CruiserfaeFife

And we’ve had a call from our Seabourn representative to say that our 18 May 2025 Encore sailing - 14 day Grecian Gems and Dalmatian Coast - has also been cancelled, so not just Sojourn.  Like @Hlitner still waiting for email confirmation 🧐

Thanks @nancygp  - on Quest next August so I was hopeful, but we won’t starve 😀

Thanks for sharing - looks great!

Is Sushi in the Club only in the evening?  We always enjoy lunch in Sushi on Ovation where, like Encore, there is a dedicated Sushi restaurant space.  Lunchtime was a different menu - mostly bento boxes or ramen - but always a pleasant change from the Patio or Colonnade. 

Hong Kong to Singapore on Ovation was our introduction to Seabourn, in January 2020, just before the big nasty descended. We enjoyed the mix of shore and sea days. Ports were the same as @SLSD has listed, some thoughts:

Hong Kong - we stayed on HK island for a couple of nights pre-cruise. Enjoyed walking around but we were conscious of increased security presence (this was at the time of the protests). 
 

Halong Bay - you should do the cruise round the bay - spectacular islands - rather than visit Hanoi which is some distance away so long coach trip

Da Nang - interesting visit to Hoi An which is an old town worth walking around at your own pace

Ho Chi Minh City - Ovation docked at the port in the centre of Saigon and we overnighted there. In hindsight we should have been more adventurous - one couple did an evening food tour on the back of scooters, which sounded great fun - but coming from the UK we learned a lot about what locals refer to as the “American War”. 
 

Sihanoukville - best treated as a “sea day”. Only makes sense as a collection point for those who’ve done the overnight land tour to Angkor Wat. 
 

Ko Kood - beach barbeque, idyllic beach, need I say more?
 

Leam Chabang - our first visit to Bangkok so worth it for us but the port is a 2 hour bus tour away from the city and traffic was dreadful so careful if you book your own tour!

and finally…

Singapore - great city to spend a couple of nights afterwards. 
 

Our next outing is NYC to Montreal in September 2024 - perhaps less exciting for North Americans but for us a mix of familiar (NYC, Boston) and new so can’t wait. 

We had a connecting room on Ovation for our last cruise. Wouldn’t have been our first choice - first week it sounded like a family next door, second week didn’t hear anything. So depends on who your neighbours are.  Avoid if you can, but not a dealbreaker for us. 

Here is a link to the lunch menu for Sushi restaurant.  The bento and ramen are all cooked, sushi rolls available on the side.
 

https://www.seabourn.com/content/dam/sbn/marketing-assets/experience/dining/Sushi-Lunch.pdf

We loved going to Sushi for lunch on Ovation - the staff are so friendly too. We’ll miss it on our next cruise, on Quest. 

Definitely still there, in January this year at least. On deck 5, just forward of the central staircase, on the starboard side. 

You’re welcome - hope you enjoy it. Be sure to check out the referral coupon thread at the top of this board to gain some onboard credit as a first-timer. 

On Ovation last month the welcome champagne in our room was Charles Lafitte but the more familiar Montaudon was being poured in bars and restaurants. 

Like @CLOU we were on the 7 January sailing. Allocated a 3.40pm boarding time. We got bored of hanging around the hotel lobby and headed for the port arriving at 2pm. No-one even asked about our allocated time and we went straight to the ship. Check-in took place onboard in the Grand Salon. 
 

Disembarkation on the other hand was a bit of a mess.  I think our berth must have been changed at short notice by the port authority - a long walk in the sun or shuttle bus to a warehouse to collect our luggage (the shuttle bus took us to the wrong warehouse at first) then another bus back to the terminal.  Back to reality with a bump…☹️

Disembarkation at Bridgetown, Barbados yesterday was a bit of a mess. I think there was a late change to Ovation’s berth meaning for most a long walk in the sun from the gangway to the warehouse where luggage was to be picked up.  Mrs Fife is having difficulties walking just now so took a shuttle bus which took us to the wrong ship’s luggage pick-up at first before correcting the mistake.  Then everyone had to get on another bus, loading own luggage in some cases, to get to the terminal. 
 

I suspect more of a port authority issue rather than down to Seabourn but it was all a bit confusing and not the perfect end to our trip, but other than that we had a great time. 

