NZbelle

We enjoyed the Valparaiso day tour - street art amazing and great guide

Can someone please advise what dining options are available on Silver Muse on Port Days?

We experienced TK on the Odyssey a few months ago and the OPs concerns mirrored our own. We were not told about any Vegetarian options and so for half the cruise could not use the Colonnade. We do eat meat but as there were only two TK menus in the Colonnade we did not fancy Ribs or Beef every second night.

the only down side we experienced on this trip was the number of constant complainers on the ship. in my opinion, i think seabourn could use more passengers that just want to have fun.

So if you are paying $1000 a day and you get undercooked fish served cold and waiters ignore your attempts to get more water and this happens a lot you should just smile and say "Poor things , away from their families for so long, at least they are trying hard"

The only way companies get better if people let them know when they are doing things wrong (and right!). Sweeping problems under the carpet does no-one any good including the company, who won't last in business very long.

I think the OP was saying there is a problem with the Odyssey now and not two years ago. Also there have been no reports of any problems with the Quest so the issue seems to be related as others have said to just the Odyssey.

We are reasonably discerning wine drinkers and were unsure of the complimentary wines before our first SB cruise this year. But we were pleasantly surprised. They were of a similar quality to our everyday drinking wines with the occasional gem if you knew how to flush it out from its cave. The sommeliers tried hard to find wines to please us and succeeded well.

Sounds like it is still the same as when we cruised 2 months ago. We encountered exactly the same problems and indeed the chef was German. We had to wait many many times for well over an hour to get our main course. Fish was often raw as well and hot food very often cool.There is a major problem on the Odyssey which may be related as others have said to Kellerisation or electronic ordering, but friends just back from the Quest on a 35 day cruise reported no problems at all, though they did say their experience on the Odyssey a year a go was way below their Quest experience.

It was our first experience of Seabourn and we were so disappointed. We are booked on the Sojourn in 3 months time for a 32 day cruise from Hong Kong to Dubai and are very nervous about what will happen.

On a recent cruise we were talking with a senior waiter in the MDR who said all the staff were so stretched. He said not too long ago most cruises were only 80% full and the staff could handle the number of passengers OK. Now they are invariably 100% full but the staff numbers are still the same.

Thanks for posting the video- TK was exactly as you have portrayed it- definitely not 5/6 star cuisine. The lobster dish was as though the 'broth' was neat soya sauce, maybe watered down with chicken stock, almost inedible ruining the delicate lobster taste. When we ordered TK the waiters would say, you probably won't like it as everyone has sent theirs back, but you can have something else. Yes we did send dishes back. We found a distinct lack of vegetables, maybe a prune or two with the heavily processed pork loin 'roast' similar to a turkey roast roll. Grandmas trifle looked nice but had just a spoonful of apple in the base of the eggcup shaped dish with the cream on top, very ordinary. We 'shared' the 'family ribs' with 4 strangers, more like a medieval banquet with the meat in the large silver 'dog's bowl' , no tongs , eating with your fingers and with a mound of spinach for each person under the meat and a corn that you can buy in vacuum packs off the shelf-' motto is right - feel at home! Wine in help yourself carafes with tumblers, and the dessert as shown in 'old jam jars'... And of course there's no choice, eat what you get!

Just come off an Odyssey cruise and we found tea was poorly done. In the Square they serve it in glasses with a teabag on the side. When we told them what we thought, they offered to keep a teapot there for us.

We ordered afternoon tea and scones with jam and cream in our cabin on many occasions without problem. If we asked for teapots then they would bring one, otherwise it was just hot water and a tea bag.

Many other cruise lines have a much better appreciation of how to serve tea as other posters have observed. Perhaps it is the high proportion of Americans who are more into coffee?? But the observation bar afternoon tea service is good. It's just a pity they can't do it all day.

Air NZ Business class is absolutely superb! It wins awards every year for being the best. I wouldn't have any fear over flying with them. I have never found a better business class on any airline.

Why do you think it is 'iffy'?

As the original poster, we were too late too cancel our next cruise without a big penalty. We have cancelled another booking for later in 2016.

We are not saying Seabourn is terrible, only that it doesn't live up to our expectations of superior service and 6 star or 5 star dining.

