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Quest Antarctica season 2021/22 cancelled.

JK300

By JK300,
in Seabourn Cruise Line

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cruiseej

cruiseej

Posted
Posted

Wow! That's a little surprising, because we're booked booked on a Silversea Antarctica cruise, this winter, and we just got word today that the trips are going ahead. They are moving the point of embarkation from Ushuaia (Argentina) to Punta Arena (Chile); perhaps Seabourn's itineraries may have been harder to shift? Or they don't have the contracts for the necessary charter flights within Chile?

 

So sorry for those of you booked on Quest trips this winter. Once confirmed, if you want to go this year, you may want to look into what's available on the Silversea cruises. 

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Isklaar

Isklaar

Posted
Posted

So sorry to read this and thanks for the update. 

 

Given the issue with UK/EU citizens being unable to enter the U.S until forward date unknown, we had written off our usual holiday Caribbean cruise.

We were just about to book the Holiday Antarctica cruise instead.

Ah well, no cruising for us until end 2022. 

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hoya68

hoya68

Posted
Posted

Just received this from my travel agent, " I just spoke with Seabourn and they do not see any revisions or notifications at this time advising of any cancellations…."

 

We need to wait for further confirmation.

 

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Isklaar

Isklaar

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, hoya68 said:

Just received this from my travel agent, " I just spoke with Seabourn and they do not see any revisions or notifications at this time advising of any cancellations…."

 

We need to wait for further confirmation.

 

 

That's interesting. Our TA confirmed season cancelled.There is clearly some misinformation somewhere.

We wait! 

 

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TPAtravelfan

TPAtravelfan

Posted
Posted

My booking for the holiday Antarctica trip still is active online and they appear to still be selling the 20 December departure at the website.  

https://www.seabourn.com/en_US/find-a-cruise.html#soldOut=false&sort=&group.sort=&start=0&{!tag=destinationTag}destinationIds=SN&{!tag=departTag}departDate=2021-12-01T00:00:00Z&{!tag=durationTag}duration=&{!tag=embarkTag}embarkPortCode=

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TPAtravelfan

TPAtravelfan

Posted
Posted
34 minutes ago, wdpmd said:

This cruise is gone from my cruise list in my account on the SB website.  It was there yesterday.  I'm afraid it's real.

 

11 minutes ago, TPAtravelfan said:

My booking for the holiday Antarctica trip still is active online and they appear to still be selling the 20 December departure at the website.  

https://www.seabourn.com/en_US/find-a-cruise.html#soldOut=false&sort=&group.sort=&start=0&{!tag=destinationTag}destinationIds=SN&{!tag=departTag}departDate=2021-12-01T00:00:00Z&{!tag=durationTag}duration=&{!tag=embarkTag}embarkPortCode=

I attempted to book an additional suite on the December 20 departure and once I selected the suite and number of passengers and clicked through, I got a message "sorry something when wrong..." .  That doesn't bode well.

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wdpmd

wdpmd

Posted
Posted

Dear Travel Partner,

While we continue to enjoy welcoming our guests on board for our restart of cruising in Barbados and Greece, we are also looking ahead to more ships returning to service. We have been working with various global government and port officials to develop our plans.

We have made the difficult decision that Seabourn Quest's return to service will now be in May 2022, and as a result must cancel her departures from November 7, 2021 through April 25, 2022.

For your clients' affected bookings on these voyages, we will be sending system-generated notifications within the next 24 hours to provide you with your specific client booking information per voyage. Please note that these notifications are generated by our reservation system and will be emailed to the address associated with your travel agency profile. The booking agent will not receive a separate notification.

We encourage you to reach out to your clients as soon as possible to advise them of the cancellation of their cruise, as we know the news will spread quickly once it is publicly announced. We have heard your feedback and we are waiting until tomorrow (Thursday) at 2:00 PM PT to send our email notification to your clients in order to give you time to contact them.

We are sorry for the disappointment this may cause and appreciate your clients' understanding. All guests will receive a full refund of all monies paid to Seabourn to the original form of purchase. All non-cruise fare purchases through Seabourn such as Flight Ease® air, spa and shore excursions will be cancelled and refunded to the original form of payment.

As a gesture of goodwill for their loyalty to Seabourn, we are offering your clients a discount of 10% off the base cruise fare of a new future voyage (excluding World Cruise voyages or segments thereof, the Grand South Pacific voyage, and any inaugural voyage). Please make their new booking before the end of the year to take advantage of this discount, which will be in addition to any other promotion or incentives available.

For a similar voyage with adventure in mind, we invite your clients to consider one of Seabourn Venture's inaugural season Svalbard Experience voyages sailing between Tromsø, Norway and Longyearbyen (Oslo), Norway that departs between May 4 and July 27, 2022. Located halfway between Norway's North Cape and the North Pole, the islands of Svalbard offer a dramatic setting to explore on our ultra-luxury, purpose-built expedition ship. Exploring in Zodiacs and paddling kayaks, observing from the decks and trekking on the islands themselves, guests will experience and explore this isolated, unspoiled and breathtakingly beautiful place during the endless days of its short, exuberant summer as one of the first guests to sail on board our newest ship. Learn more about the Svalbard Experience cruises and see current fares on our website.

