SeaDream are sailing in Norway

[DaveA]

On 1/2/2021 at 1:32 PM, ctbjr1309 said:

I'm wondering if you could let us know the current status of refunds for cancelled cruises.  I was scheduled to be on board this week and requested a refund when that voyage was cancelled on November 18 which was 45 days ago.  No credit posted yet to my credit card account so I'm curious to know when to expect it.

I have received my refund for the Jan 16th cruise, about a month after it was cancelled.

[ctbjr1309]

2 hours ago, DaveA said:

I have received my refund for the Jan 16th cruise, about a month after it was cancelled.

Thanks for the info.  I'm still reasonably patiently awaiting mine over 50 days after I requested it.

[andreas_seadream]

On 1/2/2021 at 2:32 PM, ctbjr1309 said:

Hello, Andreas.  Happy New Year.  Here's hoping for a very different and much improved 2021.  Personally, I'm scheduled for my first dose of COVID vaccine Tuesday.  For the first time in my life I'm excited by the prospect of getting a shot!

 

I'm wondering if you could let us know the current status of refunds for cancelled cruises.  I was scheduled to be on board this week and requested a refund when that voyage was cancelled on November 18 which was 45 days ago.  No credit posted yet to my credit card account so I'm curious to know when to expect it.

 

Many thanks and hope to see you and many members of this forum on board again in 2021!

 

Happy new year! I apologise for the not responding quicker and for the refund delay. 

 

Here is what I have found:

We are later with refunds right now than we should be. Under normal "non-covid" operations we issue refunds within 2 weeks. There is sometimes a delay outside of our control with when you see the refund on your statement, but it usually does not add much time. I am being told we are right now at 4-5 weeks, which is 2-3 weeks slower than normal. That is way too slow, so we will speed that up starting next week. I estimate it will take us about a week or two before we are back to "normal" again, meaning refunds are issued within 2 weeks.

 

In March of last year and for the next few months the world was pretty crazy. That also influenced refunds and we were very slow. Now is a different situation where we have control of the situation. We have the staffing and time to do this correctly. So we really do not have any excuses now and I should have personally kept a closer eye on this.

 

Now, I do read here that we are even slower than what I can find internally. So if you are past the "4-5 week" mark, I would appreciate if you (or anyone else reading this) a direct message here on cruise critic with your booking number or other information that would make it possible to look up your booking.

[ctbjr1309]

1 hour ago, andreas_seadream said:

Now, I do read here that we are even slower than what I can find internally. So if you are past the "4-5 week" mark, I would appreciate if you (or anyone else reading this) a direct message here on cruise critic with your booking number or other information that would make it possible to look up your booking.

Andreas, thanks for your response.  It doesn't appear to be possible to send you a direct message through this forum.  So, I have sent you the requested information via a different method and look forward to hearing back from you.  I'm glad to hear that SeaDream is catching up on the refund process and look forward to the day when the funds are flowing in the other direction :).

[andreas_seadream]

On 1/10/2021 at 1:58 PM, ctbjr1309 said:

Andreas, thanks for your response.  It doesn't appear to be possible to send you a direct message through this forum.  So, I have sent you the requested information via a different method and look forward to hearing back from you.  I'm glad to hear that SeaDream is catching up on the refund process and look forward to the day when the funds are flowing in the other direction :).

My team got back to me today and your refund has been processed. It may take a few days before you see it. All other refunds that have been slower than normal are also being processed as we speak, ie. over the next few days.

[ctbjr1309]

2 minutes ago, andreas_seadream said:

My team got back to me today and your refund has been processed. It may take a few days before you see it. All other refunds that have been slower than normal are also being processed as we speak, ie. over the next few days.

Thanks, Andreas.  I appreciate your help getting this taken care of.

[laurelguy]

Andreas you're on it! Here's my issue. Loyal cruiser with you and we spoke on one of the zooms. Our December cruise was cancelled in November. About a month later we received everything but our deposit of $2000+ which has still not been issued. One of the staff told me and my travel agent that it's coming from "a third party in Norway"....meanwhile we're still waiting another month for this remaining amount. We are booked for 2021 but are feeling neglected here. 

