Odyssey March 11-25 2017 Part 1

[NoVa Mimi]

This was our first cruise on Seabourn and it was the best cruise, after 15+ cruises we have been on. We, my DH and I, traveled from Washington DC to St. Maarten on 3/9/2017. We had made reservations at The Atrium for the two night pre cruise. It served the purpose and our room was quite large, more like an apartment, with a full kitchen and within walking distance to a grocery store. We went to Philipsburg the following day and decided to go by local bus rather than a taxi. What a huge savings!! The fare from Maho was $2/person each way and I think a taxi would have been much more. We enjoyed the day very much as the only times we have been to St. Maarten was in the summer months and this time it wasn't humid or too hot, very lovely day. We took a bus back to The Atrium and later that night we watched quite a large fireworks display that lasted about 10-15 minutes. What a treat that was! The next morning we checked out and went to the port to wait as there was not any other alternative, that we were aware of, with our luggage in hand. The building that Seabourn uses is evidently new and is used by both Windstar and Seabourn. This sailing was the first for Seabourn through this particular facility. Not only was this our first time on Seabourn, it was our first time not being on a mega ship, what in the world took us so long to discover this perfect way of cruising? Truly, we must be daft! This difference between the embarkation on large ships versus small ships was astounding. I kept looking for an onslaught of fellow passengers forming a long line and I had no idea how everyone would fit into this small building. In one word, the difference in the mega ships and this embarkation, I would say civilized. We were so pleasantly surprised! The young men that were porters took our luggage after a short wait, while waiting, we were very comfortable, in air conditioning and with wifi. Around 12:00 a representative came to announce to those of us that were waiting, it was time to board the vessel! Customs checked us through using a paper manifest, we saw no computers being used, and we were escorted to a golf cart type of vehicle. Once it was full with about 10 passengers, we were driven to the beautiful Odyssey! Vacation had officially started and we were giddy! It was finally our turn, yay! We had both had a difficult year and a half since we were last able to get away, working very long hours and experiencing many of life's ups and downs. Additionally, this was our first cruise sans our 26 year old son, in fact, it was our first time alone on any vacation in over 26 years. No wonder we were so excited! We both found ourselves wondering, hmm, we are going to be boarding the ship and no one had taken our picture for our sea pass card and there were no annoying photographers wanting us to stop and smile for a photo op (once again, yay!). We boarded and were escorted to the the Grand Salon where we were greeted, had our photo taken and surrendered our passports and received our sea pass card. Whew, that went ever so smoothly and quickly! Excellent experience! Part 2 to follow and I hope this isn't too long and boring for you all.

[Sunprince]

Looking forward to your review. It would be helpful to use multiple paragraphs as it rather hard to read the one big long one[emoji3]

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums