candylover

Thank you for all your responses. Good to hear that it's not just me. Hopefully problem will be fixed soon. SKP946 it appears that it is not just Australia, based on some of the replies. Thank you again for taking the time to reply.

Good Morning everyone. Just wondering if anyone else if having problems with 'Plan your Cruise' function on the Seabourn Website. For over 24 hours now I have been trying to search cruises with no luck. Function just times out and there is an error message displayed saying to clear all search filters and try again. I have tried using the various search parameters, date, ship, destination etc. but no matter what combination I use same result. I have even tried just selecting 'search' without selecting any parameters - this usually brings up all Seabourn cruises in date order, but this also just times out. I have tried going onto the Seabourn site via various search engines - still same result. The rest of the website seems to be operating normally. I am in Australia, don't think that should make any difference though. Any suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks Mary for posting this. This brings back memories for me - I did the galley tour on the Odyssey about 5 years ago. Was absolutely impressed. Couldn't believe how calm and organised everything and everybody was as the dinner hour was approaching.

I guess a loss for Silversea but a win for us on our upcoming Antarctica voyage on the new Scenic Eclipse. Will tell her hi and give her best wishes from the Silversea guests.

 

Just FYI: I thing its the same company that runs all of the Silversea ships will be also running the Scenic ocean ships. So its just a lateral move for her, staying with the same company.

Scenic is actually an Australian owned and run operation. They commenced in 1986 in Newcastle, a large regional city in Australia. Initially they just did coach tours in Australia and have continued to expand to now where they have lots of river boats (15 or more I think) with Scenic Eclipse being their first foray into ocean cruising. They are an upper end operator. I have not actually sailed with them but I did attend a presentation on the new Eclipse. Looks truly impressive. We sail both Silversea and Seabourn and we found the pricing for the Eclipse to be around 20 percent more than these. Can't wait to read reviews on the new Eclipse. But just wanted to mention that Scenic is an Aussie success story. (and I don't work for them or have any affiliation whatsoever). Enjoy your cruises.

The 2019 Asia and Caribbean sailings all include free flights now or discounted business class. Never seen that this far out either. (And have taken advantage off.)

 

My Asia sailing in 5 weeks still has all categories left as well and they’ve also added $1000 OBC on top of the free suite upgrade added in December.

 

The really popular sailings are still selling well but can’t help think sales are not as buoyant as SS might have hoped for.

 

 

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I wonder also how buoyant SS sales are at the moment. In one of our national newspapers this weekend 'The Australian' there was a glossy SS advertising brochure inserted. This would have cost them a bomb. This publication has national distribution. We are always interested in, and quickly notice, anything about cruising and have never seen this type of advertising by SS in our newspapers (usually inserts are the domain of the very large mainstream lines like P&O and then just a paper flyer not a glossy). SS do place adverts from time in the travel section etc. but not an entire glossy brochure inserted. Both myself and partner commented how unusual when we discovered the brochure.

Benzygirl, not sure about staying on the ship late when disembarking. We left around 9.30am to catch a flight at around 1.00pm. Perhaps best to check with Seabourn if you want to stay on much later. You will have a wonderful time. Such a relaxing part of the world to cruise.

Benzygirl, I don't know the earliest time you could board but we were definitely on board in time for lunch in The Colonnade. I'm thinking we probably got to The Colonnade, after completing boarding formalities (which didn't take very long at all) at around 1.00 - 1.15pm. Definitely others had boarded earlier than us, but not sure what would be the earliest. Our suites were ready at around 2.00pm.

Margbem, we also flew with JetBlue from Fort Lauderdale to Barbados and return. It was our only ever flights with JetBlue. On disembarkation day we too were on the 1.00pm flight which went ahead without a hitch. It was the perfect time to allow a leisurely disembarkation from the ship. Interestingly on our flight over to Barbados (we flew over a few days before cruise) the plane was virtually empty. No more than 10 - 15 passengers in total. I can only think that the cancelled flight was due to lack of numbers ??

