DTtravelers

Hi Nancygp: We will see you next week! We did the 14 day Alaska cruise last year and are doing it again this year. I will be easy to find... just look up (I am the tall guy). 🙂 89 in Redmond (east of Seattle) yesterday, but only 87 today. But it is dry heat! 🙂

If your 6 YO s into airplanes, the Museum of Flight might be of interest. The only problem is that you can easily spend days there...

A few contributions:

After discussions about the hint of kiwi have tapered off, it might be time to raise things to the next level: This is when you and some previously recruited accomplices carefully swirl the next wine, then hold your glasses to your ears. While attempting to keep a straight face, convince any curious onlookers that it is good to use all 5 senses. 🙂 All in good fun, of course. But if you encounter a particularly tough crowd, you might have to make a quick exit...

Then again, it is good to know that kiwi actually is a legitimate tasting note. Just in case you get seriously challenged. However, I could not find either peanut butter or baloney! Have fun!! 🙂

We always just say "and a hint of kiwi" They never know what to say after that. Also, it has been three buck Chuck up here in WA for many years... so jealous.

Seriously?? That would be a showstopper for me. It is absolutely none of Seabourn's (or any other cruise line's) business how you get to/from their ships. My brother is booked for Jan. I'll let him know the bad news. I am guessing your other charter might have been Reykjavik to Kangerlaussaq. No way I would book that one either. Others may be more adventuresome, but I want my adventures ON the ship.

Putting things back the way they were before Covid is a very worthwhile approach and a good start. Our 14 day Alaska cruise on Odyssey last year was great and compared favorably to Quest/Antarctica in 2019, so this should be easily achievable. Shore excursions cramming 50 people on a bus might work for Holland America, but not for Seabourn. So improved small group shore excursions would be very welcome. As far as Silversea or Regent? Of course I look at those too. Sliversea with their included air or non-refundable deposit? Show-stoppers for me. At least they have decent itineraries. Regent's itineraries? Vancouver to Seward, Seward to Vancouver, Vancouver to Seward, blah, blah, and lot's more expensive. No kayaks, no zodiaks... For me, Seabourn almost always wins based on itinerary. That is the one thing I do not want them to change.

Hi Cruisr: Note that you do not have to put up with these charters: there are multiple daily commercial flights with Premium Economy that will let you select your seats for reasonable fares and that fly reasonable times during the day. Up to you, but there are other choices. Stay a night in a hotel and enjoy Ushuaia. It will cost you more, but your stress level might be way lower. Dave

Glad to see that they are not picking on only Seabourn passengers, but HAL too! 🙂 Apparently they use the same buggy website for both. However, with a lot of finagling, I was able to get all the check marks to turn green. Click on the red mark to bring up the tab for editing? Nothing Happens. Go to Home and start from scratch? Yes. Now the red marks work, somewhat... after you edit, a note pops up saying the information cannot be saved because the information has been edited!! Except that it apparently does save the information... Eventually got all checkmarks to turn green. 🙂 So, if you are persistent and creative enough, you can make the website happy. Maybe. I haven't logged back in to check. Happy sailing!

There is nothing to be embarrassed about. It is just the way their system works. You cannot use on- board credit, unless you are on-board. But is is very wise and encouraged that you select and book excursions early using your credit card, lest they fill.up. They can re--book once you are on board with OBC. They do this all the time and are very helpful when we've done it.

Sidetracking here a bit, but in keeping with the OP, it has been a while since we sailed HAL and they have an extended itinerary that is appealing. Looking at the HIA list from post 5, can you even get a Maker's Mark Manhattan? It doesn't seem to be included, even at the Elite level. Same for any single malt Scotch... Also, since the introduction of HIA, do they still offer separate wine packages so that you could have wine with dinner, even if you don't buy the HIA package? 40 days x Elite HIA is almost $6K... a scarey thought. Thanks!

Couldn't find anything about Wind, but found this on Explorer: https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2022/01/silver-explorer-to-sail-for-new-cruise-line-exploris-from-2023/

Hi Vineyard View: One Seabourn's website, it takes a bit of finagling, but if you clear all filters, then select "Mediterranean" plus "World Cruise" for destinations, then select "Sojourn" for ship, you will see what you are looking for on Seabourn's website. It also gets hung up occasionally, so you have to start from scratch... but that could also be my browser.

