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Lindblad 7-day to Civilised Europe: I don't get it.


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Lindblad now doing week-ish long itineraries around populated Europe according to my latest brochure and I don't know how that'll go. Market seems pretty saturated at all price points and experience types. Lindblad asking the usual $1000 pp/dbl/day-and-up and I don't see how Orion fills.

 

One example: my wife and I bounced around the Med recently. It happened to be on NCL and we happened to get a good deal. In search of The Lindblad Experience (and you know what I mean) we spent $50-$200/day on private tours in each port. Usually we were about six people in our group, built here on CC. I don't think we were ever more than 12 people and sometimes it was just the two of us.

 

We didn't get nightly recaps or sea day lectures. It did take me a little while to curate our trip. But we got what we were after in nearly every port, and at six guests to a guide (and sometimes a supplementary driver/guide) the ratio was even better than Lindblad's excellent ratio. The guides we found were educated and friendly, like Lindblad guides. And in such a small group, we were always able to customise stuff-on-the-fly. Extra time here and there.

 

We basically had a Lindblad Cat 5 cabin and by the time we factored in tours, we paid a third of what we might have paid Lindblad.

 

 

OF COURSE I'll sail Lindblad again. But I'll be taking Lindblad to places other ships fear to sail to. I don't know why Lindblad is trying to break into Europe when there are so many, um, "rustic" places the Lindblad ships could dominate.

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I don't get it either.

 

For Europe, there are many other very satisfactory and FAR less expensive options. Also, while it's one thing not to have a ship with much going on at night when you are in the polar regions, for example, it's quite another in Europe.

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I don't get it either.

 

For Europe, there are many other very satisfactory and FAR less expensive options. Also, while it's one thing not to have a ship with much going on at night when you are in the polar regions, for example, it's quite another in Europe.

 

A point I hadn't thought of. Good one.

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My husband and I were so excited about the Orion's Europe cruises for 2016 we called and booked about two days after we first got their brochure with the itineraries! Maybe we'll be the only ones on the ship, but we are already looking forward to our Baltic cruise despite the fact it is over a year away. We sailed on the Orion five years ago, prior to it's acquisition by Lindblad. (10 day New Zealand) We travel a lot and it was our favorite cruise. About two years ago I received an email with a promotion to tempt us to book again. I replied that the itineraries were to long and to remote for us as we both still work full time and two weeks, including travel time, was our limit for any one trip. Consequently when we received the brochure for Orion in Europe, we were thrilled, and not just because of the shorter sailings, but because they are the only cruise line we have been able to find who do not stop in St. Petersburg while in the Baltic. Don't get me wrong, I like Russia, but were just there for a 12 day river cruise two years ago, including three days in St. Petersburg. All of the other cruise lines don't just spend one day there, they spend three. So with that factor, combined with the food, naturalist and historical focus, small ship, etc., it was the perfect cruise for us. Nightly entertainment for us is a wonderful dinner with interesting travel companions, relaxing on deck with a nightcap, and reading up on the next day's port of call. (And no, I don't work for Lindblad/National Geographic!)

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I too am curious about the European cruises and how they will be accepted with all of the competition out there. As veterans of both types of itineraries offered by Lindblad, I think their expedition/adventure cruises came off much better than the history/culture offerings. Always felt their niche has been adventure travel and wish they could continue to develop trip to new, far off places. Perhaps the European itineraries were developed because the South Pacific/SE Asia routes didn't fill as well as they expected. BTW the Orion is a fantastic ship with a great crew and cuisine.

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I was really surprised when these cruises were announced while we were aboard NG Explorer in May. The Orion? One week cruises? In Europe? Is this Lindblad? What is the market? Sure - high income, mid career, too busy with career and family for long trips, haven't seen much of Europe since they last saw it with back packs following college graduation. It's perfect! Hmmm. So what did we do? We booked a B2B London to Lisbon. This doesn't go anywhere that we haven't been before. Why? We want to try the Orion. You'll note that the two prior entries are from those who have been on that ship before - it has a great reputation. We had previously booked Orion to the Antarctic - would have been our 3rd time there - we're getting a bit old, so canceled. This works well for us. BTW re Lindblad cultural vs. other cruise lines - we did the Baltic twice - Regent Voyager and NG Explorer. Explorer won by a mile.

 

Yes, we can save a bunch of money by cruising on mass market lines - but there are serious trade offs. Traveling on subways at rush hour isn't too much fun.

