Chewbecca

I have to say that we were a bit disappointed with this on our first trip last week, it was a marina "2 hours", not a day so the scrum was quite off putting, especially given the general lack of scrums on the ship (colonnade breakfast excepting!).

Is it normal to open the marina for just 2 hours per week?

I'd go over to the French side for dinner, to Grand Case where there is the most amazing row of restaurants. Take a look on TA to see which are the top rated and which menus appeal most to you. L'Estaminet is our favourite, quite modern cuisine but it's not the most popular so I think it is a personal choice!

Lucky you, we've spent many lovely gourmet breaks in GC.

(By the way, the advice we've had is that the mosquitos carrying zika are day biters, not night time & only pregnant women/women planning to conceive need to be concerned. Either way, we found that using a mossie spray kept us bite free, we noticed bites on occasions we forgot & would recommend using it day and night).

We booked a balcony guarantee in Jan for an August cruise and the # was allocated on our confirmation paperwork which I wasn't expecting.

Maybe there are different types of guarantee!

We were on journey in August 15 and March 16.

Linens, carpets and fixtures were new and improved. Chairs were new.

Desk/cupboards were old, including balcony furniture. Stickers have been bizarrely put on the centre section of cupboard & desk doors to make it appear lighter but it is a little amateurish to be honest.

I don't know if the mattresses are changed but we found the beds on both trips to be extremely comfortable and slept really well.

I don't think all balconies are set up for 3, no.

Feel a bit like the three bears, too big a party for this, too small a party for that. Hopefully one'll come along that we are just right for! We do have 11 months after all.

& no one had the FV in hold whilst I was in the phone, the agent confirmed it was available but not to us. It has gone again now.

There are OVs on Constellation that sleep 5, check out the row of cabins on deck two that have both symbols, they have a sofa bed and two pull downs.

Today 2 people can book a verandah guarantee but 3 cannot.

But hopeful of keeping on tracking that something will come up that'll give us our balcony and a little extra space.

(It is 2 Apr 17 cruise by the way)

Thanks for the info.

The OV cabin we are in currently also sleeps 5 but they booked that for us & we are not a couple, we are a family, albeit a smaller one! The gangly 13 year old would benefit from a little more space.

Still, when we booked, we knew the room size, I was just hopeful we'd find bigger, got really excited, hopes were dashed.

Looks like I will need to be patient.

We were worried that the cruise we wanted next Easter would sell out so decided to book it in OV this week as nothing higher was available, and made a note that we wanted to pay for an upgrade if anything came open as the cabin really is too small for us and our teenage son.

Today, I look on the site for our cruise with our party size (2 adults, 1 teenager) and would be able to book the FV - my ideal room! - & I was happy with the price shown too.

I'm in the Uk so cannot cancel and re-book without penalty, so ring my TA who rings X and is told there is a mimunim cabin occupancy of 5 so we cannot upgrade.

I get the minimum cabin occupancy concept but we are a family and what makes me most cross is that the website would let us book for the 3 of us but we would lose our deposit, paid just 2 days ago.

It's left me with a really sour view of X and their 'rules'. I so bitterly regret booking this week and wish I had waited until today.

If anyone knows any way other than to re-book & lose our deposit, please tell! Thanks.

Hi all,

We're really keen to book a cruise on Constellation in April 2017 but only Inside/OV and Suites are available. We really want a balcony but cannot afford the suite!

On other lines we've travelled on, we've found US passengers book cruises then cancel as they don't have the penalties we have in the UK for doing this - is this common on Celebrity?

If so, would we be best placed to get one of the cancellations by waiting (if so, until when) or to book the OV now and request an upgrade if/when any become free?

Any tips much appreciated. Thanks.

We were on Journey last August & last week. The balcony cabins have had a little tlc but I wouldn't say ours was totally re-furbished, it wasn't entirely different.

The wardrobe unit and desk is unchanged except for cream stickers being added to the doors, which is a bit odd really. The balcony itself doesn't seem to have been touched, same furniture & ours was a little shabby.

The bathroom has been partly upgraded with new flooring & altered shelving & a new shower fitting. The curtains, bedside tables and headboard were also new.

We found the most dramatic change to be in the 'living room' which is much smarter and fresher, really improved.

