Ovation sailing from Athens this summer

[wesport]

[wesport]

Just got an email from Seabourn asking me if I would like to change my 10/9 on the sojourn. to a Greece itinerary. October seems to be in question.

[johng75370]

15 minutes ago, wesport said:

Just got an email from Seabourn asking me if I would like to change my 10/9 on the sojourn. to a Greece itinerary. October seems to be in question.

Thanks for sharing this; not a good sign for our Sojourn transatlantic on Nov. 6, but good to see Seabourn reaching out proactively to get people back onboard. 

[EMAW]

Got email from Seabourn asking if we want change an August 3 week  Encore booking for July Ovation 7 or 14 day Greece cruise. Also, email stated that all guests would be required to provide proof of COVID vaccination. 

[tv24]

We read news of these sailings today and are very interested, especially considering that we had to scuttle a trip to Greece that we had planned for October, 2020 that included a sailing on Seabourn.  I am a little anxious about booking the first 2 sailings as July will be the initial sailings of many lines and I will want to see how things go.  Maybe September?

[curmudgeon98]

Interesting question of where Greece will be with covid control this summer.  It's clear they don't want to lose another year of tourism and want to accept vaccinated tourists, but they are not on a very fast path for vaccination inside the country.  Cases have been on a significant upswing recently in both Greece and Turkey and I could see the potential for more ups and downs this summer making for a less than ideal tourist experience.  Greece (and Seabourn) are on our list for sometime in the next several years, but I'm hesitant to do an advance commitment for any international travel right now.

[SLSD]

7 hours ago, curmudgeon98 said:

  Greece (and Seabourn) are on our list for sometime in the next several years, but I'm hesitant to do an advance commitment for any international travel right now.

We decided to delay international travel until 2022.  We will be watching these early cruises with great interest.  

[robertmartha]

tv24 - thinking the same. Anxious to book a late Sept sailing (lower temps and less crowds).....will be interested to see how the early sailings are handled.

Will also be very curious on the pricing of these sailings. Probably being one of the few people who do not have a FCC...hoping the are reasonably priced to entice bookings.

[Navis]

4 hours ago, SLSD said:

We decided to delay international travel until 2022.  We will be watching these early cruises with great interest.  

Same here. We’re doing a few vacation rentals this year and are scheduled to attempt a Seabourn cruise in March 2022. Rather coincidentally ... the exact same cruise that was cancelled in March of last year 😀

[robertmartha]

Based on the article just posted under the News section...I bet I will be in for sticker shock (LOL!)

time will tell....

[tv24]

12 hours ago, robertmartha said:

Based on the article just posted under the News section...I bet I will be in for sticker shock (LOL!)

time will tell....

I think a good estimate of price would be to look at the Encore cruises currently on sale for summer 2021 in the Med.  Looks like around $600 PP per day.  In the normal ballpark for Seabourn and a reasonable price considering what you get included.

[wesport]

Checked this am for pricing. Nothing on Greece yet. 

[dalliowner]

TV24  a little optimistic, the prices just seen in the UK  started at $850 per day ( £4500 per week)

[robertmartha]

WOW - had a feeling they were going to be high.

Even though I was thinking about an October sailing...my DW looked at me yesterday and said not a chance...way to soon to be thinking about an overseas flight and a cruise (we are in US - NY).

Sticking to US travel for 2021...maybe Canada in the fall if they open up their boarders.

[wesport]

Can’t see any pricing in the US.  Just got an email, but when I clicked on it, there were no prices. I guess you have to call. 

[Hlitner]

So this seems to be a situation where Seabourn does not have their act together.  There are no prices online so I called my favorite cruise agency who also shows nothing on their own system and said they would need to telephone Seabourn.  So I telephoned Seabourn and their rep said he could only see where they were selling the July 24, 31 cruises.  When I pushed him for some kind of pricing for 14 days he talked about approximately $10,000 PP for a low category which would be a little over $700 Per passenger day.  When I mentioned that Greece is not even open to Americans he had no clue.  He also could not explain why all the other Ovation cruises were not on his own system.  I was also not able to find a detailed itinerary which included the hours in each port.

 

I did suggest to the Seabourn rep that if the company was going to send out marketing e-mails to all their customers about bookings being open on April 12 it would be helpful if there was more info.

