April 14, 2025

Today was the first port stop on this seven-day cruise in the Persian Gulf: Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

When I first booked this cruise four weeks ago, I went on the various social media platforms for it and found people complaining about difficulty getting a Saudi visa. In recent months, I have applied for tourist visas for the following countries: United Kingdom (yes, that’s a thing now), Egypt, Australia, and Saudi Arabia. The others were fairly easy and straight-forward. The Saudi one was not. Confusing website that kept wanting to switch back to Arabic, a million-and-one questions, and my credit card didn’t want to work on their site. Eventually, I got it to work and then I waited… and waited.

I Should Have Taken That as a Sign

Finally, much to my surprise, the visa arrived via email the morning of last Thursday, just hours before I was supposed to leave. Since I didn’t know if I would have that visa or not, I did not book and excursion with NCL. That was a mistake. I should have booked one at that time.  Nevertheless, on the ship we were told there would be a free shuttle “to the city.” I’ve done that sort of thing before. They usually drop you off near some shopping. I figured if nothing else I would grab a refrigerator magnet and maybe, if the Lego Store wasn’t too far away, get my Lego passport stamped… YES, Lego tourism is the thing.

Then We Arrived

The ship advised us we need to take our actual passports ashore with us along with a copy of our visa. When I left the ship, I was ushered, along with everyone else, into a building where they are doing airport-style immigration checks… which took MUCH longer than they needed to. Everyone working there seemed annoyed. I thought, “well excuse me for wanting to visit your country for a day.” I finally got through it and as promised, there was a shuttle bus waiting.

At Least There Was a McDonald’s

The bus drove for almost 45 minutes during which time we drove past a lot of interesting-looking places, including coming with a couple blocks of the mall with the aforementioned Lego Store. Eventually, they parked and said “Well, here you are.”  It was the middle of nowhere.  Imagine an exit off a dusty highway in the middle of Arizona somewhere. That’s what it was like. The only things within a thousand yards were a small park and a McDonald’s. I walked a bit past Mickey D’s to see if there was anything else. There wasn’t. I therefore thought “to hell with it” and got back on the bus and rode another 45 minutes back to the ship. I watched downloaded Netflix during that ride.  NCL reps tell me they are NOT happy with the company that provided the shuttle service.

I guess I can now say “I’ve been there to Saudi Arabia”

But I don’t feel the need to ever go back.  The sad thing is this COULD have been an opportunity for the Saudis to say “we know a lot of westerners have a negative opinion of our country, but we’re glad you’ve decided to visit today” but that didn’t happen.  In fact, I don’t think I heard the word “welcome” even one time. Even the crowd-control guy at the immigration area could have said something like “sorry this is taking so long” instead of giving us all the side-eye and treating us like criminals.

Bottom Line: if you’re on a cruise that stops in Saudi Arabia, just plan on staying on the ship that day.

Tomorrow is Bahrain. I’ve heard good thing about it.’

Until we meet again, may you avoid the Kraken, and have Fair Winds and Following Seas

Eric Cable