Barbados summer cruises 2021

[Borna]

One formal night per week.  The chosen night is announced in the herald, we didn’t know ahead of the cruise. 
 

no, we are not allowed to explore bequia on our own.  And seabourn does not presently have a private excursion in bequia.   Ive made a request and am waiting to hear, but it’s unlikely to happen per seabourn 

 

 

[Borna]

Meant to write we knew ahead of the cruise about formal night, just not which night.  
 

 

[rkacruiser]

On 7/30/2021 at 10:58 PM, cruiseej said:

 I've read people talking about trivia on these boards for years, and people seem so serious about it,

 

And that "seriousness" is not exclusive to Seabourn.  During one long HAL cruise that I sailed, someone was able to steal the trivia cruise book that the cruise staff member used for the game.  Needless to say, the CD had to get on the internet and devise more trivia questions. 

[rkacruiser]

Thanks for the pictures!  They whet my desire to book a Seabourn cruise.  

[Borna]

Good night

[Borna]

I met 3 people so far who boarded yesterday.  They had no problems arriving in Barbados.  They all arrived at least a day before the cruise start.  Two received their on arrival test results within 24 hours,  one received her results inexplicably two days later.   

[Hipockets]

We boarded the Odyssey on Sunday and the trip through the airport was seamless as long as you had your paperwork in order. There was no test at the airport and they escorted us to a taxi and we were on the ship 30 minutes later. No masks on the ship and 77 guests this week we went on the aerial tram today in St Lucia. All is well and a good time is being had by all.

[Borna]

[2seabournsailors]

15 hours ago, Borna said:

I met 3 people so far who boarded yesterday.  They had no problems arriving in Barbados.  They all arrived at least a day before the cruise start.  Two received their on arrival test results within 24 hours,  one received her results inexplicably two days later.   

If you have some spare time one day, could you please put up a pic of the Menu? I just want to drool and "remember". LOL  I see Seabourn's President just got off the ship, did you meet him?

[cruiseej]

@Borna  Thanks so much for posting the daily Heralds. It's not quite like being there, but it's the next best thing! It certainly heightens my anticipation for next month.

 

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For upcoming Odyssey travelers: I thought I'd note that Seabourn has added a number of excursions in some ports. We had looked at the excursions and booked a few last month. Then we got notifications that two of the excursions we had booked were canceled, so we reviewed the updated list and found it underwhelming. When it was reported yesterday that Odyssey will skip Granada and instead visit Bequia in the Grenadines, I logged into my account to see if our cruise had changed. (It hasn't, at least as of now.) But when I checked excursions again, I was pleasantly surprised to see several new excursions had been added in Antigua and Grenada, and the post-cruise Barbados tour enroute to the airport was modified and now fits our flight timing. As these may vary from one cruise to another, I'm just pointing this out so you can check to see if there's any new excursions of interest on your upcoming cruise.

[Borna]

Did not meet the president on board

[Borna]

Last night’s dinner menu

[Borna]

Yesterday we anchored in rodney bay, st lucia. Only those on seabourn excursions, as everywhere on this cruise, were allowed to leave.  I asked to just ride in the tender without getting off, but was denied.  I asked about a private excursion to pigeon island but was told it was closed despite the visible presence of people walking on pigeon island 

 

on bequia, there are two water based excursions, and land based excursions-even private- are prohibited.  
 

i was advised that once on board i could swap my prepaid excursions for the shipboard credit and receive a refund on my credit card for the prepaid excursions.  Seabourn told me no, but at the end of the cruise it would determine if i still had a credit balance, then it would refund the difference. 
 

 

[jenidallas]

I wish Seabourn would make it easy for browsing future guests to see the details of available shore excursions without having to book a suite to do so.

 

We cancelled our 21-night Barbados holiday RT when it was announced last month that only bubble shore excursions would be allowed in the Caribbean for the first phase of sailings.  Knowing that we had little interest in most of the offered excursions, we cancelled proactively so we would still have time to find another reasonable option.  The prices on some of these sailings are already up 25%+ over what we’ve paid on prior years and when we added on the cost of shore excursions for 2 in the ports (and not the 2 hour bus to the rum factory and back at 8:30 am ones), that was another 15-20%.

 

On top of that, we have to think about testing plus extra nights in hotels to ensure we can depart smoothly, and the growing risk of being turned away due to asymptotic infection despite being vaccinated.  I keep watching for ways for Seabourn to make this easier to plan for but they seem to come up short compared to their peers.

 

We booked Silver Moon for 15 nights RT from Hong Kong to Singapore instead.  Now do I reasonably think Asia will return for cruising by December?  I do not!  But if it does and it’s in a bubble, we were at least able to find something where we’d be willing to take the offered onboard excursions if required.  Better yet, we were able to get enough of a sense of other options that we feel we could be very flexible with a change of region or a future rebooking when this one likely changes to a new region.

 

I’ve generally been a Seabourn cheerleader over the years, but the lack of proactive communication has been frustrating.   I don’t think it’s too much to ask for a wee bit of over-communication about things like available shore excursions and adjustment plans, not just for booked passengers.  It’s not like any of the current scenario wasn’t something that could be planned for.  I’m not willing to hand out free passes for being caught flat-footed at this point.

[cruiseej]

4 hours ago, Borna said:

i was advised that once on board i could swap my prepaid excursions for the shipboard credit and receive a refund on my credit card for the prepaid excursions.  Seabourn told me no, but at the end of the cruise it would determine if i still had a credit balance, then it would refund the difference.

 

Whaaaaaat??  If this is true, it's a complete change in longstanding policy. 

