Just concluded 12 day cruise on the Quest

[ivyleaguegent]

DW and I just returned from a 12 day cruise to the Canadian maritime provinces on the Seabourn quest. This was our first cruise on the Seabourn line. Prior to COVID we frequently cruised on SilverSea and Crystal.

 

The ship was beautifully designed, very well-maintained, and immaculate. The standard balcony cabin was materially larger than the same cabin on Crystal. It was well designed and had a surprisingly large amount of storage before including the walk-in closet. The bathroom was relatively spacious with dual sinks, walk-in shower, and a separate full-size tub (I would rather have omitted the tub and made a larger shower or had a larger tub/shower combination with a glass door but that's just one person's preference). The main pool area had 2 whirlpool tubs and a pool with a substantial surrounding sun shelf. Again, really well designed. There was an outdoor area aft of deck five that had two smaller whirlpools and a small pool as well as chaise lounges,  couches and chairs. Very few people ever used this area and was like having the ship to ourselves.

 

The cruise director, JP, and the assistant cruise director, Olivia, were energized, engaging, and always helpful. I am not generally a fan of shows on cruise ships but the production singers and dancers were excellent and the trio, the cruise band, and the guitarist/keyboardist at the Observation Bar were very good. The lecturers, a husband and wife team of physics professors at a Canadian university, were interesting.

 

The food was good but not great, similar to SilverSea but a step down from Crystal. However, I do not expect cruise ship food to be the level of a Michelin starred restaurant on land. The food at the TK Restaurant was a step above the  Dining Room. The food selection at the Dining Room, the Colonnade, and  Earth and Ocean should have been substantially larger. I am far from a wine connoisseur but some of my fellow passengers who are commented that both the complementary and premium wine lists were deficient for an ultra-premium cruise line. There was not one German Riesling (the only wine I drink) on either the standard or premium wine lists which was surprising given that the cruise director is German. Both SilverSea and Crystal had a number of German Rieslings on their complementary wine list. I ended up buying several bottles of Riesling in port and carrying them back and forth to dinner which made for some interesting looks from our fellow passengers. Hopefully they thought I was a wine snob and not an alcoholic… lol.

 

Unfortunately, the service throughout the ship was abysmal (with the exception of my two cabin stewardesses who were excellent). Dirty appetizer dishes remained on the table for one half hour at a time in the Dining Room. It required semaphore flags (note the nautical reference) to attract a waiter or a busboy. This was somewhat alleviated towards the end of the cruise when a server named Vanessa, who should be immediately promoted, was moved from the Earth and Ocean to the Dining Room. She was excellent, attentive, engaging, and remembered my drink preferences from the prior evenings. Of course I commented to the Dining Room manager on how well Vanessa was performing and requested a table in her section each night thereafter.  There were three hour periods on numerous days where no clean pool towels were brought to the pool. Again, it took semaphore flags to waive down a server at the pool to get a drink.  None of the pool servers remembered my standard drink from one day to the next. This was not my experience on either SilverSea or Crystal where the dining room staff and pool severs new my preferences by the second day of the cruise.

 

Our opinion regarding the service was shared by many passengers we spoke with. One couple who had over 500 days cruising with Seabourn stated that the service was the worst of any of their cruises. This is not a COVID issue since that same couple had concluded a Seabourn cruise on another ship just three days prior to this cruise and stated that the service on that ship was equal to their pre-COVID cruises. Three couples I spoke with, who were not cruising together, cruised on Regent within three months of this cruise and stated that the service was equal to or better than the service on Regent pre-COVID.

 

Odds and ends:

 

The hamburgers and iced tea on the ship were the best I have ever had on a cruise line. The bath towels were tiny and thin unbefitting an ultra-premium cruise line, although the pool towels were nice. When the band was set up on the pool deck for sail-away parties it was set up between the whirlpools and they were closed at that time. One of my favorite things to do on a cruise ship when leaving port is to watch the scenery go by from a whirlpool. The band should have been set up in a different location. The last night of the cruise was a "parade of officers." I thought this was bogus and reminded me of the parade of servers with trays of baked alaska on their heads that occur on mass-market cruise ships. The dance floor at the Club was far too small. We enjoyed interacting with our fellow passengers and made a number of new friends who we will definitely keep in contact with.

