PAULINELESLEY

Wow where did those 14 days go, it sounds as though you had a great time we certainly enjoyed your posts everyday thank you. How did you find this larger boat against the 450 passengers I am a little worried.

wishing you a good and safe journey home. 👏👏

Enjoy your cruise Mr Fudge please keep reporting as we are planning to do this cruise next January/February again.

6 hours ago, fudge said:

Day 1

Hi, Everyone,

This is our fourth cruise with Seabourn, we have sailed with Silversea and Regent, in my opinion there is not a lot between them, others may disagree?

So, where to start? Mr. Fudge is a young 72 yrs. old, (well he thinks he is!) Mrs Fudge celebrates her 60^th birthday and our wedding anniversary today, and her father’s birthday.

We emigrated from the UK about 20yrs ago to a small Island called Cyprus in the Mediterranean, a lovely sunny climate all year round.

To get to Barbados for the cruise, the best route was to fly to the UK and then to Barbados where we join the Ovation for two weeks, as I write we are in the Virgin Airlines business lounge drinking champagne, OK its 08.30 who cares!!

For the information of our British friends, we stayed overnight in the Ibis hotel just outside Heathrow, clean, comfortable and a good price.

It was not the best of starts, before the cruise Mr. Fudge fell and broke his wrist (badly) and has in arm in plaster for 6 weeks, this is my second week!  Thankfully I am left-handed so not too bad however, you don’t realise how difficult it is only using one hand, the simplest of tasks, tying your shoes, brushing your teeth, anyway, please don’t feel sorry for me, the food and drink will deaden the pain!

The flight time is 9.30 hrs but it will pass quickly.

We are in a veranda suite (826) deck 8, really looking forward to that, we love Seabourn although we like to dress up so SS is the cruise line for that.

We had a great flight; Virgin know how to treat their clients!

Landed in Barbados 45 minutes early 16.00 although the turbulence throughout the flight was pretty bad.

Although there were several large aircraft in already we breezed through Barbados airport, 20 minutes in all including collecting our bags, once outside we took a cab with two other couples, 30 minutes to the cruise terminal, 37 US dollars per couple, very reasonable.

We arrived at the cruise terminal met by Seabourn staff, through very quickly to a waiting coach, it took 30 seconds to the ship.

Checking in was also a breeze, five minutes, then straight to our suite.

Despite Seabourn saying they would decorate our suite with balloons Etc, nothing at all, very disappointing indeed, I was so excited before we got to the suite!!!

We attended a muster drill at seven PM for about 10 minutes then off to the TK grill.

We were at down immediately, the staff were very attentive, we both ordered the crab cakes and the saddle of Lamb, delicious. We were offered a 1.2 kilo pork chop!! We respectfully declined.

During dinner we struck up a conversation with two lovely couples, one from New York and the other from Canada. How is this for a coincidence, both partners were also celebrating their birthdays the same day!

TK staff brought out a birthday cake for each couple how nice was that.

We had an early night, it had been a long day.

Finally, please excuse my ramblings, sorry don’t do photos, not that savvy yet!

Fire away with any questions, will do my best to answer them.

 

 

Does anyone know which Hotels Seabourn use if staying in Barbados for a few days pre cruise.

On 5/12/2022 at 10:36 AM, kksunfun said:

We are taking the Seabourn bus transfer from Venice at 11:30am on May 21.

 

Hi how was the transfer from Venice to Ravenna was it well organised, how long was the journey? Enjoy you trip.

Thank you for your help.

Can anyone who has been on the Caribbean cruise lately confirm how things are going, are you allowed to get off the ship and wander off on your visit to the islands?

Can someone please confirm that we can only get off the ship on organised trips, we like to get off and walk for a while!

Hi Borna, thank you for your review on the Barbados cruise, it sounds very nice but it sounds as though things are a bit restricted how are things on the boat, did you feel like you were rattling around on the boat due to there being only 62 passengers.

