stan01

Does Seabourn still have gentleman hosts? On our last Quest cruise in November out of Miami there was a gentleman in his 70s/80s range who wore a Seabourn name tag. I didn't inquire further ....

Usually you would tell the tour operator what ship you are on, and they will know how things work in their location and would get any additional information needed from you.

Croatia is Seadream at its best when they stop in places like Korcula, Rovinj, Hvar, or Trogir that bigger ships do not go to. We just walked and explored in the historic centers of these coastal villages without organized tours. If you let us know what your specific stops are you'll get better advice. If you are prone to sea sickness I'd just plan to bring your usual supplies. You won't know if you need it until you get there. Our experience on Seadream is that weather and itinerary permitting the Captain will always try to slow or stop the ship so that passengers can fully enjoy cocktails and dining outdoors in the evenings. It's one of the things that makes Seadream different. We haven't been on Seadream in a few years so I probably should let someone with more recent experience talk about the marina and how often they still use it for swimming in the ocean. We were once on board with the owner (Mr. Brynestad) and his family in Croatia. He likes to swim in the ocean so that was done several afternoons during the cruise. On those occasions it was announced that we'd be leaving a little early to find a good spot for swimming. They used to even stop in the middle of a transatlantic crossing to let passengers swim off the marina there, but again not sure if that is still done in 2024.

There is lamb, sirloin, rib eye, and shrimp under the "Grill" section but its definitely not descriptive (and not in English). I agree the "for twos" are showpieces and a lot of people won't order them. I think its unfortunate they have made this choice but time will tell. My guess is people will order them for one anyways, there will be a lot of food waste, and they will in time disappear off the menu. If ordered for one I don't think they will say "no, you can't have it".

Menu looks good, I will predict it is going to get harder to get reservations with a broader menu than TK had. Hopefully they can figure out a way to be fair about allocating reservations and not give more reservations to the people who complain the loudest. Some people are going to want to eat there almost every night (especially with a rotating specials menu) which I can hardly imagine was the case with TK. Such people will try anything to make it so.

Not to mention Panama Canal is becoming marginal too (drought and low water levels in Lake Gatun) unless something changes there. Cruise ships booked far in advance and have paid up to get near the front of the line, but as they make new reservations that's going to get dicey too. Really going to impact seasonal relocations.

As a west coast resident I'd much prefer the ship meet me in San Juan if not Miami, flights into and out of Barbados and even St. Martin are not easy. Seabourn probably feels the 7 day cruises appeal to younger demographic but I'd rather have the extra sea days with a 12-14 day Miami round trip.

Call Seabourn and see what they can do on the phone. There are sometimes problems with the website/app in this area.

Yes, it is tonight's menu on the ship, not the full menu for your cruise. You won't know what's on offer until the night before. It updates to the next day between 10 PM and midnight (ship's time).

This has become a long thread so I may not be tracking everything, have you written a factual letter to the CEO of Oceania asking for their assistance in resolving this matter? That should get you the name of person who would be accountable and who you could continue to work with until this is resolved. If you have already done that, and I missed why that is not working, I'm sorry for mentioning it again.

Everyone was having a good time enjoying the meal, so I'll leave it at that.

There is ZERO chance I'd book a new Red Sea or Persian Gulf cruise in 2024! I see you are in Australia not US so maybe things look different from where you are but with missiles being launched at US Navy ships US companies with US lawyers like Carnival, RCCL, and NCL aren't going to send ships with a lot of US citizen passengers anywhere near there. But they could surprise all of us.

Have they made clear what they are going to do about the Rib and Chicken nights in Colonnade? Maybe I missed that. On our last cruise the two formal nights were French and Rib nights in Colonnade, which are two of our favorites. We saw a number of passengers trying to eat their BBQ ribs without dripping on their tuxes and gowns.

Seabourn Source is fine for daily schedule, menus, account status, and lets you message other passengers by name. You can can order coffee drinks to pick up at Seabourn Square from it but cannot order room service (not sure they are eager to offer that on an all-inclusive cruise line). 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.

