Live from Seabourn Encore - Bali to Sydney December 2018

[ellbon]

2 hours ago, Chairsin said:

Elbon

 

I may have misunderstood your laundry question. I assumed you were asking about the laundry service - not the guest laundry room. Seabourn does have a laundry room with washers and dryers and an ironing board for complimentary guest use. Other than an occasional touch up with iron I don’t use it so I can’t say how efficient the washers and dryers are. I find Seabourn’s laundry service to be excellent - everything comes back pressed and on hangers or folder and wrapped in tissue in a wicker basket. When I’m on Seabourn I’m on vacation and the last thing I want to do is laundry. 

 

As to internet I have found it to be painfully slow on most cruises and often I can’t get on in my suite and have to go to the Square to get on line. But with unlimited service for me while it is inconvenient it is not a negative financially. I have heard that if you buy a limited time package and have problems with slow service Guest Services is  good about giving you more minutes to compensate. 

I  have free laundry on Celebrity, Azamara and got on Crystal and was shocked at some of the prices.  So I did a mix of paid and do it myself. i found the hard part was to find a washer not in use or people never empty it. I  plan on Crystal to send most out and will wash somethings myself. If on Seaborn it would be the same.

 

As far as internet goes it should be free on any cruise line as it is in a hotel. It is sad that some lines still charge or  only give so many minutes.  

 

Interesting you mention not getting on in cabins.On Regent I  was in the tiny internet room a  lot. On Crystal it worked in cabin most of the time. On AZ it was 50/50. at least we got  letters when in Norway and Iceland etc to tell us it would not work until in open water.

 

still would like to know about the cabin sizes and a and closets.

 

If I lived in AU i wold think this  is a great cruise to learn about the line.

[mayaart]

Thanks for setting up the live now on encore

We are currently in the Cathay Pacific lounge at Hong Kong waiting for our 10 am flight to Bali.

Thanks stickman for the tip for car and driver in Bali tommorow.

We are new to seabourn but really like Regent so we will be comparing those two.

2 days before leaving I didn't have luggage tags or anything from Seabourn. We had an assigned cabin so really mad about lack of boarding passes etc. Regent sends a really nice portfolio of bag tags, etc with a nice holder for the documents and ship info.

See you soon and we are in a 5 on deck 7.

[Thecat123]

9 hours ago, Stickman1990 said:

 

It will be my pleasure - see you tomorrow for the drink and look forward to inspecting the PH Suite and seeing how the other half live - that’s if they let those of us in steerage up to your level :-)

 

The Indonesian Immigration authorities have let us into the country so we will see you on the ship  (still waiting for our bags though). Have to say we were most impressed to be directed to a special line at immigration for over 60’s - nice and short and quick - if only other countries made special provision for us seniors - lol - it’s one of the first times I’ve been able to use my recently acquired age status to my advantage 

 

Business class on the Qantas flight had a good number of guests joining the cruise tomorrow - being a Boeing 737 there were only 11 of us there (1 spare seat) 

 

I was pleased to find Qantas served the champagne that Crystal serves on board - so a few glasses of that got me in the cruising spirit

 

The meals were ok - there’s a limit to what they can achieve on flights 

10 hours ago, Thecat123 said:

Stickman if you would like to shout me a drink on board we might let you checkout a Penthouse suite 😀

Stickman wife still does not know but as you are "steerage" Seabourn treats everybody equally. Don't know about Aussies though but I think we can bend the rules

Sorry  Could not find the smillie on this puter

It will be interesting what you think of the cabin sizes between Crystal and Seabourn

 

Edited December 2, 2018 by Thecat123

[Stickman1990]

39 minutes ago, mayaart said:

We are currently in the Cathay Pacific lounge at Hong Kong waiting for our 10 am flight to Bali.

Thanks stickman for the tip for car and driver in Bali tommorow.

We are new to seabourn but really like Regent so we will be comparing those two

 

Safe, and uneventful travels - the good news is you do have the overnight here should anything go astray

 

Please do post your thoughts on here - I know others would be interested in the perspective of a Regent cruiser on Seabourn

 

Have a fun day with Kadek tomorrow - he is a lovely host to explore Bali with 

 

Thats a shame on not getting the pack from Seabourn - check with your TA as ours came via them - and we got it about a month ago. I assume you got your ticket sent to you electronically then?

 

Well I’ve been awake since 6am - expectant thoughts of embarkation. I am sure I know how the children feel in anticipation of the arrival of Father Christmas!

[mayaart]

I started with my travel agent and then called seabourn. The baggage tags and filled out wrap on tags were overnighted directly from Seabourn. Something about documents being surpressed. My booking agent had left the agency and I was dropped through the cracks. I'm looking for a new agency. Recommendations welcome. I'd had good luck with them for several years but this was not good and of course the agency blames seabourn.

