April 18th, 2025
We had no plans in Malacca and with it being a tender port we decided that we would make it a boat day and not go ashore. Tours were supposed to start at 8am but they were making announcements a little after 8 apologizing for the delay and saying that we had not received clearance yet from the local authorities Most tours delayed by 30 minutes before we finally heard the announcement that we could begin tendering people to shore.
About an hour later they made another announcement saying that anyone going ashore needed to bring their passports with them. They asked anyone going ashore to please go down to reception and pick up their passports prior to going on shore.
We left our room and went up to the lounge at the top of the ship and there was no one there. Kathy got some coffee and I got on the computer and was going to update the blog and was commenting on how fast the wi-fi was. Just as we were getting settled in the ship made another announcement and they said that local authorities were now “demanding” that all passengers must come to shore and present their passport to local authorities. The announcement asked everyone to get their passports and report to the tender area as soon as possible. Apparently no one that was already on shore was allowed back on the boat until all passengers presented on shore. In all of our cruising experience we have never had this especially not on a tender port. Usually if local authorities want to see everyone they come on board and everyone presents themselves on board. We have had several ports when everyone has to get off the boat and do a face to face with local authorities but the boat is always docked.
We went and got our passports and got in line waiting on the tender. Several people were complaining about the disruption. One lady was in the middle of a manicure when an officer came and said she had to go on shore. Another lady was recovering from hip surgery and having trouble with stairs and getting in and out of the tender and she said they came to her room and said she had to go. The people in front of us were joking sort of when they said “this is the Americans fault and the Malaysians were retaliating against us.” We did point out that Oceania was an American company. Everyone was nice and all was said in jest. While we were waiting on the tender to load up a customs boat came up and was taking pictures of us and video taping us. It was very strange.
The customs boat
It was a 30 minute ride into the port and we were herded into a big hall and had to present our passports to immigration officials. I cringed when they stamped our passport knowing how little room we had left for any stamps. As soon as our passports were stamped we turned them back in to Oceania. We then went right back on the tender and returned to the ship. The customs boat followed us the whole way in and then raced ahead to dock before we did.
We spent the afternoon reading, watching some TV and updating the blog.
We went down to see Fabio, the executive concierge and tell him we had made our travel arrangements and what did he need from us. We asked him how his day went and he said “it was a shit show”. The local authorities just kept making more and more demands and they refused to ride on the ship’s tender they insisted on coming out to the boat on a rickety old fishing boat. Also one of the perks of being immigration in these ports is coming on the cruise ship and enjoying the food. These authorities did not eat or drink anything offered by the cruise ship. This is a relatively new port and when we looked up the port schedule the only boats that are coming here are Oceania and Regent (which is also a Norwegian cruise line company) and only 6 cruise ships in a year.
On another note while we were standing in line waiting for the tender we heard several people talking about the boarding process in Singapore. Several people were talking about the fact that their passport was checked 3 times by 3 different people to verify that they had 10 blank pages. Kathy and I looked at each other but did not say a word but definitely feel that was related to our incident.
When we went to see Fabio we asked if anyone was denied embarkation because of their passport and he said they had to deny 4 passengers, all Americans, due to not enough blank pages. I guess Oceania is not going to repeat their mistake.
Our next port is Kuala Lumpur and we will be spending the night in port.