Thoughts on embarkation in Barbados

[wesport]

I am on the Ovation march 30 leaving from Barbados. We leave at 11 pm.  Although no embarkation time has been assigned, what has been the experience?. Did you board early . What embarkation times were assigned. I will be in Barbados the day prior, so would like to embark the ship around lunch time. 

Edited January 28, 2023 by wesport

[fudge]

We join the Ovation next Saturday (4th Feb) we had our boarding time sent to us about 12 days ago, 18.30, we have never boarded that late ever, we have done this cruise twice before, or similar.

We land in Barbados at 16.40 the same day so it suits us.

[TakingFlight]

We are boarding Ovation today in Saint Maarten. We have a 1:40 pm boarding time. I received an email a few days ago that said all guests are invited to board at 12:30 regardless of assigned boarding time. I find this odd but it’s my first Seabourn cruise so I have no past history with regard to boarding times. 

[CLOU]

I boarded the Ovation on January 7th in Barbados and no one looked at my boarding time or my papers.  They asked our name and cabin, looked us up, and escorted us on ship.  I did not use the paper luggage tags, either.  They put on tags when we arrived at the port.

[CruiserfaeFife]

Like @CLOU we were on the 7 January sailing. Allocated a 3.40pm boarding time. We got bored of hanging around the hotel lobby and headed for the port arriving at 2pm. No-one even asked about our allocated time and we went straight to the ship. Check-in took place onboard in the Grand Salon. 
 

Disembarkation on the other hand was a bit of a mess.  I think our berth must have been changed at short notice by the port authority - a long walk in the sun or shuttle bus to a warehouse to collect our luggage (the shuttle bus took us to the wrong warehouse at first) then another bus back to the terminal.  Back to reality with a bump…☹️

[TakingFlight]

2 hours ago, CLOU said:

I boarded the Ovation on January 7th in Barbados and no one looked at my boarding time or my papers.  They asked our name and cabin, looked us up, and escorted us on ship.  I did not use the paper luggage tags, either.  They put on tags when we arrived at the port.

Ditto to all of the above. We arrived today at the port at 12:20. We were onboard by 12:28. Cabin available announcement was at 1:00. So far I am very impressed. So efficient and friendly. 

[fudge]

So this morning we receive a mail from Seabourn with a change of boarding time, 14.40 instead of 18.20, that should be interesting we do not land until 16.45!

[malcliz]

When has everyone been able to download their final documents? For our cruise on 4th March ours should have been available on the 18th January but they still aren’t there. 

[fudge]

13 minutes ago, malcliz said:

When has everyone been able to download their final documents? For our cruise on 4th March ours should have been available on the 18th January but they still aren’t there. 

So this morning we receive a mail from Seabourn with a change of boarding time, 14.40 instead of 18.20, that should be interesting we do not land until 16.45!

[fudge]

We finally managed to download our documents yesterday, we sail in six days.

They did not show until every section was completed. I had not realised that my flights section was not completed, once I did that and checked all the sections on top row had Green tick I could download them.

[malcliz]

1 hour ago, fudge said:

So this morning we receive a mail from Seabourn with a change of boarding time, 14.40 instead of 18.20, that should be interesting we do not land until 16.45!

Where did you find your original boarding time? Was it on your final documents? We have all green ticks but they are still not available. 

[fudge]

About two weeks ago we were sent them direct from Seabourn even though we booked through a TA.

Going back to yesterday, when I finished all the sections, I clicked on documents, on the left side there were 4 sections, print luggage labels. print preliminary documents, shore excursions and final documents,  they were in Grey, when I finally completed all the top row they turned Green. 

[margbem]

We board the Ovation the week after Fudge in Sint Maarten. We have been given (only this morning) a boarding time of 4pm. We have to be out of our rental house at 11am so will probably board at noon.

 

We were given a late boarding time last May in Ravenna for the Quest but were transferred by coach from Venice so arrived with lots of other people in the early afternoon and boarded then. Also, in the days leading up to boarding we were sent numerous emails stating our boarding time had changed. In some of them the time had changed, in others I couldn't even find a reference to it! A bit muddled on Seabourn's part.

[jeffyd]

Wesport - we are on that same cruise out of Barbados leaving on March 30th! Looking forward to meeting you. We're Jeff and Kathy from Charlotte, NC. This is our first time on Seabourn so we're curious what the experience is like. Just came off of a 22 day HAL cruise to Antarctica which was amazing. Actually, the ports more than the ship but we enjoyed the HAL Oosterdam. We really like Azamara and also have a Regent booked for this summer as well as looking at a Silversea for the Fall. We love cruising and wanted to compare some of the luxury lines. We too have not gotten our embarkation time so thanks for asking this question since we were wondering the same thing!

