Sea Princess

[hochmagandy]

Anyone travelling on Sea Princess from Barbados on March 4/2006?:)

[chrysalis]

would suggest that you check the "roll calls"

[kiefaber455]

My wife and I will be. We sail from Fort Lauderdale on Feb. 25 and from Barbados on March 4th back to Lauderdale. Picked this for 2 reasons--first the itinerary, and second the length. We did an eleven day cruise last year aboard Brilliance of the Seas and wanted to stretch it even further this eyar.

[cruzzers]

hochmagandy...There is a roll call for your sailing date from Barbados if you would like to join in. We will board the Sea Princess in Ft Lauderdale one week before you get on with us. Here is your CC roll call:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=172496&page=3

[cruzzers]

kiefaber...Looks like you will be boarding the Sea Princess with us in Ft. Lauderdale on Feb. 25th! If you would like to join our CC roll call, you can find us at the following site on Cruise Critic:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=150277&page=10&pp=25

 

We look forward to meeting all of you!

[Hlitner]

We just returned from the Sea Princess 14 day itinerary (Dec 3 sailing from FTL). This ship is heavily marketed in England under the P&O banner and the passenger ratio on our cruise was about 1/3 Americans and 2/3 Brits. Almost all the entertainment was flown-in from England and there were some English cuisine additions to the Horizon buffet such as Steak and Kidney Pie. We had a lot of fun on this cruise and made a number of English friends. My wife particularly liked the fact that the "Brits" tend to still dress formal on the formal nights.

 

Hank

[anniversary cruiser]

Hin Hochmagandy

 

As Cruzzers says there is a roll call for March 4th sailing. There are 12 of us on the roll call at the moment. There are also 2 other roll calls for February 25th and March 11th boarding in Fort Lauderdale. Where are you flying from? There are 4 of us flying from East Midlands.

[JGR01]

.... My wife particularly liked the fact that the "Brits" tend to still dress formal on the formal nights.

 

Hank

 

Perhaps they are just more used to following the Ships Dress recommendations as printed in the Patter! They are a pedantic lot.

 

BTW .. it has only been a couple of years in SOME offices in London where they allowed 'casual' Fridays or even 'casual work days'. Many Brit workers do not own clothes to 'dress down' (kaki pants and open cotton shirt). They tend to leave the suit coat at home, wear the suit pants and their normal business 'dress' shirt without a tie.

 

This casual thing is kinda new to them. Many Brits enjoy a good formal do .. and have the gear to pull it off. After several cruises I own several tuxes so enjoy getting them out and dressing up too. Too bad some Americans think a formal outfit is matching jeans and jacket with rhinestones in both with a tank top under the jacket.

[cruisebore]

Perhaps they are just more used to following the Ships Dress recommendations as printed in the Patter! They are a pedantic lot.

 

BTW .. it has only been a couple of years in SOME offices in London where they allowed 'casual' Fridays or even 'casual work days'. Many Brit workers do not own clothes to 'dress down' (kaki pants and open cotton shirt). They tend to leave the suit coat at home, wear the suit pants and their normal business 'dress' shirt without a tie.

 

This casual thing is kinda new to them. Many Brits enjoy a good formal do .. and have the gear to pull it off. After several cruises I own several tuxes so enjoy getting them out and dressing up too. Too bad some Americans think a formal outfit is matching jeans and jacket with rhinestones in both with a tank top under the jacket.

 

Wow! a lot of inaccurate generalisations here.

 

Actually most Brits who cruise, own extremely smart resort clothing, much of it

'designer' gear.

I don't know about being pedantic in our dress. Perhaps it is that we like to dress to suit (no pun intended) the occasion.

 

Regards

 

Ray

[GSDsky]

1/3 American and 2/3 Brits hmmm.

 

Guess that puts DW and I in a good spot.

The lone Canadians.;)

 

2 weeks and in Lauderdale:D

[kokimojo]

I totally agree with the jeans-rhinestone comment except that you missed two things.........a dressy American will make sure the rips in the jeans are tasteful and will insure their socks match the tank top!

 

Hats off to the Brits!!! They still properly exude class - I'm sorry to say that many of us (Americans) only exude 'klass', if you know what I mean. This is just MY opinion.......

[hochmagandy]

Happy New Year!!We are flying to Bridgetown from Toronto.Will check up on the roll-call site:ttfn

[loge23]

Just off the Sea. Everything was absolutely wonderful! The ship was 85% U.K. - Scots, Welsh, English, with the rest a nice mix from Canada and the U.S. (all over the U.S.!). The mix was very interesting and very welcome to us. We find things get a little pushy when there is too many Americans from concentrated locations.

I'll elaborate later, but we had a great time. Enjoy!

