skybluewaters

Many tea connoisseurs prefer not to use boiling water for green or white tea. With black tea and with herbal tea the use of boiling water is recommended.

Since we're talking about food, perhaps someone (especially someone currently on Odyssey) can comment on the fact that it appears that Lobster Thermidor, which was on the TK Grill regular menu, has vanished. In anticipation of my upcoming Odyssey cruise, I've been checking the Odyssey menus daily on the Seabourn Source app, and I believe that Lobster Thermidor was on the regular menu every day until ~ 2 weeks ago, and then poof. I wonder if this is permanent, if it has occurred across all Seabourn ships, and if I would be missing out on a great entree or not.

1. The number of ex-Crystal cruisers who (a) know about Cruise Critic, and (b) who have also gone on a recent Seabourn cruise, and (c) who bother to comment on their cruise here is vanishingly small compared to the total number of ex-Crystal cruisers. Of course you will hear complaints (after all, this is called Cruise Critic), but that is a skewed population and most likely not representative of the totality of cruisers who don't post comments here. 2. Attracting new passengers to Seabourn seems essential for this cruise line to survive. The large bolus of ex-Crystal cruisers who have been abruptly injected into the pool of possible new clients for Seabourn is incredibly fortuitous. It would be malpractice for Seabourn not to make an aggressive move to attract them. 3. I can understand that some faithful, longtime Seabourn cruisers would feel somewhat betrayed by newbies being able to skip the line, but this will only be an issue if Seabourn provides an excellent cruise experience, otherwise it will be one-and-done for those newbies at Seabourn. 4. If one has to wait a day longer for laundry, or has to put up with a slower internet, that may be an acceptable price to pay for securing more revenue for Seabourn and, thus, allowing it to continue as a financially viable cruise line in the future.

If you previously sent an email requesting your refund either to your credit card company or to the organization that is processing refunds for jilted Crystal cruisers, you could check your email's "sent" folder to see if you used the Crystal invoice as proof of being owed money. If so, the invoice may be attached to that email.

This is a savvy move by Seabourn. It's a rare opportunity to nab a large group of disenfranchised luxury cruisers who are looking for a new cruise line. Now that Manfredi Lefebvre has purchased the two Crystal ocean ships as well as the brand name, the marketing lists and all the intellectual property of Crystal, Seabourn is looking to attract Crystal cruisers before the marketing arm of the new Crystal gets going. It will be interesting to see if other cruise lines match this offer.

Outstanding! I saw the Stones perform this at the Cow Palace near San Francisco in the late 1970s. However, I seriously doubt that A & K will be choosing this song to replace "What a Wonderful World" as the Crystal sailaway song.

I just read your review, and thank you for it. To me, it seems the predominant theme in your review centered around the lack of experience of the crew. By definition, this is something that should be resolved with time, assuming Seabourn has been hiring the right personel and the training staff are doing their jobs properly. This doesn't excuse Seabourn from delivering anything other than excellent service, but perhaps is an explanation. I understand the frustration of having a novice servicing your penthouse suite, and you are correct that when spending that much money you should receive stellar service. But every passenger on Seabourn probable expects stellar service regardless of how much they paid. There was a report on one of the major television business channels just this morning detailing the difficulty cruise ships are having with hiring staff. They mentioned that some cruise lines are limiting passenger capacity because of the staffing shortage (not because of Covid, as they previously did). And one of the major cruise lines is shutting down two restaurants on each of its ships for this same reason. So this is an industry-wide issue and the solution is time. A question for you: You gave the dining experience 3/5 stars. I would be interested in your reasons for this. Thanks again for your review!

Very well said!

If the Covid test result is "a requirement of the cruiselines," how is that compatible with it being "a requirement for them to be able to operate in Canadian territory?" Whom is it required by? The Public Health Agency of Canada? If so, then it isn't a requirement of the cruiselines if it is necessitated by a government agency.

Actually, Canada requires a negative pre-embarkation Covid test in order to board a cruise ship. This is a government regulation.