 

Om my upcoming Barbados cruise, I have ended up with a significant amount of onboard credit. Secure in the knowledge that excursions I pre-booked could be refunded and charged against my onboard credits, I have booked excursions in each port. I guess I will go to Seabourn Square as soon as we board and ask to do the swap; if they say no, I will ask to cancel all my excursions for a refund, and then I'll try to rebook them and hope there is space available. If they will not refund my pre-booked excursions to my credit card and allow me to use up the onboard credits, I will be a most unhappy cruiser. Such a change would significantly affect our choice of Seabourn versus Silversea in the future, as SS simply doesn't charge you for excursions until the end of your cruise, using up onboard credits first before charging your credit card. 

[fdnycruiser]

I believe that next year Silversea is going to have excursions included. So you’ll be paying for them whether you like it or not. I too was hoping to be able to use my OBC to pay for the excursions on an upcoming cruise. However, Borna  (the poster) did say he was told that unused credit would be refunded,if I read that correctly.

[dalliowner]

I think the repayment only happens if you have paid in advance for  tours etc

 

[cruiseej]

9 minutes ago, fdnycruiser said:

I believe that next year Silversea is going to have excursions included. So you’ll be paying for them whether you like it or not. I too was hoping to be able to use my OBC to pay for the excursions on an upcoming cruise. However, Borna  (the poster) did say he was told that unused credit would be refunded,if I read that correctly.

 

Silversea is including one excursion in each port, but not all excursions are free -- only the basic ones. Higher-end excursions will still carry a fee. (This is similar to Regent as well.) 

 

There's a difference between rounding unused credit at the end and refunding and rebooking on credit. Let's say I have $1,000 in onboard credit, and I book and pay for $800 in excursions. If Seabourn merely refunds any unused credit, I'd get back $200 at the end of the cruise. If Seabourn allowed my to cancel/rebook the excursions, I'd get back the $800 I spent, plus have $200 in onboard credit to use for laundry or wine or spa.

 

Seabourn has always allowed refunding excursions and charging them to OBC, and Seabourn has never allowed refunds of Seabourn-provided OBC. If both of those policies have changed, it's a very significant difference.

 

35 minutes ago, dalliowner said:

I think the repayment only happens if you have paid in advance for  tours etc

 

Yes, that's the issue. @Borna said they refused to allow a refund of the prepaid excursions to charge them against onboard credit.

[Travels with Lisa]

It seems like such an antiquated system.  On the cruise line we frequent, when you book your shore excursions prior to sailing, your OBC is immediately charged.  I guess it make sense since Seabourn's website is less than perfect.

[Borna]

Just been told no private excursion allowed in st kitts, our second time there during the two week cruise.  On our first stop in st kitts, we did the group excursion to rodney manor and brimstone hill fortress where the views are grand.  Had hoped for a private tour on our second visit, oh well.  
 

[cruiseej]

@Borna Sorry you're unable to get off to go explore more of the island on a private tour.

 

St. Kitts is where they do the caviar in the surf event. I don't think I'm ever going to bypass unlimited grilled lobsters for lunch (plus the caviar and the champagne), so we didn't see any of St. Kitts on our first visit there a few years ago, and we probably won't on our upcoming visit, either. 😉 

 

It's annoying to me that Seabourn doesn't time a few of the excursions to go out earlier in the morning to get back in time for the beach event, or later in the afternoon after the beach event. The way it's set up, it's largely a choice of one or the other. (Perhaps with fewer than 100 passengers on board, you could do an excursion and still get back in time to snag a lobster; sailing with a more full ship, maybe or maybe not.)

 

Why do they not get the morning excursions back by 11:30, or delay the start of lunch until 12:30, or offer one or more tours at 2:00? Much as we love Seabourn, these are the types of little logistical misses which bug me.

[robertmartha]

cruiseej -

 

Actually I had a question about the surf event.

Looking at January22 - 7 day sailings  - some itineraries specifically list Carambola Beach, Saint Kitts And Nevis while other just list Saint Kitts And Nevis. Should I assume (never a good thing I know!) that all Saint Kitts stops are Carambola beach days? After experiencing one - hard to pass on a beach day like that on a future sailing - and would be disappointed to find out on board that I made an assumption I should not have !

 

thanks all!

[fdnycruiser]

I see your point cruiseej.  Would definitely be better the old way. BTW, I’m booked on a Silversea cruise in November( which may or may not sail) booked my tours without having to shell out the $$$. Definitely a better system

[cruiseej]

2 hours ago, robertmartha said:

Actually I had a question about the surf event.

Looking at January22 - 7 day sailings  - some itineraries specifically list Carambola Beach, Saint Kitts And Nevis while other just list Saint Kitts And Nevis. Should I assume (never a good thing I know!) that all Saint Kitts stops are Carambola beach days?

 

I can't answer definitively. I had been told before our cruise several years ago that "Seabourn always uses the beach club at Carambola Beach for the Caviar in the Surf event." Looking at the January 2022 cruises, it looks like January 14 it shows "Carambola Beach, Saint Kitts And Nevis", January 18 shows "Basseterre, St Kitts And Nevis" and the following week is back to "Carambola Beach, Saint Kitts And Nevis". I don't know if there are times when they are unable to book the facility at Carambola, or if they are trying to do something different in alternate weeks for the passengers who do back-to-back cruises. I would guess they would do Caviar in the Surf somewhere else that week, or they would do it on the ship in and around the pool. (On a Seabourn cruise in the Adriatic, I experienced it in the pool. Fun... but not the full-blown production they put on on the beach.)

[Borna]

The herald