stan01

Get them Wi-Fi packages and they'll be fine when they don't want to join grandparents and parents (or any other teens who happen to be on board which is likely if this is during a school holiday).

If you want to be polite to your travel agent call Seabourn to get the quotes because they are the ones with the archaic IT system forcing their employee to sit on the phone for 20-30 minutes giving manual price quotes. We asked for quotes on 9 cruises Friday, each with a PH and V2. The lady who helped us was very nice and efficient (US customer).

The cruises aren't sold out. They aren't available to the general public since this is a pre-release for Club members. You have to call. In the US I called Seabourn and they gave me the pricing. Not sure what access travel agents have (they may have to call Seabourn and provide your Club number). The good news is that some of the prices at least from our observation were pretty good. The bad news is that Seabourn's website needs some work. The good news is Seabourn's website is a little better than sister company Cunard's website, which is a relic of 2001.

I wonder how they will handle advance bookings? They can't really add seating capacity in advance in case the weather is poor. Maybe they will allow more walk-ins or day-of reservations?

At home we eat dinner no later than 5:30 for better digestion, but on vacation we take our pills, have cocktails at 6:00 and dinner at 7:00 and love east to west cruises with those 25 hour days!

We prefer 2-3 week cruises so we find typical age on Seabourn to be between 55 and 80 (which is what the typical age was when we first cruised on Seabourn 15 years ago). Some younger, some older. Not many under 50 passengers. Not many over 90 passengers. On our 2 week cruise this year over Thanksgiving there were zero children. We'd would try to avoid a 7 day Med cruise for that reason.

I'd recommend searching and looking at the many YouTube videos so you can see what is important to you. People will have different opinions and preferences, but overall we find Seabourn to be less formal than Silversea which we prefer. Often more tuxes and gowns on the formal night with Silversea, and more people with sport coats on Seabourn. Some people are the opposite and prefer a formal experience rather than something like a luxury resort. Some people even get annoyed if they are wearing a tux/gown and others are not! I think those folks would be most happy on Silversea and Cunard Grills. Seabourn has multiple no extra cost dining options on board each evening but only one, transitioning from Thomas Keller Grill to Solis, allows advance booking. Allows for more spontaneous choices during the cruise, but again others will prefer to plan out their evenings months in advance rather than be more spontaneous. Some people are concerned about things like the size of the bathroom or decor of the ship, which are highly personal so difficult to know what matters to you. There are people who will not eat at a buffet so again areas where personal preferences impact their choices. Seabourn includes alcoholic drinks except for premium choices, not just wine and beer at meals. Seabourn does not include shore excursions or airfare in their pricing. We prefer this because we make our own choices and don't want to pay for something we will not use but other people seem to like it. I'd say try it for yourself and see what you think.

Does Seabourn still have gentleman hosts? On our last Quest cruise in November out of Miami there was a gentleman in his 70s/80s range who wore a Seabourn name tag. I didn't inquire further ....

Usually you would tell the tour operator what ship you are on, and they will know how things work in their location and would get any additional information needed from you.

Croatia is Seadream at its best when they stop in places like Korcula, Rovinj, Hvar, or Trogir that bigger ships do not go to. We just walked and explored in the historic centers of these coastal villages without organized tours. If you let us know what your specific stops are you'll get better advice. If you are prone to sea sickness I'd just plan to bring your usual supplies. You won't know if you need it until you get there. Our experience on Seadream is that weather and itinerary permitting the Captain will always try to slow or stop the ship so that passengers can fully enjoy cocktails and dining outdoors in the evenings. It's one of the things that makes Seadream different. We haven't been on Seadream in a few years so I probably should let someone with more recent experience talk about the marina and how often they still use it for swimming in the ocean. We were once on board with the owner (Mr. Brynestad) and his family in Croatia. He likes to swim in the ocean so that was done several afternoons during the cruise. On those occasions it was announced that we'd be leaving a little early to find a good spot for swimming. They used to even stop in the middle of a transatlantic crossing to let passengers swim off the marina there, but again not sure if that is still done in 2024.

