Thoughts on Recent 20 Med Quest

[Chairsin]

Having finally recovered from jet lag I am now ready to post some more organized thoughts on our recent cruise than my ad hoc comments tagged on Paula's earlier Quest cruise thread.

 

First the basics :

Key Crew

Captain : GA

Hotel Director: Marcel

F&B manager: Bozi

Chef: Frank Sollazzo

Restaurant manager: Nicholas

CD: John Barron

Outstanding crew member IMHO:Asst't. Maitre'd Tamas Nagy(more on him later)

 

This was two 10 day BTB cruises from Barcelona to Athens and Athens to Monte Carlo. We were full on both legs -- 453 0n the second leg. Approximately 100 passengers were on for both legs. On each leg well over half of the passengers were repeat SB cruisers. This was only our second big ship cruise( the previous one was also on the Quest -- Holiday Caribbean).We booked a V-6 on deck 8 -- like the convenience of being just off the pool deck.

 

Itinerary:

Barcelona

Palamos,Sp.

St Tropez, Fr.-tender

Ajaccio, Corsica

Golfo Aranci, It.-tender

Civitavecchia,It.

Sorrento, It.-tender

Messina, It.

sea day

Mykonos, Gr.

Athens, Gr.

Kusadasi, Tky.

Chios, Gr.-tender

Santorini, Gr.-tender

Catania, It.

Lipari,It.-tender

Ponza, It.-tender

Livorno, It.

Portovenere, It.-tender

Monte Carlo

 

While the weather started out iffy( not bad -- just partly cloudy most mornings as is it were going to rain -- though it only rained twice during the day) it improved the further east we cruised. Daytime temps were usually in the mid 70's to low 80's but often fairly humid. I must say one of the advantages of the persistent presence of clouds is that I did get some terrific sunrise and sunset pics( and if I were half as clever as Baychilla I would post them).

 

I'll try to topic by topic noting pluses and a few minus.I'll start with food.

 

FOOD

Two things stood out about the food. First, all of the food was highly under salted. Now this was a big surprise as I am very sensitive to the more frequent crime in restaurant cooking -- over salting. Maybe there had been complaints about over salting and they overreacted. All I know is that I had to had to add a bit of salt to many dishes to bring out the flavor.Second, while I have yet to do a detailed comparison the choices on the menu each night seemed more limited. And on the dessert menu eery night for 20 days two of the few dessert choices were strawberry cheesecake and chocolate pots de creme.

 

By and large the food was very good. A couple of the dishes we had go into our SB hall of fame -- including a dish or veal cheeks with pappardelle, a velvety cream of cauliflower soup, duck carpaccio and very tender ravioli with tomato and zucchini in a light pesto cream.On the other had some meat cuts were tasteless and bordering on tough-- such as the rack of lamb -- one night good -- another terrible. There was a tasteless salad we actually sent back to the kitchen requesting a simple green salad instead. Again they seemed to want to mess with perfection -- my favorite goat cheese soufflé became Boursin soufflé( IMHO it just does not have as good a balance of flavors).

 

The chef seemed very aloof and never came around to the tables( that I noticed) to talk with the passengers the way chefs on SB have in the past. He supposedly used to be the Chef at Joel Robuchon Monte Carlo -- not to be unkind, but if so SB seems like quite a step down. Shopping with the Chef was another issue. I have always been able to find out when I board when it will be so I can decide whether or not to make plans for that day or leave the day open to go on the Shopping tour. When in Barcelona and for the next many days I inquired as to the scheduled port and was always told "Chef has not decided yet. We will list it two days ahead in the Herald." Naturally on the first leg it was Messina where we scheduled a private tour.On the second leg we gave up(it was Livorno).

 

Ordering something special 24 hours in advance usually worked -- I had escargot and hubby Nigerian shrimp.We wanted to do tableside steak tartare and even though Tamas really was excited about preparing it for us he got the thumbs down from the kitchen. Not just no tableside flambé( which I understand) but no table side prep period. He pushed and we pushed -- no joy. They said they would make it in the kitchen , bring it out for us to taste and take it back as many times as necessary to get it just to out taste.It did turn out good and both times we had it. We bought a special bottle of wine from the premium list both evenings( I always think that is a nice gesture to thank them for going to extra trouble on our behalf).He also fixed us a special treat of squash blossoms procured because of a casual remark my husband made to Tamas about how much we liked them and had been treated to them once before on SB.

[Emperor Norton]

Sadly on my Pride cruise it seemed the strawberry cheesecake and chocolate pots du creme spent far too much time on the menu as well. Especially after an amazing example in Bordeaux. Your chef sounds like mine (John Pugh) with regards to not going around and talking. However John had zero issues with table side prep (except for oddly starting the steaks for the steak Diane in the kitchen).

