New restart date for all ships announced on Facebook

[MikeD1000]

We have just returned from a Viking cruise. Everyone, crew included, had to be double vaccinated. Had to take saliva test every morning. Ship only one third full. We felt incredibly safe. We're now concerned about our December Seabourn cruise safety

[JDF]

Another aspect to a 'non vaccinated boat' is how many islands will allow such a vessel in?  I'm assuming not many.  Additionally, wouldn't islands (if not vaccinated) require testing verification, the norm now is 48-72 hours - what happens if you're on an 11 day voyage...multiple tests?

[Robisan]

Josh Leibowitz: "These voyages are open to all guests that have been vaccinated and our intent is for our team to be vaccinated as well."

 

Sorry, but that's not exactly an ironclad promise that all SB personnel will be vaccinated.

 

https://youtu.be/K5DCVVF7rD4

[cruiseej]

1 hour ago, Robisan said:

Josh Leibowitz: "These voyages are open to all guests that have been vaccinated and our intent is for our team to be vaccinated as well."

 

Yes, no promise of a vaccinated crew (as other cruise lines have done), and no position on vaccination requirements for passengers after October. Seabourn's president and management are not inspiring confidence.

 

We're currently booked on a Barbados cruise in late September, partly based on the premise of sailing on a fully-vaccinated ship, which we now know may not be; we won't be booking future cruises on Seabourn until they answer important questions about their commitment to maximize passenger safety going forward. If they put a desire for profits ahead of wha the majority of passengers are seeking from them, well, there are other cruise lines which appear to be doing things better. 

[SLSD]

3 hours ago, cruiseej said:

 

Yes, no promise of a vaccinated crew (as other cruise lines have done), and no position on vaccination requirements for passengers after October. Seabourn's president and management are not inspiring confidence.

We were almost ready to book a SB cruise for 2022 until the issue of vaccination became unclear going forward.  Now, we will not be booking until we get assurances that the vaccination requirement will continue.  If it does not, we'll be looking at Silversea or other lines---sadly.  

[jenidallas]

Rumor is that Seabourn may have deployed a confidential survey to some guests (perhaps those already booked on upcoming sailings) about whether they would be more or less likely to sail based on certain protocol standards (or if those would not affect their plans).  

 

Just a rumor... who knows with confidential things if they cannot be discussed?  😉

[sfvoyage]

1 hour ago, jenidallas said:

Rumor is that Seabourn may have deployed a confidential survey to some guests (perhaps those already booked on upcoming sailings) about whether they would be more or less likely to sail based on certain protocol standards (or if those would not affect their plans).  

 

Just a rumor... who knows with confidential things if they cannot be discussed?  😉

Not a rumor.  I received this survey, as did others, and this was discussed on this board a month or two ago.

[SLSD]

2 hours ago, sfvoyage said:

Not a rumor.  I received this survey, as did others, and this was discussed on this board a month or two ago.

We received a survey as well.  

[cruiseej]

Yes, I also received and completed this survey awhile back.

 

More recently, I sent an email to "officeofthepresident@seabourn.com" and a follow-up after a reply from "guestrelations@seabourn.com" to try to make our views known to Seabourn management. I suggest others who are concerned about booking future cruises over the vaccination issue send them an email with your opinion.

 

Here is what I wrote:

 

We understand that our Barbados cruise in September-October will be only for fully vaccinated passengers. That's good -- and it's the reason we booked it.

 

But we are extremely concerned that Seabourn has not committed to maintain this policy beyond the summer/fall Greece and Barbados cruises. I hope you will relay our point of view to the management team: We have been looking at several Seabourn cruises for next year, but we will not book anything unless Seabourn announces that future cruises will also require all passengers to be vaccinated.

 

We realize a vaccination requirement currently prevents families from cruising with small children, but that is likely to change by the end of this year when the vaccine is approved for young children. And it prevents people who have chosen not to get a vaccine from cruising. I believe there are far more customers who want fully-vaccinated cruises than those who don't. But our position is clear: we will only travel on a fully-vaccinated cruise ship, and until Seabourn adopts such a policy for future cruises, we will not book any additional cruises. 

 

Thank you for listening to the point of view of this Seabourn customer.

[jenidallas]

I obviously received it as well as did my mother and husband.

 

I was being factious because of the “please hold this survey and questions in confidence” request that was tacked onto the end.  😂
 

Also, the survey we received was this week and was much more specific as to certain protocols than the one we received a couple months ago - 100% vaccination versus 95% vaccination, required testing, masks indoors, masks outdoors, requirements for children, social distancing measures.

 

The questions on this survey seemed exclusively focused on the go-forward policies for vaccination requirements (about half the questions) and onboard mitigation efforts (other half of the questions).  We were also asked whether we were already booked again on Seabourn (and when) and what our Club level was so I’m guessing they might be trying to assess their likelihood of losing or retaining certain customer subsets.

 

This reminds me a lot of the very slow response to the smoking policy because of a couple of high-value customers who smoked.  I’m hoping with new leadership Seabourn will be more proactive.

Edited June 20, 2021 by jenidallas

[mraven]

My wife got the survey this past week as well. We're not currently booked.

Edited June 21, 2021 by mraven

[saminina]

There are soooo many options entering this market segment.    I'm looking forward to reading reviews for the next six months of the various lines.     Mostly interested in seeing how crew recruitment has changed.  So much competition for good crew.