Travelnplane

Did Carnival book you now just to London or do you have your whole journey booked through to your final destination?

According to a german forum there is probably 1 tug heading to the Pride from Kiel. Sound like a larger issue.

Our transit visas came the night before the first port in Saudi-Arabia.

On 12/20/2022 at 11:30 AM, Stormy Dan said:

Hi Travelnplane, did u ever get your transit visa? 

Hi, no, not to the date. We bought the „regular“ tourist visa now for about 130 Dollar to make sure we will be able to get off there.

We heard from guests that travelled this cruise in early December that the transit visas will be issued the night before the arrival in Jeddah. On the sea day between Aqaba and Jeddah there were crowds occupying the shore excursion desk trying to fix the excursions and check the status. People reported that many guests bought internet aboard to check the status of their visa application.

As said we did not want to be in that state of limbo and applied for the tourist visa which was issued right away.

Can you tell who the captain of the Diamond is?

Thank you. Which phone number did you enter for the Tourist visa and what address? The number 00966920011114 which MSC provided was considered invalid. 

Did you use visa.visitsaudi.com?

Does anyone has successfully obtained the Transit Visa sea on visa.mofa.gov.sa and if yes, how long did it take from application to approval?

Have entered our applications almost two weeks ago and paid everything but the status remains unchanged as „under process“…

Getting closer to our departure date and starting to worry a bit.

On 8/31/2022 at 10:34 PM, We_like_to_cruise said:

Goodbye Island Princess. 

 

It does not have all of the glitz and glamour of the newer larger ships, but our voyage was a good one.  The staff helped us overlook some minor glitches and inconveniences.

 

Smooth sailing to all!

Thank you for a wonderful report. 
 

May I ask who was the captain of the vessel during your cruises?

Someone posted the officers board here 

Did you do the Elephant rock excursion which uses a plane to get to Al-Ula and back? Are there any areas on board not usable or blocked due to cultural differences (e.g. Bars)? Did you find out how many guests were on board? And finally: Did you apply for your visa yourself? Thanks in advance.

Received an e-mail today with a major itinerary change. Safaga in Egypt is gone, Al-Wadsh also. The ship is two days in Yanbu and one day in a port called King Abdullah that both have mostly beach excursions which is not the reason going to Saudi-Arabia.

We will most likely cancel this trip and go to the Mediterranean instead.

Thank you for the link. So we‘ll wait and see what becomes available.

Our December booking states 9.59PM as Check-in time.

Other question; Is anyone already able to book shore excursions for the ports of call?

Last picture

Bidding both farewell. Crew on Volendam and Zaandam shouting and waving. Zaandam even blowing her horns. 

No I don‘t think so. Have not seen a single soul on their part of the pier the whole day. 
 

Ar least today they‘re not lonely as AIDAblu and Mein Schiff 5 are with them to give some company. 

Ships now basking in the sun. 
 

On Volendam crew is having fun in the pool listening to loud music 😀

Visiting the port of Corfu today with HAL Twins Volendam and Zaandam sitting idle in a beautiful scenery. 

According to the latest Carnival financial report Holland America Line is expected to return 9 ships to service. As they started 2020 with 14 ships and four have left so far one more HAL ship should be no. 19

Tony Ruggero took command on Crown Princess on November 17th 2020 so he at least is still on duty although his former ship was sold. 

It is said in that article they „will soon be leaving the fleet“. I cannot imagine them returning to service. 

One more Video

Who is captaining a beaching ship? Is it still a Carnival captain or someone from the scrapyard?

Another link with more videos showing the beaching from the shore and even from the Fantasy bridge

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/23322-watch-as-the-carnival-fantasy-is-beached-in-turkey.html

Inspiration is anchored near Aliaga.

Compare how Fantasy steams while beaching to Fascination just sailing into Cádiz