“the Big One”! World Cruise on Sojourn

[Flamin_June]

I am assuming , with your love of Indian cuisine, that you suppport the Bengals...?

[breadandbutter]

On 1/6/2023 at 7:37 PM, shark b8 said:

Aloha, everybody.  If you ever lived in SoCal like we did, “the big one” always referred to earthquakes, but for us right now, it’s the WORLD cruise on the Sojourn, 140 days. We sailed out of Miami about an hour ago (90 min’s late, the usual sailaway festivities around the pool had long since ended).  Anyway, I obvs have read some disquieting things about the Sojourn on this board recently, and have also read those who had pretty much the opposite view.  I’ll try to call balls & strikes, although I will readily confess up front that I’m pretty biased in Seabourn’s favor…..otherwise we wouldn’t keep sailing with them, & this is #14.  As always, would love to field any questions and I’ll do my best to answer honestly.  Woohooo, here we go! 

Can i ask a favor please? I need to get a message to Ryan, the CD, about some photos he promised to send me. Would you pass a message along please? 

 

[skybluewaters]

24 minutes ago, breadandbutter said:

Can i ask a favor please? I need to get a message to Ryan, the CD, about some photos he promised to send me. Would you pass a message along please? 

 

 

I answered your request a couple of weeks ago when I was on Sojourn.  This is a copy of my answer, which apparently you didn't read:

 

 

On 12/19/2022 at 2:43 PM, breadandbutter said:

Is anyone going on Sojourn soon, and would be willing  to pass a message along to Ryan (cd) for me please?

It's nothing nasty, he was supposed to send me some digital photos, but I haven't received them. I'm thinking maybe the file size is too big. 

I spoke with Ryan this morning.  He’ll look into it if he can get your name, email address and which cruise this is about.  
I guess you can either post that information here and then I can pass it on to him, or you can email him directly if that is possible.

[breadandbutter]

10 hours ago, skybluewaters said:

 

I answered your request a couple of weeks ago when I was on Sojourn.  This is a copy of my answer, which apparently you didn't read:

 

 

I spoke with Ryan this morning.  He’ll look into it if he can get your name, email address and which cruise this is about.  
I guess you can either post that information here and then I can pass it on to him, or you can email him directly if that is possible.

[breadandbutter]

10 hours ago, skybluewaters said:

 

I answered your request a couple of weeks ago when I was on Sojourn.  This is a copy of my answer, which apparently you didn't read:

 

 

I spoke with Ryan this morning.  He’ll look into it if he can get your name, email address and which cruise this is about.  
I guess you can either post that information here and then I can pass it on to him, or you can email him directly if that is possible.

Thank you so much for replying, I'm sorry I didn't see your reply. 

[shark b8]

20 hours ago, Flamin_June said:

I am assuming , with your love of Indian cuisine, that you suppport the Bengals...?

hahaha, hadn’t thought about it that way.  Football is #3 for me, I’m a baseball guy and hockey is my winter sport, but we’ll enjoy whatever sport is seasonal.  I don’t really have a favorite football team, other than whichever team is playing the Raiders.  😱

[shark b8]

The switchover from printed stuff to all digital on the Seabourn app is one of those pesky things that works for some but not for others, there has been a fair amount of back-and-forth about it.  I know there has been some criticism leveled at Seabourn about it, and it appears they may have backtracked - we are getting the printed Herald in our door-clip each night after dinner, and no, we didn’t specifically request it, so maybe Seabourn heard enough woofing about it, and relented.  I don’t mind the digital change particularly, although for me the app is still anything but perfect - the “My Itinerary” page, if you are scrolling through it it, snaps back to “today” every few seconds.  The hours for the dining venues aren’t on the dining venue pages, they’re to be found on the itinerary, stuff like that - maybe not super-serious but annoying enough to warrant some additional tinkering, seems to me.  And the folks who would scan the digital shore excursion tickets at the buses have taken to scanning cruisers’ ship cards instead, which registers the same result - I’m guessing that most people have the physical ship card at their fingertips and displayable more easily and quickly than drilling down into the app for the digital ticket, so loading the bus is quicker that way.

Edited January 16, 2023 by shark b8

[saminina]

Shoving the digital system down the throats of those on shorter cruises, fine.   World cruisers.....not cool!

[tjcox9]

1 hour ago, shark b8 said:

And the folks who would scan the digital shore excursion tickets at the buses have taken to scanning cruisers’ ship cards instead, which registers the same result - I’m guessing that most people have the physical ship card at their fingertips and displayable more easily and quickly than drilling down into the app for the digital ticket, so loading the bus is quicker that way.

