cruiseej

First, let's stipulate that different people are comfortable with widely different temperature ranges — someone can feel cold at 50ºF and someone else can feel 32ºF requires just a light jacket. And some of that depends on the weather conditions beyond the temperature: sunny with not wind at 32º can feel very different than cloudy, windy, rainy 32º. So now, I'll say that you want a variety of weights of clothing to insure you can make yourself comfortable. Yes, I'd take a fleece. Even if you decide you don't want/need it under your parka, but you might find it comfortable to wear on the ship if you're popping outside on your veranda or on deck to view what you're sailing by. I did peel off my fleece on a hike on one of the Falkland islands because we had a beautiful day and I was too hot, but I did enjoy having it on a 90-minute zodiac cruise when I was stationary. I'd also say that the ship's slippers (a) don't fit if you have large/wide feet, and (b) can easily get wet in the mud room. (The latter isn't a big problem if you've returned from a landing and you're headed to your room, but the last thing you want as you go to suit up for a landing is to get your socks wet! So I think taking some form of waterproof sandal/water shoe is desirable. I purchased a pair of these inexpensive ones on Amazon at the recommendation of a fellow SS passenger; just consider ordering a size up so you can wear them with the thick socks you'll be wearing.

Actually, no. 😀 You wrote that you were disappointed in Seabourn for not getting "ahead of this." I don't know what the posts by people here have to do with what you thought Seabourn didn't do and should have done. The information about the subs they are using — which have been used on other cruise ships before Seabourn — is readily available online. And we know the Venture has been in service for a year and there have been no reported issues with the subs, other than people not always seeing as much as they had expected/hoped. In light of the tragedy in Newfoundland, would you have wanted them to put out a press release touting "Our subs are safe! Look at our perfect safety record!"?? If not that, then what then? That's all I was questioning.

They just don't have big enough plates to load up everything and keep them separate! 🤣

I'm not clear on what you think Seabourn should have done that they didn't do? Seabourn has had no safety issue with their subs. The builder of the subs which Seabourn uses has a post about how this model of sub completed 1,000 dives in the Antarctic during the recent season. Just for accuracy, the subs which Seabourn uses are for dives to a depth of 300 meters, not 300 feet. (300 meters is 985 feet.) And they are officially certified up to a depth of 500 meters (1,640 ft).

I'm surprised that having a change to question the Seabourn President and other executives, no one asked "hard" questions. I don't mean "stump them", but legitimate issue which are of concern to Seabourn customers. Just off the top of my head, I might have liked to heard her asked and respond to questions like these… • How does Seabourn aim to compete against Silversea and Regent, as well as the new luxury cruise lines like Scenic, Atlas, Ritz Carlton Four Seasons, etc. who keep bringing new ships to market, when Seabourn has only its new expedition ships but only contraction — nothing new or planned, and the upcoming loss of the Odyssey — on the classic cruise side? Is the plan to remain pretty at the current size? Are there plans to add any new classic cruise ships? • Silversea created a program to feature, in at least one restaurant, food and drink driven by where in the world the ships are sailing, while Seabourn's food and wines typically are corporate-prescribed menus and wines unreflective of locale. On my most recent cruise in Spain, France and Italy, the wines were predominantly from South Africa and the menus didn't give a clue about Spanish, French or Italian cuisine. Would you consider allowing some local variation and allowing your executive chefs more flexibility to show their creativity? Would you consider locally sourcing some wines when in notable wine-producing regions? Or is this simply impossible because of cost constraints? • Speaking of wines, Seabourn touts its complimentary "fine wines", but we've seen a tangible decline in the quality of the included wines. Most are $10-$15 retail wines in the US. We feel, and many people we have cruised with feel, it would tangibly improve the dining experience if Seabourn just modestly increased the price points for the included wines to improve the quality of the offerings. With the exception of non-wine drinkers, I think most Seabourn passengers would be very happy if you added $5/day per person to the cruise fare in order to offer some $15-$25 (US retail) wines instead of your current offerings. Is there any chance of moving that needle? • We're very disappointed with the removal of the trios and installation of DJs, and we hope you'll reverse this recent change. The perception is that this was a cost-saving measure, although we've also heard it was an effort to "modernize" the music. But it wasn't necessary to remove the trios to update the music. We're all for directing the musicians to update their playlists to more current music — we'd applaud a ban on "The Girl from Ipanema" and "Besame Mucho" (ha ha) — but we treasure a variety of live music on the ships. Have you received customer feedback on this recent change, and are you open to reversing direction and bringing back the live musicians which were eliminated? • We understand Seabourn, and all cruise companies, suffered massive losses and pile up massive debt during the Covid shutdown, and there is a perception among some, perhaps many, longtime Seabourn cruisers, that corporate bean-counters are driving small but meaningful cutbacks which are slowly eroding some of what had made Seabourn so special. What can you tell us about your plans going forward to maintain and improve Seabourn's quality of service, food & beverage, entertainment, etc.? • Now, about allowing jeans in the restaurants… 🤣 (Haha, just kidding)

