jondfk

You will clear immigration and customs at your first US port, in this case San Diego. You’ll arrive in Los Angeles without any further formalities. Berth 93 is served by the historic “Love Boat” terminal building with all of its mid century design details. It’s with a bit of looking around to absorb the period architecture. One man’s opinion.

I'll kick in too having sailed from PPT to Los Angeles last year on Regatta. We didn't do O air, but did book with a very knowledgeable O cruise advisor (in house) who talked us through it. He assured me that if we took air through O it would undoubtedly be via Los Angeles with Air Tahiti Nui. With a lifetime of United miles in my bank we booked from our hometown airport with United. It's worth knowing that French Bee, a low cost carrier based in Paris, flys from SFO - PPT 3 or 4 times a week. I would suggest that the modest upcharge for their quasi business class is well worth doing. Their flights arrive at something like 5AM which could be a challenge for some. As for accommodations in Papeete prior to sailing. O used the Intercontinental Papeete, the rates offered were not at all competitive. For example, we booked an overwater room on our own for 25% less than O wanted for a standard room. The hotel is nice, not terrific, but nice and I'd recommend it for proximity to the airport (5 minutes) and the pier (20 minutes). Last point. Be very aware that Papeete does not have a cruise terminal per se. You line up on the pier for pre boarding formalities and then "check in" on the ship itself. This went very slowly and inefficiently last year (very early post covid by Tahiti standards). Some reported having stood in the queue on the pier for upwards for 2 hours in the broiling sun - I highly advise arriving late to the pier - something around 3pm is likely ideal. That's what I'll be doing the we sail in 2025 on the trip from PPT to Honolulu a few weeks after you. Last, last point. Be aware that O gathered everyone with a transfer at the Intercontinental. Those with overnight accommodations and some who arrived on the 5AM Air France flight from Europe. All were directed to busses simultaneously for transfer to the pier - something like 9 busses - nose to tail. We had booked a private transfer and it was a delight to walk past the absolute chaos straight to our waiting taxi. It's not a good place to be following the herd. Now I have to stress that ours was one of the first cruises for Regatta after she restarted, was during the time that both FP and O required pre arrival (or boarding) testing both of which complicated the boarding process. Still, a search will quickly reveal that boarding is anything but pleasant in Tahiti. Have a plan that keeps you clear of the crowd for the best experience.

it’s not the photo per se it’s the inevitable flash, second attempt, third attempt to frame the perfect shot that I find bothersome.

I personally don’t think the GDR is especially great that final night, more likely folks are focused on their packing up and the like rather than a nice leisurely meal. We’ve done specialty dining the final evening and found it as good as any other night, perhaps a bit better due to the slightly lighter load. My advice, keep that great reservation!

I would be comfortable with this but it won’t leave a lot of contingency time should anything go wrong, like late arrival of the ship or especially slow CBP processing both of which can of course happen.

I hate to be contrary but the port of Los Angeles also includes pier 46 which is a totally unimproved bare pier about 3/4 of a mile down the estuary, used on three ship days. It’s unlucky indeed to draw that pier as your first step will be a bus ride to the pier 92/93 complex. Oceania however seems to most typically use the original “Love Boat” terminal at pier 93. Pity those on Viking Sky who arrive / depart pier 46.

In my experience Uber works reasonably well, Uber drivers like the relatively long trip, and high likelihood of a ride out of LAX. It is however worth checking the ports America website for other ships in San Pedro in that date. A large ship at the other berth can suck up a lot of taxi and Uber capacity.

And I’ll add that these longer sailings tend to have a bit more availability in the specialties too, so changing may be easier than you expect. One strategy that has served us well is to book specialties early in the voyage, then watch the menus for possible changes.

Yes certainly, in fact I don’t recall them taking our passports on that particular sailing, but that might differ for other foreign countries (we visited only Mexico).

