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Viet Nam Visa Question

Welland

By Welland,
in Celebrity Cruises

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Hlitner "Live from...." Rare

Hlitner

Posted
Posted

WOW! Having literally spent years of traveling internationally (including dozens of cruises) we would never consider relying on a recommendation here (especially based on what happened in 2012). If you do not have the necessary travel documents (and these requirements can change overnight) you do not get on the ship.....Period! So what to do? I can tell you that in this situation, if you have not heard directly from Celebrity then you should, at a minimum, follow-up with a call to Celebrity. If somebody tells you that you do not need a Visa since it will be provided by a ship's Group Visa, try very hard to get this statement in writing (via e-mail or snail mail). Then, about 2 months before your cruise go through this entire verification process again (call Celebrity).

 

I should add that we have actually witnessed a couple being turned away from a cruise (they did not get to board) that embarked in Hong Kong. The woman was in tears and her partner was livid..and many heard him yelling, "but people told us we did not need a Visa!" Enough said.

 

Hank

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ghstudio "Live from...." Rare

ghstudio

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Posted (edited)

The visas for vietnam were handled on board the millennium this past February. Two types of visas were issued, good for all three ports. If you were not staying overnight at any port, your visa cost $35 or so and no picture was required. If you were staying overnight, even at just one port, you needed a different visa which required a picture and cost $70 or so. You could get the picture taken on board (for a fee) or bring a passport sized picture with you.

 

There is no guarantee that the same process, same prices will still happen on your cruise...things change. I can tell you that trying to find out about visas from celebrity was as difficult and confusing as most questions to celebrity...no one knew, one agent said yes, one no..another said contact their visa company and so on. We could have gotten the visas before we left but it would have cost about triple and required our passports to be sent, etc....a risk we did not want to take. It all worked out...incredibly painlessly once on board. Hopefully it will be the same for you.

 

I agree with others...do not rely on the information here....contact celebrity and ask to see something in writing that says they will provide the visas on board. In our case we had US passports...I can't speak to any other countries passports.

 

Best of luck....my strong hunch is that they still issue the visas on board, but don't rely on my answer.

Edited by ghstudio
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We're The Groupnors

We're The Groupnors

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Posted
The visas for vietnam and thailand (for those staying overnight) were handled on board the millenium this past february. They issued two types of visas, good for all three ports. If you were not staying overnight, your visa cost $35 or so and no picture was required. If you were staying overnight, you needed a different visa which required a picture and cost $70 or so. You could get the picture taken on board or bring a passport sized picture with you.

 

There is no guarantee that the same process, same prices will still happen on your cruise...things change. I can tell you that trying to find out about visas from celebrity was as difficult and confusing as most questions to celebrity...no one knew, one agent said yes, one no..another said contact their visa company and so on. We could have gotten the visas before we left but it would have cost about triple and required our passports to be sent, etc....a risk we did not want to take. It all worked out...incredibly painlessly once on board. Hopefully it will be the same for you.

 

I agree with others...do not rely on the information here....contact celebrity and ask to see something in writing that says they will provide the visas on board. In our case we had US passports...I can't speak to any other countries passports.

 

Best of luck....my strong hunch is that they still issue the visas on board, but don't rely on my answer.

 

I can confirm that this was the same process for Canadian passport holders in March 2013, but I agree things can change and a double check with the correct authorities if the best way to go.

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Welland

Welland

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I can confirm that this was the same process for Canadian passport holders in March 2013' date=' but I agree things can change and a double check with the correct authorities if the best way to go.[/quote']

 

Thanks to all those who have replied to my question.

 

Not to worry. I would never take the written words here as "the golden rule". I was only trying to gauge what others have experienced. As noted in prior posts when calling Captain's Club the answer varies according to which staff member you speak with. After receiving two "yes" answers that the visas will be attended to on board, I asked for this in writing. That was when I encountered difficulties. And having travelled to countries where visas are required we always do check about a month before departure to see if there have been any changes.

