Change of Itinerary.

[fudge]

We are booked on a Seabourn cruise out of Barbados on the 4th February for 14 days, we have just received notification from Seabourn of a change of Itinerary, I was expecting one or two changes, there are six changes, complete new Islands! 

My better half wants go go horse riding during the cruise, we almost booked St Lucia, now we are not going to St Lucia, these are huge changes.

[Isklaar]

Could  you give a little more detail, what are the changes? Many posters here are very familiar with Caribbean ports and may be able to  make suggestions etc.

 

Alternatively, discuss with your TA if you may cancel without losing deposit, if the TA is UK/EU/EEA this may not be possible. When is final payment due?
Even if cancelling the cruise is possible, depending how you booked flights they may not be refundable.

 

Edited November 11, 2022 by Isklaar

[fudge]

Thanks for your reply. We are not thinking of cancelling, this cruise has been rearranged twice! We have done this cruise or similar twice before.

Changes: 

Was St Kitts now Anguilla

Was Gustovia now Guadeloupe  

Was Guadeloupe now St Kitts

Was St Lucia now Martinique

Was St Vincent now Granada

The last one escapes my mind!

 

They are not deal breakers but did not expect such wholesale changes.  

If anyone has done any horseback riding on an Island could you please shout up thanks.

Edited November 11, 2022 by fudge

[Isklaar]

Thanks for expanding, I wasn't clear whether you were looking for advice about cancellation possibilities or more itinerary focused.

 

Horse riding is definitely possible on the beach in Anguilla.

 

I expect that St Kitts will be Carambola Beach for Caviar in the Surf and BBQ.

St Kitts is on your list twice, is one port showing as Charlestown, Nevis? Nevis is a separate island.

Guadeloupe could be one of three ports. My favourite there is Ile des Saintes but Deshaies is nice too. If you watch the BBC programme Death in Paradise, it's filmed there.

Martinique, could be one of two ports, Fort de France or Trois Ilets.  

 

I haven't been to Grenada.

 

For me, dependent on the actual ports visited in the countries you listed, this is a lovely itinerary for cruisers who enjoy the less well known Caribbean islands and ports. It's great for beach and water lovers, plus the opportunity to see some  less commercial ports with a peek at the 'real' Caribbean. 
 

Edited to add..if Martinique port is Trois Ilets, our friends did horse riding there on a trail through the rain forest. It was in 2017 so may have changed now but if you're interested in that I can find out from them which company operated the trek. 

Edited November 11, 2022 by Isklaar
Additional info

[fudge]

Thank you for your comprehensive reply, very much appreciated. Looking forward to sailing with Seabourn once again.

[galeforce9]

Hope you got cruise insurance. All those port changes represent a tidy sum!

[CruiserfaeFife]

We’ve had a similar change notification for our 7 January cruise out of Barbados. All of the changes are to the second leg - Sint Maarten back to Barbados. For us changes are:

 

Basseterre, St Kitts to Road Bay, Anguilla

Gustavia, St Bart’s to Carambola Beach, St Kitts

Rodney Bay, St Lucia to Fort de France, Martinique

Saline Bay, Mayreau to Saint Georges, Grenada

 

Disappointed not to be going to St Bart’s but I understand that is often cancelled due to difficulty tendering. Was also looking forward to smaller harbours at Rodney Bay and Saline Bay rather than the larger replacement ports. But certainly not deal breakers for us and we’ll go with the flow.  Any recommendations for casual restaurants for lunch within easy walk of the new ports would be welcome. 

[fudge]

Same for us, the second week, 12th to the 17th. Like I said earlier, no big deal just surprised at so many changes., pleased Carambola beach is still there (twice)

[margbem]

Same for us, round trip Sint Maarten, 11th February for 2 weeks. We are disappointed to be missing St Barths and St Lucia.

