point is the first thing they did was arrest the women for having extra marital sex.

Whilst I agree if you are in another country you should follow their laws there are to many laws I fundamentally disagree with for me to ever go to these parts of the middle east, which was the whole point of my post after someone said it was disrespectful to say they would not want to travel to a certain area.

I was giving my opinion as to why I will not go to that region. If you want to nit pick over whether a women was or was not raped you have to agree she was arrested.

I would be pretty unhappy to be roused from my bed at 10:15 (which is almost universally where I am after 9:30 at night.)

Who did you use for transportation to the Dubai airport?

Taxis should be readily available, are highly regulated and efficient. You can try blacklane as well but we had less success with them in the UAE as elsewhere.

Nicely handled. I find how one behaves in unexpected situations (which will happen when traveling) determines at least 50% of the perceived "chaos".

 

Good letter from X too.

 

I would agree that the early arrival most likely created the problem. On Azamara last month we had zero problems with immigration in any of the ports including Abu Dhabi despite all the face to face inspections and having to turn in and pick back up our passports on no less than 3 occasions.

 

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I agree with you but Celebrity has nearly three times the passengers than Azamara so challenges of immigration and disembarkation will be harder.

Happy sailing,

Jenna

In that part of the world you can get imprisoned, lashed or even beheaded for yor sexual orientation. That for me is a good enough reason to never visit anywhere in the middle east except Israel. Also two weeks ago a women was raped in Dubai she went to the police to report the crime and she was then arrested. If you were black would you have gone to South Africa in the 70's or 80's? I maybe being disrespectful in your eyes but in mine it's called survival.

 

ps I have never been to Cozumel

I was just there with my wife, and a good number of other LGBT members onboard. We (my wife and I) don't share your opinion at all. Of all of the countries in the Middle East, Israel was the one that we felt the LEAST safe.

There are rumors that Oman's leader could be gay, and a large and accepted gay community, we had no problems in Jordan and the UAE. Dubai is 80% ex pats and while there may be laws, the reality, like a number of states in the USA don't always match reality. This is not Saudi Arabia where things are much different. While an article was sited on a recent race case, the same things can found, and much worse in the USA.

Heck, if I was from a Muslim country in the Middle East I would be afraid to come to the USA. Many trans people are worried about visiting North Carolina and Texas and for good reason. If you want to talk cruise ports, most of the Caribbean islands are very anti LGBT with Jamaica at the top of the list as worst, but many of the people are nice including the staff from Jamaica I met onboard Connie. Id rather go to Oman than Jamaica for being rested well, and respectfully by all citizens.

Don't let a few rumors and things you read online stop you from getting the real story and seeing beautiful places, meeting wonderful people and exploring other cultures.

Happy sailing,

Jenna

Who did you use for transportation to the Dubai airport?

It was a private transfer, via our travel agent so I don't know who it was sorry

How good was the Internet service on the Constellation?

How good was the Internet service on the Constellation?

Derail

I was just there with my wife, and a good number of other LGBT members onboard. We (my wife and I) don't share your opinion at all. Of all of the countries in the Middle East, Israel was the one that we felt the LEAST safe.

 

There are rumors that Oman's leader could be gay, and a large and accepted gay community, we had no problems in Jordan and the UAE. Dubai is 80% ex pats and while there may be laws, the reality, like a number of states in the USA don't always match reality. This is not Saudi Arabia where things are much different. While an article was sited on a recent race case, the same things can found, and much worse in the USA.

 

Heck, if I was from a Muslim country in the Middle East I would be afraid to come to the USA. Many trans people are worried about visiting North Carolina and Texas and for good reason. If you want to talk cruise ports, most of the Caribbean islands are very anti LGBT with Jamaica at the top of the list as worst, but many of the people are nice including the staff from Jamaica I met onboard Connie. Id rather go to Oman than Jamaica for being rested well, and respectfully by all citizens.

 

Don't let a few rumors and things you read online stop you from getting the real story and seeing beautiful places, meeting wonderful people and exploring other cultures.

 

Happy sailing,

Jenna

Hi I totally accept your opinion, and know a lot of LGBT people visit these countries. My partner & I would never (our decission) but then I also would never tell someone they were being disrepectful for saying they would not go (not saying that you did) I have only been to a couple of places in the Caribbean, I know they also have anti LGBT laws, and again not overly keen on visiting the Caribbean but I would go, not sure if that makes me a hypocrite? We went to Israel the last 2 years on a land based hoilday and loved it, stayed in Jerusalem, The Golan Heights & Tel Aviv (felt very safe) our last two days in Tel Aviv the gay pride week was starting.

I am not a muslim but think I will be giving the US a miss over the next 4 years.

For me there are still a lot of places I would like to visit and can still give places a miss without feeling I am misisng out. I would never tell someone they are wrong to visit a place which was the whole point of my 1st post if someone feels stongly they don't want to spend their hard earned money in a certain country that is fine with me, it is their decision.

I think this shows how people look at things differently , I loved Israel and would love to retire there (not Jewish) for the beauty the weather, culture and the people, but if I fly to Australia I would only book a flight that did not refuel in the middle east. I think it would be incorrect to say I am wrong you may not agree (which is fine) but hopefully you would accept my opinon.

Never heard about the rumors of Oman's leader will have to google it out of interest.