Itinerary changes - after final payment

[LNugent]

On our the last three Seabourn cruises they have made itinerary changes that removed key ports we wanted to see. We went on a cruise to see Morocco and they removed those port stops weeks before going. It was replaced with ports with absolutely nothing to do. This time they removed Ireland from the itinerary the day after I paid in full. It was replaced with a port in the the UK, again with absolutely nothing there to see or do.  This is getting old. 
 

I cancelled my 2024 Seabourn cruise with two Crystal cruise. Never once had the probably with Seabourn. 

[pyffii]

Do I assume you're referring to the British Isles and Iceland on Sojourn July 13th 2024 ?

[LNugent]

Nope. 32 day sailing July 2023. If it was as far out as 2024 I would have cancelled once they changed. Already paid in full. We had two couples joining us for the first leg (8 day sailing) as they all wanted to go to Ireland. The rub is that Seabourn provided NO explanation. 
 

 

[LNugent]

My original post should have said I never had this problem with Crystal. I have had it happen multiple times with Seabourn. I have now cancelled Seabourn for 2024 and booked two Crystal cruises instead. 

[Mr Luxury]

2 hours ago, LNugent said:

My original post should have said I never had this problem with Crystal. I have had it happen multiple times with Seabourn. I have now cancelled Seabourn for 2024 and booked two Crystal cruises instead. 

Let's hope that New Crystal performs well for you as they haven't even had their first cruise yet.

I am watching with interest before deciding to book.

[SLSD]

4 hours ago, Mr Luxury said:

Let's hope that New Crystal performs well for you as they haven't even had their first cruise yet.

I am watching with interest before deciding to book.

We are watching with interest as well.  We have never sailed with Crystal, but if things go well for new set up--we may.  

[Mr Luxury]

8 minutes ago, SLSD said:

We are watching with interest as well.  We have never sailed with Crystal, but if things go well for new set up--we may.  

It all hinges on the casino for some 😁

[SLSD]

52 minutes ago, Mr Luxury said:

It all hinges on the casino for some 😁

We are NOT casino people---far from it.   Enough said.   

Edited March 9, 2023 by SLSD

[phillipahain]

Join the club ....i suspect its all down to port charges 

[SLSD]

37 minutes ago, phillipahain said:

Join the club ....i suspect its all down to port charges 

Or a failure to nail down  permission  for entrance into a port which can include fees.  If it is port charges (which passengers are charged for) it could be an inability or reluctance of SB to pay port charges in a timely manner-- --in other words ahead of time.  

[saminina]

Food, services, wine, whatever is not the same today as yesteryear among any publicly traded cruise line.   Itinerary changes are now part of the new cruising world.  Saving on fuel and ten other items being influence on itinerary changes.  

 

 

[Boatdrill]

On 3/9/2023 at 4:13 AM, pyffii said:

Do I assume you're referring to the British Isles and Iceland on Sojourn July 13th 2024 ?

I saw the itinerary change notice for that trip. No more Dublin. Cork (Cohb) instead. 

It's over a year away...should we assume that more changes be will be made ? 

[andiamo76]

I find this all interesting as we have now done 2 Seabourn cruises and both had port changes, mostly w/ no explanation.  1st) May '23 Med cruise on the Quest, 3 ports cancelled but at least as I recall all were replaced and the cruise ended up well.  We went to some very small ports.  Granted little to do, but nice small picturesque ports, easy to wander around.  THEN, the biggy - Quest in January MIA-BA, Argentina.  Not enough space nor time to list all that happened, but numerous port changes, granted Peru stops were ultimately cancelled "due to unrest".  Duh, this had been brewing for months, numerous State Department warnings to get out now!, don't go/avoid....  Even so we went to Lima, protests/riots erupted on day 2 there.  Ship was held in port an extra day as Peru would not allow it to leave.  At least they finally cancelled the pricey side trip to Machu Picchu.  Speculation was that they still went into Lima (other cruise lines had cancelled Peru stops well before this), as they had passengers, crew and the expedition team getting on.  That would have taken a lot of juggling to have them get on elsewhere.  It felt to many though that convenience to Sb and money was more important than passengers.  NOT a good message to send. 

