candylover

Yes, each bag is normally $50.  We found we could fit heaps in one bag and we used this service the entire cruise.  The bag rate comes with a 2 day turnaround.  Not sure if it is quicker if you pay by the piece but we were fine with the 2 day turnaround.  We didn't select the complimentary laundry benefit so can't comment on how that works.

Hi norm 2002,

Just completed 17 days on Encore and one of us selected the shore excursion discount as our benefit.  What happened was once you have selected this benefit when you are online looking at excursions the price you see is the discounted price.  From memory you see the full asking price, with a strike through it, and underneath the discounted price that would be applicable (I think this is less 10%).  So the few shore excursions we booked from home were definitely booked and paid by us at the lower rate.  Hope this helps.

Thanks to you all for responding.  Glad to hear that those handy bags are still provided.

On our last cruise in the Caribbean Seabourn had rectangular tote type bags made of some fabric which were in our suite - I think they may have even zipped along the top edge.  We found these extremely useful particularly for throwing stuff in to take to the pool, when on excursions etc.  For those of you who have sailed recently I was wondering if Seabourn still have these in the suites.  

Just curious - if someone were to go online and book the OB at A$3999 (which is where the price currently sits on the Australian website) would Seabourn honour the booking at that price.  I know the consumer laws here in Aust are very, very strict about merchants honouring advertised prices.  Has anyone  had experience where they made a booking in good faith and then were informed that the advertised price was actually an error??

I have just this moment received a promotional email here from Scenic headed "Scenic Eclipse Now Sailing ..."

I feel terrible for the passengers due to sail on this first voyage, I truly hope the situation improves for you all.

Yes, well that would make sense SKP946.  Wouldn't mind if the ship was sailing at less than capacity though.

1 minute ago, SKP946 said:

 candylover. I’m watching this as we only have to sail another 3 days to qualify for our next complimentary week.

I’m trying to convince SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed) that we should take this lower priced cruise close to home, so then we can offset our complimentary against a much higher price cruise next time. 

Last year this Bali - Sydney dropped to A$4999 ! (Maybe not this year)

From what I understand last year the same cruise did not sail full - I think 540 or maybe 560.  We are just looking forward to a cruise not far from home and with lots of sea days.  All our other cruises have been port intensive - can't even remember having a sea day and also taking ages to get there (but you would know all about that coming from Melb).  The time it took us to get to Bridgetown from Melb for our Carib cruise has left me scarred.  We are not near qualifying for complimentary week yet but I can see your logic in wanting to offset against a pricier cruise.  Hope to see you on board!!

13 minutes ago, SKP946 said:

 candylover. Just received an email from Seabourn, OB price on the cruise you’re watching has just gone up by A$500!

Although the other prices (V2/V5) seem to be the same as previous.

 

SKP946, got the same email.  Yes noticed the increased OB price but all other V cats remained the same.  We actually have booked a V5 a few weeks ago, as I believe the price is really good.  However I wouldn't be surprised if it still comes down a bit closer to sailing.  We shall see ...

21 minutes ago, Pushka said:

 

Aussies lose their deposit no matter how far out the cruise is, in this case it is 2021 for our cruise. We don’t have to pay in full further out than 4 months but that’s the case for all cruiselines booked from Australia. I’m happier losing that deposit and knowing we have other options that we do like, rather than think about another Ocean cruise with Viking as it will just bring up the issues again. Our last night on board I hope never to be repeated and after several cruises I know we won’t. 

 

i just wanted to experience the Viking that people here say is the Viking experience. But as mentioned upthread, even experienced Viking cruisers on our cruise were saying “this is not the Viking we have come to know” and were somewhat apologising to me as this was our first cruise with them and first impressions stick. You only get one chance for a first impression and it wasn’t great. 

 

Pushka, I have never sailed Viking but do read these boards as friends of ours just love Viking.  I feel very disappointed for your experience.  It's not fun when something you look forward to does not live up to your expectations.

Just wanted to chime in regarding you losing your deposit on the future cruise.  That must be Viking's policy not an 'Australia wide' policy.  We sail with another line and are currently booked on a cruise leaving Dec 4 this year.  We have only paid a deposit which if fully refundable for any reason up to Aug 6 (4 months out).  Our final payment if due Sept 5 (3 months out).  So your deposit situation is due to Viking's own policies.

Happy future cruising Pushka.

1 hour ago, Stickman1990 said:

 

Still 5 months to go - a little early to call it I think. I’d say the best price and package  will appear at 3 months out 

 

BTW is it normal for Seabourn to throwing out so many discounts on cruises - my friend and I who are on the Seabourn mailing list commented on the weekend how many offers we were receiving from them recently. Is it normal at this time of year?

