lelak

I can perfectly believe that SeaWare is both buggy and hard to program from the point of view of its GUI. However, even with all that true, releasing a user- facing website without what seems like even a modicum of proper beta-testing leaves a terrible impression upon that user base and makes for needless work by both the poor human service agents and travel agents who have to make up for it. CIOs have been fired for lesser offenses. The part of the website that lets one find cruises has some bugs and some less than ideal search and presentation pathways, but at least its useable. The much more critical part for getting information about booked cruises, entering personal information (passports, flights, etc.), and choosing retaurant reservations and shore excursions (excuse me, destination experiences), is, imho (and actually expert opinion) just hopeless. In only a cursory look I counted at least a dozen significant problems of which at least half I'd consider fatal in the sense that a poor user would likely just give up on using the website and call Explora and/or their TA, probably being seriously annoyed from having wasted a serious amount of time.. I would respectfully implore Explora to take that functionality (or non-functionality) offline and rapidly convene a panel of current customers to properly test the website before re-releasing.

Mine was SPS on an IBM 1620 (dates both of us). I can see our booking (which is only true recently), however it claims I owe money which I don't. And while the "check-in" button is greyed out in the booking information, there is fine print for check-in when you go to the three horizontal lines button that is active. I agree there are problems with Seaware, but no excuse for not doing even elementary beta-testing before exposing this to customers. Crystal, Oceania, Viking, and Silversea websites work quite well (although some minior quirks on all of them). Regent had some serious response issues (I think their back end was probably one of the 70's computers 🙂 ), but they have improved a lot (their IT VP is very responsive to problems).

As a computer scientist, I am somewhere between amused and offended by the number of outright bugs and terrible design issues one observes when examining and trying to check in for a booked cruise. It is impossible to believe that someone actually beta-tested the site. I won't go into the details of the over a dozen such errors I found when my TA and I tried to check in, but perhaps the most "interesting" occurred when trying to provide pre and post-cruise flights. I got the error message that my arrival date had to be prior to my departure date for my flight! While I have occasionally had that happen when flying from Japan or Australia to the US, it rarely occurs otherwise 🙂

can anyone tell me what brand TVs they have (Samsung or LG, I bet)? Thanks!

i suggested this in one of the other threads. Randomly I clicked on the "filters" button at the top of the webpage (after I had logged into my account and like any it wouldn't find my booking). I entered all the requested info (booking #, name, birthdate, etc.) and now the booking appeared.

try clicking on the "filters" button at the top of the webpage. I found that was the only way to find my booking.

We too did the Falls a few years ago when it was the Sheraton on the Argentina side. Iguazu puts every other waterfalls to shame because of the sheer variety and number. The advantage of the Argentine side is that you have immediate access from the hotel to walking trails both upper and lower as well as a train-like shuttle to the one single huge fall. But the Brazil side has a lot more hotels and dining spots so I'm sure you'd enjoy either. As others have stated, doing it yourself is easy--lots of flights from in-city airports in Buenos Aires and Rio. Don't miss Iguazu, it really is one of the modern wonders of the world.

We just stayed in a Penthouse Spa Suite on Quest and in almost all respects it was great. The curtains separating the bedroom from the living room are completely opaque--no issues with light from the living room bothering the bedroom. Don't take the "extra healthy juices" thing too seriously, but your room attendants will get you anything you want. The four spa suites are isolated which is mostly a good thing and they are extremely convenient to all the dining and public areas expect for the observation lounge--elevators are just down the spiral staircase, so you are both isolated and near even though that sounds a bit contradictory. It might take you a day or two to train the cabin attendants when they should clean your room. It might take you most of the cruise to figure out how to work the somewhat non-deterministic lighting controls! The room has both an espresso machine and a tea kettle. The only major negative is that while in theory there is a stair lift for the spiral staircase it didn't work at all during our 14-day cruise and I got the feeling that it hasn't been operational for a long time. I have some mobility issues so had to be very slow and careful navigating the 15 steps. If you or yours have serious mobility issues you need to make sure they have actually fixed the stair lift or the Quest PS won't work for you.

Yes, although from what I have read the view isn't nearly as nice from those terraces.

