cruiseej

@highplanesdrifters The water taxi dock at Marittima that @ozecruiser mentioned is the one I circled in yellow on the satellite picture I posted, in the lower left/center which is labeled "Marittima". (Unlike @ozecruiser, when we were last there, there were no Seabourn representatives or porters at the Marittima water taxi dock. Maybe we were just unlucky. 😆)

It's labeled as an expedition cruise, and the ports are almost all small ports. So yes, I'd say you're reading it right! 😀 With two expedition ships, they are clearly aiming to offer some viable expedition itineraries between the prime-time Arctic and Antarctic seasons.

We've taken two cruises on the Silver Cloud, in Greenland five years ago and in Antarctica last winter. Both were great cruises! The ship was in good shape, the suites were nice, the expedition crew was outstanding, the rest of the staff was great. And the food was good — probably a notch below Seabourn, but not by a huge margin. We're booked on our first trip on Venture next fall, and I fully expect it to be a beautiful, better-designed and overall nicer ship. But we're happy with our cruises on the Cloud.

Our last trip out of Venice was just before the pandemic, and before the changes in cruise ship docking, so my information may be out of date. At that time, you could definitely take both a vaporetto or a private water taxi to a stop inside the port area. Here's a Google satellite map which shows the location of Piazzale Roma, the cruise port People mover station, the cruise terminal, and the location of the vaporetto and water taxi dock: Even though you can see the Marittima vaporetto stop is fairly close to the terminal building, it is still a bit of a walk for someone with limited walking ability, especially considering you are toting your own luggage. As limited mobility access is something I never looked into, I don't know if it is possible to get a taxi or shuttle to right in front of the cruise terminal from either Piazzale Roma or the People mover station. I would reach out to the concierge desk at your hotel, explain the situation, and ask them what is available. If they can provide you the information you need, you can decide whether to book a water taxi through them or do it yourself directly if it will be cheaper. Sorry I can't help more specifically; perhaps someone else who has recently sailed from Venice with someone with mobility issues will chime in. Best wishes!

No, that's the total cost for the suite — 2 people. And I thought $466 per person per day seemed like a pretty good price; I thought the days of sub-$500 per diem were basically gone forever. Are you saying the price sounds high to you because you don't value Caribbean cruises, or because you think there are much better deals available? For what it's worth, when my wife and I decided to book a short winter warm-weather trip, we originally thought we'd fly somewhere and spend a week at an adults-only all-inclusive resort. Then I started looking at hotel prices for January and February and was pretty shocked. Due to price increases as well as limited room availability during high season only three months out, some of the prices ranged from $8,000 to $16,000+ for 7 days. While I'm sure with more hunting I could have found something for us for less than $6,500, finding that we could do a short Seabourn cruise for a price comparable to or better than a land resort won us over. I also looked at Regent cruises, since they have their newest ship in the Caribbean this winter, and I felt they had some more interesting itineraries. But even after adjusting for Regent's included airfare, the price was close to double what we got on Seabourn.

I was neither alarmed nor excited. I was sharing information I thought might be helpful about whether the luggage limits were strictly enforced. As for the picture of the tilted JetBlue, I posted that simply because I thought it was very funny, and perfectly timed as we were discussing luggage weights on planes. (The tipped plane had nothing to do with luggage weight limits being exceeded.) I'm sorry if you took it as anything but a moment of comic relief.

The cruise port in Venice continues to be the same Marittima terminal it has been for many years, even thought the ships no longer dock there. After you check-in there and drop your luggage, you're bussed to the ship, which is docked in the industrial port on the mainland side of the lagoon. (Or if you're disembarking in Venice, it's the opposite: you disembark and are bussed to the Marittima cruise terminal, where you claim your luggage.) I'm not sure what information you're looking for or that your travel agent isn't able to supply? How to get from your hotel to Marittima? Again, this hasn't changed in the past two decades. You can get a private water taxi, or if you're able to schlep your luggage a bit you can take a vaporetto (water bus) to Marittima. The hotel can book the water taxi, or you can probably save a little money booking on your own: https://www.motoscafivenezia.com/en/ Last time we were in Venice a few years ago, we managed our own luggage and took the inexpensive vaporetto. It was a bit of a walk from the dock where the vaporetto let us off, but not too much of a problem. Where do you find Seabourn? It will be signed and obvious when you get to the cruise terminal.

The question I have always had about load management is that while they can weigh the luggage accurately at any point from check-in to loading, luggage weighs less than the passengers and their carry-ons — and they don't weigh them! I assume they don't because it would be a PR disaster if any airline decided to start weighing passengers, even though it would undoubtedly help with load management and fuel planning. And I did not say otherwise. I was replying mainly to Hope's statement "I would hope that SB will take care of ensuring all luggage is allowed on board, whether checked or not." I thought it was worth noting that Seabourn doesn't have any control of luggage at the airport. In fact, Seabourn doesn't have any staff at the airport; there's just a local company hired to facilitate ground arrangements from airport to hotel back to airport, while the airline is the only one with say-so on luggage.

