CalmSea

Oh! French press! Before Covid, I had no problem getting it on the Colonnade. On our first cruise post Covid, the server in the Colonnade did not know what a French press is, and kept bringing me regular coffee! The MD apologized and said that they had to bring it up from the MDR. I have not tried ordering French press in the Colonnade since. Maybe I should try again in my upcoming cruise. I had no problem getting French presse in the MDR, except for a long wait sometimes. BTW, their French press is excellent.

I usually start with "whatisinport.com", and look for the port(s) in question. For each port, they have a link to the location of the port on google map, plus other information. Sometimes, the information may be out-of-date. So, do double-check.

On formal nights, one can still dress informally and eat at the Colonnade. It is not a buffet at dinner time. It is a sit down meal served with a glass of wine.

For booked excursion, try, on the Source App home page, to click on "Plan", then "My Itinerary" and check the dates for which excursions were booked. To find new excursions, on the home page, middle left, there is a link to "shore excursions".

Interesting. I have been noticing that SeatGuru sometimes give me wrong information, and is getting worse as time passes. Do you have a suggestion for another site to look for similar information that are more up to date?

As a follow up to Mr. L's reply, I suggest the OP reads the recent thread:

After looking at the info page of this app, I don't think I will install it, even though it is convenient. I don't like the fact that they will collect personal information and may share it with third parties.

First, congratualtion on your new baby. Second, while Seabourn is not exactly child focus, I would not shy from bringing a baby to most places on board, including the main dining room! I think many fellow passengers will not like to be disturbed by crying babies, so please be more senstive in this respect. But, I think most 9 month olds are usually quite easy going. I would expect most staff will be excited to have a baby on board, which I suspect is a rare event. I would suggest you bring a stroller on board to help carry the baby from one location to another. You should contact Seabourn about getting a crib in your suite. Now, there is also the issue of diapers. You may want to ask Seabourn how they handle disposable diapers. Or, if you want to use reusable diapers, I don't know whether their laundry service will accept them. But, there is always the self-service laundry. Yes, it is more complicated to travel with a baby. But, enjoy yourself, take lots of pictures, and treasure the memory.

@OP, I would not discount Porter immediately. Porter has a pretty good reputation. Another consideration is that Air Canada has a poorer on time arrival statistic compared to Porter. According to https://www.airportia.com/airlines/air-canada/statistic/, over the last month, 26% of Air Canada's flights were delayed by more than 15 minutes, and the average delay is 31 minutes. It is already an improvement when compared to last summer, when almost 50% of Air Canada's flights were delayed. As a comparison, over the last month, only 16% of Porter Airlines were delayed by more than 15 minutes, and the average delay is 19 minutes.

According to Air Canada https://www.aircanada.com/ca/en/aco/home/plan/check-in-information/minimum-connection-times.html#/, the minimum connection time from Canada to the US at Montreal is 55 minutes, and at Toronto is 1 hr 10 minutes. So, Air Canada expects you will be able to make it.

Catlover, thanks for the review. Having been in the same SB Quest cruise with you in September 2022, I have appreciated your harsh but fair observations. I have also read some of your reviews of other cruise lines. I am glad to hear that you found SB, as least on the Ovation, has improved. I have also found that SB has improved in my Alaskan cruise this year.

It seems that whenever there is a new promotion, SB's website runs into multiple problems on the immediate following weekend. Maybe they are just not good at updating their database. Anyway, give them a few days. Usually by next week, the problems will be fixed.

If you rent a car, I would add Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve to yeah's list. You will be up close to breeding birds. But it is a 200 km drive one-way.

Since your booking can be cancelled without penalty before final payment, it can benefit from future sales. If the price drops, you can ask for a re-fare and benefit from the new price. In previous years, Seabourn's Black Friday sales often gave substantial savings. Just one last point, if you re-fare to a lower price, make sure you understand the the cancellation policy of the new fare, because a cheaper fare sometimes comes with a more restrictive cancellation policy.

