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Thank you all for your input regarding the mealtimes. I thought it would make for an interesting discussion. Now people who are considering sailing on Seabourn have more insight into the alternatives.

As for our Alaskan excursions, our catamaran to see the glaciers at Tracy Arm/Endicott Arm was truly breathtaking. This is always one of the main reasons people travel to Alaska. I have been to Glacier Bay twice but never here. We were very lucky in that we had clear weather and lots of calving. I have some great photos and videos, but I am not sure I will be able to upload them until I get back home. I will try and let you know.

As I said at the beginning of my thread I try to be objective - neither too critical nor a shill. Today I must report that we had one of the WORST experiences at breakfast we have had on ANY ship. We ate at the restaurant. The tea was lukewarm; we sent it back and it once again came back at the same temperature. Ellie ordered the fruits and nuts breakfast. There were NO nuts on the plate. I ordered pancakes. They came without syrup. I asked our waitress when she served the pancakes, but she never came back. I finally asked a waiter from another table. By the time I got the syrup, my meal was cold. Both of us ordered bacon extra crisp and I made it especially clear to the waitress about our prior experiences. It still came half-cooked. I was extremely disappointed. Then, on the way out of the restaurant, I ran into my bridge partner. She told me about her experience yesterday at bridge. (I didn't go yesterday because our wonderful excursion got back so late). The instructor told her she (the guest) couldn't play because SHE (the instructor) decided to play. l have never of an instructor taking a guest's spot. To me that usurps one of the cardinal rules of cruising, guests come first.

In any case every vacation has its issues. However these are ones I would not expect from a 6-star cruise line. Needless to say we will have some some comments to make to management.

What a fabulous night of dance! All the singers were great,but I must give a special shout out to Eliza, the regular lead singer with theband. She has such versatility and what a voice. We also got to hear our cruisedirector, Sophie, who graduated from entertainment to her present position. Shecertainly held her own with all the current singers. I also should mention that I started a stroll line and manyof the passengers and entertainers joined in. It was a great evening.

Here are the photos I promised from Juneau:

Today’s excursion was very diverse. We were on a bus, a boat and did a nature walk through the Tongas National Park and to the Mendenhall glacier.I got some wonderful photos which I will include in my next post.

I heard some interesting comments on board about the starting times for Seabourn’s meals; so I thought I would bring it to everyone’s attention and get some additional feedback for the benefit of newcomers. The earliest dinner is served is 7:00 PM. For several of the passengers this is too late and they have no alternative. Breakfast is not served until 7:30 AM in the Colonnade and 8:00 AM in the main restaurant. Once again, they feel they should have an earlier alternative. I pointed out that there is coffee and Danish served at 6:15 AM at Seabourn square. They said that was not adequate.

There were also some comments about the Club not opening until 6:30 PM for afternoon cocktails. It would be interesting to hear how others feel about these policies.

Getting back to my day, after returning from our excursion, I ate lunch and played bridge for over 3 hours. Have you ever had one of those days when everything went right? We got most of the points and, even when we didn’t, every finesse went our way. It was quite amazing.

Tonight, we will be going to a dance party and after dinner sweets in the Club. Tomorrow we will be going to Tracy Arm/Endicott. We will be seeing them up close in a catamaran.

Today we are in Juneau. I am going on a photo tour this morning to see whales and other wildlife.

. Yesterday was mostly a quiet ship day - sunrise, cooking demonstration, reading, bridge. We did all three meals in the restaurant. Both the food and service were top notch. In fact one of the waiters overheard us talking about the crispy bacon and made sure that ours was extra crispy. We had a wonderful comedian for entertainment. The only negative I might mention would be the change in payout in the casino. It almost seems like they recalibrated the slot machines as everyone we spoke to, said they had absolutely no payouts during the last two days. I'm done for the rest of this cruise. Ellie, perhaps not. LOL

How is the weather. I thought about this cruise but we decided on the Aug 26th one instead.

Probably a good choice, but Alaska often has rain and clouds in August as well as September. Today, however, for the first time thus far on the cruise we had a gorgeous sunrise. Here is a link to some of my photos of this morning's sunrise:

We are in Sitka today and had a very nice excursion. We saw sea otters and a whole lot of humpback whales.

The internet in town is slightly better than on the ship. I was able to upload a few photos, but still had to reduce the pixels.

Added about a dozen photos to my Vancouver album:

and began a Sitka album with a few photos from our excursion including a couple of the ship from our catamaran.

