Flamin_June

We seem to be reading this over and over again, as the service issue drifts from one ship to another. Quest, Ovation, Odyssey, now Sojourn. Is this because of a rolling recruitment drive? Are staff not being retained and are continously having to be replaced? What seems irksome to most folks ( and we have from time to time experienced these issues, in much more isolated and sporadic form on pre Covid cruises) is that one's cruise is being utilsed as a training exercise for new staff. In the past, as I have mentioned, this might have been three or four staff, based at different stations: we have expereinced Wait staff in the MDR or Colonnade who were clearly learning the ropes, and once an unhappy stewrdess whose first engagement was not working out for her ( she bucked up as the cruise went on) and once on the old Legend we recall a spa staffer who was dismissed after a week for not making the grade. And on a few cruises in between 2016 and 2018 it was obvious that the hotel crew were a little short-staffed and being worked to the limit. But now it seems that dozens, if not scores, of new inexperienced staff are being thrown in at the deep end and supervisory staff are overwhelmed. The result is unhappy crew, unhappy punters and a a plummeting reputation. One solution might be for Seabourn to be more honest and market certain cruises as 'training cruises' in the same way as re-positioning cruises, at a discounted rate. It would make sense to offer the reduced rate to Seabourn club members only, people who know what the levels of expectation are (Seabourn first timers might be happy with the status quo they found, lacking the expereinece to correct or guide the trainees). This would surely be better than the current state of affairs where customers pay a premium for the stellar service Seabourn prides itself on, and then find themselves let down, and, by all accounts feeling ripped off.

Ahh, so. But designed by Seabourn (in Seattle?). What difference does it make where they are made? If they were made in Karachi, or Istanbul, or Bangkok, or Poland, or Minnesota, would they be any different or any more or less desireable or valuable?

No, not at all; never, why? Are they rural, isolated, free of wifi with very poor phone signals? Have that at home, by and large. We prefer to holiday on a small ship, with plenty of sea days, around the tropics, preferably east of the Bay of Bengal, as far away from the UK as possible. Cruising around Micronesia a few years ago was close to my idea of perfection, with some small islands where almost no one had a mobile phone.

The food is only as good as whoever the Head Chef is on board at the time.

Rant Alert Not all of us do everyting on our phones. I prefer to interact with real people and I resent my every step, purchase and interest being monitored, recorded and analysed, in order to advertise things I already have. In my working life I am at my desk dealing with emails, software, datasets electronic forms, apps digital resources zoom meetings and all the rest of it. When I go on holiday I don't want to have anything to do with it. I don't want to be coerced into constantly monitoring my phone, scrolling up and down and tapping away at icons, waiting for pings, sending smiley faces. I was an early adopter of the worldwide web (as it was then known), back in the 1990s, and although it is invaluable in many ways, especially in terms of productivity and spending time on fora (I was forced to study Latin as a child), frankly I am sick and tired of its invasive, controlling aspects and its increasing use as a barrier between people and as a scapegoat for things not being done properly ("sorry, we have a software issue; sorry, we have a conectivity issue; sorry, our network is a little slow today; sorry that was a predictive text error; etc. etc.). Rant over, thankyou.

I have experienced similar frustrating and anxiety inducing circumstances. |It took about 10 - 12 days for EB to update. On a subsequent occasion I rang SB after a few days and the operative updated the flightease details manually.

So: no jeans in the Restaurant on Formal Nights (phew!). What is less clear, or at least, what puzzles me is the following (my italics): In all dining venues, the nightly dress standard for men is slacks with collared dress shirt or sweater and optional jacket. That seems to imply that, instead of wearing a collared dress shirt, one can just wear a sweater. Perhaps it should say "... collared dress shirt and optional sweater or jacket."

Nobody is saying jeans will be compulsry. Seabourn passengers will dress how they want to dress and at the price point, most people will be elegantly dressed and more or less fashion conscious, and any of those wearing jeans will probably still manage to look expensively dressed. I expect one might see more 'dressing down' or jeans on quickie 7 day cruises and on the two big ships, which seem to me to be marketed towards attracting the aspirational mass-market demographic who want to 'step up'. Of course there have always been boors ( the uncouth, obnoxious and belligerent) on Seabourn, as elsewhere: in over a decade of sailing SB I can recall at least one or two on most voyages. If the sight of jeans at dinner offends you, look away - after all, they will ( one hopes) be tucked under a table most of the time.

That is one heck of a moth problem

Hmmm...... Just one reservation is back, for a few days out from sailaway. Problem is the reservation, which was originally for 2 is now for 12! We did have 6 reservations for two, one for each week of the cruise. Oh well... It's a small step in the right direction. I will leave it for now in the hope that it will right itself eventually. If not, it seems we will have the TKGrill all to ourselves!

While we were on Odyssey some years ago there was a seriously wealthy gentleman (whose own yacht was in dry dock being refurbished) who had a number of crates of wine from his cellar shipped on board. The maître d'hôtel would bring a selection, together with a humidor, to the back of deck 7, where he often sat with his entourage after dinner. One evening I was leaning on the deck 7 rail, sipping a Remy Martin VSOP while gazing out to sea. One of the entourage, a foreign Attaché to Prince Albert of Monaco, drifted over for a chat and happened to ask what I was drinking. "Cognac - Remy..." "Bah! Swill!" he exclaimed , while gently removing the glass from my hand and tossing the contents overboard, "Try some of this" , he said, decanting a generous pour of red wine into my now empty brandy glass. It was like sipping the nectar of the Gods. Unfortunately I did not manage to catch a glimpse of the lable on the bottle.