[laurelguy]

And our booking number was 169447...I appreciate it Andreas..

 

[Galaxy]

Andreas,do you think it will be a second Norway only season?

[andreas_seadream]

On 1/13/2021 at 4:56 PM, laurelguy said:

And our booking number was 169447...I appreciate it Andreas..

 

My apologies for not checking back in here for a while. I reached out to my team today and I am told that you should have received the funds between 1/19-1/21.

 

When you initially paid us we used one payment processor for your deposit and another one for your full payment. The reason for this is that we are transitioning to a new company that is much better for us to work with. Amongst other things, they process refunds quickly. We issued a refund for both the deposit and the full payment on the same date. But whereas one of these companies issued you a refund quickly, the other company used many weeks (I am now assuming that the information I have about you now having your full refund is correct - if I am wrong please let me know!). Not only did this company use many weeks, throughout those weeks we had to repeatedly email them and ask them to process the refund. While this of course did not help you for your full amount, at least we are now only processing new payments using this new company. 

 

And for the record: both companies we are using are good and solid businesses. But one is a very modern company where we can manage refunds using their website or APIs and the other one requires a very manual process in order to issue refunds. During the pandemic the payment processing companies have struggled big time due to an unprecedented high volume of refunds and those companies that are using technology the right way are able to scale in a way that those needing humans to manually refund have not. I do not mean to put blame on them -  we have also been slow at time - but at least we have found a problem in our refund process and made adjustments. 

 

Other than some issues with our old payment processing company causing some delays, we are now well ahead of the promised 2 week refund window. During the remainder of this pandemic there may be times when we are slower than what I promise here, but if we are slower it should only be for a short amount of time. We are here for the long run and we will be ready to operate again as soon as the time is right.

 

 

[andreas_seadream]

On 1/25/2021 at 6:52 AM, Galaxy said:

Andreas,do you think it will be a second Norway only season?

I would love for us to do another season in Norway, but we are not planning on doing so this summer. I wish we had more ships since we could then position one vessel in Norway every summer. The demand is there for sure! 

 

If we are not allowed to operate in the Med we could potentially operate in Norway of course, but I personally think vaccinations and current lockdowns will make it possible to enjoy southern Europe this summer. It is somewhat ironic that towards the end of a pandemic things are getting way worse and way better at the same time. Millions of people are being vaccinated every day now and yet things are for many of us feeling worse. Worse in reality or because we are tired of living in a world where Covid has been dominating the news 24/7 and our lives for close to a year. I look forward to some time in March when I hope there will be more good than bad news in the world. Fingers crossed! 🙂 

Edited January 28, 2021 by andreas_seadream
minor adjustment of a sentence

[SWFLAOK]

We're booked on back to back cruises at the end of March 2022, and convinced my brother to book as well. We hope that all of this is over by then. We've already had our first vaccines. My brother watched the video of the fogging machine used in the cabins on SeaDream each day, and he was impressed. He suggested I buy one for my condo. If I let anyone other than him visit us, and that's only on holidays, I might need one of those. We are so looking forward to our SeaDream cruise. Our first was the winter after Hurricane Irma, which hit us hard, but hit many of the islands we visited harder. We were happy to contribute to their recovery with our tourism.

[laurelguy]

On 1/28/2021 at 8:51 AM, andreas_seadream said:

I would love for us to do another season in Norway, but we are not planning on doing so this summer. I wish we had more ships since we could then position one vessel in Norway every summer. The demand is there for sure! 

 

If we are not allowed to operate in the Med we could potentially operate in Norway of course, but I personally think vaccinations and current lockdowns will make it possible to enjoy southern Europe this summer. It is somewhat ironic that towards the end of a pandemic things are getting way worse and way better at the same time. Millions of people are being vaccinated every day now and yet things are for many of us feeling worse. Worse in reality or because we are tired of living in a world where Covid has been dominating the news 24/7 and our lives for close to a year. I look forward to some time in March when I hope there will be more good than bad news in the world. Fingers crossed! 🙂 

Andreas thank you for the reply and looking into our refund! We did indeed get the remaining funds. We did move our September Med cruise to the New Year's sailing in the Caribbean. So looking forward to seeing our friends on SD soon! Best to all....

