Barbados summer cruises 2021

[jenidallas]

Wow, today’s Herald seems awfully sleepy for a sea day… a cooking demo and team trivia - that’s it?  Or, and some spa/shopping shill lectures plus the daily afternoon tea dressed up for the occasion.

[relaxed traveler]

On 8/3/2021 at 6:28 AM, Borna said:

Yesterday we anchored in rodney bay, st lucia. Only those on seabourn excursions, as everywhere on this cruise, were allowed to leave.
 

I was surprised with this comment. I thought I had read early in this thread that some islands,  Sint Maarten was my primary interest, was going to allowing independent shore travel.   

[Borna]

The islands would allow private exploration, seabourn won’t.   

[SLSD]

3 minutes ago, Borna said:

The islands would allow private exploration, seabourn won’t.   

Do you think it is an effort by SB to limit passengers' exposure to the virus?

[cuddles115]

2 hours ago, SLSD said:

Do you think it is an effort by SB to limit passengers' exposure to the virus?

Seabourn is very proactive. I don't want a souvenir of Covid on any island.  SB  doesn't need the publicity of having a passenger infected on their ship. Smart and logical on SB's part.

[Borna]

Herald 

[Borna]

I was told tonight that there will be 75 guests on the august 8 sailing. 

[cruiseej]

13 hours ago, Borna said:

The islands would allow private exploration, seabourn won’t.   

 

13 hours ago, SLSD said:

Do you think it is an effort by SB to limit passengers' exposure to the virus?

 

I'm fairly sure it has been communicated that the issue is Barbados tourism authorities. They're allowing Seabourn to base their cruises in Barbados, but keeping the passengers in a bubble is one of their conditions for allowing passengers to transit through Barbados.

 

Keep in mind that Seabourn is also running cruises in Greece, and there is no similar limitation there. If this was Seabourn policy, the limitations would be the same in both places. The limitation is the local authorities. 

[cruiseej]

3 hours ago, Borna said:

I was told tonight that there will be 75 guests on the august 8 sailing. 

 

Wow, that seems surprisingly low for the third week in a row. They're surely losing money on these cruises.

 

I'm curious about the notice repeated twice in the Herald you posted regarding mask wearing. Is this referring only to passengers ashore at the beach club on Carambola Beach, or at all times? I'm assuming the former, but the wording and location of the notices doesn't make it clear this applies only to the beach event.

[Borna]

On tenders, excursions, and the carambola beach, guests are supposed to wear masks.  I’d estimate that many wear masks on tenders in case island authorities can see.  When going through a port terminal, guests wear masks.  But on the excursion vehicle and on carambola beach, few wear masks

 

Arriving and departing at port terminals has been easy.  Quick temperature checks and required hand sanitizing.  

[Borna]

Service aboard the ship has been super.  
 

Ive never sailed with seabourn before and chose this cruise because of the itinerary and Seabourn’s reputation.  I have been surprised to meet people on board who never getting off, except for carambola beach.  Shows the love of those guests for seabourn.   

[Borna]

On tenders, excursions, and the carambola beach, guests are supposed to wear masks.  I’d estimate that many wear masks on tenders in case island authorities can see.  When going through a port terminal, guests wear masks.  But on the excursion vehicle and on carambola beach, few wear masks

 

Arriving and departing at port terminals has been easy.  Quick temperature checks and required hand sanitizing.  

[jenidallas]

8 hours ago, cruiseej said:

 

Wow, that seems surprisingly low for the third week in a row. They're surely losing money on these cruises.

I read a couple synopses from the recent RCCL shareholder call and they said something to the effect that most of their ships operate at a break even at 50%-ish capacity and that newer build ships have efficiencies that allow trek to be profitable well below that.  I’d imagine it is similar for CCL/NCL brands.

 

They had to keep these ships at least minimally staffed and running throughout the pandemic and still have vendor contracts to fulfill/maintain… so there is probably a surprisingly low passenger margin required.  Add to that the liability of carrying all of these future passenger credits on the balance sheet - it makes sense to aloe passengers to redeem those on sailings that are priced higher than usual.  It gets those off the books, it helps fulfill contracts, and it offers lots of controlled PR opportunities (lots of journalists, bloggers, social media influencers getting hosted not to mention the usual quiet TA and friends/family) to allow the public to see that everyone is “normal”.  The short game is about getting back to a net neutral.

