jenidallas

Hopefully when that report is live, someone will share it.  There are a number of us who were summarily banned from the one Facebook group for various reasons, hence the reason the other group exists.  

40 minutes ago, cruiseej said:

 

@jenidallas I'd say to hold tight for right now, as we'll possibly get more clarity once the Caribbean cruises begin next week. And as @Hltiner says, hopefully we'll see some of the restrictions removed or relaxed with additional passage of time. You probably have about 5 weeks until you enter the penalty period; why not wait until closer to that time to see how things are going? Fingers crossed!

We’ve got five weeks until penalty kicks in, but also have to think about the logistics of the alternate plans… getting airfare (especially hunting for scare awards around the holidays), blocking time off on work calendars (if we don’t do this sailing, I’ll spread the 3.5 weeks away for this one across multiple future trips instead), and just the peace of mind of having clarity for future plans (as much as anyone can during the next phase of a global pandemic).

Seabourn policies and changing island rules are also admittedly not my only factors.  I want to cruise badly but also weighing alternatives with other types of trips.  

5 hours ago, cruiseej said:

 

But that's the problem! They're the ones who decided awhile back that they had enough confidence to sell and operate these cruises — so they can't throw up their hands when they're selling expensive trips to these countries. Of course Seabourn can't control what protocols each country imposes, but they can control their communication to customers. And they can control where they go and, to see extent, what they can offer while they are there.

I’m firmly in your camp and we’ve been actively discussing this topic in our house this week.  We booked the 21-night holiday sailing (which is a a 10-night and 11-night Barbados RT back-to-back) and I’m not thrilled with the possibility of being stuck with only ship excursions for 21 nights.  We are seriously contemplating pulling the plug now and instead doing something less risky with the time and funds.
 

As much as I miss cruising and Seabourn, I don’t miss it *that* much!  🤪

Thank goodness… otherwise we would have been cancelling our 21 nights at the holiday.  
 

We are still watching the situation closely and I’m concerned about another post I just read that only ship excursions are allowed, which is hopefully not accurate as we don’t generally do excursions in the Caribbean.

4 hours ago, ernieb said:

We will be on the Odyssey next April. I noticed the deck plan shows an area for The Retreat that appears much smaller than the area on the Ovation. Is it supposed to be the same set up?

I was going to say “that’s easy… there is no Retreat on the Odyssey class ships” because that was always the Sun Terrace or something like that and it was free.
 

But then I looked at the deck plans and see that it’s now labeled The Retreat on the Odyssey deck plans online, so it makes me wonder if someone at corporate has decided to monetize that space on the older ships.  😳

1 hour ago, tv24 said:

I was happy  to read of this new perk.  However, indulge me as I whine about the slow internet speed.  Seabourn and other Carnival lines really do need to invest in better satellite service.  The current service is just plain clunky and old fashioned.

Hopefully one of our sailors onboard for Greece can confirm whether it’s still the same service or if it was upgraded over the past 16 months.  I had understood that Seabourn had already planned to upgrade onboard internet capabilities prior to the pandemic so my hope is that this is something they took the time to do while the ships were passenger-free.  

Certainly if they are rolling out and encouraging mobile app use plus offering everyone free internet then they’ve done this, but I’ve leaned never to assume!

On 7/1/2021 at 9:49 PM, LP987 said:

Thank you all very much for info. Is there typically one BBQ/Caviar day per week?  

Yes for the 7 day Caribbean itineraries.  I’ve looked at these and St Kitts will be that day each week.  It’s generally one per itinerary, not per week so if you are doing a back-to-back then you’d have one for each segment.

On 7/1/2021 at 6:05 PM, HalFan said:

We have booked Seabourn for the first time for September-October, 2022 and were wondering about opening times and was served in each venue.  Another question:  we will be on 3 B2B cruises of one week each.  Does Seabourn rotate the same menus every 7 days or do they make additional changes from week to week? 

