jenidallas

The catamarans are operated by various local tour partners so there may be some variation but the ones I’ve been on were no more difficult to board than a tender.

Ah, yes I am!  I have no experience on the 5% - not sure if I’ve gotten that or not.

I can confirm that the 5% discount is indeed applied to the current listed price.  I always buy future cruise deposits and have booked sailings with others who have not.  
 

I used my last one on the transatlantic I have coming up with my mom and on the invoice from my TA, I can see my mom’s fare listed as the price we were quoted whereas mine has a 5% discount.  
 

Then because my husband and I decided to book our holiday sailing before I could buy another future deposit, our invitee for that shows me at the quoted price and him at 5% off.

The deposit amount for the person with the future deposit is also greatly reduced.

12 hours ago, johng75370 said:

 

On our last cruise one couple (non-native English speakers) thought from all the promotions that Dr. Weil was on ALL the cruises.

If he’s mastered not only the art of longevity but also replication, then I definitely need to reread his books!  😂

23 hours ago, marazul said:

Great choice.

We have been using George's Taxi since it was just George and his yellow Mercedes taxi.  He was known among frequent travelers to Greece as "George the Famous Taxi Driver."  Now his two sons run the operation and have turned it into a full service tour and transport company.  They still provide the great service that made George "famous" back then and if you are lucky, you might get George to drive you around.  If you do, say "yassou" for us.

I concur... I’m a big fan of George’s.  I feel like I’ve met most of the family now and George himself is a great guy!  The family has split their time over the years between the US and Greece and the sons went to school in the States so they all speak impeccable English.

I had a lovely stay at The Chatwal in NYC last week.  Geoffrey Zacharian oversees the hotel bar and restaurant and has a lovely selection of nonalcoholic cocktails (Including some Seedlip) and German NA beers.  I’ve quite enjoyed all of the Seedlip cocktails I’ve tried but would not dare to try the stuff straight... even the producer advises against it!

I hope that Seabourn does start stocking some of the nonalcoholic spirits like Seedlip and Stryyk as well as some of the better nonalcoholic beer options now widely available (from the very basic Heineken 0.0 to some of the more craft-style IPAs, porters, and stouts coming out from US, UK, and German breweries.

The number of individuals giving up alcohol for various reasons is growing.  We’ve cut it out at home and so knowing it would be easier to stay social on Seabourn without major disruption to our lifestyle is a major plus.

On 9/14/2019 at 5:22 PM, Covepointcruiser said:

Our stewardess always had some wonderful surprise for us in the cabin. One evening she had the tub all set up with roses and special spa products.   

I’ve had suite stewardesses do this for me in veranda suites as well as in penthouse suites.  I believe this is less a benefit of what suite you are in and more a perk of who your suite stewardess is.

8 minutes ago, gizmoneil said:

 

Funny you ask... we literally just got an announcement that we will be landing at Port in New Orleans on Tuesday morning 

I got off in Cozumel this afternoon and feel like I absolutely made the right call.

I hope everyone gets home safely and enjoys the last day of the cruise.  I’ll be flying home from Cancun with no regrets.

3 minutes ago, jeb0816 said:

Noted, thank you!  Specifically, I am wondering if Caviar in the Surf happens every time they go to Carambola.   There is no indication of it on the itinerary.  

It has never shown up on one of our itineraries but it still is always planned in certain regions (e.g. Caribbean).  It will happen (weather permitting) and as others have said, it will almost definitely be at Carambola Beach.  

I’ve never seen the $99 third guest supplement.  It looks like they are going after parents/grandparents with that one.

I’ve been on for three different Seabourn Halloween celebrations and there has always been a costume-optional party in the Club that was quite fun.  All entertainers in some variation of costume plus a few crew and passengers too.

Seabourn planned and executed our wedding at sea (well, officially “vow exchange” since they can’t perform legal weddings)... lovely invitations (beyond just the usual Seabourn invites, food, music, and a lovely wedding cake.  They also helped some friends onboard organize mini hen/stag parties the evening before AND helped my husband plan a surprise Indian dinner after our ceremony.  😍

Agree with going to Seabourn Square and mentioning that you would enjoy an invitation.  Also, if you are generally open to changing plans at the last minute. My experience has also been that they will occasionally call willing guests in room in the late afternoon to find substitutes for a hosted table.

I also know that table hosts can request specific passengers for their tables so if you want to dine with the cruise director, let him or her know that you’d enjoy the opportunity to join them for dinner during the cruise.  While that won’t guarantee a seat, it will let them know you are interested.  I’ve had a few of my invites revealed in advance when someone has told me they’ve added me to an invite list.

1 hour ago, Heather White said:

Question for the ladies. Are they familiar with "shellac" in the Spa treatments?

Yes.  I can’t remember the gel/shellac brand they use (it’s not one of the common ones I see at US salons) but they advertise it as a 14-day no chip and I found it held up to that.

George’s Taxi is my go-to.  I’ve never had a bad transfer or tour with those guys!

On ‎6‎/‎22‎/‎2019 at 5:38 PM, cruiseej said:

Just curious what fellow Seabourn travelers who booked one of the Cuba cruises have decided to do. We're booked on the 14-day holiday cruise. I do appreciate the price decrease with the revised itinerary, that our price is a little below what's currently shown on the website, and the added shipboard credit Seabourn is offering -- I think they've come up with a reasonably fair offer for the customers who had booked. But they can't change that what drew us to book was the allure of visiting Cuba. We're just trying to decide if we want to do the more typical Caribbean cruise that has resulted. 