Hi Princess cruiser,

Now you are a few days into your Barbados cruise how is it all going, is the ship full? Have you heard Judy Carmichael, we are hoping to see her in January in the UK. We are hopefully going on your cruise at the end of January, so any information would be very useful, enjoy your cruise.

On 8/16/2021 at 2:51 PM, PrincessCruiser said:

We are getting ready for our first full day on the Odyssey and I thought this might be a good time to post an update.  From all we’ve experienced to this point in the cruise, it looks as if we are in for a wonderful week.  It really feels good to be back onboard!

Saturday’s arrival at the Barbados airport was a smooth process for us.  There were probably six planes that had landed in the afternoon so the airport was quite crowded.  I was glad to have read previous updates on this page because they provided valuable insight as to what should be expected.  I would guess that our arrival, health screening, covid test, and immigration took a little more than one hour.  The key to it was having all our paperwork in order and ready to present when asked for it.

It wasn’t long before we were taken by van to Cobblers Cove Hotel where we were staying for one night.  They arranged our transportation from the airport to the hotel.  Cobblers Cove is a lovely hotel and we had full access to everything within the property since we had the green arm bands that were put on us at the airport.  Our test results were e-mailed to us at 7:08 on Sunday morning so there was no issue related to our scheduled departure time from the hotel at 1:00. 

Once we arrived at the port check-in took about an hour (maybe a little less).  All our documents were checked and once we received our rapid test results it was time to board the Odyssey.  There are about 61 passengers onboard.  The American flights to and from Miami to Barbados were canceled on Sunday (so glad we came a day early!) so a few passengers were not able to fly out.  As a result, Seabourn arranged for them to spend another night on the ship until they fly out from St. Lucia today.  Also, the passengers that couldn’t board yesterday should arrive this afternoon.   

I’m glad we are here.   Our Seabourn experience so far has without a doubt made all the extra effort that was required to get here worth it.       

Thank you Mr Fudge, I have just looked at Sweetfield  Manor it looks very nice, thank you so much.

Thank you Mr and Mrs Fudge, you do make us laugh, Happy New Year, Pauline.

Can anyone recommend a hotel near the port in Barbados please.

Thank you so much Catlover your reviews have been very helpful and interesting, I hope things have improved ie large groups, we are joining the cruise on the 26th so fingers crossed.

Is it possible to book the Thomas Keller restaurant before our trip, if it is how do we do it?

Again thank you Catlover for the photos and your information on your ports of call it sounds chaotic in Barbados I hope it is all sorted by the time we join the ship. Looking forward to your next port of calll. 

Thank you to everyone with your help, I think the bus trip is the answer at least we can see some of the island which sounds lovely. Best wishes, Pauline.

Thank you for you help Catlover very interesting about the East side a few people have mentioned that, also the church is on the list, I wanted to go to Hunte’s garden but it will have to be another time. Thank you for your reports and photo’s on your trip very interesting also seeing the wine list, I have never seen one on any of the Seabourn boats we have been on. Kind regards, Pauline.

Has anybody done the Seabourn tour after the cruise round Barbados then dropped at the airport. We had a trip booked but apparently the rules have changed at the port and private companies aren’t allowed in, it only happened a couple of days ago. We are debating the Seabourn option or a day pass at the Hilton Hotel.

Thank you Raphael it sounds good, I love getting all these tips from you.

4 hours ago, raphael360 said:

Pauline,

One more SB tip.  Watch for the TK "fried chicken" night in the Colonnade restaurant.  It will be the BEST fried chicken you will ever experience in your life - ever. (Hopefully you not vegan ;).  Keep this suggestion on the down low because not everyone knows about this secret.  Watch for this menu option to show up in your "dining options"  the night before and make reservations asap.  FYI: we go at 7pm so we can gorge on this fried chicken and not go to bed stuffed.

 

Read the answer in Raphael360 reply to PAULINELESLEY

Thank you so much Raphael, I feel much better now.

Hi Hellohjw

How nice is that being on the same cruise, on our itinerary it said we can board at 2pm, but I have read of passengers getting on at 1pm and having lunch!

Happy New Year, see you on the boat.

kind regards,

Pauline