mjminseattle

Here is Ovation.    Snug in Singapore Harbor.  The website I use is https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:103.836/centery:1.469/zoom:15

32 minutes ago, teamflames said:

Sorry for the confusion. The reference to Bali was the itinerary before ours. The ship sails from Sydney to Bali and then onto Singapore for our cruise. I was hypothesising that they could change that itinerary to Bali (who have reportedly not allowed passengers to disembark recently) and keep the ship in Australia until our itinerary.

I think if they changed the Encore to leave from Australia they would have to cancel the Indonesia and Thailand stops just to make up the cruising time?

Yes.  I understand that is the case and I realized that after I wrote the post.  I edited it, but not in time.  If we do depart from Australia my only regret will be that we don't get more time there.  We are Mexican residents so coming from there through San Francisco so not a whole lot of options for us.

Nope, Encore goes to Dubai.  It is currently in New Zealand, Tauranga.  Ovation is currently docked in Singapore environs.

James and Fleur, The Seabourn Encore itinerary starting on the 17th does not go to Bali.  Perhaps it goes to Bali on the way up to Singapore.  From Singapore our  itinerary is supposedly to Phuket, Thailand then Colombo, Sri Lanka  before Mumbai, India.  I suppose that if we are allowed to sail there would be the possibility of boarding in any one of several other ports. 

Perhaps they will keep the ship in Australia and board us there.  Having been to Bali several times I don't envision that as a viable option but one never knows.  We have almost 8 weeks.  Fingers crossed, the cruise will go off as planned or at least with a few wrinkles.  One thing is for sure, we will have stories to tell.  Let me know on the roll call or here if you hear any thing.

we are booked on Encore for the April 17 sailing Singapore to Athens.  We have not heard a peep out of our TA or Seabourn.  Anyone else have any iformation on this sailing?

Here is a really stupid question. Why do the words "cool cruiser" appear below the name of the person posting?

Quick search on Internet shows:-

 

A new cruise operator, Haimark, will launch a luxury Mekong experience, starting in winter 2013-2014. The company also plans exotic voyages on the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar and the Ganges River in India.

Based in Breckenridge, CO, Haimark is a U.S. company with U.S.-based procurement and contracting. The new company’s name reflects the cruise line’s three partners. All have extensive experience in river cruising and Southeast Asia.

Well-known to agents is Tom Markwell, the former vice president of sales and marketing for Pandaw River Cruises. During Markwell’s three-year tenure at Pandaw he was responsible for contracting for three new vessels on the Mekong for Uniworld and Avalon Waterways.

In 2012, he ventured off to form Haimark with another partner, Marcus Leskovar, also formerly with Pandaw's U.S. office and with years of hotel and cruise operational experience, and Giang Hai, an experienced ground operator in Southeast Asia.

The Haimark operation now handles land arrangements for more than 4,000 people annually to Southeast Asia; that occurs through seven ground offices under Hai's direction throughout the region.

We returned two days ago from a Haimark Cruise aboard the MV Saint Laurent from Portland, Maine to Montreal Canada. This was the second cruise on this itinerary on a refurbished boat with ownership attributed to several companies. The ship just crashed into the Eisenhower locks in the St. Laurence two days after the end of our cruise while enroute to Toronto.

There were many problems aboard this ship and some very nice things. A luxury cruise it is not. We were with two groups of very disappointed cruisers who had paid top dollar for trips organized by the National Trust and the Smithsonian. We booked at a steep discount through Jetsetter travel and were not expecting so much.

I don't know if Haimark will survive as a company given the disappointing level of service and damage to this vessel.