2seabournsailors

2 hours ago, frantic36 said:

We have been protected here in Western Australia but we are now having to deal with vaccination rates that are improving at a snail's pace and a State government that is reluctant to set a date to reopen our borders. We have been double vaccinated and will be due a booster in January which we are hopeful we will be able to get.

 

We have a July cruise booked which we are hoping we will be allowed to join. Having to mask is not something we are used to though we social distance and use QR codes on our phone to check into shops etc to allow contact tracing, so this will be a whole new world for us with testing and masking but we are willing to try to cruise again.

 

 

We are in the exact same position here in Queensland. Think we are only up to 62% double dosed, as people have been so safe for so long, no one is in "much of a hurry"..... we are due for our Booster around Xmas. I still think Qld will get a big hit once the borders open, so we will continue to stay home most of the time. We also have a July/August cruise booked, but are still some what doubtful of it happening......

8 hours ago, Captainlyle said:

2seabournsailors  Thanks  for the  excellent and informative reply.We will now be able to with book with confidence that 748 will be just great.

I am sure you will be more than happy! That has been "our room" for years on all three ships!

we have had 747 and 748 ever since the O Class were launched! Being right next to the Card Room is a bonus, as you only have other guests on one side of you.....the Card Room is a very quiet area. A few steps and you are at Seabourn Square. One flight up and you are at The Colonnade, one flight down and you are at The Grand Salon....the staircase in a few steps from your door! The head of your bed is next to the Card Room so door slammers and drawer slammers wont bother you......perfect suite!

same itinerary now for 2024! Those booked on 2022 will be rebooked onto 2024 WC. 2023 pretty well sold out.

15 hours ago, Borna said:

I met 3 people so far who boarded yesterday.  They had no problems arriving in Barbados.  They all arrived at least a day before the cruise start.  Two received their on arrival test results within 24 hours,  one received her results inexplicably two days later.   

If you have some spare time one day, could you please put up a pic of the Menu? I just want to drool and "remember". LOL  I see Seabourn's President just got off the ship, did you meet him?

5 hours ago, Capri73 said:

 

 

As the Herald states "Due to Local protocols", there is nothing Seabourn can do about this. "If" Seabourn (or you)  want to go ~anywhere~ they have to do what they are told, at all visited Ports!

46 minutes ago, Borna said:

Played team trivia today and won.  Seabourn coffee mug was the prize. 120 guests.  What’s C.D.?   I’m also a first timer. I might be able to give tips after a few more days on the ship.  Happy to answer any questions.  Took private tour today of st lucia 

CD is Cruise Director......think you have Robert? SOOOOOOO happy to see you have printed Heralds and Menus. I read "somewhere else" that they are going to more the "technical" stuff for those now, ummm Apps and stuff? That isn't how I enjoy reading. I know saving trees etc is important, but I'm too old for Apps! LOL 

23 minutes ago, cruiseej said:

I am a member of the Seabourn Sailors Facebook group.

 

The one mentioned above is the Seabourn Friends and Family group. I requested membership about 5 days ago with no response. I requested membership again earlier this evening, so far with no response. My FB account is real, and I answered the questions. No response within minutes or hours.

your Seabourn Sailors membership wouldn't have sat there with no response though! Obviously by my name you can tell what group I recommend!

16 hours ago, Daneite said:

Well the admin is posting on this thread so she may see it here and hurry things along.

I am pretty sure the admin you are talking about, posting here, is on a different Group to the one mentioned further up this thread! I can assure you, that the Group I am talking about, checks New Member applications, many times a day, and that is by 3 people. As long as its not a "Fake" FB account, and the relevant questions are answered, people are granted membership at least within hours, if not minutes.

5 hours ago, jenidallas said:

Hopefully when that report is live, someone will share it.  

If that report is written by someone who is also a member here, I would imagine they would share it, otherwise its not the right of anyone else to "share" another persons story! IOW it wont be me who shares it.

