Advice on a cruise itinerary

Hi there

Some of you may recall that we took our first Seabourn cruise last year on Sojourn over Christmas, (that couple with the 13 year old child :) ). We all had a great time and loved the whole experience - what's not to like!

We are tossing around the idea of another Seabourn cruise and the South African holiday 14 day trip is the most obvious. We will know a few people on board, the ports of call are much better than our last venture and Seabourn do Christmas & the New Year very well.

The downside is that compared to our usual Thailand trip around that time it's a lot more expensive and having just come off a family cruise aboard Royal Caribbean I quite fancy just wandering around in shorts for 3 weeks without the constrains of arrival & departure times, formal nights and so on.

Now for the question:

There is an 18 day Egyptian gems and holy land cruise departing March 31st from Mumbai. We can fly out to Mumbai upper class pretty much free of charge and the cruise is good value. My concerns centre around political instability and the fact that unlike the holiday cruise I imagine many people will be doing the trip as part of a much longer tour, so possibly we would be "outsiders" to them.

Could the learned collective offer some thoughts ?

Thanks

Henry :)

Not sure that your assumptions re pax mix are correct. We did the leg HK to Mumbai last year and there was quite a big change of pax in Mumbai. It was quite "casual" for the legs we did and we found the same on the legs from Dubai onwards.

Our experience is that people don't worry about whether you might be disembarking earlier than them and you will not be outsiders.

When we went through the Suez about 3 years ago pirates and instability in Egypt were an "issue", but they (SB) deal with all of that well.

Cruising in those areas with limited port time are interesting is interesting and quite relaxed. The weather is great for meals on the pool deck or outside in Colonnades.

Hi Henry,

Both trips will be good but I guess it all depends on whether the finances stack up,as you say the SA trip could be costly depending on what flights you take.i booked my BA flights a couple of weeks after we came off the Sojourn last Christmas.

Have you looked at a non direct flight with a different carrier? You might be able to go to Jo'burg with Virgin and change for Cape Town.

You will already know a few of us from last year and one important point is that we will be at sea on Christmas Day and New years day which will give a much better feel to the on board festivities.

I felt it a bit lacking last year because we were in port on those days.

How was your RCCL cruise?

You can still wonder around in shorts and there will probably be two formal optional evenings.

I know you enjoyed last year so bite the bullet and get it booked.

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Thanks for that guys.

Ultimately it won't stop us eating for the rest of the year if we do either cruise but the 18 night cruise from Mumbai is very good value given the redemption flights. We have hundreds of thousands of air miles with Virgin and have never previously been able to use them, so that appeals.

Interesting what you say about your experience with the HK Mumbai trip.

The RCCL trip was ok but clearly not a patch on Seabourn. We found ourselves referring back to Sojourn on several occasions. It was a family trip with 19 of us so a different type of cruise. We had a suite with all the associated perks and also our loyalty benefits but you cant hide the fact that there are thousands of people on board clamouring for deck chairs, food, drinks and so on as well as kids littering the lifts and public spaces. I wonder whether mainstream cruising has fallen into an abyss from which it can't recover.

Bizarrely with the exception of the ice show which was amazing and a great Queen tribute act I didn't experience much in the way of entertainment which couldn't have been repeated on Sojourn. I think the Sojourn singers and dancers punched well above their weight and the acts which worked best on our Royal Caribbean trip don't need a huge theatre.

Even a year on we still have very fond memories of our time aboard Sojourn so much so that we are planning a return.

Henry :)

Their is a nice eleven nighter that might suit on the Sojourn next August 22nd

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Their is a nice eleven nighter that might suit on the Sojourn next August 22nd

 

 

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That's a lovely itinerary. Just need to see when Ems goes back to school. I suspect it will be September 3rd so a bit tight but do-able.

The only other consideration is that August is a potentially busy time with the boat charter business. Winter & Spring trips generally don't affect things.

Thanks for the heads up though, much appreciated.