 

[travel4b]

Hopefully, someone at Seabourn is taking notes.  You are certainly not the first one to comment on the service issues on the Quest recently.  Having gotten off in Montreal after 24 nights, I feel your pain!  You've probably already read the very lengthy thread reviewing the Quest's voyage from Barcelona to Montreal.  

[fdnycruiser]

Thank you for taking the time to post your very balanced and unbiased review of the Quest. Many of us will be sailing on this itinerary in the weeks ahead, and are very interested in how things are going. We’ve been on Regent, Silversea and Seabourn in the 9 months with some hits and misses .

[Mr Luxury]

Seabourn are well aware of the problems that the Quest has been having and they have sent key personnel to put things right.

The other ships in the fleet have had no such problems.

The hospitality industry is lacking in workers at present and most establishments on land or at sea are having some adjustment to their working life.

I suppose that we all must be patient while everything gets up to speed.

[nancygp]

As the reviewer also posted on the crystal board (I was former and frequent crystal cruiser), I am also sharing  My post here:😄

 

 

Thanks for your review.

 

I recently sailed on the ovation, first time on seabourn and concur on the positives you noted.  The service was very good to excellent and I do hope the service improves on the quest as I’m sailing the quest next month.  I followed several quest threads on the seabourn cc board the past few weeks and there were several posters that expressed concerns about service issues.  However, there were others on cc as well as another site that were very happy.  Hopefully the service issues are finally being addressed and equal to other ships including what I experienced on the ovation.  Overall, our ovation experience was excellent and we are looking forward to trying the quest.  We throughly enjoyed many of the passengers, most were request seabourn sailors and the crew/officers provided us a genuinely warm and stellar experience 

 

in regards to the deck parties, which I loved on the ovation, it appears that due to the smaller size of the quest, the band and entertainers have to set up the stage area by the whirlpools.  This is not the case on the ovation as the set up is on the other side as it’s larger and the hot tubs/whirlpools were fully accessible at the event I attended.

overall, we were very pleased with the food and wine choices.  I did purchase my favorite Chardonnay several times and the price was so reasonable.

 

our suite attendants were some of the best we ever had.  Within a day or so, we were always addressed by our names and the crew provided great service.

 

again, thanks for taking the time to share your review.

 

happy sails,

 

Nancy

Edited September 11, 2022 by nancygp

[ivyleaguegent]

1 hour ago, Mr Luxury said:

Seabourn are well aware of the problems that the Quest has been having and they have sent key personnel to put things right.

The other ships in the fleet have had no such problems.

The hospitality industry is lacking in workers at present and most establishments on land or at sea are having some adjustment to their working life.

I suppose that we all must be patient while everything gets up to speed.

It appears that SilverSea, Regent, and the other Seabourn ships have already made the necessary adjustments, and as you state Seabourn has known about the problems aboard the Quest for months.  It had no problem charging a premium cost for a far from premium product.  Frankly, it should give all of the passengers on the Dover to Montreal leg and the Montreal to NY leg a partial voucher for a future cruise considering the level of service (or lack thereof).

[FlyerTalker]

4 hours ago, ivyleaguegent said:

When the band was set up on the pool deck for sail-away parties it was set up between the whirlpools and they were closed at that time. One of my favorite things to do on a cruise ship when leaving port is to watch the scenery go by from a whirlpool. The band should have been set up in a different location.

 

I guess that in your time onboard you didn't find the other whirlpools onboard -- there are FIVE of them, so having two closed shouldn't have been too big of an inconvenience.

 

And, playing Devil's Advocate.....just where would you have put the band so that there was sufficient space for the audience to sit and enjoy?

[Mr Luxury]

2 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

I guess that in your time onboard you didn't find the other whirlpools onboard -- there are FIVE of them, so having two closed shouldn't have been too big of an inconvenience.

 

And, playing Devil's Advocate.....just where would you have put the band so that there was sufficient space for the audience to sit and enjoy?

