johng75370

The mysterious white area on Deck 4 is the service areas for The Restaurant (I believe). The Restaurant has a high ceiling and that’s why it also takes out part of deck 5. The verandah cabins are virtually identical between V1 and V4; personally have never had any issue staying in a V1. It really is just a matter of location on the ship; while I would love to be close to Seabourn Square I’d walk a bit further for the cost savings of a V1. I hope you enjoy your first SB voyage!

I’m still getting “Not Found” for our upcoming bookings, when I go to “Manage My Cruise”. The bookings show up, but are “not found” when it comes to managing them.

Typically 1 liter or 750ml; comes from the same stock the bars use.

Thanks to all for the good wishes; recovery progressing very well! I find it hard to imagine anyone else making a different decision, though I know it happens. Just happened this week for a departure on Sunday from Reykjavik on Ovation, so all a work in progress. I first called Seabourn directly to find out what to do; was given completely wrong information of how I’d have to use Verifly (that they dropped months ago) and other aspects. My travel agent followed up, and was told that there are no restrictions in place, and no refund or FCC would be issued. We could cancel on our own behalf, but we would be okay to board according to Seabourn (that’s why I would say they were indifferent). We’re pursuing the insurance route, so fingers crossed. We’ve got other cruises this year on Seabourn and Explora, so we’ll be making up for this with those.

One thing that is “back to pre-Covid” times is that Seabourn does not care if you board with an illness or not. We were about to join Ovation in a couple of days and one of us got Covid; Seabourn’s position was indifferent as to whether we should still join the sailing. We cancelled (of course) but was shocked that it would have been fine by Seabourn for us to join while one of us is still testing positive.

To what extent is Explora trying to enforce their new “language” (journey not cruise, host not crew, fueling not dining, etc)? 😃 Seems like the sort of thing I would violate left and right, so just wanting to know ahead of time if there are consequences for referring incorrectly about things like the trivia ritual 🤫.

Thank you; great advice. Do you know if they have Paxlovid onboard? I've read some people have brought it with them, and thinking of asking doctor to prescribe it ahead of upcoming cruises in case it would be hard to get on ship.

It processes quickly; we were able to take advantage of this and received the 50K points within a couple days of making payment. And while it stated "new bookings only" we got the credit for final payment on bookings we had deposits on.

We’ve asked for a special lunch in the MDR before when we’ll know it is open, and asking the day before; on Ovation transatlantic a couple years ago had a great soft shell crab salad entree for lunch. Different kitchen for Colonnade vs MDR, but if you ask I think they would try to accommodate.

Quite right and apparently also entitled to share in every and any forum, regardless of topic, timing, or occasion. I assumed based on the tone and frequency of your put-downs of Seabourn, as it stands out compared to many of your previous posts. My apologies for having misjudged that.

Hope you enjoy your time on Dawn, and that it helps you get over the trauma and emotional distress you suffered on Seabourn.

It's very likely you'll be able to change to a different time once you're on board; I read here on CC that they hold 2/3 of the tables for booking onboard, and 1/3 for online booking ahead of time. Not sure if that's really the exact policy but matches our experience where it has always been hard to get a booking for when we want online but have always been accommodated onboard. When you board, go to the TK Grill and there should be someone staffing it on embarkation day who can help get you a better time/date. Hope you enjoy Seabourn!

I could have misread or misunderstood, but part of Explora being "different" is they eschewed the concept of a main dining room, so all restaurants are just restaurants, and not "specialty" in the way other cruise lines would treat them. I dug into the FAQs, and they talk about the restaurants all being restaurants, but they do put in the disclaimer that you "may" not be able to book the same restaurant twice on one voyage (sorry, "journey"): Can more than one restaurant reservation be booked in advance? You will be able to book more than one dining experience in advance however in order to manage the capacities of our dining experiences and ensure availability for all guests, repeat reservations for the same dining experience may be limited.

Seems like "once per cruise" limits to any of the dining venues would be spelled out clearly ahead of time; otherwise false or misleading advertising. For example, Seabourn's Thomas Keller Grill has a similar restriction, but they state it on the website: Dining reservations for The Grill by Thomas Keller can be requested online prior to sailing, subject to availability. Online reservations close 15 days prior to sailing. Due to high demand, online reservations are recommended, however, reservations can also be made on board. One reservation permitted per voyage.

Seems like exactly the time to put your best foot forward and generate positive comments...not the current reactions of "yikes!". Will withhold judgement until more wine lists (paid and included) become available.

I’ll confess to having the old Crystal app still on my phone, hoping for its resurrection. It’s remained unchanged the last couple years, and is likely a security risk, but here we are…

The first time we went on Seabourn people told us “the next time you go onboard you’ll know both crew and other passengers”. Still cannot believe how true that has been. No doubt there are people who are on Celebrity often enough to get that, but it is pretty much baked-in to the Seabourn experience. Likewise Windstar, Seadream, etc…. Of course, some of the Windstar ships are the original Seabourn (Legend, Pride, Spirit (Breeze)).

I do too, and have found Seabourn delivers that easily, while our few (3) Retreat experiences on Celebrity have not really made us feel that way. While we’ve had butlers on Celebrity have never seen them again; I deeply appreciate having cabin attendants we’ve seen across multiple voyages on Seabourn who we delight in reconnecting with. Likewise fellow passengers. When I go on Celebrity I don’t expect to see anyone I’ve met before; with Seabourn it’s entirely the opposite. I’ve put it down to big ship versus small ship, and expect over time to continue dipping toes into both waters; just have yet to find that big ship delivers the comfortable and personal experience a smaller ship (and line) does.

Likewise! If you're on the Ovation crossing in April keep in mind they don't do the fried chicken nights on Ovation or Encore (or at least previously did not). Apparently, Keller requires a special fryer that could not be installed on the bigger ships. Thank you for speaking up on this! Recent voyages for us when it has been open for lunch had a decent number of people taking advantage of that option, and I wish it would become just a standard option instead of this odd guessing game of whether it will be or not.

Likewise, have shared a wall with the elevators and had zero issue with it. As @SLSD said, the proximity was very convenient.

Real hard-hitting piece of journalism (sarcasm). As head of guest experience maybe some questions about the poor communications related to the launch delay/uncertainty may have been in order? Or maybe Jason G. could have taken this opportunity to address it and show some transparency? Looking forward to being on board later this year, but what happened these last few weeks still leaves me uncertain as to whether they are a little too full of themselves.

The debate continues on whether it is a certified service animal or not 🙂

It's going to be "Sushi in the Club", which they apparently are already doing on Venture. Really looking forward to this!

Here’s a link to the jacket, and they have a sizing guide along with it: https://seabourn.newheadings.com/product_info.php?cPath=34_1064&products_id=5986 I got to it through the (pretty comprehensive) Alaska packing list Seabourn has on the website: https://www.seabourn.com/en_US/packing-list/alaska.html

The “wow” is that Explora did not get ahead of this; they did not study Crisis Communications 101 (or their partner ELH Business School does not teach it). Really sad for their months of great lead up to the launch being diminished/trashed by non-existent communications on this major issue.