adoctor

Yet another example of the counterproductive penny pinching occurring on Seabourn .Someone in Seattle needs to sit down in a darkened room and think about the Seabourn loyal(for now!) customer base and their motivations and expectations. Undertake some market research quickly if you don't understand them. Call back Meadows as a consultant ,he understood the market pretty well. I have one Seabourn booking coming up.It's last chance saloon for me.

When Carnival appointed staffer Josh Leibovitz to be President it was tantamount to raising a "for Sale" flag on the Seabourn masthead. Covid intervened but since resumption there has been a flurry of initiatives to try to improve profitability to make it more attractive. This has been reflected on this board by the constant complaints about lower standards on board and a flurry of ill-considered revenue raising ideas emanating from Seattle. I have no inside knowledge as the status of the Saudi interest, but you can be pretty sure that flag is still flying up there by the funnel.

The Retreat was not widely used on my recent Encore trip. It's a waste of premium space and a strategic mistake as it directly undermines the Seabourn concept.

I was booked on April 23 cruise around Japan on Odyssey. Cancelled in July, despite the ship being fully booked. The mind set in Seattle seems to be cancel early to minimize the costs of late disruption and refunds.The recent cancellation of the Indian ports is another example. I suspect Japan will be back as it's a popular destination despite the high costs.

My understanding is that the closure of the MDR for both Breakfast and Lunch is due to an instruction from Seattle. The ships themselves have no flexibility. There seems to be an environment where more and more decisions that directly impact guests are being made in this way. Other edicts include instructions to significantly reduce stock levels on board. This impacted our recent cruise on Encore where the fresh fish offering was missing (Frozen only) and the wine selection very poor. Yes,Carnival has had a tricky couple of years, tried without success (so far) to divest Seabourn and its clearly trying to increase profitability to make it more attractive to a buyer. However, it is in great danger of alienating its core repeat customer base with these marginal top-down initiatives. What is really needed from the folk in Seattle is to encourage and fund a program of customer delight where expectations are regularly exceeded.The covid excuse has now run its course.

The Encore is in pretty good shape.(sailed in September, round trip Athens) The staff appear to be motivated and are well led with a good Captain and HD. There are a few problems: 1 There appears to be an increasing number of Seattle instigated directives which are impacting on the Seabourn way. The ship(s) have been told to reduce their stock levels. This impacts replenishment. The wine selections, local sourcing of fish(Arctic Char every day is a little dull), and even shortages of fresh products during our 14 day cruise. The challenge for the staff is to try and make these as invisible to the guests as possible but the good folk in Seattle are giving the ship an impossible brief. 2 Cost Savings; You may notice excursion buses fuller than you remember. The gifts left on your bed at turndown once or twice per cruise instead of every night, a reduction in portion sizes at dinner. The boarding packages have disappeared. Everything is now online or via the source. No Herald, printed tour info or tickets. Many of these are positioned as environmental initiatives. Green or just plain mean! 3 New staff. A good core of well-trained staff remains. However, Seabourn are clearly struggling to recruit quality. Some new recruits unsuited to service and others with very poor language skills. This issue is impacting the whole industry but I would have hoped a quality operation like Seabourn would have been attractive to experienced cruise professionals. It appears not to be the case. Perhaps the T&C's have been trimmed for cost savings. 4 Conclusions. I am sure you will have a great cruise.We certainly did but be aware some things have changed.On our cruise plenty of Americans, Brits and Aussies.A noticable number of ex Crystal loyalists. Enjoy your trip.

Cruise operators try to extend the European season into winter. Its not a great time and likely to be wet and windy. Of course you could be lucky with short bright days but IMHO cruising the Med at this time of year is not recommended. May or June would be better.

Norwegian Cruise Line Drops Vaccination Requirements and Bookings Accelerate - Cruise Industry News I did not post this just to irritate markham! but thought it might further indicate direction of travel

I note that Regent (and all Norwegian Lines) has scrapped testing from September. I suspect Seabourn(and all Carnival Lines) will follow suit.

Just been informed that our cruise around Japan in April 2023 has been cancelled. Ship will be redeployed. Two options from Seabourn .Select another Asian cruise and get $1000 OBC or refund and 10% off a new booking. We will cancel.