SLSD

According to a poster on FB (as I mentioned above), an email was received from Gina Luongo, Concierge, Seabourn Reservations detailing their revised smoking policy that will now allow cigarette, pipe and cigar smoking on the starboard half of the Sky Bar on deck 9, to bring these ships into alignment with the rest of the fleet.

I just read in a FB post on Seabourn Sailors that Seabourn has announced that smoking will now be allowed on all Venture itineraries to bring the ship into line with the others in the fleet. This is very disappointing to say the least.

I don't blame you at all for being disappointed and chagrined. We have never opted for a Wintergarten Suite, but if we had, and had substandard service, we would be quite disappointed as well. I am not making any excuses for SB in spite of all the financial distress and Covid issues. It's a difficult time for cruising which is one reason we are sitting out. Instead of coming to the conclusion that Seabourn does not care, I am more likely to say that the company is in distress and a few score of disgruntled passengers seems like the least of their troubles. And yes, I realize it could be a downward spiral. At the same time we hear that Encore, Ovation, and Venture are doing ok. All of this makes me think that the issue is resources: staff, provisions---both of which require financial backing to provide. Perhaps Quest should not have been put back into service.

Isn't it possible that the short staffing may be partially due to a certain amount of financial distress on the part of Carnival, the parent company of Seabourn? On one of these threads I read that one passenger was told that ships had received a directive to reduce stockpiles of provisions. Perhaps the cost cutting is of necessity as is the need to fill the ships even at discounted prices if necessary. I have no doubt that hiring employees is difficult worldwide, but perhaps that is not the whole picture. Edited to add: And then. you have the fact that staff continue to be sidelined by Covid. from time to time.

That is quite a review Catlover. Thank you for posting all the details. We are not complainers (even though we have had to be from time to time) and I agree with you that having to complain takes a lot of the joy out of a vacation. We are still standing by when it comes to resuming cruising. I just don't see a stellar choice right now. We've cruised Silversea and find it rather bland. We have not tried Regent, but think the ships are a bit too big for our liking. This is just not a very good time. We also have some worry about the financial viability of SB--and don't want to book too far in advance.

While you were fascinated by an atlas, I lost myself in Richard Halliburton's Book of Marvels (https://completebookofmarvels.com/. I am going to miss your travelogue! Hopefully, someone else with an interesting viewpoint will step up to the plate. From my perspective, those of you who live in the UK have just a bit of an easier time traveling. You don't always have to cross a huge ocean to be on your way.

I see there is a problem if some "are properly attended to" and others are not. Not an inducement to sail with Seabourn at this time.

We cruise for the same reason you do--to see stuff. Like you, we don't care a lot about the food--or the wine. We do care about being surrounded by low key people who are not uncouth. It's wonderful when it is delightful and the service is impeccable--but that is not what we cruise for. We are not adventurers, but we want to see the subtle things--and those are the images that will remain with us. Thank you for your writing. I know you must have been a professional writer in your previous life.

Gozo also has a nice citadel on a hill. We enjoyed that as well as the town square where all kinds of things were available. We availed ourselves of a local bread (sort of like focaccia) and tea towels. I understand that Gozo is the "also ran" for Malta. I was charmed by their earnestness. We were given refrigerator magnets which still reside on our garage refrigerator. While the stop at the main island with Valetta and Mdina was more exciting, I would return to Gozo. But Fletcher, I totally understand how all. the building cranes could be very offputting.

I applaud you for asking for a refund if SB is not honoring their own announced policy.

Well, that's bad news. While computer literate, I've never used an App in my life. And, like others, usually lock my cell phone in the safe and forget about it. I'm all for conservation, but I think SB should be meeting your request.

Fletcher, You missed the Megalithic Temples of Malta on Gozo. They are probably not everyone's cup of tea, but I found them memorable. We've never been on a Hop On Hop Off bus.

I have no interest in taking my cell phone with me everywhere I go on a cruise. I don't do it at home and certainly don't want to do it on vacation. I understand saving paper, but a ship full of people glued to their phones does not sound very pleasant to me. When we finally cruise again, we will be asking for paper copies of the Herald.

All of your reports are great fun to read. We loved Mdina, but understand that it is more beautiful before all the tourists arrive. We thought we didn't have enough time there--but maybe we really did and would not have enjoyed it longer if swamped with tourists. There are some very ancient archaeological sites on Gozo. I hope you are head to them.

We have friends on the Venture's next itinerary. I don't think they will be having any issues with ice. I hope it goes well for them.

We enjoy galley tours as well--but have never enjoyed Galley Lunches--which are really another buffet. Too much excess and disjointed food offerings for us. We did go to one on our last SB cruise, but agree that we will not be doing it again. We don't watch a lot of TV in our suite, so the position of the TV does not bother me. Your photos of this cruise have been glorious, but I have certainly gathered that you are not pleased at all with many of the particulars of the cruise. Looking over the events for this Sea Day, I would have to agree that there is nothing that would interest me--unless the Australian retired military man is exceedingly interesting. What would interest us on a Sea Day---very interesting lecturers, an on deck caviar champagne event midday, some special entertainment (a musician flown in for a special concert), a bridge tour, a lecture by the captain about all the details of sailing various kinds of ships--and how a cruise ship differs from others, a special meal featuring local cuisine. You get the idea.

We know quite a few people who have recently come down with the virus in spite of getting the omicron specific booster. While the booster did not keep them from becoming infected, none were hospitalized.

Thank you Catlover. I had seen #32, but had somehow missed #50. I am shuddering.

I read virtually every post on Cruise Critic in the Seabourn forum . I have found this site to be most helpful for those of us who love to cruise Seabourn. I am not at all offended by very critical posts and I also like hearing from others on the same itinerary that they are not totally displeased with food, service, excursions, etc. We have cruised enough to recognize that you can be on the same cruise with others and have a totally different experience. For that reason, I like the hear about both sides of the coin. As an aside, we are recently home from a 10 day trip to our favorite city in the US---Santa Fe, New Mexico. One of the highlights of our trip was getting together with friends we met on a Seabourn Baltic cruise in 2018. They had recently purchased a lovely home in Santa Fe--had us over for lunch on our second day in the city and we met them for another lunch several days later. It's always a bonus when you make good friends on a Seabourn cruise.

No converters need. This really helps in packing. No difficulties at all with charging our phones or laptops. I used the small desk area with mirror right outside the bathroom to dry my hair, etc. I applied makeup in the bathroom as the lighting was somewhat better (not great). This worked for us as my husband is a late sleeper and we never needed to be in the bathroom at the same time. The bathroom is small, but I can't imagine having a larger one in a basic veranda suite--which is what we always choose. We found the suite with its ship bathroom to be quite comfortable.

I have to ask--what sort of dreadful people? Are they drunken? loud? uncouth?

I love this image. For me, this would be worth the entire cruise.

On past SB cruises, we have run into the same thing---excursions announced at port talks (which we usually attend). Several times, we have left a port talk to go and book a newly announced excursion. Also, bridge tours have often been booked up before we even heard that they were happening. In one of these cases, I called guest services and asked them to offer an additional bridge tour for those of us left out of the first one. They obliged, and we were happy. We never tire of bridge tours and try to take one on each cruise.

We. enjoyed Ajaccio.