Isklaar

1 hour ago, pyffii said:

Kings Park is truly stunning and glad that you got to visit there as well as Freo….pity you didn’t get the chance to watch a REAL football match 😝😝

No no. REAL football is Association Football of course 😀

39 minutes ago, shark b8 said:

Evidently tomorrow night’s Colonnade dinner is….some sort of fusion thing.    🤔

 

Szechuan Lasagne could be interesting 🤔 

Have a wonderful cruise.

9 minutes ago, Mr Luxury said:

Or if I paid for you 😀

Not joking, we have a Milestone Award to use, If SB is still honouring them by the time  we're next able to cruise if Encore/Ovation is the only option by that time I would rather lose it! 😀

For some time now I have expected SB to be sold entire, but the sale of just one ship (so far), has surprised me. As a big fan of the O class ships I'm disappointed.

The O class ships are the perfect size for me, Encore and Ovation are just too large, and in my opinion in some respects they suffer poor design. On Ovation we were turned away from the too small MDR as no tables available and struggled to find outdoor space. It's the largest ship we've sailed on and we did not enjoy it. We would sail Venture/Pursuit but only cold weather itineraries.

I hope that Sojourn and Quest are retained for a few more years but as we don't know when we will be able to cruise again, there's a strong possibility they will be gone by then. I do love Sojourn in particular and feel a bit sad that I may never sail her again. 

5 hours ago, shark b8 said:

Indian Market Dinner was spectacular as always (and yet again, at the best table on the ship)  - I over-loaded my plate with curries & chutneys etc, and may have unbalanced the ship towards port.   Which reminds me…..the last time we sailed out of Melbourne, about 4 years ago, in the middle of the night, the ship lurched badly to port, I was thrown out of bed (no small task), and the next morning we heard that pre-set glassware in the MDR was mostly lost on the floor.  There was a tight-lipped explanation in the Herald (can’t remember the wording), and on a Bridge tour a few days later, my inquiry was explained as “a navigational error”, one of those vanilla wording-things that doesn’t really explain much.

 

 

 

 

We experienced a very strong lurch to port coming into Boston a few years ago. We were dressing for dinner at time. I'm not prone to vocal outbursts but taken by surprise as I was I yelled 'woah' or similar, and we heard yelps and even loud swearing (!) from neighbouring suites. Apologies were fairly immediately forthcoming from the bridge. It was attributed to having to take very speedy evasive action because of an uncharted sandbar. 

32 minutes ago, Mauzac said:

 

That juat made me laugh out loud 😂🤣

Me too! 😂

9 hours ago, SLSD said:

Yes, I was updating the thread.  I had reached a clueless agent on the telephone who said it could not be refunded or extended--so we wrote a letter and received this reply.  

Thank you for the update. Ours expires in December. There is no possibility for us to take a cruise together before then so I will contact our TA to request an extension, or if that's not possible, a refund. 

I'm sorry that your Ovation cruise was disappointing but I'm of the opinion that it's good to know both the good and the bad, especially if there's a pattern appearing across the fleet.

Thanks for the update about the change of leadership. Interesting development.

Techno has summed it up perfectly. Just to add that the west coast of Ireland can be particularly wet and windy, and that May/June is a great time to visit due to the long hours of daylight. Even if it is raining 😉.

I find that the countryside in UK and Ireland is at its most beautiful in those months. 

Following with interest as we have a future cruise deposit that will expire in December this year. It looks extremely unlikely that we will be in a position to book a cruise before then (although I may cruise solo if I can find a suitable cruise line with a decent deal for solo travellers).

8 hours ago, Vineyard View said:

I
 We will be on the Quest, so even smaller area. 

Not necessarily!

I am certain someone will 'jump' on me to disagree,  but in my experience it is more challenging to find available space and sun chairs on the big ships' pool decks, as relatively less space there per guest. Just my opinion based on one cruise on Ovation, compared to hundreds of nights, vast majority warm weather cruises, on the O class (smaller ships). 