There is lamb, sirloin, rib eye, and shrimp under the "Grill" section but its definitely not descriptive (and not in English). I agree the "for twos" are showpieces and a lot of people won't order them. I think its unfortunate they have made this choice but time will tell. My guess is people will order them for one anyways, there will be a lot of food waste, and they will in time disappear off the menu. If ordered for one I don't think they will say "no, you can't have it".

Menu looks good, I will predict it is going to get harder to get reservations with a broader menu than TK had. Hopefully they can figure out a way to be fair about allocating reservations and not give more reservations to the people who complain the loudest. Some people are going to want to eat there almost every night (especially with a rotating specials menu) which I can hardly imagine was the case with TK. Such people will try anything to make it so.

Not to mention Panama Canal is becoming marginal too (drought and low water levels in Lake Gatun) unless something changes there. Cruise ships booked far in advance and have paid up to get near the front of the line, but as they make new reservations that's going to get dicey too. Really going to impact seasonal relocations.

As a west coast resident I'd much prefer the ship meet me in San Juan if not Miami, flights into and out of Barbados and even St. Martin are not easy. Seabourn probably feels the 7 day cruises appeal to younger demographic but I'd rather have the extra sea days with a 12-14 day Miami round trip.

Call Seabourn and see what they can do on the phone. There are sometimes problems with the website/app in this area.

Yes, it is tonight's menu on the ship, not the full menu for your cruise. You won't know what's on offer until the night before. It updates to the next day between 10 PM and midnight (ship's time).

This has become a long thread so I may not be tracking everything, have you written a factual letter to the CEO of Oceania asking for their assistance in resolving this matter? That should get you the name of person who would be accountable and who you could continue to work with until this is resolved. If you have already done that, and I missed why that is not working, I'm sorry for mentioning it again.

Everyone was having a good time enjoying the meal, so I'll leave it at that.

There is ZERO chance I'd book a new Red Sea or Persian Gulf cruise in 2024! I see you are in Australia not US so maybe things look different from where you are but with missiles being launched at US Navy ships US companies with US lawyers like Carnival, RCCL, and NCL aren't going to send ships with a lot of US citizen passengers anywhere near there. But they could surprise all of us.

Have they made clear what they are going to do about the Rib and Chicken nights in Colonnade? Maybe I missed that. On our last cruise the two formal nights were French and Rib nights in Colonnade, which are two of our favorites. We saw a number of passengers trying to eat their BBQ ribs without dripping on their tuxes and gowns.

Seabourn Source is fine for daily schedule, menus, account status, and lets you message other passengers by name. You can can order coffee drinks to pick up at Seabourn Square from it but cannot order room service (not sure they are eager to offer that on an all-inclusive cruise line). The other interesting part is that you can see the daily menus (only) for your next booking. We have a booking on Ovation in November so can see menus now. So it helps build some excitement leading up to the next cruise.

We have a Cunard QM2 Queens Grill cruise coming up and seriously considered Luggage Forward for the requisite formal wear that we no longer bring with us on Seabourn, but in the end I think we will just control our packing and get everything into two checked bags plus two regulation carry ons and manage those ourselves while in London for a week before the crossing back to Brooklyn. We tend to over pack and always use the on-board laundry service anyways. Luggage Forward's service offering seems like a good idea, but the more we think about it there are more dependencies on the failures of the various carriers and customs offices that Luggage Forward has no control over. Post COVID decrease in reliability seems to becoming the new normal.

Is this advice for a specific terminal in Southampton, or is it generalized to any of them since they operate the same? Looking at the schedule it seems that Cunard can use several of the terminals depending on what other ships are in port and the whims of the powers that be.

Their terms of service says they are not allowed but I'd guess people do it anyways. If the carrier or customs finds them I don't know what would happen: ignore them? discard them? Leave your bag in customs missing your cruise? That's why I would not chance it but each person would have to make their own decision.

They have a lengthy terms of service on their website https://www.luggageforward.com/legal/terms-of-service/ There are a lot of prohibited items, including all lithium batteries, Air Tags, anything with alcohol including perfume and insect repellent, anything that is illegal where the shipment might pass through including prescription drugs and vitamins, aerosol cans ...