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Saudi Arabia - visa?

little britain

By little britain,
in MSC Cruises

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ocdb8r

ocdb8r

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Posted
6 hours ago, little britain said:

And World Europa is docked in Saudi for the first time!

Of course no alcohol can be served whilst in port and all mini bars in the cabins have also been cleared of alcohol. 

Anyone onboard able to report if MSC handled your Visas or if you did it before?  We will likely do it before just to be safe...but I'm curious.

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little britain "Live from...." Rare

little britain

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2 hours ago, ocdb8r said:

Anyone onboard able to report if MSC handled your Visas or if you did it before?  We will likely do it before just to be safe...but I'm curious.

Yes you apply for the visa beforehand, and it will be issued approx 2 days before you get to Saudi. 
All reports are that Saudis were very friendly and welcoming and happy to see tourists. 
 

If you don’t take a ships tour then MSC run a free ( yes free!) shuttle bus to Khobar which is on outskirts of Damman, waterfront shops and restaurants etc 

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markorop

markorop

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43 minutes ago, little britain said:

Yes you apply for the visa beforehand, and it will be issued approx 2 days before you get to Saudi. 
All reports are that Saudis were very friendly and welcoming and happy to see tourists. 
 

If you don’t take a ships tour then MSC run a free ( yes free!) shuttle bus to Khobar which is on outskirts of Damman, waterfront shops and restaurants etc 

Where are you seeing these reports? Im curious how people liked the stop and if the al ahsa excursion is worth it

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transientoftheseas

transientoftheseas

Posted
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I have applied for the $22 Saudi Arabia transit visa per the instructions that MSC sent in an email with step by step directions on how to apply on the visa website. The World Europa stops stops in Damman and the directions state to choose simply "Damman" or "Jeddah".

 

Damman was not an option in the pull down menu so I chose "Jeddah Islamic Seaport" or "Jeddah Yacht Club" since another MSC ship docks there (totally different city from Damman but I did not know which other port to choose)

 

I had to do some googling myself since I was curious and it turns out the Damman cruise port is officially called King Abdullaziz seaport! (which was an option in the drop down menu!) Why MSC didn't list this actual port out in the directions- I don't know.  I am applying for multiple applications for my family. Will this be an issue or would the location not matter just as long they get the  transit visa into Saudi Arabia overall? I am not able to edit the past applications. Thank you

 

 

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Nikita4

Nikita4

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1 hour ago, tweakes said:

So I just applied for the visa following instructions from MSC... but it was only $10.50, not $22 .... what did I do wrong?? 😞

The Visa ist 10.50, then 4.6 for the health assurance and taxes for 10.50 or so. 

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Nikita4

Nikita4

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14 hours ago, transientoftheseas said:

I have applied for the $22 Saudi Arabia transit visa per the instructions that MSC sent in an email with step by step directions on how to apply on the visa website. The World Europa stops stops in Damman and the directions state to choose simply "Damman" or "Jeddah".

 

Damman was not an option in the pull down menu so I chose "Jeddah Islamic Seaport" or "Jeddah Yacht Club" since another MSC ship docks there (totally different city from Damman but I did not know which other port to choose)

 

I had to do some googling myself since I was curious and it turns out the Damman cruise port is officially called King Abdullaziz seaport! (which was an option in the drop down menu!) Why MSC didn't list this actual port out in the directions- I don't know.  I am applying for multiple applications for my family. Will this be an issue or would the location not matter just as long they get the  transit visa into Saudi Arabia overall? I am not able to edit the past applications. Thank you

 

 

It's important to fill it out like the instructions from MSC with the correct address and harbour. Otherwise the don't know your cruise and your port. But you can edit your application with the edit button on the summary of your visa.

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tweakes

tweakes

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28 minutes ago, Nikita4 said:

 

The Visa ist 10.50, then 4.6 for the health assurance and taxes for 10.50 or so. 

