cruiseej

Several people have questioned exactly when Solis will debut on the various Seabourn ships. Here is what Seabourn has planned: So it's a month-long conversion on each ship, with the restaurant scheduled to open midway through at the start of the third week, with fine-tuning and finishing touches over the remaining two weeks. If you're unlucky enough to be on one of the ships during the first two weeks of the conversion, you'll miss out on both TK Grille and Solis. But there's really no other way they could do this without waiting for each ship to go into dry dock, which would be nearly impossible in a five month period.

Does the time machine cost more than the submarine? 🤣

Maybe I missed in somewhere in the announcements: will Solis require reservations? The redesign won't add seating (at least on the Quest and Sojourn), so will they need to keep reservations to try to give everyone onboard a chance to dine there?

We find the app handy when we're out and about on the ship and want to check something in the schedule. In the past year, we've also done cruises on Silversea and Regent, and discovered it was helpful to take a picture of the daily program on our phones to be able to check it anytime; the Seabourn app makes that easier. The app isn't great, but it's useful enough that I'd recommend downloading it. If you have problems with it, then simply stop using it. 😀

And sometimes even from one excursion to the next can be hit or miss. One guide could be great, another could be dull/bored/unengaged. There can be traffic issues which throw a tour off completely one day, equipment malfunctions, missing/scarce wildlife, and other factors that could make the same excursion a 2 for one person and a 9 for someone else.

On our latest cruise on Splendor in August, there were no sail away events on deck in any port, which I found little surprising. Even though we were in Iceland, it wasn't terribly cold. Also no Block Party, which didn't bother me. Maybe it was the cruise director?

We sailed on the final voyage of a Regent (then called Radisson) ship (the Diamond) a number of years ago. It was fabulous. Everything was normal in terms of crew and service on this cruise, and upkeep on the ship; one would never have know they were handing the ship over to a buyer at the end of our cruise. But because they had to "empty the freezers", there were some fun perks. We will never forget the lunch where they were grilling lobster tails on the pool deck, and the F&B manager was encouraging everyone to eat as many as they wanted because they had to use them all up! Seabourn will not likely let the quality of food, beverage or crew service decline because they want to keep their customers happy and have them come back for more cruises.

Even though each individual can have only one device active at a time, switching between phone and laptop is something I do frequently, and it's not much of a bother. In the Seabourn app or web page, you click Connect, and it will tell you another device is connected and ask if you want to terminate its session; one click more and you're connected and online. For the couple clicks it takes each time, it's not worth paying for premium service, in my opinion.

Post-Covid, Seabourn's process for boarding times defies any logical explanation. They assign you a time a few weeks prior to embarkation, and then modify it one, two or three times in the days leading up to your cruise. What information is changing that warrants the multiple emails and time changes?! We too have traveled with friends and been assigned different boarding times. The boarding times have not been based on who has traveled more, as newbies have sometimes been given earlier times than us. And all of it seems not to matter, as you can show up pretty much anytime in the boarding window and will be accommodated. Not once has anyone on the shoreside team asked or checked our assigned boarding time. So my advice is to simply shrug this part of the experience off, show up when you want (after noon), and it will all go smoothly.

We enjoyed visiting Cassis and Castellet during a port stop in Saint Raphael (further east than St. Tropez) earlier this year. We booked a driver/guide using Tours By Locals. If Franck Holl is available, we had a great day with him. Our cruise later ended in Monaco and I hired a local company for a day trip for our group ending in Nice — but the company does day tours all along this section of the coast, so you might want to look them up: Azur Connection is the company, Gregory Ridao is the manager and ended up being our guide for the day. I'd highly recommend him as well.

@twangster Again, many thanks for taking so much of your time to inform, educate and amuse us with your trip. As I look forward to our Origin trip next July, I will re-read your report from the beginning. You were kind enough to share information about your photo gear when I asked partway through your trip. Now I'd like to follow up asking about your photo workflow on a trip like this. I often find when we travel that pulling a memory card, sticking it in my laptop and downloading the pictures for safekeeping is about all I have time for as we're traveling. You did so much more, so I welcome learning from your approach. Do you download to a laptop? What software do you use for importing all the shots? You have a watermark on all your photos; I'm assuming that's from some batch editing software you use? Do you review and do some editing of photos each day, like deleting bad ones or adding location/caption information? (Will I remember what bird that was 6 months or 6 years from now if I don't caption it right away?) Do you do any cropping and toning of the photos, or are these all as you shot them? Some of the underwater shots look like underwater lighting, and some are bright and vibrant; did your phone's software do that correction automatically, or did you do some post-processing to bring up the colors? Sorry for all the questions, but I love learning from the techniques of other photographers. I still can't figure how you had time to do all you described, and download, edit, and upload pictures and commentary each day. Did you sleep? 🤣 Thanks again!

I was just going to post what Julie did above: OBC offers vary all the time on cruise lines, depending on the promotion of the moment. Sometimes there's a free category upgrade; sometimes free air or business class air (for those which don't typically supply it); sometimes there's OBC. In the past year, we've been fortunate to travel on Regent, Seabourn and Silversea. We had no OBC on our recent Regent cruise (aside from the $100 given as replacement for the laundry loyalty benefit when they made laundry free for everyone). Our last Seabourn cruise has a small amount of OBC; our next Seabourn cruise had a great, discounted price, but no OBC. Our Silversea cruise had no OBC, although it wasn't needed on an expedition cruise. In short, I'm pushing back against your assumption that "other luxury lines that offer generous OBC's automatically regardless of the bottom line at the time." I'm not aware that any amount of OBC is given on any of the cruise lines as a loyalty benefit or customer recognition for past cruisers. I don't see Regent's customer appreciation perks being any greater than or less than the other lines.