SB's recent "A Sail to remember", a 10% off sale, just finished on September 13. That is why the prices are higher. But, if the cruise is not selling well, the price will drop again in a few days.

I have not been on the Ovation, but have stayed in a V1 on the Odyssey. The partial metal and glass railing is not a problem at all. Looking at Ovation's deck plan, I would prefer a V1 over a V2. First of all, I prefer a lower deck. Secondly, the V2 cabins are all at the front of the ship. I would prefer the mid-ship V1 cabins, if any is still available. As for the mysterious blank spaces, when I compare them to the deck plan of the Odyssey, I think they are administrative offices. Someone with a better knowledge of the Ovation may be more helpful.

For me, it would depend on the price difference between an OB and a V1 booking. The last time I took an OB was a last minute booking pre-covid. The difference in price was about 20%, and I got a V3 on deck 8. Since the OP's cruise will be more than a year away, the price difference would be smaller. Whether one should gamble? Different people have different tolerance to uncertainties.

In case you are still looking for that page, the method noted in this post (#12) stilll works.

On this bar stocking reference page, one can also notify SB about any celebrations, e.g., birthdays or anniversaries. One can also note any dietary restrictions.

If you have a future booking on the Encore, you should be able to find a copy of the reserve wine list on your Seabourn Source app.

I like the plastic water bottles. We usually pick one up when we go off for an excursion, or for a walk around the port.

First, @jondfk, thanks for your reporting. I learned many things from your posts, including never bother to pay for any upgrade to a PH room. Regarding early morning coffee at the Observation Bar, I am surprised that you were asked to wait until 6:15. I am an early riser myself and habitually go to the OB before 6 and the morning coffee and snacks were almost always set up by 6. When we were on the Odyssey in June, I was at the OB by 5 a.m., and had my first coffee and croissant around 5:45. I spoke to the server, and mentioned that I just arrived from the east coast and was still jet-lagged. The next day, he started setting things up at 5:30 and for thre rest of the cruise! I though that was just a typical "beyond-what-is-required" Seabourn service. I am sorry to hear you had quite a different experience. Regaring the Nespresso machine, I was shown how to use it, but never got the hang of it.

Don't forget the Milestone awards too, which gives you a complimentary cruise of up to 7 days when your Seabourn Club account reaches 140 Redeemable Sailed Days. Your 14 day cruise moves you 10% closer to the target.

My previous comments about the possibility that cruise lines may move to the airline model was triggered by the excellent tread on "SS/RCCL Finances" thread on the SS forum, in particular post #1654. The cruise line in question there was Norwegian. If the cruise line industry is moving to the airline model, I believe all of them will move roughly at the same time, just like what the airlines had done. Will the customers be happy? NO. Will the cruise lines make the changes tomorrow? No. None of the cruise lines are ready. Should they be thinking about it? Yes. As CEOs or CFOs of major cruise lines, they should be thinking and preparing for the future. My main point is that SB need to treat IT as a priority and invest resources into it.

Sorry to have started some of the conversations with @jondfkthat caused some unhappiness. I like solving puzzles, and sometimes it gets me into trouble. Talking about puzzles, sometimes complaints/feedback do help. On the Quest last year, I made a complaint at the Square for not getting my favorite Sudoko printout. On the Odyssey, I am glad to see a printout of the Herald in my suite, and a printout of Sudoko at the Square. Even with some hicupps, more on the Quest than the Odyssey, we thoroughly enjoyed our cruises. We regreted that, on the Odyssey, we purchased only one Future Cruise Deposit per person instead of two. Within a month off the ship, we already booked another cruise on the Odyssey for next year, and now we are eyeing another itinary. I cannot say I enjoy reading negative comments, but I do pay attention to them. Often, I learn things from those comments, and they warn me of any possible surprises ahead. I hope, comments, both positive and negative, will continue to come.