Mrs_Tiki

I follow her in social media and find her posts informative and entertaining. What impresses me the most is the attention she pays to providing opportunities for the development and advancement of her staff. I have seen her in person, albeit from afar. We were on MSC Seascape tied up next to Beyond in one of the ports (can’t remember which!) I spied her on the bridge as Beyond set sail. For such a petite person, her body language radiated confidence and command. We missed her by just a week or two when we sailed on Beyond last spring. I would love to sail with her but wouldn’t plan a trip around it.

Hi KKB! I remember you raving about that soup when we sailed together in April, can’t wait to try it!

We were offered this for purchase in advance along with other specialty dining options. It is showing on our cruise planner, but with a time of noon on embarkation day. I can only think that this is a placeholder. Others have reported that the actual date and time is communicated once on board. We have also reserved “ Dinner on the Edge” which is showing up at 10:00 am on embarkation day.

Me, too! Part of the fun is getting out of my winter “uniform” of black clothes! but I completely agree with the recommendation to be prepared for the A/C on the ship. I pack several white and brightly colored wraps to coordinate.

Charla, I have savored every word of this wonderful review! Happy birthday to Jeremy! Your positive attitude in spite of the diminishment of the Retreat experience is admirable, but I am among the many that agree with your assessment that X is not delivering the value that we have come to expect. But with sailings sold out, it's hard to counter the supply and demand principle. Mark and I just returned from our first Seabourn cruise and would be happy to return. However, most of their sailings are longer than the 8-day Pacific Coast repo that we just completed. Enjoy the rest of your cruise, and I truly hope that our paths cross again! (In the spirit of @mac_tlc, we'll save you a seat in the Retreat Lounge on Ascent, January 21, 2:00 pm...) PS - Have you met Captain Kate?

The starboard side was against the pier, and I did not notice a dent. So, if it was on that side, I guess it is fixed.

We are tied up next to her in Victoria today. DH and I noticed the work going on, but didn’t realize there were no passengers moving about until we were on the bus for our shore ex! We paid more attention walking back to our ship upon our return. Of course we couldn’t tell what was going on inside the vessel, but saw lots of painting, scraping of railings, and hoisting materials onto the sports court area and pool decks. unfortunately the materials were in big bins, so we couldn’t tell what they were loadin There was a lot of activity and seemed that big changes were taking place.

???? I have no reason or wish to argue, but that does not match what we saw. What I don’t have a photo of is the crane removing older, weathered, white zodiacs onto a flatbed trailer on the pier. The black ones in the photo appeared to be brand new. I will try to confirm with a crew member and check back if I gain any additional information.

Ithikan, I am no expert on kayaks, but here’s a photo of what we saw.

We are waiting to board Odyssey at Canada Place today and took a walk along the pier to kill time while waiting. We noticed that they were hoisting new watersports equipment onto the marine platform and removing the old. Brand new zodiacs, kayaks, PFDs, and paddles were among the items we saw being loaded. I would think that this provides some comfort for those who worry that Seabourn might be letting the ship go as it is in its last months in the fleet. I was very encouraged to see this!

I agree! Thanks to all for your informative replies. We will be on the lookout for whales! Funny thing is that this is a cruise celebrating our 35th anniversary and the only time we have previously seen whales was during our 25th anniversary cruise in French Polynesia. But that time we were in the water with them!

Thanks, jkd. It occurred to me last night that they probably must stay some distance offshore to be able to open the casino. We don’t gamble, so I had not thought of that. And hello neighbor! We just moved to Woodstock.

With our cruise just days away, I keep think of more questions! For those who have sailed on this (Vancouver-LA) or similar itineraries, does the ship sail close enough to see the shore? We chose a port side cabin for this southbound sailing in hopes that we might enjoy some scenery.

DH and I depart on Friday on Odyssey's repositioning cruise from Vancouver to LA. We received notice of an itinerary change making our departure from San Francisco 6 hours earlier than planned due to speed limitations on the approach to Santa Barbara to protect marine life. Not a big deal other than decreasing our chance to see the Golden Gate as we sail under, as it is usually foggier in the early morning hours. We are speculating that the marine life being protected might be migrating whales, but that is pure speculation. Does anyone have a definitive answer?

I wish! Our next SD cruise is not until March. We have not sailed SD since 2019 and are looking forward to being back. I hope that you have a wonderful cruise! If you have any questions, there are some great people on this board who have sailed extensively on SD who are happy to share their knowledge.

