Seabourn Venture delayed until April 2022

[SLSD]

Seabourn's purpose built expedition ship, Venture, is further delayed due to the pandemic and supply chain issues:  https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/shipbuilding-refurb-equipment/seabourn-venture-debut-delayed-until-april-2022

 

Are any of you interested in the Venture's inaugural voyage?  Mr. SLSD is interesting, but I am not sure. 

 

 

 

[cruiseej]

Thanks for the breaking news. 😉

 

I think the question you have to answer is whether you trust that the ship will be good and fully ready by this new inaugural date. Some inaugural cruises are pretty smooth, but some have lots of rough edges as workers complete final details behind schedule. I know some folks love to be on the first sailing of every ship; for me, I'd rather wait a few weeks and let them work out any kinks in both finish, mechanical systems, and crew training.

[SLSD]

28 minutes ago, cruiseej said:

Thanks for the breaking news. 😉

 

I think the question you have to answer is whether you trust that the ship will be good and fully ready by this new inaugural date. Some inaugural cruises are pretty smooth, but some have lots of rough edges as workers complete final details behind schedule. I know some folks love to be on the first sailing of every ship; for me, I'd rather wait a few weeks and let them work out any kinks in both finish, mechanical systems, and crew training.

I agree.  And Mr. SLSD is interested, not interesting--but he may be that as well.  Yes, it would be somewhat annoying to have finish work going on and mechanical systems not quite ready.  I just want to cruise again, but we are in the throes of a resurgence of the virus.  Very dispiriting.  Coming here and reading about Seabourn is at least a bit of a pick me up.  I'm grateful to those who are sailing and giving us reports.  

[Fletcher]

Scotland and the North Sea in April?  Are they kidding?

[Covepointcruiser]

Isn’t Venture an Expedition Ship?   I thought at one time she had Northern Lights cruises in the midst of winter.   Bet she can handle the North Sea and Scotland in April.   You would certainly have a more comfortable ride on the QM2.

[cruiseej]

3 hours ago, Covepointcruiser said:

Isn’t Venture an Expedition Ship?   I thought at one time she had Northern Lights cruises in the midst of winter.   Bet she can handle the North Sea and Scotland in April.   You would certainly have a more comfortable ride on the QM2.

 

Yes, Venture is a new expedition ship. I'm guessing the question is less of "can she handle the seas?" but "why would people want to cruise this area at that time?"

[PaulMCO]

Considering the rough starting of Crystal's new expedition ship Endeavor, might expect same or not.

Even getting ships furnishings is becoming an issue.

 

[mraven]

 

35 minutes ago, PaulMCO said:

Considering the rough starting of Crystal's new expedition ship Endeavor, might expect same or not.

Even getting ships furnishings is becoming an issue.

 

Saw an article recently where Venture was floated-out and was on its way to be furnished.

[PaulMCO]

On 8/14/2021 at 11:19 PM, cruiseej said:

 

Yes, Venture is a new expedition ship. I'm guessing the question is less of "can she handle the seas?" but "why would people want to cruise this area at that time?"

Called a shakedown cruise (in more ways than one).  Before they go up to Svalbard and the arctic -- do it close to home..

 

I certainly would not want to be the guinea pig..

[cruiseej]

1 hour ago, mraven said:

 

Saw an article recently where Venture was floated-out and was on its way to be furnished.

 

If you look at the picture of Venture when she was floated out, it's far more than just furnishings that need to be completed...

 

 

Zooming in, you'll see there's no glass and many interior walls don't exist yet...

 

 

So there's still a lot of work to do, which is why the ship is still nearly 8 months from its first sailing.

[mraven]

I said furnished, not furnishings. Being sent to be furnished includes all the work that you mentioned.

[Fletcher]

It's not the prettiest rear end I've ever seen.

[seattleskibums]

Has anyone actually tried to rebook a canceled Venture cruise yet?  We were booked on the "Northern Lights" cruise and are trying to use the funds we've paid to book a 2023 Ovation cruise.  We inquired about having the 10% discount mentioned in Option 2 applied to that cruise, but Seabourn so far has denied any exceptions to the options below.

 

It appears if you don't want to rebook on another Venture cruise, your only choice is to take Option 3, which leaves you with no consideration for the cancellation.  Our canceled Venture cruise was a rebooking of a canceled Kiel Canal cruise.  Seabourn has held funds from us for more than a year now, so it only seems fair that we get something in return for sticking with them through all of the cancellations.

