Exceptionally underwhelming

Over the past six months I have been casually perusing this board as our first Seabourn cruise approached. With time, my unease with this board grew as I watched everyone who offered any negative comment about Seabourn get nit-picked to death by the die-hard Seabourn apologists. I have stayed out of the fray due to lack of personal experience with Seabourn.

Since my retirement, I have been on a continual extended vacation. In fact, I have been on 73 different cruises the past two years, plus a number of other land only vacations. This holiday season, we took our first cruise with Seabourn on the Odyssey. It will be our last Seabourn cruise.

I always like to start a review with something positive, but I am at a loss. At least nobody died is the best I can come up with. Everything on the Odyssey was consistently below average, far below our expectations. We expected a vacation comparable to our time with Crystal, Azamara, Regent or Silver Sea. Nothing approached the superlatives frequently used by the regulars of this board. Anyways, here goes.

Ship: The Odyssey is in bad shape compared to other cruise ships. Many of the fittings and furnishings are heavily worn. There were many mechanical issues, especially in our suite. I have a hard time believing that this ship was re-furbished in 2014.

Service: The service was exceptionally slow. I don’t believe they have enough staff. Most luxury lines have three cabin services per day, morning full-service, afternoon refresher and evening turn down. We felt lucky to have our suite serviced once a day. This didn’t always happen, and it was commonplace to be waiting for the room to be cleaned until after dinner. The girl simply had too many cabins assigned to her.

Service during meals was even worse. Good luck getting a drink in the Colonnade. There were far too few wait staff available. I am at a loss to find the proper words to describe how bad service was in the main dining room. Besides having too few staff, they were inadequately trained. They were unknowledgeable of the food and wine they served. They didn’t know how to properly enter your order in their system, especially if you wanted to modify something. The confusion and disorganization resulted in many mistakes. You would get the wrong food. Hot food would come out at room temperature. Cold food would come out at room temperature. And the wait between courses was interminable. Start to finish, our fastest meal in the main dining room took 2.5 hours (breakfast, only two courses), the longest was over 4 hours.

Food: This was the biggest area of disappointment for me. While it is hard to separate the impact that bad service had on the food quality, I do believe that the food quality was far below cruise industry norms. I am not going to talk about taste, because I think that is highly influenced by personal preferences. Some people just like things saltier than others. What I will say is that the quality of the ingredients was very poor. This was most objectively observed in the uncooked items like fresh fruit and raw tomatoes. Lastly, food shortages with certain items were routine. At different times they ran out of salad (lettuce), various fruit, and yogurt amongst other things. The day they ran out of coffee in the morning made for a grumpy bunch of passengers that afternoon.

Wine: The complimentary wines were terrible. If you are used to good wine, you will have to bring your own or buy a package. Also, the wines offered at dinner did not coordinate with the dishes served in any way. I am at a loss as to how the complimentary wines were selected.

Crowding: The cruise was too crowded. Every suite was occupied, many with more than two passengers (extra kids). The Colonnade was a mad house during peak hours at breakfast. Getting a table was impossible. I have been on many 1,000+ passenger ships that felt less crowded. I have been on many cruises during peak vacation times, and none have felt as crowded.

While any single issue was not that big of a deal, the sum total of the negative was astonishing. I can’t believe this is the same cruise line you all have been talking about.

P.S. Tilly served as inspiration for my user name. Given the undying loyalty to Seabourn observed on this board, it is meant as a joke given our miserable experience. Hate is such a strong emotion, and I don’t really hate anything.

I have only done 2 Seabourn cruises and experienced the total opposite to your comments.

One cruise was on the Odyssey 2 years ago and one on the Quest recently. I could not fault the ship condition, include wines (actually better this last time than first cruise) and the food (also better this last cruise). The service both times was excellent but again better this last cruise.

Well I am sorry to hear of your "miserable" experience. I am not a Seabourn "cheerleader", I have written in the past of some disappointments with the cruiseline, however nothing in the realm of your review.

I guess you must have posted under other names in the past, as I would find it surprising in 70+ previous cruises on other cruiselines, you wouldn't have found criticisms to report on. I too have been on many cruiselines, and if I have to write a review on each of them from worst to best, I know Seabourn would be very near the top of the best. But that is just my experience, and of course, you are entitled to report on your own.

Fortunately you can go back to the other cruiselines, there is plenty of choice out there.