Thanks for the recommendations. I really wanted to try Holland House due to its location and was able to book a one-night stay by contacting the Reservation Manager directly. She was able to waive the two-night minimum, hooray!

We cruised a western itinerary in mid-April, and the temps seemed pretty typical, with brief showers most afternoons. I wouldn’t hesitate to book a Caribbean cruise in that timeframe again.

Thanks @cabosal1! Our travel agent had initially recommended La Sammana, but I thought the price was outrageous for a quick overnight. We were leaning towards Holland House, as we would be able to walk to Mass only a few blocks away prior to heading to the ship, but they have a two-night minimum. I appreciate your remarks about Divi and will look into that. The TA had also recommended that as a more budget-friendly alternative.

To tag onto a similar topic, we are looking for a hotel for one night before our SD cruise leaving from Phillipsburg on March 10. We would welcome any suggestions and would appreciate any experience that you might share re Holland House, Divi Beach Club, Hilton resorts, etc. Our only other pre-cruise experience was on SXM was at a popular all-inclusive adult-only resort adjacent to Maho Beach. While it was a lovely property and offered an all-inclusive plan that was attractive, I acquired a “food-borne pathogen” that persisted through our cruise and beyond that I would not like to repeat!

After enjoying several sailings on SD, our post-shutdown cruises have been in the “ship within a ship” enclaves on mass-market lines. While we have enjoyed the convenience of a Florida embarkation port, we have missed the uniqueSeaDream experience. so happy to have booked SD2 for March 10. Anyone with us?

I can’t remember which S-class ship it was, but DH and I watched a very large, very drunk man stagger towards the Sunset Bar. We think he was looking for the way back to his room, but he picked the wrong door and ended up going in crew door behind the bar. He emerged with a bottle of liquor in his pocket and proceeded to stagger around deck until security arrived and wheeled him away in a wheelchair. I’d say he was cut off after that!

(Apologies in advance for the long post. For those preferring the Cliff Notes version, the answer is YES!) We sailed X exclusively from 2002 - 2015, then switched to smaller ships (Windstar and SeaDream) for a time, then returned to X post-shutdown due to the ease of getting to FLL vs. the Caribbean embarkation ports used by the smaller ships. We have a cruise booked on the Ascent in January, which we booked at a crazy-low price. If my math is correct, that cruise will make us E+. But it is likely to be our last X cruise unless the Retreat prices come down. As others have said, I don’t foresee that happening as long as demand holds up. We are trying Seabourn next month and looking to book a SeaDream cruise in the spring. I continue to track spring prices on X, but right now I can book a mid-level cabin on SeaDream AND Economy Comfort airfare to SXM for less than the cost of a SkySuite. And to those who say the products are not comparable, I agree. Standard SeaDream cabins are “cozy” at 185 sq. ft. and do not offer balconies. But the rest of the ship is like a stand-alone Retreat with only 112 pax. and 95 crew. The service is what sets it apart. And as a family-owned, privately-held company, there are no pricing gimmicks. Apart from occasional discounts for sailings with excess capacity, the price is the price, is totally all-inclusive, and varies only by location and size of cabin, We have sailed with the owner’s daughter and her family a couple of times and have always felt we received the same level of service as they. Although they were very appropriately ensconced in the Owner’s Suite!

I have it booked for our January 2024 sailing.

Dakahuna, when we sailed in an Aqua Sky Suite, our key card was diagonally split into two sections: half was the Retreat gray and half was the Aqua Class turquoise. I believe that this signified that we were allowed to dine in Blu as if we were in Aqua, not just on a space-available basis. I know that it worked to allow us access to the thermal suite at no charge.

Hands down, views from Blu on S-class are the best! That said, we have recently (2021-2023) dined in Luminae on Edge, Apex, and Beyond and Blu on Apex and Beyond. Blu’s view was somewhat improved on Beyond with the removal of lifeboats. Apart from a few favorite items on the Luminae menu (including the fab lobster roll), we prefer the food in Blu and really did not notice an appreciable difference in service. (Some difference in availability of Premium wine selections, but hard to tell because we made friends with the sommeliers and may have received “off menu” selections.) We love The Retreat experience, so the perfect solution for us was sailing in an Aqua Sky Suite on Beyond in April. But only did it due to a crazy low fare. (Thank you @mac_tlc!) The current per diems for this are too rich for our blood!