jondfk

Nancy, it’s time to spill the beans as to your favorite restaurant service team(s). thanks,

I’ll keep an eye open. On Ovation mixers varied bar to bar and day to day. Mostly Canada Dry and Schweppes. If you’re hoping for something better, like, for example Fever Tree, I saw none.

I’ll snap a photo of the Club (and Horizon) menus while on board, I will caution you that the menus on Ovation were advisory, what was actually available varied considerably. An example, I routinely drink Jamison’s Irish, Ovation ran out early in the sailing. No problem I thought I have a mountain of onboard credit, the menu shows Green Spot Irish as an upgrade choice, but nope, not even the extra money could yield an Irish. Still, I’m happy to post whatever menus are in play.

Thanks for the tip, invaluable! We will ask about Cristo. I’ll return the favor, if still aboard in November, as for Lee from Scotland, a more responsive service team you won’t find. Jon

Okay, that's enough for now, barring any requests prior, expect my next report after we board on Friday.

I'll post daily or whenever something piques our interest and happy to answer any questions anyone has. I don't post food porn (I find it rude and distracting when the next table is taking photos of their food) or menus (since these are simple to see on Source). As I said we booked very early and watched for subsequent promotions. At some stage we were upgraded from a V5 suite to a V1 with no increase in price and a small bit of OBC. We are CCL shareholders and were impressed to have our shareholder credit applied the same day we sent the request by email. Finally, DW can't drink alcohol for medical reasons, I imbibe a bit the included cost of liquor seems quite steep given that only one enjoys. We were amazed a the shortages present on Ovation and quite disappointed at the quality and variety of included wines (and the absence of any sort of list of what was actually available). It's my hope that the scarcity problem has resolved with a more major home port and a few months more time. I'll admit that the "pandemic shortage", "short staff", "supply chain" excuses have all run a bit thin for me. Budweiser beer, Jamesons Irish, and Baileys are all available in the rather small mid-range grocery store nearest my house, there's no reason Seabourn (Ovation) should have run out of any of these - but they ran out of all. Expect a full report on this point as it's a sticky one for me. As said, any and all questions are welcome. The only thing I won't respond to are protest from Seabourn old-timers telling me how it's supposed to be, how it always was, or how they just can't possibly believe what I write. I'll attempt to be factual, but what I'll report will be our own experience, nothing more. I do have one reference point for SB and will note differences, improvements or deficiencies versus that baseline.

We fly to Vancouver from San Francisco a day ahead, as mentioned with air arranged by SB. We would have liked to have them do it all, we wanted a room at the Pan Pacific, but the SB block was sold out. Just as well, we booked it ourselves in an upgraded category for just a bit more than half what SB would have charged. Though SB booked our flights we don't get transfers since we don't have a hotel booking with them, a bit strange in my opinion, but hey, taxis leave on demand right? I wrote extensively describing our worst 60 minutes on Ovation as the first lunch in Colonnade just after boarding. Lesson learned, we don't plan to make our way towards the ship until after finding lunch with a goal to board closer to 2:00 than 12:00. Hopefully we will experience nothing but calm through the process. We are fortunate that rather than two mega ships joining us boarding that day we are joined by only one other ship at Canada Place an older RCCL ship with a pax count closer to 2500 rather than 5000. Lucky us. We are told to expect epic delays learning US customs, hopefully a late start allows the queue of early birds to wind down.