Other small ports were simply "expedition cruise by" "ports" for of course the zodiac tour price of around $199 p.p.  Those were cancelled, "for operational reasons".  What an excuse to give for something using the zodiacs that we would be dependent upon for Antarctica, So. Georgia and the Falklands!  So WHAT operational reason?  as in a problem with the zodiacs?  they never got clearance/permits or whatever was required to do the zodiac cruises?  Who knows as they never said, but these were uninhabited by people - only had birds and wildlife.  The list of issues goes on but the real topper was not having enough parkas for everyone!  Seriously - an expedition cruise where special parkas were to be included and are obviously needed.  Not just a few were missing, but several!  So that meant one flimsy excuse after another, basically stall tactics waiting for the Venture to eventually make it somewhat close so they could drop off some extras they magically had.  Still not enough for everyone.  And yes, this cost us time in Antarctica.  We shake our heads and it is obviously a very sore wound.  We have another cruise coming up and are within the full cancellation penalty otherwise we would have cancelled it.  We do however have yet another one booked for '24.  We will see how this next cruise goes, especially watching for port cancellations, none yet.  If it actually goes well, we may keep the '24 booking.  Otherwise, there are plenty of other ships in the sea.  The pattern of port cancellations is important as most of us book cruises due to particular ports.  When those get cancelled for some odd unknown reason, or worse yet screwed up for a clear serious HQ operational screwup that would have been so easy to avoid with simple basic inventory control procedures ... it just isn't worth using the company again.  Sad as we had really hoped to like this line, especially with Crystal gone.  We really hope the new Crystal can be great again.        

[PaulMCO]

Go to the other cruise lines pages and you will see the same.  Even more so cancelling stops after they leave or informing them in Miami.

 

Seems like an industry issue with ports that cannot handle the numbers of ships.  And yes we have had 3 ports cancelled/changed on our upcoming Encore cruise (no reason given).

 

Would not put so much stock in New Crystal.  Certainly their first year of uninspiring ports did not get our attention.  Startups do not do well in any industry.  Yes they have a name and recognition (but some of that is a big negative) and this is coming from a past Crystalized cruiser.

[frantic36]

11 hours ago, andiamo76 said:

I find this all interesting as we have now done 2 Seabourn cruises and both had port changes, mostly w/ no explanation.  1st) May '23 Med cruise on the Quest, 3 ports cancelled but at least as I recall all were replaced and the cruise ended up well.  We went to some very small ports.  Granted little to do, but nice small picturesque ports, easy to wander around.  THEN, the biggy - Quest in January MIA-BA, Argentina.  Not enough space nor time to list all that happened, but numerous port changes, granted Peru stops were ultimately cancelled "due to unrest".  Duh, this had been brewing for months, numerous State Department warnings to get out now!, don't go/avoid....  Even so we went to Lima, protests/riots erupted on day 2 there.  Ship was held in port an extra day as Peru would not allow it to leave.  At least they finally cancelled the pricey side trip to Machu Picchu.  Speculation was that they still went into Lima (other cruise lines had cancelled Peru stops well before this), as they had passengers, crew and the expedition team getting on.  That would have taken a lot of juggling to have them get on elsewhere.  It felt to many though that convenience to Sb and money was more important than passengers.  NOT a good message to send. 

Other small ports were simply "expedition cruise by" "ports" for of course the zodiac tour price of around $199 p.p.  Those were cancelled, "for operational reasons".  What an excuse to give for something using the zodiacs that we would be dependent upon for Antarctica, So. Georgia and the Falklands!  So WHAT operational reason?  as in a problem with the zodiacs?  they never got clearance/permits or whatever was required to do the zodiac cruises?  Who knows as they never said, but these were uninhabited by people - only had birds and wildlife.  The list of issues goes on but the real topper was not having enough parkas for everyone!  Seriously - an expedition cruise where special parkas were to be included and are obviously needed.  Not just a few were missing, but several!  So that meant one flimsy excuse after another, basically stall tactics waiting for the Venture to eventually make it somewhat close so they could drop off some extras they magically had.  Still not enough for everyone.  And yes, this cost us time in Antarctica.  We shake our heads and it is obviously a very sore wound.  We have another cruise coming up and are within the full cancellation penalty otherwise we would have cancelled it.  We do however have yet another one booked for '24.  We will see how this next cruise goes, especially watching for port cancellations, none yet.  If it actually goes well, we may keep the '24 booking.  Otherwise, there are plenty of other ships in the sea.  The pattern of port cancellations is important as most of us book cruises due to particular ports.  When those get cancelled for some odd unknown reason, or worse yet screwed up for a clear serious HQ operational screwup that would have been so easy to avoid with simple basic inventory control procedures ... it just isn't worth using the company again.  Sad as we had really hoped to like this line, especially with Crystal gone.  We really hope the new Crystal can be great again.        

 

Edited March 17, 2023 by frantic36
Checking facts

[florisdekort]

This is day 87 for us on Sojourn and we’ve had only 2 port changes. One port in the Caribbean was changed last minute because of issues with construction on the dock and we skipped Lima because of the political violence / riots.