On the smaller Odyssey class ships the venue hours were typically 7-9 (with TK opening a bit earlier).  On the larger Encore ships, a couple of the restaurants opened slightly earlier but you should still expect to dine between 6:30-9.

They have a long rotation of menus… I’ve been on for 16 nights with no repeating menus in the dining room although a popular dish might be sprinkled in more than once.  There is lord repetition on the Patio Grill lunch menus and the TK menu doesn’t change with the exception of daily specials.

I agree with all of that.  And as the virus lingers into future years, we will see more reasonable policies around how we deal with individuals who test positive.  
 

For now though, if testing positive (vaccinated or not) means getting offloaded from a ship mid-journey, being unable to fly home and this bearing the burden of extra time/expense to quarantine in another country until negative, and being stuck in isolation protocol if contact traced, then I’m going to want every extra step possible to ensure that mitigation is in place to decrease my chances of that happening.  And I am still of the belief that the same people who refuse to get vaccinated are also the ones that play fast and loose with other precautions, or at least that’s what my direct sample here in Texas has consistently shown (anti-vax = anti-mask = anti social distancing).

As I said earlier, we are watching the next few weeks to see how these things are handled knowing they could be an indicator of what to expect in the coming months.  I have my own health battles to fight in the meantime and my doctors may say “heck no” for me to cruising or traveling to countries without robust infrastructure this year even at 100% vaccination rates.  And if that’s the case then we may be rolling our deposits forward and planning for something spectacular once more of the uncertainties are smoothed out.

2 hours ago, Hlitner said:

But for what its worth, there is no reason to expect that everyone you interact with in a port will be vaccinated. 
 

And you might also consider that on the Celebrity ship that has been operating out of St Maarten with a 100% vaccination policy there have been some positive cases. 

But I can choose what I want to do in a port, whether I want to be around others, and if I want to wear a mask.  I don’t feel like I should have to have as high of a degree of risk surveillance onboard.

You seem intent on trying to convince me I’m wrong to want to sail on a less than 100% vaccinated ship.  And the bottom line is I just don’t want to have extra unnecessary things to fret about on vacation.  We all get to pick our personal level of risk tolerance and what experience we want to invest in.  Mine doesn’t involve worrying about unvaccinated people being in continuous close proximity to me for 21 days.  This is why we didn’t book a summer or fall cruise where we’d be part of the experimental group.

33 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

I believe that cruise embarks from Barbados where they currently have a very tough COVID policy requiring RT-PCR testing (3 days prior to the trip). 

But pre-departure testing is only part of that.  We now have to deal with not knowing who is/is not vaccinated onboard and whether we should be exercising elevated precautions around certain passengers.  While I recognize that some passengers perhaps have health reasons for which they cannot be vaccinated, my understanding of those clinical conditions is that they would likely put the passenger in a higher risk category for travel which might not be conducive to cruising in developing economies.  I therefore have to assume that anyone who is unvaccinated is thus willingly unvaccinated and so I question my safety around those passengers for other reasons just beyond vaccination status.  

Bottom line... I am willing to be unmasked in noncrowded situations around a group of totally vaccinated individuals.  But I'm now having to make a lot of assumptions about my safety including understanding what those passengers may have been exposed to in ports.

If we don't go, it will free up cabin space for Seabourn to sell passage to individuals who have different personal health standards.

2 hours ago, hoya68 said:

I think it is important to note that Seabourn has not said they won't require vaccines for future cruises - they just haven't yet established a policy. My wife and I are booked on the December Quest Antarctic cruise. She is adamant that if they don't require vaccines, we should cancel while the cancellation period is in effect. 

Same for us.  We are booked on Odyssey for 21 nights at the holidays but if Seabourn doesn’t announce a 100% vaccination requirement by mid-August (or if they announce anything less), we WILL cancel before the penalty period kicks in.  I’m already looking at alternative plans for that period as I don’t feel like rolling the dice on my first “real” vacation in almost 3 years!
 

