jondfk

I’m just taking a break from packing for Odyssey next week. For evenings. Three dress shirts. Two pair of twill trousers (which passed on Ovation last month). One pair of quite stylish loafers. A sport coat which will be wore onto the plane per Seabourn mandate. Were the dress code relaxed the only change I’d make is leaving the sport coat behind. I’ve a closet full of bespoke suits but after 40 years of ‘proper work attire’ I’m done. To those who enjoy, I applaud you, but have no desire to join you. The funny part is, I suspect Mr. Luxury and myself would be fast friends. See you onboard one day sir.

I was aboard Ovation with the dog, I’ve not commented until now, but your post drew me out. Indeed it was quite clear the true status of this animal was well known to Seabourn. Why this specific exception was made I do not know, but no one I met, crew and passenger alike had any sense that this was a genuine service animal. I witnessed much but not all of the behavior discussed. Hand feeding, off leash, on furniture etc. Fortunately, I did not witness the elevator “relief area” incident, this I would have felt compelled to report on the spot in the strongest possible terms. I have sailed elsewhere with genuine service animals, and indeed made good friends with one owner and her companion. The behavior demonstrated made it completely clear the animal was properly trained and controlled. Enough said.

Likewise on Ovation in June. Quite serviceable and superior to the vast majority of the included still whites IMHO. Of course tastes vary, widely.

I'll add that making the request in advance for our June Ovation sailing made no difference. What was stocked seemed random or worse. We requested Baileys and Vodka, what was stocked was Walker Black and Beefeater's. We reiterated our request with our cabin service team (when we finally met them after dinner) and both were delivered, the JW and Gin remained, unrequested, unopened throughout our cruise. Likewise, our soft drink preferences had no bearing on what was stocked though our requests were ultimately met following a second and third request. We were not at all impressed with either the means to make requests or the attempts made to honor them. Yeah, yeah, I know, supply chain, staff shortages, pandemic, blah blah blah. The fact that our requests could ultimately be met albeit later in the voyage demonstrate this just isn't a service SB are serious about delivering. Perhaps a better solution would be a liquor locker on each floor when one could select what we want for in room use once per voyage?

I’m willing to concede that this could be a viable solution if either the menu were expanded beyond its what five(?) choices. Add a couple daily specials or use two alternating cooked to order menus and you’d approach what I’d consider a reasonable compromise. Of course this doesn’t solve the problem of the Colonnade being too small to accommodate the whole ship but does solve the dirty tongs problem.

Susan (SLSD) I’ll back you up on this. We were on the sailing with you and were told precisely the same thing. On the other hand I’ve posted elsewhere that I’ve been monitoring Odyssey for our upcoming sailing and have noted that the restaurant is reliably closed for port days, of which there are many in Alaska. We, like you, strongly prefer being served and simply won’t pay SB prices to carry our own plates, however nice the buffet. What I dislike even more is the bad information. As you know the restaurant was, in fact, open every meal on our June sailing, we enjoyed it often and frequently were joined by up to a hundred (my estimate) other sailors.

I’ll add our experience boarding Ovation in June in Copenhagen. This being our first on SB we didn’t expect any sort of priority. We were assigned a boarding time of 1:00. This time never changed in the days prior to sailing. We didn’t aim to arrive early, we booked a taxi from the airport (we stayed there the night prior) for noon. Google maps estimated the travel time as 40 minutes including a bit of city center traffic. Our cab arrived 10 minutes early, we reconned arriving ~30 minutes early wouldn’t lead to our being scolded. Actual travel time was closer to 25 minutes putting us, oops, 45 minutes early. Not a word was said. We encountered two brief stops before checkin, while I fumbled for boarding passes at the first stop, the person said “don’t bother with that just give me your names”, we did and she moved us along to the second station at which someone was looking over a long list. I quipped “is that the naughty list” and was assured, no this is the nice list” (meaning the upgrade list) no such luck for us, we were directed onwards to checkin. Passports were checked and boarding chits with bar codes were issued. At that precise moment boarding was announced and an ordered procession across the pier and towards the gangway began. The entire process took something like 20 minutes and I’d estimate we were roughly in the first half of the passengers with roughly 250 boarded ahead of us (though we later learned that about 75 had continued onward from the prior Iceland sailing). I’ve commented elsewhere some displeasure at that first meal after boarding, a good reason to delay a bit when we board Odyssey in a couple weeks, but speaking only about our boarding process it would be very difficult for SB to make meaningful improvements.