In an increasing number of locations, it is illegal to keep buses idling for pollution/environmental reasons; they can load and unload, but then must go to a parking area and shut down.

I think the concern is that if/when more passengers tip more crew members for service, there are two possible downsides: (1) If enough people do it, it ends up creating some expectation for crew members that they will be tipped, which erodes the policy that tipping is not expected. (2) If people are tipping and getting preferred tables, faster bar service, or more in-room services, then it does use up/tie up those finite resources for other guests, instead of everyone being on a level playing field.

Thank you for your detailed cruise report, and the fantastic photos. We're doing this cruise next July, so I'm trying to soak in all the details! With all the activities from sunrise to night, I don't know how you find time to download phots, edit them, select what to post, and write about it… amazing job. When you have a moment — it can wait until the end of the cruise — I'd love to know about your photo gear. It looked like maybe a Nikon in the one shot of you. What lenses do you have? Do you have an underwater camera or an enclosure for your SLR?

Unfortunately, s**t can happen to any ship at any time; it's not driven by the age of the ship. Last year, Seabourn's brand new expedition ship, the Venture, had a problem with broken stabilizers and had to drop part of one Antarctic cruise and cancel several spring cruises to get the ship into dry dock for repairs.

I wouldn't make that assumption. If the excursion is a bus, and there isn't another bus available from the ground operator, they may not be able to add capacity. If the excursion is a trip on a small boat, there is likely no additional capacity available. Sometime for short excursions, they may be able to add a second time, but not always.

I think maybe you misread something. Were you thinking they were flying from Vancouver to Dallas in order to then fly nonstop to Tokyo? The poster said they paid an uncharge to book Dallas to Tokyo nonstop before the cruise; after the cruise, they used miles for the shorter flight from Vancouver to Dallas. Nothing is going in the wrong direction, adding time, or adding time zones of travel. 😀

We were in Barcelona this spring but booked our own hotel for three nights pre-cruise. I'd note that we spent very minimal time at our hotel because we were out exploring the city day and night. If you're just looking to catch up on sleep after a long flight, then location really doesn't matter too much. But if you're planning to explore the city for a few days, the location of the Sophia will require more taxis than a hotel located closer to the center of the city. (We were very happy with our stay at Le Meridien, on La Rambla with easy walking access to the Gothic Quarter and its attractions as well as Passeig de Gracia, the main shopping street and home of several Gaudi houses. We walked pretty much everywhere except Park Guell.) I think Regent often selects hotels with enough capacity to house a lot of guests rather than hotels in the best locations to explore a city. We just got back from a Splendor cruise in Iceland, and both our pre- and post-cruise hotels were away from the main downtown, requiring taxis for exploring and dinners. In hindsight, we might have done better booking a hotel in a good location on our own, even if it cost a bit more.

Yup, keep them with you at the pool and when you see the clock strike six o'clock, zip those babies on before anyone can say a thing! 🤣

I think the problem with trying to get detailed descriptions of each port in advance, let alone getting them published, is that ease or difficulty of access can depend on which berth your ship is in — something which may not be known in advance, or which may be changed at the last minute. In some of the Caribbean ports with very long piers, for instance, there could be a significant difference if your ship is in the closest-in or farthest-out berth along the pier. Also, in some ports, there may be a tram or bus which is normally available — except when it's not! A Sunday, a holiday, a staff shortage, no other ships in port, too many ships in port, a tour returning after regular hours… all could impact whether or not there's shuttle available when you need it. And even the placement of the gangway can vary depending on how heavily loaded or not the ship is, as well as tides.

If the mere presence or absence of a collar on a man's shirt on the other side of the Restaurant bothers some people, then can you really be surprised that photo activities at a nearby table would bother some? 🤣

I've seen number of people say that they use MedJet for medical evacuation and medical assistance services when traveling. It's not the regular and expensive trip cancellation or trip interruption insurance, just medical insurance for a modest annual fee. Global Rescue is another such service. I recently received a mailing from AAA (American Automobile Association) offering what appears to be similar services from Emergency Assistance Plus. The AAA member price is $179 per year for family coverage. I'm wondering if anyone here has used or does use EA+ — or if you have a reason for preferring one of the other medical evacuation companies? Thanks!

For all those extolling the polar plunge, I just want to weigh in with the contrary position. I have no desire to jump into freezing water just to say I did it! 😀 I watch from a convenient viewing spot and applaud those who choose to partake, but I haven't been even remotely tempted to join in. (I don't drink Jaegermeister, and I could get that, or a hot chocolate, on the ship without getting cold and wet!) I'm not in any way discouraging anyone who wants to try it from doing so; I'm just noting there are also plenty of us who are happy to observe, cheer on, and stay warm and dry. 🤣

Can I pick a time in the past? I'm sure it has already begun; you just haven't heard it yet! 🤣