Eilat queue for landing card stamp
Eilat queue for landing card stamp with us now in it!
In the early hours of this morning the ship made the very short trip across the end of the Gulf of Aqaba to Eilat, Israel.
When we first boarded the ship in Dubai we had our passports retained for collection so that the Israeli authorities could do face to face identification when we reached Eilat.
We were given the impression that all this would be done onboard ship which is how it has been done with us when we have done transAtlantic crossings. Not so in Eilat!
We were instructed to go to the theatre deck 3 to collect our passports and receive the landing cards, even if we had no intention of getting off. We thought that would be the end of it but how wrong we were. After getting our passports back we were then told to go to deck 0 to receive the stamp on our landing card. What they didn’t tell us was we then had to get off and proceed to the cruise terminal and go through immigration. We queued for 45 minutes before finally getting the stamp. Then all we did was turn round and get back on board placing the landing card in a collection box as we boarded. We had previously taken the decision to spend the day on board today after the long day yesterday.
So all that just to follow Israeli procedure. 1 hour of my life I won’t get back!
Even all of the crew had to go through this procedure which makes it even more so ridiculous.
Some Arabic countries will refuse you entry if you have an Israeli stamp in your passport but I do have some nice Oman, UAE & Jordan stamps in my passport now.
That’s it from me today, I have a date with a sun bed!
Eilat queue for landing card stamp (Welcome Indeed
Border between Israel & Jordan