Well, Seabourn announced this summer that they were rolling out two new recipes each week, which will total more than 100 new recipes per year. (Dover sole is among them, for those who loved it at TKG.) So it seems like the message was received and they have responded! Since it's a year-long process, it will take some time to judge how well these new dishes are received.

All we have seen so far is a small sample menu. But Seabourn has shared that there will be 105 savory dishes, about 20% available every day and the others on a 7-day rotation.

As others have said, Seabourn books the charter, but the air carrier is completely in charge of the flight. We went to Antarctica this past winter with Silversea and had nearly identical luggage restrictions, so this isn't a case of Seabourn dropping the ball. Due to changeable weather conditions, there might be days where the airline has lots of leeway on the weight of the plane, and other days when it needs to hew exactly to the weight limits to have proper fuel and meet take-off or landing requirements from the short runway at Ushuaia. Do they check weights and sizes closely? Probably not most of the time — but would you want to be the one whose luggage can't travel with you on a day when they are checking and making sure everyone is within limits? Some Silversea passengers shared an experience from two years ago when a flight was over its weight limit and some bags were left behind on the tarmac and never made it to the cruise. You definitely don't want to risk that happening to you! Think nothing could go wrong with a little extra luggage. Maybe ask JetBlue… (Those are true pictures of a JetBlue plane at JFK airport yesterday, tipped back on its tail, when it became unbalanced during unloading. 😮)

I was just going to post the same thing: OMG, finally a truly comfortable sofa in a Seabourn suite! The old ones were okay, but definitely not super-comfortable. I hope they're replacing them on all the ships! 😀

That's not quite correct. I switch between my iPhone and my laptop, and the laptop doesn't have the app; it just connects via a web browser. But for phones and iPads, I agree it's desirable to download the Seabourn Source app before traveling.

The issue I believe that @Coffee Pot Blvd was complaining about was for someone on a cruise when the TK Grill will be closed for refurbishment before opening as Solis, so they'll have one fewer restaurant available. But I agree that with the Restaurant, Colonnade, and Earth & Ocean (plus Sushi on the larger ships and Sushi in the Club on the smaller ships), there are plenty of daily choices.

I'll respectfully disagree. From what other Seabourn customers have reported, had you called Seabourn or your TA to inquire about one of these cruises, you would have found there were indeed suites available for booking to those who received the email offer. So, not useless or without value.

It's not a matter of being "offered" a returning customer discount; it's just a matter of which cruises Seabourn has designated as eligible for Seabourn Club savings. And that's actually pretty clear… if you know what to look for on the website. 😉 Just click on "Special Offers" in the top menu bar… Clicking that link takes you to the Offers page, which has the current main promotion at the top (currently, the "Set Sail" promotion), and includes Seabourn Club Savings below: Click on "Book Now" and the resulting web page will show all the cruises which currently offer the Seabourn Club Savings 5% discount. It's usually not a large number of cruises; right now, it's 31: Alternatively, if you're browsing cruises on the website without being logged into your account, when you click on pricing for a cruise, you can look for a "Log in to view special pricing", which tells you there is at least one promotion applying to the cruise you're looking at. Or… simply reach out to your travel agent with help finding/sorting through any available discounts on cruises you might be interested in. – – – Travel agents which regularly work with Seabourn also occasionally have access to unadvertised special prices offered to TAs which are not available via the website. (Example: we just booked a short 7-day Caribbean get-away for this winter which shows a price of $8,898 for a V3 suite on the website. We had a Future Cruise Deposit, so that was good for a 5% savings, or $8,453. But our price was $6,532, about a 22% additional discount. And this is not a cruise eligible for the 5% Seabourn Club discount. This doesn't happen all the time, of course, but we jumped because our TA had a pretty long list of Seabourn cruises eligible for unpublished discounts.)

Well, Seabourn is no different! On your 34-day cruise, you should have just 3 formal nights. And the formal dress code, such as it is, applies only to the main Restaurant. Resort casual is fine all the other nights, and at the other restaurants on the three formal nights. And you could wear the same outfit for each of the formal nights unless it would bother you personally; no one else will be taking notes! Don't stress about the dress code! (I knew "threat" was a typo; I was just having some fun. 😀)

While I understand your frustration, I'm not sure there was a viable alternative. We know they conducted customer surveys about TK Grill a while back, and there were certainly rumors or guesses that Keller might be out. As you can imagine: they had to negotiate with Mr. Keller, plan a dining concept, design the physical changes for the dining room and kitchen, develop an extensive menu, source the materials, develop a schedule to get materials and construction and executive ships around the world in a 5-month implementation. Had they announced this before they had plans firmed up, then lots of customers and travel agents would have been pounding them with questions they wouldn't have been able to answer about what would happen and when. So they announced it when they had a solid plan and could promote it as a positive development and could answer questions. Well, you'll still be getting dinner every night that you paid for. 😀 Seriously, though, what do you think your compensation should be for having two restaurants to choose from instead of three? Had you known a couple months ago, would you really have considered cancelling your cruise because you wouldn't have been able to have a dinner at TK Grille?

