shefinch

What cards can you use Kathryn?

Very sad news.  We see in The Times that Eric Cass passed away on November 25th.  Eric and Jean were stalwarts of Seabourn, having over 3,000 days.  I’m sure a lot of old timers will remember them.

We have been on all the Inaugurals and have thoroughly enjoyed all of them. We will also be on the Ovation inaugural. They always have lots of special events and are great fun. We were not aware of any issues on the Odyssey Inaugural so were taken aback when we received compensation. We agree that the Encore Inaugural ceremony was laughable. Lets hope the Ovations is better but nothing can compare to the magic of the Odyssey Inaugural in Venice!

This is such sad news. David E had been with Seabourn since the beginning. He was ACD on one of our first cruises and we were on with him 15 months ago. He will be sorely missed. Such a lovely man. RIP David.

Oh no, what dreadful news! He was our favourite captain. All these people leaving SB.

Can anybody throw a light on why SB is now charging a tax in Europe on goods purchased in the shop when we are outside the three mile limit and on premium wines? It is apparently levied by the country from which the ship left, i.e. On our recent cruise we got charged out of Barcelona on the first leg and out of Civitavecchia on the second leg. This happened on our recent Encore cruise and also last October on the Odyssey.

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We were back in Bandol last week on the Encore. Having had a villa outside Bandol for many years, we know the area well.

It is famous for its roses (particularly Tempier, Ott and Salettes) and they are probably the best roses in France.

For whites Cassis is the best.

If you want places to visit, you must go to Le Castellet and La Cadiere, the latter being less touristy. You could also take the ferry to the Ile de Bendor (five minutes ride) for lunch (as we did) and for a nice beach.

If you want a good coffee, we also go to l'Amiral. Auberge du Port is a good fish restaurant, both adjacent to the daily market.

If you want to taste Bandol wines, there is a shop opposite the Casino where you can taste all the local wines.

We have just finished two back to back cruises on the Encore, one just the two of us and the second with our daughter, son in law and two grandchildren (we wouldn't usually travel at this time of the year). They were like two completely different cruises. The service and food on both were excellent. The difference was in the passengers. The first segment only had twenty two children and you would have hardly known they were there. Standard of dress was extremely high. Unfortunately the second segment was not the same. It was the fullest the Encore has ever been (592) and it showed. The one sea day was a nightmare what with the deck space being that much smaller than the other ships but 100 more people.

It should have been obvious to the powers that be.

There were 60 children on board and a lot of very large families, mainly Spanish speaking, and very noisy. It was a shame that our family had to experience the second leg and not the first, although, as first time SB cruisers, they still thought it was wonderful! The standard of dress during the second cruise was much lower than in the first cruise. People coming to Trivia in swimsuits wrapped in towels being just one example.

We spent one day in The Retreat the first segment and I found it unbearably hot. There were two other cabanas occupied. What a waste of space. (Steve please note).

There were only three Diamond Elite couples on board, including us, and a dozen or so Diamond members. Lots of first time SB cruisers. Maybe thats why we got such excellent service!

50 children?? We are on board Encore at the moment. We have it on good authority there are 22 children (12 teenagers and 10 under 12) on board. You wouldn't know they are there! Our grandchildren are getting on next week aged 9 and 12. We have no complaints whatsoever surprisingly enough. We thought the Inaugural was good but this is even better. Steve - The Retreat is practically empty!

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Does anybody know how long Handre is on for? Who is the current captain and how long is he on for? We are boarding on the 16th until August 5th.

I thought the washing machines were already on board.

What a ridiculous state of affairs! We have family on with us in July and they have two young children.

Very annoyed!!

We have been told it will be on deck 5 where the Hotel Manager's office is presently situated. In other words a little further down from where it is situated on the other ships.

On the Encore at the moment. Launderette supposed to be in place by June.q

Having done all the Inaugural ceremonies, this was by far the most expensive and the worst. Concur with all Markham's comments. On the bright side instead of fireworks we got a handful of silver confetti!

It's because it's cheap Henry. Call me cynical but that seems to be how Seabourn chose their ports!!

Able seaman H was going to have the train and track outside his door this Christmas with a couple of Santas going around on it but he is lucky that I can't be on the Encore as my plans had changed.