[Stickman1990]

10 minutes ago, mayaart said:

I'm looking for a new agency. Recommendations welcome. I'd had good luck with them for several years but this was not good and of course the agency blames seabourn.

 

Glad it got sorted albeit at the 11th hour 

 

We’re definitely not allowed to talk about specific TAs on Cruise Critic 

 

But you’re right that personal experience and recommendations are definitely useful 

 

I look forward to meeting you onboard

 

Apparently there’s a gathering of CC members planned in the Observation bar straight after muster to allow people to put names to faces - see you then 

Edited December 3, 2018 by Stickman1990

[IsabelD]

Have fun onboard!

 

Isabel

[calliopecruiser]

Those are either the largest dates I've ever seen, or the smallest pieces of cheese.  What's in that photo??

[Stickman1990]

7 minutes ago, calliopecruiser said:

Those are either the largest dates I've ever seen, or the smallest pieces of cheese.  What's in that photo??

 

A bit of an optical illusion I suspect - the dates were lovely - the cheese not so much ...that soft cheese was of questionable origins 🙂

 

Now you’ve reminded me I must check out the cheese menu on Encore as the cheese menu is something we love on Crystal (got to have the goat and sheep cheeses too 😉)

Edited December 3, 2018 by Stickman1990

[ellbon]

I have done Regent twice.  Ever again! Wish I never did the second cruise.crystal so far above them in every way.

 

so I am really looking forward to comments here.

[Stickman1990]

We are on board - having been able to board at noon (and possibly earlier) - on arrival at the terminal we were able to board immediately and it was a very smooth process

The ship is lovely - my initial word is - Elegant - very stylish and modern - we are impressed after our initial walk around

I will post later with lots of photos which show a number of public areas including restaurants and have included an initial selection of our lovely spacious room (yes I now know what people have been telling me about the size of the standard rooms on Crystal) 

We have met our room attendant who is lovely and organising all the personal touches that make a cruise extra special - and it was nice to walk into our room to an ice bucket and champagne 

The highlight for my wife who has a dairy allergy was having one of the Seabourn staff come and talk to her as we were checking in to reassure her that her requirements were noted and then at the buffet lunch in the Colonade discovering the labelling of dishes included whether they were dairy free or not (and gluten free in some cases) - we were pleasantly surprised at the attention given to this and the wide range of dairy free offerings. My wife is a lot more relaxed knowing there is a good focus on this issue 

Muster drill in 15 minutes so I will head off but rest assured we are very settled in already and look g forward to the next three weeks 

 

Heres some shots of our veranah suite - love the walk in robe, marble bathroom and large lounge area - haven’t looked at the numbers but it’s a lot larger than a standard Symphony or Serenity room - that is a full three seater couch 

[Stickman1990]

The daily newsletter is the Herald and menus are published on a flyer that is distributed to your cabin 

We haven’t decided where we will dine tonight - a nice selection to choose from and we have a booking at Thomas Keller tomorrow night 

[Isklaar]

Have a wonderful cruise Stickman!

 

Thanks for the suite photos, very useful to those of us who are new to the 'big' ships. 

 

Seabourn's cheese selection is not one of the line's strong points, IMO. An exception is to try the cheeses offered during the TK evenings in The Colonnade, each menu has a specially matched cheese and they're usually very good. 

 

Enjoy your first evening onboard and I'm looking forward to following along with your cruise. 

Edited December 3, 2018 by Isklaar

[koalapanda]

Yes she is beautiful the gorgeous Encore and so comfy. Seeing your photos makes us yearn for another cruise. I hope you are spoilt and delighted. We have had three cruises 49 glorious days on Encore thus far , I hope you enjoy Seabourn as much as we do.

[calliopecruiser]

Lovely cabin, except for the tiny shower (what's with that?!?) - weird in light of how otherwise spacious everything looks.  Big and bright!  Hope you both enjoy it. 

[Silver Spectre]

Hi Stickman, enjoying your early postings. Is that glass pop out thing the only place outside of the bathroom that can be used as a vanity table and is there sufficient space in the wardrobe to hang multiple long dresses. I ask these on behalf of my wife who might be travelling with 20+ long dresses for a 15+ day voyage!

[Isklaar]

 

Hi Silver Spectre, I can part answer this one for Stickman! No the glass pop out thing isn't the only place to use as a vanity table. There is a vanity table between the bathroom and the walk in wardrobe. It has a mirror, a shallow drawer and a stool. By comparison, it's a much smaller area than the one on e.g. Silver Spirit which if I recall correctly is opposite the bed and is quite wide. 

