Tall Lad

8 minutes ago, tfred said:

I see in your profile that SeaDream is your favorite cruise line.  If so, I can imagine you are looking sideways at X food.  X food (yes always subjective) is pretty good for most land based resort people who are taking a cruise.

 

SeaDream is 2 or 3 notches above X so it is no surprise that you are unhappy

It's got nothing to do with "looking sideways" at X food. If you'd read my post you would have discovered that the quality of the food is markedly down on what it was 12 months ago when it was perfectly acceptable , else we wouldn't have returned 12 months later.

In its current state I doubt whether X food is pretty good based on what we experienced last week. In fact we spoke to a number of people who thought it was pretty poor.

44 minutes ago, tfred said:

Cruise Critic is a very, very small subset of cruisers. Many people are signed up, few post.  

 

X probably looks at CC occasionally, but isnt basing corporate policy on what is said here.  

That's hardly the point is it? If someone has sailed with Celebrity and have come away unimpressed they are still entitled to their opinion.

We returned from Edge yesterday , having previously sailed on her 12 months ago. The difference in quality between the 2 cruises was night and day and we won't be back anytime soon. The quality of the menus and of the food itself in the 4 MDR's was abysmal. Nickel and diming was very much present with no bottled water or even glasses in the cabin now , the cabin was not serviced most days until late afternoon and they even charged for quayside transportation in Ibiza 10 euros per person. Cabin towels were wafer thin. WE got so fed up with the food that we opted for dinner 1 night in the OceanView cafe  which defeats the object of dinner being an occasion.

All in all the whole experience was hugely disappointing.

We are sailing on Edge September 2nd and have been able to book Eden via the website.

We boarded Splendor on June 23rd and were not asked any health questions whatsoever on embarkation.

4 minutes ago, knotheadusc said:

Bwahahaha!  Yes, we are!  😄

 

 

That is incredible. What are the odds on this happening? Look forward to seeing you. It was the 2011 Caribbean cruise that we first met you and Bill. I can't quite believe this.

On 4/28/2023 at 6:39 AM, knotheadusc said:

 

Alas, I am about to cheat on SeaDream again.  Gonna take my first Regent cruise in June.  The ship is absolutely beautiful, but I can't help but think that I'm going to miss SeaDream's small ship vibe... and the piano bar, which is my FAVORITE part of a SeaDream cruise.  😉

 

But we did a champagne bucket drawing and Regent was going to the winning location (Finland)... it didn't hurt that they had a very attractive fare, that is even more attractive this week.  Wish I'd waited to book.

 

I am determined to get back on SeaDream, though, check out the new decor and toiletries, and get some more schwag.  I still use the leather wallet they gave me in 2013 to carry my credit cards!  I like the updated look of the PJs, too.  

Knotty we met on SD many moons ago and we are doing our first RSSC cruise in June too! You're not on the June 23 sailing from Stockholm are you by chance?

20 hours ago, WonderMan3 said:

Smart crew

Why exactly?

Apologies in advance for sounding like a grump but we were aboard the previous voyage to yours , arriving in Hong Kong on January 19th and I have to say it was the poorest cruise we have ever had , not in terms of the onboard experience (which was excellent) I hasten to add but in terms of the itinerary which we found completely uninspiring. The weather was poor overall , so much so that the Ko Samui stop had to be cancelled. There was plenty of advance notice of this and the Captain made noises about bringing forward the Bangkok stop except that it was not possible to sail up the river at night for some reason so that went by the wayside so we had the joys of an extra day at sea. In Bangkok we took ourselves off to the Grand Palace and Sleeping Buddha , great if you're into bling and rubbing shoulders (literally) with swarms of tourists but otherwise a complete waste of time. Onto Ho Chi Minh City where there's not a great deal of interest and Da Nang , an utter dump. Next Halong Bay where the arrival is admittedly impressive but little of interest when you get there other than a shopping mall. We didn't do any Azamara Land Tours but heard reports from fellow passengers that the HCM City walking tour , the Halong Bay tour and the Hanoi tour (where they actually spent 20 minutes in the city) were extremely poor value for money. Some people had done the Hoi An tour independently at approximately one third of the cost of the Azamara land tour. All in all , in a 13 night cruise we experienced 4 ports of call , none of which were in the least bit inspiring. The weather did play its part with literally only 2 days of good weather during the whole voyage. It's horses for courses I suppose but we found very little of interest in the Far East and given the travelling distances involved felt it wasn't worth the effort. Thank goodness for the onboard experience , in particular the staff and the entertainment which were truly outstanding.