 

We still have some time prior to our departure and will try to have Celebrity send us some confirmation that visas will be provided on board. Failing this we will just go ahead and obtain our own visas prior to the cruise.

 

Again, thanks to all the community members who responded.

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Welland

Welland

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This is from Celebrity's website

 

http://media.celebritycruises.com/celebrity/content/en_US/excel/Visa_Information_07_31_12_ver2.xls

 

 

http://www.celebritycruises.com/footer/faq.do

 

 

Hope these links work:)

 

 

Thanks Christine.

I did see this when I was on Celebrity's website. It says it was last updated in 2012 so I really wasn't taking it at face value. Will look at it again prior to sailing and will be in touch with shoreside.

 

Again, thanks.

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jan and jon

jan and jon

Posted
Posted

:rolleyes:

Does Celebrity provide (VOA) Visa Upon Arrival for Canadians and Americans who visit Viet Nam? Anyone who has recently does this itinerary....any input you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

Didn't need one in '67'!

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Christine Frances

Christine Frances

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Posted
This is from Celebrity's website

 

http://media.celebritycruises.com/celebrity/content/en_US/excel/Visa_Information_07_31_12_ver2.xls

 

 

http://www.celebritycruises.com/footer/faq.do

 

 

Hope these links work:)

 

 

Thanks Christine.

I did see this when I was on Celebrity's website. It says it was last updated in 2012 so I really wasn't taking it at face value. Will look at it again prior to sailing and will be in touch with shoreside.

 

Again, thanks.

 

I just went back and looked a the e-docs I received for our B2B in a couple of weeks and on Page 5 in the "Travel Documents" section it states that Celebrity will do the visa's for Canadian and US citizen for Indonesia and Vietnam.

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ricethief

ricethief

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I just came back from the sailing in December on the Millennium and Celebrity does do the visa for Vietnam. If you plan to stay overnight then you need to apply at the desk Celebrity will open especially for Visa application/information. You will need 1 passport style photo and it will cost 50-60 (originally it was suppose to be $60 but then they dropped the price to $50). If you just plan to just to go onshore for the day or even if you just plan to stay on the ship you won't have to do anything, Celebrity will automatically apply for a landing card for you and charge your onboard account.

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newport dave

newport dave

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Posted
since when does one need a visa to board a cruise. The cruise company took the peoples money and denied them boarding for no visa sounds fishy

 

If your cruise is stopping at a country that requires passengers to have a Visa to enter that country, sometimes these countries also require you to have one even if you stay on ship, as the the ship and yourself are in it's territorial waters.

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jannandjohn

jannandjohn

Posted
Posted (edited)
since when does one need a visa to board a cruise. The cruise company took the peoples money and denied them boarding for no visa sounds fishy

 

Eg..You wont even be allowed to board a cruise destined for China or Brazil without one.

Its your responsibility to check visa requirements, not the Airlines or the cruise companies..yours.

Many people are denied boarding in some countries because they thought like you.;)

Edited by jannandjohn
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MVPinBoynton Great Review Rare

MVPinBoynton

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I think it has to do with the high cost of the China visa. It is around $300 to get one. We recently booked an Oceania cruise that goes to China. They let us know that it was our responsibility to get the visas; but that they could get them for us if we paid them for the service.

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GaryfmCol

GaryfmCol

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We just did Viet-nam in March.

The ship DOES provide Visa for a charge EACH,

charged to sea pass.

 

One recommendation is that your carry in addition to your passport with you, an EXTRA passport photo, which we did.

 

It goes on the Visa form.

 

Without one, you can get one on the ship but, they charge your sea passes for it also, and, it is an extra "step" we did not have to take.

Going off the ship, I remember coming up on the

Viet-nam Immigrations guy...very friendly to us...

We had over-night authorization as we stayed

in Saigon.

 

No problem..

 

Celebrity did a very good job with paperwork for us.

 

And, we LOVED Viet-nam.

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