If not Egypt ????

[rugbypopsie]

Watching with dismay the events in Egypt..so sad..but obviously a concern for safety. If our programmed stops in Luxor Karnak and Valley of the Kings are ruled out...wondering what the alternatives might be. The ship is relocating to Med on our cruise (April 15) so the cruise will no doubt still go ahead. Any thoughts?

 

Sue

[Jade13]

Israel or more sea days. We were also on an itinerary that substituted Santorini before we left so we canceled and rebooked for later that year. The new itinerary added more Israel, as well as Santorini and Kusadasi (both repeats for us).

 

The next time it happened we canceled again, and flew to Cairo this past April. They most likely won't cancel Safaga/Luxor. There is nothing going on there.

[Texed]

We just got back from our Pacific Princess cruise to the Med, Holy Land, and Egypt. We got out of Egypt the day before they went nuts. :cool:

[Bill Leiber]

Watching with dismay the events in Egypt..so sad..but obviously a concern for safety. If our programmed stops in Luxor Karnak and Valley of the Kings are ruled out...wondering what the alternatives might be. The ship is relocating to Med on our cruise (April 15) so the cruise will no doubt still go ahead. Any thoughts?

 

Sue

 

Hello Sue -

 

When our itinerary planner prepared this April 15, 2014 Azamara Journey voyage, it was done so with the reality that the political situation in Egypt would be too unstable and fluid to risk a call at Port Said for Cairo. In fact, there are no plans to include a visit to Cairo either via Alexandria or Port Said in 2015.

 

Safaga, for Luxor, is quite different from Cairo. Due to Luxor's dependence on tourism, it is usually not a hot bed for any kind of protests.

 

Remember, that Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd's Global Security department, which serves the three brands, is closely following the situation and at this time there is no announcement to deliver. They will closely track this wave of unrest during the weeks ahead. It's too soon to speculate.

 

I'm listening to the news now. Let's hope the violence between the supporters and opponents of ousted president Mohammed Morsi ends and that an election will bring some stability to the country.

 

Best regards,

 

Bill Leiber

_____________________

Chief Blogging Officer*

Azamara Club Cruises

(*CBO is an authorized and compensated representative of ACC)

[rugbypopsie]

Thanks for the prompt replies...yes we will have to wait and see what transpires...hopefully as you suggest Luxor will not be affected and the situation calms down...ultimately the whole country will suffer while ever the current volatile situation exists.

 

I don't imagine if there has to be substitutions it will be more sea days...10 already in a 17 night cruise is enough...even for me who generally loves sea days...maybe some more Greek ports? Just idle speculation we will be going no matter what eventually happens to the itinerary if anything.

 

Sue

[pacheco18]

I am closely in touch with someone in Egypt (who is very political) -- I have plans to go to Egypt in February and I am fairly confident things will be calm by then. I book trips so far ahead that I don't worry about this kind of stuff until I get close to departure. A month ago Istanbul (where we are going with Azamara in August) was in turmoil. Folks were posting like crazy about where ships would be rerouted. Some wanted to cancel. Recently the courts disallowed the construction that was the reason for the protests and all is calm. There is no way to predict IMO.

 

One cruise line just substituted Ashdod (Jerusalem) for Port Said but that cruise is scheduled for this year. A&K cancelled Egypt tours for 2013. Another travel company is not canceling anything. Other cruise lines have stops scheduled in Alexandria for 2014 and I know folks who expect to go there.

 

Do some Googling if you want to follow this kind of stuff. There is a lot of information out there.

 

 

I think it is way too early to worry about April 2014. Anything could happen anywhere in the world between now and then. Any port or country could be in turmoil.

[Kaduka1]

It is ashamed Egypt is such a mess, (guess we are too!) Even prior to this the State department was warning Americans to stay away from the pyramids because of dangerous crowds. I hope one day to visit the pyramids and Israel but for now I guess there's enough safer places I can go. Be safe and always check http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1108.html

[Jade13]

A&K cancelled Egypt tours for 2013.

 

Really? We were just with them on Sunboat IV in April, but we booked directly through the Egypt office. They didn't have anyone from the US on our dates and only 13 people (2 children) on the cruise.

 

Last year the US group told me the had only canceled one Egypt trip in all of the years they had been taking clients there. I think one of the reasons they are canceling is because they can't get anyone to travel with them to Egypt, so it isn't profitable.

 

My DH says we were lucky to finally get to Egypt after 4 cruises (all on Azamara) canceled Egypt. We finally just flew to Cairo.

[pacheco18]

FYI

 

This is on Cruise Critic News

 

 

 

The only cruise line with port calls to Port Said in Egypt scheduled for July is canceling its first call of the month, replacing it with a visit to Ashdod, Israel.

