Barbados summer cruises 2021

[Hlitner]

43 minutes ago, DWhit said:

Were you required to take a ship excursion?

Yes that is the rule for all the ports with the exception of Bequia (where SB has a deal with a local hotel) and St Kitts where we could go ashore at a rented beach area for a real fun beach day

 

Hank

[Hlitner]

We did ask the Captain, last evening, how many passengers would be aboard next week (tomorrow) and he said exactly the same number we have this week which is approximately 130.

 

Hank

[netpj]

15 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

Yes that is the rule for all the ports with the exception of Bequia (where SB has a deal with a local hotel) and St Kitts where we could go ashore at a rented beach area for a real fun beach day

 

Hank

Hank, just wondering which hotel is used in Beqiua?  We are on Odyssey in February so things will probably change again by then, but we would be happy to spend a day at a hotel if possible on Bequia  - have been there several times.  Thanks.

[Hlitner]

5 minutes ago, netpj said:

Hank, just wondering which hotel is used in Beqiua?  We are on Odyssey in February so things will probably change again by then, but we would be happy to spend a day at a hotel if possible on Bequia  - have been there several times.  Thanks.

It is the Plantation Hotel.  We have the entire beach and an outside bar where we can get some complementary drinks. A more extensive bar selection and food is available for purchase at another nearby hotel area.  We seem to be the only folks at the hotel so not sure if it currently open to the public.  Seabourn’s deal with Barbados requires that we maintain our “bubble” throughout the cruise.

 

Hank

[GrandCru]

Thank you Hank for the updates.   We have made it to Barbados and waiting for our Covid test results.  I do want to report our experience using the Five Star Fast Track.  It appears there is more than one company that will 'fast track' you through airport.  At first we were a bit disappointed because we didn't get through the first hurdle ( getting our wrist bands ) quickly.  We arrived with several other planes, but our assistant did help us greatly as to what papers we needed and when, plus we were able to skip several lines after the initial stop.  Our assistant had us skip the taxi line too which was great.  She also told us that KLM has resumed flights from Amsterdam today which added to the congestion.

 

For those of you who arrive on a week day when the airport is more quiet, a fast track service may not be necessary but we were very grateful to have it today.

 

kim

 

 

[cruiseej]

On 10/16/2021 at 2:57 PM, Hlitner said:

We seem to be the only folks at the hotel so not sure if it currently open to the public.

 

It was not open when we were there two weeks ago. There was a sign that they were re-opening in November, I believe. Once the hotel re-opens, I'm not sure if Seabourn will be able to use the beach, lounge chairs and beach bar as they have been for the past few months.

[Hlitner]

As we reach the end of our 2 weeks on this wonderful ship we have dropped anchor off Jost van Dyke, BVI.  As with our visit to nearby Tortola (last week) we are the first ship to call at this port in over 18 months.  However, the truth is that nobody will be able to enjoy Jost.  There are only two excursions one of which is a catamaran snorkel trip to Norman Island (similar to an excursion we took from Tortola) and the other a visit to the Baths at Virgin Gorda.  There are no excursions to our port island of Jost!  But this afternoon we are having Marina Day activities ☺️.

 

We had once wondered if we made a mistake booking this cruise with all of its COVID related restrictions.  But it has been a wonderful cruise with the fantastic crew and passengers.  It just solidifies are feeling that this is currently the best cruise line in the world.

 

Hank

[cruiseej]

Hank, we recently booked a return cruise on the Odyssey in February, and one of its "port" calls is Soper's Hole on the west end of Tortola -- with an excursion offered to White Bay on Jost Van Dyke, where we can swim ashore and lounge on the beach. We did a similar excursion on a prior cruise (Regent) with a Tortola port call, and the half day trip to Jost Van Dyke is one of our favorite excursions ever.

 

There were not a lot of people, the boat ride across the channel to get there was pretty, and the beach was exactly what you'd conjure in your brain for an idyllic, peaceful Caribbean beach. We walked down the beach a little to a couple small shacks, the Soggy Dollar Bar and the One Love Bar & Grill, for a light lunch and cold drink. We kept saying this was the unspoiled Caribbean we always imagined, or saw in movies. It was the best do-almost-nothing excursion we ever did, and Jost van Dyke has a special place in our hearts from our brief visit years ago. We're now hoping we "can go home again" on a similarly-described excursion offered on our February cruise.

 

It's funny that this excursion to enjoy the beach in Jost van Dyke is offered from Tortola, yet they don't provide any way to take people the beach when the ship is actually docked off the coast of Jost!

