Wind - 15th to 27th August 2005

[uk1]

Here are some comments about our latest cruise from Istanbul to Venice, which was 12 days passing along the Turkish coast, Greek Islands through Croatia to Italy. We had a weekend in Istanbul before. I hope the comments are helpful to others.

 

This was on Wind, our first cruise on one of the two smaller ships. This is our fourth cruise with SS in just over a year, the three others being on Shadow or Whisper.

 

Let me say straight away that the cruise overall met our expectations. The itinerary was wonderful, and although we very much now prefer the larger ships – Wind was adequate although it’s clear how it shaped the many improvements found in the larger ships. It’s unlikely that if we were to sail with SS in the future - and on this we’re undecided - it would only be on Whisper or Shadow, although this is clearly just a matter of personal taste.

 

The staff was largely perfect and we found many familiar staff faces of friends we have made from other ships. They were however a bit nervy on this cruise which impacted some elements, for reasons that will be come obvious later.

 

So overall a first class experience and my other comments and feedback should be viewed in that context. The food remains patchy ranging from poor at times to good. We certainly didn’t find it “excellent” or “bad”. This aspect is however unimportant to us as I don’t think any cruiseline can realistically consistently produce genuinely first class food on a ship. We’ve discussed this before!. The view about the quality of food was shared by almost all of the people I spoke to, no one saying it was “wonderful” but many quite scathing.

 

There were two aspects that compromised the cruise experience. It was clear to many experienced SS travellers that there was change in the balance of the type of customer on this cruise and they were perplexed as to why this had happened. The description most used was that the feel was that there was more of a “down market” feel to the overall balance of customers on the cruise. Experienced SS cruisers will I’m sure understand what I mean and whilst I apologise in advance to those that might find the generalisation irritating, as we’ve had the debate before about generalisations , snobbishness, manners, etc I’m not going to defend generalisations per se, but merely report what many people said and report this back as information and a consideration for others when contemplating SS.

 

It was apparent that much of the change was bought about by the secret discounts SS offered through it’s agents to attract customers with lower budgets. A stipulation by SS was that the discounts were not to be published but could be offered personally or by e-mail to non-SS customers. In fact I pursued SS, through the CEO about the secret offers and I obtained the new cruiser budget for my booking, and I urge others who find this practice unacceptable to voice their concerns to the line. I received a further discount of £2,200 for our two cruises. Once again, I state that on this small ship this bought with it what many experienced SS customers stated was a change to the ambience of their experience – like it or not!

 

The other aspect that damaged the ambience of the trip and compromised ours and many, many other people was the presence of the owner Mr Lefevre and his extended party of friends and family and employees. I’m drafting this now in the Panorama lounge for later posting, waiting to disembark and Mr Lefevre is sprawling at the next table conducting his business in a noisy way on his mobile phone and with his staff who are all periodically paraded in and out for various reviews and interviews, most of the other tables are occupied by much of the rest of his party, behaving similarly and in a loud boorish and inconsiderate manner.

 

The party, I estimate is around 20 or so although it feels like considerably more with several young children in tow with associated domestic staff. The children are uncontrolled and allowed to play and make as much noise as the like. The men-folk conduct business loudly over the phone in all public areas including during meals in the restaurant, as did their lady-folk conduct their personal business. Sometimes, their tables in the restaurant would have several people all talking on their phones. Experienced and / or well mannered other cruisers will know that a “ no phones” rule has been maintained in all public areas on other SS cruises, but requests by other passengers to staff to ask them to mention it to members of this extended group are met with the comment “we have been given strict, very strict instructions not to make ANY such comments to this group, under pain of termination – we agree but we’re sorry”. This group were rude and curt to staff and I had to be restrained by my wife from pointing it out to them. As another example of this, the ship was late leaving Zavar, by over half an hour because the extended group arrived back at the boat late in a leisurely fashion, and as you’d expect – the ship waited for them.

 

I could go on citing more examples of this behaviour, but I’m sure with a bit of imagination you’ll get the picture. In effect there was a two class ship with the paying customers very firmly being second class.

 

What made things worst was that senior staff were clearly jittery at the presence of the “great man himself” (in more than one sense) and this atmosphere pervaded with senior people being more demanding with their juniors and they in turn becoming more anxious. In some instances clearly staff stopped serving customers mid way to go and serve the Royal group.

 

A lot of the management issues that many have discussed in previous threads became crystal clear during the cruise, including for example the introduction of La Terraza. Evidently the great man himself, decided autonomously and without much consultation to introduce La Terraza, although the move has not (at least in private) been welcomed by operational management - some of whom were quite vocal about it.