 

 

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Sorry to hear that John. We were looking forward to meeting up in Singapore at the Inaugural ceremony!

I know what you mean about tepid food in the restaurant, this was our only comment on our recent Odyssey Cruise. But if Tarryn is still on board try to get her to serve you, once we found her we had super hot plates and hot food every night.

 

A big thank you to Tarryn, she is from South Africa.:D:D

Tarryn had been promoted to Assistant Maire d' by the time we left 10 days ago

so she may not be waiting.

I left it to Brian to order what size he wanted :D:D:D

 

I cannot see me wearing it on a cruise but thought it would make a decent dog walking jacket :), although judging by our recent experience on the Sojourn it could be worn to dinner in the main dining room:(

Two people beat you to it on our recent Odyssey cruise as they came to dinner in their anoraks!!

We have to order the jacket in the size you require so should have it in around 4 weeks. I have attached a picture of the men's the women's is the same but a little more shaped :)

We have ordered our jackets hoping they will arrive before the Encore Inaugural. Hope they are as nice as the ones we got on the Sojourn Inaugural.

Kathryn - Larry says make sure to order a big one for Brian!!

Sorry to read of your bad experience Shelagh

Are you and Larry going on the Encore

 

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Yes we are on January 7th John. I think that's when you finish your cruise but I understand that those on the previous cruise will be taking part in the Inaugural ceremony so hope to see you there.

We have just completed 18 days on the Odyssey Athens/Monte Carlo. After many years and numerous cruises with Seabourn, we have to say this was the most disappointing. Apparently numerous suites on both parts of this cruise were sold off cheaply to a low cost agent leading to a packed ship which led to overcrowded bars which in turn led to bad service. Not Seabourn as we know it! This view was shared by many Seabourn regulars on board. Very disappointing!

Just heard the sad news that Martha Henderson has passed away.

Henry,

I am in shock.

 

I must report that Neil the chef on board at present is probably the most focused and dedicated chef that I have seen,he is from Ireland and is supervising the Christmas Santas and Gingerbread houses.

 

I have had the best Halibut this evening on any ship that I have been on.

 

 

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Larry says if he is Irish he has to be good!

Henry,sad news tonight at dinner I was told that Karl Ekle has left Seabourn this week.

 

I am on the Sojourn.

 

 

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Oh no and we had heard he was going to be on when we are on! I suppose it was hard to be at sea as he now has a family. Keep the Sojourn warm for us John. It was good to see you both again at the lunch.

Agree 100% with you. We were on-board for the first segment, 34 days from LA to Sydney and have a different take on things, admittedly they may have changed for the worse since we disembarked on Feb 8th, and no doubt the longer you are on-board the more repetitive the menu will become and minor annoyances can become more annoying as time goes on – why we choose to only do 34 days even though we would have liked to stay on to Hong Kong or Singapore. Everyone has different experiences and likes so one person’s idea of great is another’s mediocre, and is always subjective. We found the food for the most part to be good, yes some of it was bland and on occasion we had over cooked fish, which we would return. The fruit started out decent but, especially at the Colonnade for breakfast was not very ripe and there were no berries toward the end, but otherwise we had no major complaints. No matter what, you will never have farm to table on a ship. Was it as good as on other cruises we’ve done, no but for us and others we associated and dined with on-board it certainly was not "bad". The service was, IMO, about comparable to other Seabourn cruises we’ve been on, there are always a few crew who are subpar, every cruise we’ve encountered a few, but luckily you can usually avoid them, and a lot of crew are exemplary. Then again some servers I wanted to avoid other passengers thought were very good and preferred them, so again different people have different perspectives. At the same time, there were some passengers who seemed to never like anything and some who were rather rude to the crew. Other than TV24 – who I spoke with a few times but have no idea how his tastes compare to mine - I don’t know who the posters are so I can’t comment on individual posts, but IMO things were not as bad as some posts suggest and nothing would make me even consider not taking my next SB cruise.

I think it all depends on expectations and possibly how often you have sailed on SB. We have been sailing on SB for 14 years and have between 40 and 50 cruises with them under our belt. Having done half of both the Odyssey and Quest WCs our expectations were high. "Not bad" is not something I would ever associate with SB. Having said that we had a cruise on the Spirit in October and that was wonderful. Such a shame the small ships are going although we do prefer the amenities on the larger ships.