Seabourn just cancelled our Sailing with less then 24 hr notice!

[Janet987]

10 hours ago, Westiesheepie said:

Nothing if you made your own air and hotel arrangements. We were lucky to be able to change our flights home tomorrow. Just got to Singapore yesterday morning after flying for 20 hrs only to turn right back around tomorrow. On a positive note, we loved Singapore. So clean and friendly. Amazing food.

Westiesheepie, How disappointing and upsetting though.  

New travel advisory indicates they will "host" you in hotels, etc.  https://www.seabourn.com/en_US/news.html

 

 

"

February 14, 2020

Seabourn Cruise Line has cancelled the next voyage on Seabourn Ovation. The decision comes out of an abundance of caution considering the highly dynamic and unpredictable changes we have seen the past couple of weeks in travel restrictions and port operations that could affect the cruise. While we expect things will stabilize, we never want to put our guests in the position of a having an experience that doesn’t live up to their expectations.    

Seabourn Ovation was due to depart Singapore on February 15, 2020 for a 14-day round trip cruise. We have had no known or suspected cases of coronavirus on board. 

Affected guests will receive a refund of the fare paid for the 14-day voyage. Because the cruises were cancelled close to the departure dates, guests will also receive a future cruise credit. Guests and travel advisors are being notified and those guests in Singapore will be hosted in local hotels while they rebook their onward travel. While this decision will be disappointing for our guests, we feel they will understand the commitment to continue to work closely with the health authorities because we share a common goal of looking after the safety and well-being of our guests, crew and the places we visit.

We continue to assess the situation and will provide a further update on future voyages in Asia once we have more information."

[poolma]

We were fortunate to change our flights immediately after the cancellation. We are leaving Singapore tonight to reverse the 20 hr journey  home. I feel bad for people who may not have the resources to act quickly and have no idea how to proceed. As I mentioned before passengers aboard the Ovation on back to back cruises were just given their through stickers on their cabin card and new itinerary at noon then half hour later was called to a meeting with the captain for the bad news. This is really unacceptable. Seabourn should have pulled the trigger last week instead of having their pax come all this way for nothing. Providing a full refund and future cruise credit, one night hotel, change fees etc are the least they can do and comes nowhere near enough to compensate for a ruined vacation not due to the coronavirus itself but for its indecisive incompetent management.

[jjb415]

18 minutes ago, poolma said:

We were fortunate to change our flights immediately after the cancellation. We are leaving Singapore tonight to reverse the 20 hr journey  home. I feel bad for people who may not have the resources to act quickly and have no idea how to proceed. As I mentioned before passengers aboard the Ovation on back to back cruises were just given their through stickers on their cabin card and new itinerary at noon then half hour later was called to a meeting with the captain for the bad news. This is really unacceptable. Seabourn should have pulled the trigger last week instead of having their pax come all this way for nothing. Providing a full refund and future cruise credit, one night hotel, change fees etc are the least they can do and comes nowhere near enough to compensate for a ruined vacation not due to the coronavirus itself but for its indecisive incompetent management.

You're so right.  What are the plans for the ship until the 02/29 sailing? 

[Covepointcruiser]

So sad to hear passengers on this voyage have had their cruise cancelled.    Too bad that Seabourn does not have a crystal ball on the future.   Singapore in itself is a risk and the QM2 wisely gave it a pass.   Once the virus is onboard it appears to spread so some folks must be super carriers.   On our future voyages, we will book our air travel through the cruise line.   In the current environment with corona virus, Ebola, and unrest all over the world it will be the best option to minimize stress.   Hope everyone gets home safely without being quarantined.

[rols]

7 hours ago, SLSD said:

rols, do you think that fact that the Ovation is going to disembark passengers in Singapore will jeopardize the ship being able to dock in other ports for the next (at least) fourteen days?  What a domino effect this epidemic could be causing!  

Don't think so. Firstly remember there are still currently no travel restrictions in place for Singapore from any country (apart from Sarawak), it's just mainland China and in some cases HK and Macau and for political reasons, Taiwan. Secondly, the ship is going to disembark people in Singapore and not embark anyone. I'm going to hazard a guess that even new crew won't be boarded and perhaps they'll restrict shore leave for any crew staying on the ship. So apart from standing around on the dock, Seabourn will be able, quite fairly, to say everyone left on the ship has been on for two weeks and there is very low risk of importing the disease from Singapore. 