Edited by hrprof
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I too am curious about the European cruises and how they will be accepted with all of the competition out there. As veterans of both types of itineraries offered by Lindblad, I think their expedition/adventure cruises came off much better than the history/culture offerings. Always felt their niche has been adventure travel and wish they could continue to develop trip to new, far off places. Perhaps the European itineraries were developed because the South Pacific/SE Asia routes didn't fill as well as they expected. BTW the Orion is a fantastic ship with a great crew and cuisine.

 

Pleased to read about the cuisine.

I hope that's something Orion can reinforce into Lindblad.

The food we had on Islander a couple years ago was atrocious.

 

To be fair, Lindblad did as well as could be expected in Antarctica for food. When you only open the freezer once every 24 hours and there's nowhere to resupply, it's a big ask. But Galapagos was a disgrace. The Ecuadorian buffet night was glorious, fresh and tasty, but the rest of the meals were barely fit for animals.

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I was really surprised when these cruises were announced while we were aboard NG Explorer in May. The Orion? One week cruises? In Europe? Is this Lindblad? What is the market? Sure - high income, mid career, too busy with career and family for long trips, haven't seen much of Europe since they last saw it with back packs following college graduation. It's perfect! Hmmm. So what did we do? We booked a B2B London to Lisbon. This doesn't go anywhere that we haven't been before. Why? We want to try the Orion. You'll note that the two prior entries are from those who have been on that ship before - it has a great reputation. We had previously booked Orion to the Antarctic - would have been our 3rd time there - we're getting a bit old, so canceled. This works well for us. BTW re Lindblad cultural vs. other cruise lines - we did the Baltic twice - Regent Voyager and NG Explorer. Explorer won by a mile.

 

Yes, we can save a bunch of money by cruising on mass market lines - but there are serious trade offs. Traveling on subways at rush hour isn't too much fun.

 

London--Lisbon sounds like it'd be really fun. I;m sure you'll have a great time.

 

Our NCL trip did have bumps (most scandalously a lost reservation!) but it had nothing to do with the ship per se. Maybe we were so into doing our own thing it didn't feel like a subway at rush hour to us. We docked, they signalled we could disembark, and ten minutes later we had met our guide and were being whisked away in a Mercedes. (It was weird, but whether it was a car or an 8pax it seemed to be Mercedes every time.) We always just walked right in to restaurants.

 

What we missed was Recap. But we found ourselves in the same quiet martini bar every night with the same small group recapping with one another.

 

Sea days were few and far between, but that's the other massmarket line weakness. On sea days, you don't get to settle in and listen to Don Walsh explain Antarctic exploration, Jay Dickman show you what it takes to win a Pullitzer, or Stephanie Martin detail the relationship between people and whales.

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Just a couple of notes about the food. Our trip on the Orion was in SE Asia just after Lindblad acquired the vessel. The dining room still had cuisine developed by a chef in Sydney and everyone on board raved about the food and drink.

 

Recent trips on both the Explorer and just this summer on the Endeavour in the Galapagos (with grandkids) have us given the impression that food offerings are not what they used to be. The food on the Endeavour was just barely acceptable, not what we experienced on our other Galapagos trips in years past. In fact was thought the entire operation was not of the caliber of previous trips. As for the Explorer, the meal offerings are OK, tasty at times and acceptable. Hope the Orion still has the outstanding food experience of the past and wonder about what we perceive to be a downtrend in food service on their other vessels.

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Lindblad's website says the Orion's menu's for 2016 will be by Serge Dansereau of The Bathers' Pavilion in Sydney. This is the same as when we sailed on the ship prior to Lindblad's purchase. Previously, the Orion was owned by an Australian company, hence the Sydney connection. The food was fabulous. Whenever the weather was decent, there was a BBQ on deck after we returned from our morning zodiac expeditions and it wasn't hamburgers, but grilled lobsters, fish, etc. I just pulled out the souvenir menus I saved from the cruise and now I'm hungry!

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Let's make it clear - Lindblad has never placed a premium on food - the Cuisine was not Haute - exploration and learning trumped eating - the lasting memories flowing from dinner hour were the people that we met and got to know at the table. We've all read cruise reviews that focused on the quality of the lobster and ignored the majesty of the pyramids.

 

So, Orion is scheduled for short cruises in heavily traveled areas with an outstanding reputation for dining. We'll see what it's like.

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