I think the OP was saying there is a problem with the Odyssey now and not two years ago. Also there have been no reports of any problems with the Quest so the issue seems to be related as others have said to just the Odyssey.

Well I am sorry to hear of your "miserable" experience. I am not a Seabourn "cheerleader", I have written in the past of some disappointments with the cruiseline, however nothing in the realm of your review.

 

I guess you must have posted under other names in the past, as I would find it surprising in 70+ previous cruises on other cruiselines, you wouldn't have found criticisms to report on. I too have been on many cruiselines, and if I have to write a review on each of them from worst to best, I know Seabourn would be very near the top of the best. But that is just my experience, and of course, you are entitled to report on your own.

 

Fortunately you can go back to the other cruiselines, there is plenty of choice out there.

I agree wholeheartedly. I have been expecting 'Sananda' to resurrect himself. I wonder??????

Wow 73 cruises in the last two years seems to be too good to be true.

I have done 94 cruises and that has taken me 39 years.

I hate cruising but can't get enough of it.

Wow 73 cruises in the last two years seems to be too good to be true.

I have done 94 cruises and that has taken me 39 years.

I hate cruising but can't get enough of it.

Yes, I was being generous. I wondered if the OP meant 70 days in the past 2 years. Either way, it is a lot of cruising and knowing what else is out there in the cruising world, it is surprising that Seabourn is the only cruiseline that has given him/her a miserable experience. Well one that was bad enough to motivate him/her to write a review anyway.

The OP is entitled to his opinion and only really those who were on the same cruise are in a position to say whether he/she is right or wrong. So rather than jump into the fray, perhaps the OP could be more specific about which cruise he/she was on and perhaps we could have input from others who were also on that cruise.

Edit: I would add that this is not the first negative review of Odyssey in recent weeks (days?). So perhaps there is a problem and we should not be dismissing the Op's comments out of hand.

The OP is entitled to his opinion and only really those who were on the same cruise are in a position to say whether he/she is right or wrong. So rather than jump into the fray, perhaps the OP could be more specific about which cruise he/she was on and perhaps we could have input from others who were also on that cruise.

 

Edit: I would add that this is not the first negative review of Odyssey in recent weeks (days?). So perhaps there is a problem and we should not be dismissing the Op's comments out of hand.

Very well said.

I was on the same cruise, have been accused of being an SB cheerleader in the past, but I agree with some of the OP's comments.

We arrive home tomorrow, when i'll write more, but will say that right now neither of us is certain we want to cruise with SB again in the future.

Very well said.

I was on the same cruise, have been accused of being an SB cheerleader in the past, but I agree with some of the OP's comments.

We arrive home tomorrow, when i'll write more, but will say that right now neither of us is certain we want to cruise with SB again in the future.

Wow. Looks like I'd better make a BIG bowl of popcorn for this.

This should be interesting.

… We arrive home tomorrow, when i'll write more, but will say that right now neither of us is certain we want to cruise with SB again in the future.

Over the past six months I have been casually perusing this board as our first Seabourn cruise approached. With time, my unease with this board grew as I watched everyone who offered any negative comment about Seabourn get nit-picked to death by the die-hard Seabourn apologists. I have stayed out of the fray due to lack of personal experience with Seabourn.

 

Since my retirement, I have been on a continual extended vacation. In fact, I have been on 73 different cruises the past two years, plus a number of other land only vacations. This holiday season, we took our first cruise with Seabourn on the Odyssey. It will be our last Seabourn cruise.

 

I always like to start a review with something positive, but I am at a loss. At least nobody died is the best I can come up with. Everything on the Odyssey was consistently below average, far below our expectations. We expected a vacation comparable to our time with Crystal, Azamara, Regent or Silver Sea. Nothing approached the superlatives frequently used by the regulars of this board. Anyways, here goes.

 

Ship: The Odyssey is in bad shape compared to other cruise ships. Many of the fittings and furnishings are heavily worn. There were many mechanical issues, especially in our suite. I have a hard time believing that this ship was re-furbished in 2014.

 

Service: The service was exceptionally slow. I don’t believe they have enough staff. Most luxury lines have three cabin services per day, morning full-service, afternoon refresher and evening turn down. We felt lucky to have our suite serviced once a day. This didn’t always happen, and it was commonplace to be waiting for the room to be cleaned until after dinner. The girl simply had too many cabins assigned to her.

