CalmSea

You don't have to present your electronic ticket. They checked your cabin number multiple times. It does help to have the electronic ticket handy though. We once had the experience where, to determine which bus we should get on, they couldn't find our cabin number. When I show my electronic ticket, the attendant said, "Oh, you are on this tour", and find our cabin number. So, an electronic ticket is just a backup. However, you do have to show up for the tour! My opinion is that, for excursion tickets, a paper reminder should be the default. Maybe there should be an option for someone to opt out of receiving a paper reminder, if they don't want wasted paper.

I second what Catlover said. We walked in with our luggage in Montreal and the security guard checked the boarading pass on my phone. Since we arrived back in Montreal one day early, we had the occation to return to the ship that day, and for this time, a cruise card was good enough.

I know I am going off topics here, but I still would like to add a few comments regarding food during lunch on the patio. I was on the Quest too, and after reading some of the remarks about patio lunch food, I decided to try their hot dog and didn't like it. We tried the french fries and liked it. You are correct that we probably got better service at 3. But, fish was probably also better at 3. Let me explain. Obviously, fish for lunch at the patio was frozen, but if it was cooked correctly, it would taste almost as good as fresh ones. It should not be defrosted but cooked directly frozen. At 3, it was very likely that they didn't have any defrosted fish left anymore. We found it a good sign when we had to wait some 20 minutes for our fish of the day. It was just about the right amount of time to cook a frozen fish through, so that it was warm and not overcook. Next time, you may want to try order fish at the patio at a late hour. I promise not to go off-topic again.

I have to put in a few words of defense for lunch on the patio. It is our lunch location of choice on port days. It was opened until 3:30 p.m. We often came back from an excursion, or a walk around the port around 3 and went to the patio. Our usual order was fish of the day, a soup (if it was still available), and a beer. Their fish dishes changed every day, and were usually very good and better than the salmon from the Colonade. Since the ship was not moving, the wind was usually not a problem.

An excellent idea. I have just sent the suggestions to SB in their solicited post cruise review.

My suggestion was just to create a mechanism where timely but not urgent information can be broadcast to a wide audience. Of course, push notification can be used, and Seabourn is using it to remind guests of upcoming excursion that they have booked. My own preference would be to use push notification for more personalized messages, where one has implicitly or explcitely opted in to receive them. For example, I won't mind subsribing to messages that would notify me when a whale is sighted. Now back to my suggestion. What motivated me was the memory that, in one occasion, the Destination Manager in our recent Quest cruise was telling everyone walking into his upcoming port talk that some new excursions were just made available, and that everyone should look at them at the Source App. That information could probably be broadcast to all tv's in the cabins as well. Granted that the situation of adding new excursions during a cruise is rare, how about a situation where a scheduled poolside danse party has been moved to the Club at deck 5 due to poor weather. Having a mechanism to broadcast information is just the start. The management still has to be proactive to use it wisely. The messages should be timely and of interest to many. Otherwise, it would just be another source of information overload.

Our cruise on the Quest was disrupted by Fiona, and we found that the availability of timely information lacking. After thinking about it, I have a suggestion for Seabourn. Since we are already told to turn on our TV to the channel showing the forward bow view in order to listen to anouncements, why not add a news ticker crawling on the bottom of the screen. For our cruise, it could be used to broadcast changes that may be of interest to the guests, e.g., when a new excursion is available, or when there are changes to the opening hours of the various food services. A crawling news ticker would be an unintrusive way of communication these changes.

Hurricane Fiona has created quite a bit of damages to the Atlantic region. I would expect that would jhave an impact on the excursions. On the September 22 cruise, if an excursion was cancelled and then a similar one reappeared, the destination team would give priority to those who had previously booked on the cancelled tour, and rebooked them automatically on the new tour. I hope the same process will apply to your cruise.

I just read your review. I agree with most of what you said, and your comments mirrored what my DW had been saying to me too. As for the rating, I would give the cruise a 4 out of 5. Despite the problems, we had a good time and will go on another Seabourn cruise again.

