whystayhome

Just winding up 36 days on Quest - Dover to Manhattan. Great cruise. Only issue is lack of structured activity on port day afternoons, as some of the ports were just good for a few hours’ walk around in the morning and the afternoons were largely unstructured, often until dinner time. In one port, it was raining so hard many people didn’t bother to go ashore, but still, there were no organized activities. I can’t recall if on the bigger ships, there is more in the way of hosted activities - even a popcorn movie - in port. This is not an issue for me, but Mr. Why Stay Home is a different kettle of fish and is reluctant to sail on the Quest again, even though I have a spectacular itinerary booked for us in June 2024 - Lisbon to Stockholm. So…Any info about port day activities on the bigger ships would be appreciated. Thanks. Linda

We are not suffering, that’s for sure! This is a terrific cruise and very interesting itinerary (Dover-Manhattan). I would typically be considered a Seabourn cheerleader by my friends, but this has not been one of their finest outings in terms of food or service. The entertainment has been sort of repetitive, although the singers are excellent. We had a fantastic Q&A with the officers - Captain, Hotel Director, and Chief Engineer - and they alluded to the staffing difficulties they are having, both quantity and quality. Hotel Director Klaus, who is extremely personable and highly visible talked about how they keep training, training, training… As an aside, when we were on one of the big ships last summer, early post-Covid, these issues were not prominent. Also, a new executive chef boarded in Montreal, so we shall see if there’s any difference. Linda

re: Bosphorus Cruise We decided to visit a palace on the Asian side when we were in Istanbul last year, so hopped on the local ferry for almost nothing [can't remember for sure - maybe $1 each way, maybe less] and had a beautiful cruise on the Bosphorus to and from the palace. And when the ship leaves port, it slowly sails along the Bosphorus as well. You might want to visit the Cistern for something different to do. The archeological museum and the tile museum are also spectacular. Also the "fresco" church, AKA Chora Church is definitely worth seeing, but it may still be closed for renovation. Linda

On the Quest in Montreal, starting Day 25/36. The food has been hit-or-miss and most nights, the options in the MDR don't reach that level of fabulousness I recall pre-Covid. The offerings in the warming pans in the Colonnade at lunch have not been particularly attractively displayed and reminded me of college cafeteria fare. At one lunch, the newly-put-out pot stickers were frozen inside. As an aside, we love the freshly squeezed OJ machine. The crew is very warm and welcoming, but service is not up to pre-Covid standards. One night our group waited 45 minutes for a drink in the O Bar. Another time, it took 30 minutes for an omelet to arrive. The room attendants are terrific. The excursions are pretty crowded, not like in pre-Covid days when there might be 12 people on a bus. They are also crazily expensive, but that's a different issue. The officers, including the Captain, have been highly visible and approachable. Over all, we are having a great time, but things are simply not up to pre-covid standards. Linda

Wondering who the Cruise/Entertainment Director will be in August. Thanks. Linda

That’s surprising. My husband recently found travelers checks when cleaning out a client’s apartment, took them to her bank and voila! They were credited to the client’s account. linda

We have used Flightease a number of times. Good prices, especially on one-way tickets. When SAS went on strike last summer, I called and Seabourn put us on Air France. Then, there was the missed connection in Paris and a significantly delayed flight to Copenhagen. When our flight finally arrived and we got through immigration in CPH less than an hour before a 5PM sail away, a Seabourn rep was waiting, helped us get our luggage (a miracle that we found him and the bags), hustled us into a cab, told the driver to emulate a bat out of hell, and called the pier and said we were on our way. The check in people flagged us down at the curb, grabbed our luggage, and whisked us and our bags onto the ship at 4:55. Yes, I was a nervous wreck, but we made it. I don’t know if that would have been the case if we had booked our flights independently. in case you are wondering why we flew into Copenhagen on the day of departure, something we never have done before and will never do again, I can only plead temporary insanity and a lack of psychic ability to predict that the European air scene would be such a disaster last summer. Flying in 2 days before this month’s 36-day Dover to Manhattan Quest adventure. Linda

We did a 21-day Dubai to Monaco (including ports in Qatar, Oman, Jordan, Israel, and Italy) a number of years ago. There were a number of people we met on board who said they were doing it for the 3rd time. At first, we wondered about their travel judgment. By the end, we understood. It was a fabulous itinerary. Most striking was the transition from, to us, the exotic Middle East to the familiar environs of Rome. So, I would recommend starting in Dubai. Linda

I always ask for and get the cash. A bird in hand…

You need to pay up front with a credit card. WHen you get on board, go to Seabourn Square and ask the assistants to transfer your booking to OBC. What they will do is make your OBC refundable. Collect it in cash before you disembark. Linda

I was approaching a state of absolute hysteria. Another passenger arrived at the dock a little after us without his luggage. Not sure when he finally got it. One woman on board didn’t have her luggage for 32 days. As everyone knows, European airports were rather zooish last summer. Normally, we don’t fly in the day of embarkation, but we had spent time in Copenhagen before. We initially booked a nonstop flight through Seabourn that was arriving 7AM so we thought we’d be OK. And then SAS went on strike and our substituted US-Paris flight was delayed so we missed our connection and then the Paris-CPH flight we were rebooked on was delayed, and there were 10,000 unclaimed suitcases in Copenhagen… This time around, we are flying into London 2 days before we get on the ship in Dover for 36 days of relaxation and over-indulgence on the Quest. l Linda