@Robisan I agree. All they needed to do is add a short note to the offer email: "The website will show 'Sold Out' for all these voyages during this special early-access offer, so the general public cannot book them yet. Please call Seabourn or your travel agent to get pricing and to book before these cruises become available to the general public."

I don't think that's correct. An FCD can be applied to a new booking to get the 5% discount. You can't create a booking onboard with the 5% discount, and then purchase and apply an FCD to the same booking. They're two sides of the same coin: a 5% discount for booking a new cruise. The FCD is a way of giving customers a way to get the 5% onboard booking discount by putting some money down, and choosing their specific cruise later. Yes, that's what I said above. If there is a Seabourn Club discount available for the cruise you're looking at, you should be able to get both that 5% discount combined with a 5% discount from an onboard booking or applying a previously-purchased FCD. I did exactly that for a Med cruise we took this spring.

Don't dread. And don't regard the dress code as a threat. 🤣 You don't need to drag gowns and a bunch of shoes. You do need two outfits for each day — one for day expedition activities and one for dinner — but you definitely don't need a different two outfits for every day! We did an 18-day expedition cruise on Silversea (which is generally more strict about dress code than Seabourn) this past winter, with luggage limits for Antarctica (and we brought our own boots)… and it wasn't a problem. It took a little planning, but my wife and I managed perfectly well with clothing for the evenings. My wife had a few dresses/skirts/tops/sweaters and two pair of evening shoes, if I recall correctly. I had one sport jacket, a few sweaters, two or three pair of pants, and one pair of shoes for 18 dinners. I don't think anyone noticed or cared that I wore the same shoes every night. And as long as I complied with the dress code and my wife was okay with what I was wearing, that's all that mattered! We're booked for a 15-day Seabourn expedition cruise next fall, and I don't expect the dress code to pose any problem.

It is! We did the southwest and southeastern coast on a Silversea expedition ship a few years ago. It was so great that we're booked on the Venture to continue up the west coast (read: more glacial icebergs!) and then across to northeastern Canada next fall.

These cruises are NOT all sold out. There is NOT a problem with the website/booking system. As reported by fellow Seabourn cruisers on Facebook, if you call Seabourn — or your travel agent — you can get pricing and can book those cruises. I think they show as not available because they are visible to anyone, not just the Diamond members who received the early-access invitation. They wanted to show you the available itineraries and dates, and then have you inquire about pricing and availability. But they should have said so more clearly in the email they sent out!

@lisa6191 has it right. The Seabourn Club (e.g. returning guests) 5% discount is only available on "select voyages". (Read: cruises which are not selling as well as they'd like.) It's generally available only on a small percentage of all cruises. And that discount is also "capacity controlled", meaning it may be offered on a particular cruise for a while, but then removed at any point if/when they have reached a certain booking threshold. The 5% discount for booking aboard is the same as the 5% discount from having purchased a Future Cruise Deposit (FCD). The FCD is simply a deferred onboard booking discount. In other words, you can book a future cruise while onboard for a 5% discount, or you can put down $500 (US) per person as a Future Cruise Deposit, which allows you to get the same discount you would have received had you booked a future cruise while onboard. (Seabourn's policies on FCD — four years to use it, and refundable if you don't — are light years superior to competitors like Silversea and Regent, which give you only a short time to choose your future cruise.) The 5% onboard booking discount or FCD discount is applicable to almost all sailings. But it can be excluded if there's a larger savings promotion being offered for a cruise. For instance, when we were on a Seabourn cruise earlier in the year, they had a promotion of 35% off 2023-24 expedition cruises — and it wasn't possible to combine that with a 5% FCD. (But 35% off was pretty unusual and a great price… so we jumped on it!) And yes, the 5% Seabourn Club discount can be combined with the 5% FCD discount — unless there is some other promotional price/discount applied. We were able to get both discounts on the cruise we took earlier this year.

For those who have commented that the posted sample menu looks too limited, you might be interested in this slide from Seabourn's information on the new restaurant: And for those asking about the look of the space, if you haven't seen the rendering, here's what it's supposed to look like on the two smaller ships (there's no rendering for the two larger ships):