We just got back from our first Seabourn cruise--we've been many times on Old Crystal, Silversea, Regent, and Oceania (the larger ships). We were on Quest and found almost all aspects to be excellent. We did stay in a Spa Suite and really enjoyed it. It took a few days to get synced with the two lovely cabin attendants, but after that we had no complaints. Overall food quality and variety exceeded our expectations having read some negative reviews in this venue. Service in all locations was excellent with staff going out of their way to greet us by name and spend time to make sure we were happy. The F&B manager Giocomo and Head Chef Christophe almost adopted us given the amount of time they spent chatting with us. Entertainment better than I expected given the size of the ship. The 6 person production cast was incredibly good--singers almost good enough for Broadway or West End, the two dancers amazing, particulary Oksana. The internet service was the best I've ever seen on over 40 cruises. Easy to stream from all the normal sites. I did speed tests several times and averaged 10 mbps download and 1.5 upload--that's at least land-based DSL quality. I asked whether that was because they had Starlink installed and was told, no they hadn't. If that was the case, they don't need help from Elon! We were very lucky that one of the ports was Bar Harbor and the ship brought on board a huge amount of fresh shellfish including lobster, clams, mussels, and oysters which were served that evening at a special buffet in the Collonade. The next night we achieved something I've been trying to have happen for the last 30+ years of cruising--get lobsters properly prepared. By that I mean simply boiled and delivered intact--no cracking or "cleaning" where the best parts, the green tomalley and red roe are removed. Christophe and Giocomo made sure we got three lobsters in the Restaurant and we ate them properly as my grandfather taught me many years ago. We put on a good show for nearby tables! There were a few negatives. I am somewhat mobility limited and navigating the spiral staircase was a slow and careful process. The stair lift was not working, which I think was inexcusable. I did survive without falling. Our suite was not properly cleaned when we first got in and the berries in a jar were moldly. Those issues got fixed quickly. It was never really clear what actual spa privileges we were owed. In addition, the Source app needs a lot of work and some further beta testing. For example, unintuitive way to check your onboard account. I wish Seabourn (and the other luxury lines) would pony up to have a least ESPN on the TVs. So bottom line is that we've added Seabourn to our short list of luxury lines for future cruises. Even given the spiral stair case issue, we would book a spa suite again for its size and location (as others have mentioned, very convenient access to all restaurants, Seabourn Square, and the Club--only remote venue is the Observation Lounge).

We did the Sydney to Auckland two week trip many years ago on Crystal (usually Melbourne, Hobart in NZ, then a bunch of ports plus Milford Sound (incredible place) in NZ). Doing it again to introduce some friends who have never been to Oz or NZ on Silversea over Christmas and New Years 24/25. Since no one so far mentioned Silversea, just a few words. Their standard cabin is equivalent in size and amenities to PH on Oceania. Weather-wise, the right time to visit Down Under is November through January, although most times of the year are pretty mild except for mid-to-late their summer when it can get quite hot (like 40C). Hard to directly compare Silversea to Oceania--it competes more with Regent and Seabourn. Food can be pretty good, sometimes as good as Oceania at its best, although variety on O better, and strangely they charge extra for two of their specialty restaurants. Two of their larger ships (but large here is like half the size of Marina in terms of number of passengers, although actual physical ship size almost the same) Silver Muse and Silver Nova are doing the Aus-NZ routes. Their pricing can be confusing and their are lots of "specials" these days. A wide variety of excursions are included in the pricing as are all beverages. etc. If you care about butlers, all cabins have butler service. Entertainment weaker in recent years than Oceania--although had recovered a bit on the last Silversea cruise we took last year. Anyway, I would consider Silversea over Azamara or Viking. If you use their "Port-to-Port" fare--only available on the standard suites (all cabins are suites), then considerably cheaper than Regent. We've done close to 10 on Oceania, Regent, and Silversea and we did choose Silversea for this itinerary. If one of the larger Oceania ships were on the same itinerary we'd probably choose Oceania for the hugely better pricing on Owners or Vista suites compared to the highest end cabins on the other lines. But for a PH equivalent size suite (and the standard veranda cabin on SS is actually closer to a true suite than a PH on Oceania), is your choice I would choose SS right now. Anyway that's my humble opinion right now.

A proof that decent cookies can be provided: we are one of many frequent Oceania cruisers who find the cookies terrible. We are on our first Scenic river cruise and as an experiment I described to our butler how to make real chocolate chip cookies. The next day he came back with half a dozen ones I'd rate 9 out of 10 (only minor flaw was that they were really chocolate chocolate chip with cocoa in the cookie base--some actually prefer it that way). So I'll try the same thing on our next O cruise and I suggest others do the same--don't give up hope! It's not rocket science.

My wife has the same issue. She even brings her own tea from her supply of about 30 or 40 types. The only line we were able to get a kettle in room in recent times was the old Crystal. However, after impressing upon our butler and/or room service that she needs boiling, not just hot water for proper tea, after a few days the delivery seems to be adequate. She keeps a teapot and just gets the carafe they deliver. At afternoon tea she goes directly to the station where they boil the water and waits for them to get it properly hot.

Oceania and Regent seem to share recipes for some items like cookies and soups. Many are very good, but a few, like the chocolate chip cookies are strange. They seem very much more cake like than a good cc (say Tollhouse or Doubletree or even Costco) cookie. That gooey chocolate inside is just missing. We enjoy almost all the soups, but again, their recipe for New England clam chowder doesn't come close to authentic, although the lobster bisque is excellent. As many have said, a lot is subjective, but I'd put the batch of chocolate chip cookies I just baked in a blind taste test against Oceania or Regent any day.

Yes. It worked fine on Marina in March.