 

We are offering your clients three options to select based on their preferences: 

 

Option 1: Select one of Seabourn Venture's inaugural season North Pole Svalbard Experiences with 11-Day voyages sailing between Tromsø, Norway and Longyearbyen (Oslo), Norway that depart between May 4 and July 27, 2022 at their current cruise fare in the same suite category, which represents a substantial discount to the currently available rates. Located halfway between Norway's North Cape and the North Pole, the islands of Svalbard offer a dramatic setting to explore on our ultra-luxury, purpose-built expedition ship. You can read more about the Svalbard Experience cruises on our website.  

 

Option 2: Select an alternative Seabourn Venture voyage any time during her first year in service. They may choose any other sailing between April 22, 2022 and April 30, 2023 and they will receive a 10% discount off the publicly available cruise fare at the time of booking their new voyage. We request that they book by September 15, 2021, and please note that the new inaugural voyage is not included in this offer. More information about these voyages can be found on our website. 

 

Option 3: If your clients are not ready to rebook another Seabourn cruise at this time, they may elect to request a 100% refund of all monies paid to Seabourn.  

[cruiseej]

Are you working directly with Seabourn, or through a travel agent? This is a case where working with a TA  who specializes in Seabourn cruises might be able to reach out to the right person and press the right buttons to get something to budge. But it's also possible they are taking a hard line on offering the 10% discount only on cruises rebooked on Venture. 

 

You mentioned that the Venture cruise you were booked on was rebooked from a previous canceled cruise. Did you get any  bonus credit in the FCC at that time? That is, it was standard last year for them to add 10% (and more at some times) to the FCC for a canceled cruise. If you already got a bonus above what you paid in cash, I think it's unlikely for them to give you an additional bonus for the Venture cruise being canceled. 

 

Typically, if you rolled over one canceled cruise to FCC for another cruise, you can't get your cash back if the subsequent cruise is canceled. If their "option 3" in this case says you can get your cash back, not just another FCC, you might want to take the money and clear the slate, and then start over when you're ready to book another cruise. I understand you feel you should get more than 100% towards the next cruise; I'm just not sure how likely that is.

[seattleskibums]

46 minutes ago, cruiseej said:

Are you working directly with Seabourn, or through a travel agent? This is a case where working with a TA  who specializes in Seabourn cruises might be able to reach out to the right person and press the right buttons to get something to budge. But it's also possible they are taking a hard line on offering the 10% discount only on cruises rebooked on Venture. 

 

You mentioned that the Venture cruise you were booked on was rebooked from a previous canceled cruise. Did you get any  bonus credit in the FCC at that time? That is, it was standard last year for them to add 10% (and more at some times) to the FCC for a canceled cruise. If you already got a bonus above what you paid in cash, I think it's unlikely for them to give you an additional bonus for the Venture cruise being canceled. 

 

Typically, if you rolled over one canceled cruise to FCC for another cruise, you can't get your cash back if the subsequent cruise is canceled. If their "option 3" in this case says you can get your cash back, not just another FCC, you might want to take the money and clear the slate, and then start over when you're ready to book another cruise. I understand you feel you should get more than 100% towards the next cruise; I'm just not sure how likely that is.

Yes, we are working through a travel agent.  And yes, we were offered a 10% discount when our original cruise was canceled, but the only way to benefit by a discount is to take a cruise.  We have had two cruises canceled so it doesn't matter whether they offered us 10% or 50% -- we did not realize any benefit from the cancellation.  Option 3 would give us only "the monies paid," not any bonuses.  We don't expect any cash bonus to be issued to us, but we do expect a discount on our next cruise as consideration for the two cancellations.

 

We're expecting that we probably will have to accept our cash back and "clear the slate" as you say, but then Seabourn ends up giving us absolutely zero consideration for holding our cash for more than a year and canceling two cruises on us.  If we have to take the cash refund with zero compensation for a future cruise, that isn't much incentive for us to rebook with Seabourn.

[cruiseej]

Yup, I agree it would be the right thing to do for Seabourn to offer you a 10% bonus on whatever you originally paid, on any cruise through 2022. I suspect that the long stoppage followed now by a very slow return to revenue-generating cruises -- they've been sailing a ship in the Carribean with fewer than 100 passengers for the past month -- has pushed them to be much tighter on bonuses they are giving out. 

 

I think all you can do is to ask your TA to continue to press the case with Seabourn. They have a chance to make you satisfied customers, or to potentially lose you as customers now and for the future. Best of luck.