 

Service during meals was even worse. Good luck getting a drink in the Colonnade. There were far too few wait staff available. I am at a loss to find the proper words to describe how bad service was in the main dining room. Besides having too few staff, they were inadequately trained. They were unknowledgeable of the food and wine they served. They didn’t know how to properly enter your order in their system, especially if you wanted to modify something. The confusion and disorganization resulted in many mistakes. You would get the wrong food. Hot food would come out at room temperature. Cold food would come out at room temperature. And the wait between courses was interminable. Start to finish, our fastest meal in the main dining room took 2.5 hours (breakfast, only two courses), the longest was over 4 hours.

 

Food: This was the biggest area of disappointment for me. While it is hard to separate the impact that bad service had on the food quality, I do believe that the food quality was far below cruise industry norms. I am not going to talk about taste, because I think that is highly influenced by personal preferences. Some people just like things saltier than others. What I will say is that the quality of the ingredients was very poor. This was most objectively observed in the uncooked items like fresh fruit and raw tomatoes. Lastly, food shortages with certain items were routine. At different times they ran out of salad (lettuce), various fruit, and yogurt amongst other things. The day they ran out of coffee in the morning made for a grumpy bunch of passengers that afternoon.

 

Wine: The complimentary wines were terrible. If you are used to good wine, you will have to bring your own or buy a package. Also, the wines offered at dinner did not coordinate with the dishes served in any way. I am at a loss as to how the complimentary wines were selected.

 

Crowding: The cruise was too crowded. Every suite was occupied, many with more than two passengers (extra kids). The Colonnade was a mad house during peak hours at breakfast. Getting a table was impossible. I have been on many 1,000+ passenger ships that felt less crowded. I have been on many cruises during peak vacation times, and none have felt as crowded.

 

While any single issue was not that big of a deal, the sum total of the negative was astonishing. I can’t believe this is the same cruise line you all have been talking about.

 

P.S. Tilly served as inspiration for my user name. Given the undying loyalty to Seabourn observed on this board, it is meant as a joke given our miserable experience. Hate is such a strong emotion, and I don’t really hate anything.

It sounds like you're having a good time in retirement. What was the itinerary for this cruise?

Very well said.

I was on the same cruise, have been accused of being an SB cheerleader in the past, but I agree with some of the OP's comments.

We arrive home tomorrow, when i'll write more, but will say that right now neither of us is certain we want to cruise with SB again in the future.

Very curious as I leave in about 3 weeks to join the Odyssey in Auckland.

I too will be watching this thread. I started to do the math of 73 cruises in 2 years to figure out if Ryan was ever home, but just gave up. On the other hand, Nigella is a well-known frequent contributor to CC, and is quite balanced in her assessments, so I eagerly anticipate Nigella's review and other comments on the Odyssey experience. And I also add that everyone is entitled to his/her opinion on Cruise Critic.

We got off Sojourn Jan 3rd and whilst there was room for improvement I'm struggling to align the magnitude of the OP's failings to our own experiences.

Colonnade - if you hit it wrong then it can be busy but we were always found a table. The problem is inflamed by variable opening times for breakfast which closed between 9.00am and 10.30 during our cruise. The ridiculously early start of the tours was blamed. Having never been on a tour (because of said early start times) I struggle to see why they should mean I have to eat my breakfast by 9.30am on New Years Day morning. Teas & coffees can take a long time to arrive as can ordered food.

Main dining room - service was variable depending on where we sat. On one occasion we said we were hoping to catch the show and were whisked through in well under an hour. Other times it dragged on a long time. To be fair engaging conversation masked the problem but 4 hours would be going some. Assuming you sat down at 7.30pm that would take you to 11.30pm by which time the restaurant would be long closed. I had one occasion - the same meal as our wine failings below - when no mint sauce was offered with the lamb and by the time I managed to make contact with a waiter it was all eaten.

We only had one occasion when the wine waiter was stretched too thinly - the same night and station of our longest meal. I can think of 3 white wines freely available which satisfy. Despite a $1,500 onboard credit we didn't have to delve into the premium selection. I would not class myself as a wine connoisseur.

Food wise there were highs and lows. The Christmas Eve chef's dinner was excellent, the New Years Eve dinner quite poor. Previously we have been wowed by stand out dishes, on this occasion I would begrudging issue a "pass" but no commendation.