 

My hot take… we will continue to see the lines subsidize these soft openings because they need the positive momentum going into Wave Season… that’s what will shore up the big comeback in 2022 and 2023.  This is a long game at this point.  

[cruiseej]

2 hours ago, jenidallas said:

My hot take… we will continue to see the lines subsidize these soft openings because they need the positive momentum

 

@jenidallas I agree completely. They're doubtless losing money on these cruises with fewer than 100 passengers, but they also had losses when the ships were laid up and not in operation. Whether these losses -- with pay for a large crew, food and other supplies -- are more or less than the losses from maintaining a ship over the preceding 15 months is above my analyst's pay grade. 😉  But I agree that they will keep the ships running to the best of their ability, unless the world starts shutting down again, until larger numbers of people start traveling. And I'd guess that they won't cut back on quality or quantity of food, service, entertainment, etc. because they want the reports coming out from passengers to be positive in order to drive future traffic.

[Borna]

Herald

[Borna]

Herald.  Had difficulty posting yesterday 

[Borna]

Trying again 

[misterkevin]

19 hours ago, Borna said:

 

Did you visit the private beach in Bequia? It sounds like a nice unexpected benefit.

[cruiseej]

@Borna  I hope you enjoyed a nice last day of your cruise, and wanted to thank you for "taking us along" with all your postings of the Herald and answers to many questions over the past two weeks; it is much appreciated, especially those of us who have Barbados cruises booked in the weeks ahead.

 

Enjoy your last night, and safe travels home!

[rkacruiser]

On 8/5/2021 at 9:35 AM, jenidallas said:

This is a long game at this point.  

 

Correct.  Some revenue now is better than no revenue that the cruise lines have experienced.  

[SLSD]

On 8/5/2021 at 7:44 AM, Borna said:

On tenders, excursions, and the carambola beach, guests are supposed to wear masks.  I’d estimate that many wear masks on tenders in case island authorities can see.  When going through a port terminal, guests wear masks.  But on the excursion vehicle and on carambola beach, few wear masks

 

Arriving and departing at port terminals has been easy.  Quick temperature checks and required hand sanitizing.  

Thank you for all your reports about your cruise.  I read all of your reports and appreciated them.  

[PrincessCruiser]

We are so missing Borna tonight.  I hope he will give us a synopsis of his two weeks when he gets home.   We fly to Barbardos on Saturday for a one night stay at Cobblers Cove before boarding the ship on Sunday.  We are looking so forward to the Seabourn  we remember on our other cruises.

Edited August 9, 2021 by PrincessCruiser

[Borna]

Don’t know why some of my posts disappear.   Two weeks cruise is over.   Great service and crew, most of whom remember and call you by your name. They remember your favorite food and drink orders too.  
 

stayed one night post cruise at cobblers cove hotel.  Pretty hotel.  
 

The covid testing on seabourn was quick and results given the same day. 
 

more to follow 

[GrandCru]

@Borna,   Like all the others on this thread, we are so very grateful for you postings and reporting on your cruise.  Your information is so very valuable to all of us who are hoping to cruise this fall.

 

@PrincessCruiser,  I hope, like I'm sure everyone else is, you'll report your experiences too.  I think we are all anxious and hope to have smooth "sailing" on our Barbados cruise.   We will be staying one night on Barbados prior to boarding Seabourn like you.  Now my biggest worry is getting our Covid test back within 24 hours so we don't have to fight the hotel about leaving for the ship.  I hope you don't have any problems

 

I hope all goes well!  and Have fun!!

[PrincessCruiser]

@GrandCru-I am definitely going to miss Borna's updates this week.  There are a few people posting updates on fb who are on the ship this week so I will be looking there for updates until we leave in addition to this page.  The end of this week will get a little hectic getting everything in order to leave but definitely worth the trouble.  We are looking forward to Saturday and especially Sunday.  I will plan to post updates from time to time.