Is Yemen/Red Sea Safe to Cruise past ?

We are on the Seabourn Encore October 2018 and transit through the Suez Canal to Dubai . we go past Jordan , Egypt , Saudi Arabia , Eritrea , and two hot spots Yemen and Somalia . What security measures will the Cruise line have in place ? Will they have Armed Security Persons on board and will we run dark at night ?

We are on the Seabourn Encore October 2018 and transit through the Suez Canal to Dubai . we go past Jordan , Egypt , Saudi Arabia , Eritrea , and two hot spots Yemen and Somalia . What security measures will the Cruise line have in place ? Will they have Armed Security Persons on board and will we run dark at night ?

The cruise line will take whatever measures are deemed necessary given the situation at the time. That area hasn't been quite as bad as it was a few years ago.

Likely there will be extra security personnel on board, they may be armed, they may have some of the high tech equipment to dissuade boarders without shooting. Cruise ships often travel in convoy with other vessels, if there's any military ships patrolling you'll stay close enough to them. The ships also travel faster to get through the area as quickly as possible, and fast-moving ships are harder to attack. We had a couple of jets fly LOW over the ship last time we did this, but I think they were just having some fun.

Dark at night, no, not when we last did it. There was a briefing before we entered the area where the captain explained some of the security protocols and advised in the very unlikely event of a boarding that everybody stayed in their suite away from the window. One passenger, to everyone's amusement, came out of the door behind the captain with a pirate hat and a parrot on his shoulder.

On board it's just business as usual.

You will take on extra staff who are delivered along with their large boxes from a rib once inside the Red Sea to bolster the ship's non lethal defences.. No need to be concerned. There are also additional military resources in the area should they be required.

If there was any doubt Seabourn would not take their ships there.

Henry :)

If it’s wasn’t safe insurance companies wouldn’t insure the vessel for Seabourn and they wouldn’t send it there.

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have done this passage several times. do not worry! the company manages the security very well and unobtrusively. and there are many NATO and other military ships hovering close by.

:rolleyes:

You will take on extra staff who are delivered along with their large boxes from a rib once inside the Red Sea to bolster the ship's non lethal defences.. No need to be concerned. There are also additional military resources in the area should they be required.

 

If there was any doubt Seabourn would not take their ships there.

 

Henry :)

You will take on extra staff who are delivered along with their large boxes from a rib once inside the Red Sea to bolster the ship's non lethal defences.. No need to be concerned. There are also additional military resources in the area should they be required.

 

If there was any doubt Seabourn would not take their ships there.

 

Henry :)

Well, Henry, I wish they had known that on November 5, 2005

Well, Henry, I wish they had known that on November 5, 2005

And I wish I'd know last week's lottery numbers in the morning before the draw :)

The question was for a cruise taking place in 2018 not 2005. There has been a lot of activity centred around making the area safe for the 30,000 or so vessels which traverse that part of the world every year.

Henry :)

You are really unlikely to die a violent death from whatever means. You should be really afraid of the delicious food and alcohol they stuff the boat to the gunwales with. That's what'll get you in the end. Maybe they should station the protection officers around the buffet in the Colonnade.

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For the OP - I believe Seabourn will have a series of countermeasures and operating procedures for that transit that are meant to reduce the probability of incidents. There are companies - IMO - that probably stretch the risk bet in that name of profit and pushing the envelope - I don't think any of the luxury lines are in that category.

The conversation of should I go here or there - London just had an incident, Paris just had an incident, Brussels etc. etc. occurs everyday for many people asking the same question. Of course there are obvious answers to some areas of the world but for others that may hit the front page today and be off tomorrow not so easy for the average person to evaluate. For the average person; not military, not an NGO, not governmental, not tourist wanting that pure National Geographic full flavored moment etc., the statistical probability of being involved in a significant terrorist incident is – well –improbable – actually astronomically improbable. It’s like winning the lottery – BUT – someone eventually does win the lottery.

Placing yourself in a conflict/higher risk region of the world at a particular point in time changes the probability factors – but - because of your limited exposure and how many other targets are present at that time vs how many pirates are actually ready to move at that time vs the present increased international awareness and joint countermeasures, placement, movement of assets and a trillion other factors – probably not enough of a change in probably numbers to drastically alter the probability curve to say you are putting yourself at high risk. Marginally higher risk for a limited period of time is what it might be. Seabourn's actions (again a trillion worth) push/tilt the numbers back towards the negative risk reduction line. That's factored from the perspective of your bed at home with the fact you are already on a ship that could sink, catch fire, lack trauma medical for slip on the deck etc. and you got there on a plane that could have crashed, been blown up, have mechanical failures etc. When you woke up that day and moved outside of your home you started a whole series of permutations that occur each second of your life. Stay in the Yemen zone everyday etc. that changes drastically. Then again, you can walk outside and the improbable scenario of being hit by a meteorite could happen.

Hollywood has made many horror movies alone these lines of chance/fate/sequence of improbable actions leading to some incredible series of events.

Those that mentioned about insurance companies etc. - those are actuarial bets or risk vs return vs potential lost vs payouts to those losses – and a trillion extraordinarily complex actuarial calculations and combinations etc. Someone in some deep dark office makes recommended bets and also looked at the worst case scenario of – how much do we make vs how much would we have to pay out. As nice as it is to think someone is looking at your best interests someone else somewhere is making a pure profit vs potential vs corporate survival and recovery from a “Bad” event - analysis.

Only you can look out for yourself and only you can determine what is your threshold for risk. The information age lends itself to allowing individuals to make better, fully informed decisions for themselves. Everything you do has a risk associated with it one way or another. Live your life – make reasonable decisions to not tilt the probability scales too much one way or another. If you decide to never leave your bed and not move - remember - the lady did get hit (bounced) by a meteorite while in bed. At that particular moment in time she might have been safer in a war zone.