[Emperor Norton]

How did you like Seabourn Square?

[Chairsin]

Actually we love SB Square. It was a brilliant idea.In fact we liked it so much this cruise( and the previous one) that we often skipped afternoon tea and went to the coffee bar instead.It is also a great place to hang out on day when it is raining.I like the library arrangement and the central spot with the guest services. When I am on the computer checking emails( I use the ship's rather than bring one with me)my husband can sit and read the newspaper.

[divsec]

Actually we love SB Square. It was a brilliant idea.In fact we liked it so much this cruise( and the previous one) that we often skipped afternoon tea and went to the coffee bar instead.It is also a great place to hang out on day when it is raining.I like the library arrangement and the central spot with the guest services. When I am on the computer checking emails( I use the ship's rather than bring one with me)my husband can sit and read the newspaper.

 

Chairsin, keep going, please this is a great read and I would love to read more. As you know we are boarding 16th in Athens and cannot get enough of the reviews at the moment.

D

[Chairsin]

I'll finish with food before moving on tomorrow to another topic. And sorry about all of the typos -- including the title which should read "Thoughts on a Recent 20 Day Med Cruise." (Dan, I don't suppose there is a way you can correct that for me?)

 

We almost always had breakfast in the Colonnade-- outside. Contrary to the Verandah on the little ships we were always able to find a nice table when we walked in ( usually shortly after opening at 7:30AM) -- often by the railing overlooking some lovely port.The food was good -- still hard to get just one egg or pancake so my husband finally gave up and resigned himself to two. Service was quick and friendly. I often started with a large plate of fruit and I don't think they ever ran out of berries. Once day there was passionfruit -- a real treat. The pancakes were tender and the bacon came the way we ordered it. No real complaints here except for the coffee. No big deal -- we usually went to SB Square first for a cup there before going upstairs to breakfast. (Actually, many people brought the paper cups of coffee upstairs with them.)Mauritzio runs the Colonnade and is is very hands on.What a delight to see him again after some years.We never had breakfast room service. Once we went to the Restaurant for breakfast to visit with our friend Valentina. It was practically a morgue -- could not have been more than two other table occupied. And my husband ended up with not so good eggs Benedict( what a waste of all of those calories and fat grams!).

 

 

 

Our lunch patterns were more varied. On numerous occasions we ate on shore. In many cases we ate at the Patio Grill run by Andre(Valentina's significant other.)Lunches were just fine -- the usually hot dogs, burgers, chicken caesar salad, greek salad and pizza and the ever present under seasoned guacamole(I usually beefed it up by adding a little salsa and a wedge of lime). Then again SB's culinary weak spot IMHO has always been ethnic food. Either they can't get some of the authentic ingredients or they dumb it down to keep from offending anyone.There was usually some competition to find a table in the shade.And then on other days we dined in the Colonnade -- usually salad and fish of the day.Two Galley Market lunches -- went to the first not the second. Again, the selection seemed more limited than in the past but my husbands goes for the soft shell crabs and I like to splurge on the cheese fondue.

 

Regarding my earlier comments on dinner we always dined in the Restaurant -- usually the same table -- right side as you enter by the window. It started out as either 55 or 54A and then for some strange reason a few days before the end of the cruise all of the tables were renumbered. Threw everyone for a loop -- our table was now#90. Go figure!

 

Tomorrow wine!

[ab21au]

A few comment relating to yours ... On the Odyssey we also loved SB square. The guy (sorry forget his name) who was there mostly was fabulous, always very good coffees. Great area for mooring coffee and paper read while DW asleep. Our Chef Kurt was very visible and spoke to us a couple of times during the cruise. I agree some of the dishes are "predictable" but I think that is not the chefs fault but head office decree.

 

I also think dining on the Colonnade deck for breakfast is lovely especially when tendered, as we were in Santorini and several other ports. Had room service breakfast once and were embarrassed with the amount of food they bought us and found it much better up at the Colonnade.

[stamfordian]

...but my husbands goes for the soft shell crabs...

 

Did that involve moving to a three-bedded suite...?

[lincslady]

Chairsin - thanks for starting your full report on Quest. Looking forward to reading the rest. I was surprised and saddened (though we don't often have dessert) to hear of the same two on offer every evening; not exactly what you would expect from a star chef - he doesn't sound like he will fit in too well with Seabourn. I was thinking there should not have been more than 450 on board, but forgetting the new suites. Were there many children, and if so were they reasonable? I agree one of the nicest things is breakfast - or lunch - outdoors at the Colonnade, looking at the view, especially somewhere like Santorini. Keep up the good work!