We agree about the canapés. Every night in the Observation Lounge they served the same old boring canapés. On celebrity they would always have a nice different choice of hot canapés and not just some cheese cubes, guacamole and corn chips every night. We did hear a couple complaining at the coffee bar in Seabourn Square that the choice of pastries, cakes etc never changed.

We have recently completed our first Seabourn cruise from Venice to Ft Lauderdale. Having travelled extensively on Celebrity and Princess before we had high expectations based upon the price we were paying and the general Seabourn marketing that we were in for a 6 star experience. How wrong we were.

The service we received was much worse than we had experienced on our previous cruises. We would order drinks and the waiter would forget we had ordered. We often had to wait 90 minutes to be served our main course at the restaurant. The food served was very often quite cool. We did express our feelings several times and ask to speak with a senior officer. We put our experiences down on the form provided near the beginning of the cruise but received no response. We wrote to the Hotel Director who couldn't be bothered picking up a phone to us, simply getting the Guest Relations manger to contact us.

We talked with may other passengers who were less than enamoured with Seabourn. And even one of the senior waiters said to us that Seabourn was controlled by the accountants and that there were far too few staff to properly serve the passengers especially as most cruises were 100% full. That was when we complained at lunch taking 90 minutes to serve!

Another time in the Colonnade, the Assistant Maitre-D asked how everything was. We had been waiting for an hour and twenty minutes at dinner to get our main course and we told him that things were not good. You should have seen the look on his face as he bolted away and we never saw him again! That is not 6 star service.

Charging a 100% or so premium over 4-5 star cruise lines Seabourn need to provide something much better than free drinks and gratuities and a slightly bigger suite. The small ships experience was very nice compared to bigger ships but overall it was worth in our opinion a premium of 50% not 100%.

We could add many more things to our list of poor Seabourn service but the purpose of this post is not to knock Seabourn - we did have some good experiences and there were some excellent staff on board. The purpose of this post is to ask the question ....

Is it just us who feel this way or do others think Seabourn's standards have slipped over the past year or two?

We are on the Odyssey at present for the transatlantic crossing to Fort Lauderdale. The MDR is open for breakfast and lunch. At breakfast there were at least 20 tables occupied when we ate. A lot fewer at lunchtime but a constant flow. It all depends on the weather.

We are on the Odyssey at present and have tried many of the TK dishes. The waiters tell me that the dishes are very controversial and if we didn't like anything they would be very happy to replace it with some thing else. The dishes seem very unique, well presented but lacking in execution. I think that have more work to do to get it right judging by our conversations with other staff and fellow cruisers.

We are dining in the Colonnade tonight family style. No choice and the dish is BBqd honey pork ribs.

As the original poster of this subject, I am extremely pleased to hear that the Restaurant 2 was open with waiter service for Breakfast and Lunch on a recent Odyssey cruise.

 

I am very keen to learn that this arrangement is fleetwide.

 

I would also like to ask if this service was available daily and if it is a first come, first served type basis, or is any type of reservation required. And, out of pure interest if the facility was well used.

The service is first come first served with no reservations needed. not heavily used but much more used for breakfast. Lunchtimes only a few people. I have no idea whether it is fleet wide. And Restaurant 2 DOES have big windows for a nice sea view but only on one side. So today while we are anchored off Amalfi for example R2 was facing out to sea so we dined on the outside Colonade deck at lunchtime.

On an 11 day cruise on the Odyssey now from Venice to Barcelona and the MDR is closed every day for breakfast and lunch. However Restaurant 2 is open for breakfast and lunch for a waiter service for the same dishes as in the Colonnade.

Hi, we are first timers sailing on Seabourn in a weeks time. Can anyone help us to get a first timer referral coupon please? Thanks, Wendy

Thanks -- how strange (and sad) it will be on Sat as they, Seabourn newbies board and we don't. But we will be heading off to an adventure in Morocco so can't complain. Any word on the Hotel Manager?

We are Seabourn newbies sailing away this time next week! We had a great time in Morocco and look forward to comparing notes ! .... so we are looking forward to meeting up with you in Barcelona ..we are now driving up the Adriatic coast to join the ship in Venice....where do you usually meet for sail away?

Cheers,Wendy