June 19th Star Breeze Cruise is now a "Cruise to Nowhere"

[sail2day]

3 minutes ago, minidonuts85 said:

Correct. It’s a part of the port agreement that i mentioned. 
 

To MNgardens point about vaccination period, even if the last of the vaccinations happened today, it’s 14 days to be considered fully vaxxed which could likely impact the second sailing. 

I agree! The next cruise will be impacted. 

[sail2day]

4 minutes ago, sail2day said:

I agree! The next cruise will be impacted. 

I don't want to be negative on Windstar, but this was not handled correctly. They should have ensured that their entire crew was vaccinated prior to them boarding the vessel. 

[minidonuts85]

I really hope it is all taken care of for your 7/3 sailing!  We love WS too and while Covid has certainly turned everything on its ear, this seems like a bit more than just “it’s an itinerary change deal with it” kinda thing. 

[sail2day]

Thanks Minidonuts85 for your comment. I agree that this is more than an "itinerary change".

 

[Nearpost345]

Is it possible that The BVI had a last minute change to covid protocol that blindsided Windstar. It’s hard to believe there was a vaccine requirement the whole time and Windstar missed it.

 

To further muddy the waters, why couldn’t Windstar keep non vaccinated crew on board on port days?

Edited June 17, 2021 by Nearpost345

[minidonuts85]

Anguilla and St Barts are also on the itinerary but they aren’t stopping there either. 

[Nearpost345]

Fair point minidonuts.

[sail2day]

9 minutes ago, Nearpost345 said:

Is it possible that The BVI had a last minute change to covid protocol that blindsided Windstar. It’s hard to believe there was a vaccine requirement the whole time and Windstar missed it.

 

To further muddy the waters, why couldn’t Windstar keep non vaccinated crew on board on port days?

Windstar advertised that their crew and passengers would all be vaccinated. Not true. 

[sail2day]

6 minutes ago, minidonuts85 said:

Anguilla and St Barts are also on the itinerary but they aren’t stopping there either. 

Again, I think that has to do with the fact that crew are not vaccinated. 

[Nearpost345]

sail2day I thought Windstars official word was that crew would be vaccinated when vaccine is available. I haven’t seen any update

[sail2day]

What I think is ironic is that Windstar focused on passengers being vaccinated, but they forgot to take care of their crew.  

[sail2day]

3 minutes ago, Nearpost345 said:

sail2day I thought Windstars official word was that crew would be vaccinated when vaccine is available. I haven’t seen any update

Windstar represented that crew would be vaccinated. Why require passengers to be vaccinated if you are not vaccinating the crew. Celebrity has vaccinated all of their crew. 

[sail2day]

• Crew will be required to be vaccinated for COVID-19 as soon as it’s available to them
• Windstar is actively working on sourcing vaccine for crew
• Crew will be tested prior to departure from home, at embarkation and after finishing a 7-day quarantine
• Crew will be tested for COVID-19 on a weekly basis
• Crew will be required to wear face masks at all times, except when social distancing can be maintained or they are in their cabins, eating, or drinking

[Nearpost345]

I understand but my understanding is they never guaranteed all crew would be vaccinated. It’s been a complaint on here in other threads, that they demand pax be vaccinated but will vaccinate crew when vaccine is available. Where did you see that they will vaccinate the crew unequivocally ?

 

Edit: I just saw your post, as soon as it’s available is no guarantee.

Edited June 17, 2021 by Nearpost345

[sail2day]

The prior posting was taken from the Windstar website. 

[sail2day]

3 minutes ago, Nearpost345 said:

I understand but my understanding is they never guaranteed all crew would be vaccinated. It’s been a complaint on here in other threads, that they demand pax be vaccinated but will vaccinate crew when vaccine is available. Where did you see that they will vaccinate the crew unequivocally ?

The prior posting from their website was posted in March of this year. Several months have gone by and they still have not vaccinated their crew?