P.S.: If you like British beer, they have Boddington's on tap!

[kokimojo]

We start our cruise on the Sea in two weeks-any 'don't miss' food items or shows? What is your opinion of MUTS? Will you be writing a review?

[loge23]

Not sure if I'll get around to a full review - in brief: the food was nothing short of excellent all around. Don't miss the delicious lobster tails (twice). Also King Crab legs are offered (but it was Rack of Lamb night for us). If you can't decide on a menu item, try a little pasta with the evenings seafood entree. The veal chop is always outstanding. The Sea's only "alternative" restaurant is the Sterling Steakhouse which occupies a section of the Horizon Court nightly. They also (weather permitting) stage two "under the stars" nights alongside the Deck 14 outdoor bar overlooking the pools. The Sterling offers a premium steak menu primarily and was very good at our under the stars night. That brings up MUTS. On our night, the MUTS offering was Diane Krall in concert, which we were keen on enjoying. Unfortunately however, they had a technical problem which resulted in the Tina Turner concert replacement. Not exactly good dinner fare IMO. Other MUTS events included an Elton John concert. MUTS is actually very nice. They show movies during the day mercifully without amplification. There are headsets provided by your cabin steward if you would like to listen during the day. At night, it's mostly concert movies with sound.

One little criticism is the old Verdi pizzeria which is now the Corniche Cafe. It's a quasi-restuarant where you have to be seated (no charge) to enjoy a pizza treat. No slices on the Sea (phooey!) The pizza comes in a small personal pie format, but was quite good. Also offered are the soup of the day, a nice antipasta, lasagna, and some other treats. It's a good alternative for a meal, but I miss the slices on the desk and at the old Verdi on the Sea's first incarnation.

Entertainment was different on this ship. Lots of solo performers with very little in the way of production shows - curious since they still a full cast aboard. The ship's crew stapled together a very nice and warm Christmas show however which we enjoyed, but overheard others (mostly yanks, I'm afraid) complaining about. Of the production shows, Piano Man was the best.

Of the solo performers, Bernie Flint was tops. Mr. Flint is a Brit who apparently won some British talent show (Opportunity Knocks) on TV a long time ago. He was wonderful in two separate performances - singing, joking, and thoroughly engaging. Other soloists included a terrific clarinetist who really had the ship's fine band swinging, a piano player (Mac Frampton) who was quite good as well. A magician failed to amuse and a very personable juggler was as entertaining as a juggler can be (I'll leave you to decide how much that is!). The leads in the production shows were Laurie Miller (former Expose member) who could belt 'em, and a very white bread Scott Hunnicut whom could not.

That's all for now - ask away and I'll try to respond.

[chrysalis]

Thanks for the review...sounds like a great time and the Sterlings under the stars on 2 nights seems to be something we would love to do. That is the first time I had heard of that. King Crab and Rack of Lamb on the same night.....life does not get much better than that!

 

Looking forward to our March sailing on the Sea......

 

Thanks again

[jnc411]

Thanks loge23 for the short review, we will be sailing on the Sea Princess in March also 3-11-06 out of Ft L. It sounds like a wonderful mix of passangers and a great time. Can't wait.

Cori

[traci28]

out of curiosity - who was the magician who failed to amuse?

[loge23]

The magician was a fellow named Bernard Reid. He was OK., it's just that he spent a very long time on each trick. By the time the trick was turned you just didn't care anymore! Later in the cruise, he gave a seminar somewhere in the ship, which we did not attend.

I was remiss in my short review to not mention the wonderful Talent Night show in the Vista. If there's a "can't miss show", this is it.

The show featured several passengers and crew members. Most notable were the pizza chef from the Corniche Cafe who was flat-out the best vocalist onboard; also the ship librarian, Srilekha (had to look that one up!), is a stunningly beautiful woman who danced a traditional Indian story/dance in full dress. It seems as the show goes on, the crew eggs more and more of their mates on stage. Lots of fun!

Also enjoyed the cooking demo. The lead chefs were all there preparing treats. Afterwards, Francisco, a sous chef with over 30 years onboard experience, was upstairs at the Horizon preparing a pasta arrabbiano (sic) that was to die for. Don't miss this if you love great pasta.

I mentioned the production shows - or lack thereof. Don't confuse quantity with quality. The shows were well done and the dance troupe is top rate. They work their tails off.

Also notable is the terrific Captain, Julian Burgess. Captain Burgess is the best we've seen since Andy Proctor on the first Sea Princess incarnation six years ago. Very personable, very friendly, genuinely so. I think a good captain sometimes sets the tone for a ship's crew - it seemed that way here. The CD does a litttle chat with the Captain in the Vista, which I recommend.