Barbados summer cruises 2021

[osmoses12]

54 minutes ago, cruiseej said:

We just got off the Odyssey on Sunday. There were 113 passengers aboard last week's cruise; I heard it is slightly lower (in the 90's) this week. But as mentioned above, they have bookings in November -- the traditional start of the Caribbean cruise season -- getting up to around 300.

 

(The Ovation, sailing in the Mediterranean, will be full next week, a significant milestone in the long process of Seabourn's restart of cruising.)

 

 

On the one week Caribbean cruises, there is one formal night per week. On last week's cruise, I saw one white dinner jacket and one or two tuxes; most other men were wearing suits or sport coats. 

Thanks for the passenger number update. Hope you had a great cruise .

[cruiseej]

7 hours ago, osmoses12 said:

Thanks for the passenger number update. Hope you had a great cruise .

 

Fantastic cruise. What an experience, sailing with so few passengers and a full crew complement, all expressing happiness, joy and appreciation for us supporting them and making it possible to sail again. We'll hopefully be on many Seabourn cruises in the future, but this was likely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. 

[SDuckers]

Agree with Eric it was a fantastic cruise.  I always feel recognized and pampered on Seabourn, but this cruise was especially so, given the small passenger count, but yet the same number of staff.

 

Some thoughts on the trip.  The one "downside" was the inability to get off the ship at all of the ports unless you had booked a Seabourn excursion.  I totally get the reason for that, and they were very strict about keeping us in our Seabourn "bubble" of people, but I would have liked to get to actually walk around a port, do shopping, etc.  Having said that, the excursions we did were great.

 

We did the aerial tram and zip lining at St. Lucia.  The van ride to the tram took much longer than expected (even our Seabourn rep said it was longer than normal), with a ton of stop-and-go traffic and very bumpy roads.  If you at all have a tendency to get car sick, this would do it.  My husband never gets car sick and he was getting queasy since we were in the back of the van.  When we arrived at the location, we got fitted with our zip lining harness, helmet, etc, and did a practice run.  As a newbie to this, I was grateful for that.  The aerial tram up thru the rain forest was fantastic.  Our guide, Kadeem, was both entertaining and so knowledgeable.  The zip lining was exhilarating and fun.  Kadeem and his assistant were 100% about safety every single time.  We ran lines down from 8 platforms.  Some were short, and the last one was the longest (about 600 feet) and steepest.  The part of this excursion I had not really been prepared for was that we had to walk back up to pick up the aerial tram back down the mountain.  Probably about a mile, but all uphill/steps.  We had not been allowed to bring water bottles with us on the zip lines.  I'm not in the greatest shape, so it was hard.  And the whole group had to wait for me when I had to stop and rest.  They were all very nice about it, but I hate making people wait for me.  I am really glad I did it, and if I had known about that hike I might not have gone.  So maybe better I didn't know!

 

We did the Segway tour of Fort James that was also really fun and interesting.  My Segway broke down early on during the tour, so my husband and I took turns riding the Segway or riding in the vehicle that followed the Segway group.  I had never ridden on a Segway before, so that was a lot of fun.  When we finished that tour, we had some time to go down to the beach there, and also sit at an open-air bar for a drink.  Pretty sure we got gouged on the cost of the drinks there, but they  need the money more than we do.

 

We did the catamaran/snorkel excursion at Carambola beach, and that may be the highlight of the excursions.  It was an absolutely perfect day -- the water was like glass.  Could not use the sails on the catamaran, but the water was beautiful.  Crew on the catamaran was a lot of fun too.  Then we went back to Carambola beach for caviar in the surf and beach barbecue.  Food was all delicious.

 

Yesterday we did the bus tour of Barbados to kill time before going to the airport.  HIGHLY recommend doing that if you have a mid afternoon flight or later, because the Barbados airport doesn't want you there more than 3 hours before your flight.  We got to see a lot of the island (although we were VERY limited in getting off the bus to see anything) and had a great lunch at Signal Hill before heading to the airport.  Our luggage was sent ahead to the airport for pick up when the tour was over, and that was very convenient.

 

There was one formal night on the ship, but that was the night we were eating at Keller Grill, so we didn't do the full "dress up" -- just sports coat for husband and nicer summer dress for me.   We ate a Keller twice on the trip and were never disappointed.  But the choices at the Restaurant were outstanding as well.

