Turkish Ports

[rols]

What happens if Seabourn changes embarkation/disembarkation to another port if you have booked your own flights. Is there any help or is it a case of sort it yourself?

 

You sort it out yourself, you bear the costs and Seabourn doesn't help you in the slightest. You'll get a couple of hundred bucks shipboard credit possibly and no they are very unlikely to let you cancel and rebook on a different cruise.

 

Which is what we're looking at if our July 30th cruise right now if they move to Athens departure .. the fare we had is long-since gone and it's going to be very expensive to book a new one.

[Techno123]

We fly out on the 14th July to Venice but back from Attaturk (with Turkish airlines) on the 30th. I suppose we will have to be patient until they get this weekends guys sorted but sooner the better if we need to book something else. Hopefully the insurance company may step up but not holding my breath!

[afig]

This is my first post so I thought I would share some info that I have received! I've been checking these boards frequently myself so hopefully this helps.

 

I am sailing on the August 27th cruise departing Istanbul and I just received insider knowledge that this departure is being changed to Athens. The other Turkey ports of call of Cesme and Bodrum will remain. It is my understanding that an email will be sent in the next day or two to all those that are affected. Seabourn just needs a few days to organize and regroup before sending the notification. I do not know if this change reaches into the September or October sailings, but it is safe to assume that any up through August 27th will be affected.

[rols]

We fly out on the 14th July to Venice but back from Attaturk (with Turkish airlines) on the 30th. I suppose we will have to be patient until they get this weekends guys sorted but sooner the better if we need to book something else. Hopefully the insurance company may step up but not holding my breath!

 

I actually think the security situation in Turkey hasn't changed, there have been attacks, there was another attack, a regrettably successful one, and there will be more in the coming months and years but the chances of being caught up in one are still incredibly low.

 

So if Seabourn really does look at this objectively on a security basis, nothing should change. Operationally there are considerations, especially with the major airport grinding back into service on a turnaround port people need to fly in and out of, but I'd expect that to be back in relatively full service within a week.

 

So much of their decision making, after the operational issues cease to be a factor, is going to be swayed by commercial factors. They pretty much have to either keep all the stops in Istanbul or cancel them all, so it's down to how many passengers are locked in and will be travelling no matter what, and how many may still cancel if they do, or don't, change the port.

 

We did a fairly thorough look through insurance terms. We didn't find any insurance which covers a situation like this. Unless Seabourn actually uses the words 'terrorism', which they won't in a billion years, we could find no insurer who covered against cruise lines changing ports and costing you money.

 

We find out in 24 hours it seems. Good luck to us all.

[Seas_The_Day]

we are booked on the july 30th out of istanbul and have decided we are not going. we are trying to find out now what our options are. there is no way they

can say it is safe to travel there - passengers and crew have to go to the airport, to a hotel, spend time in the city, get to the port etc.. all against the recommendations of the state dept. not to mention it would just not be enjoyable - it would be stressful.

 

i enquired about this situation a couple of months ago and i got a cut and paste talking point about how they are "monitoring" the situation. it has since gotten much much worse.

 

frankly i can't believe that seabourn would put the costs and pain of logistics above the safety of the crew and passengers.

 

standard travel insurance packages do cover terrorism but i haven't looked that close at the fine print.

[rwilmeth]

I'm sorry to hear you are cancelling. I'm on the same cruise and know Istanbul well. I'm not worried. Ramadan is nearly over which should reduce the risk. The same could easily have happened in Amsterdam or Paris. In, wait, it did in Paris.

 

My TA tells me airlines are doing waivers for changed flights through mid-next week, so you most likely could make a change to Athens if Seabourn was to change the embarkation to Athens. My guess is they'll make the change quickly so passengers may take advantage of the options.

 

That said, I believe that if Seabourn makes the port change requiring flight changes, your travel insurance may cover it. I've checked and mine would.

 

Your mileage may vary when it comes to your comfort level and how you like to vacation. But, I don't think the situation is so dire.

[ano]

You sort it out yourself, you bear the costs and Seabourn doesn't help you in the slightest. You'll get a couple of hundred bucks shipboard credit possibly and no they are very unlikely to let you cancel and rebook on a different cruise.

 

Which is what we're looking at if our July 30th cruise right now if they move to Athens departure .. the fare we had is long-since gone and it's going to be very expensive to book a new one.

 

You are correct. But when Princess cancelled their Istanbul departure they refunded any change fees for the customers that made their own flights, up to $250. That is why I will NEVER EVER be a Seabourn customer again and am now a very happy Princess customer. This gesture speaks volumes about how a cruiseline treats its passengers.

