Seabourn Sojourn departed early. We were stranded!

at least you get SOME compensation and a response.Let us know if its enough to make you happy.

You have WARNED all of us here, about his clause. Besides getting to dock EARLY, what can you do to prevent this.

chiptransisto - if you are happy with that, then fine. It was obviously a difficult situation for SB, but even so unless that covers you for 3 lost days I personally would expect more.

Anyway, do hope you are now enjoying the rest of the cruise - and will think of travelling Seabourn again, as generally speaking they are excellent.

$1800 seems pretty lame given the perdiem cost of a typical Seabourn cruise, unless you got a screaming good deal. That doesnt come close to making up for the dyas on board you missed, not to mention the inconvenience. I imagine there should be some responsibility for the prudent traveler to arrive at least a day prior to departure, I would expect that the ship will leave at the time scheduled or later. Does the same policy apply to the ship stopping in ports? Can the port authorities arbitrarily change departure times? If so, how is anyone certain they will return from excursions prior to departure? I have never heard of a ship leaving early unless all passengers are on board. If you are late then shame on you, but one should be able to rely on published departure times.

I'm glad that Seabourn acted quickly, given the Easter break. It is to their credit. Their response seems to admit liability for not making you aware of the change in departure time even though you made early contact with them and it is up to you whether you think the compensation is adequate. Personally, I'd probably back off because more drama might further ruin my holiday.

However a lawyer might tell you that you should pursue a refund of your per diem for 4 days plus any other expenses you incurred plus a decent recognition of the fact that your vacation has been damaged.

I, too, am pleased Seabourn responded graciously. The "fault" in this case was ambiguous but I was very sympathetic to OP who did not deserve some of the insensitive comments made here.

I, too, am pleased Seabourn responded graciously. The "fault" in this case was ambiguous but I was very sympathetic to OP who did not deserve some of the insensitive comments made here.

What's "ambiguous"? The Op scheduled to arrive a day before departure, but due to flight delays ended up arriving on the day of departure, around 9:15 pm for a 11 pm sailing. The Op informed Seabourn the day before departure and again on the day itself, and never was told that the ship would sail 2 hours early. Clearly the decision to sail early and not tell the Op was Seabourn's and the fault is therefore theirs and theirs alone. They owe Op 4 days of cruise fare and out of pocket expenses to make it to the ship. The fact that the Op had to ask for a follow up and no one reached out pro-actively is embarrassing and far from "graciously".

What's "ambiguous"? The Op scheduled to arrive a day before departure, but due to flight delays ended up arriving on the day of departure, around 9:15 pm for a 11 pm sailing. The Op informed Seabourn the day before departure and again on the day itself, and never was told that the ship would sail 2 hours early. Clearly the decision to sail early and not tell the Op was Seabourn's and the fault is therefore theirs and theirs alone. They owe Op 4 days of cruise fare and out of pocket expenses to make it to the ship. The fact that the Op had to ask for a follow up and no one reached out pro-actively is embarrassing and far from "graciously".

I have every sympathy for the OP.

I feel that no ackowledgement when they boarded was poor, however, I am sure they had to be in contact with Seattle before saying anything and it was Easter and there was unlikely to be the right people around. That said they could have communicated something to them.

What nobody has mentioned here, is that actually the OP missed the check in time which is the time you are supposed to arrive at the ship. Just because the ship sails at a later time does not mean you will be accepted to sail up to that time. I am sure check in time is always much before sail time to allow for certain unforeseen circumstances……i.e. tidal conditions etc.

Seabourn have paid for the OPs flights to Oman and accommodation there before joining the ship and have also offered $1800 in credit which can be cashed in.

On one of our cruises a few years ago we had issues, but chose to draw a line under that so we could enjoy the cruise and then deal with Seattle directly upon our return home.

Enjoy the rest of your cruise OP, we did this last year and had a great time.

jimmyw9

To rl787 - What you describe is exactly what we did. We had a fantastic time in Mumbai before our cruise, so much so we went back for the following Christmas. The Oberoi is the only hotel to stay in!

The question of how late one might have boarded is an interesting one. I assume that it was indicated somewhere on the tickets? However, had it not been until shortly [e.g. 10pm] before the originally scheduled sailing time [11 pm] then it seems to me that SB should have notified the OP when the OP first telephoned them about their delay. My reading is that the OP told SB that they would be arriving Mumbai airport at 8pm. There seems to have been at least a day when SB had the opportunity to communicate that they had been forced to change their departure time. This seems to have slipped through the cracks.

This is one of those unfortunate incidents for both sides. However, missing 4 days of my cruise and being stranded in Oman would not have made me a happy camper.

I think that I would have a quiet word with the Captain as to the real story behind the early sailing.

Was it forced upon them late in the day by the port?

The problem I have hear is that the tides are known well in advance and the Captain and bridge staff know their stuff in this subject.

Seabourn plans these cruises over a year in advance and takes tides and sailing times to the next port into the equation.

I think that I would have a quiet word with the Captain as to the real story behind the early sailing.

Was it forced upon them late in the day by the port?

 

The problem I have hear is that the tides are known well in advance and the Captain and bridge staff know their stuff in this subject.

Seabourn plans these cruises over a year in advance and takes tides and sailing times to the next port into the equation.

As a guest on board and as I said earlier in this thread the Captain told us the day before that we would be sailing a couple of hours earlier because that is what the port Authority had advised. I have no reason to believe he was not telling the truth. The failure is that this information did not get conveyed to the OP the day before sailing even though he contacted Seabourn. Seabourn appear to have admitted responsibility by the act of compensating the OP. It is up to the OP to decide if the compensation is enough. Sometimes even the best of cruise lines make mistakes.