This morning I was able to resolve the crispy bacon issue by speaking directly with the kitchen. However, after several days of eating breakfast at the Colonnade, we have come to the conclusion that breakfast here does not compare to those on Crystal, or for that matter, most other ships we have sailed on. The buffet is too small, with not enough choices. There are too many items that have to be ordered individually from the waiters, which then means the service, while friendly and well intentioned, is just too slow. Today we found out that even the teas are not available to the waiters. They must order them from the kitchen. By the time Ellie got her tea, she had finished her meal. Tomorrow we will try the main restaurant. The reason we haven’t thus far is that it does not open until 8:00 AM and we were scheduled for morning excursions.

Thanks for all the crispy bacon replies. When the fat part of the bacon is still white, that is my definition of not crispy. We were pleasantly surprised with our last two cruises with Viking Ocean and Crystal. Both had crispy bacon every day.

Now to the serious stuff. No we did not get to go on our seaplane adventure. That was very disappointing. Ellie was truly looking forward to riding in a seaplane for the first time and I was looking forward to the photography part of the excursion. The weather is often wet and windy in Ketchikan. Tomorrow is another day. We ended up staying , playing bridge and mah jongg. Just a relaxing day. The entertainment was once once again very special - a ventriloquist with a Jamaican puppet.

One more thing I should mention is the Internet. Seabourn's is no better than most other cruise lines. Perhaps there is a place on the ship we can find that has better connections, but in our room is very, very slow. No chance of uploading photos even with reduced pixels.

Day 2 was another fabulous day with just a couple of little hitches. Since Day 1 was all wonderful, let me start with them.

Breakfast - It is not unusual, but it is annoying, to have a difficult time getting scrambled eggs that are not runny or bacon that is crisp. ( I told you these were little hitches). There were enough items on the buffet at the Colonnade that I thought I would address the runny eggs on another day, but I did want my crisp bacon; so I special ordered it with our waiter. Not even close to crisp. Also Ellie was very disappointed with the muffins. In fact, none of the bakery items thus far have reached the caliber of what we expected on a luxury cruise line. If you want great baked items, breads, pastries, desserts, we have found that the best can be found on the European river cruises (but that is a topic for another day).

Well that is pretty much it for the negatives.

In the morning, I went to the lecture by the nature photographer and in the afternoon I played bridge. Both experiences were wonderful. For those who are into "serious" bridge this might not meet your fancy. There were only 4 tables of duplicate and the play was closer to social than typical duplicate... which was just right for me. Ellie went to the spa and was very pleased. In between we met for team trivia. Lots of fun without the seriousness we have found on some other ships and apparently they don't repeat the questions; so long time Seabourn passengers don't have the typical "home court" advantage.

Service - We have found that the staff goes out of their way to be friendly and helpful and remember our names. They definately get an A+. That aura of friendliness is contagious as it seems to spill over to the passengers. "Tone at the top".

Tonight was formal night and the captain's welcome party. Based on how so many other ships have done away with ANY dress codes, we were not expecting many to comply. We were surprised and pleased to see that so many of the passengers on Seabourn still keep up the spirit of dressing up. That does not mean that everyone was in tuxes or long gowns, but pretty much everyone was very well dressed.

Since this was Friday and Seaboun has a rabbi on board, we went to Friday evening services. Although the attendance was small, the rabbi was engaging and the attendees were involved. Interestingly the rabbi and her husband also sat at our table for dinner.

After dinner, we went back to the casino for another hour of making money. Yahoo. Then it was off to the show. Because of the size of the ship we did not have any great expectations regarding the quality of the shows. Were we suprised? It was really wonderful. The voices of the vocalists were as good as any ship we have been on.

Tomorrow will be our first day of excursions. We will be taking a seaplane to the Misty Fjords National Monument. Seabourn has really put emphasis on the itinerary. There are lots of naturalists on board and their excursions take advantage of Alaska's wilderness.

We boarded our ship yesterday afternoon. The boarding process was so easy.

But before I go into detail, I want to tell you a little about Vancouver photo tour. I would highly recommend this tour. Our guide and photographic expert, Aura, was both friendly, professional and extremely helpful. I learned quite a bit about my camera, framing photographs, lighting, settings and some fancy tricks as well. While I am not a professional, I have been taking pictures for many years and have been on several photographic tours previously. There is always so much more to learn. Ellie was also impressed as she is not really into photography and like many people who take photos mostly for fun, she uses her iphone. Aura had tips for her as well. Both Ellie and I feel that Aura was one of the best guides we have ever had. In addition to gving great tips and guidance, Ellie wanted to see some parts of Vancouver that we had not seen before. Aura provided that too. After picking us from the hotel and taking us on our tour, Aura dropped us off at the port.

