SeaDream cancels 2020 season after Covid-19 cases

SeaDream Yacht Club has cancelled the rest of its 2020 season after a Caribbean cruise on SeaDream 1 was cut short when a number of guest tested positive for Covid-19.

The vessel returned to Barbados with passengers and non-essential crew quarantined in their cabins, in what the line described as “an abundance of caution”.

The 112-guest ship had 53 passengers and 66 crew on board when it paused a seven-night itinerary to St Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada.

The line later confirmed that seven guests and two crew members tested positive for Covid-19 by Barbados health authorities.

In a statement, it said: “SeaDream has decided to cancel sailing for the remainder of 2020 after positive Covid-19 test results. Multiple negative PCR tests were required before the guests boarded, but this was not sufficient to prevent Covid-19 onboard. SeaDream successfully operated more than 20 sailings during the pandemic without any cases and it further improvements were made to protocols before the Barbados season. The company will now spend time to evaluate and see if it is possible to operate and have a high degree of certainty of not getting Covid.”

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Bloggers Ben & David, who are regular Cruise Adviser collaborators, were on board the ship before the cruise was cut short. They posted a Q&A, which you can watch here:

Last month, SeaDream 1 stopped to pick passengers up in Portsmouth en route to the Caribbean via a transatlantic crossing – becoming the first UK cruise call since sailings were suspended.

The ship picked up 19 passengers in Portsmouth, all of whom have had to follow strict health protocols including having a Covid-19 test 72 hours before departure and immediately before boarding the ship. No passenger left the ship.

The line was one of the first to return to the oceans, first sailing from Oslo back in June. Earlier in the year, a traveller who sailed on SeaDream I tested positive for Covid-19 upon returning home to Denmark, meaning all guests and crew still on board were temporarily made to quarantine. However, it was later found to be a false positive.

It is further evidence of the challenges that cruise lines face. In summer, Hurtigruten revealed that 36 members of its crew and six guests had tested positive for Covid-19 while on board expedition ship MS Roald Amundsen. The company proceeded to temporarily cancel expedition cruises.

Around the same time, a guest onboard Paul Gauguin tested positive for Covid-19, just four days into the first sailing by the French Polynesian specialist after restarting cruises.