Similar issue to @Flamin_June  - our booking in first week is now for 4 rather than 2 and our second week booking has disappeared from our itinerary. Probably best sorted out on board - at least we now have two empty seats as currency to trade with others in the same situation 😀

Thanks to @CLOUfor flagging this up. We are also on Ovation in January and TK bookings seem to have disappeared. I’ll be following up with Seabourn - if we’ve been un-booked they will just have to un-un-book us 😀

We’ve had a similar change notification for our 7 January cruise out of Barbados. All of the changes are to the second leg - Sint Maarten back to Barbados. For us changes are:

Basseterre, St Kitts to Road Bay, Anguilla

Gustavia, St Bart’s to Carambola Beach, St Kitts

Rodney Bay, St Lucia to Fort de France, Martinique

Saline Bay, Mayreau to Saint Georges, Grenada

Disappointed not to be going to St Bart’s but I understand that is often cancelled due to difficulty tendering. Was also looking forward to smaller harbours at Rodney Bay and Saline Bay rather than the larger replacement ports. But certainly not deal breakers for us and we’ll go with the flow.  Any recommendations for casual restaurants for lunch within easy walk of the new ports would be welcome. 

On Ovation pre-COVID we enjoyed the bento box-style lunches in Sushi. Hoping this restaurant will still be open at lunchtime when we board in January. IIRC Encore also has Sushi, but not the smaller ships. 

25 minutes ago, Emdee said:
The last time we were to have the caviar and beach day at Saline Bay but high waves made them cancel it and it was caviar in the pool. 

If necessary I’m willing to accept that hardship in the interests of caviar producers everywhere 😉

Thanks @fudge and @adolfo2 - I’d be interested to see a marina day too but I know they don’t always happen for one reason or another. Either way I’ll post what happens. 

We are on the 7 January 14 night cruise out of Barbados, which is effectively two 7 night cruises, first Barbados-St Martin and then back with different ports each way. 
 

The first week has a stop at Carambola Beach which I’m assuming will be Caviar in the Surf day.but we don’t stop there on the second week. There is a stop at Saline Bay, Mayreau though and I’m hoping that will be the second week’s Caviar in the Surf.  Does anyone know if Saline Bay is still used for Caviar in the Surf, or am I in for a disappointment 😢?

We’ve sailed the Caribbean before but in larger ships so looking forward to visiting smaller ports this time around.

Sorry - just realised OP said 2023, not 2022!  St Andrews should be back to its lovely self by then…

We live just outside St Andrews and love the town so I’m biased!  Just to mention that the British Open will be on the Old Course st St Andrews July 14-17 and there is already a lot of work going on to build stands etc so it’s a bit of a construction site just now and likely to be the same in June. 
 

The Old Course is closed to golf on Sundays and anyone can walk the course that day normally. Not sure if that will be restricted in June. 
 

All things considered might not be the best time to visit the town. Agree with others’ suggestions about Stirling Castle and Britannia in particular.  Hope that helps. 

Here’s a link to photos of a deck 5 veranda suite on the Ovation (sister to the Encore) from elsewhere on the Cruise Critic site, including the balcony. This will give you an idea if no-one has anything more specific. 

https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/photos/ships/seabourn-ovation-1051/veranda-suite-415148/veranda-suite--v18539040

There are also lots of professionally taken photos from around the ship which we found really useful when planning our first Seabourn cruise. 
 

We haven’t done v1 ourselves, only v2 which has full glass balcony so sorry no personal experience but hope that’s some help. 

All fair points from Fletcher - we enjoyed it as an introduction to the region. One correction though - the Ovation was able to dock close to the centre of Saigon in our case.  Larger ships do have to dock some distance away - and may depend on tides of course.  Bangkok on the other hand was over an hour away by bus from the port so less convenient. 

We did the first half of this route in reverse, ie Hong Kong to Singapore on Ovation in January 2020 - our first time with Seabourn and our first time in this region. We really enjoyed it and would certainly do it again. 
 

highlights were:

• the beach day at Ko Kood - much more than caviar in the surf, but book in advance if you want to use any of the water sports equipment
• visit to Hoi An - a fascinating old city
• Saigon - we overnighted there and in retrospect we weren’t adventurous enough. Another couple went on an evening food tour on the back of scooters which sounded great fun and safer than it sounds!
• Singapore - end of the road on our trip, we did a walking food tour with Secret Food Tours which was really interesting and generally loved the city

as the previous poster says, Sihanoukville is a “miss” unless you do the Angkor Wat trip which is a couple of nights off the ship - we treated it as a sea day. 

I can only comment on the first question. On our 14 night cruise on Ovation last January we were able to make two online reservations for TK Grill beforehand, ie one for each week. As the previous poster says, TK Grill is good but we enjoyed Earth & Ocean, Seabourn’s “pop-up” on the patio, just as much - obviously weather-dependent. 

We think they’re great, but be aware there is no shade on the balcony.  We much prefer that to the overhang on deck 9 A2 cabins.