Glad to know you got there. Manchester is our closest airport. In my opinion it's awful. I feel for you being stuck there for 12 hours!

8 hours ago, markham said:

If the offending couple is Dutch be very careful and do not talk to them about their selfishness. The husband is a big bully and a twisted operator at that. And have been do for years! Just report them to the HD and if you get nowhere to the captain.
 

Why Seabourn tolerates such arrogance and already documented belligerence is beyond me. And to what end?
 

Their continued presence is a deal breaker for us.  

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

 

Dutch, in that case yes same people. We have seen them on more than one cruise, I believe the most recent was Sojourn in 19/20 as noted above. I feel for the crew having to deal with them.

31 minutes ago, Mauzac said:

 

If we weren't on the same cruise, we did know the same couple!

4 sunbeds on Deck 5, just about the only padded ones, two in shade, two in sun, all prepared with towels courtesy of a SB employee (who obviously was tipped to sort it every morning!)

Exactly that scenario! I can't remember which cruise, it was either Sojourn 10 December 2019 - 5 January 2020 or Sojourn Deember 2017.

I've also seen the same thing on the main pool deck, same couple again?

I've been on several SB cruises where a one hour rule has been announced. And crew did remive items after one hour. However it was introduced on a case by case type basis - presumably after guest complaints during very busy warm weather cruises.

 I'm not aware that there is a shipwide permanent policy. Having been on a cruise with a couple who reserved four sunbeds each every day, I can understand why it's necessary! 

Before Covid we took a Christmas cruise with Seabourn most years. We have had great experiences on Caribbean cruises at that time of year, but they are rather more lively than the rest of the year. There have been children onboard every time, most frequently young e.g under 10 years old. There were fewer children on a 21 day cruise, as BasandSyb pointed out a back to back is likely to attract more families than a longer cruise.

However a Singapore to Hong Kong cruise on Ovation offered up all of the negatives you mentioned. Large rowdy multigenerational groups, children running wild and so on. It was challenging to find a peaceful space to work, or read, or just relax. It definitely didn't feel like Seabourn. I felt as if I needed a holiday afterwards.

I'm very sorry for your loss.  

I've sailed solo on SB a few times and have always had a great cruise, they were always very proactive with hosted tables for solo travellers and so on. However, my cruises were all pre Covid so things may have changed since.

One of our regulars on the board, SunViking, has taken several solo cruises since Covid. I believe she is currently on a lengthy cruise on Quest, hopefully she will see your post and tell you more. 

12 hours ago, Isklaar said:

Seabourn Quest is in Lima now. We have CC members onboard who have posted on the SB board earlier today. 

Update, it was a fuel and provisions call only, guests were apparently not allowed to disembark. 

Seabourn Quest is in Lima now. We have CC members onboard who have posted on the SB board earlier today. 

UK based, use only business or first class for flights longer  than five hours. Have never had a better quote from Seabourn than I've been able to find myself.

Same experience  as Julie, on Sojourn in 2014 and Ovation in January 2019. Docked right in town. The journey up to HCM and back down the river was a highlight for me, especially on the first trip. It would be a shame if SB now docks at Phu. 

Julie were you on the 2018/19 Holiday cruise? Or did you join in Hong Kong as we disembarked?

Hello David, welcome to Seabourn.

Hendricks has  been available as an included brand across the fleet, along with e.g Tanqueray, Bombay Sapphire etc. However we haven't been onboard since Covid so it's possible the situation has changed recently. Hopefully cruisers who have been on SB recently will be able to confirm.

I'm not a gin drinker so I can't say which brands are actually on the premium list. 

It varies. For us it has been sometimes  3 or 4 weeks ahead of cruise date, sometimes 3 or 4 days. I've seen posts here at CC by members who got their suite assignment at the port. 

It's too late to edit my earlier post. I was making a point that in my experience in the past it can vary!