I hadn't intended to do another Live From after my posting my newbie experience on Ovation back in June sailing to Norway. However, there seems to be some interest in sharing my thoughts as an experienced, one sailing, Seabourn passenger. To save you looking up the details posted prior we are retired mid 60's experienced cruisers. Nearly 30 voyages on Princess including the one on Grand at the very start of the pandemic which landed us in quarantine at Travis AFB for 14 days. We haven't enjoyed the evolution of Princess towards larger and larger ships, with more and more people and more and more nickels an dimes (especially the changes announced this week). We don't say never again, but are focused on smaller ship brands. We sailed thrice last year with Oceania, a total of 34 days, all on Regatta. Loved them all. I promised on my Ovation thread to minimize direct comparisons, and I think I stayed true to that objective. Looking ahead we have a first Viking Oceans voyage booked in February '24 and additional voyages on Regatta in April and September. In January '25 we will sail Oceania's newest, Vista, through the panama canal. This was actually our first cruise booked with Seabourn back in the darkest days of the pandemic, booked in, I believe April of '21. At the time everything was being cancelled and we expected this likely would as well, but here we are. A bit later the Norway / Ovation sailing caught my eye and we slid that in front as our first SB experience. Unlike Norway we allowed SB to arrange air for us this time. RT with Air Canada from Vancouver. The flights, both ways, have changed twice since booking our SB agent has been right on all changes keeping surprised to a minimum. I know, we should be using your favorite travel agent, but thus far we have chosen to keep control of our travels for the most part which has been quite helpful through a period of maximum unpredictability. I do have recommendations for high end agents to assist when things settle down more fully - but - having flown a bit more than 5 million miles, and spent nearly 3000 nights in hotels over my professional life I'm quite comfortable with details that might stymie others.

Shall I do a second live from?

Perhaps, if we are very lucky, improved room service menus are being rolled out ship by ship, with no order announced. Does anyone know for a fact that the new menus have reached Odyssey? If not, I’ll be sure to provide and update. If relying on Source I’d have to say the old menus remain in use as of today.

Soooo, what then should we expect on Odyssey when we board next week? The sailing was sold as either a 14 day RT from Vancouver or two 7 day segments north and southbound. Actually, I know what to expect as I’ve been monitoring menus in Source. We have to expect a closed restaurant on port days, though breakfast does seem to be served daily (I’ll post to confirm once onboard). The Patio is going to be very repetitive for lunch but if that’s the only served option…

Okay, it’s official the thread has been hijacked, in part my fault. For work I travelled here, there and everywhere. Very little in South America but extensively around Europe, Middle East and Asia. Every stop in Hong Kong included a call at ‘my’ tailor. The fun bit was picking out fabrics from the bolt including colorful silk lining in my choice of canary yellow. All manner of Italian wools, patterns and yes seersucker. But as I’ve said I associate these duds with the millions of miles I flew to earn them. Nothing so much said work time is over than hanging that stuff up. I keep them though with the hope that I’ll one day open that closet and see style rather than structure…

I’m just taking a break from packing for Odyssey next week. For evenings. Three dress shirts. Two pair of twill trousers (which passed on Ovation last month). One pair of quite stylish loafers. A sport coat which will be wore onto the plane per Seabourn mandate. Were the dress code relaxed the only change I’d make is leaving the sport coat behind. I’ve a closet full of bespoke suits but after 40 years of ‘proper work attire’ I’m done. To those who enjoy, I applaud you, but have no desire to join you. The funny part is, I suspect Mr. Luxury and myself would be fast friends. See you onboard one day sir.

I was aboard Ovation with the dog, I’ve not commented until now, but your post drew me out. Indeed it was quite clear the true status of this animal was well known to Seabourn. Why this specific exception was made I do not know, but no one I met, crew and passenger alike had any sense that this was a genuine service animal. I witnessed much but not all of the behavior discussed. Hand feeding, off leash, on furniture etc. Fortunately, I did not witness the elevator “relief area” incident, this I would have felt compelled to report on the spot in the strongest possible terms. I have sailed elsewhere with genuine service animals, and indeed made good friends with one owner and her companion. The behavior demonstrated made it completely clear the animal was properly trained and controlled. Enough said.

Likewise on Ovation in June. Quite serviceable and superior to the vast majority of the included still whites IMHO. Of course tastes vary, widely.

I'll add that making the request in advance for our June Ovation sailing made no difference. What was stocked seemed random or worse. We requested Baileys and Vodka, what was stocked was Walker Black and Beefeater's. We reiterated our request with our cabin service team (when we finally met them after dinner) and both were delivered, the JW and Gin remained, unrequested, unopened throughout our cruise. Likewise, our soft drink preferences had no bearing on what was stocked though our requests were ultimately met following a second and third request. We were not at all impressed with either the means to make requests or the attempts made to honor them. Yeah, yeah, I know, supply chain, staff shortages, pandemic, blah blah blah. The fact that our requests could ultimately be met albeit later in the voyage demonstrate this just isn't a service SB are serious about delivering. Perhaps a better solution would be a liquor locker on each floor when one could select what we want for in room use once per voyage?