Wow, this thread still has legs. Let me just add to it by commenting on my fortunes or misfortunes with food services. First, let me make clear that I enjoy Seabourn because of the "Extra Effort" that they make to satisfy their guests. It became my expectation, and may be sometimes it is too much. First a success story. We usually avoid the Restaurant after the Captain's reception. As usual we went to the Colonade. But, there was lobster dish that I like on the main dining room menus. No problem. I will ask for it at the Colonade. I had done it several times before on Seabourn. This time around, when I asked for a dish from the main dining room in Colonade, the waiter said they had a set menu and only served those dishes on the menu. I insisted that I had done this before and asked him to consult his manager. After my appetizers, he came back and said they would make an exception. I got my lobster dish and it tastes especially good. The next epsode also happened in the Colonade. I like having a french press coffee after dinner, and I ordered one. The waiter seem perplexed, and later brought an Americano. I told him that it is not a french press coffee and returned it. After a long wait with no coffee, and my shared table mates were hinting they wanted to leave, I decided to leave. The senior waiter rushed over and apololized that the previous waiter did not know what a press coffee was, and had made another Americano. He said he could have one made from the main dining room as soon as possible. I thanked him and said there was no need. Then the manager came over. I explained that I was ennoyed not about not getting my press coffee, but that no one has explained to me why it was no coming. If they had explain to me that it was difficult to get press coffee in the Colonade, I would gladly take a regular coffee. Afterward, I thought to myself, "have I pushed the envelope too far by asking for a press coffee in the Colonade?" This post is getting too long. Let me skipped my other adventures/misadventures and fast forward to the last meal in the Restaurant. First, a preamble. I knew that some sections of the Resturant had better service than others. But, I usually just let the Maitre D' seat us where ever he/she wanted. My attitude was that I didn't want to monopolized the good service, and I was willing to share some of the misery of bad services in the Restaurant with my fellow passengers. So, we had super fast meals that finished in less than an hour, and long ones that took over 2 and 3/4 hours. But, on the last night, a look at the Herald warned me of upcoming problems. The traditional send off parade was scheduled too late. The staff will have littel time to rush back to their work station and galley, for the evening meal service. Moreover, the Restaurant was scheduled to open at 6:30 p.m. and I didn't think they would be ready. Well, we went to the Restaurant around 6:30, was first-in-line. The dining room was almost empty of staff. I only saw the manager and a few waiters. Of course, the doors did not open at 6:30 and we waited for quite a while. Once it opened, I was selfish this time and asked for my favorite table, where I was quite confident of receiving good service. After a long while, the manager came by and apologized for the slow service. He said the galley was slow to get started. But, I came prepared with my smartphone. Afterall, it was election day in Quebec on Oct 3, and the polls would close at 8:00. I would have time to wait for the election results! BTW, even though the captain changed the itinerary so that I could vote, and Google says I could walk to my voting station in 1 hour, I didn't go and vote. My excuse was that I was in a very safe Liberal riding, and whehter I voted or not would made no difference. Back to food. Sure enough, the poll closed at 8. CBC projected the CAQ will win another term shortly after, and I was still waiting for my main course. We finished our very enjoyable and relaxing dinner after 9. We were in the dining room for over 2 and a half hour. But, what was the rush? We had a good time, and an enjoyable cruise. We started dreaming about the next one!

My question for the day is: "When is a tempura not a tempura?". We went to the Colonade for dinner last night. Afterward we went to listen to the Trio and then went back to our cabin as usual through the dining room. The hostess at the Restaurant stopped us and asked us how was our Japanese dinner at the Colonade. We told her that the most authentic part was the chilled sake, which was very good. She was glad, and said she suggested to Seabourn to serve sake with Japenese food, and asked for more feedback. So, i told her what was on my mind, that the tempura lobster was good, but not really tempura. I told her it was more like a British fish and chips with a lobster filling. Then DW went into a long discussion with the hostess about the importance of a light batter. The hostess wrote a lot on her notebook and her parting words ware that she would talk to the kitchen staff. After coming back to the cabin, I reflected on the tempura question. If I was served this kind of a tempura in a Japanese restaurant on land, I would not go back. Yet on Seabourn, I have been served this kind of tempura before, and I came back! That let me to think of other dishes. An immediate candidate jumped to mind: Peking duck at the Earth and Ocean. We had it twice on our last cruise. It was very good but clearly not Peking duck as we were used to. So, on the second time, my DW and I decided to call it a "Seabourn style Peking duck". With that memory in mind, I decided that the answer to my Question of the day "When is a Tempura not a Tempura" should be "When it is a Seabourn Tempura". (Postscript) I composed the previous portion of the message before I managed to post it. After walking around Montreal's Old Port, we came back for lunch at the Colonade. Guess what! They are serving Tempura shrimp and vegetables! They look and taste much better and even my DW gives them a passing grade. It seems that Seabourn has a prescient of my Question of the day, and has acted preemptively to prove that my answer is wrong!

