JPH814

And further…

it was one of the most confusing “surveys” I have ever taken.   I would have voted “ none of the above” to all the scenarios provided.   
It would have been better to pair each option with the current scenario and then ask which - if any - you would prefer.  

For what it is worth, this survey is concerning     The only thing I might want to include would be unlimited excursions - or one per port included like a river. Cruise.  But leave the gratuities and booze alone.  No paying extra for special dining.   And no “multiple tiered” system on board - hell no!  

On 2/23/2024 at 8:52 PM, shark b8 said:

If this unreadably small or light I’ll try to split it up into multiple more readable pages.

 

Does it really say "Creamy Butternut Squach Soup"?

18 hours ago, skybluewaters said:

 

Many travel sites do.  Here's one (I think I'm not supposed to say the name of the group here).

And, yes, all of Seabourn's ships are 6* on this site.

without knowing the source, it is difficult to assess what this means.

When Michelin  provides a rating, you know what the criteria are and who the judges are.  You still may or may not agree with them, but at least you have a context.

18 hours ago, Laylam said:

Scenic Eclipse.

who is the person or group who assign the stars?

De gustibus non est disputandem

On 2/19/2024 at 8:51 PM, BriSquared said:

Thank you. I had read it was switched from Bollinger to Moët, however, I am not sure if that has changed again.

In October it was Moet

17 hours ago, labonnevie said:

No. 

Totally and unequivocally incorrect.

I am a huge fan of formal dress.  I usually bring a tux or dinner jacket for formal nights and a couple of sport jackets for non formal nights.

Having said that, it is absolutely OK for men to wear nice jeans for dinner in the main dinning room.  Just not on Formal nights.  

On 1/28/2024 at 3:43 PM, CDNPolar said:

I am probably going to meet some resistance and pushback from this comment, but I think that a river cruise is a river cruise is a river cruise.

 

They all do the same excursions in every port.  The cruise lines rarely design or curate a new excursion, they are all out of the box in each city and country fun by excursion tour companies.

 

For us it is about level of service from the crew and food on the ship.

 

I love the "ABC" statement - never heard it said that way before...  I would recommend that you book your excursions through Viator or a company like that as you can often choose something that is not offered by the cruise line and if it is, it is generally cheaper.

 

As for entertainment, most of the river lines are going to bring on local entertainment or it is the crew themselves.

 

We love Viking, but I cannot say that they are any better or different than Uniworld frankly.  Viking are not going to love reading that comment, but we love Viking for very specific reasons.

I will state one way I noticed a difference among cruise lines:  yes, the excursions might often be the same. But I saw in multiple ports that the Uniworld would have one guide for 12 or 15 people while the other cruise lines would have 20 to 25 guests in group with one guide.  This makes a huge difference to me.

Let me give you an example of Uniworld Service:  We were in Holland on a  Uniworld Cruise and my daughter was in Amsterdam for a work trip.  We asked is she could join us on our trip to Keukenhof.  No problem. She took the train to meet us.  After the excursion, we asked if she could go back on the ship with us that was traveling that afternoon to Amsterdam.  No Problem. The staff suggested she stay on board for dinner.  No charge.  They treated her like a valued guest.  

I will be honest - we have never done a river cruise on any line other than Uniworld. Service has been wonderful.  Food great.  Love the unlimited drinks at lunch, dinner, before dinner, after dinner -  even breakfast (Champagne and bloody marys) .  I doubt we will ever change.

On 11/29/2023 at 1:43 PM, Mr Luxury said:

Not a lot more than you could get around the ship in other restaurants or from room service.

The Champagne is pretty standard.

I thought that they used to serve Bollinger in the Retreat 

Ummm.  We had a bottle of Moët ( our favorite) in the retreat on Ovation in October.  

On 2/8/2024 at 10:25 AM, LEESRE said:

Question 1. You can choose once on board just ask your Steward or Stewardess.

Just choose what you drink, either spirits for wine.

 

Question 2. If you just like a sauna then there is no need to purchase the spa pass, they have a sauna in the Ladies and Gents changing rooms for free.

Regarding number 1: Yes, you can ask your steward once on board.  But on check in day the stewards are busy and have many duties to perform.  That is why Seabourn provides a very simple checklist on the website where you have to register before your cruise.  You can tell them what kind of liquor, wine, soft drinks whatever you prefer and it will be stocked before you arrival.  Do the crew and fellow passengers a favor and use this simple option

We love deck 5 on the Ovation. Balcony sightline is not a problem.   My wife loves the lower deck for less sea motion.  I love the pool and hot tubs at the back end of deck 5 . I head there almost every afternoon and usually have it all to myself.  

My wife and I are considering the 11 day Antarctica cruise on one of the Expedition ships.  We have done several Seabourn Cruises as well as other lines. 
 

We are used to having to pay for excursions - either booking through the ship or booking private tours.  On this cruise I imagine there are not many if any private tours.  My question is:  Are the excursions offered by Seabourn included in the price of the cruise? Or Do you pay for the excursions you want to book?  Or is it a combination of both?  

We are familiar with River Cruises.  They will have one or more included excursions in each port but then some excursions you can book for an additional fee if you desire.  But each day there is at least one included excursion.  Is this the way the Expedition ships work?