 

We never had any problem getting a deck chair at the pool or waiting for service for *anything*.  The crew all seems genuinely glad to be sailing again and so appreciative of the passengers.

 

Now, back to real life!  <sob>.  I had been in search of at least one drink with a little umbrella in it.  I found another solution, as pictured. 🙂

Edited October 4, 2021 by SDuckers

[Hlitner]

Thank you both for posting the updates/information.  This morning we went to get our COVID tests (thank you Eric....your info was helpful) and are now thinking about packing since we must leave home tomorrow to drive to the JFK area in prep for flying to Barbados.    

 

Hank

[jeffbrig]

Thanks for the pic SDuckers - takes me back!

 

I'll throw this funny story out there from our cruise last week.  I've never been on a prior cruise where we participated in any sort of hosted dinner.  On this sailing we did two.  Early in the week, our group received an invite to dine with Ellie, one of the singers on board.  We had an absolute blast.  And this young woman is stunning - she was actually Miss Nevada a few years ago.  Then, later in the week we received an invite to dine with Casey, the band vocalist.  Well, the wives in our group protested dining with yet another young, attractive female ("You guys already had Ellie...", lol...).  So the ladies half-jokingly asked if they could get Alex, the band leader and sax player, to join us too.  Well, Seabourn made it happen, so we had dinner with the both of them!  We had such a good time...

 

My apologies to my fellow cruisers from that week - we were the rowdy table at dinner, always laughing and enjoying our drinks way too much!

 

I will tell you this.  I suspect going on Seabourn at 25% capacity has ruined me for all future cruises.  Ha!

[SDuckers]

1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

Thank you both for posting the updates/information.  This morning we went to get our COVID tests (thank you Eric....your info was helpful) and are now thinking about packing since we must leave home tomorrow to drive to the JFK area in prep for flying to Barbados.    

 

Hank

Safe travels and smooth sailing!

[italyforme]

We just boarded yesterday and were told there are 99 guests on board.  Really amazing to see mostly crew wherever you go.  
One thing I wanted to pass along:

we were told on the American flight that we didn’t need to fill out the paper version of the Barbados health questionnaire they were passing out if we had completed the one online.  This turned out not to be true as we were asked for the paper copy as well.  All told it took about 21/2 hours for us from landing to arriving at the ship.

Today was a national holiday in St Lucia and the government declared a 24 hour curfew.  Cudo's to Seabourne for whatever arrangements they have with St Lucia because our small group was able to zip line and we were the only people there.  It was eerie passing through the empty streets and seeing all the shops closed.

BVI is still making it very difficult for cruise lines to call there and we have been told that our stop at Jost is replaced with a sea day; it sounds like this will continue at least for the next four weeks.

The ship is beautiful and the crew can truly not do enough.  It really is going to spoil us all with these crew to passenger ratios!!

[marazul]

Barbados was just designated "Covid-19 Very High" Level 4 category by the CDC.  

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/cdc-very-high-risk-travel-destinations-october-4/index.html

[jeffbrig]

2 hours ago, italyforme said:

BVI is still making it very difficult for cruise lines to call there and we have been told that our stop at Jost is replaced with a sea day; it sounds like this will continue at least for the next four weeks.

On our cruise, BVI turned into a marina day. The transom of the ship folds out and becomes a platform for watersports. Kayaks, paddle boards, banana boat rides, etc. It was a lot of fun! Enjoy! 

[GrandCru]

On 10/3/2021 at 3:22 PM, jeffbrig said:

Yes, people are still dressed up for formal nights.   I saw anything from a sport coat w/no tie, to white dinner jackets and bow ties.

 

Thank you Jeffbrig for replying to my question on whether people were still dressing up.  Greatly appreciated!

[GrandCru]

On 10/4/2021 at 1:31 AM, cruiseej said:

 

On the one week Caribbean cruises, there is one formal night per week. On last week's cruise, I saw one white dinner jacket and one or two tuxes; most other men were wearing suits or sport coats. 

 

Thank you Cruiseej for your reply.   We are trying to decide if we want to dress up for the formal night. Thank you!

[cruiseej]

22 hours ago, GrandCru said:

 

Thank you Cruiseej for your reply.   We are trying to decide if we want to dress up for the formal night. Thank you!

