Venture delayed again?

[Isklaar]

I heard the maiden voyage is cancelled due to shipyard issues. Is this true? Does anyone know, if the next cruise will go ahead?
 

[jsea]

The July 15th sailing is off the books. This article reports, so far, July 27th sailing is a-go.
 

https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/expedition-cruising/seabourn-ventures-inaugural-cruise-canceled

[cruisr]

Wow.  I was booked on Venture on a cruise that got cancelled due to it not being ready.

 

4th delay (per the article) is not a good look.  Yes, we all know about supply chain issues and I feel bad for all the people who keep getting cancelled.

 

Have the sea trials been completed?  I would not want to be on a sailing that was supposed to be a few months into the ship sailing to find out I am on an Inaugural sailing.

[shark b8]

1 hour ago, jsea said:

This article reports, so far, July 27th sailing is a-go.

 

If you go to the website and search using "Venture" as a filter and then try to enter "departure date" as a second filter.....you can't select "July 2022", the first voyage that shows up is August 21. 

[jsea]

I think the website only shows sailings that have availability. We are booked on the August 6th voyage and have not received any notification of cancellation.

[shark b8]

2 hours ago, jsea said:

I think the website only shows sailings that have availability. 

 

Yeah, I wondered about that, but if that's the case, the website performs that task poorly (along with most everything else it tries to do - but let's not get into *that* again  😱).  I've gone to cruises that are listed, but which show no availability, any number of times over the years.

 

And, off-topic & just as a disembodied conceptual matter, what does Seabourn think the wisdom is, in hiding cruises which are sold out?  I was in the front-office theater biz for approximately 100 years, and being able to advertise "SOLD OUT!" for an event was always one of the ways to nudge people toward hurrying to buy your other offerings...

[highplanesdrifters]

I just received our "CRUISE CONFIRMATION" for the Aug. 7 date with all the pre departure details. Fingers crossed.

[Isklaar]

Thanks everyone!
I'm excited about Venture and so am very much looking forward to reading cruiser's experience onboard. Fingers tightly crossed that they do get the ship to schedule at the end of July,

[Isklaar]

6 hours ago, Isklaar said:

Thanks everyone!
I'm excited about Venture and so am very much looking forward to reading cruiser's experience onboard. Fingers tightly crossed that they do get the ship to schedule at the end of July,

 

Totally off topic but I have to ask! As a non native speaker I'm always trying to improve my knowledge of the English language and I think there is  an error in my post above.
I think that apostrophe in cruiser's is in the wrong place. English is a tough language! 😀

Should it be cruisers', not cruiser's? 

[Fletcher]

1 hour ago, Isklaar said:

 

Totally off topic but I have to ask! As a non native speaker I'm always trying to improve my knowledge of the English language and I think there is  an error in my post above.
I think that apostrophe in cruiser's is in the wrong place. English is a tough language! 😀

Should it be cruisers', not cruiser's? 

Yes, cruisers'

 

Lets (sorry, let's) hope the Venture is worth the wait.

[PhuketPete]

I'm scheduled on the September 18th Venture sailing but am worried that with 264 guests and just 93 crew (excluding the expedition staff) normal Seabourn service levels will be difficult to maintain. Compare Quest etc. 450 pax vs 220 crew.....

[shark b8]

On 6/10/2022 at 9:28 PM, Isklaar said:

I'm excited about Venture and so am very much looking forward to reading cruiser's experience onboard.

 

And do please post your experiences!  I have a Pursuit voyage booked way off in the future, but am thus keenly interested to hear details about her earlier-born sister ship.  And also, re your earlier post - your English is exquisitely better than my.....anything else.

[PhuketPete]

Sorry - that should read Compare Quest etc. 450 pax vs 330 crew...

[worcestergal]

Just wondering if there is any current news on the status of Venture…

We are supposed to be on the cruise from Greenland to Newfoundland in mid September. I’m hoping that’s not an inaugural cruise!

[highplanesdrifters]

Not a peep.  We are on the August 6 departure.  I was just on a Silversea expedition. One of the expedition members is a regular on Seabourn and as of 2 weeks ago he was scheduled to join Venture on July 23.   Cutting it close. 

[ChicagoAlli]

Also on the August 6th trip. Called Seabourn to try to get some info on the timing of the charter flight to Svalbard on the 7th. No one could help. No one could explain how the listed Svalbard excursion would work considering the excursion time was 8:15am on the 7th and I was under the impression I was waking up in Oslo (a 3+ hour flight away) on the 7th. Customer service reps merely read off the same website info that I already see. Website says final docs no later than June 23 yet not available as of today. I've never sailed on Seabourn before and frankly booked this trip rather impulsively because I really wanted to visit Greenland. I'm just so baffled that a so called "ultra luxury" line is so disorganized/unhelpful. I'm a pretty independent traveler and have already begun planning an alternative "do it myself" trip that utilizes my existing air reservations and would go to Svalbard, Bergen, Faroes and ending in Reykjavik in case this booking goes belly up.

