Strategy for upcoming bookings in Caribbean?

[popper]

For those people who have bookings later this year, particularly those who are embarking and/or disembarking from a port that is not a USA port, what is your strategy?  There are so many unknowns, And final payments are looming. SD says they are planning to do all scheduled sailings. What do you think, will SeaDream do a TA? will Caribbean ports allow entry/exit? will Caribbean ports allow visitors? Quarantines? will airlines have flights, etc? We may just cancel ... and we miss SD!

[Zimmy]

With great disappointment, we last week cancelled our January 4th Caribbean sailing. I do not have a crystal ball so I don't know whether it will be safe to sail in January, but I do know that we will not yet know whether it is safe at the point when we need to make a decision on our final payment three months in advance of the sailing. We are hoping that things will have improved for the May sailing which we have booked. We too miss SD - we miss our old life!

[laurelguy]

Oh wow...we're scheduled for Barbados 12/27 and have been sweating out the cancellations..as of today a rep said november sailings and onward are still going as are the crossings..ugh!

[laurelguy]

PS...final is due end of September...what a gamble...

[Zimmy]

13 hours ago, laurelguy said:

PS...final is due end of September...what a gamble...

One of the things that pushed us to cancel our early January cruise now is that reading our documents I discovered that in order to receive a full refund (less the $50 fee) one must cancel 120 days out. Final payment is due 90 days out, so if we had waited until final payment was due we would have lost money. We asked for a refund rather than a credit towards a future voyage because we had multiple voyages booked and had already applied the refund for our June, 2020 cruise to a future voyage. There is a limit to how many future voyages we want to have deposits on. 

[laurelguy]

Thanks for this! So they're letting you use a refund towards a future cruise? We have a Sept. 2021 that we have a deposit on. I'd love to use my credit to help pay for the later one!

[Zimmy]

22 hours ago, laurelguy said:

Thanks for this! So they're letting you use a refund towards a future cruise? We have a Sept. 2021 that we have a deposit on. I'd love to use my credit to help pay for the later one!

I need to clarify. We used our refund on the June, 2020 cruise towards a new open booking to be used prior to 12/31/22. We did not ask that the refund be applied to our May, 2021 cruise, so I don't know what that answer would have been. 

[cabosal1]

Looks like the September Med cruises are now cancelled and also the TA's.  The winter Caribbean cruises are being re-evaluated, too, per SD blog. 

[Jim Avery]

So they would do the TAs empty in order to get to the Caribbean for a season that might or might not happen.  Don't get me wrong, I would love nothing much more than a couple of weeks on SD in the Caribbean and SOON, but this is a large financial risk at present.  I am sadly resigning to the fact that this Winter will be as full of cruising and as fun as the Summer has been.  I hope I am wrong.🍸

[laurelguy]

Jim Avery and others..thank you for this. As we watch all the other lines cancel their remaining 2020 cruises I fear the Caribbean winter season will be a no-go. But we're hanging on (so far) to our 12/27 out of Barbados. I really wonder if they'll do the TA's as planned....rough seas all the way around...

[andreas_seadream]

2 hours ago, laurelguy said:

Jim Avery and others..thank you for this. As we watch all the other lines cancel their remaining 2020 cruises I fear the Caribbean winter season will be a no-go. But we're hanging on (so far) to our 12/27 out of Barbados. I really wonder if they'll do the TA's as planned....rough seas all the way around...

 

You may be right about the Caribbean winter season being a "no-go". Truthfully, we are not quite sure yet ourselves. We know we can operate based on dialogue with the various islands and our medical advisors. Being in operations this summer has been truly invaluable. We don't need to "restart" since we will soon have been sailing for 3 months in Norway. We are ready! Yet, if we had not sailed this summer, I am not sure we would even consider operating this winter. We did have a good Covid prevention system in place before we launched, but we have also been through a "false alarm" (read: we suspected covid onboard and acted as if we had a real situation) and gained experiences that has been extremely valuable. But do you want to travel? If you are on the fence, is there something we can do? Do you feel safe travelling? 

 

So here is what we are going to to:

 

We are going to invite any one who wants to join me for a Zoom webinar meeting this week. It will take place on Thursday at 1 PM EST. 

 

I have asked a few of our team members to join me for a fireside chat with anyone that wants to join:

 

• Bob Lepisto - President. 19 years with SeaDream.
• Emilio Freeman - Cruise industry veteran and itinerary "guru"
• Sudesh Kishore - SVP of Hotel Operations. 19 years with SeaDream. 

 

This is a slightly unconventional approach for sure, but we would like to proudly share what we have done this summer, what we have learned, what we think could work this winter season and a few more things. We haven't decided exactly how this will play out  (I just got off a call with the people mentioned above), but we will work on this tomorrow. Please come with suggestions to how we can make this insightful and fun to join!

