frantic36

My son cooks wonderful Indian food but I like it in very small increments over a year. So as I said before you can't please everyone. A restaurant focused on Indian would mean when I do long cruises it would be a place I would only visit once in a 30 day cruise if at all. They do Indian in the Colonnade and you can order a special meal with friends which I have enjoyed. I think they need to be careful not to alienate people who like the clever simplicity of TK and Mediterranean fare.

In fact the caviar was better prior to TK in my humble opinion.

Interesting. Mine in September was the opposite.

I read through your blog on the Explora board and I will admit that that the food sounded amazing. However there were definitely service issues and a more rigid attitude you mentioned that gave me pause. Since you had such a low passenger count I would have thought they have bent over backwards to please but you seemed to encounter a number of "No we can't do that" episodes. Now you're home would you put your reaction down to being frustrated at the time but now you consider it not important?

Thanks Mauzac. I've opened in a new window so I can enlarge the print.

What's the old saying, something like "you can't please everyone". I know some will be disappointed but some are happy that a huge portion of the budget went to a Chef who some of us weren't so keen on take on his American homestyle food. I enjoyed some of his dishes but they could be hit and miss and weren't what I look for when dining out. Interesting comment about the TK nights at Colonnade as I had forgotten about those so I will be curious to see what they replace it with. Again not meals I went to usually.

When you say retail do you mean as in wine shops or the price when you go to a good restaurant because that is what we base our value on. That plus the ambience we enjoy.

It will be an interesting experience as we are on the first and last segments. I am wondering if they will change the decor or just the menu during the world cruise. I have heard a rumour Sojourn is due for a big refurbishment next year some time. But time will tell.

My error it was the gold package but as you say it is no longer called that. There are three levels that yes are combinable with the loyal customer package. Depending on the package you get a bonus extra value. https://www.seabourn.com/en/au/experience/seabourn-wine Because we do long sailings we take the collector package. With our discount plus the $200 bonus, which we can split rather than just for one bottle, works out good value for us.

I like to keep my nails long with any overlay of gel. For decades I could never grow them due to them peeling so I am glad to finally have long nails. Yes I can type obviously and use the pads of my fingers, but I have never been a fast typer even with short nails. I can also do gardening, cooking, cleaning the house and "self-care'. Some very judgemental comments here. If you want short nails fine, but some people like me like to have long nails.

😂Yes we saw some jolly big crickets/grasshoppers on our Amazon cruise in March. Not mosquitos but we still used spray most of the time just in case.

I will preface this by saying due to status we get a discount which may or may not be applicable for you? For us we find the packages work as we can now select the wine to a certain value and depending on the package we select we then get a bonus value wines. We do long sailings so selecting a gold package with our discount which allows us a US$200 bonus wines allow us to have a good selection to add to our included wines.

@lisa6191 @SLSD Carambola Beach in the Caribbean, Ko Kood near Thailand, Sir Bani Yas Island in UAE are all signature caviar in the Surf inclusive we have enjoyed. There is definitely lots of seafood including BBQ lobster tails on the menu. It also includes some water sports like banana boats and kayaks included. Things like massages by local ladies are extra so take some US dollars if you don't have local cash.

Oh ours is a 50-50 partnership we just worked out our strengths and weaknesses and our relationship works out great. Doesn't everyone do that? Communication of course is the key.🙂

I was having a brain freeze. I meant we did the Albatross tour from Oban on Stewart Island. @luckybecky a few quick ideas: And I do understand so don't feel the need to reply. Auckland take the 30 minute ferry across to Waiheke Island. The ferry leaves right near the cruise port and town. If you enjoy good wine and lovely scenery there are many private tour operators and you can join a small group or do it privately. You can also do tours or use the local bus if you don't want to do the wine tour. Wellington: the cable car up to the botanic gardens and if you are moderate fitness you can walk back down. Te Papa museum is one of the most interesting museums with lots of visual and written history on New Zealand especially Maori culture and the walk back to the ship along the waterside was great for people watching. Tauranga: take a tour or hire car to the thermal hot springs and just the scenery to get there is good. Otherwise Mt Maunganui is in walking distance from the port. https://www.newzealand.com/au/mount-maunganui/ Christchurch: is actually a drive inland from the port and the road is quite winding. I would visit because the countryside is lovely and the city interesting but maybe best to get a local to drive you. Dunedin: We hired a car but that's because Steam Punk fascinates me and I wanted to visit Oamaru the Steam Punk capital in NZ 😅. Thankfully my husband indulges me and the scenery was lovely on the way. Again a very winding road. Julie

