Strategy for upcoming bookings in Caribbean?

[Cruise Critic Chris]

We've asked SeaDream if we can get onboard to report about the new testing requirements and how it works in practice. Will let you know if someone from Cruise Critic goes, and post links to info. 

[andreas_seadream]

2 minutes ago, Cruise Critic Chris said:

We've asked SeaDream if we can get onboard to report about the new testing requirements and how it works in practice. Will let you know if someone from Cruise Critic goes, and post links to info. 

My apologies for forgetting about this. You are most welcome on one of our initial Caribbean voyages. I just sent you an email.

[andreas_seadream]

49 minutes ago, JES4845 said:

Like us, many of you no doubt also received a nicely done blast SeaDream email today touting the winter Barbados voyages.  The odd thing, at least to me, is that neither the email nor the links it takes you to ever mention the various testing requirements and travel restrictions (pre, post and during the voyages).

Thank you for this feedback. We will get more information about this in future emails. We are also working on getting this on our website.

[COCOYOTE]

What email?  We received nothing.

[laurelguy]

Did not receive an email blast.

[msears101]

We are considering the Dec 12th cruise, and have a hold on a room.   

 

The main question that I have (and seems to have been asked) is what is recommended procedure to arrive a day or two early  to avoid flight problems and still make the yacht. Currently there are provisions to quarantine hotel until either 7 day OR you receive a second negative test 4-5 days after your first test.  The quarantine hotels will not let you leave until you are clear.  I am afraid of getting stuck at a hotel.

 

It seems seadream has been working with the barbados gov't.  I am hoping and wishing for an option to arrive a day or two early and quarantine in a hotel, and then be transferred to seadream in one of the barbados run medical taxis that already are operating that normally would  take you to get tested for your second test. I hope that sea dream could work that out, and find away  to get us from a hotel quarantine to the yacht.  So I can effectively finish my quarantine aboard seadream.

 

We are willing to follow any rules, and jump through most hoops - we just want to know about it ahead of time and make sure we understand all the risks.

[andreas_seadream]

7 hours ago, msears101 said:

We are considering the Dec 12th cruise, and have a hold on a room.   

The main question that I have (and seems to have been asked) is what is recommended procedure to arrive a day or two early  to avoid flight problems and still make the yacht. Currently there are provisions to quarantine hotel until either 7 day OR you receive a second negative test 4-5 days after your first test.  The quarantine hotels will not let you leave until you are clear.  I am afraid of getting stuck at a hotel.

It seems seadream has been working with the barbados gov't.  I am hoping and wishing for an option to arrive a day or two early and quarantine in a hotel, and then be transferred to seadream in one of the barbados run medical taxis that already are operating that normally would  take you to get tested for your second test. I hope that sea dream could work that out, and find away  to get us from a hotel quarantine to the yacht.  So I can effectively finish my quarantine aboard seadream.

 

We are willing to follow any rules, and jump through most hoops - we just want to know about it ahead of time and make sure we understand all the risks.

We have an employee who recently moved to Barbados temporarily. Here is the latest information I received from someone who has just gone through a local quarantine himself:

 

You can arrive 1 or 2 days early and upon arrival in Barbados will be given a colored band that will identify you as someone who is to be quarantined. From there you will go to a government approved hotel or villa in a government approved taxi or via transportation that SeaDream can arrange. At the hotel you will be quarantined for the 1 o 2 nights you are there. You should stay in your room and order room service and will be restricted on the public areas you may have access to. On Saturday morning, you can check out and go to the port and there you will given an RT-PCR test by SeaDream prior to boarding.

 

I hope this helps.

[DaveA]

Some hotels (Coconut Court is one) allow you to leave your room, eat breakfast and lunch in separated restaurant areas etc while quarantined. Being confined to my room would have put me off doing it.

[Jim Avery]

I wish SD well and hope they get enough business to soon return to "normal" cruising in the Caribbean.  At present, no one has addressed a big issue.  So you go through restrictive flights after taking a covid test.  Arrive in BGI to more testing and quarantine, then transfer to SD for another test.  Can anyone tell me what happens if you throw a positive (real or false) or run a fever?  Who pays for hospital or return short notice flights?  Does SD refund the thousands paid for the cruise?  Does travel insurance cover these things and what does it cost these days?  Travel insurance was rather pricey before all this.  This is just another part of travel these days but needs to be discussed. 

Edited November 3, 2020 by Jim Avery

[msears101]

35 minutes ago, Jim Avery said:

I wish SD well and hope they get enough business to soon return to "normal" cruising in the Caribbean.  At present, no one has addressed a big issue.  So you go through restrictive flights after taking a covid test.  Arrive in BGI to more testing and quarantine, then transfer to SD for another test.  Can anyone tell me what happens if you throw a positive (real or false) or run a fever?  Who pays for hospital or return short notice flights?  Does SD refund the thousands paid for the cruise?  Does travel insurance cover these things and what does it cost these days?  Travel insurance was rather pricey before all this.  This is just another part of travel these days but needs to be discussed. 

