SKP946

14 hours ago, Tom_H said:

Wi-Fi. I see that many of you complain about the Wi-Fi onboard, is it really that awful or has there been any improvements recently? Is it worth getting unlimited access?

Tom_H. The Wi-Fi is slow, (satellite via the states) with limited bandwidth, the speed depends on how many are on-line at one time.

I work offline and go online to send and receive. A 2 hour package costs $20 and that usually lasts me a week. I find that early mornings have the best speed.

I assume that you are on Odyssey out of Venice to Athens this July 27 ?

Odyssey has just had a mult-million dollar refit so maybe the Wi-Fi has  improved ?

Re: Dining en-suite: Flying 22+ hours from Oz we usually choose longer cruises (20 to 36 days) so we are more inclined to have dinner course-by-course occasionally, especially after a long day touring. 

Midday check in is fine, normally there is not much waiting with Seabourn (it does depend on the port authorities though)

If you haven’t received your new luggage tags they’ll issue new ones at the dock.

Breakfast en-suite: you can order with a door card the night before or just pick up the phone.

You have picked a great itinerary on a great cruise line, have fun and enjoy👍😀

10 hours ago, CLOU said:

First, how does Seabourn determine what level suite to provide?  Logic would tell me it would be the level you sailed the most, but that may not be true.

Correct assumption; however Seabourn like to try and knock you down a level or two for your complimentary cruise (there was a discussion about this recently on the FB Seabourn Sailors site). They tried it with us when we qualified but our TA managed to talk them around.

We are in a similar situation as you with only one more cruise to qualify for our next complimentary cruise.

Seabourn have put on a bus direct to the Athens airport in the past. We found it an excellent service, we had a choice of 8 am and  9am buses. We had about 20 pax on a 50? seat bus.

It was less cost than a taxi for the two of us; we didn’t have to touch our suitcases, they were loaded in for us and there were a couple of staff waiting with trolleys when we arrived at Athens airport.

Check with the ship when you board.

Be wary of Welcome PIck-Ups, they were late for both our airport pick up in Barcelona and from the ship in Amsterdam, both in May.

We were off the ship at 0715, the driver arrived at 0750. ! (We had a 11.15 flight, we made it, even though there was a strike at the airport!)

According to the Captain on our last Seabourn cruise, Seabourn Captains work 70 days ON and (I think he said ) 70 days OFF.

1 hour ago, raphael360 said:

Even business class is barely better than coach use to be.

Wow, raphael360, are you serious ? 

Or is Business Class that bad in the U.S.A.?

We usually fly Qantas, Qatar or Singapore air and they have full-flat seats in Business for international flights.

Qantas even have full-flat seats on some of their longer domestic flights in Oz.

1/ Qatar 787 + 2/  Qatar. 777 . 3/ LATAM 787 (My photo from 2014) Business class seats

11 hours ago, wripro said:

Whenever you purchase anything from a cruise line, be it a hotel or a transfer, it will be more expensive as you are paying per person and not per room or per car. And they tack on their profit. Check out RomeCabs as has been mentioned here. They are very reliable and very reasonable.

Agreed wripro (I had to type your name 3 times as auto-correct kept changing it to (no offense intended) “weirdo” 🙄)

however, we have taken a Seabourn arranged  bus directly from the dock  to the airport a few times and it’s always been a lot less cost than a taxi, especially when the airport is a fair distance eg. Valparaiso to Santiago airport.( about 1 hour 20 minutes)

Wouldn’t Seabourn put on their usual bus to the airport and/or Rome at a reasonable price?

I know they do this in other ports, but maybe not Civitavecchia ?

2 hours ago, sfvoyage said:

When did this happen?

 

The Tammy I am thinking about was promoted from bartender to bar manager 2 or 3 years ago.  Has she very recently been promoted to F&B director?  That would be great news - she was a very good and hardworking bar manager on SB.  (I was on the Sojourn a month ago, and the F&B director was Roland.)