Seabourn has the boarding process very much under control. There were virtually no lines or wait and once on board that welcome lunch was far superior to those we have received on many other cruise lines. By the time lunch we finished lunch, our rooms were ready. Within a very short time, our bags were delivered - another big plus for Seabourn.

We are in a standard veranda suite. It's a wow! Most of our experience on luxury cruise lines has been on Crystal. This easily blows it away. In fact it is comparable to the penthouse suite we stayed in last time we sailed on Crystal. Lots of closet and drawer space, lots of outlets for our electric equipment, a walk-in closet and a very nice balcony. The biggest plus for me is that it really is a suite with a separate section that can be closed off with a curtain so as not to bother the other person in the room. That is where I am right now.

The service has also been wonderful. Our housekeeping staff came in almost as soon as we came into the room to explain the amenities and ask if there was anything special we wanted. We met the cruise director who was very outgoing and friendly. While we out on the deck near the pool, we met some of the entertainment staff who came over to introduce themselves. Last night we met more of them as we went to the room where they had the dancing. Several came over to our table to talk with us and also took our requests for songs.

We also heard about how friendly the passengers were on Seabourn. We found that to be true as well.

Our first dinner was excellent, as was the service and our tablemates. For Ellie, the first day wouldn't be complete without a visit to the casino. It is small, but we won. What elese would you want from a casino? LOL

As you can tell we had a wonderful first day. Much more to follow.

We took a few interesting pictures yesterday in Vancouver. We expect to take a lot more today.

I find it much easier to post the photos on Flickr. Here is the link:

Unfortunately the internet in the hotel is as poor as most cruise ships; so I had to reduce the pixels dramatically to upload them. Maybe we will find a a better wifi sometime today.

Thank you all for your good wishes. Our flight from Los Angeles went smoothly. What a beautiful airport in Vancouver and customs was a breeze! We caught a taxi to our downtown hotel - the Metropolitan - only $31 Canadian dollars. Ellie and I took a walk around downtown and then decided to walk to the waterfront. Great views, plus the weather was clear and in the low 60's - what more could we ask for to begin our trip. Knowing we would be having great food on the ship and lots of it, we opted to eat dinner in the hotel. The food was good, the menu very limited. I don't know if I would recommend it, but it met our needs.

We got some nice pictures today of the tall buildings, the waterfront and the seaplanes taking off. We are looking forward to our photo tour of Vancouver tomorrow.

I did a world cruise where several ports required the yellow fever immunization. I had a waiver, which I obtained from my health care travel doctor (Kaiser), and had no problem going on shore at any port.

Art

Hello to everyone.

Ellie and I are leaving home today for our first cruise on Seabourn. The cruise does a round trip to Alaska from Vancouver. Depending on the internet, I will be posting our impressions of the journey as we take this wonderful trip. Ellie says that once I set foot on a cruise ship there is an entirely different person who emerges. She calls me "Cruise Art". We do love cruising.

I try to be objective in my posts, but ultimately it is nothing more than one person's opinion (actually two, because I also consult with Ellie as she sees things I don't and vice versa). So if we deem something important such as the entertainment, food or friendliness of the crew, and it is not one of your priorities, please remember that. I promise not to be overly critical or a shill for the cruise line. My purpose is to help others who have not sailed on Seabourn, or at least not for a long time, with our impressions of their strengths and weaknesses (hopefully there won't be many).

Tomorrow we will be taking a photo tour of Vancouver prior to boarding the ship. Then it is off to Alaska. Both Ellie and I have sailed to Alaska before, but not for quite some time. We will be visiting several ports which will be new and this is the latest time in the year we have ever gone.

Hoping for good weather, but packed and ready for most anything.

I don't think it has anything to do with richer vs. poorer. More likely it's older vs. younger. Younger people don't care about formal wear. And because younger is the demographic Seabourn is chasing to build a future clientele you can be certain the dress code will continue to evolve toward a more casual one.

Seabourn isn't the only cruise line having this same debate. We often travel on Crystal and they have loosened their dress code to the delight of some and the consternation of others. Since we don't dress up much at home (being retired and living in California) we love to dress when we cruise. We especially love to see the Asian women's fashions. Their colors and styles are much more unique than those from New York or Paris.

Without question the trend is more casual. I suspect formal nights will soon be a thing of the past (and speaking about those passengers who walk through the ship in their robes) along with good manners

I am curious what you call a 6* line, I know of regent and Silversea that cruise AK and are 5* lines but I did not know of any 6* lines there.