 

I will post a link here tomorrow where you can sign up. If it is against Cruise Critic rules to post a link in these forums, you should find a link on our website and social media. We are not going to announce a new yacht on the call (unless you know of a vessel that fits with our brand that is available for a good price). The focus will be on operating in a world where there is Covid in a way that is safe. We are planning on sharing a few insights and behind the scenes information so I think it will be interesting and fun to join! For instance, I will share what took place the first few minutes after we got what we now know what a false positive Covid test on a voyage where I had sent my mom (!).

 

And then we will see if the Caribbean season is a "no-go". I very much hope it will take place, but we want you all to give us feedback and help us in the decision making.  

 

I always say that our "product" and the SeaDream experience is really about two things: you (our guests) and our crew. So asking you for some feedback and for you to ask us questions is actually pretty well aligned with what our brand should be. Fingers crossed that this will work well 😉 

[laurelguy]

Andreas.....thank you so much for posting! I'm not sure what your position is at SeaDream but it goes without saying that we have loved our cruises over the years and are anxious to get back onboard!  We feel very safe and have just returned from Cabo for a small getaway. We would love to be on the Zoom or whatever. We're holding our flights from LA for December to sail from Barbados. Let's think positive! Cheers...

[Zimmy]

Andreas, what a great and innovative idea. Count us in!

[HesterM]

I have Caribbean bookings in November 2020 and March 2021 that are paid in full and I am very much looking forward to these trips.

Questions

 

is it possible to have testing onboard to ensure we can go into ports, and most importantly, get home at the end?   I know the places we are to embark and disembark are still under COVID shutdowns.

 

will we have to have a negative test within 3 days to board like we do to enter San Juan at this time?  For some of us, it takes more time than that to travel with an overnight between home and final destination and another overnight before embarking on the yacht.  

 

the photos from Norway have been beautiful and I hope you will consider a summer there again in the future.   That is much more appealing to my husband and me than the Mediterranean.

 

 

  I look forward to attending the webinar Thursday.   Thanks!

[andreas_seadream]

Hi there, 

You are invited to a Zoom webinar. 
When: Sep 3, 2020 01:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) 
Topic: SeaDream - An update for our SeaDream Club Members and extended family

Register in advance for this webinar:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0B2yvQ1dQvqWuTIEDvrT5w

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

[vandrefalk]

Andreas, this is wonderful news!  Kudos for planning it.  Sadly, I have another commitment and won’t be able to attend.  Will it be recorded and available afterwards?  Hope so!

I also second a return to Norway in the future!  I was on the inaugural cruise in 2011 (with your family!) and loved every minute of it.

Vandrefalk

[laurelguy]

Andreas....thank you! Looking forward!

[JES4845]

 

Seconding and “thirding” the earlier positive reactions to the Zoom webinar, Andreas.

 

We look forward to joining you, your colleagues, and fellow SeaDreamers tomorrow.

[laurelguy]

Had a really nice call from SD rep in Miami today inviting us to the webinar (we had already signed up) and confirming that as of now they are indeed going ahead with a winter schedule in the Caribbean.....we are thrilled and just hope all works out for December...🤩

[DWhit]

Thanks to Seadream for a great Webinar describing their current thoughts and hopes for future cruising.  My wife and I thoroughy enjoyed the presentation and were impressed with SeaDream's open and frank communications.  

Edited September 3, 2020 by DWhit

[Cruise Critic Chris]

Nice session. Here's our write-up from it: https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/5571/

[laurelguy]

Getting conflicting info on the phone today with Miami. I thought the assurance program would include those of us who booked a long time ago (for us LAST September 2019) for December 2020 cruises. But I was told not true today. The change in itinerary looks fine. These are great islands! But hard to pay final in a few weeks not knowing if things change...whether we'll be refunded 100% cash before cruise date. Also...we leave Dec. 27 from Barbados. We live in LA. How could we have a 3 day test in advance if the 25th is a holiday and it takes a day and a half to get to there. Needless to say we're frustrated. 

[HesterM]

18 minutes ago, laurelguy said:

 

Edited September 3, 2020 by HesterM

[HesterM]

We are confused with differing answers to the assurance program as well.   I submitted the question on the survey after the meeting.   Seems to me they would not penalize repeat customers.   We didn’t ask for refunds on 2 canceled trips, March 2020 and September 2020. Instead we let them keep our money and made bookings for November 2020 and March 2021 with the previous payments and are now paid in full for both.  I don’t plan to cancel, but I hope if a problem arose, they would let us use the money for a future booking.   

[Jim Avery]

Laurelguy, you hit our dilemma exactly.  From PHX to BGI involves twice as much time and money as does PHX/LHR.  A day and a half with multiple changes each way just diminishes the trip too much.  SJU or STT are the only realistic ports for us.  We are still hopeful for the Palm Beach sailings but time will tell.  I know they can't please everybody and I believe there are direct flights to BGI from some European airports.  We just need to be teleported as in Star 'Trek.😎