Currently on SD II - Ask your questions

[EuropeCruiser73]

Hello fellow CruiseCritic members. I am in the lucky situation to currently be on SD II, having embarked yesterday from Venice.

 

So far the experience is truly awesome! We have been on SD 10 years ago, and it is still a very refined ship. The cabins are nicely renovated with new Nordic design and overall upgraded. Also there is a new front of the yacht area on deck 6 where the forward large bed used to be. There are now two couples hot tubs there. It feels to me as if the bed area has been reduced a bit to make the space.

 

Service is amazing. We are lucky that this cruise is lightly booked, so it really feels like a private yacht.

 

So, if anyone wants to know anything about current SD cruises, feel free to ask in this thread.

[back1817]

Would love to see photos of the newly refurbished cabins and the new hot tubs. We're scheduled for PBI-SJU departing January 30th on SDII.  Our third SD cruise-can't wait!!

[kbwinn]

Thanks for the post. We are scheduled to sail on SD II October 2nd. Appreciate any and all reports.

Edited August 22, 2021 by kbwinn
Typo

[Tiki_Man]

Thank you for the update.  Who are the senior staff onboard? 

Cheers 

[EuropeCruiser73]

Here's a picture of the new "beach club" with two twin hot tubs on deck 6:

 

More to come 😉

[YachtCruiser]

1 hour ago, EuropeCruiser73 said:

Here's a picture of the new "beach club" with two twin hot tubs on deck 6:

 

More to come 😉

Wow ! 
 

😎👍🏼

[piratelooksat45]

New chaise loungers look comfy! Have a great trip.

 

[kbwinn]

How often during the cruise are you tested after the first Covid test to board?

[EuropeCruiser73]

2 hours ago, kbwinn said:

How often during the cruise are you tested after the first Covid test to board?

 

Once at boarding and once during the cruise (48 hours prior to arrival). I originally have been a bit concerned about the tests but they turned out totally ok.

[EuropeCruiser73]

I don't have a great picture of the new cabin, but here's the new center part with a huge TV and you can see the new cupboards.

 

[KJNS]

Hi EuropeCruiser73! We’re traveling on the Seadream II Athens itinerary departing September 14th so I really appreciate you taking the time to post about your voyage. I was hoping you could describe the in-cabin entertainment options on the newly installed tv. I wouldn’t usually care about such a thing but we’re trying to decide how many books to pack in the event of an unfortunate breakthrough infection confining us to the cabin. Oh and it’s our first time sailing with Seadream so we’d love to hear any pro-tips you have to offer. Thanks 😊

[EuropeCruiser73]

On 8/22/2021 at 5:42 PM, Tiki_Man said:

Thank you for the update.  Who are the senior staff onboard? 

Cheers 

 

Captain MacLeod

Club Director: Jaime

Hotel Director: Jaime

Maitre d: Eric

Executive Chef: Alistair

 

[EuropeCruiser73]

19 hours ago, KJNS said:

I was hoping you could describe the in-cabin entertainment options on the newly installed tv.

 

The TV has both live TV and streaming options. There are basically 10+ live TV channels like news (MSNBC, BBC, Fox, etc), some special interest channels (HGTV, Travel Channel) and two movie channels (Prime).

 

In terms of streaming: This is basically replacing the old DVD library they used to have. You can now choose from something like 100+ different movies streamed directly to your TV. There should be plenty of options there.

 

[cabosal1]

Anyone know if SDI has these updated amenities?  We've been hoping for better tv options for a long time and will be on SDI in January.  Don't really care one way or another about the shampoos, etc.  Just seems to be added work for housekeeping staff.   

[Beanjar]

Hello

i am interested to know where you boarded in Venice as larger cruise ships have now been banned from entering. 
Also are there any British guests. If so did they  have to quarantine on entering Italy? 

[EuropeCruiser73]

2 hours ago, Beanjar said:

i am interested to know where you boarded in Venice as larger cruise ships have now been banned from entering. 

 

I just wrote a little review where I covered the boarding in Venice. In short, while big boats have been banished, SeaDream can still sail to/from the city. The only restriction, as I understand it, is that they are required to use two tugs while passing the city. I heard that there was an issue with another cruise ship some time ago and since then they have toughened regulations.

