Steve007NY

Just an update. We requested bottles of Tanqueray rang for gin and Belvedere vodka, as well as diet Mountain Dew. We scored 0 of 3.  We ended up with a bottle of Belvidere, a bottle of Tanqueray 10 and diet Coke.

Not up to the standards of six years ago, but we will survive :-)

Not a dumb question at all.

Seabourn is an extraordinary cruise line with an infuriating website. Multiple cruises, and I stood frequently have trouble navigating the site.

You can usually get there by logging in, going to my bookings, and then click on preferences from the tab of above. Somehow, however, the things 1 used to be able to request (beds together or apart, beverage choice in the minibar) have disappeared. If you call them, they certainly will take your preferences and might even help you figure out where on the website to find them. Ours are already stored in our passenger but essentially invisible to us.

Don’t let the website bring you down. The onboard experience is simply superb. Order blini, caviar, and your favorite accompany at one of the lounges the first night and the second night they’ll ask if you just want the usual. 

Sally –

If it’ll take something off your plate, I’m happy to give you the referral. As I mentioned in the other thread, we have a bunch lined up already for future cruises but happy to refer you as someone doesn’t respond to this in a few hours.

Steve (you Sojourn buddy)

Cruiserej-

The only reason we would even consider having an expectation is that on previous cruises they have stocked our cabin with diet Mountain Dew. (I don’t know that anyone “absolutely need[s] … a particular soda“ 🙂

I think he’d get grumpy if there were no sources of caffeine on board so, I would imagine, would many of the passengers. Me, I bring my crystal light peach  iced tea mix… a lot less bulky than carbonated beverages 🙂

Just for the record, we put it in our cabin preferences section 8 months ago.  If he had to drink diet Coke with the occasional DMD ashore, he’ll survive. Now, if they stop serving caviar 🙂 … 

One can purchase diet Mountain Dew in New Zealand. Is that something me might actually do or should we be picking up cases to bring on board for my hubby?

Ray –

We actually already booked our flights from Taipei to Denpasar. I’ve been there before. John has only been there to change airplanes 🙂

It’s not really gonna be enough time for furniture shopping. We had furniture made the last time we were in Bali (it was when the Suharto regime was overthrown … We were one of the few tourists who stuck around in Bali.  The currency lost something like 80% of its value. We may not find the kind of bargains we did on that trip!

I know this is straying quite a bit from the original post but one of the wonderful parts of Seaborn is that the chefs will actually cook just about anything you can request with 24 hours notice. We have even had the chef work with us and do several iterations of scallops with bacon brittle, trying to reproduce a dish served at a favorite place in Saint Petersburg Florida. We also enjoy caviar and blini virtually every evening.  
 

I assume you were posted to the Philippines and Taiwan?  My first visit to “Formosa” was in 1972… they were typhoons in Manila so didn’t make it there. I won’t bother the other posters with the many stories I could tell but perhaps we can share them over a drink on board. 

In the past, we easily found the preferences page.

My hubby is addicted to diet Mountain Dew. Not the easiest product to find. In the past, departing Buenos Aires, they actually had cases of it stored for him.

This cruise, we are leaving from Auckland… Not sure even a great room is Stewart is going to be able to find 43 days worth of diet Mountain Dew tucked away somewhere on the ship 🙂 we requested it months ago when we could find the preferences page but, frankly, I have yet to be able to reproduce it or find where it is on the current website. 
Any suggestions welcome!

Ray-

we are on the same cruise as you, although we are boarding 10 days earlier in Auckland. We’re doing 43 days.

Months ago, I booked four nights at TK Grill (I’ve learned my lesson on prior cruises). Sea days were particularly difficult to book.  If you really have a difficult time, we can probably “gift you “one of our reservations.

I noticed that you are a frequent Holland America cruiser. The first long cruise my husband and I took about 20 years ago was an HAL Baltic cruise. One of the things I think you’re going to find on Seabourn is that the food is so extraordinary that even on the nights when you have reservations for TKG we have found ourselves stopping by the dining room to eat a particular dish in the regular dining room.

Definitely going to be better weather than we’re having here in the states! I’ve been visiting my brother in Atlanta where they close the schools for black ice on the roads; even here in northern California it’s been chilly and rainy. So looking forward to short sleeves!

Steve

20 hours ago, stan01 said:

The other interesting part is that you can see the daily menus (only) for your next booking.  We have a booking on Ovation in November so can see menus now.  So it helps build some excitement leading up to the next cruise.

Stan

we leave on February 10 on the Sojourn. on the app, I can see tonight’s menu in each of the venues but certainly not date menus for our booking. Can you give me an instructions on how to pull that up?