On the Bridge 😁

[alexander51]

We were on the Quest, Dover to New York, and while the service noticeably improved just over those weeks, I was reminded of the answer I got when I joined a company and asked how many worked there: "About half." Actually, it wasn't that the waitstaff wasn't working hard, it was that half were experienced and smart (including Vanessa!) and half were clearly inexperienced and struggling. They lacked the traditional Seabourn radar to scan the tables and anticipate needs (like refilling water or wine, or spotting guests who couldn't even place an order) and they didn't attempt many of the flourishes of old. (When my wife left the table briefly once and a waiter quickly replaced her used napkin with a new folded one, it was a one-time reminder of days of yore: not necessary, of course, but part of what was once the wow factor in luxury cruising and missing since the pandemic.) We still had a great time and are returning to Quest in January, but I hope the steady increase toward normal staffing levels during our cruise and continued training will keep edging the line closer to what it was pre-Covid. I thought the middle management supervisors were also a mixed bag, from those who pitched in when needed, remembered guests, and anticipated needs, to those who didn't seem to supervise (or help) very much. Sometimes they just seemed to be staring at the sky. I called them bird watchers.

[ivyleaguegent]

1 hour ago, alexander51 said:

We were on the Quest, Dover to New York, and while the service noticeably improved just over those weeks, I was reminded of the answer I got when I joined a company and asked how many worked there: "About half." Actually, it wasn't that the waitstaff wasn't working hard, it was that half were experienced and smart (including Vanessa!) and half were clearly inexperienced and struggling. They lacked the traditional Seabourn radar to scan the tables and anticipate needs (like refilling water or wine, or spotting guests who couldn't even place an order) and they didn't attempt many of the flourishes of old. (When my wife left the table briefly once and a waiter quickly replaced her used napkin with a new folded one, it was a one-time reminder of days of yore: not necessary, of course, but part of what was once the wow factor in luxury cruising and missing since the pandemic.) We still had a great time and are returning to Quest in January, but I hope the steady increase toward normal staffing levels during our cruise and continued training will keep edging the line closer to what it was pre-Covid. I thought the middle management supervisors were also a mixed bag, from those who pitched in when needed, remembered guests, and anticipated needs, to those who didn't seem to supervise (or help) very much. Sometimes they just seemed to be staring at the sky. I called them bird watchers.

I will be very interested to hear about your experience in January.

[tv24]

Thanks for the review as I found it informative.  IMHO so many lines are struggling with the start up post-Covid, as are so many urban areas around the globe.  I try to be patient and do not always succeed.

[Covepointcruiser]

Iveleaguegent should read the comments on the Regent and Silverseas boards.   There are complaints of staffing and service issues on many ships.    We are on the Venture and we have very few complaints.    The only service issues have been when everyone showed up to dinner at one time and it took twenty minutes to get our appetizers.    We had our wine so we were content.

[nancygp]

1 hour ago, Covepointcruiser said:

Iveleaguegent should read the comments on the Regent and Silverseas boards.   There are complaints of staffing and service issues on many ships.    We are on the Venture and we have very few complaints.    The only service issues have been when everyone showed up to dinner at one time and it took twenty minutes to get our appetizers.    We had our wine so we were content.

as I follow all of the lux boards, I too have read all the comments regarding the complaints of staffing and service issues.   This seems to be a major issues in many industries.  we loved our recent ovation cruise and had very few complaints…nothing is perfect in life.  A few staffing and service issues early on in our cruise were quickly addressed by management and we didn’t bring up any of these very minor issues.
 

Nancy

[DTtravelers]

We recently completed a 14 day Alaska cruise (Aug 12-26) on Odyssey, and am happy to report that everything was as good as ever.  All departments were hitting on all 8 cylinders.  I cannot think of a thing worth grumbling about (well, okay... no English Bacon).  We have already signed up to repeat this same cruise next year with our family. 

 

But I am sad to hear that it is taking a while to get the Quest up to speed.  We spent 43 wonderful days on her in late 2019.

[kjbacon]

On 9/11/2022 at 1:24 PM, ivyleaguegent said:

It appears that SilverSea, Regent, and the other Seabourn ships have already made the necessary adjustments, and as you state Seabourn has known about the problems aboard the Quest for months.  It had no problem charging a premium cost for a far from premium product.  Frankly, it should give all of the passengers on the Dover to Montreal leg and the Montreal to NY leg a partial voucher for a future cruise considering the level of service (or lack thereof).

