Visas for Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Myanmar

[2552phxcrzr]

Trying to verify if anyone has used OBC in recent years to pay for these visas once onboard instead of paying O in advance when we make final payment. We will have a good chunk of non-refundable OBC on the CPT-SIN segment of the RTW next year, and I'd just as soon use the OBC for the visas. I'm going to check with the O customer service too, but we all know that the answers we get from Miami are not always accurate.

 

Thanks for any insight you might be able to provide.

[Mura]

I suppose that would depend on whether O requires you have to have the visa at boarding time, not after. I think I saw a private email yesterday that said that O won't stop you from boarding if you don't have the visa YET, but it's possible that was for certain countries.

 

Assuming you can board before you buy them I would think (but don't KNOW) that you could use OBC to buy the visas.

 

However, O charges much more for these visas than using a service or going to the consulate (living in NYC I usually can go direct without paying a service to do the work). You might want to compare costs rather than just using OBC, even if you have a lot.

 

Mura

[bitob]

Save your money and forget the visa for Mozambique. Dangerous port with nothing to see. Make it a sea day!!

 

Your ta should be able to find the answer to ur question

 

 

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[2552phxcrzr]

I suppose that would depend on whether O requires you have to have the visa at boarding time, not after. I think I saw a private email yesterday that said that O won't stop you from boarding if you don't have the visa YET, but it's possible that was for certain countries.

 

Assuming you can board before you buy them I would think (but don't KNOW) that you could use OBC to buy the visas.

 

However, O charges much more for these visas than using a service or going to the consulate (living in NYC I usually can go direct without paying a service to do the work). You might want to compare costs rather than just using OBC, even if you have a lot.

 

Mura

 

Thanks Mura. When we lived near DC we used to do our own visas. Would do them again this time, but we are going to be on a tight schedule getting the visas ourselves because we will have just about 2 months to get all the visas before we leave for the cruise. Which likely will mean having to use a service since we won't be able to do the runaround from one consulate to another ourselves.

 

I have a message into O ... I'll post response here so others have current info as well.

[osandomir]

It depends on the type of visa required for each country. If it's a transit visa or visa on arrival one can apply on board, but any regular tourist visa should be obtained prior to boarding. We did the similar cruise last year and were able to use OBC for Oceania group visa in some of the ports.

 

It was difficult to find out when I inquired with Oceania, but some time prior to the cruise our TA forwarded their email with the specific visa information. It's possible that some requirements have changed, so the best is to confirm with Oceania.

 

Agree with bitop - we didn't buy a visa to go ashore in Mozambique, but other people told us it wasn't worth it.

[Paulchili]

Agree with above.

Some visas can be obtained onboard with OBC (like Vietnam, Myanmar) but others must be obtained beforehand (like India).

Best check with O.

For me, every country is worth a visit. Mozambique is not much different from many other African countries. We visited on a land trip from SA and while it wasn't spectacular or a "highlight", I would visit it if you are already there.

[2552phxcrzr]

Agree with above.

Some visas can be obtained onboard with OBC (like Vietnam, Myanmar) but others must be obtained beforehand (like India).

Best check with O.

For me, every country is worth a visit. Mozambique is not much different from many other African countries. We visited on a land trip from SA and while it wasn't spectacular or a "highlight", I would visit it if you are already there.

 

Agreed Paulchili, we seldom stay on board in a new-to-us port/country. Some of these places turned out to be fun/educational; others did not ... but without going ashore we would not know one way or the other. Each of us has a comfort level when it comes to different ports, and we each have to make our decisions based on that.

 

I got a response from O VisaAdmin that unless we prepay the particular visas in question here or get them ourselves, they will be automatically be charged to our onboard account. So, unless something changes in the interim between now and when we get the actual emails from Oceania regarding the visas, we will plan to remove the prepaid package before we make final payment (although according to the cancellation policy listed on the booking invoice for ancillary items, we have up to 60 days prior to departure to remove the visa package).

[Paulchili]

That all sounds right. There is some interesting old Portuguese colonial architecture in Maputo. Markets in these places are always interesting.

Enjoy!

[2552phxcrzr]

That all sounds right. There is some interesting old Portuguese colonial architecture in Maputo. Markets in these places are always interesting.

Enjoy!

 

Thanks ... I'll check it out. We enjoyed some of the old Portuguese architecture in Goa earlier this year.