Flamin_June

'You're only as old as you feel, as the late Queen Elizabeth II said, and this applies pretty much to most folks on Seabourn ships. Or, as Groucho Marx said -"You're only as old as the woman you feel" . It would have had a pleasing symetry if the Queen had said 'Youre only as old as the man you feel', but I suppose she had to watch her decorum.

perhaps it was because there was little or no breeze to blow away the cigar smoke? Or humidity is bad for cigars? However, hot and humid = sultry - sounds like the pefect thing to complement a late night sip.

Oh, it has 'character' alright 😁. A is an avid gardner of ferocious intensity and almost witch-like green fingers, and if truth be told we were really looking for a garden with a house attached, the condition of the house being a secondary consideration after the potential of the garden. Well we found one, not huge (thank the Lord) but substantial and more or less a blank canvass. It has the added bonus of a stretch of canal at the bottom (where the swan lives). Which reminds me, I must add 'large bag of swan food' to the to-do list, as our housesitter will be expected to continue A's swan feeding routine (and plant watering routine).

Just when I thought it was safe to get back on the water, thanks to all those lovely reassuring replies....up pop some issues, circulating and slicing through the calm shallows of Cruise Critic like shark fins in the distance, presaging all sorts of unpleasantness for the unwary: the aptly named 'Chogs', rubbish ports, holiday-time cruises, a few more scattered scathing reviews, wi-fi failures - not to mention everything else going on in the background and the wider world. But here comes Captain SharkB8 to the rescue, with welcome wit and gorgeous snapshots, offering a far more enticing picture of what our future may hold. We will be calling at many of Sojourn's recent ports, in reverse order, in 'just a few short weeks' as Rick Meadows used to write; so, many thanks to SharB8 and others on the "Big One" thread for the enticing travelogue and the renewed belief that we have made the right decision with this itinerary. And it is an important decision, as it may be our last Seabourn cruise in this part of the world, that we love so much (one must, however, never say never). I retired just before Covid broke out and there is an inevitable change of priorities as one enters a new phase of life, not least of which is the home we bought and moved to just over a year ago - a charming and desireable 200 year old Grade II listed former coach house (converted to dwellings about 100 years ago) in need, as they euphemistically put it 'of some modernisation'. We promised ourselves we would never buy another doer upper, and what do we do? Buy another doer upper. But, enough context. I must pop out to the local pharmacy to pick up the extra two month's worth of my prescription meds (the procurement of which is a saga in itself).

Italy was fine last time I was there. Still attached to France, Switzerland, Austria and Solovenia, and not really showing her age. Its timely to mention her, too, as Feb 14th is not far away and we will be seeing a lot more of her acronymic twin.

I would reiterate what the previous two posters have said. In 2012 We did a late transatlantic with a B2B 7 day Caribbean from 17th to 23rd Dec on the Spirit. The TA was great, all adults, very civilized, but a 'Xmas party' crowd embarked for the Caribbean, with children and spoilt teenagers while the ship's bars felt like a rowdy end of the week party in NYC's Financial District. Two weeks over Christmas and the New Year on the Legend in the Indian Ocean the previous year was altogether more refined, but great fun, though a short bout of fisticuffs was attempted by one tired and emotional passenger at the New Year Eve's party. I think you need to choose an itinerary that does not involve any B2Bs, preferably one departing before the school holidays begin.

So true. It is reassuring to see that this thread has struck a chord with some. Thanks BasandSyb (and jondfk) for articulating some of the mixed emotions we have been experiencing, which are, for me at any rate, hard to pin down and put into words. For example, we usually have our house/cat-sitter totally sorted long before now, but this time, with endless rail strikes and other issues, have only just ticked that one off - a semi-retired and extremely eccentric biochemist, ex-colleague of mine. We know that our cat finds him agreeable, but we are not sure what our new(ish) neighbours will make of him. Presumably you will have Manuel looking after things while you are away? A (DW) and I fully expect there to be a lot of Aussies on board, and are rather looking forward to that. We have met and chummed up with quite a few on Seabourn ships over the years (and Norwegians, and Dutch, and Japanese, French, Vietnamese and of course Americans and Brits). One of the many sources of pleasant anticipation associated with these journeys is wondering who we might end up connecting with this time - and of course wondering if anybody we know from previous adventures - both staff and guests - will be on board. But now we have the added stress-factor that if mask-wearing is mandatory while we sail to Cairns, how on earth will we recognise anyone? True to my word I got my big suitcase out of the loft. It is sitting open, but pointedly empty, on the settee.