Is this the Tammy you’re referring to ?

I took this photo the night she was promoted to Bar Manager in September 2016 onboard Quest.

A lovely, very hardworking person.

Another Seabourn moment for us was in Antarctica.

We were on Deck 11 above the Obs Lounge admiring the spectacular scenery, when Stephen and Zoltan appeared with hot waffles and hot chicken pies to warm us up

2 hours ago, Cru Doll said:

Another occurred on our second Little Sister Cruise.  We were welcomed aboard in Lisbon with a number of the crew lined up at the gangway to greet us as we walked aboard. Nice touch.  

Cru Doll: 

Was this the moment ? 🤔

Seabourn Pride. Lisbon, May 2011

I don’t have a problem with that. (And there are female chefs)

Our first ever cruise with Seabourn, 10 days on the Pride in May 2010 from the port for Beijing to Hong Kong.

The Chinese authorities were being difficult and wouldn’t let anybody board until 5pm.

Once onboard and walking into the restaurant at 7pm, a waiter came towards us and said,

“Good evening, Mr. and Mrs P. may I show you to a table”

We were blown away, and intrigued how could he know our name when we had only been onboard for two hours !

(we eventually solved the puzzle, from our boarding ship’s ID card photo)

First cruise on the (then) larger ships, the Quest in 2012.

I casually mentioned to Guest Services that the crew were not as quick to learn our names as on the smaller ships. 

The next day (and for the rest of the 25 day cruise) every crew member that I went past (including deck crew) called me by name, so much so it became embarrassing.

I found out later that my embarkation photo had been blown up to poster size and put in a prominent position in the crew section with the words, “ make sure you call Mr. P by name” !

I never did that again.

This is the Google Satellite photo of the port of Athinios showing the winding road up the side of the crater.

Not for the faint hearted or those that suffer from motion sickness🤢

26 minutes ago, ab21au said:

. 

I have read on another site where you can get a boat at Thira to Oia to avoid the cable car. Others may know of this option. 

ab21au, Seabourn offer this as an alternative for $49. But it involves a much longer tender ride (green line) then a bus journey up an extremely winding road up the side of the crater and then quite a journey back to Thira, probably quicker to join the queue at the cable car.

We’ve been there 3 times now and have never had to wait for long, although we go on the early tenders

Oops, sorry SLSD, we were both posting  at about the same time🙄😀

15 minutes ago, rols said:

 

24 zodiacs is correct, they just cut the first steel for the ship and put the ship specs in the article about that which is here

http://seabournclubnews.com/articles/2019/06/062919_04.php

Thanks for link rols, I note that the article states that the 24 Zodiacs will be able to take all guests on a Zodiac TOUR at once.

Also I see that there are 132 suites, so is that a pax capacity of 264 guests? or are Seabourn putting the Expedition Team up in style (as they deserve)

22 minutes ago, SLSD said:

I've done a little reading and think I've read that not every locale has the 100 rule.  

I was only reporting what I had been told.

I just went to the Association of Antarctic Tour Operators website 

https://iaato.org/frequently-asked-questions#are-all-antarctic-tour-operators-members

(interesting reading BTW)

and here are a couple of extracts:-

9 hours ago, raphael360 said:

To be refilled from the plastic water bottle in your suite on from the plastic water bottle in the dining rooms and or bars?

I was told that Seabourn will be installing drinking water filling stations for the SS bottles !🤔

The plastic bottles in the suites and bars will be replaced with “milk carton” type containers.😀

29 minutes ago, ab21au said:

While I have been on the Ovation and the Encore, they were not in a V1 suite for the very reason they are smaller suites. A friend who has sailed on SB many times looked at those cabins on a recent cruise and this is what he reported “I had a look at a V1 on changeover day in Lisbon ?  It seemed very small with no bath, therefore no passage “desk” a two  (instead of three) person couch and (I think) only a single basin.   Better  to pay the extra and have a V2.”

