“the Big One”! World Cruise on Sojourn

[sauncy]

We are joining this cruise from Sydney to Barcelona, and following this delightful thread closely.  Thank you Sharkb8 for your wonderful narratives and pictures!

 

As you are out at sea these days, could anyone comment on how useful the Wifi is?  We will need to connect to a banking site to do some business while we're on board, and are a bit anxious about how well that might work at sea. (On port days our phones can provide a wifi hotspot, if necessary.)

 

Thanks for all your posts!

 

Kim and Jim

[florisdekort]

12 minutes ago, sauncy said:

We are joining this cruise from Sydney to Barcelona, and following this delightful thread closely.  Thank you Sharkb8 for your wonderful narratives and pictures!

 

As you are out at sea these days, could anyone comment on how useful the Wifi is?  We will need to connect to a banking site to do some business while we're on board, and are a bit anxious about how well that might work at sea. (On port days our phones can provide a wifi hotspot, if necessary.)

 

Thanks for all your posts!

 

Kim and Jim

It’s been really, really bad up and until Lima where a technician joined to fix the problem, whatever it was. However, immediately upon leaving Lima we were informed that the WiFi would now be slow until Papeete because of limited satellite cover over the South Pacific… So we’re supposed to finally find out how the WiFi is supposed to work once we reach Tahiti around 5 February! 

 

[florisdekort]

There are no Cruise Critic get togethers for Seabourn but last night’s meet and greet for the other “Sailors” group was awesome. Live music, great snacks and cocktails, and all Officers in attendance. I’m guessing about 80 passengers (out of 324) were present. Seabourn truly outdid itself. 

 

Edited January 25, 2023 by florisdekort

[galeforce9]

19 hours ago, shark b8 said:

So, we’ve been sailing WSW from Lima for nearly 2½ days, and we’re still not halfway to Easter Island.  Really out in the middle of nowhere.  Just the way I like it.  (sometimes)

 

Better to take the some 5 hour flight out from Santiago and spend some time on Easter Island.  We stayed five nights. Plenty to see.  Back in the early 2000s there was a French guy from Normandy running a great French restaurant in Hanga Roa. 

[sfvoyage]

26 minutes ago, galeforce9 said:

Better to take the some 5 hour flight out from Santiago and spend some time on Easter Island.  We stayed five nights. Plenty to see.

Same can be said for most ports and travel destinations around the world, apart from exceptions such as the Arctic, Antarctica, Galapagos, and a few other places where cruising by ship makes more sense.

 

To me cruising is a lifestyle.  I do not bother with or count on any serious sightseeing or explorations during the few hours at a port, rushing around and hoping to get back to the ship before it sails. 🙂

Edited January 25, 2023 by sfvoyage

[SLSD]

1 hour ago, sfvoyage said:

Same can be said for most ports and travel destinations around the world, apart from exceptions such as the Arctic, Antarctica, Galapagos, and a few other places where cruising by ship makes more sense.

 

To me cruising is a lifestyle.  I do not bother with or count on any serious sightseeing or explorations during the few hours at a port, rushing around and hoping to get back to the ship before it sails. 🙂

I agree.  I  loved going places I would never go but for a cruise--Malta and Corsica are two places that immediately come to mind.  

[shark b8]

ATTN: FOODIES.   (we are, of course, “portless” for the moment, so gotta talk about other stuff, I guess).   My personal fave at the Keller Grill is the crab cake, followed by the medium-rare ribeye (with perigourdine sauce, of course), but the other night they had a “special” appetizer, what was called “candied bacon something-something”.  Not sure why it was called bacon rather than pork belly, but who cares. Anyway, foodie-types make note, if you see it on your next cruise, go for it.  The sweet/savory play was just genius.  
 

 

[shark b8]

5 hours ago, florisdekort said:

It’s been really, really bad

 

Sauncy, I have to agree with florisdekort, the wifi is not good.  In our experience, it never has been.  I recall emailing with our rep after our very first Seabourn cruise in 2013 (on the Seabourn Spirit!),  and telling him we loved most everything….except the wifi - and it’s now 10 years later, seemingly a lifetime in tech-years.  Now, it has been explained to me (repeatedly) that the mechanics of getting wifi to a tiny moving target out in the middle of nowhere are both difficult and expensive.  I have no doubt there’s truth there, but it doesn’t exactly lessen the frustration.  That said…..it’s slow and infuriating, but not unusable, at least in our experience.  Yes, I get crazy when I have to spend the better part of an hour to get a post uploaded here with a couple of pics, but….I do get there eventually.  So if you have online work to do, my guess is you’ll be able to do it, just allow a LOT of time.  And patience. And perhaps keep a glass of your favorite adult beverage nearby. Maybe a double.

[whogo]

7 hours ago, sauncy said:

We will need to connect to a banking site to do some business while we're on board...

My banking website did not like my being away from home and wanted to text me a verification code to allow me to log in to my account. I did not have phone service in the middle of the ocean.

[Hobar]

All of you who are on this cruise are fortunate to have SB’s best, most collegial, hospitable, gracious and approachable captain, and his lovely wife. 

