AJCM

Thanks Nancy

Good news. Thanks Nancy.

Thanks Galeforce - good to know. Does anyone know if this has occurred fleet wide as a policy change? It’s certainly a welcome one, if so.

This surprises me. Is that a recent photo? We cruised on Seabourn sojourn in 2023 and they did not have any padding around the pool. There were a couple of double sun beds with padding 2 decks above the pool deck and a couple down at the back of deck 5 but the vast majority had none. We consider it the one big drawback of Seabourn and we’ll book elsewhere for sunny weather cruises in future (unless Sojourn is, for some strange reason, the exception).

If it’s any consolation, it’s not just Silversea. We had 2024 arrangements involving a Seabourn 14n Greece cruise. It got changed to a 7 day cruise - obviously the first week was given instead to a charter. To fit in with dates with an Azamara cruise, we booked Silver Dawn Norway and had a great cruise. so now we’re doing Silver Ray med next April. We were lucky that at least Seabourn cancelled our cruise before we were committed to booked flights but we had started looking and could easily have been screwed. Like you, we were most certainly not happy. It has us a bit more gunshy about booking too early in future. However, having seen cancellations occur across various cruise lines, we ill still book with these lines in future. They are as bad as each other but we do enjoy their cruise experiences.

In 2022 there was a shuttle to Valencia old town. In Malaga we docked in town - easy walk to the Alcazar and also into the centre and the various art museums (Picasso and Thyssen). Loved doing our own thing walking around at both places.

Malaga has an extensive Alcazar.Its entrance is a short walk from the dock and if you do that first, there’ll be few others around. Then central Malaga is very appealing with winding shopping, pedestrians only, marble paved streets and lanes and several excellent art museums - Thyssen and Picasso. There’s also an excellent automobile and fashion museum a 20 min bus trip away; with a large number of fastidiously maintained cars, accompanied by female fashions of the cars’ eras. Very enjoyable visit, with few others there. By comparison, I dread to think how many people you’ll be rubbing shoulders with at Alhambra; after your long bus trip. It appears IMHO to be one of the highlights which now suffers from excessive tourist numbers. As you’ve previously been to Cadiz (which we very much enjoyed by following the coloured lines on the ground), then Seville seems obvious. It is a visually stunning city. Again, however, you’ll find significant crowds at the tourist attractions there. We were lucky enough to do a cruise (Azamara) which took us right into Seville and so had a great opportunity to see the sights. So, if you think you may visit again in the future, this is a good way to see it and avoid the long bus trip.

Lumieres is fantastic. Held in an old *** submarine base, which had too much concrete to remove, it has been repurposed and the moving art show they project on the walls and reflected in the water is just stunning. An unforgettable experience.

outside town. Shuttle (15-20 mins) drops near the cathedral (3-5 min walk).

I just booked an excursion but couldn't work out any way to apply OBC to pay. Rang Sydney and was informed I can only apply the OBC by ringing them. I've duly done that and it's sorted. 61 1800 960810 - Aza Sydney number.

Stayed in Skt Petri in Copenhagen this year. Great location for walking to highlights; very good breakfast. Taxi to cruise ship - not expensive.

p.s. once we were aware of concerts here, we kept tabs on upcoming programs and when our dates were published we booked online direct with the theatre

Yes - went to a symphony orchestra and some opera singers. Fantastic setting and acoustics and very reasonably priced. Great atmosphere among the audience. You’re seated on long stone seating - well stepped for viewing but no backrest and very hard. Take a cushion! Highly recommended experience.

I just can’t tell anymore.They send new emails every single day, purporting to be great deals. It has all become meaningless.

For the little that it’s worth, my contribution is that we recently received the Rothschild Rose champagne and neither of us liked it; irrespective of its price. If that’s what is provided on next year’s cruise, we’ll ask to exchange. We very much appreciated the laundry benefit.

Seabourn Ovation and Silversea Dawn. I made a mistake with Silversea - we were “port to port”

We just completed Silver Dawn Norway from 5 - 15 June and received the points upgrade laundry benefit. It was great - we sent it out daily and went home with mainly clean clothes.