I’ll share our experience from last September on Regatta. We were back to back in Los Angeles but the procedure is likely the same for all US ports. A few days before the end of the first segment we received a letter which: a) confirmed we were booked back to back. b) offered us a couple of tour options, a short list indeed. and c) asked whether we would like to dine in the GDR for lunch on turnaround day (which wasn’t an option for new joiners). We were instructed to meet in the lower lobby at a particular time to be taken off as a group. I don’t recall the exact time, something like 10:00. There were about 25 of us, naturally there were two stragglers who held the group up. We were led off to meet immigration face to face which was a quick efficient process. Then, back through the metal detectors and back to the boarding lounge. The port security staff were a bit confused (remember, not so long after the restart) with one asking us repeatedly to leave the building. We all sat in place and eventually another officer arrived who cleared us to wait. We were allowed back onboard about 11:00 we were again delayed because two or three pax tried to eek out every possible minute preventing the “zero count” which is required before boarding can start. The process was easy enough and would have flowed more smoothly if everyone just complied with the provided instructions. Hope this helps a bit.

Indeed

I want to be clear that I’ve not done exactly what you describe however. Our last sailing on Regatta was from Los Angeles with a scheduled sailing of 5pm, for a variety of reasons we found ourselves at the curb about 3:45. Not a word was said and unsurprisingly we sailed through checkin and security and we’re onboard within something like 10 minutes including a facilities break. As for safety, the muster presentation is completed by watching a video on your television which unlocks it for other purposes. When we boarded we were directed to check in with a muster representative in the dining room, this, I can imagine might be a challenge with dinner going on, surely though O will have a way to deal with it as you’ll be far from alone. I do recall seeing something requesting one be aboard at least 60 minutes prior to sailing, that’s probably around my personal comfort limit too.

Notice I said I’m an early bird. DW definitely isn’t, or else I would have just made do with the machine in our suite. Our next will be another first. First time with Viking Oceans in February. Sailing Viking Star RT Los Angeles to Hawaii. Watch on the Viking forum for my report. I’m expecting a bit of a letdown compared to Seabourn but then again Viking fans are passionate and it will be good to see whether we find pleasure with them. Then, next august, we do essentially this same voyage with Oceania.

Our appointed time was 8:30 driven by our original scheduled flight time. They asked everyone to vacate their rooms by 8:00 and to disembark by 9:30 so your plan sounds fine. We pushed the depart the room time to about 8:30 on Ovation at that point the cabin staff started to repeat their very pleasant goodbyes. Canadian customs forms were turned in for Prince Rupert as you suspect. The vast majority were not required to submit for a face to face. Not sure if the ones who were asked were singled out for particular questions, or just random. One point about US immigration in YVR. Global Entry is available but you will be asked to show your Global Entry card to the line checkers something I’ve never experienced before. We were asked to show 3x before reaching CBP, who of course couldn’t have cared less, just use the kiosk they said.

Sundry. We booked directly with Seabourn forgoing the exceptional deal your favorite travel agent would have secured for us. A terrible mistake we know, but we like to see how the company operates end to end and we were highly impressed with our agent. Im an early riser and often found myself in Observation watching sail ins by 0515. Yes I’m and oddball, but by no means alone about a dozen of us gathered here daily. We asked for coffee but we’re told wait for 0615. A Nespresso machine was placed a bit earlier and a few of us used it, when the water ran out we refilled with the still water decanter - WRONG we were told, that’s not what it’s for. The following day, no still water decanter, someone refilled the Nespresso using the sink in the bar WRONG we were told, wait for 0615. The following day, no Nespresso machine at all. I took to calling room service from the bar phone asking for a pot of coffee which was delivered, and savored, by the early bird team. This continued for many days until we started to find the entry door to Observation locked until, 0615. The various games and tactics implemented to avoid making coffee available were almost comical, but honestly, wouldn’t it have been easier to just place a couple pots an hour or so earlier? Spa. We each had a couple of treatments finding them quite satisfactory, we appreciated that there was no hard sell of products though they were of course on display everywhere and yes it was suggested that additional services, including their very special potions would only do good. On the whole though good services and a decent value. We did have to show flexibility to find days and times that suited. We got a chuckle when booking as the first offered appoint was always “today at 9pm”. I wonder how often they fill those time slots? Casino. No comment, I enjoy a bit of gambling but have never seen this as a cruise ship activity. Speakers. We found the lecturers well prepared and articulate, focused mainly on Alaska culture and wildlife which is great but we always appreciate world history or travel topics beyond the immediate experience. Guest services. We had little reason to interact aside from cancelling the rescheduled shore excursions, pleasant enough though. Anything I missed? Ask please.