Through the TA is probably best. Tell them you have a Milestone Cruise Award, and would like a quote for a certain cruise (you can have quotes for several until you settle on one). Seabourn will work out what level to calculate the award at, depending on what level you have sailed the most in. For example, if you have sailed mostly in Penthouse suites it will be at that level, mostly in V1s then at that level and so on. Basically it is a discount worth the per diem cost of your chosen cruise at the appropriate level X 7. They will get back to you, through your TA with the discount value. You can then apply that to any level you chose to sail in. The value will vary according to the per diem cost of any given cruise. I hope that makes sense. I could probably put it more succinctly if I hadn't had half a bottle of wine with our dinner.

Stiff upper lip ? Suave, circumlocutory politesse ? Sang-froid ? Aloof-disdain? 😉

Used to be live music, mixture of rock/pop, three or four piece electric band + singer in the club. I recall reading recently that the live band has been replaced by a DJ (🥺). Then there is the deck party, dancing to live music on the pool deck, rock/pop/soul again. Never seen Ballroom dancing anywhere on Seabourn, though one sometimes sees a couple of professional (crew) dancers doing jive at the deck party.

Well, that's banged the post-covid, pre-cruise concerns nail firmly on the head. Thanks for the empathy! But , what the dickens, in three days time, 49 days/7 weeks to go, I am getting the big suitcase out for the fist time since late November 2018.

I always start off with the intention of doing a a live(ish) cruise report. Not very good at posting photos, all this business of getting them up to a cloud and then down again rather defeats me, and, as Sharkb8's current experience shows, all likely to be rather tedious and time consuming in the Pacific. Instead I tend to indulge in a bit of creative writing, which some folks here seem to enjoy. But it usually all peters out around the halfway point as various cruise activities and a growing number of people to socialise with occupies more and more of one's time. Back to the pre-cruise experience and a few thoughts about these CruiseCritic pages. These are always the first place we go to when thinking about booking another SB cruise and then planning for a booked one. It's great to see activity here more or less back to normal levels. There was a time, at the hight of lockdowns when this forum was moribund, like the cruise industry itself. And I missed it. But as it came back to life it seemed to have changed. Pre-covid it often felt like an online extension of being on board. There was a sense, at least to my mind, that folks posted here partly to dip into a vrtual ship-board ambience, it was almost like being back on a Seabourn ship, with a bit of gossip and chat here and there, hotel recommendations, discussions about books, Seabourny type conversations. Who remembers the late Jane BP's "Around the Seabourn Water Cooler" ? There were always, of course critical observations and first timer questions. But postcovid, the board seemed to have been swamped in very negative critical reviews. At the time of our booking it made for hair-raising reading. Fortunately many recent posts have done much to reassure. While there undoubtedly were a number of genuine issues I wonder how may were just trolls, or individuals with an axe to grind?

Heartfelt thanks to everyone for all their reassurance and advice - it goes to show there really is a community spirit and ethos on this board. It was particularly encouraging to read Mauzac's post as I remember well a few pre-cruise blips and stresses that you shared here before your earlier cruise. So glad it all worked out. Like SLSD and a few other regular pre-covid posters, we were very reticent about taking the plunge again after all that has happened. SLSD has summed it up in post #5, but we, like Ovener in an earlier thread, were caught up in a moment of pre-cost-of-living-crisis euphoria last summer, with Covid numbers plunging, when a very tempting itinerary at a very tempting price suddenly appeared*. So, following what seems to be a trend on this board, we are embarking on our longest ever Seabourn cruise, 41 nights on the dear old Odyssey from Sydney to Honolulu. As an added 'bonus' we will end up circumnavigating the globe, flying from the UK to Sydney, from Honolulu to Atlanta, and from Atlanta to the UK (via Amsterdam, thanks to Virgin Atlantic cancelling their direct Atlanta - UK flight a few months after we booked it). The biggest fear at this stage are that we catch Covid at the airport or on the flight and then test positive before boarding in Sydney and get left behind. Or that that something else gets messed up with the flights. Or that we get lost in Hartsfield-Jackson, never to be seen again. And then there are various subsidiary concerns, some of which have already been laid to rest in the replies above, but I will save those for future posts. *It has to be said that I really disaprove of the kind of people one sometimes meets on board, who brag on about the great discount they got on their cruise, but here goes anyway: we cashed in our one-week milestone cruise award, our 5% future cruise deposit discount, our 5% Seabourn club membership discount, took Seabourn's 'pay in full now and get 10% discount' offer, and there was our TA's discount as well.