I’m willing to concede that this could be a viable solution if either the menu were expanded beyond its what five(?) choices. Add a couple daily specials or use two alternating cooked to order menus and you’d approach what I’d consider a reasonable compromise. Of course this doesn’t solve the problem of the Colonnade being too small to accommodate the whole ship but does solve the dirty tongs problem.

Susan (SLSD) I’ll back you up on this. We were on the sailing with you and were told precisely the same thing. On the other hand I’ve posted elsewhere that I’ve been monitoring Odyssey for our upcoming sailing and have noted that the restaurant is reliably closed for port days, of which there are many in Alaska. We, like you, strongly prefer being served and simply won’t pay SB prices to carry our own plates, however nice the buffet. What I dislike even more is the bad information. As you know the restaurant was, in fact, open every meal on our June sailing, we enjoyed it often and frequently were joined by up to a hundred (my estimate) other sailors.

I’ll add our experience boarding Ovation in June in Copenhagen. This being our first on SB we didn’t expect any sort of priority. We were assigned a boarding time of 1:00. This time never changed in the days prior to sailing. We didn’t aim to arrive early, we booked a taxi from the airport (we stayed there the night prior) for noon. Google maps estimated the travel time as 40 minutes including a bit of city center traffic. Our cab arrived 10 minutes early, we reconned arriving ~30 minutes early wouldn’t lead to our being scolded. Actual travel time was closer to 25 minutes putting us, oops, 45 minutes early. Not a word was said. We encountered two brief stops before checkin, while I fumbled for boarding passes at the first stop, the person said “don’t bother with that just give me your names”, we did and she moved us along to the second station at which someone was looking over a long list. I quipped “is that the naughty list” and was assured, no this is the nice list” (meaning the upgrade list) no such luck for us, we were directed onwards to checkin. Passports were checked and boarding chits with bar codes were issued. At that precise moment boarding was announced and an ordered procession across the pier and towards the gangway began. The entire process took something like 20 minutes and I’d estimate we were roughly in the first half of the passengers with roughly 250 boarded ahead of us (though we later learned that about 75 had continued onward from the prior Iceland sailing). I’ve commented elsewhere some displeasure at that first meal after boarding, a good reason to delay a bit when we board Odyssey in a couple weeks, but speaking only about our boarding process it would be very difficult for SB to make meaningful improvements.

I would really appreciate your posting any favorite waitstaff of bartenders, would shorten our search for the best of the best when we board on August 11. Have a lovely sail!

Hmmm, I wonder whether we might cross paths in Alaska? August 11, Odyssey?

The best advice I can offer from our June sailing on Ovation is: Arrive a bit late. The Colonnade will be mobbed and service seriously strained at the start of boarding, but when rooms are released at 1:00 the place cleared out and became suddenly very pleasant. Alternately, deviate to the patio which was likewise very pleasant at least when we passed through at 1:15. We plan to followe these exact tactics when we board Odyssey in 3 weeks for what looks to be a full sailing.

Was on Ovation for two weeks in June, used the launderette 3.mornings, I aimed for the 6:00 opening was always open by 6:00.

Hi Susan, and I know we experienced the restaurant open on daily on our sailing with you. And, the restaurant manager told me, as he told you, that this was a fleet wide change as of late June. However, I’ve been closely monitoring the Source app for our Odyssey sailing coming up in August and I’ve found the lunch menu to say Closed nearly every day, one hopes it’s a failure to post the menu, but it appears the “fleet wide” comment we heard on Ovation may not have been correct. Look for a reality post from me sometime after August 11. We, like you, use the restaurant as a first option whenever it’s available. Jon

I couldn't agree with you more, and now, with one sailing under our belts we plan to do exactly as you suggest. However, on our first cruise, staff actively "herded" us toward the Colonnade. After we finished and moved towards our room we had our first encounter with the Patio and yes I agree a much superior alternative which we will certainly exploit next month. Thanks though for the clarification.