[sauncy]

14 hours ago, shark b8 said:

Sauncy, I have to agree with florisdekort, the wifi is not good.  In our experience, it never has been.  I recall emailing with our rep after our very first Seabourn cruise in 2013 (on the Seabourn Spirit!),  and telling him we loved most everything….except the wifi - and it’s now 10 years later, seemingly a lifetime in tech-years.  Now, it has been explained to me (repeatedly) that the mechanics of getting wifi to a tiny moving target out in the middle of nowhere are both difficult and expensive.  I have no doubt there’s truth there, but it doesn’t exactly lessen the frustration.  That said…..it’s slow and infuriating, but not unusable, at least in our experience.  Yes, I get crazy when I have to spend the better part of an hour to get a post uploaded here with a couple of pics, but….I do get there eventually.  So if you have online work to do, my guess is you’ll be able to do it, just allow a LOT of time.  And patience. And perhaps keep a glass of your favorite adult beverage nearby. Maybe a double.

That's very helpful, Sharkb8, and about what I expected, sadly.  I'll be prepared, and between practicing deep breathing and sipping sauvignon blanc, it should be bearable. 🙂

[shark b8]

[shark b8]

Apropos of what we were talking about…..last night after dinner I tried for about an hour to post that last rainbow pic.  Never did get it done, even running it through file-compression apps first.  This morning, finally got it to post.  Grrrr.

[shark b8]

Also, for those still keeping score about such things, yesterday everyone was COVID-tested.  We got a note in our door clip the night before, advising that our time was 9:30-10:00a in the Salon, we arrived, we were in and out in 60 seconds.  The medical team member said, “don’t call us, we’ll call you”, and fortunately, that was that.

[SLSD]

51 minutes ago, shark b8 said:

Apropos of what we were talking about…..last night after dinner I tried for about an hour to post that last rainbow pic.  Never did get it done, even running it through file-compression apps first.  This morning, finally got it to post.  Grrrr.

I had my best luck posting on my computer from the Observation Lounge--not our suite.  

[shark b8]

46 minutes ago, SLSD said:

I had my best luck posting on my computer from the Observation Lounge--not our suite.  

hmm, I’ll give it a try.  And if it doesn’t work any better, at least one is near a full bar.

[skybluewaters]

2 hours ago, shark b8 said:

Also, for those still keeping score about such things, yesterday everyone was COVID-tested.  We got a note in our door clip the night before, advising that our time was 9:30-10:00a in the Salon, we arrived, we were in and out in 60 seconds.  The medical team member said, “don’t call us, we’ll call you”, and fortunately, that was that.

 

Any idea why you were being tested at this time?  Was there an outbreak on the ship or is it due to requirements of an upcoming port?  As I mentioned previously, there were some Covid cases onboard at the end of Sojourn's cruise during the first week of this month.

[florisdekort]

3 minutes ago, skybluewaters said:

 

Any idea why you were being tested at this time?  Was there an outbreak on the ship or is it due to requirements of an upcoming port?  As I mentioned previously, there were some Covid cases onboard at the end of Sojourn's cruise during the first week of this month.

It’s a requirement for Chile / Easter Island, our next stop. 
 

[florisdekort]

 

 

 

[SLSD]

5 hours ago, shark b8 said:

hmm, I’ll give it a try.  And if it doesn’t work any better, at least one is near a full bar.

Time of day may also make a difference.  I had pretty good results posting from the OB at the beginning of tea time.  

[shark b8]

2 hours ago, SLSD said:

Time of day may also make a difference.  I had pretty good results posting from the OB at the beginning of tea time.  

yeah, I wondered about that - going back to our decades of working-nights, we tend to be night owls - eat late, go to bed late and wake up late. Or at least, later than most.  I have no idea if there’s is anything like “throttling” the wifi strength overnight, but if there is, that might work to the disadvantage of non-early-risers.

[shark b8]

So, Easter island tomorrow, woohooo!  Has been a *major* bucket list item for more decades than I care to admit.  The Captain has made some disquieting mentions of the difficulty of anchorage/tenders if there’s much surge, although in his usual noon report he said he was “optimistic” that we’d be able to get our shore visit(s) in.  Hope so, it would be a major disappointment if not, and highly unlikely there would be a return visit for us in the cards.

[marazul]

On 1/25/2023 at 2:13 PM, galeforce9 said:

Better to take the some 5 hour flight out from Santiago and spend some time on Easter Island.  We stayed five nights. Plenty to see.  Back in the early 2000s there was a French guy from Normandy running a great French restaurant in Hanga Roa. 

The restaurant was called Au Bout du Monde - At the End of the World. 

[galeforce9]

11 hours ago, marazul said:

The restaurant was called Au Bout du Monde - At the End of the World. 

Did you go?

[marazul]

28 minutes ago, galeforce9 said:

Did you go?

I did.  It was really good and the setting was great.  On the water with a view of moais. In one of those "small world" moments we even met someone we had met in Nice some time before. 

 

We went a few years back before our first SB cruise on the Spirit, Valparaiso-BA, but around Cape Horn only.  Long before SB went to Antarctica.  We did some independent travel before and went to Easter Island for three days.  One of our most memorable trips.