More Cruise Critic Seabourn Stories

Great pictures, thank you for posting.

We have enjoyed the similar event on SeaDream but this looks fabulous! Do you have a review of the cruise elsewhere on the boards? We are considering the same one for January 2017.

Great stuff CC Chris! I love the caviar in the surf events! Did they offer water skiing and banana boat rides as well?

Dan - They did offer the banana boat rides and waterskiing.

 

And the updated review just went up. Here is the URL: http://www.cruisecritic.com/reviews/review.cfm?ShipID=540.

 

A final feature, on Shopping with the Chef: http://www.cruisecritic.com/v-2/articles.cfm?ID=2153

We have just returned from the cruise following yours. Unfortunately none of your links work for me, with internal server error messages, which I don't understand.

We loved the day on Ko Kut, a highlight of our cruise. We particularly liked pottering about on the sailing dinghy, caviar in the surf and the sheer beauty.

We had lunch with an apparently famous gentleman from the US, who is working on a new cocktail menu. Rick Meadows was also onboard for a couple of days.

Nice article on SWTC. However there is a factual error. The article notes it is offered multiple times on a cruise. That is incorrect. It is almost never offered more than once a cruise. Now if you are doing multiple BTB cruises there will likely be one on each segment. Just don't want people to get there hopes up.

Nice article on SWTC. However there is a factual error. The article notes it is offered multiple times on a cruise. That is incorrect. It is almost never offered more than once a cruise.

Agreed. I noticed Cruise Critic reviewed the Food & Wine cruise which seemed to be jam-packed with every Seabourn experience possible at every turn (or that's what I thought after reading the marketing materials last autumn) and I do think they had multiple SWTC events on that sailing.

I wonder if the goal of the Food and Wine cruises is to pull in new Seabourn sailors? If so, I hope they aren't disappointed when they take another cruise and realize that the weeks are not normally packed with "90 different activities" (to quote from the review) but instead are fairly sedate affairs.

Yes, I agree that Chris was likely making an assumption based on the special circumstances of that particular cruise.

Chris, I will be interested in what you hear back because in over 25 cruises over 15 years on Seabourn there has never been more than one per segment. When you say they told you it is held in more than one port could you have perhaps misunderstood what they were saying? While they do have SWTC in more than one port it is just not in more than one port per cruise segment (unless it is something special and food oriented such as your cruise). In any event I have very much enjoyed your impartial reports from your cruise.

Chris, I will be interested in what you hear back because in over 25 cruises over 15 years on Seabourn there has never been more than one per segment. When you say they told you it is held in more than one port could you have perhaps misunderstood what they were saying? While they do have SWTC in more than one port it is just not in more than one port per cruise segment (unless it is something special and food oriented such as your cruise). In any event I have very much enjoyed your impartial reports from your cruise.

Chairsin interestingly enough on our 11 day cruise last July we had two SWTC. One in Livorno and one in Sicily which involved a long bus drive to Palermo. I will be curious to see if they are both offered on a similar cruise we are doing this July. Not that we will do them as we like to let others have a turn.

Interesting fact - Chef Neal said one place they won't do it is in Barcelona as they tried it in the Bocqueria and the stall holders got very angry with them as they felt they were in the way of other paying customers.

Julie

Julie, thanks for providing info on your "double-dipping" SWTC experience. Lucky girl! And to further confuse the issue we did go SWTC in Barcelona at the Boqueria a few years ago with Chef Martin. Is there any word on when you might be doing it on your current cruise?

Julie, I was on the same 11-day roundtrip Civitavecchia cruise last July. I too enjoyed both shopping excursions with chef Neal Breen.

Our next trip is the LA-FLL Panama Canal cruise on Odyssey in March. Does anyone who has sailed this route know if shopping with the chef is offered, and which port it might be?

We shopped in Panama City -- very small, dirty and uninteresting. Probably my least favorite of all the markets I have visited.

Julie, thanks for providing info on your "double-dipping" SWTC experience. Lucky girl! And to further confuse the issue we did go SWTC in Barcelona at the Boqueria a few years ago with Chef Martin. Is there any word on when you might be doing it on your current cruise?

We did SWTC in Barcelona at the Boqueria in the fall of 2012 on the Legend. It was great. I remember the hams, especially. Legs hanging down for the ceiling like a creepy version on the Rockettes. Chef bought one, served at a ship cocktail party the next day. A 2014 food and wine cruise had at least three, multiple ones in each city. Sicily (Messina, maybe) was the best.

Chris thank you for the clarification. I look forward to more of your stories.

I have been shopping with the chef on three occasions.

The first time was in the Boqueria in Barcelona. The market was busy and many stall owners assumed we were a tour group and didn't want us getting in the way of their clients.

The second time was in Kusadasi, Turkey, where we shopped in the small fish market there. We were well received and it was very enjoyable.

The third time was at the market in Gdansk, Poland. This was a good sized market but not too busy. This was probably the most enjoyable of the three because of the quality of the produce, the friendliness of the stall owners and the fact that it was not too busy.