I have never had trouble booking weekly tables in the Grill as soon as I have put a cabin on hold, even before putting down a deposit. For our August cruise, even after final payment was made, I could not see the reservations I made, but I contacted "dining" and they confirmed I had all 5 reservations I had tried to book even if they were not posted on my itinerary. Dining: 1-800-929-9391 Once you're on board, you can make additional reservations and often can get in the day of if you ask the seating hostess directly. On one segment we were on last summer on one of the bigger ships, there were only ~160 passengers. We wound up ODing on the Grill experience and even cancelled a final reservation. Linda

During last summer's SAS strike and lunacy in all European airports [but thanks to a daredevil taxi driver who drove 60 MPH through the city streets] we arrived at the dock in Copenhagen at 4:55 with our luggage. Sailaway was at 5:00. Staff flagged our taxi down, rushed us through check-in, and helped us wheel our luggage to our cabin. I NEVER want to go through that again. Linda

Your pictures are helping me relive my safari in Kenya and Tanzania. Also remembering our fun with Covid. Seriously, this is a super travelogue. Thank you so much for posting. Linda

Just make sure they route you to Washington, DC and not Seattle. That happened to us once. Fortunately, I caught it... Linda

Agree you should do both…but #1 seems like a more interesting itinerary. Istanbul is spectacular and Ephesus is a must see. Delis (Mykonos) is very interesting. Although, Syracuse and Valletta are pretty nifty, I would still go with the first one. it’s a win/win no matte4 which one you pick linda

Once you hit 140 nights after the May 23 cruise, call Seabourn and ask to have your free week bonus credited to the October cruise. They'll tell you how to get this accomplished - I'm not sure but I think I had to send someone an email. Seabourn will credit you for 7 days on the October voyage by calculating the cost on the October voyage for the average of the cabins you paid up front to sail in - no upgrade or upsell credit goes into the calculation So, if you typically paid for V3 cabins, they will credit you for the cost of a week in a V3 cabin on that cruise. We have another free week coming, but we are probably not going to use it on our next cruise because we got a ridiculously low weekly price for 5 weeks on board so will save our free week for another 2-week cruise we booked where the weekly rate is much higher. Hope this helps. Linda

I still have one of the old $400 [four hundred dollar] referral coupons. If you are sailing on or before August 1 2023, just send me the following information and you will enjoy $400 extra OBC. Name Booking Number Sailing Date Address EMAIL Address My email address: LSMEADEPHD [at] AOL [dot] com Thanks for playing. And if you have any questions about Seabourn, I'll be happy to try to answer them. Linda

Years ago I had booked a veranda guarantee and was upgraded - for free - to an owner's suite. Have never gotten a complimentary upgrade since. LINDA

Just off 3 weeks on Ovation (and still jet lagged). July 9-16 somewhere around 170 guests. July 16-30, about 500. The first week the service was so good it was almost annoying 🙂 Linda

In Santorini you can pick up a boat at the tender dock for about 15-20 euro that takes you to Oia, where you are met by a bus that takes you along the winding road that goes up to the village. The boats run fairly often. You can walk around Oia for 1-3 hours and pick up a dedicated bus back to Fira for the trip down to the tender dock via the cable car. Or, you can take the path down that the donkeys use, if you don't mind walking through what is essentially a donkey potty. Linda

Hi. I am doing that one, too, and am expecting great things. We did a lot of zodiac tours in Antarctica and they were spectacular. See you on board. Linda

Hello Flyer Talker et.al. I took the Seabourn flights because 1) we wanted to fly in the day of the cruise, 2) I couldn’t get a nonstop in business with FF miles, 3) Seabourn’s price was the same as what I could get on SAS and as an added and important “convenience,” they were including the transfers, so for that reason I booked through them, 4) I assumed they would accommodate us between landing and boarding, 5) If there were a problem with the flights I figured it would be Seabourn’s headache, not ours. This was important because we were on the March 2020 Australia cruise to nowhere and had to scramble like maniacs to get a flight back to the US when we were put off the ship a week early in Adelaide instead of Sydney because of the pandemic. People who had flights through Seabourn were automatically re-booked and didn’t have to think. I called Seabourn again to whine about my 5 hours at the Copenhagen airport. The phone rep at first insisted we would be given a day room at a hotel, but I convinced her to check and when she got back to me she seemed shocked that wouldn’t be happening. The new info was that we would be met at baggage claim when we get in and then given a voucher for a meal and further instructions about our transfer to the ship. Maybe we would be left at the airport for 5+ hours (new boarding time, 2:20); maybe we would be taken to a hotel lounge. Basically, Seabourn didn’t seem to know what is going to be happening at the airport. It will apparently be left up to the transfer company AKA passenger wranglers to inform us about the drill Saturday morning/early afternoon. We are currently out of the country. When we get back later this week, I will call Seabourn again, see what fairytale they offer this time, and look into changing our flight to arrive in Copenhagen the day before embarkation. Linda

One of the best things I ever bought was a European plug/voltage outlet strip that has 6 multi-country outlets and also has 5 USB ports. I got it on Amazon and it was not that expensive. It has been invaluable, particularly on long land trips, as it accommodates 2 ipads, 2 iphones, 2 kindles, 2 apple watches, our toothbrush charger, and the battery chargers for my 2 cameras - essentially my entire personal item. For cruise-only vacations, I bring a multi USB port charger and a simpler outlet strip for the camera batteries and anything else that has a plug. Linda

Off topic, but who is the Cruise Director? Linda