"Phil" cornered us and twisted our arms to help him. He had a big book about old ships and was really inspired to try to make this. The rule was that you could only use stuff from the ship (and then you had to put it back). We used dental floss to sew everything and had no idea if it would even float until we put it in the water. Won a bottle of Champagne! 🙂 There were other really creative ships in the competition. Apparently, this competition is done often on transatlantic cruises. Anyway, it was a lot of fun for everyone. Note: this was heading back across the Atlantic on December 6th and everyone around the pool was in short sleeves!

We sail end of July... I sure hope they still have the GOAT cow's milk cheese! And did they have real Appenzeller cheese? It is famous for it's intense "fragrance." Walking into the cheese monger's was an experience! By any chance, is Boyan back in Seabourn Square cafe this year? His cappuccinos compared very favorably with those we've had in Italy.

Hi NxN: We did a 42 day Ft. Lauderdale to Athens and back November/December 2016 (HAL). I looked through all the photos and we were either in short sleeves or light windbreakers throughout. We had lunch outside in Corfu on Nov 17th (first day of Beaujolais!), and they lowered the awning for us 'cuz the sun was melting us. So it can be very nice. Then again, the Mediterranean can rear it's ugly head when it fells like it... I guess we were lucky that year because that did not happen. Along the way, we completed the 18,000 piece puzzle in only 31 days! And our team won the transatlantic boat building competition with our square-rigged Caravel ... 🙂 We chose to do the Greek Isles/Turkey/Venice this year in late October- November on the Encore because Seattlites do not do hot weather... D

Hi shark b8: Was this from your trip??

The lion looks so peaceful and contented! They always get that way when you pet them and scratch under the chin, right??

Still like Sinatra songs:

I guess this will be next. Unfortunately, my source neglected to tell me which Ultra Luxury cruise line this came from...

This one has me chuckling. Coming from a large family of engineer types, and knowing 25 or so, the second criteria would mean that Viking would sailing empty. 🙂 I watched with interest what the Octanis and Polaris did in Antarctica this year, because we had friends who signed up for the Octanis after we showed them our pictures of the place. After 9 Viking flight changes, they finally got a wonderful 12-1/2 hour layover in NY and coach class. My friend is 6'5" tall. Their poor TA was tearing her hair out. As for the itinerary, apparently, nobody told the folks at Viking about the Lemaire Channel, Deception Island, the Weddell Sea, or Elephant Island, all the places that were the high points of our visit. But they did sit in four coves all day long. I am assuming so that they could run the guests through the submersibles, but that is just my guess. It's a far cry from what we were treated to on Seabourn. We were so lucky: we wouldn't trade our cruise for anything.

Hi Dusko: Your comment, "Where do we go from here?" got me LOL. It's funny that we all looked at each other in the Lemaire Channel in Antarctica and used those exact, same words, while standing on the deck right here: But then it only got better and better and better. None of us would have believed that was possible. After Antarctica, I was actually afraid that the Southeast Alaska cruise last year would be a bit disappointing. But it was not disappointing at all, just two completely different experiences. While there are no polar bears in Antarctica, there are no penguins in the Arctic. 🙂 The tiny little black dots in the foreground are Adeles. And the face of the tabular iceberg in the back is 210 feet high... Iceland/Greenland maybe '24 or '25. Now if only they would sail from Bergen to Tromso to Svalbard to Scoresby Sound and circumnavigate Iceland,,, all in one trip! Happy sailing, wherever you go!

To paraphrase Hippocrates, "desperate times call for desperate measures" We get to enjoy Odyssey one last time this summer. Quest and Odyssey suited our needs perfectly, so this sale is sad to us. They both have kayaks, zodiacs, and Expedition/Venture crews. As far as the expedition market: since 2018, 31 new expedition type vessels with ice-strengthened hulls have been (or soon will be) added, with base capacity of 6,100+ beds. It seems that everyone had the same idea to expand into this market all at once. Maybe these decision makers are all geniuses, but at about $1,000 pp pd, it will be interesting to see how this plays out. I wish them all the best.