Hopefully Seabourn have been following this thread and will endeavour to have the MDR open for breakfast and lunch on seaqdays at least, if not everyday. This would then take pressure off the Colonnade and make it less 'Zoo-like', so that everyone wins (even the staff as the Colonnade would be less chaotic and there would be less disgruntled passengers). This all seems to stem from the old days of the little sisters, when the Veranda (their equivalent of the Colonnade) was clearly too small to accommodate everyone for breakfast and lunch and the MDR had to be open.

Yes, probably best not to see what they are pouring you 🙄 Only joking, the included wines are mostly serviceable, some quite decent in a vin de table way, though it is true that some are underwhelming, to say the least and to be avoided. So one actually does need glasses. It seems the Fiji to Hawaii leg of the April 2023 trans-Pacific has been sold out for several weeks already. But don't despair there can often be last minute cancellations, so check with the hosts day to day, or ask to be notified

Thanks Julie! We are both red wine drinkers and rarely have white wine, so what do we know....🙃

The TK Grill menu does not change, apart from the odd single 'special' item. The Fried Chicken night is one of three or four TK AD Hoc style menus that are offered in the Colonnade once every several days. You can book those once on board. In Pre-Covid and Seabourn App times the Ad Hoc nights were not listed in advance, but notified the day before in the paper Herald. We very much like the Ad Hoc offerings and style* and would check the dates with the Colonnade front desk host on embarkation day and ask to to be booked in for each one. We will be on Odyssey in April, so will probably see you on an Ad Hoc night😋. * Talking about 'style', in the early days of Ad Hoc nights on Seabourn they used to serve the complementary wine in glass tumblers, as one might do at home for an informal weekday supper. It was a nice touch, I thought, but, as I recall, many guests were unhappy and wanted their wine in stem glasses....

.... Maybe it is time to unlock the Dress Code thread and let lose the togs of war?..... Once more unto the breeches, dear friends - the thread that refuses to die and keeps on giving. Just wear a jacket on Formal nights, something with long sleeves that can be worn over a shirt; mayhaps a cardigan will suffice....

Email from Seabourn today confirming our TKG reservations, although they are still absent from the online itnerary in my Seabourn account. I'll take their word for it, and I now have two emails confirming the reservations which I can wave at someone once on board if there are any problems. One less thing to worry about. Losing the reservations is not something I'd die in a ditch over, but nonetheless annoying and just another thing to add to various anxieties. I have the Seabourn app on my phone, but using it is not something I am anticipating with any great relish. That it shows our flight from Manchester, UK, as leaving from Mangalore in India does not inspire confidence.

Me too, just yesterday - different boat and cruise, but same problem! I have sent SB guest relations an email, with copy of my original reciept with all six reservations. I can see that all the times I carefully tracked and dilligently booked back in September are now gone, so I can't reserve again. Yet to get a response from SB. OK this is really a 1st world problem, but kind of annoying, We rather like the ambience of TK grill on the O class ships and having a break from MDR, but the only slots left are 6.00 pms, which are just too early for us. Bah!

perhaps this thread could be re-named Pet's Corner...?

I wouldn't want to be accused of opening the door to the the issue of whether or not one could bring an owl on board, but I find this whole thread to be an absolute hoot. I'm amused by the way people are going bats about the the poor little doggie, but do recall how many posters agree that the Colonnade can be a zoo. I remain grateful that Seabourn are not yet marketing any zebra crossings.

Outrageous. This is a sort of mass-market trained approach where the sommelier bluffs that he/she knows better than you, because, after all you are just a mass-market customer form the boondocks and they are a Sommelier, with a capital S. It's the sort of thing that really gets my ire. I would ask to speak to the Captain. You can't have the hotel staff attempt to belittle and embarass a paying guest and act as if they know better.

Will be on Odyssey in about 4 months - that is a lot of time for things to change, but would be very interested to learn of your reasons. I hope you can find the time to post a detailed account.

Very enjoyable and intersting and informative - Thank you! Your pre-cruise, post pandemic chapter captures exactly the sort of stresses and anxieties we are having about our booked SB cruise coming up in 2023 (first since late 2018 !). I so agree - half the fun is (or was) the pre-cruise anticipation, the planning and getting ready. But now, having splashed out, in a similar manner to yourselves in a heady post-lockdown euphoria, it is just anxiety after anxiety. And not helped here by reports that SB is going bust, and that service, food, behaviour of fellow passengers and water quality have all gone to hell in a paper cup. As you have hinted that you found your SB experience as good as can be expected, it is a relief to be able to indulge in some pre-next post anticipation.

😱🤯Final straw piled atop final straw. It's not really an issue as far as pre-dinner drinks go - we tend to have these in our suite as we get dressed for dinner -and presumably there are still tins or bottles of tonic to be had in the mini fridge. Not a post prandial issue for me either, as my after-dinner drinks are usually taken neat, or on ice. But DW absolutely insists that her tonic is on the side so that she has full control and can get it 'just right' (funnily enough she is not that concerned when it comes to porridge). I pity the poor barkeeps who will have to withstand her withering stare. I assume one can ask them to squirt the tonic into a separate tumbler ? Or perhaps a small glass jug?