Also, if they are in the sun, it makes it difficult to use the scanners on the phones.........at least in our experience. We find them having to angle themselves and the phones around to avoid the direct light.

[cadburysmom]

1 hour ago, shark b8 said:

... we are getting the printed Herald in our door-clip each night after dinner, and no, we didn’t specifically request it, so maybe Seabourn heard enough woofing about it, and relented.

You're welcome 

[shark b8]

The other night we docked next to this beauty. Turns out it’s the Evrima, the first of several mega-yachts built for the Four Seasons company.  I hoped to get a better look at it in daylight, but the next morning she had departed.

 

https://www.ritzcarltonyachtcollection.com

 

https://thepointsguy.com/news/ritz-carlton-cruise-evrima-photos/

 

[shark b8]

So……….the Panama Canal.  The experience-level of so many folks on this board is so high that I suspect that an elaborate presentation of the experience would be like preaching to the choir.  Anyway, it was fun to do it again - Mrs Sharkbait and I did a transit way back in 1982, on our first ever cruise, on The Love Boa….. er, the then-Pacific Princess.   About 2-3 years ago she said “I think it would be fun to do the Panama Canal again someday”, which got me to looking around and….well, here we are.  Our previous transit was south-to-north, this time, of course, we departed the Caribbean/Atlantic and arrived at the Pacific.  I might have enjoyed it more this time than last - just an absolute miracle of engineering.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 16, 2023 by shark b8

[shark b8]

We have an outstanding speaker on board by the name of Niki Sepsas, who did a 4-part Salon lecture series on the Canal, he was really terrific - informative, organized, thorough, and easy to listen to.  He described how the earlier French effort at building the canal failed so miserably especially at this point, below - the infamous “Culebra Cut”.  It’s a focal point of the continental divide and composed of super-dense volcanic basalt rock, which eventually took the lives of so many workers, and was so difficult, that the French essentially gave up.  
 

 

[fdnycruiser]

Great pictures !  Transiting the canal never gets old,and always exciting. I’ve been enjoying your voyage updates and pictures. Keep them coming! 

[shark b8]

The iconic building at the Miraflores locks, the last ones before Pacific entry. These days there is a large Canal Visitor Center just opposite this building, which has a large viewing area for visitors to watch the ships as they pass through.

 

 

[shark b8]

12 minutes ago, fdnycruiser said:

Transiting the canal never gets old,and always exciting. 

Agree 100%.   Look out, big bad Pacific, here we come!

 

 

Edited January 16, 2023 by shark b8

[MrToblerone]

Thank you for all your posts which I am enjoying .My mother and I are on the Sojourn in July departing Barcelona.Would love to do world cruise one day.

[highplanesdrifters]

There is an interesting read called "Cabin Fever". It chronicles some of the problems cruise ships endured during the pandemic.  One very interesting part is about not being able to transit through the canal. I won't spoil the story completely, but will say that the canal pilots are amazing. 

[shark b8]

The Panama City skyline sure looks a lot different than it did 40 years ago.  And the shave ice guy is doing a thriving business.

 

 

 

Edited January 17, 2023 by shark b8

[shark b8]

The sandwich we got on our shore excursion won’t make anyone forget the Carnegie Deli….😬

 

 

[tv24]

The lovely pictures of the Canal brought back pleasant memories of our trip on the Quest a few years ago.  Thanks!

[skybluewaters]

19 minutes ago, shark b8 said:

The sandwich we got on our shore excursion won’t make anyone forget the Carnegie Deli….😬

 

Unbelievable sandwich!  Was it provided by Seabourn or was it given out by the tour company?

[shark b8]

No, it was a snack box kinda thing by the tour company.  If that had been offered by Seabourn, I’d have already joined the mob with torches and pitchforks.   🤮

[saminina]

3 hours ago, shark b8 said:

 If that had been offered by Seabourn, I’d have already joined the mob with torches and pitchforks.   🤮

Now, that is an interesting comment.  What happened?   A few people heard a phony story after trying to order Caymus off the premium wine list?

[ChicagoAlli]

I'm happy to find this thread/blog! I impusively booked the last segment of this world cruise: Dakar, Senegal to Barcelona. Hopefully all the world cruisers aren't completely zonked by the time I get on board! I am curious as to how many people will actually embark in Dakar...