babydrum

Has anyone done Egypt ports since the Israeli conflict started? Did you use the ship's excursion or private excursions? I'm asking because I am currently booked on the ship's 2 day Luxor for $1600 but there are much cheaper options out there. I'd like to know if anyone feels it is safe to travel in the area outside of ship's tours.

Are these referral coupons just for 2023? I have my first Seabourn cruise May 2, 2024. Does anyone have a referral coupon valid for that date?

how was your tour with Ramasside? I'm thinking of booking them for my 2024 cruise.

Thank you I found it! When viewing the itinerary from within my reservation it doesn't show tender required.

I'm looking at my itinerary for my upcoming cruise and trying to figure out which ports are tender ports so that I can plan my excursions accordingly. Is there an easy way to tell?

I would be thrilled if we can at least keep Luxor. I knew there was a chance that I would lose Israel, Jordan and Egypt when I booked this one to replace an Oceania cruise with 5 days in Israel but I've never been on a luxury cruise line so I'm looking forward to the overall experience as well. I am so happy I cancelled the Oceania cruise because it doesn't even resemble the cruise I originally booked. At least both cruise lines made the changes before final payment, so I do appreciate them giving everyone the itinerary early enough for to cancel without penalty. My husband is so excited about this cruise and he has really amped me up about it

I received my notification from Seabourn last night. They replaced Ashdod with Rhodes and Haifa with Patmos. I've been to Rhodes but neve been to Patmos so at least it's a new port. I have no problem with doing Rhodes again either as I've not been to Lindos so there is still much to explore. Looks like they are keeping Safaga, Sharm El Sheikh and Aqaba for now. I'd be surprised if they stick with Aqaba in particular, but I've decided to take a ship's tour to Luxor and Petra so we should be protected against loss if they have to cancel last minute. I've heard good things about the Luxor excursion so I'm excited to take it if SB thinks it's safe.

Thanks Txcotn. I love a good deal but sometimes its just not worth it and the ship's excursion make the most sense.

Thank you for the information. I was having such a hard time finding information from someone who had actually done the tour. I'll be purchasing the tours today!

How was your Luxor tour? I'm looking at booking the same tour now $1600 total for both of us. I thought that pricey since there are private companies who will do the same tour with a 5* hotel for half the price. With the current situation in Israel, I'm not willing to take the chance but I'd like to know if you thought the tour was worth it and if the bus ride to and from Luxor was comfortable. Thanks. Also, I'm looking at Petra for $430 pp with SB versus about $145 to $240 pp with private tour operators. Once again, safety is a concern so I'm likely to go with SB but it irks me that there is such a disparity in prices even though I understand the nature of the markup

We are staying for 3 days.

I'm booked at the Park Royal Marina Bay. Now I am going to look at the Shangri La to see what all the fuss is about. I just want something central since this is my first trip to Singapore and I'd like to see everything that I can pre-cruise.

The problem with the flight may not be getting there but getting home! I'd rather take my chances on a cruise ship because I don't believe they left many passengers behind when they fled Israel after the attacks. I could be wrong but I do feel a certain amount of security in that aspect of cruising. I often will follow up a cruise with a few land trips of ports that we stopped at that I'd like to explore more fully. I certainly would have done that with Israel, but I won't be going there for a while.

I haven't heard anything about my 5/2/24 cruise which includes Haifa, Ashdod, Safaga, Sharm El Sheik and Aqaba Jordan. I would be thrilled if they only cancelled Israel because I'd still like to visit Luxor and Petra. The 27 day Oceania cruise I was scheduled to take before switching to this one swapped almost every port and the Israel, Egypt and Jordan ports were replaced with mostly Greece, Croatia and Montenegro. I could live with those ports as replacements on this cruise because I'm excited about the SE Asia portion of the cruise and just the SB experience in general but I would like to know.

Those pictures are amazing! I hope we get to go as they currently have an evening Ephesus scheduled for free.

Thanks for your replies. That is great to hear as some of their excursions are more than I would spend on the open market but I prefer to do them through the cruise line and not worry about getting back to the ship on time.

I have flights on Turkish Airlines that stop in Istanbul. I have a 9 hour 45 minute layover on the way out (April 28th) and I booked a private tour for that time. I'm rethinking the tour but I'm wondering if anyone thinks it'll be safe to just hang out in the airport at the lounge. I saw what happened at the airport in Russia and while those are different countries, I don't feel like airports are as safe as I thought they were.

My TA told me that if I purchase a tour on Seabourn with my credit card, I can switch it over to OBC when I get onboard and they will refund my credit card. Since so many things are included on Seabourn, I don't have much to spend my $1300 OBC on and they have a couple of tours that look interesting. Has anyone ever done this before?

I called Seabourn to cancel my overnight Safaga tour to Luxor and asked which ports were changing. She said none are showing right now but acknowledged that some of the ports will be cancelled. I assume Ashdod, Haifa, Safaga, Aqaba, and Sharm el Sheik. That's six days on a cruise that already has 15 sea days. I assume they are going to try to replace the ports with something because I don't know how I can to survive that many sea days, especially on such a small ship. I might have to cut my losses and give up 25% or if my CFAR actually works, it'll be 25% of the non-refundable deposit. DH said he's already written off the cost in his mind and he wants to see it through. I don't think that's necessary and since I have until January 3rd before final payment, I will reevaluate closer to that date. The most I'm willing to lose is the 25% non-refundable fee.

My TA was supposed to book me a V1 cabin and I selected the cabin I wanted. I just wanted a full-sized verandah and not one of the smaller ones, otherwise I could care less. Looking at my reservation it shows OB not V1 but the cabin i selected is shown also. What does OB category mean? I thought it was a guarantee cabin which means you can't select your room but I have a room.

I was checking Seabourn's site to see if my cruise falls under the Black Friday sale so that I can get a reduced rate but it shows up as unavailable. I checked one of the TA sites for the cruise and it says the itinerary is no longer available but I didn't get any notice about it. I've emailed my TA to see what's going on but I'm wondering if anyone knows anything about the Seabourn Sojourn 34 Day Empires of the Sun leaving Singapore May 2nd departing Athens June 5, 2024. There is nobody on the Roll Call. I started it a few weeks ago because I couldn't find one.

Why is your CFAR insurance worthless? It shouldn't matter why you wish to cancel, it could be due to port changes.

Thank you, the Basilica Cistern, Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque are my points of interest. I hope you are right for so many reasons.

Wow, that's telling. I think I've gone from the frying pan to the fire or perhaps just fire to fire. I cancelled my Oceania 27 day cruise that started in Dubai and ended in Barcelona with have 5 days in Israel, 2 in Egypt and 1 in Jordan. Now, I am booked on a 34 day Seabourn cruise that starts in Singapore and ends in Athens. 2 days Israel, 3 days Egypt 1 day Jordan. I believe all of those ports will be cancelled but the more I research SB, the more excited I am to try out their product. The problem is I chose Turkish Airlines which stops in Istanbul. It wouldn't be much of a problem because I had short layovers but they changed my outgoing flight so I now have a 9 hour 45 minute layover. I booked a tour that covers the layover but Turkey appears to be getting involved in the conflict. That was an unnecessary fail on our part, could have used a different airline but I've heard good things about TK business class product and wanted to give it a try. I'm in the 25% cancellation penalty phase, I'll ride this out until the cruise line decides to do something. I might have to cancel my Istanbul tour and just stay in the airport.

I understand that but I figured I can look at what they do today as a potential indication of what they might do in May. The one thing I'm fairly sure of is that they won't be stopping in Israel in May. I'm just curious what (if any) alternate itineraries they are choosing now.