12 minutes ago, cruiseej said:

@2seabournsailors Really? I have only seen a thread of lots of people wishing crews and passengers  onboard bon voyage and best wishes. Only one person replied that they were on board, but didn't post anything more than that. Is there an actual report in that group from someone onboard? I wish Facebook gave you a way to see comments you haven't read in chronological order, like here on Cruise Critic, but alas that's not how Facebook works. I find it much harder to follow the Facebook groups for that reason. 

so sorry!!! I was wrong. It was a Report from Ovation I was reading. Hopefully there will "soon" be a report from Odyssey. Sorry!

47 minutes ago, cruiseej said:

@Borna I've been closely following the "Seabourn Sailors" group on Facebook. I have not seen any posts from anyone on the first Caribbean sailing which began yesterday. 

there is a Report there now.

1 hour ago, SLSD said:

I am so glad that SB is going to let those in transit board.  This is such good news. 

 

I have also just read that those already in transit for today/tomorrows cruise will be allowed to board! Good news for a few Brits anyway. Next week, who knows?

5 minutes ago, Covepointcruiser said:

Many Brits on board the Ovation right now and I have not heard an outcry.

how many Brits are onboard? I heard there were very few? Tomorrow when the next cruise starts is the beginning of the "new rules". I believe that those who are already onboard, who are doing another back to back, will be allowed to continue. New people (Brits) wont be allowed to join.....

2 minutes ago, Heather White said:

We confirmed our cover including cruise with Staysure within the last week.

I have seen a few people say exactly what you have said, but then others who seem to get a different answer depending on who they are talking to, some have got BOTH answers......I just hope the "agent" you spoke to knows what they are selling! Seabourn aren't allowing it anyway, so its a moot point I suppose.

4 minutes ago, Isklaar said:

 

 

 

The insurance situation is a mess, but it's been something we were aware of for quite some time.

 

 

There still seems to be a few Brits who are quite sure they are covered, for Cruising,  but it will be interesting to see if they do happen to have a claim, if it would be paid out! As we all know, Insurance Companies will get out of paying out if they can find some way to manage it!!

3 hours ago, SLSD said:

One other thing about Facebook.  We all post with our real names there.  We can message each other.  I do not find the Seabourn groups on Facebook (there are two of them) to be rife with rumors.  They are a good source of information--just like this group is--where we all post under screen names and often have no idea who each other are.  

 

My purpose for starting this thread was to ASK for verification if anyone had any.  I still do not find an article about this specific information--but various cruisers are posting that their particular passage on SB has been cancelled.  

And the one Group that I know you belong to, (the one with 7000 Members)  also had lots of verification from a top British TA,  as well as many Brits who have been directly impacted by this new ruling. There are "some" people who use false names, but we do try to weed out "fakes"..... we also boast amongst our Members, the President of Seabourn, and a few other Cruise Lines, many of our Captains, Cruise Directors and Assistants, Hotel Directors, many Officers of all types, HUNDREDS of Crew Members from all Departments, plus dozens from the Seattle, Sydney and British Offices......so if anything "too untrue" was mentioned, I am sure we would be "contacted".....

3 hours ago, Two4Sea said:

The 2017 Polar code reaches full effect Jan 1, 2022. Only ships purpose built since 2017 can sail to the Arctic or Antarctic after that date. Others can be rebuilt but no one has found it economic. I think this why there was a burst of expedition ship construction over the past few years including the Venture.

 

Bill

I didn't know about that either Bill.....hope you are both well...last time we saw you I was looking for bears in your back yard!! LOL

11 hours ago, hoya68 said:

Seabourn has not posted Quest itinerary past November 2021. Up to that point it winds up in Miami about the same time as in 2020 when it heads south. There is hope. The Venture itineraries are VERY expensive.

They have posted the itineraries now.....no more Quest to Antarctica after the 20/21 season. Quest will be doing "Miami to Panama !! "Tropical Panama" or some such name....

The Quest will be doing something called "Tropical Treasures and the Panama Canal" instead of Antarctica! Miami to Panama.....wow....

This is what I have just written on another site...

