CalmSea

Interesting. On the Covid-19 thread, it was noted that there were many cases on board, including some staff being quarantined. Maybe SB do intend to open the MDR for lunch, if there is sufficient demand, and if there is sufficient staff.

If the chef dinner is an excursion to a land based Michelin Star restaurant, would the price still be too high?

I think the answer is yes. In our 2019 cruise on the Quest, the sea was too rough to tender to L Anse Aux Meadows in Newfoundland. The captain went to St. Anthony instead, and made last-minute arrangements to bus us to L Anse Aux Meadows. Being in quite a remote part of Newfoundland, they could only found yellow school buses. Not the most comfortable bus, but I didn't remember hearing any complaints, and we ended up visiting two ports on the same day.

@SLSD, thanks for sharing your experience. After reading what went on during this "Marketing Zoom Conference", I have the impression that it is aimed neither at improving services, nor at keeping existing loyal clients. It seems that the aim is on how to attract new clients.

I think we should try to stretch the limits of the chef. Let him/her know that the Peking Duck is not up to par, and maybe the next time will be better. I had often wonder asking for shrimp dumplings or fried won ton. The ship should have all the necessary ingredients on board, if they willing to make the skins of the dumplings or won ton from scratch.

Order some dishes local to the ports you are visiting. In order to give time for the Chef to gather the ingredients, I suggest the following time line. 1. Look up what is a famous local dish for a port you will be visiting in 2 days. 2. Order the dish to be served in 3 or 4 days time. The Chef should have time to get prepared, to buy whatever local ingredients required while in port, and to serve you a day or two later.

More or less, I would agree with the figures. I also tend to be a light drinker, so the amount for alcohol may be too high for me. But, I do like to have a coffee or two from the Square, maybe with a piece of cake too, which could make up the difference. At this moment, I think I am getting value for my money at Seabourn.

I am not as worry about Covid anymore, because I can do something about it. I am fully vaccinated, with multiple booster shots, and took one two week before my last Alaska cruise. However, I am more worry about the other upper respiratory infections. I still wear a mask in crowded areas, one of the very few on the cruise. I wish other passengers would wear masks more often too, especially if they cough. But, I do understand and respect people's dislike for wearing mask. DW and I have decided that we will continue cruising and accept the risk of possibly picking up an infection or two along the way.

In fact, the bottles of liquor AND our bottle of champagne were all unopened at the end of the cruise. What is wrong with us??? We just left the bottles there. I wonder what happened to those bottles we left behind. Does it go back to SB's inventory, or, does it go to the service staff as gifts? I hope it is the latter.

I just checked another online cruise booking site for SS cruises Copenhagen - Stockholm around July and August. It seems that the 17 day version is always a little more expensive that the 10 day + 7 day version. So, it seems to be a SS feature. Looking at SS's website, I noticee that the 17 day versions all have only the "door-to-door" choice, whereas the 10 day or 7 day versions have both the "door-to-door" and "port-to-port" choices. Your quote for the 17 day version is probably a "door-to-door" with a not so generous air credit. That may also explain the difference between the OBC's. However, I cannot explain why you need to move suites if you take the 10 day + 7 day version. Another thing to consider is that the "door-to-door" may have a more forgiving cancellation policy compared to the "port-to-port" ones.

That sounds strange! Were you given any explanation? Are we talking about the same category of suite for the 17 day cruise and the B2B 10 day + 7 day? Is this your usual travel agent?

If you still have problem finding the preferences pages, take a look at this thread: The method mentioned in post #12 may still work.

The CD actually did say that the decision was made after listening to customer feedback. He also said that sometimes the Trio may be augmented to a Quartet. I hope it is true. I always take a CD's promise with a grain of salt. I agree that the guitarist/singer is excellent. He has quite a wide repertoire, and, surprisingly, one can do ballroom dancing with many of his songs. I think it is the first time we did ballroom dancing with a guitar player.

The Quest has a 24-day (July 14 to August 7) cruise from London to New York, visiting Iceland and Greenland along the way. If getting back to Texas is still too hot, you can add a B2B New York to Montreal, arriving on August 19.

Yes, it is a complicated and I wish SB can make it easy to understand. I usually just ask my TA to contact SB and ask which promotion and discount are applicable.

I think JPH814's 5% past passenger discount refers to the Seabounr Club Benefits, which reads "5% Club savings on selected Sailings" on the Seabourn Club Points Benefit pdf. This Club saving is different from the 5% which comes with the Future Cruise Deposit(FCD). In my recent Alaska cruise, both the Club savings and the FCD are applicable. However, it does sound like the new "A Sail to Remeber" 10% discount cannot be combine with the Club saving, or the sailing is not one of the "selected" ones for the Club Saving. I do expect the 5% FCD do apply.

On our recent cruise on the Odyssey, a guitar player/singer was playing in The Club. The CD said that the DJ in The Club was a failure, and claimed that live music with trios will be coming back fleet wide. We will see.

@Utopia1thanks for your feedback. I found a thread about Flight Ease on CC's HAL forum. Otherwise, there are almost no discussions about it, which I take to mean that most people are satisfied with it. If the price goes up often before ticketing, I think I will hear about it somewhere. So, I think I will just wait and not request early ticketing.

My cruise leaves in March. Previously, I had not been able to find a better deal on Flight Ease compared to booking direcly from an airline. But, this time, the price on Flight Ease is about 30% cheaper. It is difficult to find the exact underlying fare rules. On SB's side, it says the fare is only good when bought as part of a cruise package. On the airline web site, it says the booking class is K, but I cannot get any further information. I am most interested in hearing anyone's experience in reqesting early ticketing. Given that there may be many different fare rules, I don't expect any definitive answer, but any kind of experience, good or bad, will be helpful.

Since the price of Flexible Fare is not guaranteed until the tickets are paid for, what are people's experience with prices changing in the mean time? Also, is it worth asking for "Requiest Early Ticketing" to lock-in the price?

No. But the it can be rolled up and hiden under the collar.

Both the men and ladies hood have drawstring. The men's jacket has 3 pockets, the ladies one has only 2 hip pockets. Neither has any internal pockets.

We were on the Odyssey from June 19 to 30. The restaurant was opened on all sea days, but closed on port days. We had lunch at the restaurant once, and there are only 2 tables occupied, including us. Just a data point, I don't want to get involved in another restuarant luch discussion.

They are availabe for use. We usually pick them up when we get off the ship and return them when we come back.

The sizes look normal to me, but I am not an expert on sizes. We ordered according to the size chart, and they fit us perfectly. There are many people wearing the Alasaka jackets around the Odyssey, and they all looked very smart! The jackets are made by Storm Creek. The models are 6520 and 6525. Storm Creek's website has better pictures of the jackets than Seabourn's ordering site. Seabourn's version of the jacket has the Seabourn logo and the word "Alaska" added.