I would really appreciate your posting any favorite waitstaff of bartenders, would shorten our search for the best of the best when we board on August 11. Have a lovely sail!

Hmmm, I wonder whether we might cross paths in Alaska? August 11, Odyssey?

The best advice I can offer from our June sailing on Ovation is: Arrive a bit late. The Colonnade will be mobbed and service seriously strained at the start of boarding, but when rooms are released at 1:00 the place cleared out and became suddenly very pleasant. Alternately, deviate to the patio which was likewise very pleasant at least when we passed through at 1:15. We plan to followe these exact tactics when we board Odyssey in 3 weeks for what looks to be a full sailing.

Was on Ovation for two weeks in June, used the launderette 3.mornings, I aimed for the 6:00 opening was always open by 6:00.

Hi Susan, and I know we experienced the restaurant open on daily on our sailing with you. And, the restaurant manager told me, as he told you, that this was a fleet wide change as of late June. However, I’ve been closely monitoring the Source app for our Odyssey sailing coming up in August and I’ve found the lunch menu to say Closed nearly every day, one hopes it’s a failure to post the menu, but it appears the “fleet wide” comment we heard on Ovation may not have been correct. Look for a reality post from me sometime after August 11. We, like you, use the restaurant as a first option whenever it’s available. Jon

I couldn't agree with you more, and now, with one sailing under our belts we plan to do exactly as you suggest. However, on our first cruise, staff actively "herded" us toward the Colonnade. After we finished and moved towards our room we had our first encounter with the Patio and yes I agree a much superior alternative which we will certainly exploit next month. Thanks though for the clarification.

My two cents worth on this point (and we were on the June 11 Ovation sailing as well) is: Plan to arrive a bit later. Our sailing, and I suspect most later in the season, was essentially full. I think the actual count was somewhere around 555 (we heard two figures, 538 and 568 don't know which was correct, but "full") nearly everyone descended on the pier between noon and 1pm with actual boarding starting about 12:30. Boarding was very efficient and orderly but the result was the Colonnade was jam packed, few chairs indoors, I'm told there was space outside though we didn't find any. Cabins were released promptly at 1:00 and by 1:15 Colonnade was a pleasant ghost town. Lesson learnt we're planning to move towards the terminal at 1:00 for our Odyssey sailing in August. So much more pleasant. Who needs that rush as a first memory of your cruise.

Hi Gordon: Ah yes, I'll never forget the rattling of the chains . . . I won't say we're totally done with Princess, but two weeks at Travis did leave a mark. We're on Vista sailing Westbound Panama Canal in January of '25, perhaps see you aboard? I wrote a similar newbie thread when we first sailed Oceania a year ago in April. You might enjoy it too

You are completely right about the fridge, I really should have escalated this issue it was never right from start to finish. Regarding the Retreat, correct again, it wasn’t fully used though on one particular date it was 50% used. The manager told me it had been 100% booked for 70 days in a row while wintering in the Caribbean. Fact of hyperbole I do not know.

The Retreat. I’m aware this concept offends some long time Seabourn sailors. Despite the cool weather sailing we reserved The Retreat for the entire voyage and did manage to use it every single day. One day was too cool to be there for more than a couple hours, one day we were rained in slightly early, but otherwise we spent several hours every day there which struck us a good value for money. Strictly speaking could we have found adequate space around the main pool, likely yes, but we enjoyed having the ability to come and go as we pleased arrive early or late and basically just know we had a place anytime we wanted it. The service provided was truly top notch. Summary. We choose this sailing for the itinerary, we’d always wanted to try Seabourn and the two fit together. Will we sail Seabourn again. A bit of a trick question given that we’re booked on Odessey in just six weeks, so yes definitely we will. Did we consider this sailing the all out luxury experience we might have expected, in many respects yes, but in other respects we found gaffs and stubbed toes that really shouldn’t have been. The price of this unusual sailing was quite high on a per day basis, we are in the fortunate position to be able to afford such travel, still we do look for value versus price paid and I’m not sure we found it here. We did meet some exceptional staff on our sailing and a handful of such people can materially affect ones overall impression and such is the case here. All and all we left with a quite favorable overall impression.

