TRAVEL HEALTH ADVISORY | NEW ‘’SMALL SHIPS, LARGE FLEXIBILITY‘’ BOOKING POLICY
UPDATE 26.03.2020
We understand it’s an uncertain time for Sail in Greece guests travelling in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect worldwide travel.
We understand that many guests’ travel arrangements have been affected. As a result, we have temporarily added flexibility to our terms until further notice to help travellers navigate through these difficult times, including:
- o Flexi-bookings: Changes to your departure date can be made up to 30 days before departure, with no admin fee
- o Take your Time: Balance payments have been extended and are not due until 30 days before departure
- o Credit: Roll your booking over to a later date in 2020…or all the way to 2022. With no admin fees, its up to you!
CONTACT US
Every day brings new developments related to Covid-19. We want to share with you what actions we are taking fleet-wide to maximize the safety of our guests and crew and continue providing a healthy environment while sailing on board our small ships accommodating fewer than 49 guests.
Since the beginning of the outbreak, we are making a consistent effort to provide a safe environment for our guests and crew alike. It is obvious that our passengers feel the small ship environment is safer, with a maximum capacity of just 1 – 49 guests and with smaller areas on board to enforce and apply our enhanced sanitation /disinfection protocols. On shore, we operate small group tours with trusted certified local partners committed to provide Sail in Greece with proof of precautionary hygiene measures taken during the tours.
NEW BOOKING POLICY for New Bookings & REBOOKING OPPORTUNITIES for Existing Bookings:
‘’SMALL SHIPS, LARGE FLEXIBILITY‘’
While our #1 priority is the safety and well-being of all our guests and crew, our other focus is to give our partners and guests the confidence to book with us or delay cancellation decisions and not rush into canceling. To assist guests and travel partners in making decisions in regards to existing bookings, we have implemented temporary changes to our booking and cancellation policy in our scheduled cruises allowing:
o Existing bookings can be cancelled up to 30 days prior to sailing and rebook later in 2020 or 2021 at no cancellation fees, only retaining deposits paid which will be used as Future Cruise Credit against future cruises with us. Should passengers wish to move their scheduled cruise a few weeks/months later, Sail in Greece will honour all deposits made, without any rebooking / cancellation fees and guests will receive a 100% future cruise credit towards Sail in Greece scheduled cruises embarking in 2020 through October 31st 2021,subject to final acceptance 1 month prior to each departure. The payments kept by Sail in Greece effectively constitute a credit against cruise fares applying for the cruise originally booked – there might be a price difference from a year to another – and they can use this Future Cruise Credit for booking any scheduled cruise / any category of cabin.
o Final Deposit payment for our existing bookings, will be made 30 days prior to sailing, in order to make sure that our guests will have zero obstacles to join our cruise.
o New bookings made until May 31 2020 can be cancelled up to 30 days prior to departure without incurring cancellation fees
Your partners in exploration by small ship,
Sail in Greece
TRAVEL HEALTH ADVISORY
The safety, security and well-being of our guests and crew is our number one priority. We have implemented several preventative measures outlined below due to growing concerns regarding COVID-19 infections. We will continue to consult with The World Health Organization (WHO) and take appropriate additional action as needed.
PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES PRE-EMBARKATION & DURING THE CRUISES
Policies currently in place include:
• We have implemented mandatory pre-boarding health reporting and pre-cruise screening for all guests and crew. This include
‣ The distribution of mandatory pre-embarkation health questionnaire (applicable to all passengers and crew, view here). The questionnaire forms are completed at the time prior to embarkation and will be held under strict confidentiality and retained on board for 15 days according to the stated retention policy. Access is permitted only to Captain and Medical Officer)
‣ Mandatory non-touch temperature screenings for all guests and crew pre-embarkation and during the cruise. In the event of alarming symptoms such as signs and symptoms of illness and thermal indications (>38°C) and/or alarming answers to the said health questionnaire, those passengers will be denied access on board.
• Since the beginning of the outbreak, we have immediately amplified our standard cleaning procedures and have implemented additional cleaning and disinfection protocols on board all voyages. These protocols have been enforced in addition to our already rigorous sanitization standards in place.
The above measures will remain in effect until further notice and are subject to change at any time as we evaluate the situation and continue to consult with local health authorities as well as the WHO.We apologize for the inconvenience to any guests affected by these measures put in place to ensure the safety and well-being of all our guests and crew.
We want you to feel confident when travelling on board with us. As a result, we have reinforced some of our procedures, beyond the protocols required by the authorities:
• We have enhanced our overnight cleaning procedures with anti-bacterial and hospital-grade disinfectant throughout our vessels according to WHO recommendations.
• Our fleet is fitted with extremely efficient HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Arrestors) filters inside our a/c units, which remove particles in the air, down to the size of microscopic bacteria and virus clusters (with an efficiency of better than 99.99%).
This Advisory supersedes all previous versions and will be updated as required.
UPDATED BOOKING POLICY OF SAIL IN GREECE
Our company is monitoring closely the situation about the Coronavirus and we do understand the uncertainty caused to our customers about their bookings and holiday plans for the season.
Therefore we have updated our booking policy as following:
1. For already booked charters it is possible to change your dates, as long as the departure remains in 2020 and the charter area remains the same. If the rescheduled booking is more expensive the price difference will be charged.
2. For future bookings done as from today and until further notice, the required deposit will be 10% and the remain of the booking deposit can be paid up to 30/04/2020.
3. The final payment for future bookings can be paid latest one week before the charter departure.
4. In the case that a charter customer is unable to get to the base due to travel restrictions, when there is an official advisory not to travel to the area of the booked charter, or the border is closed to the country of origin of the customer, the term #1 will apply.
In addition it will be possible to cancel the charter and a credit note will be issued to the customer to use it for a charter departing at 2021 at the same charter area.
ONGOING MONITORING
We’re monitoring government advice from gov.uk and smarttraveller.gov.au closely.
Should a travel restriction be applied to a region visited as part of a tour, we’ll make alternative arrangements for that element of the tour, as similar to the original itinerary experience as possible. If travel restrictions mean that we cannot operate the tour, we’ll cancel the departure and a full refund will be available.
All the above T & C’s apply for our cabin charter operations ( scheduled cruises ) and not our private charter bookings.
There’s no better way to experience the Greek islands than on a classic sailboat, with a friendly Greek captain guiding the way. Greeks have been sailing on these seas for millennia, and almost everyone gets around the islands by boat or ship. With a cruise like this, you can travel closer to the way locals do while meeting Greeks and travelers from around the world on the way – having fun and forging connections on the waters of the deep blue Aegean Sea.
When you get to Mykonos, take a dinner break after dipping in the island’s crystal clear waters and before visiting the island’s pumping nightlife to taste local delicacies like kopanisti and looza. Kopanisti is a salty, spicy cheese sauce with pepper, and looza is air-dried, herb-flavored ham similar to prosciutto (but even better in taste)! Finish off your Mykonos meal with the islands amygdalota sweets, made with almonds and sugar, before heading off to discover perhaps the most peculiar and unique dishes of all in volcanic Santorini.