A few comments about food. It is one area of pleasant surprise for us. Eating at the Restaurant used to be low on our priority. This time around, we find the Inspiration menus very interesting. Many creations are something we had not seen anywhere else, and they are excellent. The servings are much smaller, which are fine with us, because we are light eaters. The only thing we found missing are vegetables. So, after the first couple of meals, we started ordering a side dish of steamed vegetables. We like the Inspiration menus so much that we haven't ordered anything from the Classical side until last night, when I decided I had to try something from that side just to see whether anything has changed. I ordered a New York cut. It was just as usual, nothing special. The TK's servings also seemed smaller, but they are excellent, as usual. The Earth and Ocean used to be our top choice and the food is excellent as usual, but we are going more often to the Restaurant.

Was there a neighbourhood party or did I missed it?

Just a comment sbout Covid. I am on Deck 4, and saw stools growing like mushrooms after an Autumn rain. The first one popped up the day after embarkation, then a second, a third and a fourth, all visible with no need to search. Then a stool popped up in front of my neighbour's door two days ago. My DW and I have accepted that cruising is a high risk activity, but we have decided that life has to go on. We do take precautions snd wear mask in crowded places, including in the Grand Salon, the tender and tour buses. Even with the mushrooming stools, we haven't changed our mind.

I have to agree that communication is poor and service is below what we had enjoyed before.

The CD just came on and explained that communicstion is down because of Hurricane affecting Florida. In that case, it may last a while! Hope the dinner menus will be posted in paper form as per the old days!

Woke up and ship's tv is down. I am on mobile data and is not affected. Let's see howvwell paperless communication work in this environment.

So the Captain decided to get back to Montreal on Oct 3, so that I can vote in the Quebec election.

I am also on this cruise. It started on the wrong note. The taxis driver picked us up from home and dropped us at the Science Center. We noticed hat we were at the wrong pier only after we paid him and he was off. So embaraasing for a local who should know the old port well. So, we dragged our luggage and walked to the correct pier. Boarding was a breeze. We arrived about 1 hour early, and they didn't ask about our scheduled boarding time at all. The last Seabourn cruise we took was on the Quest from Iceland to Montreal in 2019. So, it feeled like a B2B with a 3 year pandemic break. Since there have been much discussion about tbe quality of the Quest experince after the pandemic, our experience so far has been good but not perfect. On our first night, we ate at the Restaurant. The service was about the same as before. We had an excellent fillet mignon, but only a so-so scallop and shrimp pasta. For the second day, the breakfast loaded croissant from the pool side was excellent. For lunch, as usual, we explored the town, and came back just before the Grill closes, and ordered fish of the day, and the fish was very good as usual. For dinner, we ate pool side again, and had a very good sea bass and steak. So far, quality of food was about the same as before. As for service, I think some staffs are still green, and made minor mistakes. I don't plan on remembering all their mistakes, because it will just degrade my enjoyment of the cruise.

Just saw in on my Source App. We are spending 2 nights at Trois Rivieres (24,25 Sept) and 2 nights at Quebec City, and then directly to St John's on 27 and 28 Sept.

According to the Montreal Port's schedule, the Quest is the only one in port tomorrow. Weatherwise, the forecast is for sun with cloudy periods in the afternoon. Yes, Old Montreal has many interesting places to visit and good restaurants for lunch.

I hope we do wait out the storm. As for wiggle room, one possibility is to do Trois Rivieres and Quebec City on the way out instead of on the way back to Montreal. That would delay the arrival at Hauve St. Pierre to Monday. But then, on the return portion, there will be a long trip from Cap-Aux-Meules back to Montreal. I don't know if we can make it in 2 days. I am glad I don't have the headache of rescheduling the itinary.

It looks like St Pierre and Miquelon may be worse off than St. John's. By Thursday 22 Sept, the track of Fiona should be more certain. I trust the Quest captaina and Seabourn would know what to do.

The weather network discussed the possible track of Fiona. It can range from turning north with a direct hit around Hauve St. Pierre, to curving east and bypass Atlantic Canada completely. https://www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/news/article/storm-that-died-in-the-bering-sea-could-draw-hurricane-fiona-towards-canada

The latest Stormsurf model shows the remains of Fione north of Newfoundland by the evening of 25 Sept. The long range weather forecast for L'anse aux Meadows for 26 Sept is sunny with wind at 28 km per hour from the west. May be Quest itinary doesn't have to be changed after all.