40yearcruiser

If anyone has been to Dubai cruise port recently please post any information and experiences you have had about the port and how to access various sites around the city without taking a ship excursion. Also, which terminal does MSC use when docked overnight?

Has anyone had experience with boarding in Dubai? We have been assigned a 5 pm boarding time (the ship overnights in port and leaves the next day). Our problem is that we have to be out of our hotel by noon on boarding day. I am definitely not waiting 5 hours to check our luggage and get checked in. We don't cruise until late March so wonder what the chances are that the boarding time will change, and if it really matters what time we've been assigned.

How far in advance did you get the email from MSC for the visa application? Our cruise begins in about 2 1/2 months and we haven't received anything yet. So far our reservation shows our port as Jeddah so I'm assuming that is what we will enter for port of entry on the application unless we get a change of port notification from MSC. Thanks to all of you who have posted information. I'm hoping that any of you who have visited this port will post what your experience was there.

I don't know what line you are cruising, but we are going on MSC and in digging around on their website I found a section for information about immigration and visas with instructions for how to apply for the transit visa in Saudi Arabia, which is much less expensive. Here is the link: Cruise travel documents and Visas | MSC Cruises (msccruisesusa.com) If the above link doesn't work, go to the MSC homepage and scroll all the way to the bottom. Under Travel Info click on Before You Go. Then click on Travel Documents and Visas. There is a special section for Saudi Arabia Transit E-visa. It gives step by step instructions for completing the application. HOWEVER, there is a disclaimer that currently the application link has been having technical difficulties and sometimes the application doesn't go through. Since we still have a couple months before we cruise I will wait awhile before I try and hope that the "technical difficulties" are solved by then. If you try this, please post whether you are successful in getting the visa and any hints you might have for making it work.

Thanks for your reply. I'm glad you had the opportunity to go to Mecca, but that is not an option for us. We still have 2 ½ months before we get there so I am not going to rush into getting a visa yet. The evisa application websites I've found are through an agency and not the Saudi consulate and include a hefty "processing" fee. And I find no mention of the availability of the special maritime visa for cruise ship passengers. I want to explore all our options, including whether there are tours available that interest us, before I send off that amount of money. I hate to miss visiting that port but if it is super-expensive and there is little of interest it may be our best option to stay on the ship.

Sorry you didn't enjoy the Divina. The cruise experience on a European-based ship is different from the typical US ships. Because they have more of a mix of nationalities among their passengers the style of entertainment, service, and even cuisine is more subdued. We have done 4 cruises on MSC, 3 Caribbean and one transatlantic and have enjoyed their style. Two cruises have been after the Covid shutdown and the crew could not have been more attentive and enthusiatic to serve us. It seems that all the cruise lines (like many other businesses) are having problems with their suppliers. We were on a Princess ship over Christmas and they ran out of lemonade on the 3rd day of a 10-day cruise and also had shortages of other food items they usually have. It's unfortunately a widespread problem. We will be doing an 18-day Middle-East and repositioning cruise on the new MSC World Europa in a couple months. We can't wait to see their new ship. By the way, we also are frequent cruisers with cruises in all parts of the world, and over 700 days at sea on many different cruise lines, so have experienced things we love and things not so great. Don't count MSC out on one experience.

Thanks for the feedback. Did they question any over-the-counter meds? Also, did you get a visa on arrival at the Dubai airport (we are from the USA)? We will be arriving in the very early morning (like 3 am) and know we'll be exhausted so want to be sure not to encounter any problems.

Thank you for your offer of information. First, did you enjoy visiting that port? I'm concerned about the visa. We are from the USA. Did you get the evisa and how far in advance did you apply for it? Was it the special cruise visa and how much did it cost? I've googled but keep getting conflicting information. What did you do in port and was it a ship tour? I've been trying to gather information about what to do but there isn't a lot out there that I've found so any sources of information would be very helpful.