 

To summarise, a wonderful experience marred slightly by the changing balance of customers but more by the presence of the owner and his extended group.

 

Jeff

[lord of the seas]

Hi Jeff,Welcome back

A good insight to your cruise,the most concerning being the presence of the owner.I must say that like you I would be compelled to speak to the almighty one but I fear that my wife would have put a flea in his ear before I could get to him.As you know my first cruise with SS was just before your wind sailing,on the Shadow which we enjoyed greatly.I did some research with some of the passengers and found that there were a lot who had taken advantage of the too good to be true deal.there were people from the UK and some friends from Canada who we had met on our Jan 2005 cruise on Westerdam.There was also the great and the good and some very well known people onboard,so creating a wide spectrum.I only heard one passenger say that he would only cruise with SS again if they gave him 50% discount,and you guessed it,he was the loud obnoxious onr that everbody steared clear of.As for SS marketing I can say that it worked as far as I am concerned because I booked Two more cruises with SS in the near future,but will still cruise seabourn but I will wait for the ships to be refurbished.I do think that sales are good for 2006 for SS and the heavy discounts might vanish .I did experience thr new Restaurant set up and you can see my findings in a previous thread

John

[Jinn]

Jeff--thank you for you insights. Last year on the Shadow we were "graced" with the presence of the owner and his friends and I, having heard that he sails on each ship once a year, was fearful that he might be on the Wind for our October cruise. Now I don't have to worry. Who is the cruise director on the Wind? Julia

[uk1]

Interesting that you were "fearful" of a repeat performance. Not a great advert for rubbing shoulders (and the rest) with the cruise line's owner and chairman.

 

Cruise director is Fernando - or as he was christened on our cruise "Tannoy Tommy".

 

Jeff

[swindy]

Hi Jeff,

 

Who was the Cruise Consultant and Captain on the Wind and do you know if they were at the start of their "turn" on the Wind or ready to move on?

[frockoff]

Dear Jeff

 

A few months back I asked your advice on meeting the Cloud in Nice and am happy to say I have taken ALL of your reommendations such as lunch at Le Sloop, staying at Le Metropole and lunch at Negesco on touch down.

 

Now I know your favour hotel in Rome is Le Grand Minerve, we are also staying there post cruise. question, is the restaurant at the hotel worth having a special dinner ? Coincidently my boss and his wife will fly to Rome on our last night there. Very coincidental all the way from Australia.

 

Or can you suggest a pleasant restaurant in Rome for a special dinner.

 

Look forward to your further suggestions Jeff.

 

Bye

 

Therese

[uk1]

Hi Therese, so pleased the recs were useful but were they any good?

 

How did the Sloop, Metropole, and lunch at the Negreso go? You must tell. I hope Mrs Sloop was polite and her husbands cooking up to scratch!

 

I'm digging out my old diary to get the names of some of our favourite places in Rome from the past. Personally I wouldn't recommend eating in the Hotel as international food in international hotels is a lways a bit samey. But it might be worth a lunch on the roof which overlooks the Pantheon which is next door particularly if you're going in the summer when streets can become oppressive and a break in the peace of the hotel might be a welcome break.

 

Two other things.

 

Alpheus and Ostia Antica.

 

http://www.alpheus.it/

 

http://www.ostia-antica.org/

 

http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=ostia%20antica&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&sa=N&tab=wi

 

Jeff

[frockoff]

Sorry Jeff, can't report on your recommendations yet, we arrive in Nice on 20 September to meet the Cloud which sails on 23 September.

 

So I've put a lot of faith in your recommendations!!! Thanks for the Rome links. You're correct, hotel food can be same old same old.

 

Look forward to hearing of your favourite eats in Rome - thanks again. Arrive home on 14 October - I will definitely let you know about all your tips.

 

Therese

[A Tucson Guy]

frockoff- we arrive in Nice on the 20th for the 23rd cruise. Maybe we will see you on board.

Al

[uk1]

Therese,

 

I've edgy views about Rome as a place that you can recomend places to eat - as it's starting point (in my view) is that there a very few really great places to eat that stack up against other eating cities, and a place that's good on one visit may not be so next time round. I know this will be flamed, but Rome isn't a place for great food.

 

Instead I suggest for your special meal, you sketch out what exactly you're looking for and e-mail the concierge at the Minerve a few weeks before you go and rely on his up to date recommendation. I think you'll go less wrong with that approach than with me telling you about places that use to be good.

 

Jeff

[swindy]

Hi Jeff,

 

Who was the Cruise Consultant and Captain on the Wind and do you know if they were at the start of their "turn" on the Wind or ready to move on?

????