Covepointcruiser

This thread should be retitled as stockholder’s benefits OBC has NOT been discontinued!

We were instructed to hang onto the ropes, but this was on a Greenland Expedition.   Is it different in other areas?

It makes sense to take large groups, especially revenue generating travel agents on the ships.   We have been onboard when they had other large groups and it just took the sky lounge offline for a few hours.   We have also had bad experiences with large family groups/reunions.   They were very loud in all venues and each one had a special diet.   Service suffered.   Better if they charter the whole ship but them there would be complaints of cancelled bookings.

We are leaving the end of March on the Grandeur and are in the Intercontinental in Miami.

You need to be able to hold on to the ropes when you are underway.    This requires some strength in your hands and arms.   Don’t forget waterproof gloves and pants.

Can’t say we would enjoy outdoor dining in the Mediterranean.    In recent years it has been way too hot for us and we welcome air conditioning especially while eating.

 My first cruise, as a very young child, was on the Ocean Monarch in Dec 1962.   There was one restaurant, a buffet was held once during the cruise in the indoor promenade.   Believe they also had a midnight buffet in the main restaurant.    We then sailed on Canadian Pacific, Increas, Swedish American, and Cunard.    Those were great days and there were no kids club so you made your own fun.   One memorable activity when we bugged a sailor was sanding the rails.    We were each given a piece of paper and a bucket of sand and told to have fun!

The Virgin ship is almost the ugliest ship I have ever seen, hope it’s better on the inside.

Is Seabourn still serving the “green” caviar?   Have a great voyage.

5 hours ago, Gordoncruickshank said:

The butlers that were removed were either sacked or moved on to other duties so they no longer have enough to go round so they will bring them back on the newest ship first, the Ascent, and then introduce them to the others as they find butlers.

Didn’t believe any butlers were fired.   They were reassigned, if they were at the end of their contract they may have willingly left.   With the shortage of cruise ship employees, Celebrity would not have sacked anyone.

I doubt OP was in port on a Sunday with no other ship in the port.   Walking was not possible when we docked, we had to be bussed to the terminal that held our bags and also had immigration for Barbados.   There is another closer terminal with small shops and no immigration  and this was for passengers just visiting Barbados as a port on their cruises.

I have seen this done for Noro as it’s even more contagious than COVID.    RSV is also rampant right now.

 In December we sat at the same table with the same servers every night.   They asked us about allergies on the first night and put them in our ship record.

Read your contract with Cunard, you will probably find they can increase the service charge.   It seems all the other cruise lines have also increased the gratuities.   Inflation strikes again.

We did take this tour in Barbados after debarking.   This was a different cruise and it was confusing as we got off the bus at the wrong building and it didn’t have our luggage.   We had to wait for next bus to get to our luggage which we identified.    ever saw the luggage again until we reached the airport.   The tour was okay but it was at least an hour and maybe more before we reached the first stop at a beach shack.   It would have cost you more to reach that short stop (30 minutes at most) than the funds you had available.   You missed another stop at an old Anglican Church and final stop at a plantation with lunch.   Most of the time was traveling around the island on the bus seeing sights along the road.

Sorry about your experience and hope Seabourn gives you a refund.

On 1/24/2024 at 8:35 PM, labonnevie said:

Suggest you reserve one specialty restaurant for the first night. Easier to get time you want, even easier if you agree to share. Then you can decide if you want to return later in the cruise. You can only make one reservation for each specialty restaurant before you board. 
In the Compass Rose (MDR), every night one side of the menu is the same every night, the other side changes nightly. If there is anything you want, they will make it for you, given 24 hours notice and that they have the ingredients. 
The included wines are generally good, not wow. Have the sommelier send a list of all the included wines on board to your cabin on embarkation day. That way you can pick what you like from day one, as they only offer a couple of included wines each night. But if they have it, you can order any wine on the list in any restaurant any night. 

Thanks so much for the information on Regent.   It’s always difficult for the first time sailing on a new line.    We are back on Seabourn in September on the Venture Greenland and Canadian Arctic.   We are taking my sister in law on her first Seabourn cruise.

Remember you also get to lug your carry ons up those stairs.   I have seen the chair lift working but if you walk up the stairs the railing with the chair lift is not usable so you will only have one usable railing on the stairs.

Lucky they had some QG suites available.   We are on a wait list for B2B transatlantics in December of 2025.

So much for Argentina’s rules about not taking food off of the ship.   Just like Seabourn, they don’t enforce their laws or rules.

Carnival has also canceled their cruises from Dubai and two Seabourn ships are sailing around Africa without passengers.   Th QM2 is sailing its passengers making two stops in Africa and one in the Canary Islands.   Royal and Celebrity has visits to Alexndria on the schedule and I wonder if she will still do these visits.

Seabourn ships, same parent company, are sailing without passengers around the Horn to the Med.   Some are ending their world cruises in Singapore.

We stayed at the Hilton.   We must have been in a less expensive room because we had a normal bathroom.   Our room door faced the mall.

Book refundable travel options.   The QM2 has been known to dock later than expected because of bad weather.

Bilbobill, you stated you state d that you save food from breakfast and packed it to eat ashore.   I thought Argentina has restrictions on bringing food, not commercially wrapped into the country.

Didn’t they have the sniffer dogs?

Some folks believe rules don’t apply to them.   Until the rules are enforced. They will continue to ignore them.

On 1/23/2024 at 11:59 AM, alexandria said:

I've got three luxury cruises booked so far this year.  All booked in the past two months for travel in 2024.  Two are just under $200pp per day, one just under $300pp per day.  But you have to have flexibility in your travel schedule to regularly book at those rates.  As a retiree, I enjoy such flexibility!

If you chose to travel on repositioning cruises they will be much less expensive.   The Quest is one of the older and smaller ships for Seabourn.   Some passengers enjoy the smaller ships.