 

If you have a sport jacket, you'll be fine. If not, you can go to one of the restaurants other than the main dining room. I will note that the formal night on the second night of the cruise generally has the 'top' menu -- lobster tails, beef wellington, etc. -- so we find it desirable to be in the main dining room on that night. 

[GrandCru]

Good to know Cruiseej!  Thank you for letting me know.

 

We don't board until Oct. 17 and praying all goes smoothly in spite of Barbados having  'high risk' and do not travel here designation.

Hope all of those currently on board are having a grand time!

 

[cruiseej]

We saw better adherence to masking in Barbados and other islands than we do at home! Since you're in a pretty complete bubble once you get to the ship, I did not and would not worry too much about the CDC levels.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

[jongbj]

On 10/5/2021 at 12:16 AM, italyforme said:

We just boarded yesterday and were told there are 99 guests on board.  Really amazing to see mostly crew wherever you go.  
One thing I wanted to pass along:

we were told on the American flight that we didn’t need to fill out the paper version of the Barbados health questionnaire they were passing out if we had completed the one online.  This turned out not to be true as we were asked for the paper copy as well.  All told it took about 21/2 hours for us from landing to arriving at the ship.

 

 

Did you book your travel with Seabourn? If not, could you tell us a bit on what went on at the airport, what you encountered and how the route was from the plane to the transportation? 

Our airline just moved our flight from a couple of day before the cruise to the day of the cruise. So were were looking if we could use the 'sterile corridor' in getting from the airport to the ship.

[Hlitner]

26 minutes ago, jongbj said:

 

Did you book your travel with Seabourn? If not, could you tell us a bit on what went on at the airport, what you encountered and how the route was from the plane to the transportation? 

Our airline just moved our flight from a couple of day before the cruise to the day of the cruise. So were were looking if we could use the 'sterile corridor' in getting from the airport to the ship.

We arrived at the airport on Wednesday afternoon about 3:30 (Jetblue flight from JFK).  Prior to our flight we had completed the requested Bim Safe (Barbados government app) and uploaded pictures of our vaccine cards as well as our new negative PCR tests.  Upon arrival airport staff checked our PCR test results (much easier if you have a hard copy), asked where we were going (in our case to Sandals for 4 days before the cruise) and then you get a color coded wrist band.  Other staff direct you through the airport based on that color so if you tell them you are going directly to the ship you would be sent to where you can get authorized transportation.  Many others will get tested in the airport.  In our case we were waved through the airport (after filling out more forms on a terminal), picked up our luggage, and just went outside to find the Sandals desk.  Once transported to Sandals we received the required rapid PCR test (had results in about 12 hours) and then were free to use our resort.  Once we get our new negative test results the staff at Sandals cut off the wrist band and we are now free to go anywhere on Barbados.  Sunday we will likely get a taxi to the Port where we expect to again get tested before boarding the Odyssey.

 

Hank

[SDuckers]

6 hours ago, jongbj said:

 

Did you book your travel with Seabourn? If not, could you tell us a bit on what went on at the airport, what you encountered and how the route was from the plane to the transportation? 

Our airline just moved our flight from a couple of day before the cruise to the day of the cruise. So were were looking if we could use the 'sterile corridor' in getting from the airport to the ship.

It might be different when you arrive, but when we arrived (9/26) no one ever looked at our BIMSafe QR code.  The were only interested in seeing the Barbados entry doc, vaccine cards and negative test results on paper.  In talking with other folks on our cruise, it seemed no one had their BIMSafe QR code used when they arrived.  I recommend having extra copies of all those things on paper.

[MikeD1000]

Hank

 

We have heard that Seabourn has been really sticky about a test within 72 hours of boarding.  We are also staying for four nights before boarding 4 December, and it seems that the test on arrival day is more than 72 hours ahead.  We'd love to hear that Seabourn has relented over a few hours.

 

Anne and Mike

[cruiseej]

1 hour ago, MikeD1000 said:

Hank

 

We have heard that Seabourn has been really sticky about a test within 72 hours of boarding.  We are also staying for four nights before boarding 4 December, and it seems that the test on arrival day is more than 72 hours ahead.  We'd love to hear that Seabourn has relented over a few hours.