[dalliowner]

I think it better for the food to be undersalted, you can always add a little but can not take it out.:)

[PaulaJK]

I love desserts and found the same issue as did Chairsin. Essentially there were 2 new desserts each evening. The pot and cheesecake were also listed on the always available and, I think, on the room service menu. Very unspecial.

 

While Franck did not visit tables, he did stand at the restaurant entry each evening during our cruise.

 

Really enjoying your review......

[Roxburgh]

Chairsin, was Jerry working in the Patio Grill? He does the best pizza and is a lovely person

[Chairsin]

Abu,

Our baristas were Grant and Maria( who also double as our second waiter at dinner each evening).

 

Linclady,

I am not quite sure how they got to 453. On that second leg there were no children at all(the family with the baby got off in Athens).Maybe they reposrted an incorrect number -- can't imagine 3 adults sharing unless it was a large suite.

 

Daliowner,

Quite agree that under salting is the lesser of two evils. Nonetheless it was strange because it was not just one or two dishes -- it was most everything. Actually all seasoning -- pepper, herbs and spices were very restrained.

 

Paula,

It is interesting that Baychilla encountered this as well on his recent small ship cruise so it must be happening company wide. I like a bite or two of dessert after dinner and even though I like the pots de creme and cheesecake i would have liked to see a little more variety. One of my favorite desserts was never on the menu and I forgot to order it -- the little mini lemon souffle. However, on one of the evenings when we had steak tartare they also brought our a special order of strawberries madagascar( quite delicious) -- of course on the small ships they would have made the dish table side but it was still a special treat.Since they had made a large portion we tried to share some with some Brits at an adjacent table celebrating their anniversary but they thought the idea of strawberries with green peppercorns strange. Another very good dessert one evening was a chocolate soufflé with Baileys cream. So we did not exactly suffer -- I just thought I would point out some of the things we noticed on this cruise vis a vis previous SB cruises.

 

Roxburgh,

i think I know the guy you mean -- small wiry guy? Anyway, no he was no there. Our pizza make was a very competent Filipino guy. The pizza oven really does make a difference -- of course in a perfect world they would have a forno a legna and use fresh mozzarella.When in Sorrento we went to a terrific little hole in the wall place away from the tourist area and had a fabulous pizza. But the pizza was tasty -- especially the arugula and proscuitto.

[wripro]

Chairsin,

 

Thanks for the detailed review. Looking forward to more.

 

To me the silver lining of having the same desserts listed every night is less temptation.

[Chairsin]

Love your rationalization re: less dessert selection! Unfortunately I usually managed to find something worth a bite or two.

 

Oh, and speaking of another difference from previous cruises --strangely the iced pralines were noticeably absent on one or the two formal nights.Isn't it funny the little things you get used to?

 

I would like to just say here that I really am not trying to nit pick( sorry if it sounds like I am). Many of these littles things I have noted are not a big deal to me and will in no way influence whether we continue with SB after the little sisters are history. What I am trying to relate in most instances in this review are changes we noticed from previous cruises that either may show the direction SB is heading or are just one off glitches. A first time cruiser would obviously not notice much of this and I constantly heard accolades from many first timers who noted it would not be their last SB cruise.

[Tillylovesseabourn]

Thanks for your interesting report chairsin.

 

My mother was on the Quest in July and made some very similar comments on the food. It was just not quite up to the mark, I was very surprised as we have never had problems on SB, however, we have not sailed on the Quest.

 

Thanks again.

[Lefty Bob]

Now the important question. Do they still have bread sticks?:confused:

[Chairsin]

Sorry for the major omission in not mentioning the famous (or is it infamous?) Seabourn breadsticks. Rest easy -- yes they are still there every bit as good and in vast quantities ( though we tried quite hard to do our bit to diminish the supply).

[Keith1010]

Chairsin, thank you for sharing your review.

 

Keith

[Chairsin]

Wine

 

Given that I believe this is even more of a personal taste issue than food all I can do here is state how what we encountered on this cruise appealed to our tastes( or not). First of all given comments I have made in the past on the SB Wine thread that I noticed a decline in quality overall the last few years, if this cruise is any indication, things have improved a bit. I never did succeed in getting a copy of the house wine list this time ( I asked once and did not push the issue when it did not show up in our suite). But from what I saw listed on the menu each night and what we found out when we queried the beverage server as to what else was available it seems like there was both a wider selection of wines and more interesting ones available. Still no pinots or zins. Our pattern is such that we usually like to drink a dry Provence style rose with lunch and at dinner maybe start with a glass of white but more often just red (unless we are having a fish main course that is better with a white). But the one caveat as to whether my impression that the wines were "better" this time is that since we were disappointed by the wines the last few times we decided this trip we would buy more wines locally and bring them on board to drink and buy more wines from the premium list and buy local wines at port calls to drink on board. So frankly there were many nights when we never drank the house wines( thought I did always scan the menu to see what was being featured that night).

