Vineyard View

Our TA was informed this week that Hardy’s VS and Courvoisier VS are the new Cognac brands.

Just got the same form letter. Smoke and mirrors. No mention of vsop. I am taking some deeper breaths before I respond, but respond I will. However, our TA forwarded my concerns and the SB response was that their ‘sommeliers’ work hard to have their cellars are well stocked….etc. Sorry. No sommelier would be choosing the daily wines I am seeing posted, or they seriously need to find a new profession. That is HAL purchasing. Secondly, they confirmed only two brands of VS Cognac. No VSOP.

I was commenting that I hope you enjoy SB, as we did, and that that are good deals to be had. Like you, we’ve been able to find a couple on SB in balcony cabins that are suite size, and were comparable in pricing to Oceania Balcony when we added in our preferences and gratuities. Prices are higher now. On both lines. I just looked at Oceania Mar-May ‘26 (our travel window) Europe. Not a lot of options. Only a couple 7 day, which is just too short. There may be b2b options, but I am finding it difficult to locate those as, even in May, they are still doing TA from Miami. I completely agree with you that what matters is the total price, compared to the overall value, and how that compares to other lines.

When we compared itineraries for Spring 2025, we narrowed it down to SB and Oceania. When we added in gratuities, and upgraded beverage - which are included on SB and not on Oceania (important to us, but I honor not to all), the price difference was fairly negligible. The itinerary and date won out with SB, along with small ship and much larger cabin. We completely enjoyed our SB cruise last year, and hope that you do as well. After all, precious vacation time is high value. I popped back onto this forum thinking about 2026. Reading this thread, if Oceania keeps SM pricing levels, adds on gratuity, while reducing aspects of the beverage and excursion piece of SM, the fiscal positive goes to Oceania. And once again, time will tell how that works for them.

Johng75370’s post #32 with updated wine listing, while better than the one with Mateus, still offers a huge percentage of sub-par wines. In looking at the reds, with the exception of Raymond Cab (and the Pinot which is still a shaky choice), all the reds retail in the $10-$16 range. That is totally unacceptable on a line such as SB. It is what I would expect on mass market lines. To kej1’s point, we are seeing significant price reductions on great wines for the reason stated. Case in point, one of the wineries we are club members of sent out an offer at 60% off their (wonderful) wines last month. Needless to say, I went over my budget with that deal! Just this past week another wine holding company filed chapter 11. 2 wineries in Napa and 4 in Sonoma went up for bid. Costco is bringing on wines at great prices unlike since 2008. So yes, there are really good wines to be had - and they are certainly not showing up at SB. Someone responsible at corporate for this piece is asleep at the wheel. At year over year 30% increase in SB fares, I believe it is reasonable to expect more. And - let’s not forget the lack of VSOP!

I would agree that what we saw last year did not seem to be huge mark up in pricing. We did order a couple times. That said, we did not see the marketed, included ‘fine wines’. Some were okay, but not close to the ‘fine’ category. I sincerely hope that if enough voices are raised, it might catch some attention. Thank you for the update from your inquiry. I found my email in the outbox, and have rectified that, so hopefully the more voices……

Interesting article. I do wonder how much cruise lines in particular impact Malaga with all their excursions to Seville, etc. vs land tourists. We will be there early Apring next year, as well as Mahon mentioned in this article. Thank you for posting

They changed their pricing offering to include ‘x’ amount of excursion credit, as well as beer/wine. Not sure about a separate by the glass list.

A note to office of the president by all on here wouldn’t hurt. Maybe it won’t help, but nothing to loose.

OfficeofthePresident@Seabourn.com is one. letter sent. squeaky wheel…..hopefully people start using their voices to her.

There are several ferry companies. I am not sure where you are docking so I don’t want to suggest exact pick up location. Maybe someone on your roll call will be able to identify that for you. When we docked in Naples, there were different ferries right there at the port. We just picked one for Capri. It worked well. When we stayed on the coast, we used ferries to take us to various places. I wish I could be more specific for you. Maybe someone else can chime in who has done it recently.

The ferry’s run on a schedule up and down the coast. You should be able to find the schedule online ahead to plan on how much time you spend in each place. They leave directly from the port in Naples. Easy. Last time we docked in Naples we took the ferry to Capri and spent a lovely day there. It was our second visit to the island, and it was just as wonderful as the first. That would be too much to incorporate in your trip, but my point is that the ferry system makes it easy to plan your day out ahead. If you search ‘ferry schedules from Naples to Amalfi coast’ they are available. Hope this helps

100%!! And to whom should we gripe to, because I wholeheartedly agree. Reading that Oceania has a better wine list - well, that just should not be.

Tina, I agree with Mapleaves regarding the views from the ferries along the Amalfi coast. They are an efficient transportation system and such a pleasure. The drive is super narrow and winding, just FYI. maybe research the ferry schedules and see if you could make it work. If Ravello is important, that is a side-trip up (approx 20-30 min) taking a narrow road from Amalfi town. It’s lovely, but no ferry can get you there.