But Seabourn does now allow jeans, except in one restaurant on the infrequent formal nights. So isn't this a discussion of the past, rather than the present or future? I think most people understand the difference between gardening jeans and jeans you'd wear to a nice restaurant. Most people aim to abide by the rules/suggestions/codes which exist. And some people will flaunt rules or do whatever they please and feel the rules don't apply to them — whether we're talking about clothing, lounge chairs, waiting in lines, arriving back at a tour bus on time, etc. 😉 So aren't we at a point where there's no reason to continue poking at and discussing the dress code and jeans policy?

@mamapirk Yeah, I'll bet! Airlines just can't get enough crews and planes in the air; capacity isn't keeping up with the demand for air travel. As the CEO of Delta said yesterday: “The demand…is off the chain.” Throw in summer storms in the east this week stranding tens of thousands of people who need to be rebooked, and a holiday weekend… (shudder)… I hope you find a way to get there that doesn't break the bank!

Is this breakfast/brunch or dinner that you're describing?

We were just there last month. We stayed at Le Meridien and found it suited us very well. The location was great for exploring the city and walking to restaurants for dinner, not too large or small, quiet, reasonably priced. We would absolutely stay there on a future visit to Barcelona.

@mamapirk Just curious: did you get a hugely-discounted fare for such a last-minute purchase? You don't need to disclose pricing details; I'm just interested whether you found a great deal or if the trip just came together last-second.

The biggest difference between the Seabourn subs and the ill-fated voyage to the Titanic wreck is the depth: up to 1,000 feet (30 times atmospheric pressure) and 12,500 feet (400 times atmospheric pressure). Additionally, the Seabourn subs have been fully certified (to a depth nearly double how deep Seabourn will dive) and use a proven design and materials; the Titan used an experimental design which had never been used for extremely deep diving, and the craft never went through the proven certification process. The company which builds the Seabourn subs, U-Boat Worx, has had the current technology in use for cruise ships and private yachts for the past 7 years.

On those long days, you may want to look at booking a private excursion in the afternoon if Silversea doesn't offer something you want to do. All the cruise ships visit the same ports and use the same tour operators, so you can often add missing pieces yourself. For instance, if you do a SS excursion in the morning, you may be able to book a helicopter trip on your own for the afternoon.

@Flgreg We just flew United business class from Newark to Barcelona last month. The Polaris lounge in Newark is huge and quite nice (although it was packed when we were there). The flight was fine; the Polaris pods on United are reasonably comfortable; service was fine and the food is okay but not grand, typical for a US-based carrier. We arrived three days before our cruise and stayed at Le Meridien, which we enjoyed and would stay in again. It's a great location, midway up La Rambla, making it easy to walk around the city; we walked to restaurants each night and only took a cab to go to Park Guell. For most in our group, it was a first visit to Barcelona, so we were happy doing two half-day walking tours with a guide and walking to other attractions on our own.

Wendy, we were just on a Seabourn cruise where I had some inspect, refundable OBC. She of it came from my TA's travel network, some came from reversing my prepaid shore excursions to use up non-refundable OBC, this making it refundable OBC. So the sources were mixed — but it all went back onto the card I had registered for the trip. Maybe Regent does it different; that's what I was inquiring about.

Do you have to take unspent refundable OBC in cash? They don't have an option to refund it to the credit card you have on file? (Seabourn does CC refunds.) Although I don't think we'll have any unused credits when we end our Regent cruise in August, unless one of our paid excursions is cancelled.

