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Just finished two weeks on the Legend -- top marks


themed4me

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We've done many Seabourn cruises on the big and the small ships and I can assure you the brand is alive and well on the Legend this summer. I think the Legend is arguably the best run boat in the fleet right now.

 

Nothing ever goes perfectly, but what doesn't on the Legend are the small things--moreover it is how these things are handled when they arise that is the hallmark of a well-run operation. (The masterful handling of a potentially volatile situation with a group of 14 Really boorish Russians was a notable example.)

 

In this regard I also feel that the quality of the onboard experience can have as much to do with the passenger demographics as any other single factor. Few children these weeks and those that were there had very attentive parents and that makes all the difference. Blessedly few travel agents.

 

The only advise I'd offer for old hands that like wine is to take advantage of ports with good local wine and bring bottles aboard for meals. The staff is happy to open and serve it as I really do think they are embarrassed by just how bad the wine they have to offer has sunk. I am not a wine snob at all, but do like wine.

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The only advise I'd offer for old hands that like wine is to take advantage of ports with good local wine and bring bottles aboard for meals. The staff is happy to open and serve it as I really do think they are embarrassed by just how bad the wine they have to offer has sunk. I am not a wine snob at all, but do like wine.

 

I am so brainwashed by other cruiselines, I assumed I couldn't bring my own wine on board SB. But why not? That way we'll be assured that our favorite wine will be available for us. Thanks!

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The only advise I'd offer for old hands that like wine is to take advantage of ports with good local wine and bring bottles aboard for meals. The staff is happy to open and serve it as I really do think they are embarrassed by just how bad the wine they have to offer has sunk. I am not a wine snob at all, but do like wine.

 

Very good advice.:)

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Having got off the Legend at the same time as the OP I was interested in this thread. Many aspects of the cruise got top marks from us also, in particular service in restaurants and bars and quality of food. We did not find the wine as bad as others have suggested and we were always offered alternatives. We prefer French and Italian wines to those from the New World and the sommelier(s) in the MDR went out of their way to bring wine to match our taste. If they thought that we were a nuisance they certainly did not show it.

No problems with any fellow passengers (including Russians!) but very much dislike Seabourn's smoking policy. Can't blame passengers for smoking (cigars as well as ciggarettes) on open decks and in the Obs Lounge as this is allowed and fortunately not too many puffers on this trip but it is one of the things that would put us off travelling on the smaller Seabourn ships again. The other main negative is the lack of choice for dining, particularly if you can't get a booking at the Verandah.

We also appreciate that things can go wrong on any cruise but our past experience with Seabourn (and Regent) has been that problems are quickly rectified. That did not happen for us on this cruise and it took 4 days and numerous complaints before the toilet in our suite worked properly and this only happened because I insisted on a face to face meeting with the Hotel Manager, a previous letter had gone unanswered.

Apologies for the length of the post, and for anyone waiting to go on a Legend cruise certainly don't let it put you off, and do give the wines a (thorough) try!

Tucruisers

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There is a wine for everyone, and what may be satisfying to one will not be to another.

 

But to be clear, we look for wines that will enhance the pleasure of the food -- and the food is so good on Seabourn that having decent wine is a worthy objective -- the problem is that most of the wines available will detract not enhance the dining experience. Just a fact.

 

It takes skill to select wines at the $2 -4 a bottle retail price point that match well with the food served, and this is where the rub is. It is not impossible but pretty hard to do.

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Wine must be a lot cheaper in the US than the UK. Our impression of the wines on SB is that they would cost from £5 to £8 in the UK - about what we pay for everyday drinking. We have always found at least a couple of whites and reds we can enjoy - for us they would normally be New World wines - maybe more 'generic' than European wines, but in the UK you usually get something more drinkable for the same price from the New World.

 

The wine selection, naturally, varies all the time; they can easily run out of something everyone enjoys, so you can be unlucky with the choices sometimes. Have never felt the need to purchase ashore, but would not hesitate to ask the staff to open one for me if I did.

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With respect, that is an opinion, not a fact. But if I am happy to drink the wine offered (including a very decent Chablis which could not have cost less than $30) and you are happy (or at least prepared) to bring your own, then we can all get along!