Benzy, I am just looking at "The Herald' I had retained from our April cruise and on embarkation day it lists the 'all aboard' time as 10.30pm. I think I remember on embarkation day going to seabourn square after dinner (say around 9.00pm) and we saw a few pax having a private safety briefing with a ships officer. I assumed at the time that they were pax who embarked after the scheduled safety drill at 4.45pm. And certainly during the formal safety drill when they check off everyones attendance, many people were not yet on board. Hope this helps.

Dalliowner, we also sailed out of Barbados in April this year with sailaway at 11pm. Guest Drill commenced at 4.45pm. Enjoy your cruise.

On our 14 day Odyssey cruise earlier this year the MDR was open for lunch on only two days, and on both of these days both The Colonnade and The Patio Grill were closed for lunch, so effectively the MDR was then the only restaurant open. These two days were the beach BBQ days, but we noticed that quite a few pax stayed on board and did not attend the beach BBQ. We don't mind lunch at either Colonnade or Patio Grill but would enjoy the option of the MDR for lunch if it were made available more frequently.

I was on Odyssey April this year. The dryer was just fine for me, however I do not have long hair. So hair was completed within 5 mins tops. Would be annoying if dryer kept cutting out though.

This all seems positive and very welcome. Does anybody know roughly the combined dining capacity of Atlantide and Indochine. I know this was discussed some months earlier on a previous post but I can't seem to locate it now. I think the success or not will largely depend on having adequate capacity between these two venues.

Just back from a 10 day cruise from Rome to Barcelona on the Odyssey (and 5 extra nights in Barcelona) and thought I'd give some quick observations from our trip. This is our fourth time on Seabourn after 1 time on the Odyssey and 2 times on the Pride.

 

Overall everything is fantastic and I could still get used to living on the ship for months at a time but there were a few things that caught our attention. None of these are major but kind of make it feel like the beginnings of some slippage...

1) No more towel animals. I think we had a rose one night and a paper boat another night and that was it.

2) No more shoe shine service.

3) No shoe horn in the suite. We thought this was weird. The Pride always had one with a really long handle that my partner loved. Guest services didn't know what a show horn was...

4) A really odd odor in part of the Observation Lounge which they said was being worked on but I don't think they ever fixed it.

5) A lack of the general staff knowing your name. I believe only 5-6 people addressed me directly and I'm not sure if several of those weren't because we sat at the same table in the MDR every night.

6) Portion size in the MDR seems to have gotten smaller. It's not really an issue since you can always order more but it was noticeable on some of the appetizers where the portion was more of a one bite amuse bouche.

7) Internet is still not good but that's nothing new.

Our friends that were travelling with us had a major problem with their cabin. They ended up having to talk to management and have the entire suite steam cleaned to remove a persistent odor and have their stewardess reassigned. However, they were satisfied with how the management handled things so that's always a good thing!

 

What we loved:

1) The food overall excellent. Meat was cooked to what we expected and things that were supposed to be hot were hot and things that were supposed be cold were cold.

2) The included wines were all drinkable

3) The Grill was delicious. Nothing fancy but a table prepared Caesar salad and a NY Strip with perigourdine sauce was wonderful. We actually loved the idea of R2 but the Grill is a great replacement.

4) TK meals appeared in the MDR every other day and I thought they were on the whole innovative (using non-standard preparations and ingredients) and quite tasty. Kudos to Chef Tom on great meals.

5) Plenty of caviar to be had.

6) Liked the new cocktail menu at the observation lounge/Grill. Nothing really new and innovative on the menu but some solid drinks.

Thanks Spree75 for your informative post. We too sailed on the Odyssey, April this year, for 14 days in the Caribbean. We also thought that overall the cruise was fantastic (it was our second Seabourn cruise). We still had R2 but we look forward to the TK Grill on future sailings.

I just wanted to comment on part of your post regarding your friends who experienced the odour in their suite. Whilst onboard the Odyssey we met another Aussie couple and they were having enormous problems with the smell in their suite. It was so strong it was making the woman quite ill at times. They believed the smell was coming specifically from their shower recess, so upon entering their bathroom they were knocked out by the smell. Seabourn attended their suite on numerous occasions trying to rectify the problem, pulling apart the drain etc etc. But they were not able to completely eradicate the smell. Their suite was on level 6 - just wondering if there is an odour problem in some parts of the ship.

