Saudi Arabia - visa?

[little britain]

Bought full year visa for DH 2 days ago. Issued immediately - literally within a minute.

Cost was £115 as fx rate has come down a bit. 

534.98 SAR is $142.66

 

If they are, as reported today, pulling Damman and replacing it with Bahrain, and you have already bought your Saudi visa they are issuing a refund of $22 as refundable obc onboard. 

Edited December 21, 2022 by little britain

[Lisichka]

13 minutes ago, little britain said:

Bought full year visa for DH 2 days ago. Issued immediately - literally within a minute.

Cost was £115 as fx rate has come down a bit. 

534.98 SAR is $142.66

 

If they are, as reported today, pulling Damman and replacing it with Bahrain, and you have already bought your Saudi visa they are issuing a refund of $22 as refundable obc onboard. 

Yeah, that full price visa wasn’t the issue.  But nobody needs that Visa plus it is expensive.

 

[little britain]

@Lisichka - we need the full visa as we are going to Saudi for a few days post cruise to visit friends.  For the once in a lifetime opportunity to visit such an unexplored country the cost is immaterial to us.

 

You also need a visa to enter Bahrain if the ship is going there instead but that is only about €20pp

Edited December 21, 2022 by little britain

[Noncon]

6 hours ago, Nikita4 said:

Noncon, so you dont know anything about the change of port?

I didnt found anything on the swiss or german MSC Website about the change.

After talking to the folks at the Excursion desk, they appeared to be very careful not to verbally say what the plans might be. Instead they appear to still waiting for written confirmation.  I specifically asked about Bahrain replacing the Saudi Arabia stop but didn't get a positive answer yes or no. Just they were still working the issue. 

[Lisichka]

1 hour ago, little britain said:

@Lisichka - we need the full visa as we are going to Saudi for a few days post cruise to visit friends.  For the once in a lifetime opportunity to visit such an unexplored country the cost is immaterial to us.

 

You also need a visa to enter Bahrain if the ship is going there instead but that is only about €20pp

But MSC quickly discovered most passengers arent willing to spend $150pp on a visa they only need for one day.  And MSC is also not willing to pay the $150pp to hit that port when a $22 Visa should do the trick.

 

So really the argument that the $150 visa is easy to get is a moot point.  Unless the transit visa gets sorted out I doubt MSC is going to keep a SA port.

[Lisichka]

1 hour ago, Noncon said:

After talking to the folks at the Excursion desk, they appeared to be very careful not to verbally say what the plans might be. Instead they appear to still waiting for written confirmation.  I specifically asked about Bahrain replacing the Saudi Arabia stop but didn't get a positive answer yes or no. Just they were still working the issue. 

Did you see the email sent to passengers?  I posted it a few posts above this one.

[Nikita4]

13 minutes ago, Lisichka said:

Did you see the email sent to passengers?  I posted it a few posts above this one.

From where do you have this email.
Also my TA don't know something about the saudistop and on the homepage from MSC is nothing!

[Lisichka]

11 minutes ago, Nikita4 said:

From where do you have this email.
Also my TA don't know something about the saudistop and on the homepage from MSC is nothing!

The email is from MSC.

 

I have no doubt your TA knows nothing.  Even CS on the ship “knows nothing”.  That is MSC for you.

Edited December 21, 2022 by Lisichka

[little britain]

The full transcript of yet another email just sent by MSC to guests on 28/12 has just been posted on the face site for this ship... implies that the Saudis are not accepting the manifest list that other ports accept with ease, but I get the feeling they are still trying to work it out.

[Newleno]

59 minutes ago, Lisichka said:

But MSC quickly discovered most passengers arent willing to spend $150pp on a visa they only need for one day.  And MSC is also not willing to pay the $150pp to hit that port when a $22 Visa should do the trick.

 

So really the argument that the $150 visa is easy to get is a moot point.  Unless the transit visa gets sorted out I doubt MSC is going to keep a SA port.

Yeppers and here I thought someone finally got the Holy grail golden ticket, the highly sought after SA transit visa for $50.  

[Travelnplane]

On 12/20/2022 at 11:30 AM, Stormy Dan said:

Hi Travelnplane, did u ever get your transit visa? 

Hi, no, not to the date. We bought the „regular“ tourist visa now for about 130 Dollar to make sure we will be able to get off there.