Stickman1990, I too believe that the price will drop a little further.  Lots of suites still available online.  Since we have booked on this cruise Seabourn has ceased sending us any advertising, specials etc.  But prior to our booking we were receiving so much from Seabourn via email but also at least twice a week by normal mail.  We commented here just how much we were being bombarded.

2 hours ago, rols said:

This cruise just showed up on the sale specials in my inbox today. The price remains (the one I see in USD) at 4,299 base however they're adding in the 3 category upgrade so V4s start there, V5s are the price of V2s etc. I can't instantly tell if that also gets OBC and the 300 minutes internet package, believe it does. 

So I think that's it for this one, the price will go no lower and these are the last goodies Seabourn are going to toss in the pot. 

rols, this particular cruise has featured in specials emails here in Australia for a long while.  Maybe because the cruise is local to us here and they are pushing it really hard down under.  The current OB price is A$6499 (includes taxes, fees etc).  Has been at this level since around mid May.  We have had the 3 cat upgrade offer here for some time also.  We booked a V5 for the price of a V2.  With our booking was US$500 OBC but not internet.   Just had a look at Seabourn site and heaps of suites are available.   Even though we have booked, I still believe price will come down a bit more.  Incidentally we still have some time with zero penalty, if we decided to cancel/rebook etc.

zship, my DH loves snails (escargot).  On our last Odyssey cruise he requested them for dinner.  I think he requested them the day before and they were served in the MDR the following evening.  He absolutely loved them.

Hello everyone.  Thanks for all of your input.  We have now booked on this cruise.  We booked a V5 as we generally prefer to choose our own suite.  Just as a point of interest - immediately prior to us placing our booking there were 10 V5 suites showing as available on Deck 7 (where we wanted to be).  Immediately after our booking there were still 10 suites showing.  The one we selected had of course been removed and a new one was now showing as available.  So at the moment there are clearly more suites available than Seabourn are showing on their website.  I do believe the price will go down a little more, but we are happy at the price we have booked.  Also we will be in a zero penalty stage for a while yet where we can cancel and rebook should we desire.

On 6/13/2019 at 11:24 AM, Thecat123 said:

candylover enjoy you cruise

If you go to Komodo Island go to Pink Beach for a snorkel as a early tour, which is worth it, then go back to the ship to see the dragons in the afternoon

Thecat123, thank you so much for your suggestion.  Pink Beach would certainly be something that my husband would enjoy greatly and will look at booking.  For me, I am not so confident in the water.

On 6/14/2019 at 2:26 PM, Les Picantins said:

A little off topic - if Komodo Island is what is motivating you to take this itinerary, I remember hearing that it will be closed to tourists for the next year. I don’t know the details, but you may want to look into this.

From what I understand the Indonesian Government plan on closing the island to tourists for one year from January 2020.  So our cruise will probably be one of the last to visit the island for some time.  

On 6/15/2019 at 11:05 AM, kowhairob said:

We are booked on this trip through a US TA and the price was $US3999 plus taxes of approx $600 and $500 OBC $US287.5 per night pp . The prices have risen by $US300 since booking in May 2019 . Your price is still very good at $A437.37/ $US300 per night  all up and i personally would look at booking at this rate as i can't see it getting any lower . ( I have been known to be wrong! )

Hopefully we will get to meet during this cruise.  Do you know if a roll call has been started??  I had a quick look but could not find one.  We paid A$435 each per night for a V5 that we selected.  This includes taxes etc.  Plus we get the US$500 OBC.  So overall very pleased and can't wait for December to roll around.

Again thanks to everyone for your thoughts and opinions.

Thecat123,  thanks for your detailed response.  We feel quite comfortable with the level the pricing is ATM for this cruise, and would happily book at the current prices.  It is just when we go online, as if to book,  and see the volume of suite availability (62 V cat suites showing ATM) we feel there is no downside to waiting a little.  Plus being local, organising a one way airfare to Bali is not a big drama. However if I do notice a sudden uptake of available suites I will certainly then book immediately.

