Myanmar

[mumcat]

We are considering booking the December 2023 Dubai to Singapore cruise which has 3 nights in  Myanmar. I'm aware that at the moment Myanmar is not 'doable' and, although it's disappointing, I can live with that. However, I'd like to know what Regent intends to substitute - 3 days is a long time to just be floating around aimlessly!  I read on the Oceania website that O seemed very reluctant to admit that they  had to cancel Myanmar and I'm not sure what they eventually substituted. So , do any of you have any insight or knowledge what Regent intend? Thank you.

[papaflamingo]

Not to snarky, but it's pretty unlikely anyone here will know what port Regent will substitute on a cruise 7 months away. They should send an email so you'll know when they officially cancel the port. There is currently a travel advisory for Burma due to civil unrest.  A lot can happen in 7 months.

But it's very likely that another port or two will be substituted.   

 

Edited May 5, 2023 by papaflamingo

[mumcat]

7 hours ago, papaflamingo said:

Not to snarky, but it's pretty unlikely anyone here will know what port Regent will substitute on a cruise 7 months away. They should send an email so you'll know when they officially cancel the port. There is currently a travel advisory for Burma due to civil unrest.  A lot can happen in 7 months.

But it's very likely that another port or two will be substituted.   

 

The reason I asked here was because I thought that perhaps Regent had already contacted people booked on this cruise to tell them what was happening. My bad!

[PhD-iva]

8 minutes ago, mumcat said:

The reason I asked here was because I thought that perhaps Regent had already contacted people booked on this cruise to tell them what was happening. My bad!

You could try posting on the rollcall for that itinerary…….those pax might have a better idea……

[Marylebone37]

6 hours ago, PhD-iva said:

You could try posting on the rollcall for that itinerary…….those pax might have a better idea……

 

I asked about this on the WC '24 roll call, and nothing is known/announced about Myanmar for that cruise either.  It is still on the itinerary for now (> 8 months away), but some believe there will be a replacement port or two added. 

 

Here is a link for the scheduled calls at Rangoon: https://cruisedig.com/ports/yangon-myanmar.  We now know (from CC) that Oceania canceled their May '23 calls, but waited to do so until almost the last minute.  And the next ship is not scheduled to stop there until mid-December.  Might be interesting to ask/look around on the various CC boards closer to the dates in the port schedule.

[mumcat]

Thank you for your replies. As much as I would like to see Myanmar I am probably going  to book the cruise anyway as I like the rest of the itinerary.

[SWFLAOK]

We had booked a luxury river cruise to Myanmar on Scenic River Cruises a while back. We had booked a great cabin, with a wonderful itinerary. There was some unrest, but none in the area where our cruise would take us, and the president seemed to me doing what was expected of her by the military. But shortly thereafter, the local problem became a national problem, and shortly thereafter e postponed it, hoping for a peaceful resolution. Then their president was arrested, and we rebooked to France. Eventually, we cancelled that Scenic River Cruise as well since it was too much like a Regent cruise we had already booked, and too hard to fly to Scenic embarkations/disembarkations on our own with little help on booking flights to and from the US to Europe.

Since then, I've looked for another opportunity to explore the rivers into Myanmar, and have found it o be much worse than political unrest. China has moved much of its mining operations to Chinese contractors who are heavily mining in Myanmar, taking all of the minerals they can find, and sending them back to China. They are heavily polluting the rivers of Myanmar.

I would not avoid an itinerary that includes Yangon (formerly Rangoon), but I would not do any excursions to the interior at this point.

[Gilly]

I believe that, like so many places, those of us who were fortunate enough to travel to Myanmar (and China, to some extent) some years ago experienced the best of a country which will never be quite the same again.  The question is, where ought we be considering travelling to now, to experience the best before it changes?

[Pcardad]

3 hours ago, Gilly said:

I believe that, like so many places, those of us who were fortunate enough to travel to Myanmar (and China, to some extent) some years ago experienced the best of a country which will never be quite the same again.  The question is, where ought we be considering travelling to now, to experience the best before it changes?

South Africa, Egypt, Taiwan are 3......I might add Turkey as well. South Korea is moving up the list as well. Parts of South America and Africa are going to get very rough in the next few years if there is a food shortage brought on by the loss of the farm land in Ukraine.

Edited May 7, 2023 by Pcardad