Food service. We enjoyed most meals in The Resteraunt and got to know a number of staff quite well. Two evening servers in particular proved capable and memorable. Lee, from Glasgow, provided us with excellent, attentive service. As it happened he was the Retreat service attendant during the afternoon, so we got to know him quite well. Given our large exposure he quickly learned our preferences and anticipated our requests. We never had anything other than a superb meal served by Lee. Miguel, who we met on our first day lunch was nearly equally good, we ended up dividing our time between the two mainly driven by who had the better table (nearer the window) when we happened to arrive. Breakfast service was a bit more spotty but again a superstar emerged in Mietra (sp) who had a quick smile and very positive attitude to start every day. The quality of food was very good, meeting every expectation, dishes were described well and the food matched the descriptions. We had no reason to return any dish to the kitchen though we rarely do this in our daily life either. Servers were very capable of describing the food to and made recommendations. Evening servers to have an opportunity to sample the daily options which provides first hand feedback. One odd thing was that the salad chef(s?) changed mid cruise. Salads which were ordered before a certain date had a certain character, later in the cruise this changed dramatically. For example, a caprese salad early in the sailing had a variety of tomato, some greens and a bit of EVOO, later in the sailing the greens and EVOO disappeared, the salad just seemed unfinished. The same thing happened with the Chef’s salad on the daily menu, a completely different thing at the beginning and end of the sailing. None of the changes were bad per se but it was strange to order the same dish a second or third time and end up with something so completely different. Twice the kitchen failed to meet expectation as to timeliness, once the spacing from starter to main was crazy long, something like 45 minutes. On a second occasions desserts simply never came, in this case were were told (at breakfast the following morning) that a printer jammed for something like 30 minutes with the kitchen staff amazed that a full Resteraunt had no interest in desserts. The bad part of this second episode was that the servers, who came around to apologize and plead for patience after 10 minutes, then 20, then 30 just stopped coming by after that. As I’ve written previously Mrs doesn’t do the buffet when this is the only option, I serve as pack mule reporting what’s avaiable and building a plate for her. We did this only once, on a port day when the Resteraunt menu didn’t appeal. Food quality was good and compared to our embarkation day experience Mrs ruled Colonnade okay, for a buffet. Strangely, we never made it to the Patio for lunch, an oversight we agree. We did make it to Earth and Ocean twice. Service was enthusiastic though on our second night (a late port night) they were competely full from before the official opening time. We enjoyed the meals at E&O we might have preferred a 4th option but we do appreciate the kitchen is limited and so necessarily is the menu. Thomas Keller. We went twice as did most. Quite different impressions though the food was excellent both times. So, how was the experience different? On visit one we were seated at a table close to the piano player without other tables immediately nearby - superb. Visit two we were seated on the banquet near the (unused) terrace. These seats were shoulder to shoulder and the interactive nature of the service (walking you through every step in the Ceasar salad for example) became tedius when experienced for the 4th or 5th time. The general noise level in this very crowded section was quite a distraction. We enjoyed both visits but lingered a bit over the first one and left as soon as cookies could be found the second. Someone else might have described the banquet vibe as “lively”, we just found it loud. It’s worth noting that a change in reservations system made some months before meant we lost our original two reservations and had to settle for less desirable days and times when we rebooked. Finally, we used room service for a few breakfasts and, as mentioned, for a couple of sail away cheese plates. Service was prompt, nothing was missed (notable as this is often a challenge) a couple of special requests were met without delay. We never attempted a full noon or evening meal in the suite, this just isn’t our thing.