57 Varieties and Wes W thank you so much for your very informative responses. The renderings for the Cloud look absolutely fantastic. It is good to know that the other older vessels appear to be maintained to a very high standard. For us choosing a future cruise is much easier if we can consider all the SS fleet and not just the newer vessels.

However on further reading on CC of the Cloud reviews, recent and also not so recent, I have to wonder if this ship should have been removed from service some time ago. I certainly would not have been at all happy if I had to put up with the things mentioned in many of the reviews. If I had checked into a hotel on land with a shower head like the one in the recent photograph I would have immediately checked out - not so easy once you board a ship though. But again really good to hear that this neglect appears confined to just one ship.

Our first 'luxury' cruise was on the Silver Spirit in 2010 (when she was very new). We absolutely loved this cruise but for various reasons, mainly itinerary choices, we have since sailed on Seabourn only. We are planning our next cruise in 2019 and would like to seriously consider the SS options as many of the itineraries appeal to us, however many are on the older ships.

I just noticed a very recent review on CC from someone who sailed on the Silver Cloud. Included in the review were a couple of photo's, which to me appear to show a ship that is poorly maintained and looking rather shabby and grubby. But as I said it was only a couple of photo's. So my question to regular SS cruisers and particularly those who sail on the older vessels how would you rate the overall maintenance etc of the ships. Are some much better maintained than others? Do you feel the photo's chosen are a fair representation of the condition of this ship and the other older SS vessels. On SS website it says that the Cloud was refurbished in 2015, so I wonder what does a 'refurb' actually mean. I would really appreciate comments from the regulars so we can decide whether we include the older ships in the mix for future cruises.

Want concerns me most on reading this thread is that it appears that Seabourn did not take the appropriate action to put an end to this anti social behaviour immediately. The OP mentions that senior staff were aware/in contact with the individuals, and that they themselves had in fact made complaints - I am curious as to what Seabourn did in response. I am positive that in our T & C's their is a clause/clauses regarding inappropriate behaviour. Surely if the staff 'on the ground' were out of their depth in dealing with this, The Captain should have been called.

On a recent Odyssey cruise we experienced Seabourn staff not wanting to get involved after receiving complaints from clients about toddlers in the pool wearing diapers. We were very disappointed with their lack of involvement. Overall we had a wonderful cruise but came away with the feeling that Seabourn did not or would not get involved when they received complaints from clients about abuse of their own rules by others.

I am curious if you get a response to your written complaints. We did not.

BasandSyb, I could not agree with you more. When I started this thread I was wanting to ascertain if TK menu items infiltrated all dining venues after a dedicated TK restaurant had been fitted on the particular ship. As we sailed on the Odyssey we still had R2, and I was hoping that when you sailed on a ship with a TK specific restaurant, the TK menu items would be confined to that restaurant. We too felt that things got repetitive (and we only sailed for 14 nights), particularly with the 'ribs' appearing 2 nights out of every 7 in the Colonnade. It did certainly limit your dining choices on that night. Would much prefer TK menu to be confined to the TK restaurant.

Catlover, we were lucky on our Odyssey cruise in April this year, as we still had R2. I too will miss R2 on future SB cruises. Our experience with TK in the Colonnade was different. We were on for 14 nights and every Tuesday and Thursday was ribs only. Maybe the flavour was different but essentially the same menu. We certainly had no clambake or fried chicken etc. Overall for us the ribs were very disappointing and we certainly felt that 2 nights out of every 7 was just too much. We too enjoyed the TK offerings in the MDR (I particularly loved the apple trifle), and also the other selections in the MDR. You mentioned looking up menus via the TV. I didn't know you could do this. However on our cruise every evening at turndown we received a printed fold out brochure type thing (in addition to the daily Herald) which provided details of the following nights dinner menus in all restaurants (MDR, R2, Colonnade and Patio Grill). It was the full menus, including dessert. This also included details of the TK dishes that would be served on that night in the various venues. Did you not get this on the Quest? We found it a very welcome addition.