 

Anne and Mike

 

@MikeD1000 Seabourn isn't looking at your pre-departure Covid test. That test is required by the country of Barbados. In order to board the ship, Seabourn administers a rapid antigen test at the pier, and you have to test negative in order to board. And if you are not going straight to the ship, and staying in Barbados one or more nights, then you need to get an additional Covid test upon arrival in Barbados. You can do this for free at their airport, or a handful of hotels offer testing at the hotel for a fee. You are restricted to the hotel grounds, minus the beach, spa or gym, until your test results come in the next day. So you'll have those test results in your pocket when you arrive at the pier. But Seabourn likely won't want to see that test result; they know you were negative before you left home and negative once inside Barbados, so they just need their test at the pier to clear you to board. 

[cruiseej]

@Hlitner This is off-topic, Hank, but how have you found the Sandals Barbados? We talked to a couple on our cruise who have been to many Sandals resorts many times, and their assessment was that it was a very nice property, but their service standards weren't up to snuff; too many things were too slow. So I'm interested in hearing what you're finding, in case we find ourselves back in Barbados one of these days. 😉  

[Hlitner]

13 hours ago, cruiseej said:

@Hlitner This is off-topic, Hank, but how have you found the Sandals Barbados? We talked to a couple on our cruise who have been to many Sandals resorts many times, and their assessment was that it was a very nice property, but their service standards weren't up to snuff; too many things were too slow. So I'm interested in hearing what you're finding, in case we find ourselves back in Barbados one of these days. 😉  

I agree their property is very nice.  But service here is simply awful.  I would suggest folks avoid both of these Sandals properties unless they are willing to spend a lot of extra money to book a "Butler" suite.  Without a designated butler they treat folks like 2nd class guests.  The biggest problem is they make it impossible for non-butler guests to get a reservation in any of their reservation-only restaurants.  When you ask the concierge to make a reservation they simply tell you that there is nothing available for your entire stay.  We have met quite a few other guests with the same complaint.  The other restaurants (no reservation) are fine but waiting times can sometimes be over an hour.

 

The other issue are getting decent loungers at pools and the beach.  The Butlers will reserve nearly all the good loungers before 7am!   The solution is that one in your party must be out very early in the morning to "beat the butlers."  It is almost like a game but a real pain.  

 

To sum up, there is no way we will ever return to this resort.

 

Hank

[MikeD1000]

Thanks for the info regarding testing, Hank.  It was just that our TA had been told by another customer that Seabourn was insisting on a CPR within three days.  It did seem OTT.  Saliva test as you board is what we had recently on a Viking cruise, and seemed to work well.

[cruiseej]

5 hours ago, Hlitner said:

I agree their property is very nice.  But service here is simply awful.  I would suggest folks avoid both of these Sandals properties

 

Hanks, I'm sorry your stay there has been less than it should be, especially at the rates Sandals charges. But thanks for the confirmation of what we had heard; I will not put Sandals on my list of places to stay if we return to Barbados!

 

The good news for you is that 24 hours from now, you'll be aboard the Odyssey, where you will never be turned away from dinner, and service is sometimes so fast that it makes your head spin! Enjoy your cruise!

[Hlitner]

3 hours ago, cruiseej said:

 

Hanks, I'm sorry your stay there has been less than it should be, especially at the rates Sandals charges. But thanks for the confirmation of what we had heard; I will not put Sandals on my list of places to stay if we return to Barbados!

 

The good news for you is that 24 hours from now, you'll be aboard the Odyssey, where you will never be turned away from dinner, and service is sometimes so fast that it makes your head spin! Enjoy your cruise!

Looking forward to being back on a SB ship 🙂  Things here at Sandals are not awful but just not up to the standards that one would expect.  We have heard this refrain from quite a few other guests the last few days.   Mr. Stewart (the CEO and primary owner of Sandals) would do well to make some management changes at this property.  

 

SB has been bombarding us with the usual pre-cruise e-mails but last night was strange.  In a matter of a few hours they told us that Road Town, BVI was being replaced with a Marina Day at Peters Island only to send another e-mail saying we should ignore the previous e-mail and the Odyssey would call at Road Town on the 13th.  Personally I would be very happy with the Marine Day but I suppose there are some folks looking forward to Road Town.

 

Hank

[cruisr]

How often are passengers tested onboard?  Does each destination that the Odyssey visits require a negative test.

 

Apologies in advance if this has been answered.  This is a very long thread,  I am thinking of doing Dec 4 or Dec 11.

 

Thanks