I see that it has been some time since this has had new information posted so I am hoping to get some updates. We will be arriving at Dubai airport early morning on 3/23/23. Since we are arriving in the middle of the night we have booked a room at the Holiday Inn Express at the airport. They are supposed to have a 24 hour shuttle service so that seemed our best option. We will be boarding the MSC World Europa on 3/25 and are planning to stay at the same hotel for the second night so that we won't have to change hotels. What are our transportation options to do some sightseeing from there? Is the metro a possibility? Also, what would be our best option to get to the port? Any information would be appreciated.

We will have a port stop in Jeddah on MSC World Europa in early April. Any information you can pass on about this port stop would be greatly appreciated. We will just have a day stop and will continue on with the ship. Any help from MSC on getting the special cruise visa for Saudi Arabia?

Thanks for the information. If we don't book something from the ship we will give this a try.

I emailed Bonaire golf cart rental co. last night and had a reply today. Unfortunately, it just won't work for us. Our ship (Sky Princess) doesn't get in until noon so we would only be able to use it until they close at 5 pm and they don't do half day rentals. Also, there will be 3 of us and they only have 2-person carts available. I think our ship is the only one there that day (Dec.23) so if we don't decide on a ship tour we may check to see what they still have available.

Bonaire is a port on our Christmas cruise on Sky Princess. We have never visited this port before so don't know what to expect. Unfortunately our ship doesn't arrive until noon and we are afraid that any local excursions will be long gone. Where do you catch the water taxi to Klein Bonaire? Is there anything to do or see within walking distance from the ship?

Unfortunately I waited too long to book parking at my usual place for my cruise next month and it is now full. There is space available at an off-site lot called FT Parking, booked through Parkway Parking.com. There are no reviews on their website and I haven't found anything about it here. Anybody have experience with this lot?

We are also from Florida and have booked this cruise. The itinerary looks interesting and the lure of a brand new ship made us decide to give it a try. We get on in Dubai and off in Genoa--waited too long and then couldn't get a balcony into Rome but will figure it out. Haven't tried to get flights yet. Are debating where else we may want to travel to while over there. Looking forward to meeting new friends.

Stunning with the blue skies and sunshine! We can only hope it will be that beautiful next week when we are there 😎.

Thanks so much for the wonderful photos and commentary! We will be getting on the Bliss right after you get off. This will be our 2nd cruise to Alaska but the first was 14 years ago so it's nice to get a refresher of what to see. We are also flying in to Seattle (using NCL-made air reservations) on Saturday morning from the East coast. Keeping fingers crossed no flight delays to make us miss the ship. Enjoy the rest of your cruise and keep the information coming.

Is there any lotion available in the regular balcony cabins?

Anyone who's been there recently? Is the tram at the top of the gondola running now? We are going on Norwegian Bliss in 3 weeks and have reserved the excursion including the tram but will cancel if it isn't running.

Thanks for the suggestion, but we fly out of Seattle the day we disembark. Hopefully another time we will get to visit Victoria.

I was afraid it would be difficult, if not impossible, to see anything of Victoria. Since we've never been there we are very disappointed not to have a reasonable port time. And it's even worse now than when we booked the cruise. Originally the arrival time was 7 pm and we were later notified that it was changed to 8:00. Hopefully some day we'll get there in the daytime.

Oops! We will be there on Friday, Sept. 9. By the time I realized my mistake I was too late to edit.

We will be in Victoria on Norwegian Bliss on Sept. 9 only from 8 pm until midnight. Is there anything we can do safely from the port in that timeframe?

We will be arriving in Victoria on Norwegian Bliss from 8 pm until midnight on Sept. 8. I'm assuming it will be dark either when or shortly after we arrive. Is there anywhere near the port that we can safely walk to, and anything to see or do, after dark? Most of the ship tours are sightseeing by bus--but what can we see in the dark? We would appreciate any suggestions.

We are on the Bliss Sept. 3 and the only entertainment shown for the theater is Jersey Boys and it is "not available to book". Hopefully SIX isn't leaving at the end of August.