We’ve just completed Seabourn 11n Dover to Hamburg and Silversea 10n Copenhagen to Oslo Both ships very gracious with a very uncrowded feel and friendly atmosphere. Much higher number of Europeans on Silversea - otherwise, the fairly typical predominance of US, UK, Canadian, Australian guests. Service very good in all areas in both ships although main restaurants a bit stressed at dinner times. . Food is very subjective. Meals came hot most of the time, which is a big plus for us. Surprisingly, the Seabourn buffet managed to have most cooked items hot - never experienced this before on ships or hotels.Silversea dinner menus were too fancy for my liking and would have preferred more “simple” dishes. Sabourn’s everyday dinner menu has more choices than Silversea. Scappolini, on deck 11 outdoor Silversea, makes fabulous hot pizzas - great for lunch. Included wines were good on both, after finding a couple that we liked. We just stuck to those. Sommeliers can be helpful early on. Silversea had twice the number of guests. As a result, there were larger well appointed public areas with plenty of seating. However, we found the furniture more comfortable on Seabourn. Size difference also means that Silversea had more sitting areas and bars and more dining areas. Guest lecturers on both cruises were very informative and interesting. Silversea main entertainment was too late for us, with one show at 9.45pm - too much waiting time after finishing dinner. They did put on 2 shows at 6.15pm, which were ok but we would have liked 8.30 shows. Azamara does 8.30 and 9.45 and this works well. Tender services good on both ships. Standard suites on both are very comfortable and good size, including bathroom and balcony, with plenty of power outlets. Silversea had more, well placed outlets and better storage. Outdoors, Silversea has very good roofing and heating over outdoor sitting areas; excellent wind breaks and cushioned sun lounges (sadly lacking with Seabourn). Heaters make outdoor areas at least usable in colder weather. We reckon both lines provide a wonderful experience and will happily cruise with either, based on the itinerary more than anything. Silversea is more expensive but includes free excursions in each port. We used “door to door” and if the excursion cost is factored in, there’s probably little price difference really.

We’ve had our 21 day Greece/Turkey cruise, for Apr 25, cancelled due to the Middle East/Red Sea situation. This cancellation is understandable - more so than this year’s Greece cruise having been cancelled a year out due to “operational reasons”. Two years running with Seabourn cancellations, as well as this year’s Indian Ocean crossing with Azamara. Following on from covid and Red Sea cancellations and the commensurate compensation to clients, cruise lines are gun-shy now and are more prepared to make changes very early rather than deal with consequences of later cancellations. However, it’s certainly making early bookings riskier than they used to be. Fortunately for us, they’ve cancelled before we’ve paid for expensive flights - we’ve been on the cusp; so the cancellation timing is favourable. We’ve already found and booked a Silversea cruise whose dates coincide with other 2025 arrangements. There was nothing suitable for us with Seabourn, as their offerings with suitable dates are virtually the same as our 2023 Seabourn Med. cruise.

The many options of what should be included/excluded at different price points was immediately irrelevant to me. We’re not going on a 7 night Med cruise from Australia- especially when the bare bones price is AUD7,500 per person. No way are we paying $15,000 a couple for a 7 night cruise on Azamara in a veranda cabin. This is luxury level pricing. At over $2,000 per night, we wouldn’t hesitate to go to Regent, Silversea or Seabourn and not have to worry about tips being included, access to laundries, which alcoholic or caffeine drink to consume and a clingy shower screen (because we’d be in a larger, more comfortable suite). Oh, and 2 of those 3 include gratis shore excursions. I’m afraid someone has lost the plot at Azamara.

We enjoyed the daily included laundry on Regent last year, around Japan; and now we get the same with Silversea from 5 June around Norway on Dawn; as well as a higher grade bottle of champagne. That’s it. Timing is perfect for us and we’re very happy. We’ll be more closely considering Silversea for 2025 and 26 with the additional loyalty booking discount.

correction - on Ovation. Don’t even know which ship we’re cruising on. Sojourn was last year.

On Sojourn now and have a HDMI cord attached to laptop and TV. Remote has an AV button

I’m Australian and did receive it.

My apologies to Cruise Critic, who clearly are not responsible. Thanks to Cruise Critic - the problem seems fixed. Safari CC site working as it should.