As I noted in an early post we were treated to an upgrade to a PH room, this was a sincerely nice gesture though not implemented especially well. No one informed us our room had changed, we learned only when we started to unpack and I picked up the card key seeing an unfamiliar name. I glanced down at the paper barcode slip and noted a different cabin number. It’s worth noting that our bar setup was correct in our original room. Later, as sail away time approached we started to worry for our bags. AirTags suggested they were on or near the ship, but where, vertically who knows. A trip to the original room took me to the new occupants who had likewise been upgraded, but were missing their bags, they were happy though to be rid of our luggage. So yes, a nice gesture, but not especially well implemented. About the room, we appreciated the extra dining space, especially with so many meals taken in, but in all other respects we found the differences insignificant or a poor value given the typically 50% greater cost (in my informal perusal). Would we rather pay for this or take an extra trip every second or third time. Duh, more cruising please. our cabin service team was excellent indeed as good as any we’ve had. Like the best they quickly recognized our movement pattern and mostly serviced the room as if by magic while we were out. They paid close attention to our mini bar requests keeping our favorites in stock at all times. Only once did we return with the room unfinished, they were hard at work though and had it complete within 5 minutes. Linens were superior to those we had on Ovation though as I noted earlier would meet no one’s definition of luxury. Bathrobes though we’re of good quality and were exchanged mid cruise which seemed a nice touch. As mentioned prior a very high quality tote bag appeared at turn down early along, by far the nicest we’ve received anywhere.

Fair warning here I’m going to rant a bit about the Restaurant, if you think you know my feeling or just don’t want to read anything negative by all means skip this post. Odyssey sailed full both legs. About 420 on the first, about 435 on the second. This being the case, and the weather limiting outdoor options we fully expected F&B to operate similar to Ovation meaning all meals offered in the Restaurant. Instead it opened only 6 mornings for breakfast and 7 noontimes for lunch. To say Colonnade was stressed is a severe understatement. We were told room service was delivering 100 plus trays for breakfast daily, nearly half the ship, delays were inevitable and apologies common. We enjoy an in room breakfast occasionally but prefer be served. We complained, calmly and professionally, the only apology though was a weak one stating that this is how Odyssey operates. Period. We obviously made it on some sort of “hard to please” list because by third day staff we’d never interacted with started addressing us by name and offering to carry anything larger than a swizzle stick. We were told we could ask for Colonnade offerings to be served plated, but this proved difficult in practice always requiring the help of a manager. We resorted to the tossed to order salads which were quite good but a bit tedious after several consecutive days. We were assigned a fixed waiter in the Restaurant who took good care of us and eliminated any repeat of the table without staff problem we had on night one. Bryan and his assistant Juliana proved extremely competent and pleasant we had not reason to complain a bit about their extraordinary service. The meals themselves were good, though there was considerable repetition from segment one to two, I again note we booked a 14 day cruise, not two back to back 7 day sailings. Elsewhere I’ve commented about our good experiences with our special request and at TK. Likewise excellent beverage service everywhere on board but most notably in Observation.

I want to start with an overall view of this sailing on Odyssey. To be absolutely clear, we enjoyed our sailing. A number of staff were extremely helpful and genuinely went out if their way to assist, some went well beyond our definition of helpful. We were quite unlucky even by Alaska standards with the weather, the first 5 days saw cold drizzle and rain. Seabourn of course is not to blame for the weather but it was a damper on the fun and did force folks inside contributing to a general feeling of crowding we never felt on Ovation. The second 7 days was drier if not warmer, still the sun shown in Misty Fjords, a rarity and an opportunity to enjoy the forward hot tub. if you’ve been following along you might note we wrote nothing about shore excursions the why is that the three we booked didn’t operate as planned. The Zipliner was rescheduled from 2pm to 6pm with a looong tender to Icy Straight (the two piers were used by NCL and Princess). We didn’t fancy a late dinner in Colonnade so, cancelled, likewise our Juneau excursion was rescheduled to 7:30 and we were assured the plan was to tender into Juneau, we passed but the ship ended up finding a berth which I’m certain was welcome news for the 280 departing. The long and the short was the shore excursions were a bust from the standpoint of rescheduling. We understand that the operators make changes but would have appreciated knowing before boarding to have a better shot at choosing alternatives. Ultimately we mostly wandered about independently enjoying sites and tours of our own making. We found Wrangell an especially charming small town (this view was not shared by a vocal minority) it reminded us very much of Honningsvåg on the North Cape of Norway.