Room and service - whilst not brand new I would struggle to find fault with our Penthouse suite. The wooden floor as you enter had some scuffing, odd chips and marks to dark wood but no worse than my own home. Everything functioned as intended, stewardess efficient and dealt with any small requirements we might have - water etc. I don't expect 3 services in a day. We used the door hanger to indicate when servicing was needed and it worked well. Evening service happened seamlessly as we ate dinner.

Ship - I would describe the ship as being in excellent condition throughout. I'm racking my brain to try and come up with minor room for improvement but struggling.

Crowding - The joy of cruising on Sojourn for us, always a quiet spot to settle down. We played afternoon games on two occasions with new found friens - who cheat at Scattergories :) and had the whole of the club to ourselves on both occasions. Depending on the direction of the sun you might have to be inventive when looking for shade (a couple of double loungers on deck 10). If there's a ship with more space per guest I'd love to know about it. The standard cabins on Sojourn are very generous indeed.

Obviously Sojourn and Odyssey are sister ships.

I joined Cruise Critic to complain about a particularly poor experience we had on Royal Caribbean and use CC to make educated choices in the same way I use Tripadvisor so I firmly believe in the right to criticise. The reason for this post is because I struggled to match the strength of criticism to the experience we had over the past couple of weeks. It wasn't perfect and I will post up a review along with a video but I won't be starting it with the words "at least no one died" :)

Henry :)

Obviously it is a bit of a shock, and sad, to read this review.

However, luckily Nigella was on the same cruise, and although I know she likes Seabourn she always gives a very balanced report on what she finds. She has already mentioned that some 'suits' came on board, suggesting that there must have been some problems. I await her report with interest.

Out of curiosity I tried (for the first time) the what seemed to me laborious task of finding members' names, and could not find either Ryan Hates Seabourn, or indeed Sananda.

Can someone explain how this list works, and if these names should be and are indeed there?

Hi L & C. Happy New Year.

To find Sananda (or any other poster) go to top right corner of front page (just below page counter) where you will find a Search This Forum box. Click on that and then type in the name. It will offer you Thread or Post. If you click Thread you will be given a list of every thread on which that person has posted. On Post you will get a list of all their individual posts. You can then click the posts to read. Hope that makes sense.

We are supposed to be buying you guys lunch in Stamford some time. If you still have our email address do get in touch. I confess my new email system has "lost" yours from our Contacts.

The original poster had 73 cruises (or 73 days of cruising) and this is the first time he decided to share his opinions with us on Cruise Critic. This is his first and only post on cruise critic. And he picks a name "Ryan Hates Seabourn" as his user name.

I love the internet. I have received wonderful information on line about many purchasing decisions. Cars, cruises, other vacations, gifts, etc. One thing I have learned: there are always a variety of opinions on almost every subject. Most are legitimate, some are suspicious.

One thing I believe is that there are warning signs of a suspicious review. Someone who has no history, making an extreme review out of step from the majority of others, is one of those warming signs.

Believe what you want.

Nigella,

I know you will be posting a full review soon but can you at least tell us who the Hotel Director was on your cruise?

Nigella,

I know you will be posting a full review soon but can you at least tell us who the Hotel Director was on your cruise?

Chairsin, HD was Daniel Putzhammer.

I've just arrived in the UK and will post in more detail tomorrow as I want to think it through carefully before I post it and not write it jet lagged!

Thank you .

I am on Odyssey now. The ship is well maintained, as ever, and that includes

what's being delivered as service quality and levels in our suite, the Colonnade and MDR. We have 75 days to go on on this South Pacific exploration itinerary.

I have no idea what this "Ryan hates SB" review is all about. We had a delicious dinner on our formal evening last night with Daniel. He is charming and warm - we were together on a Nov cruise too - and all is smooth sailing for us.

Happy sailing!

I think it is Daniel Putzenhammer - anyway, he has been with Seabourn for quite a few years and is an exceptionally charming and caring chap, who really does his job well. I believe the CD and assistants are Handre, Sophie and Annabel; again a lovely team.

I feel that they would all have been unhappy if there have been any serious problems recently.

Can't wait to hear from Nigella. It is obvious that she wasn't entirely enamoured with her cruise, and is doubtful about another one with SB.

The OP's post was certainly disturbing wasn't it?