Here's a picture of SeaDream 2 passing in front of the Hilton Molino Stucky on her way to the terminal.

[knotheadusc]

Ooh!  We stayed in a fabulous suite at the Molino Stucky the last time we were on SeaDream.  It was the only room left in the hotel and my husband was using Honors Points.  Got fantastic views of the canal before we connected with SeaDream in Rome.

 

Great shot!  

[ronrick1943]

Photos look great, looks like they did a little work.

[swixpat]

I am looking at a cruise end Oct this year that has a number of Italian stops. On the Seadream website they write that all tours in Italy currently are in bubble format. Would that mean that I have to book a paid excursion to get on land at all and cannot even step off ship to look at the local towns in Italy?

[cabosal1]

We took a Caribbean cruise in June (on Windstar) that had bubble format, and, yes, we could only get off ship if we were on one of their excursions and no wandering off was allowed.  Maybe Europe is different but we weren't too happy being corralled like kindergartners.  

[swixpat]

Thanks cabosal. That is exactly what i was afraid of. It requires more thinking, maybe the swimming will be enough. 

[EuropeCruiser73]

On 9/13/2021 at 12:28 PM, swixpat said:

I am looking at a cruise end Oct this year that has a number of Italian stops. On the Seadream website they write that all tours in Italy currently are in bubble format. Would that mean that I have to book a paid excursion to get on land at all and cannot even step off ship to look at the local towns in Italy?

 

I have no idea what the Covid protocols at the end of October will be in Italy but I can confirm that on our cruise, because Italy was only allowing organized excursions to exit the vessel, we had proactively substituted an Italian port with a Slovenian port (which allowed independent exiting of the ship).

 

[DWhit]

On 9/19/2021 at 11:34 AM, EuropeCruiser73 said:

 

I have no idea what the Covid protocols at the end of October will be in Italy but I can confirm that on our cruise, because Italy was only allowing organized excursions to exit the vessel, we had proactively substituted an Italian port with a Slovenian port (which allowed independent exiting of the ship).

 

A quick question - did Sea Dream let you know prior to cruise departure which ports would allow independent exiting and which ones required bubble excursions?   We have a cruise coming up in November that goes to several Caribbean ports.  Obviously requirements are always shifting, but it would be nice to know a week or two ahead which ones we could do independently. 

 

[cabosal1]

On 9/27/2021 at 7:38 PM, DWhit said:

A quick question - did Sea Dream let you know prior to cruise departure which ports would allow independent exiting and which ones required bubble excursions?   We have a cruise coming up in November that goes to several Caribbean ports.  Obviously requirements are always shifting, but it would be nice to know a week or two ahead which ones we could do independently. 

 

We had a Caribbean cruise in June (Windstar) which was to make numerous stops, and all excursions were to be in the "bubble format. It originated and ended in St. Martin. Two days before embarkation we were informed that, since all of the crew members were not vaxxed (all passengers were), we would probably miss some of our stops. (We were told prior that all crew & passengers were vaccinated). We missed ALL stops (St Barth's, Antigua, Anguilla, BVI's) and only had two excursions (corralled and masked) on St, Martin.  

We now are booked for the Caribbean on SD in January, but are worried about the various island's protocols and access and, especially, whether SD can guarantee crew and passengers all vaxxed.  

[DWhit]

2 hours ago, cabosal1 said:

We had a Caribbean cruise in June (Windstar) which was to make numerous stops, and all excursions were to be in the "bubble format. It originated and ended in St. Martin. Two days before embarkation we were informed that, since all of the crew members were not vaxxed (all passengers were), we would probably miss some of our stops. (We were told prior that all crew & passengers were vaccinated). We missed ALL stops (St Barth's, Antigua, Anguilla, BVI's) and only had two excursions (corralled and masked) on St, Martin.  

We now are booked for the Caribbean on SD in January, but are worried about the various island's protocols and access and, especially, whether SD can guarantee crew and passengers all vaxxed.  

Ouch !!!    Hope you got your money back!

 

I called SeaDream and they had not really started looking at the Caribbean requirements yet.  Right now if I had to guess, I would say BVI stops will require a guided excursion, and also maybe St. Bart's (France).  Hoping Saba ( Dutch) and the Puerto Rican stops (Vieques and Culebra) will allow independent access.

Edited September 29, 2021 by DWhit