This is from the ArriveCan website (updated 5/26/2022): Before boarding your cruise ship: all travellers must submit their embarkation test information into ArriveCAN within 72 hours of boarding a cruise, including Canadians and those who just used ArriveCAN to enter Canada

Although tipping is primarily done for the benefit of the recipient, it also can benefit the giver by rewarding him/her with a sense of satisfaction for doing a good deed. When a tip is already included, that benefit no longer exists as the choice to give has been removed. So giving a tip over and above the included amount is good for the recipient as well as for the giver. In our zero-sum world, it's nice that there are still some win-win situations.

Canada no longer requires documentation of a negative Covid test to enter the country. They do require documentation of a negative Covid test on ArriveCan for all passengers embarking on a cruise in Canada.

I believe this is incorrect. You do need to upload a new ArriveCan (including Covid test results) when boarding the ship.

You can get off the ship in Ketchikan by testing positive for Covid the day before you arrive there. You could then quarantine in your daughter's residence. But I wouldn't recommend it. 😛

Thank you for your comments. Could you please expand on your reasons for being so happy to get off the ship? In particular, what were the problems on SB rather than what the government induced aggravations were. Thank you.

Please elaborate. I'd be very interesting in the details of your dissatisfaction. Thanks.

The at-home Covid antigen tests that have been given out by the US government have expiration dates printed on the box. Those dates have since been extended by the FDA and are available on the FDA website. My test box has a July expiration date, and the FDA website says that the date has been extended to October. If I do a telehealth monitored test in September, will it be disqualified? I do believe that they ask what the expiration date is when you do the telehealth testing. Thanks!

The iHealth tests that were/are given out by the US government have expiration dates of July and August, apparently because they were rushed out before testing of the kits could demonstrate a longer life. However, the US government has issued a statement saying that the tests can be used beyond the expiration date stamped on the box. If my test box has a July expiration date and I do a telehealth monitored test in September, will it be disqualified? I do believe that they ask what the expiration date is when you do the telehealth testing. Thanks!

Wow. Quite a leap for you to assume that just because I previously sailed on Crystal that I was implying that Crystal would have done things differently. Go back and read my comment. I mentioned that I was previously cruising on Crystal to make the point that a new would-be passenger to Seabourn might not be impressed by this recent change of terms. If I had previously sailed on Princess or HAL, I would still have the same opinion that changing the terms after accepting a deposit is not customer-friendly. Is it "legal?" Maybe...but that's not the high bar of excellence that a luxury line should aspire to. I believe a reasonable solution would be for Seabourn to initiate this change for all new bookings and to still provide pre-disembarkation tests for existing bookings.

I believe if Seabourn does the test and if the test is (+), then Seabourn would be responsible for paying for the quarantine. This new policy effectively shifts the responsibility to the passenger. Seabourn had promised currently booked passengers that they would do the test (and do it without charge), but they have now unilaterally changed the contract. It's a breach of contract and, furthermore, a poor way of doing business. I guess their "Worry Free Promise" program actually isn't meant for the passengers to be worry free, but for Seabourn to be worry free. As others have stated, we are also former Crystal cruisers, and this introduction to Seabourn leaves much to be desired.

Thanks so much for providing this phone number! I got through to a very helpful Seabourn representative who answered my questions. I'm not sure what department this is (it's not Guest Services), but they restored my faith in Seabourn. I hope that Seabourn recognizes and addresses the deficiencies in its online Guest Services department or they may end up losing new or potential customers. Perhaps this phone number should be given to new customers when they book their first cruise so that Seabourn's reputation isn't harmed by Guest Services' poor service.

I agree with you 100%. After waiting two weeks for Guest Services to reply to my query, I finally received a worthless response that merely listed a few links to their website that I had already seen. Their email response was seemingly written by a bot. It was generic, it was of minimal use, and it didn't directly address my issue. Having previously cruised extensively with Crystal, I am used to a big discrepancy between the shoreside and the onboard experience with a cruise line. I hope that the onboard experience of Seabourn is likewise much better than what Guest Services has shown to me.

Looking forward to starting another thread in early July - I won't give the game away but, it's possible the cruise destination might rhyme with "flamaska". Got it. Enjoy your cruise to Nebraska!