I'm not sure I understand your question. Delta has an ATL-BCN nonstop. Regent should be able to book you on it, but you'll likely have to pay a cost differential unless it happens to be am flight they have contracted — which seems unlikely since Delta connecting flights through JFK are such less expensive. Depending on what Regent quotes you, it might be better to book the flight on your own and take the air credit. But assuming you want Delta One, the prices are crazy high ($8,200 pp one way for Nov. 18, a date I just looked at prior to one of the November '23 crossings). Delta Premium Select is roughly a quarter the price. If Regent can get you to Barcelona with a connection for less money, that's what they'll offer. You might have to pay a supplement of $3-$4k per person to get that nonstop. Do you have to fly Delta? On the same date I checked, United via either Houston or Newark, in Business Class, is $3,516 — less than half the Delta nonstop.

Shouldn't be a problem; the kids will probably drink less than the adults. 🤣

You said you weren't sure if you got a picture of Pulpit Rock, so I was just trying to illustrate what to look for in your pictures if you want to see if you have a photo of it. If not, as you say, there are many other great rocks and cliffs, and as long as you weren't hiking to the top, what does it matter which is which? 😀

Someone will correct me if this is not correct, but I believe they have disabled the inputs on the TV so that it only works with the ship's interactive system. Sorry, you'll have to enjoy the scenery and the bars and restaurants and live entertainment instead. 😉

@SLSD I've greatly enjoyed you taking us along on your journey, and I'm glad you've had a good trip blessed with stunningly good weather. Two near misses, though… 1) The picture you posted above was not Pulpit Rock. Hopefully you have it somewhere in your photos; here's what to look for. When we did this excursion, it was a cloudy, rainy day, and the top was in the clouds, but here's what it looks like looking up from the fjord: Notice the face of the rock is sheer and sharply angular. This photo below isn't mine, but shows it under better conditions; see if you have a photo that looks like this rock formation… 2) On the other front, wahoo is a flakey, firm white fish, very popular in Hawaii (where it is called one) with a taste closer to other white-fleshed fish like halibut or cod. It's related to the king mackerel. Tuna has a bright red flesh and of course can be eaten raw or just lightly seared and still quite red. Enjoy the (too-short) remainder of your trip!

Isn't that typical? That's why some cruises can be at, say, 105% capacity — due to third guests in some rooms. For 2019, pre-Covid, the major cruise lines reported their occupancy rates at well over 100%: Carnival Corporation: 106.8%, Royal Caribbean Group: 108.1%, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd.: 107.3%.

Of course. No one here suggested that it isn't. The issue was whether it's correct to label a menu item as "Fresh Alaskan Black Cod" if the fish is not, in fact, fresh caught but frozen. I would think it should be on the menu as "Alaskan Black Cod" if the fish was frozen.

I know the focus here has been on the recent upswing of the three cruise company stocks, and hitting 52-week highs, but what I'm interested in is a slightly longer look going back to the market highs about two years ago... 5/27/21 6/21/23 Change NCLH 32.42 19.22 –40.7% CCL 30.00 15.89 –47.0% RCL 94.76 97.35 +2.7% ^DJI 34,464.64 33,951.52 –1.5% ^SPX 4,200.88 4,365.69 +3.9% Why is is that RCL has recovered to where it was two years ago, the Dow and S&P have basically done the same, but Norwegian and Carnival are still down 41% and 47% over the same time? That's not a minor difference, that's a night-and-day difference. I wasn't a student of the cruise line stock prices over time, so what am I missing or not understanding?

Terry, to connect the dots, you just need to look back at one of your previous posts (April 22) about cruise lines attracting younger people: "Move Over, Retirees: Millennials Are Coming for Your Cruises". Of course, millennials are working, not retired, and many cannot take two week (or longer) cruises for vacation. So attracting younger passengers and offering more 7-day cruises go hand-in-hand. I've noticed that Seabourn seems to offer a large percentage of their cruises now as two or three 7-day cruises which can be stacked back-to-back without repeating ports, so they can serve both those who want short 7-day vacations as well as those who want longer 14- or 21-day cruises. I suspect that world cruise sand grand voyages are offered in more, shorter segments than in years past, for the same reason: trying to appeal to those who want short and long cruises.

I found this in the Terms & Conditions for this promotion: Air credit is available on select sailings for flights booked through Seabourn’s Flight Ease® program. Air credit is available to the first and second guests sharing a Suite and is non-transferable. Air must be booked no less than 30 days prior to sail date in order to be eligible for the air credit. Seats are limited and may not be available on every flight. I'd note that it's showing me the Air Credit Promotion is $2,000, but I see you're in Canada, so that probably accounts for the difference. But it does appear that for this promotion you need to book the air through Seabourn.