Celebrity Cruise Sri Lanka and India

[Clarissa01]

Question. 
 

Does anyone know 100% if the Celebrity cruise company obtains a ‘Blanket Visa ‘ for the entire ship that enters Sri Lankan and Indian waters?

 

Travelling on an Australia passport.

 

Viewing the tourist visa cost for both countries on multiple entry, is outrageously expensive.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Spudd]

I am pretty sure they do not. My clients last year had to bail on the trip because India stopped issuing visas for Canadians.

[CruiserBruce]

Have you asked on the Celebrity board:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/16-celebrity-cruises/

 

Have you asked on the Roll Call for your cruise:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/127-celebrity-roll-calls/

 

Just an FYI, some countries that may require visas for land visits, don't require them for single day cruise ship visits. I don't know if that applies in your case.

[edinburgher]

2 hours ago, Clarissa01 said:

Viewing the tourist visa cost for both countries on multiple entry, is outrageously expensive.

We had Iindian visa nightmares on two occasions over the years and vowed never again  to return because of these. Our applications also included personal visits to the Indian Consulate here.in Edinburgh, and lucky we were to have it here and not to have to travel to a different city. And the photos which were required were not the usual standard passport size, but a different one and we had great difficulty finding a photo booth where we could get these.

 

Also be aware that if your itinerary includes Port Blair in the Andaman Islands, an additional "protected" (or it may have been "restricted") area permit is also required and is a separate application.

 

Pre-pandemic, at that time, and a fairly new introduction, my understanding is that if cruising into certain named ports in India , an "e-visa" could be applied for instead of a full tourist visa, but you would need to check extremely carefully  if that exemption still exists and if so, which ports it applies to

 

I suggest you only use your own government OFFICIAL websites, also OFFICIAL Indian govt websites as it is entirely your own responsibility to be in posession of the correct visas for each country because if not, you could actually be refused boarding for the entire trip (as happened to some Brits trying to board our ship in Dubai who had not known that Port Blair was actually in India and they needed an Indian visa for that one Indian port..

 

Should you contact any officials either govt or cruiseline by e-mail to double check you have the correct info, I strongly advise you keep copies just in case you were given incorrect information which you relied on.

 

We had similar issues and expense with Chinese visas and once again, never returned.

 

Good Luck with your research as you will need it.!

Edited Wednesday at 01:05 PM by edinburgher

[BOB999]

I did a Celebrity Cruise last year that included two stops in India and an overnight stop in Sri Lanka.  The answer in our case was no, there is no "blanket visa" and travelers are required to obtain the necessary visas individually.

 

In our case, as Americans we procured a multiple-entry India tourist evisa and a tourist evisa for Sri Lanka.  In the case of Sri Lanka, some people said they were able to get the free transit evisa, but YMMV.

 

Note one distinction is that in our case, the cruise was merely transiting India (it was a repositioning cruise from Dubai to Singapore).  All Celebrity cruises that visit India now appear to either start or terminate in India so either your entry or exit would be at the Mumbai (or other) airport.  That may complicate the visa situation.

 

As others have suggested, please review the government recommendations for visas. 

[edinburgher]

20 minutes ago, BOB999 said:

 

As others have suggested, please review the government recommendations for visas. 

Absolutely!   And NOWHERE else.

Edited Wednesday at 02:21 PM by edinburgher

[Host Kat]

8 hours ago, Clarissa01 said:

Question. 
 

Does anyone know 100% if the Celebrity cruise company obtains a ‘Blanket Visa ‘ for the entire ship that enters Sri Lankan and Indian waters?

 

Travelling on an Australia passport.

 

Viewing the tourist visa cost for both countries on multiple entry, is outrageously expensive.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Hello @Clarissa01 and thank you for your new thread on the Ask s Cruise Question forum!

 

However, it is the forum for general questions regarding cruising. Your inquiry is off topic there since it concerns a specific cruise line. To help you out your new thread has been moved to the Celebrity Cruises forum where it will be on topic.

 

The Cruise Critic website and message boards are both great resources for new as well as experienced cruisers and we are so glad you are posting! Please feel free to browse the Cruise Critic Community categories list of the various forums. I suggest you put the link to the page in your Favorites for quick & easy access in the future. Please read a few threads in the different forums to get a feel for what each forum is about. Make sure you read any pinned threads (aka stickies) on the top of the first page of threads in most forums. You will find very important instructions or information there. 

