Hapag-Lloyd to Debark Passengers Prior to Pirate-Infested Gulf of Aden

[LauraS]

Cruise Critic has just posted the following news:

Hapag-Lloyd to Debark Passengers Prior to Pirate-Infested Gulf of Aden

Read the entire news article...

[deepnite10]

it s not surprising that a cruiseline would eventually take such
action..

here s the AP story along with a short slide show..
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081209/ap_on_re_eu/piracy

[Arubalisa]

Impressive that the line would fly the passengers and put them up in a hotel on their own dime to insure the safety of their guests.

[Erica@cruisecritic]

I agree, Arubalisa. You know a cruise line must be worried when it's spending its own money to make a last-minute change! Then again, perhaps those are the perks you get when you pay the big bucks to sail on a luxury line.

[GatorGal]

Erica, please stay on top of this story for us cruisers who are scheduled to be sailing through the Gulf of Aden in the spring on world cruises. I'm wondering if the Hapag-Lloyd is able to do disembark her passengers and then meet up with them again because she is a small ship. I'll be on the Queen Victoria. Not sure if Cunard would fly that many passengers to circumvent the Gulf of Aden from Dubai and put them up in hotels until the ship arrives in Egypt.

[Jerendine]

Yemen? Has anybody wondered how much safer Yemen is than transiting the Gulf? Seems I call the odd terrorist attacks there, including the suicide attack on the USS Cole in 2000.

[Goldryder]

Probably in a minority here but I absolutely disagree with the stance from the Columbus and Vistamar passenger disembarkations.

Taking passengers off the ships is playing right into the hands of the pirates...they win. They are seeing shiploads of passengers getting off in Yemen and rubbing their grubby little hands.

They want people to be too scared to travel through the area, they want cruise lines to be scared to take passengers through the area and by disembarking off the two ships the lines are bowing down to the blighters and that is dead wrong.

Cruise lines should be standing up against them by sending their ships loaded through the Gulf of Aden and sticking up a finger towards those who want to cause trouble, and show that the cruise lines WILL NOT be ordered around by a bunch of losers.

The more ships that offload their passengers in the area, the more the pirates will think they are winning.

Companies should be standing up against them not scurrying away and hiding in fear.