[mraven]

We anchored off of Jost 2 years ago. While not in the official itinerary, they offered tender rides to the dock and a shuttle bus to take over to Soggy Dollar.

[M.S JAZO]

Landed today for the Sunday sailing. Literally took 9 minutes from entering the terminal from deplaning to getting to the taxi stand to wait for my driver. Have copies, and everything in hand. They truly don't look or ask for the QR code from the app.

[Travels with Lisa]

I know this has been covered before, but does Seabourn still give you a tote bag?

thanks!

[Hlitner]

1 hour ago, Travels with Lisa said:

I know this has been covered before, but does Seabourn still give you a tote bag?

thanks!

Yes.  It seems like 1 to a cabin.  We are building up or collection 😁

 

Hank

[Travels with Lisa]

Thanks!

[MikeD1000]

We have just received our final paperwork before leaving for Barbados. It was so disappointing. A few photocopied sheets. No luggage tags. Is this what everyone else had?

[cruiseej]

Paperwork? We didn't receive any. Everything is digital now. you can print a boarding pass page, but it doesn't seem to be necessary. You can print your luggage tags, but you can also get them pierside. This started because of COVID, but I suspect this might be a permanent change. Paper airline tickets used to be a big deal, but no one expects them nowadays; I think "cruise documents" will similarly fade away. Not worth being disappointed about, in my opinion. 

[twodjs]

On 10/23/2021 at 5:29 PM, MikeD1000 said:

We have just received our final paperwork before leaving for Barbados. It was so disappointing. A few photocopied sheets. No luggage tags. Is this what everyone else had?

Yes, we printed our luggage tags from the Seabourn site during check-in process. Haven't had tags delivered from any cruiseline in quite some time. We use the heavy duty plastic sleeves from Amazon designed to hold the printed tags. 

[twodjs]

BTW - passenger count for our Oct 24 cruise is about 170 passengers. Lovely experience! They expect the count to increase to about 300 passengers for November cruises.

 

[MikeD1000]

• • 17 hours ago, twodjs said:

    Yes, we printed our luggage tags from the Seabourn site during check-in process. Haven't had tags delivered from any cruiseline in quite some time. We use the heavy duty plastic sleeves from Amazon designed to hold the printed tags. 

     

 

 

•  

We have done two Viking cruises since cruising opened up again.   Viking provide leather main luggage tags and the usual neat plastic cabin identifiers that can easily be fastened round the case handle.  Also two packs of ten clinical face masks provided with more on request.

[Hlitner]

2 hours ago, MikeD1000 said:

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We have done two Viking cruises since cruising opened up again.   Viking provide leather main luggage tags and the usual neat plastic cabin identifiers that can easily be fastened round the case handle.  Also two packs of ten clinical face masks provided with more on request.

I guess that is a good reason to book Viking?  We cruise on many different lines and the trend (over the past decade) has been to reduce/eliminate the old document packages that we used to get (often delivered by FEDEX).  Many lines (even some of the ultra luxury lines) have replaced those old packages with e-mails and downloads including the downloading of luggage tags.  Cruisers seem to be of two minds on this change with some of us happy to not need so many darn hard copy documents and others missing those old packages.  On our two recent Seabourn cruises we never received any documents or information via "snail mail."  All of our information came via e-mails.  For boarding the SB cruises we only needed the QR Code (sent via the Seabourn App) plus the required COVID information (proof of vaccination and test results).  Our luggage tags were simply print outs that are folded and taped/stapled to luggage.  Some folks actually buy plastic luggage tags that they use to insert the downloaded luggage tags while others (including me) just tape a couple of the folded paper tags to each bag.

 

By the way, there is an advantage to these printed out tags.  If your cabin assignment is changed at the last minute you generally can download a tag with the latest information.

 

DW just reminded me that we have a drawer full of the old cruise ship document folders as well as the usual Pins, Medallions, and other useless junk issued by various cruise lines.  We actually have document folders from defunct lines such as Orient Lines and Regency!  We seldom to never use any of those old folders (a few such as Seabourn's are decent) for travel since they take up space needed for other items.

 

Hank

[jeffbrig]

22 hours ago, twodjs said:

BTW - passenger count for our Oct 24 cruise is about 170 passengers. Lovely experience! They expect the count to increase to about 300 passengers for November cruises.

 

This is interesting.... when we sailed in September, they were telling us that by late October they were expecting ~300 passengers.  I wonder if that was overly optimistic, or reflects that passengers are still a little shy and rescheduling their trips?