16 minutes ago, cruiseej said:

 

(But going back to my original post, I think there would be more interest in the option of an occasional afternoon tour instead of, rather than in addition to, a morning tour very day.)

 

We are in the camp that would probably do more tours if there were afternoon options. We like to get a later start, enjoy a leisurely breakfast, and experience the color of a port when it has sprung to life.  
 

We are also in the camp that will stay out in a port into the evening hours, including enjoying a local dinner or a post dinner moonlight stroll.  When we have overnights, it is not out of the question to take a longer sojourn away from the ship.

2 hours ago, dalliowner said:

Has anybody seen what restrictions will be on board when cruises start next week . Will masks be required when walking around the ship, how about around the pool and in the lounges. I would hope those boarding soon will have be told by now ?

It seems like those heading out on these relaunch cruises are going to be our human guinea pigs - they’ll get to experience this in real time and report back as it’s not crystal clear what everything will look like.

We are watching everything in July and August closely as we hit the start of our penalty period for the holiday cruise in the second half of August.  We are discouraged that Seabourn has not announced the vaccination requirements beyond October and the vague statement I saw posted elsewhere offered no comfort.  
 

I’d now place our odds of cancelling at greater than 50% as we have zero desire to be on a ship with unvaccinated passengers.  We are fully vaccinated and certainly feel okay going about our daily lives here at home.  We know it’s possible we could still contract and transmit the virus but are now unlikely to become seriously ill.  But the downstream complications that might arise if we have an aysymptomatic contraction/transmission abroad is a complicating factor and until we fully understand what that looks like (being abruptly offloaded in an inconvenient port or detained at the end of a holiday), it’s a risk we have to plan for.  

35 minutes ago, Hobar said:

 I am most curious about the wines, but I suppose if was Far Niente or Nickel & Nickel, someone here would have mentioned that.  

I can confirm “no” and “no”.  
 

Far Niente Dolce is (or at least see to be) on one of the wine package lists though….

I stand corrected and here is the final word.  I clearly have a shoddy memory!

Seabourn Ovation - Initial Reactions and Unpopular Opinions - Seabourn Cruise Line - Cruise Critic Community

AA’s flux with the flight schedules is just another deterrent to us actually cruising in December.  The list keeps growing and I spent an hour booking award flights the other night that I was not thrilled with.  Luckily I can redeposit with no penalty so the speculation is okay at this point!
 

While we are holding a booking, we are starting to think seriously about whether we are ready yet for both travel convenience and personal reasons. 

47 minutes ago, edgee said:

Considering my first Seabourn cruise on Odyssey down under. I like to play blackjack. Wondered if there is usually much activity at the tables and whether they have tables with minimum bets available in the 25 or 50 dollar range or whether all  tables have lower limits such as the ten to fifteen dollar range. Thanks!

There is one blackjack table and the limits will vary depending on how active the casino is but it’s usually in the $10-20 range.
 

Seabourn is not known for their active casino - one blackjack table, one poker table, one roulette table, and about a dozen machines (mix of slot/card) - in a small room off the side of The Club.

On 6/26/2021 at 2:01 PM, sfvoyage said:

 

When was the Krug?  It was Bollinger in 2018 as well as February 2020, right before the pandemic shutdown.

My husband swears it was Krug as well so now I'm confused too.  Maybe we conflated that with onboard purchases or inflight offerings?  I know we shared a review here back in 2018 so that might be the source of truth.

There are a few photos shared here.  They do have nice loungers which I wish Seabourn would provide elsewhere on the ship.

https://www.theluxurycruisereview.com/seabourn-encore-retreat/

When we were onboard they were running specials so the stated $249 USD (that’s per suite, not per person) was $149 USD and they also had full cruise packages.

As mentioned there, they offer free tours (and free flowing Krug) on embarkation day afternoon.

If you are a wine person and want to drink a lot of it during the day, maybe?  The Retreat has an included wine list that’s nice… the champagne is Krug and you get an unopened bottle in your cabana as well as what they pour all day.  
 