Edited June 30, 2016 by ano

[koalapanda]

Celebrity Cruises RCL has decided to cancel all upcoming turns in Istanbul from July to Nov 2016. We await Carnival's decision. It does not worry us we are still looking forward to our third visit to Istanbul. Our chosen cruise is Athens to Venice visiting Istanbul on the 30th July. However my comiserations to folk flying in or of Attuturk making changes is always a pain.It is going to be so hard for Turkey's economy if tourism is affected greatly. Apart from the trauma they are experiencing presently their livelihood is impeerative. Very sad times.

[koalapanda]

Fast finger foible, please excuse me. I am ignorant as to how to delete started boo boo post. Sorry

:confused::o

[jenidallas]

I'm sorry to hear you are cancelling. I'm on the same cruise and know Istanbul well. I'm not worried. Ramadan is nearly over which should reduce the risk.

 

Saying that attacks by fundamentalist Islamic groups will be reduced after Ramadan is not really accurate. Analysts have always urged security caution during Ramadan simply because of mass gatherings and thus the difficulty iof both assessing the situations and also providing soft targets. A review of actual incidents would show that violence and terror activity is not exclusive to Ramadan.

 

I find Ramadan to actually be a lovely time to visit some Islamic countries and was disappointed to have to postpone a trip to Dubai I'd planned on making tomorrow.

Edited June 30, 2016 by jenidallas

[jenidallas]

You are correct. But when Princess cancelled their Istanbul departure they refunded any change fees for the customers that made their own flights, up to $250. That is why I will NEVER EVER be a Seabourn customer again and am now a very happy Princess customer. This gesture speaks volumes about how a cruiseline treats its passengers.

 

Keep in mind that the money eventually flows back to the same place. As a Carnival shareholder, I am happy you kept it in the family!

[Thameside]

You are correct. But when Princess cancelled their Istanbul departure they refunded any change fees for the customers that made their own flights, up to $250. That is why I will NEVER EVER be a Seabourn customer again and am now a very happy Princess customer. This gesture speaks volumes about how a cruiseline treats its passengers.

 

We were due to depart from Istanbul on July 2nd (This Saturday) and early yesterday morning 29th June we were advised by Seabourn that due to the recent atrocities at Ataturk Airport Istanbul they were moving this departure to Athens. A great pity for us but very understandable and the correct decision. We had made all our own arrangements and had to start finding other flights and hotels. To their credit, we were advised that there would be an on board credit for the inconvenience and that they would pay reasonable expenses and change fees which were a direct result of the change. It was very difficult to get flights to Athens at short notice from London, as many were already full and the ones that weren't were at very expensive. Anyway we managed to get flights out tomorrow evening so hopefully we will make the departure.

Enough of my woes, Seabourn are doing the right things at the moment and according to their website will be making a decision on other Istanbul departure within the next 24 hours

[Chairsin]

I am very sorry for the inconvenience those of you sailing soon whose departure or arrival port of Istanbul was changed to Athens. I am glad SB is providing some compensations to help reduce the expenses incurred rather than jus helping those who booked air through Seabourn. (Contrary to what ANO stated in the post above).For those coming from long distances rather than London, where is appears difficult enough to secure alternate flights, one option might be to keep you original flights to Istanbul (the airport reopened and many flights have resumed) and then catch a short two hour flight to Athens.

[rols]

I am very sorry for the inconvenience those of you sailing soon whose departure or arrival port of Istanbul was changed to Athens. I am glad SB is providing some compensations to help reduce the expenses incurred rather than jus helping those who booked air through Seabourn. (Contrary to what ANO stated in the post above).For those coming from long distances rather than London, where is appears difficult enough to secure alternate flights, one option might be to keep you original flights to Istanbul (the airport reopened and many flights have resumed) and then catch a short two hour flight to Athens.

 

Hehe - that's us, coming all the way from Singapore. We've been looking into the 'catch a quick flight from Istanbul' but we're not getting any much comfort that we can add it to our current flight booking in a way that at least our bags get checked all the way through. So if we do that, we have to go through passport control, pick up our bags, go to departure, check in again and go back airside. It's been suggested we leave no less than 4 hours for that.

 

So that's kind of plan B right now.

 

If Seabourn does make changes I will be happy if they cover a reasonable portion of the costs, Emirates won't even waive the re-booking fee even though it's Istanbul, which I think is a bit hard of them and the change at this late point puts us onto a different fare basis to the one we booked before which adds a lot.

 

I'm still hoping they don't change it .. we'll see.

[marama]

Hehe - that's us, coming all the way from Singapore. We've been looking into the 'catch a quick flight from Istanbul' but we're not getting any much comfort that we can add it to our current flight booking in a way that at least our bags get checked all the way through. So if we do that, we have to go through passport control, pick up our bags, go to departure, check in again and go back airside. It's been suggested we leave no less than 4 hours for that.