 

We heard from guests that travelled this cruise in early December that the transit visas will be issued the night before the arrival in Jeddah. On the sea day between Aqaba and Jeddah there were crowds occupying the shore excursion desk trying to fix the excursions and check the status. People reported that many guests bought internet aboard to check the status of their visa application.

 

As said we did not want to be in that state of limbo and applied for the tourist visa which was issued right away.

[Lisichka]

9 hours ago, little britain said:

Bought full year visa for DH 2 days ago. Issued immediately - literally within a minute.

Cost was £115 as fx rate has come down a bit. 

534.98 SAR is $142.66

 

If they are, as reported today, pulling Damman and replacing it with Bahrain, and you have already bought your Saudi visa they are issuing a refund of $22 as refundable obc onboard. 

Yeah, that full price visa wasn’t the issue.  But nobody needs that Visa plus it is expensive.

 

[Lisichka]

[Nikita4]

On 12/20/2022 at 5:04 PM, little britain said:

Sure they will get it sorted! When are you in Saudi?

Bon voyage! 

Do you know something about the saudi stop?
And how is the captain and the yc director of the cruise?

[little britain]

8 minutes ago, Nikita4 said:

Do you know something about the saudi stop?
And how is the captain and the yc director of the cruise?

I’m not on until January 

[Nikita4]

1 hour ago, little britain said:

I’m not on until January 

Sorry!

its Noncon who is in the ship on the actual cruise.

[Nikita4]

On 12/20/2022 at 4:53 PM, Noncon said:

Ours has been on the"processing" state since 11/29. Currently on W.E. and dropped by the Excursion desk. Asked about Damman  but they didn't have any information about the Visa. 

Also we were supposed to push off an hour ago, but we still here (Doha). There's got to be a thousand people lined up on the shore, waiting to see the ship off.  Oh well, just one of those things. We still expect to be in Dubai at the schedule time.

Who is the captain and the YC Director of this cruise?

[Noncon]

1 hour ago, Nikita4 said:

Who is the captain and the YC Director of this cruise?

Captain: going from memory, Marco Marseille. As for YC, well they turned down my bid to move up there so I'm not sure. 😀

[Noncon]

3 hours ago, little britain said:

I’m not on until January 

I hope the Wi-Fi works better when you get on board. Currently it's really unusable. Lucky for us we have been close to shore and our phones work very well with the cell network. It's not a problem with the ship. I hear it has something to do with the "overloaded" satellite network.

[nuvolablue]

Arrived back from our 18-25 December sailing of Red Cruise. I didn't speak to lots of other passengers, but the ones I did speak to all had to get the more expensive tourist visa. Not heard of the transit visa being issued to anyone.

[Nikita4]

No saudiarabia for the next sailing. We recived a mail from msc with this Info.

[Noncon]

Currently docked in Bahrain, and did a Viator food and walking tour around the Bab Al Bahrain area. I talked to a guy who lives in Damman, he said Bahrain is a much much better stop.

 

I hope MSC will offer more excursions here, but today it was buses shuttling passengers between ship to the city center for 19 euros (billed to your room) and back.  

 

MSC did a good job organizing here in Bahrain, buses were plenty, they had excursion personnel waiting with signs once you arrived at city center to answer questions. A few had to be local, they knew where certain places in the Souq were located.

 

 

[Nautical but Nice]

1 hour ago, Noncon said:

Currently docked in Bahrain, and did a Viator food and walking tour around the Bab Al Bahrain area. I talked to a guy who lives in Damman, he said Bahrain is a much much better stop.

 

 

 

 

How was the food tour?  Would you recommend?  I'm traveling with a friend who owns 2 food tour companies, so I know he will be interested in this.  

[Noncon]

5 hours ago, Nautical but Nice said:

How was the food tour?  Would you recommend?  I'm traveling with a friend who owns 2 food tour companies, so I know he will be interested in this.  

I thought the food tour was great. He took us to three really great 'off the beaten path' restaurants and he also provided some history of that old town area of Bahrain. It was a Viator tour that can be found under title 'Manama Souq Cultural Food Walking Tour'

[lnm576]

Anyone have any info on the January 7th sailing out of Dubai on MSC World Europa? We have been trying to get a confirmation from msc on if we are even going to Saudi Arabia anymore or if Bahrain is going to replace it. The visa issue seems to still be a problem!