Hmm, you make very fair points UKTog, I hadn't thought about it from that perspective, I guess it can get a bit 'cliquey'. thanks for presenting the other view.

Oooh, good, I hope he's on board and hosting the trivia on Journey next month then!

I'm afraid we do find the trivia on Journey to be poor, it is not because of the rubbish prizes, nobody's there for the prizes. They get things wrong like:

- lack of continuity of hosts so there's no build up of jokes and banter through the trip

- bad timing of triv and held in venues without the bar being open

- lack of competitive spirit in the hosts. They are going through the motions, you feel as though they've groaned that it is their turn to be trivia host, they turn up, read out the Q and As as quickly as possible and get back to their preferred activity as quickly as possible.

Eric as a CD seems much more focussed on the 'cabaret' type of entertainment, & is fab at it if that's your thing.

We're still sailing on the Journey again (under 4 weeks to go now!), but for it to be my 'perfect ship', the trivia would be much, much better.

We've sailed on Regatta and Journey... and would/will sail on both again.

I'm surprised O is so much cheaper, they must be doing some great discounts as when we were looking for this summer (Dec ish), we were keen on some O sailings but ruled it out as it was too expensive, much more so that Az at the time.

There were quite a few things we enjoyed more on O, in particular

- afternoon cooking demo

- trivia quiz

- bar opening times

I know there's trivia on Az but last summer the timings were bad and the quizmasters (it changed daily) were really poor. There was no bonding, banter or continuity, it was very flat. On O, the CD (Ray) ran the daily quiz, really encouraged mingling, had running jokes going, it was great fun & a daily highlight. If you are not a quizzer, it's irrelevant to you but just our observations.

We also found the extended port times on Az often meant bars were not open, the Looking Glass/Living Room was often closed when we wanted to use it.

Please don't take this as unhappy customers though, we were very happy overall and are sailing again on Journey next month, yippee!

SB's exact wording FYI:

I have looked into the onboard credit offer you have as part of the promotion you have booked. Unfortunately, this is not combinable with the referral coupon offer. If you still wish to use the referral coupon, we could look to remove the existing US$200 on the booking so you can have the US$400 instead

If you have any further enquiries or questions please do not hesitate to email us at enquiries@seabourn.co.uk or call us on 0845 070 0500.

I'm sorry to say that Seabourn have confirmed that their $200 OBC offer is not combinable with referral coupon credit.

They will offer the option to remove the $200 and allow you to claim the $400 instead.

I don't think it is worth the administrative effort to be honest!

There are also less cabins that can accommodate a 3rd guest I think.

However I think their headline capacity is if all cabins are occupied by 2 people?

I've written to Seabourn to ask if the OBC promotion they are currently offering is combinable with referral coupon credit. Will post reply here when I hear.

We've just booked our first Seabourn cruise for August 16.

We got $200 OBC as part of the deal - trust this means we would not also be eligible for the referral OBC?

Thanks Bonnie, we'll give the regular contacts a chance to deal with it and escalate if needed.

I wanted to let other people know it might be worth checking if you thought you'd booked a 3 berth!

We're booked on the 10 night Journey cruise from Miami next Easter weekend, my husband & our son. After reading threads here today, I thought I'd check out the post refit deck plans and discovered that our (carefully selected) room no longer has the sofa bed!

We've messaged Az today, it will be interesting to see where they suggest our son will sleep! I'm surprised we haven't heard from them to be honest. Maybe the plans aren't final, in which case, why publish them and worry booked guests?!

What about Oceania?

We did 10 nights on O's regatta last summer, so basically the same ship as Quest & Journey, starting at Seattle & ending in Vancouver, it was great. Spent some time pre and post cruise in Seattle, Vancouver & also in the Okanagan area which was fab.

Oh dear, this is not good news (except for the last post). We are absolutely not die hards and if we cannot swim, I don't think we'll take the TA.

Not so worried about the air temperature, as I say, we swam in Alaska when the air was cold but the pool warm.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Just that really!

I am a wimp and can only swim when the pool is lovely and warm. We're considering the TA in April and it'd be good to use the pool on the many sea days. We were on Oceania's Regatta in Alaska this summer and the pool was gorgeous - hoping Joirney's would be the same (know the are basically the same ship)

Thanks!