[wesport]

1 hour ago, jeffyd said:

Wesport - we are on that same cruise out of Barbados leaving on March 30th! Looking forward to meeting you. We're Jeff and Kathy from Charlotte, NC. This is our first time on Seabourn so we're curious what the experience is like. Just came off of a 22 day HAL cruise to Antarctica which was amazing. Actually, the ports more than the ship but we enjoyed the HAL Oosterdam. We really like Azamara and also have a Regent booked for this summer as well as looking at a Silversea for the Fall. We love cruising and wanted to compare some of the luxury lines. We too have not gotten our embarkation time so thanks for asking this question since we were wondering the same thing!

I did the Oosterdam from MIA to Santiago in November. Small world. I lost my partner of 30 years one year ago, and we were five stars on HAL. The last few years, we ventured out and did several on Seabourn.  We did Antarctica  five years ago on the Zaandam.  I did An Alaska on Seabourn last June by myself, and boarding time was 4:45, but I walked on at noon and was having lunch. Looking forward to meeting you on Board. Richard From Fort Lauderdale. 

[LMB01]

We are also on the March 30th sailing.  This is our 5th Seabourn cruise since Covid.  We only had one Seabourn cruise prior.  We gave up mass market lines in 2010 and thought we would never sail again until we found Seabourn.  We are staying a few days at a resort on Barbados prior to boarding.  I believe Seabourn has arranged a noon car service for us.

mark and Linda

[jeffyd]

Richard - so sorry to hear about your loss. We'll have to compare Antarctica notes... what an amazing journey. Yes, I'm hoping we can board early on this one. Since we've never been on a Seabourn ship we wanted to get on early and check it all out.

 

Mark and Linda - hello and looking forward to meeting you both too. Good news if they're arranging a Noon car service then early afternoon boarding should be feasible. Really looking forward to this cruise!

 

Jeff and Kathy

[wesport]

On 2/20/2023 at 5:23 PM, jeffyd said:

Wesport - we are on that same cruise out of Barbados leaving on March 30th! Looking forward to meeting you. We're Jeff and Kathy from Charlotte, NC. This is our first time on Seabourn so we're curious what the experience is like. Just came off of a 22 day HAL cruise to Antarctica which was amazing. Actually, the ports more than the ship but we enjoyed the HAL Oosterdam. We really like Azamara and also have a Regent booked for this summer as well as looking at a Silversea for the Fall. We love cruising and wanted to compare some of the luxury lines. We too have not gotten our embarkation time so thanks for asking this question since we were wondering the same thing!

Hi Jeff and Kathy. Hopefully someone has sent in a referral coupon for you as this is your first seabourn cruise.  If not, I could do it and we possibly could both get a $250 OBC.  If you want to follow up, send me an email at   Wesport2   At    msn  dot   com.    I can send the form in with booking info for both of us. Worth a try.  Richard. If you have already done it , no. Worries. 

[jeffyd]

Hi Richard. Thanks for the offer for the OBC, we appreciate it. I just sent you an email. Sorry I didn't respond sooner, I was off on another cruise!

 

Jeff

[cruisinsince75]

Hello Richard, Jeff and Kathy, Mark and Linda.  We are on the same 3/30 cruise with you.  We just got our time assigned yesterday and it says 1:40pm.  I think our check-out time at the Hilton is 11:00am so hopefully we will be able to board earlier.  See everyone onboard.

 

  

[ivyleaguegent]

20 hours ago, cruisinsince75 said:

Hello Richard, Jeff and Kathy, Mark and Linda.  We are on the same 3/30 cruise with you.  We just got our time assigned yesterday and it says 1:40pm.  I think our check-out time at the Hilton is 11:00am so hopefully we will be able to board earlier.  See everyone onboard.

 

  

We are on that cruise also and staying at the Hilton.  How are you getting to the port?

[cruisinsince75]

1 hour ago, ivyleaguegent said:

We are on that cruise also and staying at the Hilton.  How are you getting to the port?

We have reached out to a private driver (Terrvette Tours and Taxi Service) for travel from the airport to the Hilton and from the Hilton to the port.  We have special needs with two mobility scooters and are hoping they can accommodate us.