So, I have just had a quick look at the latest itineraries, appearing on the Seabourn site. I must say, that whoever puts these itineraries together has absolutely NO imagination, and just "copies and pastes" from one year to the next! I am SO glad that we did a few back to backs around the Greek Islands, to Venice, Croatia etc back in 2018, on Odyssey.....because from now on, those itineraries will only be done on the BIG ships......MOST of the Med will now be done on the Big ships, both Ovation and Encore.....Sojourn has a very short Med season. I do see Istanbul and other places in Turkey have now been reintroduced, but that's about all the difference I can see in the whole of Europe. The ships have been altered but not the Ports. I also see that QUEST will no longer be doing Antarctica!! ONLY Venture.....I'm sure that will leave a lot of people missing out on Antarctica. For me? I really am not at all impressed....cant see a thing to get excited about...No World Cruise for 2022 either.....maybe my cruising days are coming to an end.....please let me know if I have got any of the details wrong! (It was just a quick perusal)

I use a VPN and also cannot access Seabourn's site when its turned on.

I would agree with a lot that Chairsin has written. We recently tried Ovation for the first time, and unless it was an itinerary that we couldn't possibly miss, we will stay with the O class from now on.  We had previously tried Encore, so have now tried them all! I "think" Chairsin disembarked in Singapore? For the month after that we had extremely hot weather, and the pool deck was very very busy and crowded....sun lounges were "reserved" from before breakfast. Quite a lot of "chair hogging". We had two Corporate men on board, who we have known for a long time, we remarked to them "this doesn't feel like a Seabourn cruise".... the Holiday, part of the cruise also left many of the Crew shaking their heads...although they know NOT to say the wrong thing, it was very obvious they were also having a very hard time with many of the passengers. 24 kids? teenagers seemed fine but there were quite a lot of undisciplined younger children. Running, jumping, splashing in the pool etc....just doing all the things kids do, but not what "Seabourn Guests" like to experience! For example.... I saw people reading by the pool, who had to keep wiping the splashed water from their books and glasses! LOL. Diapers in the hot tub? Used diapers wrapped in a towel and put in the towel bin? Too many examples of what is "Not Seabourn" to mention! Hopefully these problems only existed, because it was a "Holiday Cruise"...but there were enough for us not to bother again.

We also only went once to the Retreat, to the same Cocktail party as Chairsin, in fact I was the one who sent out the invitations. Oh no, I did go up there one other time, just to take photos.....it was empty....

We found the Crew exceptional, and the ship in top condition...also had some of the best food we have ever had on Seabourn, although we also missed not being able to have the Fried Chicken.....seems strange that all the other ships have the chicken cooker, but not the newest ship!

We certainly did feel the difference of an extra 150 Guests. We also came from the old small ships, and had to adjust to 450 people, but 600 is just too much difference for us.

Chairsin also mentioned the narrowness of the suites, and in particular how it affected to bathtub! This may not be important to most people, but I am certainly a bathtub person while on the ships....first thing I ask our Stewardess for, is a selection of bubble baths. We were on board for almost 7 weeks.....I had ONE bubble bath. It was the most uncomfortable bath tub I have ever been in....so narrow.....no, I am not slim like Chairsin, so if she had trouble, its a wonder I am not still wedged in there! Another very bad design problem is that the tap is midway in the tub, so if you try to top up the hot water, you have it pouring straight onto you! You cant avoid it, well not unless you are a 2 year old child!

As always though, everyone has different thoughts on what is suitable or unsuitable for them, so I suppose you really need to try it yourself to see if its is, or isn't for YOU!

I have also witnessed dr Weils eating habits, and can assure everyone that on a "dr Weil Wellness Cruise"....all the food in the Colonnade that has a label saying "Recommended by dr Weil"   will be given a very wide berth by said doc....and he will fill his plate with EVERYTHING else! He is also the worst dressed person on the entire ship...."slob" is a word that comes to mind. I was also "told" that when he was staying in a SPA Suite, he would have the Spa Crew say good morning to him as he came down those stairs....and he never acknowledged them....the Spa does now have his name on it.....but he cant return the staffs greetings.....maybe he is deaf?? or is he just rude?

24 kids on Ovation. Lots of running and jumping in and around the pool. Sitting at the Bar. Wouldn't do this cruise again. Many complaints but nothing changed. Heard lots from people who were unlucky enough to have rooms "next" to where kids were.