[phillipahain]

Section 8 in USA

Section 40/42 in UK     of your contract 

 

Major changes to Itnery  and you have the right to cancel and full refund 

 

Seabourn tried to circumvent this with Grand Pacific Cruise but TAs put them straight 

Edited November 11, 2022 by phillipahain
Clarification

[frantic36]

11 hours ago, Isklaar said:

If you watch the BBC programme Death in Paradise, it's filmed there.

 

My husband and I enjoy that show and have wondered where it is filmed. So thank you for solving the mystery for us.

 

[galeforce9]

17 minutes ago, frantic36 said:

 

My husband and I enjoy that show and have wondered where it is filmed. So thank you for solving the mystery for us.

 

It’s filmed mainly in and around Deshaies.   We took an excellent private tour when on the island in Dec 2019 with Seabourn, which visited the lovely seaside town, and its key filming locations, amongst other really attractive places.  

[frantic36]

12 hours ago, Isklaar said:

Martinique, could be one of two ports, Fort de France or Trois Ilets.  

 

 

Hi Isklaar, we will be visiting Fort de France next March and wondered if you or your friends have been and enjoyed it?

 

11 minutes ago, galeforce9 said:

It’s filmed mainly in and around Deshaies.   We took an excellent private tour when on the island in Dec 2019 with Seabourn, which visited the lovely seaside town, and its key filming locations, amongst other really attractive places.  

 

Thanks galeforce, we would enjoy that tour if we ever got to Deshaies. Unfortunately not on our schedule next year.

[AnnieO2019]

I am not surprised they have changed from Saline Bay, Mayreau, we have been on two Seabourn Caribbean cruises with this port advertised both times as a Caviar in the surf beach day but both times were cancelled due to choppy seas. While talking to the other guests we only found one who had ever experienced Saline Bay and that was some years ago. Most said it was usually cancelled. It’s better to have an achievable promise than to over promise and underdeliver.

[commodoredave]

3 hours ago, AnnieO2019 said:

I am not surprised they have changed from Saline Bay, Mayreau, we have been on two Seabourn Caribbean cruises with this port advertised both times as a Caviar in the surf beach day but both times were cancelled due to choppy seas. While talking to the other guests we only found one who had ever experienced Saline Bay and that was some years ago. Most said it was usually cancelled. It’s better to have an achievable promise than to over promise and underdeliver.

I quite agree. We did 3 back to back cruises on the Odyssey in February where a number of ports were changed, a few because of Covid. But it didn't make much difference to us as the replacement ports were all great, and we still had a wonderful time. 

[galeforce9]

8 hours ago, AnnieO2019 said:

I am not surprised they have changed from Saline Bay, Mayreau, we have been on two Seabourn Caribbean cruises with this port advertised both times as a Caviar in the surf beach day but both times were cancelled due to choppy seas. While talking to the other guests we only found one who had ever experienced Saline Bay and that was some years ago. Most said it was usually cancelled. It’s better to have an achievable promise than to over promise and underdeliver.

Been twice got in twice!   My favourite 

[Isklaar]

On 11/11/2022 at 10:50 PM, frantic36 said:

 

Hi Isklaar, we will be visiting Fort de France next March and wondered if you or your friends have been and enjoyed it?

 

.

Hi Julie, yes I've been to Fort de France a couple of times. The other port in Martinique that we visited with Seabourn is Trois Ilets.

The cruise port in FdF is close to the main sites in the town. We walked there and found the town itself to be very walkable as it's quite compact. If you like history and/or architecture there's an interesting library building and a church that you will see from the port, it dominates that part of town. There's a fort too (hence the name!).

During a different visit we did a tour to the botanical  gardens, Jardins de Balata. It  was very interesting for us northern European types but depending where you are in Australia it may not be so for you. It's a bit less than a 30 minute drive from the port.

 

I prefer Trois Ilets because it has a couple of delightful beaches and is a smaller town. It's across the bay from FdF and there is a ferry but other cruisers who used it described the experience at the pier as 'chaotic'. 