Henry :)

Able Seaman - I don't fancy that itinerary at all. For one thing, why fly all the way to Mumbai and then have several days at sea before you get the first stop in Oman. Salalah is quite an interesting place, though. The Petra trip from Aqaba is long and arduous and Petra needs time - at least a full day. I did four days there. The drive across the flat dusty Egyptian desert to Luxor takes hours and is incredibly tedious one way, exhausting coming back. Again, Luxor and the surrounding sites are not really day-trip territory. As you get into the Med the weather can be lousy at that time of year. There are security issues as well in Egypt/Jordan, though if things get seriously unstable the ship won't go anyway.

Pretty simple - do them both! See you on board!

Cliff

It appears that instability in different countries, multiple diseases, security, etc. are going to have an ongoing effect on how some people choose to spend their vacation time. If you are open to travelling as well as cruising, the 18 day itinerary is excellent. However, if you are sailing with your child/adolescent/young adult, the itinerary might not be the best choice. There are multiple days at sea that might be increased if ports are changed. There will not be many, if any, other younger people (under 25) onboard. If you want to experience the world with your child/adolescent/young adult, it could be a trip of a lifetime!

The one day to Petra is exhausting, hot, dusty, and absolutely magnificent. I would gladly do the excursion again through Seabourn.

In Luxor, we chose the overnight Seabourn excursion. We loved it despite how "boring" the travel between the port and Luxor was, we saw so many different sides of Egypt and the guides/excursion/hotel/evening experience was well worth the money. I would definitely do this again and now could be the perfect time as the sites will not be overrun by tourists.

In Mumbai, I would take a private tour. We did a ship tour, not through Seabourn, and being part of a crowd within a crowd is not something I would choose to do again. However, we have friends who have taken private tours and they rave about their experiences.

I was not overwhelmed by Salalah, but it was a good experience. I prefer Muscat, but I am sure others will disagree.

Sharm el Sheik we did on our own using the shuttle. We had a great time and loved wandering the area. Do not count on ATM's in the resort. It was the only place where we used an ATM where our bank showed a withdrawal despite the fact the machine did not give us money and the withdrawal was cancelled. We had a fabulous meal in the tourist area just off the beach and a great time bartering for local clothing to wear to the Seabourn Egyptian night.

I loved the security detail onboard, the days at sea, the transit of the canal, the feeling of being somewhere that was nothing like home, and the days at sea where I could choose to do nothing or whatever was offered onboard. I found that many of the people on our sailing were "fun".

That being said, Cape Town and Richard's Bay are also two fabulous ports. Enjoy making the decision as to what fits you best!

You could try and use your Virgin air miles to fly from London to Cape Town to pick up the Sojourn cruise just before Christmas.

No-one can predict the future re instability and disease. My mother and sister are taking Sojourn from Barcelona to Cape Town in November. The ports of call at Dakar, Senegal and Banjul, Gambia have been cancelled and replaced with Malaga and Cadiz. No reasons have been given for these changes but it doesn't take a genius to work out why.

Mariners, I'm very glad to read your post; we are actually booked on the March 31 Mumbai to Athens. We are planning on doing the same excursions you took and do Mumbai on our own.

We have also had some misgivings, in fact we cancelled a similar booking with Regent in 2012 due to the political instability at the time, but figure if we wait until all is calm in that part of the world we may as well resign ourselves to never going!

Pretty simple - do them both! See you on board!

Cliff

Will you be on that cruise Cliff ?

Re: the ports of call not being ideal we might be a bit unusual in that we won't necessarily be off touring the popular sites. I will probably arrange some diving and similar activities.

Re: Emily and the number of sea days. Would you believe she actually enjoys being on board !! She had a great time at the quiz, with the entertainment crew (dance etc) and generally finds things to do. We raid the board games cupboard and play cards :)

Reassuring to know that Seabourn take on specialist armed staff where required. I know previously they relied on non lethal methods which have their limitations.