Five (and a half) quick answers

1) sometimes yes;, sometimes no.  if yes, it is free.

2) plan on a  bus with at least 20 people

3a) as soon as you make your reservation for the cruise and log into your account, you can make one reservation for TK or Solis

3b)  Sometimes it is available for shipboard reservation, but it is better to book in advance. Availability on board is limited and you may or may not get your preferred dining time. Walk ups are rare.

4) no idea who did the app.  I have used it for 3 cruises now so for me it is pretty easy to use.  Others with less experience (or less tech savvy individuals) have complained

5)  regular blackjack.  Casino has maybe 3 tables, one blackjack, one roulette and one some variety of card game.  And usually about 6 or 10 slot machines.

it is not a charge....it is just a hold.  They are making sure you have enough credit in case you decide to charge stuff.

Having said that, it is pretty obnoxious to think that Seabourn believes that someone who has spent ten thousand dollars or more for a cruise might have a problem problem with their credit to pay their charges at the end of the cruise.  I wonder two things:

1) Have they had a problem with this in the past? People running up charges on board and then not having the credit to pay their bill at the end of a cruise?   If this is the case, I am not sure what good a $30 per day hold would do.  I would have to believe it is  pretty rare on Seabourn.

2) I am willing to bet that this is some corporate policy that is applied across all CCL brands.  I can see the need more so with the budget brands like Carnival or even Holland America.  

Somebody did not think this through.

 But, then again, who cares?  $30 per day hold is not going to make much of a dent in my available credit.

check out Seabourn Sailors on Facebook.  they have roll calls that seem to get some responses 

On 10/23/2023 at 6:43 PM, lisa6191 said:

Seriously, how did you guys fit the large bottles in the shower? There’s just those two flimsy and small shelves. Or do you put them on the floor? I am in favor of the large refillable bottle concept, but I wish they would put them on the wall of the shower. A large refillable bottle on the counter does me no good.

huh?  Had no problem with one bottle and my shampoo on one shelf and my wife's bottle and shampoo on the other

I am a more adventurous eater than my wife. I would like to have dinner in the colonnade some evening, or even at the sushi restaurant. Is there a way that I could order a meal for her and have it delivered to either the colonnade or the sushi restaurant as if we were ordering room service to our room so we could eat together?

I  have been having problems.  Then all of a sudden it worked.  Same browser.  Cache clean and dirty.  I think Seabourn has a limited capacity to have people access their data base.  Sometimes there is a traffic jam.  Other times not so much

My guess is that CCL (Seabourn) paid a pretty hefty sum to Sir Tim and they are going to get their money's worth out of it.

Re: in room beverages

When you fill out your registration on the Seabourn website you will be ask what you want to be stocked in your room upon arrival.  Liquor, beer, wine, sodas and mixers. Very easy.  And once onboard you can get refills or other things from you suite attendant.  

you could wait and put in your request once onboard.  but embarkation day is busy for those attendants so the more that can be done ahead of time the better.  

You are on vacation spending $15000. -much more including air and expenses.   Spend $50 for a bag of laundry and relax and enjoy your vacation.  

I board Sept 24 and get off on October 8.    I have already booked a cruise with my TA  for August of 2024. My intention is to purchase a future cruise certificate and then re-book once I get home for the 5% discount . 

Assuming this new incentive is in effect:

What I may want to do is somehow cancel the cruise on board and then re-book the cruise on while on board, then transfer the booking to my TA once I get home.

I'll let everyone know if it works.

1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

While some have complained about a decline, we have seen very little difference on our 3 post COVID cruises (currently on a 32 day Quest cruise).  One noticeable difference is that the Senior officers are no longer hosting tables in the Restaurant and significantly reduced their interaction with passengers.

 

No question, that post COVID has meant losing many experienced crew and replacing them with new folks who sometimes lack the experience and polish of the old guard.  That being said, some of the new crew are fantastic and others are quickly improving from day to day.   
 

Hank

I would agree that not much has changed.  And I say that positively - as enjoyable post covid as before.  

But I can tell you we enjoyed three hosted table on our cruise in Canada in October of 2022.  Two with lecturers and one with the Human Resources Officer.  And I look forward to more on our upcoming cruises.  

1 hour ago, saminina said:

More weight given to auto rentals and hotels.  They are basically disposable.

I think it foolish to add much weight to cruise decisions.   The perks are nice, but sitting on a ship for two weeks because you get free laundry is counterproductive if you would rather be elsewhere.

If it was a free bag of laundry, I would not give it much weight. 

In my upcoming 14 day cruise I have over $1500 in perks because it is a Seabourn Cruise.  

Booking on board saved us $716

Refer a friend program $500 on board credit

CCL Stock gave us $250 on board credit.

10% discount on excursions saved us $106. (and we only booked 4 through Seabourn.)

This does not mention the 10% on onboard wine purchases. 

And yes - the free bag of laundry, Actually, 2 because it is a 14 day cruise.

Again, if some other line offered something Seabourn did not have or it was comparable and a clearly better value, I might swatch.  But how can I not consider these factors - plus, as I said, the comfort of knowing what to expect when I book with Seabourn.