SD1 lisbon departure delayed by 4 days.

Seadream have just called to inform me that the SD1 crossing scheduled to leave tomorrow the 17th, will now be delayed until wednesday 21st Nov, as the yacht has to go into dry dock for maintenance.

We can still arrive tomorrow (good job as we've non changeable tickets) and board the yacht for the weekend until the repairs start on monday. They then plan to have us sailing on wednesday, to arrive in San Juan on Dec 2nd.

We're fortunate enough to be going on to Barbados after the cruise, so I'm now frantically trying to cancel our hotel in San Juan, and rebook our flights to Barbados, although American airlines wants us to fly all over the country to get us there.....sju/mia/jfk/atl to name a few of thier routings for a flight thats only 2 hours direct !

Hope this isn't going to ruin our fellow travellors plans, or come as a shock to those who haven't got the call from Seadream yet.

See you on board tomorrow though.

What a shame, Koalabear. I can only imagine the difficulties the passengers will encounter in trying to change their plans; it is not as if the airlines are easy making the reservations to begin with. Good luck to you and your fellow passengers, and I hope things work out smoothly. Let's hope that once the ship sails you will be so relaxed that you will be able to get past all this.

I wonder if it has anything to do with the big storm we encountered during the 11/3 cruise. Captain Berg had to change course and we completely missed our final port of call prior to disembarkation, Marseilles. Captain Berg told us that we'd encountered hurricane-force winds and nice waves that night. The ride was a very exciting one, to say the least. I swear we were airborne a couple of times. :) Of couse, I'm no expert, so the dry dock reasons could be many.

I hope you and others on the voyage don't encounter any difficulties due to the schedule change. Regardless, it'll be a fantastic time. I'm already longing for another SeaDream voyage.

SD1 crossing now CANCELLED !!

Due to escalating problems with getting the yacht into dry dock and ready for sailing on wednesday, our transatlantic croosing has today been cancelled.:( :(

Seadream are being very helful in getting guests home, or to San Juan.

We're all currently in a hotel in Lisbon, which although very nice, just isn't the same.

We'll just have to try again next year.

This is not sounding good for Dec. 9 out of San JUan. Do you know what is being repaired?

Thanks,

Jim.

Koalabear - SO sorry to hear about this. I can't imagine how disappointed you must be.

Jim, my TA called Sea Dream and I guess one of the stabilizers was damaged and that's what they are trying to repair. The ship should be back in service by early December.

Koalabear, I'm sorry that this has happened to you. It is quite a disappointment, but it seems like you are handling it well. Thank you for keeping the rest of us up to date.

Jim, I agree with you that this doesn't sound good. We are a week behind you on the December 16th voyage. But I certainly give SeaDream credit for not attempting to take passengers across the Atlantic in a ship which may not be seaworthy.

Let's all hope that whatever problems there are are resolved in a timely fashion.

Just got an email from Adrienne at SD and she says December 9 is still on schedule. Of course, they have to fix the problem and then cross the Atlantic by Dec. 9. 19 days!! We can hope. Have non refundable air tickets (are there any other kind these days?) so are hoping for the best.

Jim.

Yes, it is one of the stabilizers that's being repaired. Apparently they hit something under water last week leaving Tangiers (possibly a submerged bouy and chain) that caused the damage and has to be repaired.

Unfortunately, yesterday it was very windy here and the seas rough, so SD1 wasn't able to enter the dry dock as early as scheduled, and has only gone in today. Conscequently everything else has has been put back, and because they weren't able to provide a definate date for departure it was decided to cancel the whole thing.

I'm sure the departures later in December will be fine. There was a charter scheduled after our original planned arrival on the 28th November which has already been cancelled due to our late arrival, so SD have a few days to play with yet.

From what we've seen so far, most of the other guests have taken it very well.

Thank you for the updates, koalabear. Sounds like those of us on the Dec 9 cruise should still be OK as long as the ship is under way by Nov 28 or 29 (and we'll at least have advance notice if we aren't OK because SD I can only go so fast across the Atlantic).

Anyone have any more news? Minimum transatlantic time is probably 8-9 days.

I was also a passenger on the SD1. Although it was a disappointment to have the cruise canceled, I think the SD staff who came to Lisbon from Miami to sort things out were absolutely fantastic. Competent, friendly, sympathetic and genrous with their time and attention, they were truly fine representatives of the quality of their product. I really look forward to a future sailing on SD.

I'm now just waiting for the jet lag to wear off!!

Just curious, what did SD do for transportation and compensation for those who had already arrived in Europe?

According to the SeaDream office this morning, SD1 is enroute to San Juan and the December 9th cruise is on schedule. Good news to start the week.

Jim.

That's excellent news Jim!! Thanks for the update!

According to the SeaDream office this morning, SD1 is enroute to San Juan and the December 9th cruise is on schedule. Good news to start the week.

