DiscerningD

We went on a round uk cruise on Spirit in Sept 21, if you are fortunate you will moor in Leith so no tender required. You will be within walking distance of the Royal Yacht Britannia and a tour of that is absolutely fascinating.  Would concur on a walk from the castle down to Holyrood as the best way to get a sense of Edinburgh old town. 

Fascinating to read another’s comments on a cruise you’ve been on and one’s  different perceptions. We found the staff to be universally friendly and helpful and mainly good, some obvious training going on but that’s to be expected. Wine seems to be a big issue, we went to a fascinating presentation/ tasting by Karolina the chief sommelier, ironically held in the closed Indochine, and the breadth of the offer was incredible. Her suggestions of alternatives to usual favourites were intelligent and why not challenge one’s palate occasionally? As we’d chatted to her, in Atlantide she would once or twice come over and bring a wine to try from the standard offer that was a bit different, it’s fun. One thing I would say is that while we enjoyed some good food, it was not up to the higher standard we’ve been used to on either Seabourn or Silversea pre pandemic. It was better last September on the UK cruise on Spirit but then that was half full. After three cruises with Silversea, we finally enjoyed having a butler who really made a difference or maybe we got it got it right. Anyway we enjoyed our cruise, but came home with the all too common unwelcome souvenir of Covid caught on the transit ! Better now than before, but the risk one takes, would I attach as much importance to a nasty cold?

We are spending a few days in Bordeaux and it was lovely to see the Silver Moon here. Glad you are having a great time. It makes us look forward to our voyage on the Spirit from Athens in September even more! 

Look forward to bumping into you (not literally I hope!) on the cruise. We too cannot wait and it is our third cruise with Seabourn, as a much cruise travelled friend said when we embarked on our first in 2016, " You believe in starting at the top!". Not regretted our decision, just wished I'd realised how much you can lean back and relax on the first cruise. Any concerns just ask and 99 times out of a hundred your path will be smoothed! Enjoy!

My advice is just to relax and lean back and expect everything to work if you are on a Seabourn flight. We were on one to Miami in Jan 2018 and the overnight hotel turned out to be all inclusive for us, we had an apartment rather than just a room as booked, the transfer to the ship was smooth. No experience of Dubai transfer but I am sure if you ask your TA or Seabourn they will give you details. We are normally independent travellers and get a bit itchy if we don't know exactly what is going to happen but I am sure your early arrival will be managed with no long uncomfortable wait. It has taken us time to get used to the Seabourn experience!

I'm afraid I'm a bit of a pessimist about Thomas Cook as I very much doubt the government will bail them out. We suffered some years back when the airline XL failed and couldn't get flights rebooked within Europe, although to be fair James Villas refunded our money immediately. If I were you I'd put feelers out immediately with Seabourn and Virgin Atlantic or via skyscanner to see what's available so you're ahead of the rush. Good luck!

Can one be 'overdressed'? I ask this because my DH brings his DJ/Tux, as he rarely gets to wear it these days, for formal nights but felt a bit odd one out on our SB Western Caribbean cruise last year. Admittedly a dark Tux is not very tropical! I get the impression that even formal nights are getting more casual. We quite like wearing something a bit smarter in the evening but don't want to look unnecessarily 'stuffy'. I would be interested in opinions as we are on an SB Caribbean cruise again in Jan. Thanks

For fast track, St James operate as Five Star, it cost 120USD for two of us. A bit eye watering but after a long flight it was definitely worth it.

May I recommend St James Travel (www.stjamesgroup.com). I think they have the franchise for fast track on arrival and you meet them before you enter the Terminal to fast track you through immigration. Very professional and wait with you for luggage arrival, through customs, and on to transport. Very impressed this January when we were just staying in Barbados, will definitely use them again next Jan when we are joining an Odyssey cruise. We intend to use them as well for a gap in transport arrangements from our transit hotel to the ship and from the ship to our extra week at The Colony Club. I am sure our TA could do this, but to be honest once I have a good contact I am control freak enough to do it myself! 

We have done three river cruises with Viking and two  ocean cruises with Seabourn and looking forward to our third. I think comparing ocean cruising with river cruising is like apples and pears, they are different but each can be very special. River boats because of the size of locks cannot be as spacious but also can be well served and comfortable. We thoroughly enjoyed our first trip on the Danube from Budapest to Passau in Germany. It is lovely at most ports of call to be able to stroll off the ship straight into the town or be only a short hop away.  I  can also thoroughly recommend our trip on the Douro in Portugal, you get to see Lisbon, Coimbra and Porto and the scenery along the river is amazing and Viking have their own spacious luxury coaches for trips. The trip to Salamanca was an amazing surprise, a fascinating and historic town and difficult to reach otherwise. I now have to issue a caveat, we went on the Rhine cruise with Viking from Amsterdam to Basle and they have expanded their fleet so quickly and massively It means they can no longer dock all the ships at their headline ports and shuttle buses reduce the experience. I also felt the service had suffered because the expansion meant the staff were less well trained, a bit like Seabourn immediately after the bigger ships were introduced and the O class were raided of their best crew!  However River cruises are a great way to see inside a country without the drag of packing and unpacking. If we did not know France so well I would be tempted by a cruise on the Rhone.

Great video, really made me smile! We were on Sojourn in Far East in Jan 2016. Looking forward to joining Odyssey in just over a week, obviously not Christmas but looking forward to sunshine and great service.

We celebrated our Ruby wedding last year on the Sojourn and our TA certainly made sure Seabourn knew! One night we came back to our suite and found red rose petals scattered liberally a congratulatory banner, towel sculptures and a lovely chocolate cake and bottle of red wine. Later on we were chatting to one of the senior members of the crew at the beach bbq and came back to our suite later to find a bottle of champagne and petit fours. We also seemed to get invited to a lot of hosted tables. We certainly felt spoilt rotten without being publicly singled out, which was lovely!