Pride AMS-AMS with pictures and comments

[Emperor Norton]

The standard welcome bottle of nasty stuff

 

I didn't find it to be anywhere near as nasty as Silverseas new champagne offering last fall!!

 

Interesting. When I was on SS it was Nick F or Dom. Sad to hear they've sunk lower on the bubbly scale.

[wripro]

Nick F. or Dom? Dom who? Certainly not Perignon unless you're talking about the bottle they give you with the Amex Platinum benefits.

[Emperor Norton]

Nick F. or Dom? Dom who? Certainly not Perignon unless you're talking about the bottle they give you with the Amex Platinum benefits.

 

That would be it, Dom Perignon. Growing up in (or near Napa) with French relatives gives one a shall we say unique perspective on what to drink. I realize that lines can't give everyone Dom Perignon all the time, but as with "complimentary" wines there are better champagnes at that price point (ditto wines for SB/SS/Regent anyways).

Edited August 18, 2012 by baychilla

[Emperor Norton]

The only real issue I had with my room, and it wasn't too much of an issue as I was single and never brought anyone back to share my bed was that the two beds put together in my suite had about a 1/2" height differential. It's not just the angle here, the right side is actually lower than the left

While on this cruise I was perfectly happy with a picture window, I'm not sure I'd feel the same way in say Alaska or warmer climes; however the deck was so close it usually didn't matter. On a warmer itenerary it may have.

This was the magic blender in the Skybar. So magic I never saw it used but it did oddly have a USB interface (the real reason it caught my interest, never seen a USB blender before).

The Skybar oddly empty of staff and customers. This may have been the only time it was so.

All the normally stocked liquors at the Skybar. My stash isn't visible. Also, the Club seemed to have the most complete selection. Sad that all bars were not equal. They would however run things between them, even with a smile.

I probably shouldn't be posting this here. But aside from return cruisers and myself this seemed to be a secret oasis

[Emperor Norton]

Here are the two main hot tubs

This is the Constellation lounge (for some reason I wanted to call it Observation but that must've been a different line). They had board games, tea, and the most asinine trivia hours here (hint: Regents trivia hours make THE most sense).

The bar/starboard side in the Magellan lounge

That center bit is where all the Tea fixings would be left out.

Port side of the Constellation

The "swimming" pool

[Emperor Norton]

The pool and the atrium over the aft spiral stair cases

Going aft past them we run into La Veranda/R2s buffet/service line

Continuing on we have the main interior dining room component of La Veranda/R2

Exterior view/seating of La Veranda/R2 looking dead astern

Going down a bit and aft again we come across this sign

With this portrait

[Emperor Norton]

The library looking from the entrance back

Library looking from the back forward

The Shirley er surely;) you must be joking sign. I can count on one finger the number of newpapers I ever saw there. And that was for all of 3 minutes before some passenger ate it

Close up of the main (er obvious) hot tubs

Skybar with the Skygrill being setup

[Emperor Norton]

The casino, our Tail end Charlie for Peterhoff, Jana worked here

That is one TIRED and WORN looking Roulette wheel

The whole two card tables

A partial of the bar selection on the club. For some reason I never got a picture of where the shall we say better things were stored (eg: my Louis Trieze)

[Jim Avery]

Loving the pictures and narrative. Keep up the good work.:D:D

[Emperor Norton]

The very limited bar seating in the Club. At least it's outside the bowl

That glassed in area on the right is the "fishbowl" which imo should be sealed and the only smoking area on board

You can see the exterior boundaries of the "fishbowl" here

Starboard side of the Club looking towards the equipment

A wider angle view from the starboard side of the Club looking port

[Emperor Norton]

So the Kiel canal was actually really very interesting (especially to Nelson :p). It seemed much more progressive than the Panama canal (eg: less time in locks). However while it didn't have the mosquitos of Panama it seemed that it's definately wasp season:mad:

 

At seeing the first water traffic in the canal, I wasn't sure that even our small ship could make it

I'm not sure if it's a requirement or not, but I never saw anything under sail in the canal

I believe this constitutes a traffic jam

[Emperor Norton]

Im not sure if thats a post-DDR lookout or not

Sadly I don't recall any traffic on this bridge

I'll take "Russian Rust heaps for $1000 Alex..."

