Recent updates please

[PaulaJK]

Increasingly I am reading posts that express disappointment in posters’

recent SB cruise…but with no details offered. We have a fall sailing 

w payment coming due soon. Would really appreciate recent cruisers

offering details of their disappointment. Thank you.

[wingit]

We are on the Odyssey.We embarked in Miami and will disembark in a couple of days.  The negatives we have are not necessarily specific to Seabourn. Our desire to cruise is dampened by the necessity to get 2 Covid tests to get on board originally and a third to fly back home to the US.  The mandatory masking of crew and staff is a big negative for us.  The crew have always been a big part of our enjoyment.  Seabourn is shrouding their best asset; their personalities are diminished They are just as as vaxed and tested as everyone else on board.

All in all we’ve had a very good cruise.  I think the issues with understaffing and supply chains will work out eventually ( I hope!). The Odyssey needs a little spiffing up.  It’s not quite the Seabourn we have experienced over the years, but it is good.  
Until excessive testing and crew masking go away we will be spending our vacation dollars elsewhere.  Just our perspective on cruising these days…

[Ken the cruiser]

46 minutes ago, wingit said:

We are on the Odyssey.We embarked in Miami and will disembark in a couple of days.  The negatives we have are not necessarily specific to Seabourn. Our desire to cruise is dampened by the necessity to get 2 Covid tests to get on board originally and a third to fly back home to the US.  The mandatory masking of crew and staff is a big negative for us.  The crew have always been a big part of our enjoyment.  Seabourn is shrouding their best asset; their personalities are diminished They are just as as vaxed and tested as everyone else on board.

All in all we’ve had a very good cruise.  I think the issues with understaffing and supply chains will work out eventually ( I hope!). The Odyssey needs a little spiffing up.  It’s not quite the Seabourn we have experienced over the years, but it is good.  
Until excessive testing and crew masking go away we will be spending our vacation dollars elsewhere.  Just our perspective on cruising these days…

If I might ask, the OP on another recent Seabourn thread said they were blocked from logging onto Cruise Critic while on the Odyssey. In fact, this supposedly has been going on since mid April. Obviously, this is not currently the case anymore as it sounds like you're on the Odyssey right now and having no issues posting to CC. 

[wingit]

I have not been blocked from logging on or posting to CC anytime on this cruise.

[Ken the cruiser]

2 minutes ago, wingit said:

I have not been blocked from logging on or posting to CC anytime on this cruise.

Thanks. I have to admit, I did think that was kind of weird. I know we've sailed on four different Celebrity B2B cruises since cruising started back up, and I needed to purchase their Premium internet package to post to my "Live from ..." threads because the bandwidth was just not sufficient to log onto CC or some other multi-tiered sites if we only purchased their Basic internet package. Glad to see all is good and you're having a good time on your cruise!!

[travelwell]

I appreciate your comments. Any reassurance of a good cruise experience welcome. I hope these issues are resolved  prior to February. It is disconcerting on see a poster on another thread  blocked while on the cruise. Hopefully Management has seen the importance of transparency. I am glad you are posting.

[Host Dan]

Great to see that CC has been unblocked!  I disembarked in Los Angeles on the 19th of May.  Maybe it was unblocked for the Los Angeles to Vancouver segment.   BTW, I had the Diamond internet package, as I am a Diamond member on SB.

[SLSD]

17 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks. I have to admit, I did think that was kind of weird. I know we've sailed on four different Celebrity B2B cruises since cruising started back up, and I needed to purchase their Premium internet package to post to my "Live from ..." threads because the bandwidth was just not sufficient to log onto CC or some other multi-tiered sites if we only purchased their Basic internet package. Glad to see all is good and you're having a good time on your cruise!!

As I commented on Dan's thread, one Seabourn cruise we were on blocked Cruise Critic---AFTER my husband mentioned to a senior staff member that I was posting real time posts on Cruise Critic about our cruise. It was toward the end of the cruise and I had been posting daily reports.  As I mentioned also, my husband knew of a work around, so I kept posting.  So--it has happened before.  This had nothing to do with bandwidth or internet package.  There was a clear message which came up which stated that this website was unavailable.  

Edited May 26, 2022 by SLSD

[cruiseej]

We were on two Odyssey cruises in the past year, the most recent ending in March, and I had no blockage with the CC website.

[galeforce9]

6 hours ago, cruiseej said:

We were on two Odyssey cruises in the past year, the most recent ending in March, and I had no blockage with the CC website.

Were you posting live reports?  Had you mentioned it to crew?   Thats a clear difference if not. 

Edited May 26, 2022 by galeforce9

[Ken the cruiser]

1 minute ago, galeforce9 said:

Were you posting live reports?  Had you mentioned it to crew?   Thats a clear difference if not. 

Good question, as I plan on doing a Live post on our 20 day Med cruise on the Sojourn in July 2023. How would Seabourn's IT department even know who and more importantly what was being posted to cruise critic, unless they're monitoring everyone's onboard internet activity, which would be really weird, if I didn't mention it to anyone onboard?

[johng75370]

Like others, we’ve had 3 Seabourn cruises in the last 10 months and never had issues logging in or posting, and also don’t mention it to anyone.  Clearly this seems to be selective targeting; can see it being used to block some people from websites with trivia answers, but in this case it’s troubling/wrong if some people are getting blocked from posting here.  

