VISA's for Solstice Dubai to Singapore

[Wyatt Cruiser]

We're on the Solstice Nov 11, 2012 from Dubai to Singapore. Visited the roll call but only found info for our Aussie cousins. From what I can determine, we only need to apply for a VISA for India. The gov't travel website states Dubai issues a VISA upon arrival (via air on this trip), Oman states basically the same, Malaysia does not require one, nor does Singapore. Correct?

Where is the best place to get the Indian VISA and approximaely how long does it take? We're going to Alaska 8/26 to 9/6 and need to take our passports with us so have to apply for VISA's after we get back.

Thanks.

[biker1972]

India has outsourced its visa program for people in the US to Travisa Outsourcing https://indiavisa.travisaoutsourcing.com/homepage They will walk you through the process.

[MonocacyCruiser]

Wyatt:

I was on this cruise. What is your source for statement that we NEEDED to get an Indian visa?

I read the same thing and got a much more expensive visa than was necessary.

 

Roger

[ghstudio]

Has celebrity told you anything other than the usual "visa's are the passenger's problem".

 

We are going on B2B's out of Singapore and we had all kinds of problems getting a consistent answer from Celebrity on Visa's.....which we needed and if they were going to be issued on the ship or not. Ultimately, they made a statement that the visas for Indonesia and Vietnam would be issued on the ship. This required many calls and posts here with different people in Celebrity stating different answers. Don't call just once and accept the answer as fact.....my experience tells me that if Celebrity HQ doesn't know the answer, they guess...your experience may be different.

 

Before you spend a great deal of money on getting Visa's, try to get Celebrity to tell you what you really need...and if it will be issued on the ship.

[Project_gal]

From our experience, individuals will need visas for India. There have been problems with guests in Azamara ships not having personal Indian visa. I know when we did Singapore to Athens on Quest in 2009 the Indian visas caused the most problems. Back then, the Indian authorities were in the process of changing their system for obtaining visas and it was difficult for anyone to get accurate information. For India the rules about what sort of visa you require were, and probably still are, complicated.

 

It is always better to get information on visas from the appropriate authority and not just the cruise line.

 

Sue

[ghstudio]

From our experience, individuals will need visas for India. There have been problems with guests in Azamara ships not having personal Indian visa. I know when we did Singapore to Athens on Quest in 2009 the Indian visas caused the most problems. Back then, the Indian authorities were in the process of changing their system for obtaining visas and it was difficult for anyone to get accurate information. For India the rules about what sort of visa you require were, and probably still are, complicated.

 

It is always better to get information on visas from the appropriate authority and not just the cruise line.

 

Sue

 

Yes, the first question is whether you need a visa at all....and the authorities can tell you this. However the local authorities don't know if

Celebrity has arranged for the VISAs to be issued on the ship.

 

In our case, the visa's are supposed to be issued on the ship and will cost far less than if we had to mail our passports off and pay for VISAs in the US before leaving.

[Keith1010]

You must have a visa for India. This is not one that the cruise mine can get for you.

 

Either apply on line or use a visa service.

 

Be sure to provide all documentation and some of this is state specific based on your home residence.

 

Keith

[TommyD3]

We were on the Dubai to Singapore cruise.

Yes visas were required if you wanted to get off in India.

We looked into it before sailing and decided it was too hard/expensive.

There were hundreds of passengers onboard who had not secured the visa.

Celebrity was able to get the local authorities to issue visas on the ship for $50.

It would have cost me many times that much back in the US.

Dont count on this in the future though.

Just Celebrity coming through for their passengers:)

[u2cruiser]

We were on this cruise. It turned out to be quite a fiasco re the Indian visas. We had ours well in advance - not the easiest form to fill in, but we managed ok and had the visas by post within one week.

 

Boarding in Dubai was quite slow, as they checked everyone had the correct visas. They kept our passports at check in. Rumour had it that (depending on who we spoke to) there were between 500-700 pax onboard without the Indian visa. They were initially told they wouldn't be able to get off the ship in India, however, negotiations must have been going on with Celebrity and Indian immigration as we approached, and the evening before we arrived there, there was some hope that non visa pax may be able to purchase a visa onboard.

 

We all had lengthy forms to fill out and hand in to guest relations, even with visas, and had to have a face to face with immigration, in the Sky Lounge on the morning we reached India. The lines were long, but moved fairly quickly for pax with visas. The immigration officer didn't even glance up at us!

 

Non visa pax were able to purchase one onboard at around $50; almost half of what most of us had paid in advance if you include all the add ons such as postage and passport photos, which was a little annoying. Lots of visa pax were very annoyed about this and it's all anyone talked about that evening.

 

Non visa pax were mad with Celebrity and blamed them for not telling them they needed a visa :rolleyes:. Surely everyone is responsible for their own travel requirements? I think Celebrity did really well to sort this out for pax.

 

Personally, I wouldn't want to wait until the eve of arrival to find out whether we could get off the ship, and they could have easily been refused boarding the ship in the first place without the required visas.

 

Cochin, India was fantastic and well worth the hassle :)

[u2cruiser]

We were on the Dubai to Singapore cruise.

Yes visas were required if you wanted to get off in India.

We looked into it before sailing and decided it was too hard/expensive.

There were hundreds of passengers onboard who had not secured the visa.

Celebrity was able to get the local authorities to issue visas on the ship for $50.

It would have cost me many times that much back in the US.

Dont count on this in the future though.

Just Celebrity coming through for their passengers:)

 

You beat me to it Tommy, and said what I was trying to say in a fraction of the time :D

 

It was a great cruise wasn't it?

[Keith1010]

That's amazing that you were able to get a $50.00 visa and that they even did this.

 

Our experience getting India Visas is with each passing year they require more information (for security reasons).

 

Keith

[TommyD3]

You beat me to it Tommy, and said what I was trying to say in a fraction of the time :D

 

It was a great cruise wasn't it?

 

Yes, we started in Barcelona and I especially like the overnight in Dubai:)