Silver Discoverer Russia Problems?

Can anyone confirm, Silver Discoverer denied entry on present cruise? If so this will cause havoc with next itinerary, some 11 scheduled stops in Russia!!

I think this is so from Spinaker postings on 'Water Cooler' but it's easy to get lost there!!

Thanks indeed.

I found this link on line from The Siberian Times paper.

http://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/russian-fsb-bans-eighty-five-cruise-passengers-coming-ashore-in-chukotka/

There is also this post from Cruise Critic

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=5930

Many thanks indeed, does not sound too good.

Comment from the Siberian Times news page .....

Who cares! These opulent spoilt tourist wanting to flaunt their wealth in front of some of the most poorest people on this planet, Travelling in such excessive luxury demeans the very idea of a holiday. The whole concept is to advertise their wealth as they can't do it at home, because the neighbour might just be a bit richer. I thought only immortality couldn't be bought but I was wrong ! Wow you also can't buy a stay in Chukotka, ha ha ha ha

Patrick .btw Good on yer Chukotka !

 

Patrick Travers, Perth Australia30/07/2014 21:1912

Seems a touch jealous ......:D

Yes, I can confirm that they were denied landing in Russia. I have a couple of friends currently onboard. Not just Silver Discoverer though, also a Hanseatic ship and maybe another. The passengers had the appropriate visas and paper work. The ship had the appropriate paperwork as far as they knew. But someone in the Russian government has decided to throw their weight around apparently.

Too bad for the people in the villages as they had planned activites and excursions for the passengers. They lose out on that income now.

The Discoverer rerouted to Alaska, and has visited a couple of new ports there with rave reviews from the passengers. These are places that a cruise ship has never visited before, and they have received a very warm welcome. I take it the plan is to visit these on the next cruise if things don't get straightened out with Russia.

Explorer was also to visit Russia in a few weeks, and that may be affected as well. As far as I am concerned, I would just tell the Russian bureaucrats to take a hike and stick with the Alaskan ports where the ship's visit is appreciated.

Our very own spinnaker2 has been reporting this woeful tale to his pals on watercooler directly from the ship for a few days now .....

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=43542463&postcount=1829

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=43545172&postcount=1833

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=43558822&postcount=1853

Spinnaker here confirming Discoverer denied entry into Russia last week.

T'was a beautiful sunny day and we moored at the dock in Provideniya. Border guards and others came aboard. we never got off.

We rerouted and as reported above in one of the posts did go to Wales in Alaska, not visited by cruise ships. I can't say that i was happy about the changes, but we had no choice and made the best of it. The people of Wales met us on the beach and were delightfully welcoming. I believe that was genuine and we enjoyed meeting them.

Itinerary had to be changed and were were told it was due to a directive from Moscow.

I and others spoke and wondered what the Discoverer will do in the next weeks about the Russian port stops.

I will refrain from political commentary on the subject.

Someplace I read today that they were hoping to stop at ports on Kamchatka but it was not confirmed. Here's hoping since there isn't a lot else on the way down to japan.

This link that was posted on another board indicates that things are back on track:

http://en.itar-tass.com/non-political/743122

Freddie, since you can read Russian, can you comment on the articles in the Russian press? I can only read the google translation which obviously is lacking. Does it really say the ship is full of wealthy American pensioners? If so, Goerge would have loved to have been there. That is a title he would embrace (since it is hysterically incorrect).

freddie, since you can read russian, can you comment on the articles in the russian press? I can only read the google translation which obviously is lacking. Does it really say the ship is full of wealthy american pensioners? If so, goerge would have loved to have been there. That is a title he would embrace (since it is hysterically incorrect).

lol

The Avid Cruiser is onboard the current 15 days cruise from Nome and is posting a daily blog.

Be interested in his review

As I just got off

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Confirmed by Conrad that they are now cruising the Russian coast and did a stop in Provideniya on the 2nd august with no problems this time.

According to Russian-language news stories, border patrol claimed that the cruise company did not get prior approval for their itinerary with the local authorities. Although they did mention that basically the local authorities later admitted that the miscommunication may have been their fault. They received the paperwork for itineraries in February, and then in May they got an official letter *recommending* that foreign cruises not be allowed in port. Basically it was a bureaucratic mess which they made sure to resolve, since Chukotka's governor was not exactly thrilled about the loss of tourist dollars (and personally got the wheels turning to get this resolved before the next ship arrived in port).

None of the Russian articles that I read mentioned that the passengers are "wealthy" :) They did mention that most of them were pensioners and/or elderly. Some of them actually listed all the countries that the passengers hail from, to show that it was a pretty diverse bunch.

The Avid Cruisers blog has started -

http://www.avidcruiser.com/2014/08/03/silver-discoverer-day-1-boarding-nome-cruise-russias-far-east/

The itinerary is intriguing!