I can’t help but agree with you. We spent 38 nights in an upgraded cabin so we spent a fortune. Of course there were bright spots and plusses but no one, not even seabourn,  is denying the substandard service that we received.

[Laylam]

On 9/13/2022 at 11:57 AM, DTtravelers said:

We recently completed a 14 day Alaska cruise (Aug 12-26) on Odyssey, and am happy to report that everything was as good as ever.  All departments were hitting on all 8 cylinders.  I cannot think of a thing worth grumbling about (well, okay... no English Bacon).  We have already signed up to repeat this same cruise next year with our family. 

 

But I am sad to hear that it is taking a while to get the Quest up to speed.  We spent 43 wonderful days on her in late 2019.

You only have to request English Bacon to receive it.  Although only American bacon is on the room-service breakfast menu, my husband crosses it out and writes "English" and gets it every time.

[Mr Luxury]

10 hours ago, Laylam said:

You only have to request English Bacon to receive it.  Although only American bacon is on the room-service breakfast menu, my husband crosses it out and writes "English" and gets it every time.

I often wonder when I see some comments on these boards.

There is someone on the Viking boards that on several evenings has not been given a wine list.He tells us about the inclusive wine not being to his liking.

Does he ask the waiter for a wine list,No

Always ask for whatever you might want on a ship and you might get it rather than staying silent and posting later on the boards about something lacking on your cruise.

 

[travel4b]

21 hours ago, Laylam said:

You only have to request English Bacon to receive it.  Although only American bacon is on the room-service breakfast menu, my husband crosses it out and writes "English" and gets it every time.

No, that’s not the point; they had both types. However, I found the odds of getting the type of bacon I ordered about 50/50. Not sure whose fault it was.  The waiter, kitchen or server?  Also, not sure who’s fault it was when my French Toast came out sprinkled with MSG instead of confectioner’s sugar.  It was a bit of a metaphor, I guess!!

[Mr Luxury]

2 hours ago, travel4b said:

No, that’s not the point; they had both types. However, I found the odds of getting the type of bacon I ordered about 50/50. Not sure whose fault it was.  The waiter, kitchen or server?  Also, not sure who’s fault it was when my French Toast came out sprinkled with MSG instead of confectioner’s sugar.  It was a bit of a metaphor, I guess!!

That was Chinese Toast 

[Covepointcruiser]

I have not received the same service I received before March 2020 on an ship, in any restaurant, or in any retail establishment.    The prices are much higher but our Seabourn cruises remain a good value as we are still working through FCC.    The crew on all three Seabourn Voyages were as pleasant and helpful as always.     Sorry for the folks receiving substandard service.    Move to another line and hope you will be happier.

[travel4b]

41 minutes ago, Covepointcruiser said:

 Move to another line and hope you will be happier.

You seem to have missed the point of this post and threaded comments.  If you will re-read the post, he refers to fellow passengers who just disembarked from another SB cruise that was fine.  Likewise, I have been on two other post-Covid SB cruises (TA on Ovation last fall and Sojourn this June) that were up to Seabourn's high standards.  This cruise was an entirely different kettle of fish - and, hopefully, an anomaly. Despite our disappointment after this cruise, we are not moving to another line.  However, SB should be aware when they fall short significantly.  

[travel4b]

17 hours ago, Mr Luxury said:

That was Chinese Toast 

Now that you mention it, I guess Chinese vs. French toast was a natural follow-up to English vs. American bacon.  I guess I was partially at fault for not specifying "no MSG".  🤷‍♂️

[conchyjoe]

Are you serious ? MSG on your French Toast ?.??

 

How could you tell it was MSG? I have never tasted it but I am allergic to it.

[Mr Luxury]

5 hours ago, conchyjoe said:

Are you serious ? MSG on your French Toast ?.??

 

How could you tell it was MSG? I have never tasted it but I am allergic to it.

Next time on a cruise stay away from the French toast just in case 😁

[travel4b]

14 hours ago, conchyjoe said:

Are you serious ? MSG on your French Toast ?.??

 

How could you tell it was MSG? I have never tasted it but I am allergic to it.

Dead serious. The Colonnade manager (a SB veteran)  was absolutely mortified. MSG has a fine powdery consistency similar to confectioners sugar but tastes incredibly salty.