Just off the ship, it’s a 3 ship day in Vancouver (I pity those boarding today with an extra 2500 on Crown Princess). Remember my advice, nice lunch ashore, head for the ship at 1:00 pm. Seabourn really have the getting off the ship part down pat. Walked off at our appointed time, luggage was released just a few minutes late. Then we left Seabourn land and we’re sprinkled in with masses of folks departing Crown Princess. For reasons I can’t fathom our lines crossed with Seabourn guests exiting baggage claim from the left but Seabourn guides place on the right (and vice versa for Princess guests). We found our bus and were soon on our way, arrived at YVR to find our 2 hour flight delayed by 4 hours. The Air Canada rep said, why are you here? For our scheduled flight in 3 hours says I, but it’s delayed 4 hours says she. So here we wait. Travel is fun right? Anyway, we find ourselves with time so I’ll work on the recap in the posts that follow.

Well, it’s that day again, the one that mixes the happy with the sad. Packing day. We used to plan hours for packing, after all it takes days at home right? Packing up to leave though goes so much faster, most of the clothes are ‘dirty’ really just worn since, let’s be honest, nobody’s been digging ditches here. The only hard part is keeping all of the liquids out of our one catty on. Otherwise, just stuff it all in wherever it fits. We usually start at 4:00 and still have time for cocktails before dinner. it’s like they say the second best day aside from starting a trip, is the day you get home. We have a relatively straightforward travel day with a short flight, the only tough part will be arriving at peak rush hour traffic quite a rude reintroduction to reality as our drive home will be at least as long as the flight from Vancouver. Overall, we’ve enjoyed our sailing, we had primarily rain and cold the first week, considerably better weather the second. As always a handful of staff make all of the difference. On the whole I rate Seabourn staff quite highly but it’s those few who actually seek you out and anticipate your wants that leave the strongest impression. I’ll write a comprehensive summary from home in the days to come.

Our second dinner at TK grill last night. When we boarded we had 4 reservations, our SB travel planner booked two when we made the reservation, these (seemingly) disappeared when SB upgraded the reservation system, no problem we booked two more. But, lo and behold, four showed up in our itinerary once we boarded the ship. That’s a bit much we thought and cancelled two on embarkation day. Anyway, back to last nights meal, a bit earlier time slot led to much less harried service. My advice, dine early or dine late, 7:00 or 7:30 probably aren’t the best choices strictly from the perspective of staff loading. Anyway, we very much enjoyed this second meal and kept it (relatively) light. The very good Caesar salad to start. Starters as mains. No sides and two slabs of cake for dessert, the coconut cake is great, but the 7 layer chocolate is on another level. Disembarkation letter came with turndown today, a reminder that our time clear runs short.

Well then. A couple of recommendations. Candi, the bartender in Observation bar is just stupendous. She runs a tight ship, assigning and reassigning servers to meet surging needs. If you have any specific requests she will do her upmost to meet them. Paul the main man at the Square has the fastest smile on the ship, remembers orders after one encounter and is always pushing “vitamin K” a dash of Kalua in almost anything. Juliana an assistant waiter who frequently works in Colonnade is the friendliest person you’ll ever meet, she runs a close second to Paul for widest, fastest smile.

A bit more about food, on Ovation we requested a special meal one evening, we appreciated the effort, but frankly the execution was only so so, it felt for all the world like a rehashing of what was on the regular menu for that evening. We walked away thinking B+ for effort C for execution, overall ehh. Still we tried again on Odyssey thinking if we set down our expectations it would still be fun. Twice the F&B manager confirmed what we wanted, we suggested a theme but left the particulars to the chef. Wow, what a home run, an entire meal was prepared including special bread, starter, mains (yes a selection of mains) and finally a spectacular dessert. Just blown away with the whole experience which far exceeded all expectation.

We sailed Ovation in June to the north cape of Norway. Currently on Odyssey sailing Alaska. in both cases satellite internet has been satisfactory with the exception of deep in the fjords where line of sight access to the satellite is impeded. On both cruises there were many complaints of interrupted service though I would suggest those periods were the best viewing.

As for accessibility of the senior officers, on Odyssey, this week they have had a number of coffee with the officers events in the Square and the captain (Tim Roberts) and his senior team have attended all. Haven’t noticed him in the dining room, but that may well be a difference of schedule preference. Captain is out and about all day, he is quite visible and easily approached.