CalTexCruiser

The Silver Moon (which was supposed to have transited the Red Sea) is now on its way to Cape Town, South Africa, scheduled to arrive on Feb 2 (no passengers). (1) They have scheduled 15 days from Malta to Cape Town. (2) It took them 1 day to go from Athens to Malta. (3) The anticipated travel time from Cape Town to Mumbai is 11 days. The total trip time is estimated to be 27 days between Mumbai and Athens. The currently scheduled Seabourn Encore Singapore - Athens sailing is 36 days, and is made up of two segments: 18-day Singapore-Dubai and 18-day Dubai-Athens. It is pretty certain that the Dubai-Athens segment through the Red Sea will have to be cancelled, and there appears to be a lot of cabins available on this segment. Scenario 1: (1) Reduce the Singapore-Dubai segment to a 12-day Singapore-Mumbai sailing. (2) This will given them 18 + 6 = 24 days. (3) Then cancel the first 7-day Athens-Venice sailing, and start the Med season from Venice. Scenario 2: (A) cancel the entire Singapore-Athens. But Singapore-Dubai is fully booked so this will be quite expensive for Seabourn.

US and British forces are currently bombing the Houtis in Yemen, so things are about to get a whole lot uglier. I’m also not too comfortable with the Oman/Qatar/UAE portion of this cruise at this point. Hope Seabourn just cancels the entire Singapore to Athens sailing, but that’s wishful thinking.

It depends how much you value the Reserve Dining Room, which is a separate section of the MDR. We value it at about $ 10 per person per day over a regular mini-suite

I believe @SDuckers was merely pointing out he is an exception to the statement that "Americans generally love an Indian meal". I on the other hand would fall into the group of Americans that love an Indian meal, as well as well prepared meals of any other cuisine.

The apparent narrow width of the mock-up Penthouse suite living room in the photo may just be due to an optical illusion created by the camera angle. The total size of the Regal PH suite is 440 sqft, which we thought was plenty spacious when we stayed in it. The total size of the Sun PH suite is 446 sqft. Please do report back on what you think of the Sun PH suite when you sail it. We are booked in one for Med 2025.

In related news, CCL stock has been on a tear lately

the living room of the Penthouse Suite seems a bit narrow.

@Sox Fan Cruiser Too bad they could not honor your Sanctuary reservation request. Our experience with the Sanctuary reservation back in October at the GO lounge was much better. The GO lounge concierge texted our request to the Suite Concierge, who was tasked with contacting the sanctuary to request the reservation. After maybe 30 minutes our GO lounge concierge came back and confirmed with us that our reservation was made. We got prime lounge locations, as did others in the GO lounge that also requested Sanctuary reservations. Sounds like whether or not the Sanctuary reservations are made depends on the Suite Concierge...our Suite Concierge, Vladimir, was fantastic...one of the best on any cruise line we've encountered.

This is unexpected. I thought I read a post by someone else that the credit was applied on a per-day basis, so if one did not use spa services on any given day, the $ 50 credit would be lost. If it is indeed accumulated, that would be great for someone who uses a lot of spa services...makes booking the Retreat almost a no-brainer in that case.

Well @CardowMD did report they have a tag that said "Retreat Host." So every morning the extra duty of the attendant would be to put on that tag, and voila! now they are a "Retreat Host" and not just a room attendant. I do think they should remove the "Retreat Host" tag before stepping into a non-SS cabin, to avoid confusing the non-SS passengers.

You are probably right on this, although it would be interesting if someone actually confirmed this by asking the head butler what he does the 99% of the time that he is not doing anything as a "head butler" of Sky Suites. I would of course phrase it a bit more delicately.

The day pass to the thermal suites area is $ 49 per passenger per day. Does anyone know if the $ 50/day spa credit applies to a day pass purchase? If so that would make the Retreat an even better deal as that would mean one person gets in free to the thermal suites area.