[seattleskibums]

On 8/18/2021 at 2:02 PM, cruiseej said:

Yup, I agree it would be the right thing to do for Seabourn to offer you a 10% bonus on whatever you originally paid, on any cruise through 2022. ... I think all you can do is to ask your TA to continue to press the case with Seabourn. They have a chance to make you satisfied customers, or to potentially lose you as customers now and for the future. Best of luck.

UPDATE:

 

Well, Seabourn just wasn’t able to come around and do the right thing.

 

They were holding about $12,000 of our money from two canceled cruises.  The best they could do was give us the same pricing for a 2023 cruise that we could get starting anew and taking advantage of their early bonus discount.

 

The price was about $10,000, which was covered by the money they already were holding.  So what about the extra $2,000?  Seabourn offered to give us a FCC that would expire about six months after the new cruise.

 

Obviously, we were better off taking the 100% refund under Option 3 because we always can book the $10,000 cruise later and still have $2,000 in our pockets instead of risking the forfeiture of the FCC.

 

But we have no incentive to book the Seabourn cruise now, so we’ll be checking other cruise lines for similar itineraries.  We're not swearing off Seabourn, but they won’t be getting as much of our business in the future as they would if they had done the right thing.

[cruiseej]

@seattleskibums Thanks for reporting back on your resolution with Seabourn, even though it wasn't a great one.

 

It seems all they might have needed to do is book you on the replacement cruise and roll the $2,000 extra you had already paid into a Future Cruise Deposit -- like one you could purchase onboard any cruise, except they could have made it non-refundable -- rather than a Future Cruise Credit. That would have have given you four years to use it plus a 5% discount on whatever cruise you booked with it. You'd win, they'd win… oh well.

[seattleskibums]

20 hours ago, cruiseej said:

It seems all they might have needed to do is book you on the replacement cruise and roll the $2,000 extra you had already paid into a Future Cruise Deposit ... That would have given you four years to use it plus a 5% discount on whatever cruise you booked with it. You'd win, they'd win… 

Have you ever thought about taking a job in Seabourn's customer service dept.?  They could use someone like you.

[saminina]

This market segment is exploding with new ships.   You made the right choice, IMO.   

[M&PGermany]

On 8/23/2021 at 3:11 AM, saminina said:

This market segment is exploding with new ships.   

 

Absolutely. For those who are interested in luxury expeditions may I also suggest Hapag Lloyd's three new HANSEATIC expeditions ships. NATURE, INSPIRATION and SPIRIT. They all look immaculate.

 

HANSEATIC spirit just started ON TIME (not built in Italy 😉 ) a few days ago with the maiden voyage.

 

Here's a ship tour vlog and some vids about the Hanseatic class of ships  by a German cruise YouTuber and from the HL site. Just turn off the sound 🙂 ... nice pictures and great ship design. And Hapag is for English speaking customers, too.

 

 

 

 

[M&PGermany]

P.S:

 

I actually discovered there is a whole section dedicated to English speakers on their website.

https://www.hl-*****/social-media/experiencetv

 

 

 

...By the way, that's what I talk about when I talk about a website filled with interesting CONTENT (Seabourn, are you listening?) 😉 

 

 

 

Edited August 24, 2021 by M&PGermany

[Fletcher]

I think if Seabourn wants the Venture to succeed in the expedition sector they need to rethink the predictable itineraries.  People who go on expedition ships are almost entirely destination driven and, frankly, there isn't a single Venture trip that I haven't already done or want to do.  Especially not at the prices they are asking. There is so much competition in the sector - Silversea currently has three ships offering vastly more interesting itineraries; Hapag-Lloyd are perhaps even more adventurous, especially in the South Pacific, and now even Hurtigruten is finding new places to go, such as their trip around Cape Verde, Senegal, Gambia and Guinea-Bissau.  Plus the old stalwarts like Quark, Lindblad and Noble-Caledonia . . . the Venture needs to be more . . . venturesome. 

[M&PGermany]

Couldn't agree more. It seems to me that Seabourn haven't really made use of the timeout during the pandemic to come up with new and creative ideas. And to be honest, a LOT has changed in travellers' minds.

[M&PGermany]

18 minutes ago, Fletcher said:

...there isn't a single Venture trip that I haven't already done or want to do.  Especially not at the prices they are asking.

 

That pricing is ridiculous. They are more expensive than Hapag Lloyd. And usually it's HL who live on a different planet when I look at their regular fares.