[Hlitner]

31 minutes ago, jeffbrig said:

This is interesting.... when we sailed in September, they were telling us that by late October they were expecting ~300 passengers.  I wonder if that was overly optimistic, or reflects that passengers are still a little shy and rescheduling their trips?

Just last week we had conversations with both Captain "Bart" and the Hotel Manager about the future of these cruises.  Both clearly stated that there would be substantially more folks on the November cruises (we are talking about over 300 passengers).  Of course the exact number is still unknown as there has been a recent history of some booked passengers either canceling or failing to show-up for various reasons.  Since we just got off the ship this past Sunday nobody was talking about October (the last October embarkation was the day we disembarked).  

 

One other interesting fact about these cruises is that as of a few weeks ago there has been an increasing rotation of the crew.  Most of the original crew (that brought the vessel back to life in May-June) have been completing their contracts (usually about 3 months) and going home on vacation.  The newly arriving crew members must be in quarantine (up to about 10 days as determined by the ship's physician) mostly on deck 4.  This quarantine further reflects the emphasis that SB is showing towards the safety of everyone.  The crew are quarantined in passenger suites (I think they are mostly on deck 4 forward) with 1 to a suite.  Their food and any change of linen/towels are dropped outside their suite door and they have absolutely no human contact.  One crew member told me she loved her quarantine and had brought plenty of reading material.  She spent 10 days mostly reading on her balcony and watching some TV.  Another crew member (bar tender) told me she went crazy during her 10 days and was very happy to be back at work and interacting with passengers/crew.  We were very impressed at the caution used by SB to protect everyone aboard and create/maintain a safe bubble (to the extent possible).  We previously posted that our 2 week cruise was terrific and darn near perfect in every facet with the only major annoyance being the necessity of maintaining the bubble at all the ports (which eliminates any independent travel or private excursions). 

 

A warning to future cruisers that as of when we left Barbados the island was still enforcing a 9pm curfew throughout the island.  This means that folks need to be back at their hotels by 9pm!  Within the hotels/resorts it seems that the facilities can impose their own rules within their facilities while adhering to government mandates.  So, when we stayed at Sandals there was no curfew within the expansive resort but folks needed to back on the grounds by 9pm.  There were some rumors that Barbados will soon alter their island curfew which is in effect until at least Nov 7.

 

Hank 

 

Hank

[rkacruiser]

On 10/23/2021 at 11:53 AM, Hlitner said:

We are building up or collection

 

Hang on to them.  I have quite a collection from HAL and Princess with a nice one from Celebrity.  The more senior one becomes, the more valuable these bags become.  

[twodjs]

During our cruise this week (Oct. 24 - 31) we were told the count for the first week in Nov. will be about 220. Several crew members will rotate off the ship this Sunday. Any unoccupied larger suite (quite a few) had beautiful new carpeting installed. Never noticed any noise - just saw the work in progress as we passed some open suite doors. Great cruise!

[robertmartha]

TWODJ's

 

Hope you had a great week without any issues traveling back home.

Quick question on port excursions (which I know are always subject to change esp under the current circumstances) - when looking at sailings in Jan2022 there is just a "sampling" (I hope?) for each port.

How extensive were the excursions in each port for your sailing? I have seen reference on these boards that  for St Barts no excursions are offered? We are "active" travelers and what the listing shows is pretty sparse and low key.

 

thanks so much

Bob

[cruiseej]

@robertmartha On our Odyssey cruise at the end of September, there were a moderate number of excursions; more choices in some ports and few in others. Several excursions were canceled prior to the cruise, and several new options were added. We are now booked on another Odyssey cruise in February, visiting different islands. There seem to be somewhat more excursions available, perhaps as it becomes easier for local tour operators to resume operations -- but we understand that there are likely to be changes by the time our cruise comes up.

 

The excursions on many Caribbean islands tend to be repetitive, at least on the surface. Visit a waterfall. Take a catamaran and snorkel. Do a 4x4 "off-road adventure". Visit a rum factory. Do a zipline. Visit a historic fort. 🙂 Of course, these are not all identical from one island to another, but it can feel like the choice of excursions is somewhat limited. 

 

As for St. Barths, it seems there are no excursions listed for any Odyssey visits there. This seems quite odd, because if you can't go on an excursion and you can't get off the ship independently, then you really aren't at a port call in St. Barths! It's just a sea day near an island! So it does seem odd that there are no excursions available and yet Seabourn hasn't substituted a different island. Several people have reported that they have been told Seabourn expects people will be able to go ashore independently in St. Barths, but there's no official word of that yet.