first time on SB

My wife & I have sailed SS (3 times), Crystal (2 times), Regent, Paul Gauguin and Windstar. We are considering our first SB cruise in June. Can some of you kind people answer a few questions for us...

1. Can we have champagne/sparkling wine as part of our in room bar preference, similar to SS? I was surprised how difficult it was on Regent, while it was gladly provided on SS, Crystal and Windstar (with the bev package).

2. Does the gym have free weights/dumbbells?

3. How late does the breakfast room service menu go? We rarely make breakfast in the restaurants because we sleep late, then go to the gym every morning. We love the "late risers" breakfast on Crystal.

4. What are the wi-fi plans? Is as least one hour per day included like SS?

5. Is there good late night, easy listening live music each night?

Thanks for the help?

My wife & I have sailed SS (3 times), Crystal (2 times), Regent, Paul Gauguin and Windstar. We are considering our first SB cruise in June. Can some of you kind people answer a few questions for us...

 

1. Can we have champagne/sparkling wine as part of our in room bar preference, similar to SS? I was surprised how difficult it was on Regent, while it was gladly provided on SS, Crystal and Windstar (with the bev package).

 

2. Does the gym have free weights/dumbbells?

 

3. How late does the breakfast room service menu go? We rarely make breakfast in the restaurants because we sleep late, then go to the gym every morning. We love the "late risers" breakfast on Crystal.

 

4. What are the wi-fi plans? Is as least one hour per day included like SS?

 

5. Is there good late night, easy listening live music each night?

 

Thanks for the help?

I can answer 1, 2 and 4.

1) no you can't have champagne as part of the bar setup like you can on SS. We found that odd the first time but we got used to it and either drink it elsewhere on the ship or have it delivered by the glass if we're so inclined. Note that on Seabourn you can get caviar whenever you want it and you can't do that on SS and so we enjoy whichever of those two benefits we get on either line we're cruising.

2) Yes on all the SB ships I have travelled on there are free weights

4) They are pretty costly and there's no free hour a day. A search on this board will give you the current costs, you can purchase a plan for the entire cruise if you like.

Some more info in response to the quex: When we were on the Sojourn, there was a very good pianist in the Observation Bar each night after dinner playing low-key music. For en suite breakfast, Seabourn offers the usual card each night where one can order the usual stuff to be delivered at a specified time. It's good, on-time, and delivered by friendly staff. We did not push the envelope by calling in an order at the last minute, but we will try that on our next Seabourn trip, in November!

I can answer 1, 2 and 4.

 

 

 

1) no you can't have champagne as part of the bar setup like you can on SS.

We are on Sojourn currently and asked for Corona beer and Champagne for our mini bar. Both get freely replaced whenever we finish it.

A bottle of champagne is delivered to the room on embarkation. You can have glasses of champagne delivered to your room ad-lib. Or, you can go to any bar and acquire glasses of champagne there.

From memory Wi-Fi costs $20 for 2 hours.

If you compose off line and just go online to send, 2 hours would last me a week.

Sending a swag of photos, I used to look for the crew in the terminal ashore and send my swag of emails from there.

We also had a bottle Champagne waiting for us in our minibar upon arrival. We had not ordered one, but it was welcome. We also had two bottle of liquor that we Had ordered waiting in the minibar.

1. We had an unlimited internet plan for $399 the last three SB trips, which is worth it if you are a frequent user, e.g. for work, because otherwise when internet is slooow you get charged by the minute for just waiting around watching the bill grow.

Best and quickest connections for us, who always had suites in the bow where internet was poor, was stern at Seabourn Square. I would carry my laptop to the Square if I had a big job to do, get nice coffee, and sit on a sofa outside or inside to surf and work.

Obviously prices and speed could change at any time.

2. An included bottle of French champagne (in the $30 range) at the cruise start is typical, but we would save it for another night in the suite, as we would drink the champagne offered anytime you want at meals or bars ( ask specifically for champagne or you may be given Prosecco).

We got another bottle as needed, en suite, after the first was empty. Same with in-room wine. They try to avoid waste where people take a few sips out of a “free” bottle of wine or champagne and then leave the rest to spoil in their suites, e.g., do not use recorking devices.

The suite was pre-outfitted with our requested liquor beverage too, replenished prn.

We've never had a problem getting as many glasses of champagne as we like delivered to the suite. As others mentioned, they don't usually bring bottles due to spoilage. We always drink wine and beer, however, and often have a surplus of both in the suite by the end of the cruise. On our last cruise, Martin specially procured Belgian brews for my fiancé and the F&B staff would replenish them daily so we often had a half-dozen beyond what the refrigerator would hold. Likewise, we would often order wine with room service and a bottle would come. At one point, we had 5 full or partially full bottles in the suite.

Breakfast goes fairly late... but room service is generally pretty accommodating with breakfast-like requests. We've also made other special requests - a grilled cheese sandwich and soup mid-afternoon on a rainy day, an omelet late one evening, appetizers (or caviar or a cheese plate) in the early evening with no issues.

The Observation Bar is usually the calmer of the two options in the evening (I say "usually" because I've also seen the piano bar get closer to an "American piano bar" when there is a livelier evening crowd. They tend to do a good job of reading the room though. I've also seen The Club get a bit sleepy at times. You'll figure out what works best for you on your sailing. I'd say I have a favorite evening spot, but it honestly will vary from sailing to sailing.

I used to pay for the comprehensive internet plan - and still will on sailings with lots of sea days or when I need to work - but on this last 10 nighter in the Caribbean, we decided to cut the tether and never connected to the ship internet. We both have AT&T cellular and they offer a $10/day unlimited international plan. I set up my phone to be a "hot spot" and we ran our laptops/other devices off that when we were in port. Our total cost was $80 and we were able to do everything we needed to do. YMMV.

Thanks to all for the great responses. Very helpful! It is looking more likely for us, so keeping the finger crossed.