Henry :)

Able Seaman - I don't fancy that itinerary at all. For one thing, why fly all the way to Mumbai and then have several days at sea before you get the first stop in Oman.

Because we can easily fly there first (well virgin upper) class for free :)

Sadly there are no redemption flights available for South Africa.

Henry :)

Yes Henry - from Barcelona to Athens. Let us know what you decide.

Cliff

If you choose the 18 day itinerary, when you are in Sharm El Sheik, the shuttle bus takes you within walking distance of the beach area. There are many hotels that offer water sports as well as the beach area.

On one of our previously booked but cancelled trips to Egypt, we had found dive companies through Trip Advisor and other peoples' blogs that we were in touch with so that my DH could go diving.

Although our cruise on Seabourn to this area was in 2012, I thought you might be interested in reading some of the postings on the thread from when we went. Here is a link:

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1736355

Henry,

Have you seen the itinerary for the Sojourn Christmas 2015 Singapore to Hong Kong?

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Thanks for that Mariners, I've just read it through. Good to see Mr L was on top form bemoaning the block party. On Sojourn they had to pry him off the Christmas Carol conga line with a double Louis XIII. I counted him past our cabin 4 possibly 5 times :)

You talked about not being able to hold the deck party on deck one evening, was that weather or security related ?

I think we're probably going to book on to the cruise. I'm on the south coast for a couple of days as we have our charter boat out of the water for annual maintenance but once back we will set about finalising things.

Having done the Panama canal on Sojourn there does seems a symmetry to doing the Suez canal.

Christmas looks like a hop over to New York using air miles then onward to Mexico or the Caribbean. Looking around at some all inclusive resorts. Having said that I talked through a driving tour around Cape Town with one of my chaps at work who has extensive knowledge of the area......

Henry :)

Henry,

Have you seen the itinerary for the Sojourn Christmas 2015 Singapore to Hong Kong?

 

 

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Strangely cruising in Asia doesn't appeal massively. I love the area and spend quite a bit of time there. I've seen in a few New Years out there (both Western and Thai) the last being April. It isn't somewhere I want to dip in and dip out cruising style.

Many places come to life at night once the ship has set sail.

I know you could argue "just scratching the surface" with all cruises but for some reason Asia and cruising don't seem good bedfellows. In my humble opinion of course.

Henry :)

That's what I thought also Henry.

There is not much time in any of the ports and as you say they are best done land based.

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Thanks for that Mariners, I've just read it through. Good to see Mr L was on top form bemoaning the block party. On Sojourn they had to pry him off the Christmas Carol conga line with a double Louis XIII. I counted him past our cabin 4 possibly 5 times :)

 

You talked about not being able to hold the deck party on deck one evening, was that weather or security related ?

 

I think we're probably going to book on to the cruise. I'm on the south coast for a couple of days as we have our charter boat out of the water for annual maintenance but once back we will set about finalising things.

 

Having done the Panama canal on Sojourn there does seems a symmetry to doing the Suez canal.

 

Christmas looks like a hop over to New York using air miles then onward to Mexico or the Caribbean. Looking around at some all inclusive resorts. Having said that I talked through a driving tour around Cape Town with one of my chaps at work who has extensive knowledge of the area......

 

Henry :)

We thought Suez would be boring compared to Panama - were really wrong!

You little tease Cliff - how can we not go now :)

As per usual some great images.

I'm thinking bow hot tub with a glass of something chilled whilst transiting the canal. Now that is travelling in style !!

Henry :)

How inviting is that hot tub juxtaposed against the rather bleak and arid landscape!

Henry :)

 

 

 

How inviting is that hot tub juxtaposed against the rather bleak and arid landscape!

 

Henry :)

When we did it a couple of years ago - absolutely blistering heat and deluged with flies! Nevertheless worth seeing and experiencing.

Rather different from our recent Corinth Canal transit!

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Forgot to select the photo

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