Bar service. The Retreat is advertised as having it’s own unique bar menu, which suggests a dedicated bartender, and indeed we had one for the first few days. A wonderful gent by the name of William who worked nights in Observation. He was truly spectacular, unfortunately, he was called home on an emergency on the 4th day leaving without a chance to even say goodbye. This sort of unplanned absence meant the Retreat was without bar service for the remainder of our sailing, the management staff who looked over the space could fill in for basic drinks but none of the special Retreat concoctions were possible without a trip to the Patio which simply wasn’t worth the time. More about the Retreat later on. We enjoyed a cocktail or few every evening in Observation bar. Lauren who was the mainstay bartender was very good, quickly learning our drink preferences, within a few days drinks began to arrive with little more than a tip of the head. Others pitched in to help after William departed. On colder days, Michaela, the bartender from Sky Bar was assigned to operated cocktail service in Observation starting around noon, a nice touch which showed a bit of flexibility to deal with the actual conditions of our sailing. Evening nibbles arrived at 6pm a nice prelude to the evening meal. We made it to the Club only once (on reflection we found this strange, but we just got so comfortable in Observation). It’s worth noting that many particular alcohols listed on the menu were not reliably in stock and were not restocked during the voyage. Yes, I know “supply chain”, but it is a tad annoying to find very common spirits available in every chainstore at home can’t be provisioned for the ship. In general, and on this ship in particular, I’m in the camp of those who think the supply chain excuse for every shortage is weaing more than a little thin.

I wrote a bit about our suite in the middle our my thread but I’ll recap here with a bit more detail. Overall we liked the design of the room, in advance I couldn’t imagine how the narrow console shelf near the foot of the bed could be useful but I couldn’t have been more wrong, this became our charging station a drop point for all those things you pick up and put down every cycle. Our suite attendants never stopped by to say hello, we later learned that some were welcomed with mimosas and small nibbles, none for us however. We did meet our team in the hallway when we asked for help with our fridge which had a mind all its own, it would cool occasionally, and act as an oven occasionally, we never managed to get it repaired or replaced during the entire sailing. The maintenance person who came on the third service call noted that I had medication in the fridge, he advised me to take it to the medical center, I told him that wouldn’t be necessary if the fridge simply worked as normal. As I say, I never did, but after a certain number of attempts at correction we just gave up. Not luxurious. The service team did a good job in their day to day tasks, they figured out our schedule on adapted to if well for the most part, one evening turn down didn’t get done, but that really isn’t a big deal for us. The only amazing things they did was, noting that we were moving the bath mat around quite a bit, they provided a second one, grey and very plush, luxurious. Now about the bath towels, unacceptable is the only word that comes to mind, small, very thin, scratch and non absorbent, I would be reluctant to wash my car with such material for fear of scratching. Others complained and received upgraded towels, our request was met with a blank stare and a promise to see what could be done. Nothing was the answer. The most bizarre part was the hand towels in the public washrooms were plush and luxurious, exactly what I might expect in the bath. Okay here’s that first point of comparison to others, our most recent 3 cruises have been in on Oceania and I can say the towel situation was the polar opposite, fairly basic hand towels in the public areas, but large plush towels in the rooms. It’s clear O intend this to be the case as their towel racks are designed for the large plush towels provided. A real fail by Seabourn on this point, it was also disturbing to learn that in fact everyone isn’t equal on Seabourn, those in “real” suites are rewarded with proper luxury towels. About the bathroom itself, quite nice, fresh and clean. The bathtub would, for us, be better used for additional cabin, shower space or a bit more room in the closet. I’m sure there are some who relish a chance for a long soak at sea - but that’s not us. The staff did a great job of keeping paper products stocked up which really should be the minimum expectation but often goes wanting on other lines. The Moultin Brown products were of good quality, the pump bottles dispensed a small coin size squirt each pump which meant body wash for example required 10 of 15 pumps - annoying but something we likewise face at home. Squeeze bottles would be preferrable. In all other regards we found the suite quite good. Our midnight sun sailing proved the utility of the room dividing drapes on those nights that never became dark. The table was sufficient for our few dine in breakfasts, the couch, in our case a dreaded sofa sleeper was okay for the limited use we gave it. The veranda was impressively large and we did enjoy it on a couple of late port evenings when we ordered a cheese plate to enjoy before dinner. We liked the bar setup area, a place to prepare drinks and such, we didn’t use the bar per se, the bottles stocked weren’t quite what we requested, on the other hand the alcohol flows so freely everywhere that we (I really, Mrs doesn’t drink) felt no great need to drink in the room. On the whole the room seemed right to us.