We weren't originally booked on the 14-day holiday cruise but with the price drop we are now looking at moving from doing two back-to-back 7 nights on Odyssey in November to this one instead (we don't like sailing for anything less than 10 nights but also don't really like passenger changeovers if we can avoid them).  My husband worked on an extended project placement in Curacao a few years ago and still has friends across the region so for us, its a rather economical way to visit with everyone since the flights to the ABCs are often quite steep with limited schedules.

We loved Cuba and had been keeping an eye on these with the original itinerary as well... the prices were just a little steeper than what we were willing to pay considering we've visited already.  We had assumed that, like most other Seabourn destinations that end up on multi-year rotations, that this one would become a winter staple and that prices in 2020 or 2021 would be closer to what our daily threshold is.

Last year on Odyssey, Seabourn happily baked and decorated a traditional US-style wedding cake for me and also prepared a lovely Indian dinner for the evening of our vow exchange.  (Our first date night dinner was curry in London so they helped my husband recreate that menu!)

On Ovation, one of the Indonesian chefs in Earth and Ocean discovered that we'd both spent extended time in Indonesia and other current/former Dutch territories (where Indonesian foods are often comfort staples) and a few times prepared bonus treats just for us.

I've found that they generally will not say no to any reasonable request although they might ask for 24-48 hours to prepare it properly.

On 6/19/2019 at 8:05 PM, 2SailingNomads said:

I had a discussion w/ a senior SB executive a few years ago about the champagne and he told me the problem is finding a good supplier who can reliably provide enough product at a price point that works.  

This is exactly the issue.  Not just price point (which many here have focused on) but also supply (which fewer have).

In production supply and price are often tied together (for a quality product, scarcity will drive price) and for establishments (whether a cruise line or an airline, hotel brand, or chain restaurant) that need to be able to maintain a consistent and widely distributed supply chain of a product, both have to be considered. 

I have a wine industry friend who in his former life was an investment banker working in the global beverage segment who, several years ago in regard to a related question, helped me understand more about how the major players work (including why some great wines with decent production volumes only make it out of their native regions in tiny quantities and why there are some surprisingly good private label wines available in supermarkets or other third-party brands if you know where to look).

The reality is that there are maybe a dozen champagne producers that have all of the required factors: high production numbers, global distribution (in order to get the product into Seabourn’s supply chain), and a reasonable wholesale price point.  

I find it humorous that some here want to compare the “quality” of a wine with the supermarket price point.  I went to a day-long champagne education session (humorously titled “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drink Veuve Clicquot”) a few years ago where one of the subsections broke down the top producers by spend.  Something crazy (like over 50%) of the price of a bottle of Veuve is marketing/advertising cost.  So you aren’t paying more for a higher quality product... you are paying more to have the perception that it’s higher quality marketed to you.  (For my own sake, we’ll leave La Grande Dame out of this... I have a soft spot for the old gal!)  

We did a blind tasting of the top products alongside some of the regional small production producers where everyone ranked them.  Later in the day we did a non-blind tasting.  Not too surprisingly, people’s ratings in the non-blind were influenced a bit by what they perceived they should think of some of the prestige brands.

4 hours ago, SLSD said:

Even though we are not shoppers when we travel, it would be a shame if everything was closed up.

We typically aren’t either.  I think my honeymoon was working to my advantage as my husband felt it necessary to procure any piece of jewelry my attention lingered a bit too long upon.  (Except, thankfully, the $60k necklace I managed to try on in the shop onboard... needless to say, I stayed far away from the shops after that! There are many things I’d enjoy far more than that!)

And thank you for sharing the details of this itinerary with us.  We considered this itinerary for this year but timing didn’t quite sync with work projects.  My interest is definitely piqued for future sailings as I think it is one we would quite enjoy, particularly as we love sea days and transoceanic travel.

We were In Dubrovnik, Kotor, Mykonos, etc. this last fall on Ovation on the sailing that departed Venice (for Athens) in early November.  We were a little on the chilly/rainy side at the start of the cruise but the heavy crowds were gone.  The only downside was that we were one of the last (or very last) ships of the season in several  ports so some of the charm was already gone as businesses were closing up.  

In Rhodes, we did get some great bargains on jewelry as the shops were about to close for the season within the hours that our ship was leaving (and several shut down while we were walking down the street).  

In Mykonos, about 60% of the old town was already shuttered.  When we stopped for lunch, they were loading the tables and chairs around us on the terrace up and loading them on a truck bound for storage.  By the time we finished, we were the only table and two chairs left and they had that furniture out of the restaurant before we made it back to the entrance!

Some of my best trips to the Mediterranean have been between October and March... but that becomes an air/train adventure in lieu of a cruise.

Seabourn, hands down.

They do in Seabourn Square along with cardboard carriers - perfect for bringing back a second cup and/or a pastry too.

i don’t believe they have to-go cups in the other venues though (such as the Colonnade).  

It’s available on Amazon in a 4- or 5-pack.  We buy it for our house as my husband loves it!