Edited May 27, 2022 by johng75370
Typo

[galeforce9]

6 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Good question, as I plan on doing a Live post on our 20 day Med cruise on the Sojourn in July 2023. How would Seabourn's IT department even know who and more importantly what was being posted to cruise critic, unless they're monitoring everyone's onboard internet activity, which would be really weird, if I didn't mention it to anyone onboard?

I think some do read cruise critic and put two and two together.  

[cruiseej]

7 hours ago, galeforce9 said:

Were you posting live reports?  Had you mentioned it to crew?   Thats a clear difference if not. 

 

I don't write a daily travelog, but I definitely have posted while aboard, and even communicated with fellow passengers via CC while aboard.  I have never discussed posting on social media with any crew member.

 

It's hard for me to imagine that a crew member on a ship hears that a passenger is posting on CC, goes to a manager or the Hotel Director, and gets their IT staff to temporarily block posting to this specific site due to one passenger aboard posting, and then the block is removed after the passenger has disembarked. I wonder if there's some coincidental different explanation for the occasional blockages several people have experienced.

 

 

[Mauzac]

I also communicated with another couple whilst on SB via CC in February this year.  We arranged a meet up via CC and then spent a delightful couple of evenings together!  

[SLSD]

5 hours ago, Mauzac said:

I also communicated with another couple whilst on SB via CC in February this year.  We arranged a meet up via CC and then spent a delightful couple of evenings together!  

And, as I said above, I posted in real time on CC for almost an entire cruise---and then access to CC was blocked after my husband mentioned my postings to a substitute CD.  Coincidence?  Very odd at any rate.  A specific message came on the screen saying that "this site is unavailable".  Fortunately, there was a work around.  And, as Dan mentioned, he asked about the unavailability of CC on his cruise---and some checking was done--and yes, it was unavailable.  Since Dan had not posted yet--it would seem that he is not the only guest who could not post at that time.  It would be interesting to know the whole story--perhaps someone can ask a key person onboard.  

[Host Dan]

7 hours ago, galeforce9 said:

I think some do read cruise critic and put two and two together.  

Yes they most certainly do.

 

The first few years of Hosting on Cruisecritic, I developed personal relationships with many of the execs at SB, who not only encouraged my travel-logues, but actively posted to the boards.  Unfortunately policy changed at SB and employee participation is forbidden.

 

Policy change at SB would definitely be a step in the right direction.

 

 

 

 

[highplanesdrifters]

Amazing that Seabourn can have someone on a ship with enough IT skills to block CC. But as we all know their website is.....well best not to use an expletive.  Seabourn, how about throwing your IT resources toward something useful. 

[SusieQft]

Sometimes if the internet connection goes out for technical but non-nefarious reasons, you will get the message "This website is not available."  Perhaps there is a benign explanation.

[Host Dan]

13 minutes ago, SusieQft said:

Sometimes if the internet connection goes out for technical but non-nefarious reasons, you will get the message "This website is not available."  Perhaps there is a benign explanation.

I thought that at first, until an officer tried to log in, contacted someone at IT, and confirmed the block.

[SLSD]

4 hours ago, SusieQft said:

Sometimes if the internet connection goes out for technical but non-nefarious reasons, you will get the message "This website is not available."  Perhaps there is a benign explanation.

Yes, I had all kinds of connectivity issues with the internet while on that particular cruise--but could always post on CC once I had connectivity again.  So--I am a bit dubious that the issue was benign.  By the way, I had said only positive things about SB in my real time posts.  I had complained a bit about the weather, the time changes, and not particularly enjoying so many sea days (which was what we were trying out), but only laudatory comments about SB.  

[fdnycruiser]

I was quarantined on the Ovation in January, and posted some pretty scathing reports at the time. I wasn’t cut off at all. In fact when I was quarantined, they gave me the enhanced internet at no charge. Go figure 

[labonnevie]

9 hours ago, highplanesdrifters said:

Amazing that Seabourn can have someone on a ship with enough IT skills to block CC. But as we all know their website is.....well best not to use an expletive.  Seabourn, how about throwing your IT resources toward something useful. 

It has been interesting the past few weeks to view the posts on the Regent board where Mike Moore, an IT person from Regent, has had an ongoing dialogue with numerous posters resulting in several not insignificant improvements to Regent’s customer interface webpages, e.g. excursion bookings. 
It shows how something truly positive can come from using CC as a customer interface tool. Seabourn could learn something from this example, if they wanted. 

[highplanesdrifters]

12 hours ago, labonnevie said:

It has been interesting the past few weeks to view the posts on the Regent board where Mike Moore, an IT person from Regent, has had an ongoing dialogue with numerous posters resulting in several not insignificant improvements to Regent’s customer interface webpages, e.g. excursion bookings. 
It shows how something truly positive can come from using CC as a customer interface tool. Seabourn could learn something from this example, if they wanted. 

"If they wanted"!  That's the key.  Let's see if the Saudis drag the luddites forward.🤣

[SusieQft]

We boarded Odyssey yesterday, and I am posting this from the ship, at least if you see it I will have.

 

We had booked a window cabin on Deck 4, and discovered at check-in they had moved us to a balcony cabin on Deck 5.  That was a relief, even though I finally had to go on a scavenger hunt myself to find our luggage on Deck 4.

 

Deck 4 is an isolation/quarantine area, complete with red warning signs, PPE, etc.