[ciaoYacht]

I was also booked on a sailing Feb 25 from St. Martin to Barbados, and was notified about the four port changes. I was extremely disappointed to get this news as both St. Lucia and St. Bharts have been on my bucket list. I had already booked a private car through Seabourn for the day in St. Lucia in order to hike Gros Piton at the cost of $900. However, these changes were enough to make me want to change to a different sailing as I’m not interested in the new itinerary. I only have limited time off from my schedule and I work very hard, as I’m sure most of the guests on Seabourn do, or have done in the past. My vacation time is extremely precious to me and I want to spend it doing the things I want to do. Sure, if one port was changed I could understand, but four changes and two major port cancelations was too much for me to justify continuing on this cruise. In any event, I found an alternative cruise I changed to in September from Athens to Haifa. I worked through my travel agent to make the change but Seabourn insisted on changing a change fee, stating we are already past the cancelation deadline for the February cruise.  Interesting they made these port changes past the cancellation deadline. So then I called Seabourn myself and was given conflicting information that there would not be a fee but instead I would be bound to the same cancelation dates instead, which I was ok with. When my travel agent contacted them to rectify the issue, they went back on what they told me and insisted I owe a fee. This has resulted in a horrible back and forth experience and no one at Seabourn seems to know their policies or is willing to help me. There is nothing luxury about this. And if they don’t rectify this issue this will unfortunately have to be my last sailing with them as I refuse to be dictated to like this.

 

I don’t find myself to be an unreasonable person and I think their handling of this has been subpar. It seems ludicrous given the extensive changes that have been made to the itinerary that they are so unhelpful.   Further, it is even more ridiculous that no explanation was offered for the extensive changes other than “operational issues” and no offer for guests to change cruises or gestures of goodwill either like an onboard credit.   I want to maintain my positive view of Seabourn and enjoy my experience and cruise.  I am not asking for a refund or money back.  I am just looking to use my hard earned vacation time to go on a cruise that I want to go on, as opposed to ports which I have no interest in visiting. 

Edited November 18, 2022 by ciaoYacht

[cruisr]

@ciaoYachtSadly, Seabourn does not care.  They have been cruising to this area for many many years.  The port operations and itinerary planning departments know these ports and to change after cancellation fees apply is really disappointing for the guests that now want to change their choice and cannot without penalty it seems.  Not very customer friendly.

[galeforce9]

Doesn’t a change of four ports represent a substantial change at any time which would allow you to cancel or switch for a full refund/transfer?

Edited November 18, 2022 by galeforce9

[ciaoYacht]

4 hours ago, cruisr said:

@ciaoYachtSadly, Seabourn does not care.  They have been cruising to this area for many many years.  The port operations and itinerary planning departments know these ports and to change after cancellation fees apply is really disappointing for the guests that now want to change their choice and cannot without penalty it seems.  Not very customer friendly.

Thumbs down Seabourn. I will vote with my wallet if they don’t care. Because I don’t care to give them my money then. 
 

3 hours ago, galeforce9 said:

Doesn’t a change of four ports represent a substantial change at any time which would allow you to cancel or switch for a full refund/transfer?

Apparently not. They hadn’t even heard of this section 8 as mentioned above. 
 

Very disheartening. 

[Dunnedg]

We were booked to do a cruise from Barbados in March this year. Loads of port changes and stories of covid lockdowns resulted in us pulling out.

Horse riding available in Barbados. Another thing to consider heading for an early morning beach visit to see the race horses have a dip.

[margbem]

Yet another change! No Grenada, now Castries, St Lucia. 

[fudge]

We got the same change this morning, thats seven now, we are on the 4th Feb cruise.

[margbem]

3 minutes ago, fudge said:

We got the same change this morning, thats seven now, we are on the 4th Feb cruise.

We board on the 11th February. Not impressed. Castries is not very nice.