Alternatively, we have some suggestions for wonderful replacement voyages based on their current itinerary. To review these options, please click here.

Their refund will be processed in the next 30 days. If your clients would like to transfer the deposit and any Future Cruise Credits from their current booking to a new booking, please contact us for assistance. The funds and credits will be transferred and they will receive a 10% discount off the published fare of their new booking (with the exclusions listed above). Non-cruise fare purchases will be refunded to the original form of purchase.

Seabourn understands and values the role our travel partners play in our success. Commission paid on 2021 paid-in-full bookings will not be recalled. For bookings not paid in full, standard commission policies apply. All Future Cruise Credits are fully commissionable when your clients rebook.

Should you have any questions, please reach out to us at the appropriate office:

Seattle Office (USD/CAD Currency):
Contact us at 800-929-9595 or 206-626-9191 (local)
We are available:
Monday – Friday: 7:00am to 5:00pm PT
Saturday: 7:00am to 3:30pm PT

Southampton Office (GBP Currency):
Contact us at 0344 338 8615
We are available Monday – Friday 9:00am to 5:30pm

Rotterdam Office (EUR Currency):
Contact us at 00800 1872 1872
We are available Monday – Friday 9:00am to 5:30pm

Sydney Office (AUD Currency):
Contact us at 1 300 987 323
We are available Monday – Friday 8:30am to 7:00pm

Again, we extend our most sincere apologies for this cancellation. Please know that we truly appreciate your clients' patience and understanding of these ongoing circumstances.

Thank you for your partnership. All of us at Seabourn look forward to the next time we can welcome your clients aboard and remain, as always, at your service.


Kind regards,

 

Josh Leibowitz
President, Seabourn

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sfvoyage

sfvoyage

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, cruiseej said:

Wow! That's a little surprising, because we're booked booked on a Silversea Antarctica cruise, this winter, and we just got word today that the trips are going ahead. They are moving the point of embarkation from Ushuaia (Argentina) to Punta Arena (Chile); perhaps Seabourn's itineraries may have been harder to shift? Or they don't have the contracts for the necessary charter flights within Chile?

 

I also wonder why Seabourn isn't able to pivot to Punta Arena and think your guesses may well be right on.  For one thing, Silver Wind has lower guest capacity than SB Quest (but not by that much though) so charter flights may be less of a challenge.  In any case, too bad.

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alithecat

alithecat

Posted
Posted

All the Quest sailings were from Buenos Aires to Santiago or the reverse. They would have had to change all of them to start and end in Santiago and then hire a private plane to get guests back and forth to Punta Arena. Much more difficult logistics than Silversea had. Since Silversea already had the arrangements to start in a hotel in Santiago and take a charter flight to Ushuaia, it would have been easier for them to change the charter flight's destination.

 

We cancelled our Quest booking for the Holiday cruise in August, while the deposit was still refundable, and booked a Silversea Holiday cruise for December, 2022. We could switch now to a December, 2021 Silversea cruise but given the Covid-19 situation in South America, we are waiting a year.

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basor

basor

Posted
Posted
36 minutes ago, sfvoyage said:

 

I also wonder why Seabourn isn't able to pivot to Punta Arena and think your guesses may well be right on.  For one thing, Silver Wind has lower guest capacity than SB Quest (but not by that much though) so charter flights may be less of a challenge.  In any case, too bad.

Seabourn doesn't embark or disembark in Ushusia so pivoting to Punta Arenas is not viable...their cruise begin/end in Santiago, Chile and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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Isklaar

Isklaar

Posted
Posted (edited)

What is the current situation for U.S citizens entering Argentina and Chile? 

 

 We (UK/EU passport holders) are not permitted to enter Argentina  right now, but had heard there may be an update in early October.  Ditto Chile.

We  would have a problem  upon re-entering the UK though as Chile is currently on the 'Red' list, so we had a plan B but of course it's irrelevant now. 
 

 

 

 

Edited by Isklaar
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sfvoyage

sfvoyage

Posted
Posted (edited)
19 minutes ago, basor said:

Seabourn doesn't embark or disembark in Ushusia so pivoting to Punta Arenas is not viable...their cruise begin/end in Santiago, Chile and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

 

Yes, I am aware of that.  However, SB cruises up and down the Chilean coast to/from Santiago; in fact, Punta Arenas is a port of call just before or after Ushuaia, depending on the direction.

 

I was wondering why SB couldn't use Punta Arenas instead of Ushuaia to head up and down to Antarctica Peninsula and then charter flights back to Santiago to finish the cruise - that must be a deal breaker.  Also, that would make it impossible or undesirable to visit South Georgia and/or the Falklands in the same voyage due to the many additional and unproductive sea days.

Edited by sfvoyage
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tjcox9

tjcox9

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Posted
1 hour ago, hoya68 said:

The cruise is still showing up on "My Bookings."

And based on prior experiences 😒 with Seabourn and another line,  the booking will stay on your bookings list until they work through the process of issuing credits for future cruises, or process a refund. We also had one cancelled, the transatlantic on the Quest next April, and it is also still in the list.

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