All of a sudden it's 8 weeks until we embark. That is 56 days or 1344 hours! When we booked it, some 230 days ago, the countdown clock moved with all the speed of cold molasses. Now the days are rushing past with alarming urgency and we seem to be at that critical moment when all thoughts turn to preparing and serious planning. Two months to go should be time enough to be laid back and level-headed about it, yet I am beset by a nagging fear that any further delay will land us in 'leaving it to the last moment' territory. "Time to get the suitcases out of the loft" I say. "As is often the case, darling, you are being a bit premature" says my dear wife, momentarily distracted from the quick crossword in today's newspaper. As Ovener remarked in a recent thread, preparation and planning should be a time of cheerful and optimistic anticipation, almost as much fun as the cruise itself. But it is over four years since we last set sail with Seabourn and much has changed. As Ovener also noted, that happy pre-cruise optimism has been replaced with anxiety, doubt, stress, bureaucracy and a seemingly endless quest to amass documentation, apps, proofs of vaccination and adequate travel insurance. If anyone is remotely interested, I will be popping up here from time to time to let you know how the pre-cruise experience is working out.

Yes, they do like bread. We have a mute swan that occupies the stretch of water at the bottom of our garden. He/she (we can't tell) has been rather spoiled by DW and will now only accept the finest artisanal sourdough, rejecting all other breads ( she does also enjoy a diet of lettuce and special swan/duck food). Actually, we don't 'have' the swan, it just chose to hang out there, belongs to the King.

Or possibly Scotland - 'Och, come in, and warm yourself by this roaring candle'.

I am assuming , with your love of Indian cuisine, that you suppport the Bengals...?

Silly me! I didn't realise that all those flight cancellations, sometimes at less than 24 hours notice, that people in the UK had been facing over the summer and continue to face, were simply schedule changes and nothing to be concerned about. My bad.

Research your flights yourself, find the best route with the most convenient departure/arrival times, and best price you can find, possibly with different airlines rather than a round trip (or as a multi-city sequence). Once you have times/airlines etc., contact Seabourn Air direct, or through you TA and ask them to quote you for the flights you want. Sometimes they will come in at a better price, other times they will be more expensive. Then book your flights direct or with SB. As it is 'safer' to book with SB rather than independently, as they will be duty bound to find you alternative flights in the event of airline cancellations, you may want to go with a more expensive and/or less convenient SB booking, if the price differential is not too much.

I know from experience that there are few things more deflating than launching a thread and have no-one reply. I can't help with your question except to say that on our upcoming March -April Odyssey trip there were very few excursions listed until just a couple of days ago; now there are loads. Maybe in your case it's one of those SB 'updating the website' things and they will all be back soon?

Thanks for this thread, both informative and great fun. The boarding/screening/testing info is very helpful, and I'm looking forward in particular to your reports from the Pacific segment. We are going to be doing more or less the reverse itinerary on Odyssey in March/April, embarking Sydney. At the moment regulations state that we must test pre boarding in Sydney. A self-administered LFT is accetable, all that is required is a photo of the negative test, with time taken and proof of ID alongside the test result. Knowing how things are operating on Sojourn takes a little of the anxiety out, but of course there is the lurking fear that we might catch something on the looooong flight(s). Also looking forward to reading about the Bali to Cape Town segment - we were going to book on that until the Odyssey itinerary appeared...

Seabourn very likely, just ask. In the old days on the Legend we had smoked salmon sandwiches made for us to take on a BA flight home from Barcelona.

If you have booked flights with Seabourn, but have not yet paid in full, why not try contacting seabourn air and ask them to book you on a later connecting flight from CDG ( I am assuming there are plenty of flights from CDG to Venice throughout the day), or an earlier flight out of Manchester, either way it will give you more time to make the connection.

Thankyou all for educating me. When I was younger, 40 -50 years ago I spent some time in Northern and Western Scotland, the Orkneys, Outer Hebridies and a few remote islands in the Irish Sea and Northern Atlantic, so I totally get the appeal of majestic landscapes, rock and lichens, seemingly barren, yet teeming with seabirds. That was then, now my interests lie elsewhere and my perceptoion of South Georgia was of a rather bleak place, tainted by memories of the Falkland's War. It is always good to get a new perspective on a place, especially from people who are passionate about it. I still won't be visiting, though. Like Fletcher, who has recently posted here, I have a hankering for Polynesia, Melanasia , Indonesia and SE Asia.

I personally have no strong desire to cruise Antarctica, but fully understand why folks are drawn to this wilderness. However, I don't understand what the attraction is in South Georgia. I can see that a number of people are very miffed at missing calling there, but what is it that makes it so special ? Is it the penguins?