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Tucrusisers, I presume you are referring to the Grand Ardeche -- it was the best wine offered.

 

In the states we can buy it for $6.40 plus tax so $7, certainly not over $30! It's about seven or eight pounds in your supermarkets. Pretty irrrelevant though as I do not find that price is not a reliable indicator of quality.

 

PS the Grand Ardeche is a white wine that may taste like a Chabilis to you but it is not a Chablis. There was no Chablis available on board for general consumption -- I have the inventory sheets.

 

PPS to Marja -- I saw your post on FB. After the first four days I brought wine to each meal --lunch and dinner for 10 days -- and it was not a problem at all. Moreover it preseved the stores of the wine that Tucrisers enjoys!

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themed4me

As I mentioned in the earlier post, we discussed the wine we liked as a replacement for the general pour with the sommelier in MDR and I can assure you that as an example, we were brought a bottle (not glasses) of Chablis Premier Cru 2002 and not charged. That is what it said on the label, so not having to rely on what wine tastes like to us.

It is true that they do not seem to have that facility at the Verandah but we could always find something there we could tolerate. I appreciate that this is only our opinion, and I am sure that others will find your experience that you can byob of interest.

Tucruisers

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Yes, occasionally there some excellent French wines included - we had some lovely Chateauneuf-du-Pape a couple of years ago, first included on a formal evening, but when we asked another evening we had it again. And, as I said before, the wines do change from time to time and ship to ship, so Chablis may be available sometimes, but not always.

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Having just returned from 15 days on the Pride's cruise to the North Cape I must admit that we found the selection of red wines to be sub par when compared with our Legend Med cruise last fall. The best was a Stelllenbosch Blend but it was rather young and not very food friendly.There was also an ok Chateauneuf du Pape, a nice Pinot from NZ that was not available after the first couple of days, and a mediocre Malbec.The best wines on the trip were the French Rose which we drank every day at lunch, NZ Sauv Blanc and a Petit Chabliis. Had we been in the Med we would have purchased wines on shore and brought it on board -- here there was nowhere to purchese wine in most ports of call.Our discussion with the Sommelier and the Bar manager on the subject revealed that they are often at the whim of preselected wines procured by home office. Only when stores run low do they get permission to make special purchases en route. And they did purchase wine at the very end of the trip in Oslo( can you imagine what they paid for it???). We did purchase two very good bottles of red from the wine list. I'll be interested to see if this hold true on our next Seabourn cruise.Oh, and I am happy to report that at least on the Pride, contrary to a CC rumor,no prosecco was being poured -- even at the cocktail parties.Nelson confirmed that only champagne was being served.

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The best wines on the trip were the French Rose which we drank every day at lunch...

 

The French rose being served on the Legend in June was J P Chenet which can currently be purchased from Tesco at £2.85 per bottle.

They were also serving a JP Chenet red...:mad:

 

There is no way they are serving the "fine wines" which they advertise.

 

For me a "fine wine" would cost upwards of £10.

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The French rose being served on the Legend in June was J P Chenet which can currently be purchased from Tesco at £2.85 per bottle.

They were also serving a JP Chenet red...:mad:

 

 

But J P Chenet is quite drinkable, though not in the fine wine category. In the days of the "booze cruise" day trips to France, I used to buy several cases of J P Chenet Cabernet/Syrah blend and still have half a dozen matching wine glasses of the quaint leaning bottle type. The savings made on a day trip nowadays does not make it worthwhile though.

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The only disappointing aspect of our Cairns-Singapore cruise on Spirit earlier this year was the wine. But not disappointing enough to stop us booking 28 days on Legend later this year.

 

Wine stocks on the previous leg had been depleted (no doubt there were a lot of Australians on board ;)) and the head sommelier restocked at the local discount merchant. So we were overwhelmed with Ausralian wines on the journey north. Many were very average quality, some retailing under $3.00 per bottle. Most were a little higher priced than that but they also had several cleanskins of very dubious quality. We knew most of the wines and they were the sort you might serve at a bbq, if you couldn't find anything better!

 

On request they would generally find you an alternative but towards the end of the cruise there was very little wine of decent quality left. As I said it was the most disappointing aspect of the cruise and not very complimentary to the excellent food.