Question then is what next. If they are avoiding Singapore today, they're not coming back here. I suppose they can continue floating about between Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia but at the whim of each of those country's health ministries. It's worth remembering that the Westerdam was denied docking in Taiwan and the Philippines, but those two countries do have restrictions on visitors who passed through HK, so that was reasonable. It was then denied docking in Thailand which didn't, and still doesn't have *any* such restriction; you can still fly from HK to Thailand for instance, you can still fly from China there if you have a medical cert. So countries aren't totally following their own restrictions when it comes to ships and so any itinerary out here would be subject to lots of uncertainty .. and probably be rather dull. 

I expect after the weekend we'll see what Seabourn actually does with the rest of the season and whether they are the first people to add travel through Singapore as a no-boarding event. 

[ab21au]

We saw what happened when the Ovation was traveling to Manila from HK. Governments can change the rules at any time, preventing cruise lines from docking. This must be a concern for all cruise lines and their guests. 
 

I thought it interesting that the Chinese embassy was very critical of Australia’s decision to extend the denied entry of Chinese citizens by another week. 

[seabournbrad]

Hi All, this is a great message board - I'm very happy I found it.

 

My wife and I have our flights and hotel to Singapore arriving on March 19th and then getting on the Seabourn Sojourn March 22nd bound for Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Hong Kong, then ending up in Manila. I haven't purchased our tickets home to LA because I'd really like to fly direct but Seabourn doesn't work with Philippines Airlines - Another factor is this is part of their world cruise so I'm thinking they may re-direct entirely and not even arrive in Singapore. We didn't book our flight to Singapore with Seabourn as well. Ack! This is crazy - Any advice would be much appreciated.

[rols]

29 minutes ago, seabournbrad said:

Hi All, this is a great message board - I'm very happy I found it.

 

My wife and I have our flights and hotel to Singapore arriving on March 19th and then getting on the Seabourn Sojourn March 22nd bound for Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Hong Kong, then ending up in Manila. I haven't purchased our tickets home to LA because I'd really like to fly direct but Seabourn doesn't work with Philippines Airlines - Another factor is this is part of their world cruise so I'm thinking they may re-direct entirely and not even arrive in Singapore. We didn't book our flight to Singapore with Seabourn as well. Ack! This is crazy - Any advice would be much appreciated.

The only advice right now is wait and see. Seabourn just cancelled one two-week cruise and is most likely working on changing just about every cruise in Asia. Since they just disembarked everyone in Singapore and cancelled the next cruise it's got to be very likely they won't be back to Singapore this season, nor is it likely they'll be going to Hong Kong. I'd expect some clarity from Seabourn in the next week or so, talk to your TA and ensure news gets to you as soon as Seabourn releases it. 

 

And watch their news media page https://www.seabourn.com/en_US/news.html which may get updated information. 

[SLSD]

2 hours ago, rols said:

. Secondly, the ship is going to disembark people in Singapore and not embark anyone. I'm going to hazard a guess that even new crew won't be boarded and perhaps they'll restrict shore leave for any crew staying on the ship.

Hmmm....do you think there was a concern that some SB passengers planning to embark in Singapore could have contracted the virus while  there but would be without symptoms---and thus jeopardize the entire ship?  

Edited February 15, 2020 by SLSD

[ab21au]

SLSD,  my guess is anything is possible and probably SB is weighing up the cost of canceling vs the cost if someone did bring the virus aboard. 
 

I would think that someone bringing the virus on board would be the worst for the company and it’s reputation. 
 

But then I’m no expert in those matters. I guess I do feel sorry for all cruise lines but then I also feel sorry for guests (like me who had to cancel). I think the cruise lines can’t win which ever way they go. 

[rols]

1 hour ago, SLSD said:

Hmmm....do you think there was a concern that some SB passengers planning to embark in Singapore could have contracted the virus while  there but would be without symptoms---and thus jeopardize the entire ship?  

No my guess is simpler, that Seabourn was concerned that somewhere in the next two weeks some countries in the region will add the 'no travel to Singapore in the previous two weeks' to their entry restrictions thus meaning anyone who embarked, or even continuing passengers who got off, would be ineligible and the net result would be the ship would most likely not be allowed to dock and you'd have a Westerdam situation where the ship floats around unable to go anywhere. 

By not embarking anyone and if they also enacted the crew restrictions I assumed above, they can say that although the ship docked in Singapore, nobody on board has travelled there within the past 2 weeks so even if countries move to ban Singapore travel, the ship doesn't get stuck. 