[sail2day]

7 minutes ago, Nearpost345 said:

I understand but my understanding is they never guaranteed all crew would be vaccinated. It’s been a complaint on here in other threads, that they demand pax be vaccinated but will vaccinate crew when vaccine is available. Where did you see that they will vaccinate the crew unequivocally ?

By the way if the cruise line never makes the vaccine available to the crew then that excuses their behavior? 

[sail2day]

26 minutes ago, Nearpost345 said:

Is it possible that The BVI had a last minute change to covid protocol that blindsided Windstar. It’s hard to believe there was a vaccine requirement the whole time and Windstar missed it.

 

To further muddy the waters, why couldn’t Windstar keep non vaccinated crew on board on port days?

I believe the issue is that the port authorities believe that the crew will infect passengers on board. 

[Nearpost345]

I’m not here to excuse Windstars behavior, sorry if it sounded that way.

 

I was just trying to make sense of the current state of play by suggesting Windstar may have got taken by surprise due to some recent change in covid rules. add by all ports of call down there.

 

As much as I love the on board experience with Windstar, it hasn’t always been plain sailing with the office, maybe they’ve made a massive blunder

Edited June 17, 2021 by Nearpost345

[minidonuts85]

Not to belabor this,  but I dug back to find the original announcement from the BVI government back in March 2021 when they announced the return of cruise ships. The announcement indicates  100% vax of pax over 18 and a fully vaccinated crew as the requirement. 
 

https://bvi.gov.vg/media-centre/bvipa-announces-reopening-cruise-pier

 

[Nearpost345]

Minidonuts

That’s an excellent data point, I honestly have no idea what they are doing

Edited June 17, 2021 by Nearpost345

[FLbeachbaby]

1 hour ago, Pudgesmom said:

Even if they could vaccinate everyone with a one shot dose today, (which apparently they can’t or I’m sure it would already be done,)those people would not have immunity for two weeks. 
 

Most of the crew comes from countries which have had little to no vaccines available. 

Then they should have paid more, flown them to the states, hired only vaccinated crew from places where the vaccine is available, whatever it takes for this start up. It makes no sense to go about this willy nilly after being shut down for so long. I'm quite sure finding vaccinated crew would be cheaper than giving away cruises and ticking off potential customers. I am at a loss.

[Oldsweets]

I have found Windstar to be most willing to work with me for a solution and expect the same in this situation.  I looked at other possible cruise solutions for this date and airfare “now” to the Bahamas is $800 each round trip so that’s our and  considering celebrity out of st marten depending on what information comes from Windstar.  I did say to my wife just this morning we really don’t understand how lucky we are in the United States to be able to simply walk in any city in any state at any time and simply get a free shot.  I am going to go with the flow and watch for updates on this board and watch for news stories and hope Windstar sorts this out quickly.  I would hate being in the front office of a cruise company right now!

[sail2day]

36 minutes ago, Oldsweets said:

I have found Windstar to be most willing to work with me for a solution and expect the same in this situation.  I looked at other possible cruise solutions for this date and airfare “now” to the Bahamas is $800 each round trip so that’s our and  considering celebrity out of st marten depending on what information comes from Windstar.  I did say to my wife just this morning we really don’t understand how lucky we are in the United States to be able to simply walk in any city in any state at any time and simply get a free shot.  I am going to go with the flow and watch for updates on this board and watch for news stories and hope Windstar sorts this out quickly.  I would hate being in the front office of a cruise company right now!

Oldsweets I have also looked at Celebrity out of St. Maarten as Plan B if this cruise on July 3rd falls through.

[sail2day]

14 hours ago, Pudgesmom said:

Even if they could vaccinate everyone with a one shot dose today, (which apparently they can’t or I’m sure it would already be done,)those people would not have immunity for two weeks. 
 

Most of the crew comes from countries which have had little to no vaccines available. 

I agree!