It is interesting to read all your input.    You are correct the cruise I am looking at ends prior to Christmas (Dec 21) in Sydney.  From what I read on a review post for this same cruise last year, it did not sail full (around 540 I think).  The prices here in Australia ATM are as follows:  OB A$6499 (this incidentally has come down in the last day or so, I think by around $400/$500).  V1 & V4 A$6998, V2 & V5 A$7398, V3 & V6 A$7798 (the V1-V6 prices all came down A$1000 p/p about 3 weeks ago).  All of these prices come with onboard credit of US$500 per suite.  From when I started monitoring this cruise closely, suite availability has remained very high.  Plenty of suites available and maybe even more available than what Seabourn are showing through their website - who knows??  Also there are plenty of suites on the 24 day cruise leaving Singapore late November (it is actually a B2B of the cruise I am looking at, plus the 7 days prior).  The suite numbers showing as available on this longer cruise are different numbers to those showing on the cruise I am interested in - so logically if the suites still available on the longer cruise would definitely be available on the shorter one. So by reckoning there are over 100 suites available for selection on the SB website at the moment (possibly more as they don't seem to list more than 10 suites as available for any particular V category on a specific deck level).  I will continue to observe but I think I am pretty content to sit tight for a while longer.  But it will certainly be interesting to see what happens with pricing.

Thanks to all who have responded.   My gut feeling is that prices will still go down a bit further and your comments Stickman seem to support this.  The OB price ATM is A$6998.  As we are local we have the luxury of being able to wait until September/October even later, to book this cruise.   So I will continue to check into the Seabourn site regularly to monitor suite availability.

On 6/4/2019 at 12:29 PM, rols said:

We're in a not-dissimilar state. Next summer is a 'multiple of 5' birthday so we'd like to go away. The itineraries around that time of the year don't change too much from year to year at this point and we've been on the Seabourn mailing list long enough, and taken enough cruises off their sale mails to think it fairly likely those cruises will drop into our daily price range by this time next year. We know for instance where the same cruise is priced this year, we know where this year's was priced this time last year etc. Currently they are on offer for several thousand dollars more than this summer's sailings which are currently appearing  each week in our mailbox. 

 

Some people would book, wait for a reduction and then try to get their TA to price-match. Whether you can do that or not depends on your TA and where in the world you're living so it's not something we rely on. Also I don't think, even if you get the 'sale price' you get the extra goodies they throw into the sale, which are often worth an excursion or two. And finally, if we're wrong and the cruise never discounts to a level we feel we can afford it's cancel (and that too has its difficulties depending again on where you are) or push the holiday budget. We also usually book the flights and time off when we book the cruise, so it can be costly to make changes. 

 

So our way of dealing with cruise bookings is to keep an eye on Seabourn's offers and see where we think cruises may discount to, and be patient until one we want to take drops into our price range. If it doesn't, or we get a little greedy and miss it, we wait for another one. If we were absolutely set on one particular cruise, we'd book earlier and pay the extra for the certainty. So it depends a lot on just how much you want to be on this specific cruise and how sad you'll be if it sails without you. 

 

My take on this particular cruise is that we've done that itinerary twice over the years, both times just before Christmas, with Seabourn and Silversea, because both times it was nicely discounted. The trips over Christmas and New Year are always quite full, booked early and not discounted, we've always felt the trips just before the holidays sailed a bit empty and were often discounted. That's just my impression however. 

Hi rols.  Thanks for your input.  I agree with you, I too believe that the cruises just leading up to Christmas offer better savings than say cruises in the Med.  Given that we don't have to travel far to meet this cruise we are happy to wait a bit longer and see what happens with the pricing.  I check the availability every so often on the Seabourn website and there still appears to by many many suites available, so I daresay we will wait a little longer and wait and see what happens with pricing.

We are looking at the 17 day Encore cruise from Bali to Sydney, Dec 4 this year - V cat suites.  I had been tracking the pricing of the suites for some time and in late May the prices dropped on each category by A$1000 per person, plus US$500 onboard credit per suite.  At the moment there are heaps of suites still available according to the Seabourn website (over 60).  Also there is a longer cruise from Singapore that includes the 17 day one we are looking at, and that also has over 40 suites still available (different suite numbers to the ones showing on the 17 day cruise).  So my logic tells me that there are at least 100 suites currently available.  I understand that those with OB bookings may be allocated from this ??

The same cruise last  year did not sail full - I think around 540 pax (as per a post by a cruiser on that cruise).  We always select our own suite, and there are plenty still available that we would happily choose.  Our past cruises on Seabourn have been on more popular itineraries so we booked much earlier than this, but I have less understanding on Seabourn pricing patterns as sail date approaches for cruises with plenty of availability.  We don't mind booking now, but then I think why do that if there is a real likelihood of further price reductions.  It is a local cruise for us, so airfare planning is not a big issue.

Would love to hear when fellow Seabourn cruisers would book in this situation.

