Middle East Cruises

[abaldree]

We are scheduled for cruise to UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Qatar in Dec. NCL is refusing to let us change even tho RC & Windstar have cancelled all ME cruises. What can we do?

[MeHeartCruising]

Do you have "cancel for any reason" travel insurance?  if not, I'm afraid you're stuck until NCL decides they want to cancel the cruises.  They may or may not, depending on how things unfold.

[IAcruising]

15 minutes ago, abaldree said:

 What can we do?

 

Be patient and wait. NCL doesn't have November completely figured out yet.

 

[julig22]

29 minutes ago, abaldree said:

We are scheduled for cruise to UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Qatar in Dec. NCL is refusing to let us change even tho RC & Windstar have cancelled all ME cruises. What can we do?

Also scheduled for ME in late December, including a pre-cruise tour in Qatar.  I still plan on going - no cruise line is going to intentionally keep a cruise that endangers their crew, passengers and ship. Same thing happened with cruises to the Baltics in 2022, I went, had a wonderful time.

Only concession I'm making is to wait until December to apply for a SA visa.

[BirdTravels]

3 hours ago, abaldree said:

We are scheduled for cruise to UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Qatar in Dec. NCL is refusing to let us change even tho RC & Windstar have cancelled all ME cruises. What can we do?

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

 

Wait to see what the cruise line offers. They may operate the voyages as planned. 

 

Or, cancel and file an insurance claim on your cancel for any reason insurance policy.

 

Otherwise, you have a contract with NCL You are currently in the 25% to 50% cancellation penalty range. Make your decision to cancel and pay the penalty before you go to the next penalty range. If you initiate a cancellation, it is final - if the cruise line offers a full future cruise credit or refund in the future, you will not be eligible for that. 

Edited October 20, 2023 by BirdTravels

[Yesimapirate]

There's no war or violence in any of the countries you mentioned other than a protest or two.  Unless Iran starts threatening Persian Gulf shipping then you really have very few safety concerns.   It's litterally like being nervous about Mexican cartel violence on a Panama Canal cruise.

 

To answer your specific question of "what can we do".  Buy good travel insurance and enjoy your trip.

Edited October 20, 2023 by Yesimapirate

[SoloAlaska]

It’s the Middle East… ok so this is the one type of cruise I would have made sure I had cancel anytime for any reason insurance. There is nothing new happening in any of the listed country so no reason for NCL to cancel at this point. Your choices are dependent on wether you got good insurance or not at this point but the other option is wait and see what happens. I along with most people hope things only get calmer in the world in the next few weeks. Also your in more danger travelling to Mexico than you are to most of those countries. 
 

Last weekend I met a woman from Qatar while with a friend who use to live in Saudi and it’s safer now than it was even a decade ago. Stay on tours, be respectful of other peoples culture, don’t be an a**h*** and your good. Could that change, yes. If that changes then NCL will cancel because they don’t want to put you, their crew, their ship or their reputation at risk.

[Traveling Fools]

The first thing to do is put things into perspective.

 

1.  The war in progress is happening in Israel and the Gaza strip; on the edge of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea,

 

2.  Your cruise is making calls on ports on the western Arabian/Persian Gulf, more that 1,000 miles away.

 

3.  With exception of Yemen, there has been no spike in terror alerts in that part of the Arab world  and Yemen is more than 700 miles away from where you will be.

 

4. The countries in that region are all Muslim...not Jewish.

 

5.  There is a large U.S. military presence in or in adjacent countries of the countries you will be visiting.

 

6.  The greatest width of the Arabian/Persian Gulf is 210 miles; between Qatar and Iran.  The area in which most of you port calls are scheduled.  It is doubtful you will encounter any invading Iranian forces.

 

7.  When you get there refer to the gulf as the Arabian Gulf, NOT the Persian (Iranian) Gulf.

 

 

 

 

[cruiser2015]

3 hours ago, Yesimapirate said:

There's no war or violence in any of the countries you mentioned other than a protest or two.  Unless Iran starts threatening Persian Gulf shipping then you really have very few safety concerns.   It's litterally like being nervous about Mexican cartel violence on a Panama Canal cruise.

 

To answer your specific question of "what can we do".  Buy good travel insurance and enjoy your trip.

Maybe that wasn't the best analogy.

Our Canal cruise starts with 4 Mexican ports.

And the DW was not thrilled with porting in Acapulco (not cartels per se, but their has been a lot of crime there.