We have a Cunard QM2 Queens Grill cruise coming up and seriously considered Luggage Forward for the requisite formal wear that we no longer bring with us on Seabourn, but in the end I think we will just control our packing and get everything into two checked bags plus two regulation carry ons and manage those ourselves while in London for a week before the crossing back to Brooklyn. We tend to over pack and always use the on-board laundry service anyways. Luggage Forward's service offering seems like a good idea, but the more we think about it there are more dependencies on the failures of the various carriers and customs offices that Luggage Forward has no control over. Post COVID decrease in reliability seems to becoming the new normal.

Is this advice for a specific terminal in Southampton, or is it generalized to any of them since they operate the same? Looking at the schedule it seems that Cunard can use several of the terminals depending on what other ships are in port and the whims of the powers that be.

Their terms of service says they are not allowed but I'd guess people do it anyways. If the carrier or customs finds them I don't know what would happen: ignore them? discard them? Leave your bag in customs missing your cruise? That's why I would not chance it but each person would have to make their own decision.

They have a lengthy terms of service on their website https://www.luggageforward.com/legal/terms-of-service/ There are a lot of prohibited items, including all lithium batteries, Air Tags, anything with alcohol including perfume and insect repellent, anything that is illegal where the shipment might pass through including prescription drugs and vitamins, aerosol cans ...

Based on what we saw boarding Quest in Miami back in November you should be able to walk up, present your passports, and walk on board if you arrive at 1 PM. They started boarding at 12:40 with at least 200 people seated in the lounge area. Diamonds and disabled got called first but lounge would have been cleared by 1:00 PM and all of the suites were ready. Hope your boarding goes as smoothly as ours did. We saw one poor lady sitting on the floor in tears because she didn't have her passport with her, it was so sad to see.

Yep, the teleworkers are going to be doing their Zoom calls from the seas.

All I can say is take the documentation with you. We had a $2,000 Seabourn OBC ($1,000 per passenger) at booking but it showed up as $1,000 in total when we got on the ship. The first thing they asked for was paperwork showing the $2,000 credit which I had on my phone so I emailed it to the Seabourn Square rep. It was fixed overnight as promised.

Check here to see how many other ships/pax are there the same morning. https://wwwx.miamidade.gov/Apps/Seaport/dailydock/Default.aspx 5,000 is easier than 20,000

I think Seabourn is on a Quest and Sojourn to find a culinary Encore that earns an Ovation like the cuisine of the past that was of Legend, served with Pride, and embodied the Spirit of the cruise line. Their Thomas Keller Odyssey is short-lived so they are in Pursuit of a Venture called Solis, but the Restaurant needs two Sea Goddesses to do some divine intervention before the Sun rises. 🙂

Reservations are usually not taken (or required) at the Colonnade which is one of the informal sit down (and patio) dining options. Seabourn is phasing out their relationship with Thomas Keller which was the nights reservations were previously required due to popularity (BBQ and Friend chicken nights) so in the future there may not be any nights where reservations are required there. Most nights Colonnade is sit down but a few nights per cruise there is a "market" (buffet) for Indian or local cuisine. Earth and Ocean is the other sit down outdoor dining option poolside and they are first come first served. It won't be a problem, and the menus at Colonnade and Earth and Ocean are good (in our opinions) plus we enjoy dining outdoors anyways when weather permits. Entertainment is as subjective as food preferences but there are often visiting musicians (singers, pianist) that passengers enjoy plus the ship's band. You'll likely find some passengers dancing at midnight on most cruises. Seaborn has moved past the big band demographic and knows most of their customers now are baby boomers. The lounge spaces are too small with low ceilings to support extravagant dance and aerobatic performances.

Unfortunately I did the same, only it was ordering a drink in Obs lounge before dinner and having it show up 20 minutes later on two different days (while others were getting theirs promptly). The cause was that both times we ended up sitting next to a large group making a lot of special requests and the waiter had to run around the ship to fulfill those. While the waiter was gone no one covered his duties which is what I pointed out in my Source app comments. The lead bartender approached me within hours and apologized. We handled the situation by making sure the large group was as far away as possible from where we sat.