[Galaxy]

Looks like SeaDream I are going to sail in Norway this summer with 7 and 10 days cruises,start on july 7 out from Oslo :)

[YachtCruiser]

Wow ! 
 

Seadream in norway is perfect 👍🏼

[ctbjr1309]

The 18 day voyage in August from Oslo to Civitavecchia looks nice.  I wonder how SD arrived at the pricing for that trip.  According to the website, a Deck 2 stateroom can be had for the princely sum of $69,000 per passenger (plus fees of $1,098 per passenger).  Bet it takes a while for that one to sell out :).

[knotheadusc]

I haven't been on SeaDream since 2013... but I was eyeing the Oslo to Bordeaux cruise last night.  It looks awesome.

[kla203]

7 hours ago, YachtCruiser said:

Wow ! 
 

Seadream in norway is perfect 👍🏼

Well - we were on SD1 last year from Oslo to Tromsø - best cruise ever, great weather all the time. Can only recommend it. SO GREAT

[TrapperZimmy]

14 hours ago, ctbjr1309 said:

The 18 day voyage in August from Oslo to Civitavecchia looks nice.  I wonder how SD arrived at the pricing for that trip.  According to the website, a Deck 2 stateroom can be had for the princely sum of $69,000 per passenger (plus fees of $1,098 per passenger).  Bet it takes a while for that one to sell out :).

Just checked the website.  It shows the Deck 2 at $8,280 pp and the Owner's Suite at $24,600 pp.  For an 18 day, that is a good deal.  Wonder if you were looking at the Norwegian prices in kroner, which is about 8.28 to the USD.  That would come out close.

[ctbjr1309]

2 hours ago, TrapperZimmy said:

Just checked the website.  It shows the Deck 2 at $8,280 pp and the Owner's Suite at $24,600 pp.  For an 18 day, that is a good deal.  Wonder if you were looking at the Norwegian prices in kroner, which is about 8.28 to the USD.  That would come out close.

You know, I thought about that last night and double checked to make sure that the pricing was in $.  Checked again this morning and same pricing.  Checked just now and am seeing what you are.  So, either they've fixed the website or I was hallucinating last night.  Both are equally possible!

Edited June 23, 2021 by ctbjr1309

[TrapperZimmy]

4 hours ago, ctbjr1309 said:

You know, I thought about that last night and double checked to make sure that the pricing was in $.  Checked again this morning and same pricing.  Checked just now and am seeing what you are.  So, either they've fixed the website or I was hallucinating last night.  Both are equally possible!

Gotta stop licking those frogs.👅🐸

[Jim Avery]

35 minutes ago, TrapperZimmy said:

Gotta stop licking those frogs.👅🐸

Old school.🍸🍸🍸🍸

[JES4845]

As to the Oslo to Rome voyage, since it originates in Norway, is it restricted to Norwegians and certain others (Denmark?) as was the case last summer?  I’m not seeing anything online confirming more open access to Norway yet, certainly not for Americans based on US Embassy website.  Perhaps others in Europe could go on it?  Any updated information on entry rules for Norway would be welcome.

[Jim Avery]

I received an email from SD yesterday with all the details.  Nothing was said about limiting nationalities.  

Edited June 24, 2021 by Jim Avery

[JES4845]

6 hours ago, Jim Avery said:

I received an email from SD yesterday with all the details.  Nothing was said about limiting nationalities.  

 

Precisely the point … as we learned to our detriment in the recent fiasco involving the Athens round trip we were blocked from due to SD’s lack of follow through (due to depart this Saturday) … they act as if COVID is over … passengers, even “Club Members” … are left to fend for themselves as to the various changing rules, etc.  No help at all.