If you are planning on having spa treatments and want to have a more seamless pool/spa day, maybe?  The Retreat includes a spa credit but it doesn’t have to be used that day.

if you are really bored with the food options everywhere else on Seabourn and want to try one of their menu items, maybe?  You can eat breakfast and lunch up there and they’ll bring you snacks all day long.

If you are feeling like you need extra attention because the usual service on Seabourn just isn’t quite enough for you, maybe?  The staff up there are often bored and looking to do something, anything to stay busy.

If you want to watch on-demand movies but also get in and out of the hot tub and the walk between your suite and the pool is just too overwhelming, maybe?  The cabanas have a couch and tv and are just a few steps from the hot tub.

If you have a bunch of onboard credit and don’t know how else to spend it, maybe?  It’s not the worse way to stretch it either… you get a spa credit and a bottle of Krug plus whatever you consume up there plus a cute Retreat tote bag and pairs of flip flops to keep.  If you are into any of that, of course.

I may have a unique opinion on this (for Cruise Critic at least) because I share the sentiment that it’s a giant waste of space but also have used it a couple of times and didn’t hate it.  It’s highly unlikely I’d spend my own money for it (one visit was a gift, the other extra OBC to use).  We spent two days up there on our honeymoon.  On the first, we were the only couple there… it was a dreary autumn day in the Adriatic and we watched movies in the cabana, drank wine, and warmed up in the hot tub.  On the second, we skipped a sleepy port on a nice day and hung out with another couple we’d befriended - we played cards in the sun, ate lunch, and enjoyed the hot tub - all things we could have done elsewhere on the ship but at least accompanied by nice wines.
 

There is almost  no shade up there other than in the cabanas and it’s hard to get a good breeze, although the cabanas on Ovation at least open toward the ocean.  
 

I really wish Seabourn would convert that to a second public outdoor space… pull out tte cabanas, add some shaded area, put in a good number of loungers.  Then they could add more tables downstairs for the Patio Grill/Earth & Ocean.  I don’t recall seeing The Retreat even mentioned in any of the marketing materials I’ve seen this year so maybe it’s under consideration?

5 hours ago, cruiseej said:

Another question for soon-to-be-Barbados-bound passengers: have you looked into/booked/rejected the Fast Track service at the airport?

We booked It with Viator in 2017 and then it got cancelled/refunded right before arrival because we were landing on Christmas night.  They did rebook us a driver at least though and we were in first class so we only waited about 10 minutes because we were near to the front of the three flights that all landed at once.

I’d be interested in reviews from this summer.  I know these services can frequently change with little notice if CBP suddenly changes a process.  I still remember that happening in Bali many years back - VIP went from private transfer to a lounge where someone always handled CBP for you while you relaxed with a drink and then suddenly on one trip that was gone with no notice and I had basically paid for a person to stand with me in a long line and try to figure out how it which was fastest because they could no longer cut the line!

2 hours ago, markham said:

Yes, and as mentioned above, you may need to see it to appreciate the change the concept brings to the brand.m

100% second this. I was never a fan of the Patio Grill at dinner - I found the food boring and uninspired.  Earth & Ocean is an entirely new reimagining of what al fresco casual hut elegant dining can look like.  It feels contemporary, not stale, and is on point with current culinary trends (the smoking box starter, for example).

33 minutes ago, Hobar said:

What’s the difference between Earth & Ocean on Ovation & Encore, and The Patio Grille on the O class ships?

They are the same.  Earth & Ocean rolled out to all of the ships and is the evening option on the patio.  During the day it’s the Patio Grille.

10 hours ago, WesternBroncoCruiser said:

Thanks!  I 'll let her know the details.   Sounds like they are similar to the dryers on other lines. 

 

Depending on the line, they are better than the hairdryers on other lines - or at least the lines that have the wall mounted low wattage ones - but not as strong as the high wattage travel dryer I pack.