It depends on what site you are looking at as to whether their top rating is 5 or 6 stars. Silversea, Regent, Seabourn and Crystal are all rated 5 or 6 stars depending on the site. Even with these lines, some of their ships are rated a hair below. We haven't yet tried them all...but we intend to.

I was wondering if anyone has been to Alaska in late September. I normally wouldn't go that late in the season, but it is a great deal and we have not been able to travel because of illness in the family. So we are dying to go somewhere and this is on a 6-star ship we have not yet been on.

I would love to hear input from anyone who has done a mid-September or later cruise to Alaska.

Unless they are pregnant or trying to get pregnant I wouldn't even give it a second thought. For the average person the risk is low and most people that get the virus have no symptoms.

That is totally untrue. The Zika virus has been linked to an increase in Guillain Barre, a very serious disease that causes paralysis. If you knew someone who had the disease you would not be so nonchalant.

Having said that, the chance of contracting the disease is very, very small. However EVERYONE needs to consider the risks and make sure they are protected. I would refer you to the CDC site to be aware of all the risks and the areas it affects. https://www.cdc.gov/zika/

So sorry to hear that as we took your advice and cancelled our reservation. If you are staying at the Athens Hilton, we had a very nice meal at the top of the hotel. Great view; excellent service; good food and very expensive. The next night we left the hotel and went to a local family restaurant. Better food and service without the view and the price. :)

Art - thanks for posting your review - much appreciated

 

I think Viking are going to offer a good option for the upper end of the market - although the lack of a Casino would be a disadvantage for me

 

I appreciated your comparison to Oceania earlier on the thread - would you be prepared to venture an opinion on a comparison of Viking and Crystal?

 

Thanks

That's a tough one. Both have their selling points. In general I believe Crystal loses their biggest advantage with a port intensive itinerary. That is Viking's specialty, because of their river cruise background. They do ports much better.

I love the Sea Days on Crystal. There is so much to do. Our only experience on Viking had no sea days; so we really don't know how to compare them.

As for the ship, the public areas are very similar. The cabins are another story. Viking wins hands down. They really paid attention to what passengers wanted.

Entertainment would be a clear advantage for Crystal. While the nighttime entertainers may be equal (both great), Crystal has the casino, piano bar, paddle tennis, table tennis and a whole lot more. The one thing that I would rate as a real plus for me on Viking and a big negative on Crystal is how they approach dancing. Crystal has these ambassadors and I find it very intimidating (and inappropriate) to dominate the dance floor with "professional" dancers. This is not a show. You see so many more people dancing on every other ship I have ever been on. Viking had a fabulous band with great singers that played music that encouraged passengers to dance.

Food would probably be a wash, especially for breakfast and lunch. Tastes is one place I truly miss on other ships. Viking's Italian restaurant is better than Crystal's, but what more is there to say then Crystal has a Nobu restaurant on board.

Service is outstanding on both. Staffs are well trained and do a really great job of trying to meet our needs.

The Internet is significantly better on Viking.

So I guess it comes down to price, value, itinerary, and which of these items someone deems as more important. The one other wild card for me is how each cruise line handles problems. It is a lot easier tobe positive when everything is running smoothly. I have found Crystal to be very defensive when anything goes wrong and that is all the way to the TOP. Not so with Viking. The customers still do come first.

I hope this provides some insights for you (and others).

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First of all, thank you for all the info and doing your over review. Curious if Viking provides a shuttle bus to central Athens or do you need to use public transportation if you do the city on your own. I think I have seen past threads/posts of someone saying there was a shuttle and someone else saying there wasn't.

On our cruise, the answer was YES. "(The shuttle service) will begin at 9:00 AM from the Piraeus Cruise Terminal, where the ship is docked. The drop off/pick-up location is at Dionisiou Areopagitou Street and Vasilisis Amalias Street across the Adrian's gate in the city of Athens. The shuttle buses will run continuously throughout the morning and afternoon in both directions, The last shuttle bus from town back to the Viking Sea will be 7:00 PM."

Here is the link to Day 1 of the Daily. I tried to post it directly on the thread. All I got was a postage size icon. I am posting it both ways in case it just takes time for it to work correctly.

I do have all the Dailies, but i am not sure I know how to post them. I have tried posting photos before and all I get are these very tiny unreadable icons. When I tried uploading the dailies it wouldn't accept them.

Art

P.S. The menus are not included in the Dailies and I was on the Viking Sea.

Thank you Larry and Rawmac. Your input is exactly what we have been looking for.

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