 

So that's kind of plan B right now.

 

If Seabourn does make changes I will be happy if they cover a reasonable portion of the costs, Emirates won't even waive the re-booking fee even though it's Istanbul, which I think is a bit hard of them and the change at this late point puts us onto a different fare basis to the one we booked before which adds a lot.

 

I'm still hoping they don't change it .. we'll see.

 

 

If it helps - Emirates fly through to Malta from Dubai. Its only a short hop from Malta to Athens or Istanbul if it proves difficult to get direct flights.

[rols]

If it helps - Emirates fly through to Malta from Dubai. Its only a short hop from Malta to Athens or Istanbul if it proves difficult to get direct flights.

 

Thanks - they fly to Athens direct from Dubai too - it's why we picked them in the first place, they fly everywhere just about. The only issue is the change from Dubai->Istanbul to Dubai->Athens at this late stage is currently possible, but rather expensive. So it's question of a little extra cost, but more convenience, or a cheaper quick hop from Istanbul to Athens but add about 6-7 hours to an already-long journey.

 

If Seabourn make the change and at least cover our rebooking fee, I think we'll manage to write the extra fare off to just one of those things.

[Chairsin]

Yes, I am sorry there is no perfect solution. I remember when we got caught in Egypt four years ago when the revolution broke out how we spent two very long chaotic days at the airport trying to get out. We got to the point where we said we will pay almost anything to go anywhere in the world so we could get out of that very volatile situation. We finally ended up flying into Rome on outrageously expensive tickets and decided to just hang out there a few days to recover (good pasta and wine always makes me feel better[emoji6]) and then buy another ticket to Frankfurt to catch up with our original ticket home. Well of course I thought as they were not even flying from Cairo to Frankfurt they would grant us an exemption to the broken ticket rule. Of course not! It took a very savvy agent in the Alitalia lounge to patch things in the system to make it look as if we had completed the first leg of our journey. I wish you all luck in your rebooking. And yes Rols, I agree that if you can work your flight from Dubai all the better -- my thought on flying from Istanbul was sort of a last resort idea for those stuck without other options.

 

The only bright spot is that you will be going though all of this hassle to get to a wonderful Seabourn cruise. Have they informed you of the revised itinerary after you

leave Athens?

[rols]

Have they informed you of the revised itinerary after you

leave Athens?

 

Don't even know if they're changing it yet - I'm one of the July 30th group (there's a lot of people on the seabourn board who seem to be on the same cruise, I'm looking forwards to meeting them all).

[Techno123]

And we are flying out of Attaturk so I hope we will be able to wave to you. The other complication has been the Athens dock strikes. Has that all been resolved as I believe on your cruise, Chairsin, you docked some distance away.

[Chairsin]

Techno-- I looked at a site that tracks these developments and it gave conflicting information -- on the one hand it said as of 6/25 the strike was called off but they also report another source claims it is ongoing. Wish I could tell you something more definitive.if you end up boarding in Lavrion and you are going straight to the ship from the airport it will actually be a shorter ride. If on the other hand you are going from downtown Athens it will be longer.

[rols]

OK I have confirmation from Seabourn that our July 30th departure from Istanbul has been changed to Athens.

 

I can't speak for any departures before or after that - but I have to imagine at least the July 16th one changes too.

 

There's shipboard credit for the change and an undertaking to reimburse reasonable change fees which is .. reasonable.

 

Time to start scrambling ..

[fudge]

We have had our cruise itinerary changed too, sailing 23rd July out of Athens, not calling at Istanbul and one other Turkish port.

[rwilmeth]

I just rebooked my flights from IST to ATH for embarkation. Easy to do but my heart is heavy. Tomorrow, I have to email Turkish friends To cancel dinner plans. I understand the security and other considerations, but I'm terribly heartbroken for IST. Very glad they didn't cancel any other parts of Turkey.

[maddie2312]

We are on the Odyssey 27th August departure and have had the embarkation change to Athens. Other two Turkish ports unchanged. Reasonable changes reimbursed and OBC. Very professional service from Seaborne.

[rols]

We are on the Odyssey 27th August departure and have had the embarkation change to Athens. Other two Turkish ports unchanged. Reasonable changes reimbursed and OBC. Very professional service from Seaborne.

 

We just changed all our flights, with less than 4 weeks to go, flights pretty full and Emirates not even vaguely sympathetic about the incident in Istanbul that was over $1000, and we did all we could to minimise it, but had very few options.

 

Hopefully Seabourn agrees those charges are reasonable, they were unavoidable.

 

Now I need a hotel in Athens, damn, we were looking forward to our two days in Raffles Istanbul too.