What they do next however is anyone's guess. I'm assuming they put on a limited Asia itinerary or send the ship to Australia and then add Singapore to the 'no boarding' list. 

 

 

 

[tv24]

This is such a difficult time.  I feel for all of you who are experiencing cancellations and drastic changes of plans.

[dalliowner]

where is the ship now ? Is it staying in the dock or sailing somewhere to await instructions

[rols]

1 hour ago, dalliowner said:

where is the ship now ? Is it staying in the dock or sailing somewhere to await instructions

At this moment it's docked at harbourfront in Singapore. We'll see where it goes later. I assume they won't leave it docked there any longer than necessary as it costs money. 

[norm2002]

I have a lot of sympathy for Seabourn at having to cancel a cruise 24 hours before departure. Things can happen - mechanical failure, collisions (as per the Carnival Glory and Legend in Mexico) or, like now, health advisories. However, I have to say that I think it is appalling if Seabourn management has resolved to leave in the lurch all passengers who have made their own flight arrangements. When I used to travel regularly with Seabourn, I was always very complimentary of how they dealt with problems and sometimes defended them against criticism. Some of you may remember how I praised their response to the pirate attack, both on Cruise Critic and elsewhere.

 

However, to provide no assistance or financial support to those passengers in this position, who are highly unlikely to have travel insurance to cover this eventuality, as can be seen from other threads, is IMHO, terrible. It is much easier for Carnival to obtain insurance to cover consequential losses of cruise cancellations.

 

And in this particular case, where most of the passengers will already have arrived at the embarkation port, the costs of buying a single fare to go home departing within one or two days are likely to be substantially higher than what they already paid. It is no answer to say they should have paid for flexible tickets. Apart from the cost issue, in many cases, once you have taken the first leg of the journey, the return may not be flexible.

 

As I have mentioned in another post, my wife and I will be taking our first cruise since I cruised in 2008. As it starts in LA and ends in Miami, I hope at least there won't be epidemic reasons for it to be cancelled, but the sign of a good contractor of any kind is always how they deal with problems. I do hope Seabourn has not lost its ability to deal with problems with good grace and common sense.

[saminina]

Of course, you are aware that Seabourn today is managed by Holland America.

[oceanviewer21]

35 minutes ago, saminina said:

Of course, you are aware that Seabourn today is managed by Holland America.

Seabourn have never been as good as they were when Pamela Conover was president.

[norm2002]

52 minutes ago, saminina said:

Of course, you are aware that Seabourn today is managed by Holland America.

 

I have to say I wasn't. I think I have been away too long. I am desperately trying to lower my expectations as all my memories are of the triplets and the standards Seabourn had in the 2000s (sorry, I won't call them the noughties!).

[norm2002]

18 minutes ago, oceanviewer21 said:

Seabourn have never been as good as they were when Pamela Conover was president.

 

I agree, Pamela was great in charge.

[Heather White]

1 hour ago, saminina said:

Of course, you are aware that Seabourn today is managed by Holland America.

Surely both Seabourn and Holland America are managed by Carnival?

[germanshep]

On 2/14/2020 at 1:58 AM, Westiesheepie said:

I didnt say Seabourn deliberately screwed us but they did not handle this properly. We have been in Singapore for three days and it is very safe here. I know someone on Ovation now that boarded Feb 1 from HKG and doing back to back cruise meeting up with us tomorrow. I was just texting her about what to see in Singapore at 12noon local time. She had just received their through sticker on their cabin card. One hour later, they were informed by the Captain the cruise is cancelled. This last minute decision is what I have issue with. The situation did not change in one hour.

Seabourn had no choice but to cancel, they don't want to put you in danger.

 

GermanShep

[germanshep]

3 hours ago, saminina said:

Of course, you are aware that Seabourn today is managed by Holland America.

No, its owned by Carnival.

[oceanviewer21]

Holland America Runs Seabourn Carnival owns Holland America and Seabourn

[germanshep]

11 minutes ago, oceanviewer21 said:

Holland America Runs Seabourn Carnival owns Holland America and Seabourn

We all know that... Carnival is the parent company.

[germanshep]

Hi guys:

 

Are any of you guys cancelling your cruises on Seabourn due to the Coronavirus? Any luck in getting full refunds?

 

Best,

 

GermanShep