On a recent 12-night sailing, this was our breakdown: 2 dinners at Luminae 3 dinners at Murano 3 dinners at Tuscan 1 dinner at Le Petit Chef 2 dinners at Sushi on Five 1 evening at the buffet...LOL. So yeah Luminae not the slam dunk it used to be.

We spoke with several different folks while hanging out in the jacuzzi at the Retreat Pool, and they were unable to get loungers at the Sanctuary despite rushing up to the Sanctuary as early as they could upon boarding. We were able to get what we felt were prime lounger locations in the shaded area for half days (afternoon) on sea days. A couple we met at the GO Suite Lounge was able to get half day (afternoon) cabanas on sea days, so they were happy campers too. The ability to make Sanctuary bookings in the GO Suite Lounge is definitely a nice benefit.

no only full suites, and even then only if invited

Update on how Sanctuary booking worked in our case, as explained to me by the Concierge Lounge concierge--by the way Vladimir on the Regal is fantastic...highly efficient and friendly. The Go Princess lounge concierge texts the passenger's request to the Concierge Lounge concierge, who then works with the Sanctuary folks over the phone to make the bookings. So if you want specific lounge locations other than shaded/unshaded, that request can also be passed on. Any other booking requests such as spa, specialty dining, etc., are handled the same way.

Space for about 20-25 guests, so that appears to be the reason that it’s a random selection from among full suite guests the Mercedes van is very nice because of the large embarkation delay there was little benefit for us in terms of avoiding line. We still had to go through blue lane to get medallions they check you in at the lounge and then we got cards to use to pick up our medallions at the regular counter

Also not all suite guests are extended invitations they said it is random selection and if you are not invited don’t show up they said they are also going to increase the size of the lounge

In the GO lounge now waiting for the all clear to get on Regal, which was 3 hrs late coming in better to wait in lounge than at the terminal due to delay in boarding Sanctuary booking: the concierge walks around with his phone and you inform him of dates and whether you want loungers or cabana, and shaded or not. He sends request to ship, and 40 minutes later he told us that our Sanctuary bookings were confirmed. No drawings medallions. They check you in and if you don’t have medallion they give you card to use to pick up the medallions

In all likelihood I don’t think they would turn you away. The concierge person I spoke to mentioned that the reason we were getting the invitation is because we are in a suite. No other factor was mentioned.

I hope they'll get our medallions. Otherwise it's just a free shuttle to the port from a lounge. At a minimum we hope to reserve some spots in the Sanctuary for a few sea days.

😄LOL a rented space has become "Princess Cruises Headquarters"...see the blurb below in the email they sent me. Good thing you warned me otherwise I would have been looking for some grand Princess HQ signage. Also note the last sentence there...seems to suggest that in the future suite passengers may be able to park their vehicles at the GO Princess Lounge.

Unexpectedly, I received a call and email on Friday from a Princess Shoreside Concierge inviting us to the GO Princess Lounge on the day of embarkation next Tuesday because we are in a full suite. This lounge appears to be outside of the port area, on the first floor of Princess Cruises HQ. Apparently, they will handle our luggage and a shuttle will take us to the terminal. The email said "that waiting in line can be a hassle, so we want to make sure you can get onboard as quickly and smoothly as possible." Not sure what that means. We don't have our medallions so wonder if the concierges in the lounge can produce those for us. The concierge also said that we can "book any onboard experiences you may be interested in," presumably including the Sanctuary. It'll be interesting if that's the case, as suite passengers (at least in Port Everglades) would have first dibs ahead of other passengers (except for B2B passengers). I have not heard of a shoreside lounge as a service for full suite passengers, but then again this will only be our third time on Princess so I may have just missed the announcement on this. If indeed this lounge will allow full suite passengers to check in at a relaxing lounge and provide a fast lane to board it will be a great feature.

Thanks for this info! We will be on the Encore on 3/16, after the 3-week implementation.