florisdekort

Third time lucky? Join us 20 October 🙂 Would be lovely to see you again!

We just booked 20 October, Quebec to Miami. Very exciting to try something new 😃

Unless anything has changed, in previous years, once you had gone through Immigration, you had exited Canada and entered the US (your ship), so going back to shore (Canada) was not allowed. And no, obviously you couldn’t clear a day early.

Boarding starts at 1 pm today so I bet it’ll be super busy in the terminal around that time with folks who arrived earlier.

We sailed from Dakar an hour late as well, at midnight instead of 11 pm. Turns out we were waiting for Natalya Leahy, the new CEO, who boarded at 11:45 pm.

Yes, it was the Adventure Drive. But we do tend to “challenge” the program. While the group was listening to a 45 minute lecture on the history of The Gambia (which you can easily read yourself on Wikipedia), we wandered outside and played with the many kids for the whole time.

We had probably one of our best days of the World Cruise in Banjul, The Gambia. I’ll let the pictures tell the story. Floris

It just arrived at 7:42 pm.

We still miss one tour bus.

It varies. On the World Cruise, depending on the country, I’ve seen 24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours and non refundable.

I don’t understand why people keep commenting “I never take my passport to shore”. As others have already said, and I’m on this cruise as well, we were NOT ALLOWED to go to shore without our passports. All passports were literally handed to us by Seabourn staff at the top of the gangway as you went out (and re-collected upon each return to the ship). So that is the only reason these poor people were carrying theirs. Please stop the implicit suggestions that you are somehow smarter / more experienced, as you all would have been in the exact same situation - unless you would have opted to stay on board in all South African ports.

nleahy@seabourn.com Floris

It’s for everyone on board. Cheers, Floris

We didn’t do anything. The ship is handling it at a fee of $70 per visa. Floris

Odyssey doesn’t have its own staff, staff moves from ship to ship with each new 3-6 month contract. Also, Seabourn (and all cruise lines) are currently struggling to hire enough staff for their fleets. Anyone working on Odyssey in its final months will quickly reappear on a different ship.

And if you don’t see one on the program, just ask Guest Services to schedule one. Easy.

The ship is almost always at least 12 miles out to sea so that it’s allowed to take in fresh water and discharge waste water. 12 miles is too far out to see any land.

At 4:30 am apparently. As there’s nothing to see I think I may sail through it asleep 🤣

How it is handled and what guarantees you have depends on whether or not you’re within final payment, what country you are from (in some countries consumers have stronger protections) and indeed whether or not you have a good travel agent that goes to bat for you.

Steve is Seabourn’s Chief Commercial Officer so yes this is legit. He posts in Seabourn Sailors quite regularly. Seattle is clearly following the commentary in that group.

It’s really interesting to read what everyone did in 2014 🙄 and what everyone who is not on Sojourn claims they would have done, BUT if the ship has a big table set up at the gangway handing out passports telling you that you can’t go to shore without it, I for one am not surprised that these passengers (and us) were carrying theirs.

It’s the Purser’s Office / Documentation Officer who is instructing everyone to carry their passport on shore. (In South Africa only; in all previous ports that the world cruise visited, the ship kept the passports.)

I’m not sure what the debate is. I bet everyone prefers to leave their passport on the ship. However, when you get a letter delivered to your suite telling you that you must carry your passport on shore in South Africa, when Source tells you the same thing and when the Cruise Director every morning in his “the gangway is now open” announcement says “don’t forget to bring your passport”, then I don’t think anyone should be surprised that these poor passengers were carrying theirs. Floris

I wouldn’t say often, but sometimes, yes. I’d book now and cancel on board if you change your mind.