Well, time now for an overall summary of our first Seabourn experience. As I pledged at the start we will comment on Seabourn as we experienced it with a minimum of comparisons to competitors, though I can see a couple looming just ahead. As I also said in my opening posts it’s not my intention to debate long time Seabourn loyalists or the way things used to be, simply to review our experience as we lived it. I thank SLSD who ran a parallel stream of our voyage, a few different perspectives are always helpful. I especially appreciate the myriad of photos she posted, we took some, but I didn’t purchase the internet upgrade and without it uploads were impractical. Okay, let’s start. Embarkation. On the advice of Seabourn regulars we slightly disregarded our assigned boarding time of 1pm, arriving about 12:20. The actual checkin process couldn’t have been easier though no one ever asked to see my boarding pass in any form, a quick review of our passports and to the back of the boarding line we went. Boarding started more or less the moment after our passports were scanned, we were up the gangway by about 12:35, if we had arrived at 1:00 doubtless we would have been aboard at 1:02. We were herded (sorry, that’s the only accurate word) toward Colonnade for our first meal. We were able to secure what looked to be the last two seats at a high table near the exit to the terrace. As I’ve written elsewhere Mrs strongly resists the buffet, especially one lined outside the entrance, no problem though we ordered off the limited kitchen menu and the food arrived a reasonable time later. Our waiter Miguel would become a favorite, we asked for him several days in the Restaurants. Cabins were released at precisely 1:00. By 1:15 Colonnade was deserted, hmm, perhaps aim for that 1:00 boarding time in August (when we sail again). We moved toward our deck 8 suite about 1:30.

There were many taxis on hand, we could see the taxi rank from our balcony. On the other hand, when we arrived on the 11th our taxi driver said there were urgent messages from his dispatcher saying taxis needed at the port - that was at noontime so the message probably is no problem getting off, perhaps more challenging if you intend to drop bags and go back into the city for a look see.

On June 11 we sailed from OceanKaj terminal 1. Sometimes called pier 331. This morning we returned to the same location. I wouldn’t fret though, Orient Kaj is literally around the corner. Long before you reach either you’ll be directing your taxi driver with finger pintinf “that one”. I will add that it is a very basic terminal building, completely separate from literally anything else.

Today, sadly is packing day. We are enjoying a quiet morning on board with a final visit to the Retreat which has been a true joy, I’ll write a separate comment on this provocative product from home in a few days. We had our first real fail at dinner last night in the Restaurant, very busy, but service was good through the mains. We ordered dessert and waited, and waitied. 20 minutes went by, we asked, then 30, finally at 40 minutes we gave up and headed out making a comment. This morning we were greeted with an apology, which is always nice but…. The explanation offered was that the printer for dessert orders failed for several 10s of minutes during which no one found it odd that the full dining room had a sudden disinterest in dessert. Equipment failures of course do occur, corrections can be challenging, but can’t even be attempted if no one recognizes that something isn’t right. Okay, enough energy wasted on that. Overall we’ve had a very enjoyable first experience with Seabourn, I’ll write a more exhaustive final review once home.

Strange experience this morning. I had laundry detail, one last load before departure. As I’ve established I’m an early bird that being the case I hit the machine at the 6:00 opening time, the machine said runtime was 34 minutes, I set my timer for 30 and hit the laundry room door at 6:30. What do I find but a strange man going through my laundry. Unsure what to say, I say, “is there something I can help you with”, he obviously startled starts shoving my laundry back in the machine, pushes past me without a word and strides off down the hall. Obviously THAT load got a second run through. I can’t in my wildest imagination think I’d ever stop someone’s laundry in progress and start rooting around. Strange, just strange.