I was on the Panama Canal sailing Feb 29th and the wifi was woefully slow. I complained on several occasions but they weren't interested. Absolute ripoff pricing too.

You could always try Uber.

Just keep scrolling down the page to find the schedule, after the bio section.

This is driving me nuts> There's no schedule showing at the bottom of the page.

Great to hear these reports. We're embarking in LA on 29th and can't wait. Particularly looking forward to meeting Eric de Grey again after having had him as CD on Seabourn a couple of times in the past as well as others who have already posted on here.

Quick question: is it worth using Uber for the transfer from Beverly Hills to San Pedro?

Slightly off topic but the CD when we were on Spirit last year , Suzanne Gayle has left to work onboard The World.

OP at the end of the day it boils down to rolling the dice as to whether you'll have a trouble free experience on SD or not. Question is , are you willing to spend in the region of $10000 rolling that dice? Only you can decide.

We must have been on the same cruise.

Just a heads up: one of the crew informed me during our Spirit cruise last month that she will not be allowed to dock in San Basilio for much longer due to a change imposed by the port authority. Embarkation will be further up where the bigger ships are parked. I'm sorry but I don't know exactly when the change is scheduled to happen.

Left Singapore last night; 100 Norwegians onboard.

Hope they dont run out of beer.

100 Norwegians! We had about 10 on our Caribbean cruise a few years ago and that was more than enough. Obnoxious lot.

Hi, can any recommend a reliable limo transfer from Venice Marco Polo to Venice Cruise Terminal? Thanks in advance.

Last August we used http://www.canovaservices.com who proved to be 100% reliable. IMHO doing a land transfer between the airport and the terminal is far less hassle and infinitely preferable to some expensive water taxi but each to his own I suppose.

My wife and I sailed on the Silver Whisper for a Caribbean cruise in Nov 2012 and were recently on SD1 in Costa Rica. We would choose SD any day over Silversea. Below is our comparison of the two lines (recognizing that we have only been on each line once):

 

Advantage Silversea:

- Nicer accommodations (all suites)

- A superior offering of spirits

 

Too close to call:

- Excellent food offered by both lines

 

Advantage SeaDream:

- SD's staff was superb, and SS's staff seemed more like robots trained to say the right things but didn't seem happy and it showed in their attitudes towards guests. This, combined with the formal atmosphere, often didn't make for a comfortable environment

- Fellow passengers generally much younger and more fun-loving

- Water toys

 

I'm not sure whether or not Azamara is on your radar since it is a bit larger (~6-700 passengers on a 30,000-ton ship) but they are our favorite line aside from SeaDream. Their staff is fantastic and offer great food, a reasonably full bar, and casual elegance (they call it country club casual) attire.

Agree 100%. Pound for pound , dollar for dollar , fantastic cruise line. Only sailed once with them but would happily go again. Preferred them to SB big ships but not quite to SB little ships.

Did Silversea (Whisper) in the Med about 5 years ago. Never again. The staff had absolutely no rapport with the passengers and the passengers had no rapport with each other. A hugely negative point from our view that part of the salon was a smoking area , totally unacceptable in this day and age. The disembarkation was a complete shambles with little or no communication from the crew and many passengers concerned about missing flights it was taking so long.

I'm appalled to see that folks are having their vacations ruined in this way.

We have sailed on SD 4 times , the first time being 2004.

If any SD execs are reading this you can take it as read that you won't be getting any more custom off us until you impose a no children policy.