 

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Happy sails,

 

Host Kat

[Jim_Iain]

I would never make a definitive statement as things can change.  

 

I do know that when I sailed Singapore to Rome (B2B).   Passengers were required to obtain their  own Visa for India but Celebrity Supplied one for Sri Lanka.   I hold a U.S. Passport.   I do recall that there were some that showed up without a Visa and were going to be denied boarding but were eventually allowed to board but could not leave the ship at our 4 stops in India. 

 

I understand India now has an e-visa which is fantastic.   When I got my 10 Year Visa the process required about 6 weeks to 2 months and required me to go to the India Consulate.   When you search make sure you go to the site https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/     (make sure it ends with gov.in     There are lots of spoof  sites when you google and normal they are marked as sponsor (eg... paid sites). 

 

Celebrity's website is vague and most agent's will not give you definitive answers. 

 

Do I need any visas to cruise to and from other countries?

Based on your nationality, you may require an entry visa to board your cruise or enter certain countries your cruise visits. It is the guests' responsibility to identify and to obtain all the necessary visas before commencing their cruise. 

Guests of all Nationalities should contact the Embassy (Consular Services) of each country on your cruise for specific visa requirements, information, forms and fees for your nationality. Guests may then contact a company that assists with securing and processing visas for travelers.

 

 

 

[ela123]

I did this earlier in the year and we definitely had to get our own visas for both countries. Lots of people had problems boarding the ship in Mumbai as they had the free transit visa for Sri Lanka. This is acceptable if you are only stopping for 2 days however we had 2 days in Colombo and 1 day in Hambantota meaning we were there for 3 days and needed the tourist visa. As others have said I did the evisa for India which was a pain to do but could have been worse. Take care with the India one as you have to enter India within a specific time and someone’s flight got delayed so they couldn’t get into India. So make sure you don’t apply too early and give yourself some extra days just in case 

[Liao]

5 minutes ago, ela123 said:

I did this earlier in the year and we definitely had to get our own visas for both countries. Lots of people had problems boarding the ship in Mumbai as they had the free transit visa for Sri Lanka. This is acceptable if you are only stopping for 2 days however we had 2 days in Colombo and 1 day in Hambantota meaning we were there for 3 days and needed the tourist visa. As others have said I did the evisa for India which was a pain to do but could have been worse. Take care with the India one as you have to enter India within a specific time and someone’s flight got delayed so they couldn’t get into India. So make sure you don’t apply too early and give yourself some extra days just in case 

This sounds like a cruise situation where good travel insurance is well worth the money.

[FeelingCruisy]

19 hours ago, ela123 said:

I did this earlier in the year and we definitely had to get our own visas for both countries. Lots of people had problems boarding the ship in Mumbai as they had the free transit visa for Sri Lanka. This is acceptable if you are only stopping for 2 days however we had 2 days in Colombo and 1 day in Hambantota meaning we were there for 3 days and needed the tourist visa. As others have said I did the evisa for India which was a pain to do but could have been worse. Take care with the India one as you have to enter India within a specific time and someone’s flight got delayed so they couldn’t get into India. So make sure you don’t apply too early and give yourself some extra days just in case 

Hello.   Please may I pick your brain.   We are going in the Nov 23 Celebrity Millennium, a few Indian ports and overnight in Colombo.   So we need the tourist e-visa for India (specifically the multiple entry for 1 year tourist visa) and tourist visa for Sri Lanka right?  

[ela123]

3 hours ago, FeelingCruisy said:

Hello.   Please may I pick your brain.   We are going in the Nov 23 Celebrity Millennium, a few Indian ports and overnight in Colombo.   So we need the tourist e-visa for India (specifically the multiple entry for 1 year tourist visa) and tourist visa for Sri Lanka right?  

We did the 30 day evisa for India but the price difference is not much for the one year one and you can do that one further in advance from what I remember. If you only have 2 days in Sri Lanka the transit visa is OK but if you have any other Sri Lanka stops you’ll need the tourist one. That’s how I understood it anyway as lots of people had the transit visa but as we did the overnight and the additional port it had to be the tourist one

[FeelingCruisy]

Thanks , we have overnight Colombo and then the other one...will get the tourist visa