10 hours ago, raphael360 said:

Candylover,

I'm not sure what the take away is from the various posts above but the vibe we experienced our SB holiday cruise was a happy vibe.  Fellow cruisers were in a better mood than non-holiday cruises.  I can't comment on the 'families with children' issue except to say there weren't any children on our cruise. 

 

Our SB holiday cruise was one of our favorite cruises ever.   Seabourn's Christmas decorations were better than Disney World's while the 'rock the boat' New Years Eve party was the best New Years Eve celebration we've ever had.

 

On an unrelated note, we just came back from our Sydney - Auckland cruise which we loved.  You are so lucky being local.  The 24 hour (each way) trip from Florida was a killer.  Merry Christmas :)

Raphael360, sounds like your holiday cruise was terrific.  Can I ask what area and what ship you were on.

Yes we are very lucky being in Aus for the Aus/NZ cruises but for all the others we have a very long trip.  Two years ago we did SB caribbean - Melb to LAX,  LAX to FLL, then FLL to Bridgetown (both ways).  We were wrecked by the time we arrived in Barbados.

On 4/26/2019 at 9:58 PM, Isklaar said:

We've been on Seabourn at Christmas/NY for most years out of the past 7. We feel that the onboard ambience is slightly different at that time of year, with a number of kids onboard, but until now it hasn't put us off and we remained  serial Holiday cruise bookers.We agree that the crowd trends younger overall, particularly on the Caribbean itineraries. 

However, our most recent was on Ovation in December 2018. This cruise felt very different, and not just because of the larger ship. So, we decided not to take one of the Holiday cruises this year, and that means we won't be on SB at all in 2019.

Isklaar, thanks for your comments.  If we do take this holiday cruise it will be on the Encore - our first SB cruise on one of the larger ships.  Can I ask where you cruised with the Ovation when you found the feeling very different onboard.  

5 hours ago, princeton123211 said:

The biggest thing we've found on the 2 Seabourn trips we've done over holiday periods is that it trends younger-- not necessarily big families either (although there were a few of those)-- just younger couples. 

Thanks princeton123211.  That is good news for us.  We are at the younger end of the Seabourn demographic so not a problem for us.  Will certainly give this holiday cruise some more serious thought.

6 hours ago, Catlover54 said:

DH and I agreed that our Caribbean holiday cruise for two weeks a few months ago had a different ambience than SB non-holiday cruises.  On average, people were unnecessarily louder, ( especially  when in big family groups), less considerate, service was slower when seated near a big group, and it was harder to find pax interested in joining  other pax at dinner as so many were sitting in their groups or cliques.  Cruises are pretty much guaranteed to be both sold out and more expensive. 

 

We still had a very good time and made the best of it and rated the cruise 4/5 overall. There were plenty of quiet niches other than our suite, we just had to go at atypical times ( like the aft hot tubs in the early morning, usually empty, or the roof deck loungers during dinner or show time, also empty).

Caribbean may also be a bit more rowdy than elsewhere, as it is caters to beach and fun in the sun crowd more so than NZ.

If I had a choice I would travel outside holiday times on SB.

 

Catlover54, your comments are very interesting.  We did a Caribbean cruise a few years ago (not at holiday time) and even then we found the ambience to be very different to our other cruises.  Definitely a different vibe, still enjoyable, but definitely not our favourite cruise.  So I am hoping that our experiences are more symptomatic of the destination rather than the time of the cruise.

6 hours ago, DC Traveler244 said:

Candylover, we've taken a number of holiday cruises with Seabourn and enjoyed them (including Australia & NZ).  While there tend to be more family groups on holiday sailings, there are loads of couples (like us) and we haven't found the the overall vibe to be very different than on other SB cruises. While some family groups don't mingle, others do.   

 

We really like the holiday cruises:  you need to get your holiday tasks out of the way early, but once you're aboard, you can just relax and enjoy a festive experience that's not over-the-top. 

 

 

DC Traveler244, that is good to hear.  We have toyed with the idea of a holiday cruise for some time now  and your comments do provide some assurance.

I am considering the above cruise which spans the Christmas & New Year period.  We travel as a couple.  All of our past Seabourn cruises have been outside of the holiday period.  We have enjoyed all past cruises and particularly enjoy the social, convivial atmosphere we have found onboard.  We love socialising, enjoying dinner etc. with others that we meet.  My only hesitation about this holiday cruise is I wonder if the vibe is different over the holiday period i.e. mainly family groups etc who may not (understandably) be wanting to mix outside of their group.  I would love to hear from other Seabourn cruisers who have cruised over the holiday period as to whether the whole atmosphere is different from cruising at other times during the year. I look forward to hearing your thoughts of cruising at this time of year as a couple.