As a guest on board and as I said earlier in this thread the Captain told us the day before that we would be sailing a couple of hours earlier because that is what the port Authority had advised. I have no reason to believe he was not telling the truth. The failure is that this information did not get conveyed to the OP the day before sailing even though he contacted Seabourn. Seabourn appear to have admitted responsibility by the act of compensating the OP. It is up to the OP to decide if the compensation is enough. Sometimes even the best of cruise lines make mistakes.

Yes,

I see the issue

Do we know that the problem was a tidal one or just a port detail.

When I started reading this my immediate thoughts were local port authority.

We had a similar thing happen over Christmas where the ship either left early or was effectively impounded until the next day because the authorities decided to shut up shop for the day early.

You have to remember that you need a small army of people, tug boats on stand by, pilots etc to get in and out of a port. If, for what ever reason they aren't available then you don't leave or enter.

Holidays, industrial action, maintenance and so on can all play their part. There is nothing Seabourn can do. What I would say is that there seems to have been a bit of a communication breakdown between the ship, Seattle, and the passenger in this instance.

As for moaning about embarkation in a third world country like India - try getting on a mainstream cruise line such as Royal Caribbean in the supposedly first world New York, Port Liberty. Never - and I mean never again.

A very difficult situation, a shame the on-board team didn't soften the blow a little.

Henry :)

Edited to say it is also possible that an early departure is required to avoid local weather conditions.

When I started reading this my immediate thoughts were local port authority.

 

We had a similar thing happen over Christmas where the ship either left early or was effectively impounded until the next day because the authorities decided to shut up shop for the day early.

 

You have to remember that you need a small army of people, tug boats on stand by, pilots etc to get in and out of a port. If, for what ever reason they aren't available then you don't leave or enter.

 

Holidays, industrial action, maintenance and so on can all play their part. There is nothing Seabourn can do. What I would say is that there seems to have been a bit of a communication breakdown between the ship, Seattle, and the passenger in this instance.

 

As for moaning about embarkation in a third world country like India - try getting on a mainstream cruise line such as Royal Caribbean in the supposedly first world New York, Port Liberty. Never - and I mean never again.

 

A very difficult situation, a shame the on-board team didn't soften the blow a little.

 

Henry :)

 

Edited to say it is also possible that an early departure is required to avoid local weather conditions.

Henry, thanks for this post! I was convinced we had some sort of change to departure time during the Christmas cruise, but my two travel companions didn't remember it at all. So I just thought I was imagining it and going mad, especially when Mr L didn't mention it in his earlier posts. I seem to remember it was East London (where it was cold and rained all day?) but I'm not certain. Anyway thanks for giving me some peace of mind.

To get back more to the topic in hand but still thinking of the Christmas cruise, we seemed to have more issues with the various port authorities on that cruise than I've experienced previously on any cruise. Pilots arriving rather late to take us into the port, in addition to the above pushing us out early, seemed to be a regular occurrence.

That said, this must have been a very stressful experience for the OP. I hope it's resolved as satisfactorily as possible.

I was also on this cruise, and want to add that this was the second time the ship left early. In Myanmar we were to leave at 4pm, and it was announced a couple of days in advance that we would leave at 11am instead. This was a huge problem for people who had booked private overnight trips to see the temples in Bagan, which required a flight back to Rangoon that morning. There were only 38 spaces for the ship sponsored tour, which sold out months before the cruise, and no more spaces were opened despite a long wait list.

The captain announced that the change in departure was due to port authorities. One of the cruise directors explained that it was because "they don't know what the tides will be until shortly before departure", which made no sense at all.

As far as I'm aware tides are able to be predicted well into the future as they're caused by astronomical phenomena.

Tides are predictable up to a point. You know whether it's going to be a Spring (big difference between low and high water), a neap tide (small difference between low and high water) or somewhere in between and you will know the predicted heights for any given time.

What you don't know until nearer the time is how much variation there will be from predicted heights. High pressure will tend to push heights lower, wind can move a body of water causing predicted heights to alter. Any change from predicted height is unlikely to be measured in metres, rather cm and I can't see a 35,000 tonne ship working to cm margins when it comes to water draft. Variations in the sea bed need to be accounted for. When it comes to air draft (clearance under bridges) you can work to finer tolerances, the ship and the bridge are know quantities which don't change - providing someone isn't hanging under the bridge painting it :)

I imagine the reason we suffered issues on the Christmas cruise was the fact it was holiday time and land staff wanted time off.

Ports will often have a maximum wind speed at which ships can leave and enter port, so if predicted wind speed looks likely to exceed this then an early departure might be planned. What I would say is cruise ships like those in Seabourn's fleet are far more manoeuvrable than your typical cargo ship which requires greater use of tugs so occasionally rules get bent in favour of the cruise ship who's maximum wind speed limits will be greater.

The 11.00am departure rather than 4.00pm departure is interesting, the 5 hours difference is significant. In very crude terms the difference between high and low water is 6 hours. If I was a gambling man I'd put a couple of beer vouchers on someone getting their sums wrong when planning the route all those months ago and mixing up high and low water times. They thought 4.00pm was high water when it was actually low water and 11.00am was high water.

The crew will have checked tide times as part of their passage plan, spotted the error and re-scheduled departure accordingly. There will have been a tidal range of probably 7.0 metres or so so quite possible that low water departure was not an option. All pure speculation but these things do happen.

Henry :)