Jim.

Sounds like good news indeed Jim!

lovecruisingtoo..

in answer to your question, Seadream offered to fly us home, or to San Juan as originally planned. I think most guests chose to go home, and SD managed to obtain seats from Lisbon through Frankfurt, Madrid or London for them (not easy I imagine on the day before thanksgiving).

We chose to fly to San Juan with Iberia via Madrid...:( the only saving grace was the flight was fairly empty so we had a row of seats each.

SD immediately refunded our fares, and will compensate anyone with nonchangeable/ restricted airline tickets.

Additionally, they have offered a complimentary transatlantic cruise to all the affected guests, valid till 2010.

As I mentioned previously, I don't think they could have handled this situation any better, and I'm pretty sure other cruise lines would not have been so generous with the compensation, or so prompt with it.

Just as an aside, we did eventually manage to book ourselves on to an alternative cruise. ...Winstar's Windsurf from Barbados on the following saturday. As they say 'beggars can be choosers' at only 4 days notice !

Safe to say we definately wont be cruising with Windstar again.

lovecruisingtoo..

 

in answer to your question, Seadream offered to fly us home, or to San Juan as originally planned. I think most guests chose to go home, and SD managed to obtain seats from Lisbon through Frankfurt, Madrid or London for them (not easy I imagine on the day before thanksgiving).

 

We chose to fly to San Juan with Iberia via Madrid...:( the only saving grace was the flight was fairly empty so we had a row of seats each.

 

SD immediately refunded our fares, and will compensate anyone with nonchangeable/ restricted airline tickets.

 

Additionally, they have offered a complimentary transatlantic cruise to all the affected guests, valid till 2010.

 

As I mentioned previously, I don't think they could have handled this situation any better, and I'm pretty sure other cruise lines would not have been so generous with the compensation, or so prompt with it.

 

Just as an aside, we did eventually manage to book ourselves on to an alternative cruise. ...Winstar's Windsurf from Barbados on the following saturday. As they say 'beggars can be choosers' at only 4 days notice !

 

Safe to say we definately wont be cruising with Windstar again.

Wow ... that was generous. Quite impressive, especially the free cruise!

Would you be willing to share why you won't be cruising Windstar again?. DH has expressed an interest in that line (I think it is because he is a "real" sailor at heart ... sails and all) so I would be interested in hearing your comments.

Safe to say we definately wont be cruising with Windstar again.

Hi there koalabear6314

Is that Andy & Mike?

Windstar not too good then?

Andi

I'd also like to hear what disappointed Koalabear6314 on Windstar. We recently returned from a less than stellar experience (see my comments on the Windstar board), and I'd be interested in hearing about others' experiences.

Hi Andi (Andhow)....yes it is Andy and Mike.

In answer to your question, no we didn't enjoy Windstar. We knew it was never going to be Seadream, but as it turned out it definately was not for us.

It started with our boarding at 8pm in Barbados.......no record of our booking....no sorry you can't come on 'cos you're not on the list !

We could even see our cabin number with somebody elses name hand written against it. Almost an hour later after they'd called Seattle apparently they 'found' our reservation and we were finally allowed to board.

Cabin was very nice though, actually better than we expected, as was the bathroom.

Never could use the internet on board as it would never recognise our names as again 'you're not on the list of passengers on board !'

Breakfast and lunch (buffets) were good.

Dinner however was another matter. The restaurant appeared to struggle with the number of guests on board. Although it was open seating it was very noisy and very rushed. Service was completely functional, and unfortunately the food was 'just' hot, not more.

Going to dinner was never the pleasure it should have been.

The alternative restaurant was a complete joke. To make a booking required you to appear in person at 8 am on the day you wanted a table. You could in theory phone after 8.30 am, but there weren't any tables left by then.

Getting up at 8am to make a dinner reservation is not my idea of being on holiday.

Service generally was only ever average. We felt like we were much more of a production line, nobody was really that bothered.

(By comparison, we'd previously sailed on Star Clippers Royal Clipper, another sailing ship, where the cabins were tiny, but the friendliness of the crew, the activities offered, the overall service were way better than Windstar)

Hope that answers mpfund's question, and appologies to other Seadreamers for posting about Windstar on the SD board.

By the way Andi, have you booked your comp cruise yet ??

Thanks for posting koalabear! No need to apologize to me as I am always looking for info on how other cruises compare/contrast to SD.

DH has expressed an interest in sailing on the Windstar ships because of the sails (we have seen the ships several times from land and while sailing on SD). I think we'll pass.

Hi Andi (Andhow)....yes it is Andy and Mike.

 

By the way Andi, have you booked your comp cruise yet ??

Hi Andy & Mike

Not yet - we can't decide on the dates!

Can you e-mail me on another matter re SeaDream?

andihoward at hotmail dot com

Cheers!