 

Hank

[wesport]

1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

So this seems to be a situation where Seabourn does not have their act together.  There are no prices online so I called my favorite cruise agency who also shows nothing on their own system and said they would need to telephone Seabourn.  So I telephoned Seabourn and their rep said he could only see where they were selling the July 24, 31 cruises.  When I pushed him for some kind of pricing for 14 days he talked about approximately $10,000 PP for a low category which would be a little over $700 Per passenger day.  When I mentioned that Greece is not even open to Americans he had no clue.  He also could not explain why all the other Ovation cruises were not on his own system.  I was also not able to find a detailed itinerary which included the hours in each port.

 

I did suggest to the Seabourn rep that if the company was going to send out marketing e-mails to all their customers about bookings being open on April 12 it would be helpful if there was more info.

 

Hank

I called this am, and got pricing on the 10/9 14 day.   $10499 pp plus port fees of $435.  Only perk was 600 minutes of internet pp. Deposit was the standard 25%. 

Edited April 12, 2021 by wesport

[marazul]

Here is the latest on vaccines in Greece:

https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1159197/j-amp-j-one-shot-vaccines-to-start-on-monday-in-greece/

 

Greek friends tell us that the government will emphasize vaccines for island residents in order to open up those ports to cruises.

[fdnycruiser]

I got an email from Seabourn this morning with the pricing others have mentioned. I think I’ll pass on it. I’m booked on the Encore 11/2/21 Athens to Singapore . I don’t think it’ll be sailing to Singapore though. Too many countries involved. Perhaps it’ll be a 33 day Greek island cruise 

[Pingus]

21 hours ago, marazul said:

Here is the latest on vaccines in Greece:

https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1159197/j-amp-j-one-shot-vaccines-to-start-on-monday-in-greece/

 

Greek friends tell us that the government will emphasize vaccines for island residents in order to open up those ports to cruises.

Most likely not:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/us-halts-johnson-johnson-covid-vaccine-rollout-over-six-blood-clot-cases-s8fggt3f3

Another setback for the more traditional vaccine approach, ref. this aricle in the NEJM:

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2104882?query=featured_home

[marazul]

They are still at it:

https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1159259/greece-aiming-for-more-than-4-mln-vaccinations-by-may-end-minister-says/

No mention of J&J.  I'll keep checking.

[Covepointcruiser]

We are booked on the 7/10 and 7/17 cruises on the Ovation.   Prices seem to be in line with other sailings, about 5K per person per week.   Air is pretty reasonable from the east coast of the U.S. so there are savings there.   We are vaccinated but will still need to test 72 hours before we sail.   We are keeping everything crossed that the cruise will go as scheduled.   Booked everything through Seabourn to avoid any cancellation hassles.

[Hlitner]

We have given a lot of consideration to booking back to back Ovation sailings this summer.  But there are too many unanswered questions.  If Seabourn insists on a PCR test 3 days in advance, this becomes complicated if we were to fly over a day early.  It is a tight timeframe to get a PCR test and most sites will not guarantee fast results.  And our other issue has to do with the ports (many of which we know well).  Will there be a mandatory requirement that passengers will only be able to go ashore if on a Seabourn Tour  (a deal breaker for us)?  And our third issue is the current bad COVID situation in Greece.  Much of the country remains on a strict lockdown including mostly closed restaurants and an early curfew (I think it is 9pm).   There is no way to know what the lockdown rules will be (which can vary from place to place) in the summer.  

 

Ironically, things are a bit more easier to deal with for the time we would spend in Greece after a cruise.  Our plans would likely include spending at least a week on several islands (reached via ferrys).  Depending on lockdown mandates (which vary from island to island) we would be able to simply vary our own itinerary depending on which islands are open vs locked down.

 

Hank

[bjkrlk]

We’re booked - flights, hotel, and all on the 7/24 - 14 day sailing. Cannot wait. 

[tv24]

I finally got around to checking the Seabourn website on these cruises.  Cruise only fare for 14-day sailing is around $640 pp per day, so in the ball park.  But we would have preferred to wait until later in the season, and unless I'm missing something, it appears that the Ovation stops sailing Aug. 28 and does not start up again until around Oct. 16 when it heads to Singapore.  Anyone know where the Ovation will be for September and early October?