Thank you to all responders. Your responses have certainly made it clearer for us. I must say that when we were on the Odyssey we generally really enjoyed the TK dishes that we tried in the MDR, however for two nights every week The Colonnade only had the TK "ribs". We did this only once and it was extremely disappointing. The night we went there was probably only 6 - 8 tables at most in the Colonnade. We were hoping that when there was a dedicated TK Grill restaurant on board that the Colonnade would revert to the variety of theme nights that they used to have, and that we really enjoyed in the past.

We have recently completed a cruise on the Odyssey (which at that stage still had R2, so no dedicated Thomas Keller Grill restaurant). There were TK dishes on offer at night in the MDR and also on Tuesday and Thursday nights in The Colonnade they had TK ribs. I think also at the pool at night they often had some TK inspired dishes also (we didn't eat here at night). My question to those who have recently sailed on Seabourn, where there was a dedicated TK restaurant, and in particular, The Encore, do the other restaurants still have TK dishes or are they confined solely to the dedicated TK Grill restaurant. Just curious as we did miss the variety of specialty nights in The Colonnade, given that two nights of every week were given over to the ribs etc. which did not change from week to week. Wanting to know how TK is handled on the ships with a dedicated TK Grill.

Hi All, I certainly enjoyed your replies. Yes, the thongs to which I referred are flip flops (we still call them thongs in Aus) - I would however point out that the other thongs to which you referred were what featured frequently in The Colonnade at breakfast (not great for one's digestion that early in the morning).

I understand that some cruise lines are more inclined to enforce their own rules/standards and it would appear that Seabourn is not one of those lines. Fully understand that they do not want to offend any client, however I am 100% certain that more guests were offended by their lack of proactivity (particularly in respect of diapers in the pool) than would have occurred had SB quickly acted to address the situation. I overheard one guest speaking with the client services personnel in S/Square about this issue, and they were virtually told that SB was not prepared to intervene. I also placed a written complaint about this to SB which still has not even been acknowledged.

However overall it was an excellent cruise, but for us a few alarm bells rang in respect of SB's reluctance to get involved when things weren't going so swimmingly so to speak.

Thank you for all your comments. It is now much clearer for me how the Silversea dining online system works. We actually like the idea of booking ahead - the more we can do before we leave home the better for us. I take it then that the 40% capacity that can't be booked online is for walk ins on the night etc. Not sure how this is working though, going by a very very negative review just posted on Cruise Critic by a cruiser just off the Muse. Will be interesting to see if anything changes down the track.

I have joined this thread very late but this is an issue which concerned us on our last Seabourn cruise. We completed a 14 day Carib cruise on the Odyssey only a few weeks ago. Before leaving home we were aware that SB had relaxed their dress codes since our cruise prior and even bearing this is mind we were very disappointed at the attire of many fellow guests. We saw hawaii shirts in the main dining room in the evening, thongs in the MDR on formal night. Even at breakfast, where no real dress codes applies some of the gear belonged only on the pool deck or in the gym. What was most disappointing was that SB to our knowledge never seemed to enforce their dress codes. We are Australian were casual is the order of the day but what we experienced was appalling and unfortunately it does to a degree spoil the overall ambiance of a venue, particularly on formal night. We noticed such a decline that we will probably return to Silversea, where I understand the dress standards are more rigorously maintained. Also, off topic, Seabourn seemed to ignore the behaviour of children in the pool. Toddlers in diapers in the pool, rowdy behaviour, bombing into the pool etc. etc. Made us question what direction Seabourn is moving in.

Hello all. It is quite some time since I have cruised with Silversea (before online dining reservations), and I would appreciate advice from fellow cruisers who have used the online reservations system.

Reading through other threads it appears that online bookings open around 120 days prior to sailing and the process is similar to that of booking a shore excursion. We haven't actually booked yet so I can't go online to discover for myself yet. My main question - what is the situation if you are travelling with say friends - is one member of the party able to make bookings on behalf of the entire group, quoting all diners' suite numbers etc. so that you can secure a booking for your entire group at the same table etc. Would be very interested in your comments on how the online bookings work.

Many thanks in advance.