I followed instructions and was never given options for insurance or other fees... I entered my data, got to the payment screen, and entered my card. Only 10.50... 😕

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philippetheriault

philippetheriault

Posted
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Perhaps that could help a few here. We are abord MSC World Europa. Departed Dubai on Jan 14th. We applied for the Saudi Arabia Transit Visa for via https://visa.mofa.gov.sa/ as instructed 2 weeks prior and nothing happened. The cost for us as Canadians turned our to be $ 26.85 taken via 3 distinct credit card payments. I picked the basic insurance package. Our applications were visible on the website right away and remained "Under Process" and in fact are still showing "Under Process" as I'm writing this note despite the fact that we have received our visa by email earlier today during the stop at Sir Bani Yas Island. That is approximatively 48 hours before arriving in Dammam. Interesting fact, we also just got our passport back. We had to give them to the MSC crew during the check-in process. 

 

Useful information.

1) For those who can't find Dammam in the drill down list, there is something called Google that can help you for those kind of things. "Port of Dammam" in Google or Google Maps will return King Abdul Aziz Seaport, Dammam 32211, KSA.

2) In the form, at one point you need to enter your address in KSA and other information. I put my phone number (no + before the country code), and the address of King Abdul Aziz Seaport in the address fields. That worked.

3) For the picture, we have uploaded a low resolution picture, 200x200, in front of a white background. If you have a Mac, you can use the Preview app, open the picture and "Resize" and enter 200x200.

 

Good luck and Bon voyage.

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transientoftheseas

transientoftheseas

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, tweakes said:

I followed instructions and was never given options for insurance or other fees... I entered my data, got to the payment screen, and entered my card. Only 10.50... 😕

I have the same issue. I think US citizens may not need the supplemental insurance? I applied for my family and the non-us citizens directed me to the medical insurance pages but the US citizens directed me to the $10.50 payment page immediately and started processing. What a bargain!

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transientoftheseas

transientoftheseas

Posted
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2 hours ago, Nikita4 said:

It's important to fill it out like the instructions from MSC with the correct address and harbour. Otherwise the don't know your cruise and your port. But you can edit your application with the edit button on the summary of your visa.

 

4 minutes ago, philippetheriault said:

Perhaps that could help a few here. We are abord MSC World Europa. Departed Dubai on Jan 14th. We applied for the Saudi Arabia Transit Visa for via https://visa.mofa.gov.sa/ as instructed 2 weeks prior and nothing happened. The cost for us as Canadians turned our to be $ 26.85 taken via 3 distinct credit card payments. I picked the basic insurance package. Our applications were visible on the website right away and remained "Under Process" and in fact are still showing "Under Process" as I'm writing this note despite the fact that we have received our visa by email earlier today during the stop at Sir Bani Yas Island. That is approximatively 48 hours before arriving in Dammam. Interesting fact, we also just got our passport back. We had to give them to the MSC crew during the check-in process. 

 

Useful information.

1) For those who can't find Dammam in the drill down list, there is something called Google that can help you for those kind of things. "Port of Dammam" in Google or Google Maps will return King Abdul Aziz Seaport, Dammam 32211, KSA.

2) In the form, at one point you need to enter your address in KSA and other information. I put my phone number (no + before the country code), and the address of King Abdul Aziz Seaport in the address fields. That worked.

3) For the picture, we have uploaded a low resolution picture, 200x200, in front of a white background. If you have a Mac, you can use the Preview app, open the picture and "Resize" and enter 200x200.

 

Good luck and Bon voyage.

Thank you for the great help!  What information did the visa have on it that was emailed to you? Did the immigration officer have to scan a QR code of some sort?

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philippetheriault

philippetheriault

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4 hours ago, transientoftheseas said:

 

Thank you for the great help!  What information did the visa have on it that was emailed to you? Did the immigration officer have to scan a QR code of some sort?

The email contained a PDF file that is the visa. That's the document you need to leave the ship. You need a hard copy. We got it printed at the Yacht Club. No ideal how passengers who are not on Yacht Club can get it printed. I would guess that you can go to the Business Center on Deck 6.

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40yearcruiser

40yearcruiser

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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.

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little britain "Live from...." Rare

little britain

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9 hours ago, 40yearcruiser said:

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.

We got the email a few weeks before sailing. 
 

As there is so little info on this ship, I’m hoping to do a “live from “ if the Wi-Fi is good enough! 

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