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But J P Chenet is quite drinkable, though not in the fine wine category. In the days of the "booze cruise" day trips to France, I used to buy several cases of J P Chenet Cabernet/Syrah blend and still have half a dozen matching wine glasses of the quaint leaning bottle type. The savings made on a day trip nowadays does not make it worthwhile though.

 

Sorry, Orpington T, glad you like it but I don't find it drinkable at all!

 

In fact they often give you 3 bottles free on the ferries in order to entice you to actually travel on their ships for a day trip...

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Sorry, Orpington T, glad you like it but I don't find it drinkable at all!

 

In fact they often give you 3 bottles free on the ferries in order to entice you to actually travel on their ships for a day trip...

 

Given the huge sales of that firm, I think my tastes are not in the minority.

 

The ferry firms often offer many wines to entice people on board, not necessarily for the pleasure of travel but to get them in the shops where the money is made.

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Turtlemichael I echo your sentiments and experience exactly. The wine available generally does a disservice to the food, and anything especially drinkable is in such demand it gets depleted quickly.

 

I once asked which available wine might complement the beautiful piece of fish I had been served, and after a smile was asked "have you tried the Becks"? It was the right answer.

 

A great cruise line like Seabourn can do better, and needs to. The wine program has been in a slow deline for some time now and the situation has reached a threshold where adjustments really do be made -- and they are not that hard to make.

 

Some cruise days they have "shopping with the chef", how about "shopping with the sommalier"? (Just kidding, the wine issue is primarily a central policy and selection process issue, not an on-board operational one.)

 

And let's stop being appologists because we are Seabourn brand-loyal when there is a material deficiency. It does not help the brand -- nor the customer experience -- get any better.

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I have no idea where you find wine at that alleged price point. I don't even think Two Buck Chuck is still $2. On my last Seabourn trip last week they poured Santa Margarita. That is widely available and is usually $18 to $22 in most stores.

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Jam52' I totally agree! I have never seen these $2 wines? Life is too short to always complain!

 

I can buy low quality reds and whites at our local discounter for around $25.00 for a dozen. Those are Aussie dollars and I was talking about an actual experience in Cairns. The sommelier even boasted of they excellent deal achieved.

 

Mine is an actual experience I am not so much complaining as expressing a combination of disbelief and disappointment that Seabourn can let itself down, and its chefs, so badly. I am sure we all have the right to want the product to be better.

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First of all Two Buck Chuck is still two bucks which is all it's worth!

 

And although they serve Santa Margherita which retails for around $20 that is a much cheaper wine imo that sells for double because of its marketing budget.

 

It is indeed true that the quality of wine has deteriorated in the past couple of years. But this is not unique to Seabourn. I recently met a woman at the airport who had just disembarked from a Silversea cruise and complained that the wine was undrinkable. This is an area where the lux cruise lines obviously look to save money. I still think a conversation with the sommelier can lead to something better if it's onboard at all.

 

And finally, if all else fails I drink champagne which goes with everything.

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Wripro you are right on all counts.

 

Unfortunately there was nothing better these last two weeks -- and my concern is that the Champagne strategy might get Korbel-ed by next year if the current trajectory continues! :-)

 

Also to be clear, as a shareholder I want Seabourn to buy good wine at low prices. Price is not a yardstick of quality. But for those perhaps less familiar with wine pricing, we took the entire assortment of wines (inventory list was provided on-board) and priced them -- here in the US and in London. My average price across the entire assortment was $5.62 per bottle. I assume Seabourn can do better with their purhasing power. And I turtlemichael is right, many were in the $2-3 range, even at my prices.

 

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but facts are facts.

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Well I forgot to write down the name of the rose but I can tell you for what it is worth that it was not JP Chenet. Ironically it was on our Med cruise in the Legend last fall where the roses were not very good ( WATER WATER EVERYWHERE NOT A DROP TO DRINK!)but the reds were. And yes, think I think wine appreciation,even more so than food, is very subjective. Let me also say that while we were disappointed with the reds based on previous SB cruises it is not a deal breaker for us. Oh, and on a positive note I forgot to mention was I was delighted to see that they are still pouring a nice sauterne for dessert( no, not Chateau d'Y'quem.)

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