Hi Jim,

 

I can specifically answer regarding a false positive on the type of covid test that SeaDream is doing and Barbados requires for entry.  It is VERY rare to get a false positive.  It would be human error to contaminate a sample.  The procedures and protocols used in these scenarios practically prevent it.  There is slightly less than a 1% chance of a false negative, and a nearly 0% chance of a false positive.    If you want more detail I can go into it.    My source is that my wife is a scientist (Primary investigator - leads a research team), at a top tier research university (Called an R1 institution) and she has an RT-PCR+ machine in her lab, that is required for the test.  

 

I can't help on other questions, all good questions. Hopefully, you do not have to worry about a false positive.

[msears101]

 

7 hours ago, andreas_seadream said:

We have an employee who recently moved to Barbados temporarily. Here is the latest information I received from someone who has just gone through a local quarantine himself:

 

You can arrive 1 or 2 days early and upon arrival in Barbados will be given a colored band that will identify you as someone who is to be quarantined. From there you will go to a government approved hotel or villa in a government approved taxi or via transportation that SeaDream can arrange. At the hotel you will be quarantined for the 1 o 2 nights you are there. You should stay in your room and order room service and will be restricted on the public areas you may have access to. On Saturday morning, you can check out and go to the port and there you will given an RT-PCR test by SeaDream prior to boarding.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Andreas,

 

Thank you.  I am 99% sure we are going to give this a go. We are new to SeaDream, but not new to small Yacht sailing.  I am VERY impressed with the whole SD team that have been on the video calls and how transparent the team has been.  Sea Dream is clearly a total quality product.  I am very excited to give Sea Dream a try.

 

I hope that you can codify the procedure that your employee went through so that it can easily be duplicated by passengers by staying at specific hotels that will allow passengers to travel to the port easily.  I think that this could remove a lot of worry.

 

All the best.

[andreas_seadream]

On 11/3/2020 at 3:45 PM, msears101 said:

Hi Jim,

 

I can specifically answer regarding a false positive on the type of covid test that SeaDream is doing and Barbados requires for entry.  It is VERY rare to get a false positive.  It would be human error to contaminate a sample.  The procedures and protocols used in these scenarios practically prevent it.  There is slightly less than a 1% chance of a false negative, and a nearly 0% chance of a false positive.    If you want more detail I can go into it.    My source is that my wife is a scientist (Primary investigator - leads a research team), at a top tier research university (Called an R1 institution) and she has an RT-PCR+ machine in her lab, that is required for the test.  

 

I can't help on other questions, all good questions. Hopefully, you do not have to worry about a false positive.

Thank you for sharing this! 🙂 We have tried to get the best equipment possible. Earlier this year (in February or March I think) we purchased antibody tests. They were pretty useless, but all we could get a hold of at the time. Then we got the antigen tests which were much better, but not good enough for our purpose. But we now finally have the real PCR tests onboard which is supposed to be the very best. 

 

In the event that we determine (after several tests) that a guest has covid, they will not be allowed to embark. We will issue a future voyage credit for the guest and their close travel party (family etc.). The guest would then be quarantined in a hotel in Barbados (you can chose a very expensive resort or a relatively cheap but less fancy hotel), but this would be at the guests expense (unless they have insurance that would cover it). In other words, SeaDream, as much as we want to, would not take care of the expenses related to the local quarantine in Barbados, medical costs and flights back home. 

[atabs12]

Hello,

we considering a Seadream voyage in January. We coming from the US. I looked at the entry protocols for Barbados. We would have to arrive the day before the voyage. Is that still considered in transit? Would you be allowed to leave the hotel without a second covid test 4-5 days after the first one to go to the port? Would it be better just to stay a couple days in Barbados before the voyage?  
Thank you for sharing your experiences   

 

[BeignetBoy]

On 11/6/2020 at 1:21 PM, atabs12 said:

. We would have to arrive the day before the voyage. Is that still considered in transit? 

 

From what I understand, at this time you must arrive in Barbados on the day of the cruise and go directly to the ship in order to be considered "in transit."  If I am incorrect, I am sure that someone will correct me here.  You should probably check with SeaDream's customer service or your TA for specific directions.  That said, however, things could change in several directions between now and January.

[DaveA]

I looked into this recently for our January cruise. With current Barbados rules I believe you either must arrive on the day of the cruise and go direct to the ship, as BeignetBoy says, or you must stay in a Barbados hotel long enough to take a second PCR test and get a negative result. Realistically this means staying at least three nights in a hotel.