We’ve been to Barcelona several times, and yes, Park Guell is really cool. But I do thank you. I was looking at them for a different location, but I didn’t know what to expect in those terms. Different tour groups tend to operate differently regarding flexibility.

Did you find that you were kept together as a group, or did you have any free time to explore on your own Iness? My biggest issue in organized tours are lack of free time, and being kept as a group the entire time…..thank you for your really nice review.

We stayed on the Amalfi coast many years ago. We used the ferry as much as possible, supplemented by their local SITA bus system. The bus system is a method to get from A-B. The ferry system is reliable, enjoyable, and more scenic. In subsequent port stops, we have used the ferry system. Enjoy. Such a beautiful place in our world.

We started out on mass cruise lines back when ships were smaller. I believe that made a difference. I also believe their service levels were higher then. That said, there were times when a meal didn’t quite cut it, or other things. We sailed Carnival once. Friends/family chose that one and on multiple levels was a one and done. We then sailed HAL back in the day with the old Ryndham. It was lovely. Being in a Neptune suite didn’t hurt, but it was different, and well done. It still had missed opportunities. Along comes all the build bigger strategy and selling off of small ships. It was time to move on. In 2013 we sailed our first river cruise and thoroughly enjoyed it. Viking announced their launch of Oceans that year, so we were on their inaugural cruise for 29 days. Absolutely, there were hiccups. Absolutely wonderful memories as well. No regrets. Sailed several times with Viking. In Europe they have been repeating many of their itineraries year after year…..nothing really called us, been there done that, and we were tired of the price increases to include their advertised ‘included excursions’….so we started looking for our first post-Covid cruise. We sailed Quest last year and it was an adjustment to transition from 930 pax to 450…..but a welcome transition. We, as always, try to DIY as often as possible. The two ship excursions we booked reminded us of why, even on Seabourn. One was so bad, that I think most people, including us, reach out to SB with our concerns. We received a partial refund as OBX, and that seemed fair to us. One evening in MDR my main wasn’t enjoyable. I mentioned it and a quick recommendation was made with a fairly quick response. We enjoy nice wine. If they weren’t pouring one that attracted us, they offered other choices (we had the wine list delivered early in the cruise) without hesitation. I enjoy a nice Cognac, and after the first night in MDR they had a bottle readily available to pour one post meal, whereas the first night they had to locate some. Our room service had some hiccups - our steward had become ill, so we shared our preferences to the new team, and it was handled well. We enjoyed our first Seabourn experience enough we booked on board. FCC made some, shall I say, misinterpreted claims and post cruise we involved our TA. While it was a long drawn out exercise, It was resolved to our satisfaction. Due to medical this year we had to cancel, and due to Quest Spring itineraries changes for next year, we had to regroup. We are now scheduled for next Spring on Ovation. We are really looking forward to our experiences. My point in all of this is that if we expected absolute perfection on any of our travels (including international or national road trips), we would be unhappy travelers. It’s called life. And it’s damned short…..so I am looking forward to our next SB trip, our next planned road trip, and even our next large family gathering…..knowing there will be hiccups along the way during each! Great thread SLSD.

Thank you marazul, once again! In looking at these towns, they are all simply charming and beautiful! We may just stick to the original recommendations you made. We tend to be pretty flexible on our land portions when we travel. This is such great information to have, and we have time to plan!

Good morning marazul! So….would you recommend this itinerary when renting a car, or another route you highlighted St Paul, Vence, Tourette’s-sur-Loup, Gourdon (or Antibes)? this recent suggestion of Biot sounds interesting as well. So many beautiful choices!

We haven’t the long term experience with Seabourn that most/many have on this board. We are excited to sail again next year on Ovation, after our first experience on Quest last year. We chose Seabourn because we did not like the changes we were seeing with our previous line. Maybe we will go back for the right itinerary/price, but for now, we are looking forward to Seabourn. We do not have some of the expectations I am reading here. I understand that we don’t have that prior comparison basis. That said, I am fairly certain that we wouldn’t have had some of the expectations that are called out pre Covid. I have read this same type of feedback on other lines regarding pre-post Covid experience. Unfortunately, we see this occurring in many non-cruise businesses as well. Particularly the service industry. Some of our local restaurants have had to cut hours, or days, due to lack of employees wanting to work. Sometimes, owners are working the room, whereas that wasn’t always the case in the past. Some of these are high end restaurants. I hope this changes, more for the viability of those businesses, than for ourselves. I think shortages of staff are more common now than before in multiple industries. For me, the answer to ‘why’ is pretty elusive.

That is a change from last year when we were on Quest. I am also disappointed to hear this.

This is a great thread that you pasted Edinburgher. Thank you very much! I haven’t read all of it, but I forwarded it to me for reference.

As always, you are a great travel guide! Much appreciated! Thank you. We look forward to the experience. DH likes Port more than I, but friends here at home do as well. I would I,a fine a bottle will come home with us!

It’s incredible to me how helpful and knowledgeable people are on these forums. So appreciated! Thank you for posting OP, as we are looking at making this one destination on a day when we are in Nice. Like you, we enjoy savoring places, rather than seeing as many boxes as we can check!