October Windstar sailings

[susiesan]

As of today, Windstar is till showing the resumption of Tahiti cruises on October 15. Perhaps they are not abiding by the latest CDC no sail date of October 31. Or Windstar has not decided what to do about Tahiti. They also have not pushed back final payment date for cruises in the next few months.

[susiesan]

I know that but because they are a member of the CLIA they are going along with what the CDC orders for their overseas sailings. They previously delayed Tahiti sailings that were to start in September after the last CDC no sail order.

 

Windstar does go to US ports on their Alaska cruises.

[new_cruiser]

Last I heard, the CLIA hadn't extended their recommendation. US water cruising would be difficult to resume due to the state of COVID in the US. Some ports such as Miami and Galveston are hot spots. There is no requirement for the CDC rules for US waters to apply to cruising in all the rest of the world, but other factors make an extension of no sail likely. If the US doesn't get COVID more under control, it will be hard for the lines that normally have a large percentage of US passengers to resume. I'm booked on Star Breeze in November, but who knows if Europe will lift it's travel ban for US residents by then. 

 

I notice that all the cruises on this week's 7-for-7 are August 2021 or later. IIRC, it's unusual for all or even most of the 7-for-7 sailings to be a year or more out. It is like either they've reduced the prices on earlier cruises so much that there is no point in putting them on the weekly sale or it's not worth trying to attract people to earlier cruises which may get cancelled anyway.

[new_cruiser]

2 hours ago, susiesan said:

I know that but because they are a member of the CLIA they are going along with what the CDC orders for their overseas sailings. They previously delayed Tahiti sailings that were to start in September after the last CDC no sail order.

 

Windstar does go to US ports on their Alaska cruises.

 

And their fall New England/Canada cruises and an occasional departure out of Miami or California, but they don't have any US sailings until April 2021 so the CDC changing when in fall 2020 cruising can restart doesn't affect any Windstar cruises. 

[GottaKnowWhen]

16 hours ago, new_cruiser said:

 

And their fall New England/Canada cruises and an occasional departure out of Miami or California, but they don't have any US sailings until April 2021 so the CDC changing when in fall 2020 cruising can restart doesn't affect any Windstar cruises. 

Don't forget Puerto Rico. Star Breeze scheduled to arrive in San Juan Dec 13 2020 (with me aboard), then will be doing a series of 1-2 week Caribbean cruises. Wouldn't San Juan fall under the CDC rules?

 

By the way, my travel agent checked on possible changes in Final Payment deadlines; she was told that the 90 day rule is still in effect except for selected cruises.

 

Stan

[new_cruiser]

Yes  Puerto Rico would fall under that too. I just forgot to check the schedule for that. Probably US Virgin Islands too.

 

They changed final payment for my cruise to 45 days out just a few days before the 90 day mark. Perhaps it was because it is a Med cruise and the EU isn't currently allowing US residents in. I expect that they are doing it cruise by cruise based on the uncertainty 100ish days before rather than as a global policy that they have to stick to even if the situation improves.

Edited August 8, 2020 by new_cruiser

[Tapi]

5 hours ago, GottaKnowWhen said:

Don't forget Puerto Rico. Star Breeze scheduled to arrive in San Juan Dec 13 2020 (with me aboard), then will be doing a series of 1-2 week Caribbean cruises. Wouldn't San Juan fall under the CDC rules?

San Juan does fall under CDC rules. In addition to that, they currently have additional protocols in place which may or may not be in place in December. We just traveled to Puerto Rico for a week during the last week of July. Covid tests are required within 72 hours of arrival, in addition to a health declaration from the PR Department of Health. If unable to get tested in advance, you must abide by a 14 day self quarantine and agree to be tracked using an app, OR you must agree to get tested in Puerto Rico and self quarantine until test results are received. Thankfully, we were able to get rapid tests 48 hours before our trip, and since we filled out the declaration online in advance, our entry was pretty painless and uneventful. 

Edited August 8, 2020 by Tapi

[susiesan]

5 hours ago, GottaKnowWhen said:

Don't forget Puerto Rico. Star Breeze scheduled to arrive in San Juan Dec 13 2020 (with me aboard), then will be doing a series of 1-2 week Caribbean cruises. Wouldn't San Juan fall under the CDC rules?

 

By the way, my travel agent checked on possible changes in Final Payment deadlines; she was told that the 90 day rule is still in effect except for selected cruises.

 

Stan

Stan, are you going to make the final payment at 90 days for your cruise? Windstar is out of their minds by not extending final payment deadlines. No one is going to pay for a cruise in full 3 months in advance under current ever changing circumstances. I predict massive cancellations at the 90 day deadline which only makes Windstars' financial situation worse. Even Oceania is changing final payment dates to 54 days for cruises in the next few months.

 

I plan to cancel mine at the 90 days, keep my airline tickets, and then if by some chance my cruise does go I will just rebook it. If Windstar won't honor the same rate as I have now then I will just go somewhere else on vacation. The Tahiti cruises will not have restarted by Oct. 6, my final payment date. I wanted to see how these cruises are going, get some feedback from people who cruised prior to mine before I commit. As much as I would enjoy returning to Tahiti for another  cruise, I won't lose any sleep if I don't go. Maybe I'll substitute a Windstar Caribbean cruise if they are sailing successfully come November and December. It's a lot easier and less time to get to St. Martin or San Juan than to Papeete. I suspect there will be last minute deals on these cruises as January is low season for Caribbean cruises.

[GottaKnowWhen]

28 minutes ago, susiesan said:

Stan, are you going to make the final payment at 90 days for your cruise? Windstar is out of their minds by not extending final payment deadlines. No one is going to pay for a cruise in full 3 months in advance under current ever changing circumstances. I predict massive cancellations at the 90 day deadline which only makes Windstars' financial situation worse. Even Oceania is changing final payment dates to 54 days for cruises in the next few months.

 

I plan to cancel mine at the 90 days, keep my airline tickets, and then if by some chance my cruise does go I will just rebook it. If Windstar won't honor the same rate as I have now then I will just go somewhere else on vacation. The Tahiti cruises will not have restarted by Oct. 6, my final payment date. I wanted to see how these cruises are going, get some feedback from people who cruised prior to mine before I commit. As much as I would enjoy returning to Tahiti for another  cruise, I won't lose any sleep if I don't go. Maybe I'll substitute a Windstar Caribbean cruise if they are sailing successfully come November and December. It's a lot easier and less time to get to St. Martin or San Juan than to Papeete. I suspect there will be last minute deals on these cruises as January is low season for Caribbean cruises.

I did just make Final payment, a couple of weeks early. I also made reservations for 2-3 weeks in January out of San Juan. If November- December is cancelled, I’ll roll the FCC to January. If January is also cancelled, I’ll push the FCC further out.

[susiesan]

17 hours ago, GottaKnowWhen said:

I did just make Final payment, a couple of weeks early. I also made reservations for 2-3 weeks in January out of San Juan. If November- December is cancelled, I’ll roll the FCC to January. If January is also cancelled, I’ll push the FCC further out.

I am hesitant to make a final payment and keep rolling a FCC forward. I have 2 postponed vacations already for 2021, Namibia safari in May and Oceania Baltic cruise in late August. If we don't make it to Tahiti in January, and Windstar is sailing in the Caribbean out of St. Martin and San Juan, and it is not too much of a hassle to get there I may grab a one week on Wind Spirit if the price is right. I have enough FF points on AA to get us the airfare for free. Plus, one of the reasons I booked Tahiti was because I got such a sweet deal. Besides a really low fare of $1300 each I have $600 of OBC.