 

... and that would be my opinion also, particularly as the recent quote I got for a 14day cruise on the Ovation, the V1 was only $600 AUD cheaper than a V2. 

If I may add that in the V1 that we looked at, the floor under the hanging space in the wardrobe was mostly taken up with a wooden box about 4 feet?  long by 15 inches? wide by about 15 inches? high. 

Perhaps housing plumbing or other services that are normally under or at the end of the bath.

I’m guessing the size because I only had a quick look and I unfortunately didn’t take any photos.

It would be fine for a single traveler, I guess.

I only knew that a V2 or higher would be much better value.

4 hours ago, SLSD said:

I have posted about this---but wanted to repeat it here--we were told by Seabourn's VP for Explorations that on the new Venture (and its subsequent sister ship), they will be equipped to take everyone for a landing at one time---to make sure that some do't miss out due to changing conditions.  

Aren’t the new ships 200 pax ?

I thought the rule was no more than 100 ashore at any one time (not counting expedition team) ?

59 minutes ago, Qld13 said:

Hi

 

Odyssey on 16 July

Hmm, not looking good, ***** https://*****/cruises-seabourn-odyssey who I usually use for this info are not showing anything before July 20. (Edit: CC blocked my link to sea scanner !🙄)

However the Santorini port schedule shows 4 ships (including Odyssey) in that day with a total pax capacity of over 10,000 !

The cable car rate per hour is 600 (one way) so you might be better to take the Seabourn excursion at US$49 that takes you to the ferry port further around the crater, then buses you back to the town.

Even perhaps a different excursion altogether as Thira is going to be packed.

(or just stay onboard Odyssey, and enjoy the ship there was a discussion earlier on this board relating to the overcrowding on Santori)

We were told the same on Ovation in May. Apparently the machine to wash the bottles is already installed.

The problem with stainless steel water bottles is that if they are just refilled each time,  Instead of washed properly, you can end up with mold growth on the inside.

Qld13. What cruise are you on (ship and date) ? 

I’ll check what ships are due at Santorini that day

Ah, No shuttle bus.

Santorini is up on the top of a cliff of a water filled  caldera (volcanic crater) the ships are down in the water filled crater, the town is up top, hence the cable car.

Depending on how many cruise ships are in that day, you may have to wait, but the line moves very quickly.

DO NOT take the donkeys, not only is it cruel, but I know people who have been injured by being pushed into the walls (broken ankles)

1 hour ago, rols said:

Where did you fly in from? I thought that Tanzania only required yellow fever vaccination proof if you arrive from a country with a high risk of yellow fever. That list doesn't include Australia. Did you stop off on the way at another African country? 

Not that the vaccine isn't a good idea anyway, however I was surprised you were required to show proof. If we went there (and we were looking at doing a safari) we'd have relied on the online information and not been vaccinated. 

We flew from Melbourne via Doha (transit) to Kilimanjaro airport in Tanzania.

A fellow pax who lived in Arusha warned us to have our yellow cards out out as we walked  off the plane. There were two guys watching at the bottom of the steps and pulling people aside if they weren't showing their yellow cards. 

We had no prior knowledge of this, so we were relieved that we hadn’t pleaded the “over 70” excuse (as I’ve read on these board’s more than once)

Coming back into Melbourne we were also given the third degree, wanting to know exactly where we’d been and looking closely at our yellow cards.

BTW rolls, we had an amazing safari; we saw the “Big 3”cats in the first hour after leaving the light plane in Tanangire NP, plus  nearly everything else in the first hour (except a rhino, none in the park)

We saw over 1,000 each of elephant, zebra and buffalo the next day,  plus giraffe, hippo and assorted antelope;  also 2  lion kills up close.

if you want any more info you can email me at my CC Tag, (above my elephant photo) at gmail dot com

We spotted this leopard 20 minutes after leaving the airstrip !