I've never seen a star spangled traffic sign before, but here you go

Don't let the Russians pack your heavy equipment

It seemed the locals were looking for a lazy a day as the passengers

[Emperor Norton]

At one point, I wasn't sure we were going to pass this guy

Were we more insteresting to them, or them to us?

I was surprised the decks were this empty

People were even stopping to stare, I guess we were that different from the rust tubs and pleasure boats

They definitely had some interesting housing

Oh, hai thar! (sorry, 1337)

[Emperor Norton]

My first R2 dinner. I should probably say that I felt the *best* restaurant service was obtained by arriving at opening. Waiting until 1930 when all the hosted tables came in could make for a longer than desired night. R2 never suffered that problem (just the opposite a few times they'd ask/be told to hold the horses)

 

These were some kind of corny bread thingamajig that didn't quite do anything for me. Thankfully I never had to deal with them again (the onion focaccia on the other hand...YUM)

Lobster martini, I found it better as individual components, which I'm guessing was the exact opposite of the chefs intentions

A trio: tuna, crab/spinach and duck. From right to left would've been my grading system. But perhaps I'm overly tired of 10+ years of tuna tartar (kind of like molten chocolate cake, please let it die for a few decades)

L -> R: tomato coconut cappuccino, oxtail cigar (why wasn't this a churchill? Hrm??) and seafood presse with double shocked shrimp

L -> R: Crisp Seabass then the BBQ Glazed (er thats not BBQ...) shortrib with "seared" foie gras (TBH: none of the foie gras ever tasted/had the texture of truely seared, further their portion sizes were a joke -

L -> R: Sweet coffee sandwich, white chocolate foam, random interloping Sauternes and sea salt, caramel ice cream

[Emperor Norton]

Could it be the bridge and some of the OS deck space?

Should've had a trivia game based on stuff like this

Look at what else I was able to find

I was surprised to see towel animal critters, and I have no idea what this one was supposed to be

[Emperor Norton]

It must be SHOWTIME

Photos don't always come out the way you'd hoped

I'm singing on a ship, I'm er at least we mostly missed "Singing in the Rain" (that is for 99% of the cruise rain didn't mess anything up after all save the last day in St. Petersburg)

More from Seabreeze

Sadly, there were times even beyond ISO 3200 wasn't cutting it

So one day our cruise director and Cher get stuck in Calvin's transmorgifier...

[Emperor Norton]

Welcome to Ronne (one of two places I would have happily left off for more time on other places, like say Stockholm where they used to overnight - the other is Mariehamm which seemed to be universally disliked)

Let's try this again, welcome to Ronne

Alrighty then, welcome to Ronne

I just don't understand this. No wine, bun-free hot dogs or popsicles, everything else is ok on the bus?

Oh hey, quick look at the doggy!

(as we're leaving) this isn't a bad view of the place

this isn't too bad either...

[Emperor Norton]

Random bits at this point:

It seems that the Restaurant is almost devoid of life at opening for breakfast/lunch/dinner (great time to get in, although breakfast/lunch never seem to fill up).

 

The Hollandaise on the eggs Benedict is good, however I prefer a bit more tart from the lemon. Their lunch portions are a joke and one day I was waiting for an irate New Yorker to shank someone. They had a Reuben sandwich which had a total size of about 1/4 a even a smallish traditional deli Reuben. Also the ingredients did not meld as well as your average Reuben.

 

For breakfast, the toast to me was always overly toasted while the English muffins were universially under toasted:eek:

 

The home made pastries were OK, they could've found a random French baker to help their croissants and the doughnuts usually hi-lighted the DOUGH part, sadly.

 

I think the two most epic failures I experienced in the Restaurant were:

• Kitchen made (v. tableside) Steak Diane - do not order unless tableside! You've been warned!
  
• The Mexican lunch an insult to even Taco Bell grade "Mexican" food
  

 

The steak Diane done table side was sooo much fresher tasting, stronger tasting (the sauce wasn't weak like from the kitchen) and chock full of mushrooms (again something lacking from the kitchen). Further I think tableside got more or a better veal stock as the beef flavor from tableside was sooo far ahead of what the kitchen put out (I had several people tell me the Maitre'd Titor (sp?) Payne was not only the best on the Pride for the dish but in the fleet - after tasting it the first time, I'd believe it.

