Foreign Office warning for travellers to AED - What to do?

[oceanviewer21]

I need to pay in full on Friday for Ovation Cruise from Singapore to Dubai in March.

Tourists are being warned to be vigilant and keep away from public places, hotels, beaches and other destinations in the gulf, never mind a large white ship passing through the Straight of Hormuz. Do I pay in full for this cruise on 10th Jan or cancel?

[SLSD]

7 minutes ago, oceanviewer21 said:

I need to pay in full on Friday for Ovation Cruise from Singapore to Dubai in March.

Tourists are being warned to be vigilant and keep away from public places, hotels, beaches and other destinations in the gulf, never mind a large white ship passing through the Straight of Hormuz. Do I pay in full for this cruise on 10th Jan or cancel?

I think this is a very tough question in view of current events.  Personally, being risk averse, I would not be planning a trip to that area in the near future.  News outlets are all alarmed about impending war.  I am just so sorry you and others are facing this decision right at this moment.  

Edited January 4, 2020 by SLSD

[Sunviking]

I understand your dilemma.  I would also be wondering what to do.  We sailed from Dubai to Athens last spring when a couple of ships had been attacked in the Persian Gulf and there was concern about traveling in the area.  The one thing I can say with some certainty is that Seabourn will not risk  sending one of their ships and their passengers into danger.  If you keep your booking you may wind up with a little different itinerary.  Your cruise may end in Oman instead.  It's hard to know what will occur.  On our first cruise in the area several years ago we went from Athens to Dubai;  the people in Gaza had been shooting rockets into Israel for a number of weeks.  We decided to trust Seabourn to take care of us and had two lovely stops in Israel.  Sadly I'm not sure there is ever a time that that part of the world is not fraught with unrest.

[dalliowner]

What does AED  stand for , is it the same as UAE

[Bobal]

7 minutes ago, dalliowner said:

What does AED  stand for , is it the same as UAE

 

AED is the currency of the UAE 

[oceanviewer21]

Yes sorry I meant UAE must be the autocorrect 🤡

[Flamin_June]

I agree with Ann (Sunviking). We are facing a similar situation. Seabourn won't put any passengers ( nor their ship) at risk and the itenerary will be changed if necessarry. This has happened to us before, on Legend, when stops at the Lakshadweep Islands were cancelled because of piracy concerns. The substitutions were not great, to put it mildly, but probably better than the possibility of being held hostage in Yemen for a couple of years😱 If you have a return home flight booked from Dubai, as we do, then it may be a bit of a stress, but hopefully your travel insurance will help. I'm reasonably confident that, should the need arise, a combination of travel insurance, TA, Seabourn, one's airline and one's home government will get passengers home in due course.

If you can cancel without penalty and want to avoid all risk, then cancel. We've already paid our deposit , so are stuffed, as far as that option goes. But I'm happy to wait and see......

Edited January 5, 2020 by Flamin_June
added a couple of sentences

[kowhairob]

Due to the heightened risk and the proximity to Iran , i personally wouldn't do anywhere near there also given your on an American Owned vessel the risk increases significantly . We were booked on the Odyssey in 2016 and  the highlight was Turkey however when the unrest happened Seabourn cancelled all Turkey ports  . This is a lot more riskier however its your call to make as you see fit . 

[rl787]

This is a very difficult question to answer. It depends on how you look at life. Firstly we did a similar cruise during the Pirate crisis and Seabourn arranged for shall we say extra security to board which was likely to more than deter Pirates, however the chaps would unlikely to be able to deter a miltary gun boat. This is so so unlikely as taking a large passenger vessel by force would be a definite act of war and world condemnation coupled with the fact that there is now plenty of International Navies policing the area. I think it is uncomfortable to think about but will be safe.

Mrs RL and I are also a great believer that we must not let these people make us with western values change our way of life and submit to their vile doctrine, I can 100% say that we would definitely be going as I feel we must support and stand up for what our forebearers fought for. I also feel that we also need to support each other and that includes all the Seabourn crew and other people who have to keep working in these areas. My opinion is............get on that ship, meet some fabulous new friends, have a great time and don't let these people ruin our hard worked for free way of life.

[rallydave]

8 hours ago, kowhairob said:

Due to the heightened risk and the proximity to Iran , i personally wouldn't do anywhere near there also given your on an American Owned vessel the risk increases significantly . We were booked on the Odyssey in 2016 and  the highlight was Turkey however when the unrest happened Seabourn cancelled all Turkey ports  . This is a lot more riskier however its your call to make as you see fit . 