 

 

Edited to add - you can see it here at 1:25 :

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 3, 2018 by Isklaar

[ellbon]

3 hours ago, calliopecruiser said:

Lovely cabin, except for the tiny shower (what's with that?!?) - weird in light of how otherwise spacious everything looks.  Big and bright!  Hope you both enjoy it. 

It does not look that small to me. Looks ok but I am petite in height.

Edited December 3, 2018 by ellbon

[MightyQuinn]

On 12/2/2018 at 2:23 AM, Aussie Cruise Nuts said:

On another note Mighty Quinn, I have followed your Cruise Critic  blogs for years and appreciate your contribution to the cruise critic community.    I always remember your CC handle due to my love of the Manfred Mann song from 1968 of the same name - yep, showing my age here.  

 

 

Ah shucks Aussie Cruise Nuts.  Thanks!  I remember you from the AZ forum back in the day.  Once we discovered SB and Crystal, we never returned!

Did you write a review of your Encore cruise?  I'd love to read it if you did.
 

[MightyQuinn]

Stickman, I'm glad you're settled onboard and your initial impressions are positive.  SB has quite a different feel from Crystal but both are great for different reasons.  I agree with Isklaar about cheese.  Not only are the selections inferior to Crystal (with the exception of Humboldt Fog during TK nite at the Colonnade) but SB has the annoying habit of serving cheese straight out of the refrigerator.  We rarely eat dessert and usually order cheese most every night, so we learned to ask our server at the start of the meal to get the cheese at room temperature.  Yes you shouldn't have to do that on a luxe line, but it works.  Continue to enjoy!

[Aussie Cruise Nuts]

Mighty Quinn.   I posted a review of our November 2017 Encore Bali to Sydney cruise on 22 Jan 2017 in response to a thread about service issues on Encore at that time.  More a review of Encore than the cruise itinerary as “service” was the subject matter of that thread.   I wish I could attach a link for you but alas my tech skills are too limited. 

 

Many of our cruising friends have been back on Seabourn during 2018 and their reports indicate the 2017 service issues caused by the launch of the two larger “new builds” have settled down.   

 

For us, we are looking forward to our first Viking Ocean Cruise on Viking Orion in April 2019 - 37 days Hong Kong to Vancouver.   Very excited about this new ship and what looks a wonderful itinerary via Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Eastern Russia, Bering Sea and Alaska.    

 

Cheers to you Mighty Quinn and Happy Cruising. 

 

Rod 

[ClefsDor]

Thanks for posting all the menus - I'm loving the fact that lunch is served in various locations until later in the afternoon. I hate missing lunch in the Restaurant and then only having the option of burgers and the like from the grill.

[frantic36]

Stickman thank you for taking time to write this live from Encore review. I hope you have a lovely cruise. When you have that drink with Thecat don't let him give you a hard time about the cricket or rugby.😊

 

Julie

[frantic36]

21 hours ago, mayaart said:

I started with my travel agent and then called seabourn. The baggage tags and filled out wrap on tags were overnighted directly from Seabourn. Something about documents being surpressed. My booking agent had left the agency and I was dropped through the cracks. I'm looking for a new agency. Recommendations welcome. I'd had good luck with them for several years but this was not good and of course the agency blames seabourn.

 

This seems very unusual that you didn't get your booklet, tickets etc a few weeks before the cruise. I do wonder if it had something to do with how the TA handled the booking?

 

As a comparison, I will be doing a long cruise on Sojourn and then three days later getting on Ovation in Singapore in mid-January. My TA contacted Seabourn Australia to see if they could get my Ovation documents to me early. They put the request into Seattle HO as it is very early for a cruise in January. Within a week I had received the Ovation documents. To be clear I didn't ask my TA for this, she organised this herself because that's how she works.

 

I was also impressed that Seabourn would expedite the documents to me so early. Maybe it helps that I am a long term Seabourn sailor, but is was still unexpected.

 

I hope you have a lovely cruise.

 

Julie

[Stickman1990]

4 hours ago, MightyQuinn said:

SB has quite a different feel from Crystal but both are great for different reasons.  I agree with Isklaar about cheese.  Not only are the selections inferior to Crystal (with the exception of Humboldt Fog during TK nite at the Colonnade) but SB has the annoying habit of serving cheese straight out of the refrigerator

 

That sums up my very early impressions very well - both great - different reasons....way to early to pass comment but we are discovering there are lots of things to like

 

I did have the cheese selection in the Restaurant last night and it was nice with a desert wine to accompany it. They served the cheese with bread as opposed to crackers - I must remember to ask for crackers tonight 

 

Heres the selection and ive added the desert menu - one of our friends had the soufflé and it looked great (and tasted great too I’m told)