I have been to New Zealand a few times via cruise ship and I must admit I was taken aback by some of the negativity from New Zealand posters. Yes you will see a lot more scenery if you take a land trip but we saw a lot on our port days. New Zealand is not know for wildlife apart from mainly a variety of birds. The last time we went was in 2016 and we will be back in February but mainly focus on the North Island and Wellington. We hired cars and drove for miles to see glorious mountains and lakes. We took private tours to including to Rotorua hot springs and did a nature walk, or tramping as they call it outside of Christchurch. We did a jet boat on one of the rivers. Splurged and did a helicopter flight that landed on a mountain top, no snow that time. We went on a yacht in the Bay of Islands and stopped at a few of the smaller islands to swim and hike. In Russell we went out on a fishing vessel and saw multiple albatross close up, that was a ship tour. This time in January we are planning to hike Mt Manganui, we have an overland in Auckland so will hire a car and stay in Waitomo overnight so we can explore that region and the glow worms plus Russell. So there is lots to do it is just there is always so much more. And since I don't like living out of a suitcase I am okay doing it by cruise ship. So as mentioned the people who live there have their opinion but it isn't the only one. So @luckybeckyhere is another person's opinion and ideas.

I'm in Australia so I don't think it matters too much. Ours was for a Jan 24 sailing.

Same. And I'm very glad he does it. It could be self preservation on his part as best not to have a conversation with me until after my first coffee 😉.

Someone is pulling your leg 😅. I am not a big Tk fan but I must admit that certainly our cruise in September in TK they were more into modifying things, ie I like my steak rare and that is how they served it and it was excellent. On a side note I meant to have dover sole and didn't, next cruise I must try it.

This will no longer be possible as Barcelona has changed port locations from the end of this month. You will now have a 30 minute shuttle bus ride. https://www.euronews.com/travel/2023/10/13/cruise-passengers-in-barcelona-will-no-longer-be-able-to-stop-in-the-city-centre#:~:text=The giant vessels will no,ride from the city centre.

@kitcrazy thank you for this as we are visiting with Seabourn in January next year. I had planned to take some gifts for the islanders but also liked the tip for gifting shell jewellery to the crew. Australian biosecurity rules would likely confiscate shells so this helps with a way to give to the economy.

We have had a few upgrade offers over the years with Seabourn but not every sailing. We just got one yesterday for an upcoming cruise and because there are quite a few sea days and the price was reasonable we took it. We did check to see how many PH was available and which ones. As there were only two and we liked the position of one we made our decision quickly because they can disappear quick as they put the offer out to multiple passengers.

@jenidallas sending you virtual hugs. Enjoy the Retreat on Ovation as we did, even on the days it rained as the crew helped make it fun. We had champagne and caviar one day when it rained. We and one other couple braved the weather. We had a great rapport with the crew and we worked around the brief showers. We were in a hot climate area though so hot tub in the rain was fun.

I have cocktail parties in our room when we booked larger rooms but never pre-booked a special meal there. So maybe it is still possible but it will be a wait and see? Actually I just remembered that a friend was in a spa suite on the Grand Voyage in January and while we sailed through the Panama Canal they had organised a special meal at lunch time served in the suite for 5 passengers. So maybe it is still possible?

No, there has never been bingo on Seabourn that I am aware of. I have done two long cruises on Seabourn this year and the first one of 79 days had many sea days and no bingo. As lincslady suggests there is trivia, lectures, name that tune, liars club, baggo, art or craft classes on sea days, etc.