[highplanesdrifters]

10 hours ago, ChicagoAlli said:

Also on the August 6th trip. Called Seabourn to try to get some info on the timing of the charter flight to Svalbard on the 7th. No one could help. No one could explain how the listed Svalbard excursion would work considering the excursion time was 8:15am on the 7th and I was under the impression I was waking up in Oslo (a 3+ hour flight away) on the 7th. Customer service reps merely read off the same website info that I already see. Website says final docs no later than June 23 yet not available as of today. I've never sailed on Seabourn before and frankly booked this trip rather impulsively because I really wanted to visit Greenland. I'm just so baffled that a so called "ultra luxury" line is so disorganized/unhelpful. I'm a pretty independent traveler and have already begun planning an alternative "do it myself" trip that utilizes my existing air reservations and would go to Svalbard, Bergen, Faroes and ending in Reykjavik in case this booking goes belly up.

This seems to be Standard Operating Procedure for many cruise lines these days. We had flight problems with Silversea expedition in June. If you read the CC boards you'll see that there is a mix of their usual excellence and disorganized chaos across the luxury lines. For the most part customer service lines are being answered by inexperienced warm bodies. This is where a good TA come in.

If we get past the one month before departure mark, July 7, I'll rest a little easier about the prospects of the trip actually going. 

I suspect the 8:15 time on the August 7th is our approximare flight time to Longyearben. I also suspect we will get our departure time for the airport at the hotel the night before.

  If the trip does go belly up, I would spend as much time in the Faroes as you can. 😉 But hope to see you on board!

[cruiseej]

11 hours ago, ChicagoAlli said:

I'm just so baffled that a so called "ultra luxury" line is so disorganized/unhelpful.

 

[EDIT: Oops, I was typing this while @highplanesdrifters posted a similar reply.]

 

I think every cruise line is in full scramble mode right now. If you hop over to the Silversea forum, which I also follow, you'll see similar posts about very late documents and inability to get answers from the cruise line. Cruise lines are, like many businesses, understaffed; they are tweaking their arrangements for revamped northern Europe itineraries this summer due to the war in Ukraine; they are canceling far east cruises for the fall and developing new itineraries on the fly; they are trying to get passengers, crew and provisions routed to the right places at the right times midst thousands of airline flight cancellations — so they have lots of moving pieces. I'm not saying this excuses their inability to get you answers; it just provides some context why things aren't working optimally. 

Edited June 27, 2022 by cruiseej

[Mr Luxury]

Be patient is what you're saying then 😀

[ChicagoAlli]

Thanks to those who commented on my post. I just saw that final cruise documents are now available on the web site, although there are a lot of details still missing! They do confirm 2 option formal nights which seems odd for an expedition cruise.

[highplanesdrifters]

@cruiseejGreat minds! Your post does a much better job of explaining the current state of things.

 

@texanaust Just posted that Handre (cruise director) has just left Sojourn to join Venture. Very positive news for us.

 

@ChicagoAlli Thanks for the heads up on cruise docs. I see that our charter flight is now listed.  Have you ordered your parka yet? The process is a bit hidden. 

Friends on this trip called Seabourn to find out about boots. They said they will be onboard. Hmmmm, I'm a bit concerned that they will have correct sizes for everyone.

 

[Mr Luxury]

1 hour ago, highplanesdrifters said:

 

Friends on this trip called Seabourn to find out about boots. They said they will be onboard. Hmmmm, I'm a bit concerned that they will have correct sizes for everyone.

 

The boots are all size 13.

The important thing is how many pairs of socks you need for them to fit 😁

 

[highplanesdrifters]

5 hours ago, Mr Luxury said:

The boots are all size 13.

The important thing is how many pairs of socks you need for them to fit 😁

 

Perfect! 🤣🤣🤣

[cruisr]

Seabourn took delivery of the Venture yesterday.

[ChicagoAlli]

On 6/29/2022 at 9:26 AM, highplanesdrifters said:

@cruiseejGreat minds! Your post does a much better job of explaining the current state of things.

 

@texanaust Just posted that Handre (cruise director) has just left Sojourn to join Venture. Very positive news for us.

 

@ChicagoAlli Thanks for the heads up on cruise docs. I see that our charter flight is now listed.  Have you ordered your parka yet? The process is a bit hidden. 

Friends on this trip called Seabourn to find out about boots. They said they will be onboard. Hmmmm, I'm a bit concerned that they will have correct sizes for everyone.