For the record, only one US Flagged ship and that is always cruising Hawaii.  As to US owned, non of the companies with ocean cruise ships are US Companies.  There are US based cruise lines however they are all registered outside the US just like all but one of their ships are flagged off shore of the US.  May be a fine point but, they don't fly the US flag except when in a US port so that might reduce the risk just a little.

[wripro]

I don't regard this as a matter of safety as I doubt Seabourn will put its passengers and ships at risk. However in order to do that they will have to change ports and destinations. These could be places you have no interest in going to so the question is do you want to risk spending even more days at sea or visiting less desirable ports?

[Petoonya]

On 1/4/2020 at 2:34 PM, oceanviewer21 said:

I need to pay in full on Friday for Ovation Cruise from Singapore to Dubai in March.

Tourists are being warned to be vigilant and keep away from public places, hotels, beaches and other destinations in the gulf, never mind a large white ship passing through the Straight of Hormuz. Do I pay in full for this cruise on 10th Jan or cancel?

Curious about what you did on 1/10.....?????

[HappyInVan]

On 1/4/2020 at 2:34 PM, oceanviewer21 said:

I need to pay in full on Friday for Ovation Cruise from Singapore to Dubai in March.

 

 

There's a high risk of war eventually.

 

That's because Iran is aiming for nukes. Remember Rocket Man Kim. On the other side, Western militants will want a decisive engagement before Iran gets its nukes. Israel may intervene with an air strike.

 

At the moment, both sides are restrained. Iran is playing for time until it gets its nukes. Trump has an election in October.

 

Unfortunately, the closer Iran gets to being a nuclear power, the greater the chance for war.

 

I don't anticipate any immediate conflict. However, 5 thousand American troops are in Iraq surrounded by millions of Shiites. The situation is in flex.

 

 

[oceanviewer21]

Petoonya. Seabourn gave us an extra week to decide to pay or transfer to another cruise within a year which had to be of equal value. We couldn’t find anything else we could afford that we wanted to do. We didnt want to wait a year as this holiday is long overdue. Our main concern was not the cruise which disembarks in Dubai because as some others have said Seabourn would not risk putting us in danger but on the way out where we had a two night stop over in Dubai before flying on to Singapore to pick up the ship. Seabourn again said we could move this stopover but we could not find any other half way stop on the route to Singapore. So we have elected to go on the holiday as planned. Mind you that was before the plane got shot down by accident. Thankfully things have calmed down a bit. Our slight worry now are any rogue militias.

[Flamin_June]

Dubai is closely allied to 'western' powers - US, UK, EU and elsewhere, and tourism/business travel plays a hugely significant role in its economy. Security operations to protect that will will be at the highest level. I have had some limited experience of working alongside Dubai Police and I can assure you that their equipment and training is state-of-the- art. Like Seabourn, Dubai will do their utmost to ensure that visitors are not exposed to risk. Of course, no major city in the world is truely 'safe' these days, but I would not feel any more at risk in Dubai currently than any where else in the world.

[HappyInVan]

1 hour ago, Flamin_June said:

Of course, no major city in the world is truely 'safe' these days, but I would not feel any more at risk in Dubai currently than any where else in the world.

 

Hmmm.

 

71% of the population is expatriate. Mainly Asian from Pakistan and Indian. Certainly, the Sunni militants would like to stir the pot since a Western/Sunni/Shiite conflict is to their benefit. And ... 

 

"... About 25% of the population have Iranian origin."

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Dubai

 

[fudgbug]

On 1/4/2020 at 5:34 PM, oceanviewer21 said:

I need to pay in full on Friday for Ovation Cruise from Singapore to Dubai in March.

Tourists are being warned to be vigilant and keep away from public places, hotels, beaches and other destinations in the gulf, never mind a large white ship passing through the Straight of Hormuz. Do I pay in full for this cruise on 10th Jan or cancel?

It's been a week since we disembarked Hong Kong from a cruise that started in Dubai.  We had no problems whatsoever.

[westmount]

Since you have brought up the subject, you must be very nervous about the trip, so cancel it and book the same trip for next year.  My take is its probably the safest area in the world to take a cruise right now as you'll probably have two  aircraft carriers escorting the ship to Dubai. I wish i knew which ports were safe and which were not, I just say always be vigilant, careful and not flashy wherever you go.