 

The "Mexican" lunch - lets start with the spicy bean soup (silly Notreno expecting a black bean soup). Well this soup had no spice and all of five beans (yes, I counted them - no that's not varietals, five beans total). The "taco" was a garbage grade Lowrys overly dried nasty shell stuffed with grease dripping ground beef that while colorful seemed to be totally devoid of flavor. Yuck.

 

The only humor I found was a whinging Aussie couple (that the previous night had barked at staff that the HAD to have their own table as she was feeling ill. It had never occurred to them to cancel their host invite. Odd thing was later that night she was all over the place with liquid courage, eh.). Anyways, what I found amusing were the complaints they were lodging then forgetting "where are these scallops from, I can only have scallops that are harvested in X manner" (really, I'd think you'd be more concerned with the processing methods). What nearly had me dieing from laughter however was their trying to pick apart what was wrong with the "Fah-Gee-ts" (their pronunciation not mine). Oh you mean fajitas. If you can't come close to pronouncing it, perhaps you shouldn't complain? For some reason, combined with their attitude/behavior the previous night I was trying my best to conceal my laughter.

 

Skygrill - Is anyone familiar with the Wendys fast food commercials from the 1980s where the older woman asks "Where's the beef" and their competition is "Home of the big bun!". Well sadly those are some issues I have with the Skygrill. First for both the hotdogs and burgers the buns are FAR too big and far too firm. Secondly neither the dogs nor burgers seemed to be particularly tasty. If the line has to source USDA approved meat aside from lamb, there are far better choices than what they offered. Don't even get me started on the odd looking chicken breasts or anemic looking steaks they had. It's a nice idea/diversion but IMO people are better off in La Veranda outside if you want your lunch Al Fresco.

 

While La Veranda is nice for Al Fresco, if you don't need to dine under open air, I'd skip it. It always felt crowded and not overly relaxing, too much activity while I'm trying to just eat and relax. Sadly however when the chef found some fresh items they'd usually wind up here, so on that note your best breakfast/lunch option is here.

[Nigella]

Super review, the pictures are especially good quality viewed on my iPad.

I believe this is the first time I've seen interior pics on one of the triplets and they certainly do look like a yacht vs a cruise ship.

Pity about the Nick F....we find the Heidsick Monopole Blue Top on Silversea just barely drinkable, but to our palate Nick F is a step down even from that.

Bit disappointed to read some of your experiences with certain items on the menu, we expected the food to be very good across the board.

 

Looking forward to more to come.

[Emperor Norton]

I forgot to add, next up: St. Petersburg, Moscow, Peterhoff and diabolical weather:mad:

[CAC104]

This is such an excellent review with the greatest photos!

[Jay23]

We have been on only one Seabourn cruise. On Legend. Seabourn took us to a 5* hotel for breakfast when we arrived in Dubai early in the morning. Then to the ship. Small queue for check in; no chair hoggers.

 

Yes the safe was not very convenient and the wardrobe door was difficult to unstick from its magnet; hardly enough to spoil the cabin.

 

The food was excellent, in both restaurants. As you say breakfast & lunch is best taken on the open deck, but you don't like it there. Why not if it is the best??

Small portions? More than adequate for us. Can't watch tv from the bed? We could.

Are you enjoying the cruise? Doesn't sound like it to me.

 

Good pictures though.

[dalliowner]

If the portions are too small , you may always ask for more, this is much better than delivering large portions and have lots of waste.

[Emperor Norton]

Sometimes I did ask for a bigger portion, but especially with regards to the Reuben sandwich (ok for a land based comparison to something else, La Folie had a far more generous portion of Foie gras that was also of better quality) the serving size was nowhere near what I've ever seen stateside and certainly nothing that would ever be served in/around any self respecting deli.

 

This is actually an after the fact write up (I did a "Live from/Asleep at the helm when I was onboard). Most of what I'm not liking are little gripes overall - nothing cruise killing to be sure (although some of the chair hogs would morph into handicapped seat hogs which SB did nothing about). Overall I did enjoy the cruise (there were a few things that really irked me that Ill get to later).

[Grammyluvs]

Very interesting. I have never used this cruise line and really am not seeing why I would want to bother. I love your sarcastic sense of humor and pictures are great.