 

Champagne

Yes, still NF. I do miss the Monopole --to my taste it was drier. But I did find the NF was better very cold.At most receptions( Club party, Welcome Party) and deck events we were offered something akin to a kir royale or a bellini. We usually just asked for a glass of champagne and it usually arrived fairly quickly.

 

Rose

This was a problem this trip but ironically when we boarded they had run out of the JP Chenet( which we will not drink) and had instead a dark pink Bordeaux rose. We tried it a couple of times but it was not the style of rose we prefer.We bought a very nice inexpensive Spanish rose in Barcelona before we boarded and it was quite nice. Then a few days into the trip we bought a rose in Ajaccio that was also very nice. Once those ran out we frankly just switched to white as the bar manager seemed unwilling to purchase any other roses locally along the way. Oh, and while I don't consider it a rose for those interested they did of course have the Beringer White Zinfandel.

 

Whites

This is where I think they particularly shined this trip.Since we drank white at lunch many days we were able to try quite a few. We enjoyed the Wingspan Sauv blanc( I think they also had Oyster Bay) and a Petite Chablis. But what was fun was all of the local whites they bought at various ports. There was a lovely spanish white that really reminded my of dry Riesling, a crisp white from Le Lavandou( picked up on the leg prior to our boarding)and many terrific flinty whites from around Mt. Etna.Other offerings that we did not drink were the Santa Margarita pinot grigio and a California chardonnay.

 

Reds

The big winner of the red house wines was the Malbec. I thought I wrote down the name of it but sadly it appears I did not. All I can say is that it was far better than the Malbecs we have drunk on previous cruises -- full, nice rounded flavors. They also had a selection of Cotes du Rhone, California Cab sauv, Chilean Merlot and a Sangiovese( which we also liked). And again, as with the whites they seemed to have done quite a bit of local shopping and picked up small quantities of some interesting red wines( including a nice one from Le Lavandou). But we frankly drank very little of their wines at night -- we usually either bought bottles from their list (Antinori Tignaello, Antinori Marchese Chianti Classico reserve, and Antinori Solaia, Penfold's St. Henry's Shriaz)or brought one of the bottles of red we bought at the Gambino Winery near Mt Etna to the Restaurant. Of course one of the added benefit to this is they will decant it and pour it in the much nicer, larger wine glasses.

 

And finally I would be remiss not to note how much we appreciate the fact that they still offer a decent glass of sauterne after dinner. I think we had glass just about every night.

[Prunella1]

Things must be looking up if they are offering Oyster Bay again, I much prefer it to any of the recent included wines. So glad that you enjoyed Gambino Winery, we have had lots of fun there in the past, I discovered we still had a bottle of white that we had purchased on our first visit around six years ago, so we enjoyed it in the garden on one of the last sunny evenings of summer.

 

Look forward to more of your reports of your trip, so glad you had a good time, also interested that you ate in the MDR every evening, the service must be better on the Quest than it was for us on the Sojourn last April.

[Chairsin]

Prunella,

Since you have been to Gambino you might be interested to know that when we were there they were putting the finishing touches on their lovely new tasting room with fabulous views down to the valley below. Might be worth a return visit next time you are on a cruise the stops in southern Sicily so you can check it out and restock.

 

And the reason we have dinner every evening in the Restaurant (not just on this cruise but on all of our SB cruises) is that for us dinner is our entertainment and we enjoy getting dressed up and lingering over good food and wine for a couple of hours. And yes, the service was excellent on this trip.

[MrsWaldo]

Chairsin

 

We are 3 adults in a suite. I travel with my 2 adult children and I'm not paying a single supplement when all we really do in our suite is sleep.

 

(We did have an OW :D thanks to an upgrade last time)

[Harvey2442]

Isn't it the addition of the Spa Suites which has added another 8 passengers giving the double occupancy total on the Quest now of 458 which probably explains how the total number on board was 453..

[ab21au]

Things must be looking up if they are offering Oyster Bay again, I much prefer it to any of the recent included wines. So glad that you enjoyed Gambino Winery, we have had lots of fun there in the past, I discovered we still had a bottle of white that we had purchased on our first visit around six years ago, so we enjoyed it in the garden on one of the last sunny evenings of summer.

 

Look forward to more of your reports of your trip, so glad you had a good time, also interested that you ate in the MDR every evening, the service must be better on the Quest than it was for us on the Sojourn last April.

 

The Oyster Bay was offered a few times on the Odyssey but IMO the other included wines were by far better. I also thought the Wingspan Sav Blanc was quite ok.

 

With the service, the problem we had was slowing them down. Service was happening to quickly in all dining venues to relax and enjoy the evening.