We are omnivores, find lots of things we love to eat, but I actually might change some SHORE activities to get back for favorites on board.

Thanks

Our local gas station (Sonoma CA) puts $150 hold on every time you insert a credit card into the pump. Initially, caused confusion when my husband “top door“ a couple times during one week and I was checking out the Amex bills but they disappeared and replaced by the actual charges

It’s 1:40 AM here. On the ship, my to do list would be 10% as long as I would be fast asleep planning on busy day ionshore tomorrow.

Very few things I don’t eat, though a few (cooked tomato sauce, cucumbers, green pepper) I don’t particularly care for.  Love Indian and Indonesian food on cruise ships, since so many of the crew are from various parts of those countries and the chefs know the cuisines.  And although Keller influences are everywhere here in Sonoma county, the Asian restaurants are limited & pretty dreadful. (Though San Francisco is only an hour away and has it all)!

I certainly wouldn’t expect “a yes to any and all requests“. We’re actually pretty reasonable people 🙂

We do not stay in the upper and suites but are definitely repeat customers. This cruise will push us over 100 nights on Seabourn.  

My guess is, it’s easier for the chefs on port days (is giving them notice a day or two before the poor days but timing it so they have less lunch prep work with passengers ashore.  Since I’m a thoroughly serious Home chef, my experience has in the past been that the chefs are actually intrigued with preparing things other than “the usual“. Having worked in restaurants in my youth, have a feeling for the pace (although we did not serve 450 “covers“ a night! 🙂

1 hour ago, tv24 said:

Plenty of caviar, there is no sign of that going away.  As to special orders, yes you can request, and as Mr. L suggests, give the kitchen an advance notice.  But don'e expect the kitchen to have an exotic ingredients as the staff will not be able to get off in port and buy what is needed for your special meal.  And don't expect perfection if the chef is not familiar with what you want.  For instance, last month we attended a special dinner where the hostess/passenger designed a "southern fried" dinner.  The French chef tried his best, but some of the dishes were not even close to the real thing, for instance hush puppies.

Thanks for the feedback.

My tendency is to request things that are among my favorites, but nothing easiest to cook at home (sweetbread is the best example).

I’m too old to expect perfection from anything or anyone 🙂

Hoya-  ‘hush puppies’ or a southern fried cornmeal fritter like food

Thanks. Some of the postings on this board have been so full of gloom and doom about the decline in food and service on Seaborn. I guess I’m just needlessly worrying.

One of the treats we’ve enjoyed most on previous SB cruises (Sojourn x3 but not since COVID) is asking the chef to prepare special dishes for us (soft shell crabs, scallops with bacon brittle). We are o the WC segment Auckland to Taipei. In reading comments on CC these past few months, it sounds like we should dramatically lower our expectations.

Any feedback from more recent pax?  Will we at least be able to get our blini and caviar? 🤞

I’ve been to Turkey many times as well.

I agree with MarkandJie oh that (depending, as everywhere, on security lines when you return to the airport) that long a layover should allow you to see those sites you’ve mentioned, and maybe even poke your head into the Egyptian or grand bazaar

Thanks!

Beats TK menu in my book, but de gustibus….

Mauzac-

is there any way you can post that menu you saw?

The rollout is non-specific enough that it’s hard to know. We will be on sojourn February and March 2024. Sounds like it’ll still be TK?

living in Sonoma county, plenty of TK options to choose from (although dinner for two at most of them costs as much as a whole day on board the ship. Would be great fun to be there during the turnover (from an old restaurant family and so I would just enjoyed the logistics).

Just reading through this thread begin wondering. In the past, we have, after discussions with the chef a couple days in advance, had him prepare things that we dreamed up (probably our favorite was scallops with bacon brittle). There was never an issue with having these served in the room. Have things changed or are we just overly indulgent? 🙂

Does anyone know how charges for the serene area on long (ours is 43 day) cruise works?  We’ve never been on this long a Seabourn cruise.  When we’ve gone on shorter cruises (say 14 days) is how we use the bulk of our OBC. Just have no idea how pricing goes for long segments of the world cruise.

Any information would help. Thanks

We too have had trouble spending all our on board credits. After the Retreat, and in the old days pay for Internet, we usually have enough to buy some gifts (including a $400 watch which I wear to this day.  

It was seem listen fast enough that I didn’t even bother measuring download speeds. We do not do gaming but worked for streaming and VoIP calls

We have moved to a location so remote that Starlink is our only real Internet option. So far, we have found it to be wonderful. Whether that is because of satellite saturation over in northern California and with that will be the case in the middle of the Pacific remains to be seen