 

German cruise ship AIDAdiva, which is scheduled to visit Port Said on Monday, July 8, will forego the Egyptian port and stop at Ashdod, the gateway port for visits to Jerusalem. A future call to Port Said, scheduled for July 22, is still on the books.

 

 

Between now and July 22 anything can happen.

[pacheco18]

Really? We were just with them on Sunboat IV in April but we booked directly through the Egypt office. They didn't have anyone from the US on our dates and only 13 people (2 children) on the cruise.

 

Last year the US group told me the had only canceled one Egypt trip in all of their years. I think one of the reasons they are canceling is because they can't get anyone to travel with the to Egypt.

 

My DH says we are lucky to finally get to Egypt after 4 cruises (all on Azamara) canceled Egypt. We finally just flew to Cairo.

 

We were in Luxor in May and fell in love with Egypt -- which is why we are going back for an extended trip in February. We are using the same guide we had in Luxor who is a political activist and actually told us Morsi would be out by the time we returned. WE thought he was delusional. LOL WE have been emailing throughout this latest upheaval and it has been fascinating to have a contact with someone who is actually there.

 

I just read about A & K yesterday. If I recall, they had a special trip planned to be hosted by the President of A & K to prove Egypt is "safe." The situation is fluid. Could be safe to travel there next week! If I had 8 or 9k pp committed to A & K, I would cancel or at least postpone. These trips are set for 2013. It is completely possible that when the time of the trips comes around, Egypt will be calm again. But folks need to plan ahead.

[Jade13]

We were in Luxor in May and fell in love with Egypt -- which is why we are going back for an extended trip in February. We are using the same guide we had in Luxor who is a political activist and actually told us Morsi would be out by the time we returned. WE thought he was delusional. LOL WE have been emailing throughout this latest upheaval and it has been fascinating to have a contact with someone who is actually there.

 

I just read about A & K yesterday. If I recall, they had a special trip planned to be hosted by the President of A & K to prove Egypt is "safe." The situation is fluid. Could be safe to travel there next week! If I had 8 or 9k pp committed to A & K, I would cancel or at least postpone. These trips are set for 2013. It is completely possible that when the time of the trips comes around, Egypt will be calm again. But folks need to plan ahead.

 

No need to pay that kind of money with A&K. We booked directly with their Egypt office and 3 night Nile cruise (which included excursions) was under $1,000 USD per person (We booked the lowest category cabin and we were suprised when we boarded they upgraded us to a balcony). We than added an extra night on board (at 50% off) in Aswan since they were their overnight, flights from Cairo including Abu Simbel excursion (they have group departures every day but ours was private since we were the only ones) and private visits to the Aswan and Luxor museums.

[pacheco18]

Their luxury land trips including the Nile cruise cost much more. We too booked a luxury Nile cruise for peanuts

[Jade13]

Their luxury land trips including the Nile cruise cost much more. We too booked a luxury Nile cruise for peanuts

 

Prices are different if you book outside of the US. We did book with Sanctuary Retreats/A&K. Which ship are you on?

[pacheco18]

We go in February

 

Sonesta st George

Top category

 

We booked through Egyptian company

[wripro]

Luxor may not be a hotbed for protests but it could easily become a hotbed for terrorism!

[CintiPam]

It is ashamed Egypt is such a mess, (guess we are too!) Even prior to this the State department was warning Americans to stay away from the pyramids because of dangerous crowds. I hope one day to visit the pyramids and Israel but for now I guess there's enough safer places I can go. Be safe and always check http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1108.html

 

Please do not mistakenly equate safety issues in Israel with those in Egypt.

[dabear]

We also were in Egypt in early May at the end of our Voyager cruise. Our tour guide also told us that there would be another revolution in June when the gasoline price supports were removed. The people were disapointed with Morsi, they wanted a secular state and the economy was worse. BTW, when there were riots in 4 large Egyptian cities Luxor/Karnak was quiet. In fact, when the spring arising occured 2 years ago, some tours stayed there rather than fly up to Cairo. I would not go to Egypt now until the fighting calms dowm. Besides, it's summer time there and it's very hot.

FYI, we also tried to cruise to Egypt 2 1/2 years ago and when the riots broke out our ship was diverted to Istanbul.

[rugbypopsie]

Anyone heard anything about HAL cancelling their Egypt stops?

 

Sue

[pacheco18]

Always check the News section of CC

If it's happening, they will know and report it.

[maggiemag]

Anyone heard anything about HAL cancelling their Egypt stops?

 

Sue

 

We are on the Holland August 26th cruise out of Istanbul and Holland America just changed our stops from Egypt to Asdod (Jerusalem) and Haifa. It is now on their web site, so it looks as though it's a "done deal".