Seabourn Sojourn Food and Service

[Kilroyshere]

Being long time SB vets who’ve sailed on SB as recently as this past December (and are completely content); reading all the posted Seabourn displeasure can mean only one thing:

 

 

Less demand = more space, availability and lower price points for those of us who love to “slum it” on Seabourn.

 

 

So Puh-leeeze, stay away and don’t suffer any longer from the Seabourn swill house wines mentioned.

 

 

And regarding frozen meats on a ship at sea for upwards of several weeks with limited supplies from dubious ports with health dept laws that are non-existent, don’t even DARE risk eating those frozen meats from U.S. or safe ports…oh the horror of it all!

 

Perhaps you might bring an ample supply of MRE’s aboard just in case...be safe cruise preppers aboard ship.

 

(anyone in the foodie biz knows frozen meats on a ship are standard fare and are quite common in the best restaurants too…but sssshhhhh, don’t tell the whiners bout that).

 

Regarding lower classes taking deeply discounted rooms at last minute...we've yet to meet a crew member from Housekeeper on up to the Capn' who knew squat what we paid for our cruise...other than the room category we might be in. Not even the Seabourn Metallica frequent cruise program was known if one was a Gold or Tin level Seabourn cruiser.

 

But others herein seem to think the ship's crew are wise to who paid what and get service according to what they paid. It just aint so. Seabourn usually over delivers when requests are made or complaints are made known to appropriate personnel.

 

Regardless of these nonsense conspiracy theories, we've enjoyed meeting fabulously wealthy celebrities, heads of industry as well as people whom had no visible or known means of support...and we could care less. Every passenger we observed was treated with the same respect and high standards of service we got. And we've met amongst the most delightful folks ever on Seabourn which include famous and common folks alike.

 

We hope to never meet passengers who might judge others by their alleged social or economic standing.

 

Carry on…

 

___‹~›__‹(•¿•)›__‹~›___

[Emperor Norton]

Being long time SB vets who’ve sailed on SB as recently as this past December (and are completely content); reading all the posted Seabourn displeasure can mean only one thing:

 

 

Less demand = more space, availability and lower price points for those of us who love to “slum it” on Seabourn.

 

 

So Puh-leeeze, stay away and don’t suffer any longer from the Seabourn swill house wines mentioned.

 

 

And regarding frozen meats on a ship at sea for upwards of several weeks with limited supplies from dubious ports with health dept laws that are non-existent, don’t even DARE risk eating those frozen meats from U.S. or safe ports…oh the horror of it all!

 

Perhaps you might bring an ample supply of MRE’s aboard just in case...be safe cruise preppers aboard ship.

 

(anyone in the foodie biz knows frozen meats on a ship are standard fare and are quite common in the best restaurants too…but sssshhhhh, don’t tell the whiners bout that).

 

Regarding lower classes taking deeply discounted rooms at last minute...we've yet to meet a crew member from Housekeeper on up to the Capn' who knew squat what we paid for our cruise...other than the room category we might be in. Not even the Seabourn Metallica frequent cruise program was known if one was a Gold or Tin level Seabourn cruiser.

 

But others herein seem to think the ship's crew are wise to who paid what and get service according to what they paid. It just aint so. Seabourn usually over delivers when requests are made or complaints are made known to appropriate personnel.

 

Regardless of these nonsense conspiracy theories, we've enjoyed meeting fabulously wealthy celebrities, heads of industry as well as people whom had no visible or known means of support...and we could care less. Every passenger we observed was treated with the same respect and high standards of service we got. And we've met amongst the most delightful folks ever on Seabourn which include famous and common folks alike.

 

We hope to never meet passengers who might judge others by their alleged social or economic standing.

 

Carry on…

 

___‹~›__‹(•¿•)›__‹~›___

 

 

RE: The MREs - 3 lies for the price of 1

/I need to find a new animated gif for that

[MicheleCda]

I'm confused about my upcoming trip after reading all these latest posts about food, service, etc. I know I need to pay more because I'm solo but my 7-day Med cruise is $6,150 (in a lower level balcony - deck 5 I believe toward the front so certainly nothing great). If the food and service are high quality, the money will be well spent but if not ($3 bottles of wine? really?!), I'll think it was a waste of time and money which would have been better spent elsewhere. Another line perhaps?

 

Economy aside, it appears that Carnival's management style is having an impact :(. I've been on one Carnival cruise in my early 20's and it's not something I would ever like to repeat now that I'm older. But if some trips are being discounted down to near-Carnival prices, for sure the food and service is going to suffer.

 

I guess I won't know until I take the cruise but some of the posts in here have given me some food for thought (no pun intended, ha, ha).

[oregon50]

There is some advantage in that you have not witnessed the slide, just as there is some disadvantage of finding this website before doing the cruise.

 

My suggestion would be to read the wiki for Seabourn. Reading this thread, you would think that CCL bought the company one or two years ago. The move to HAL is not good for past passengers and will probably get worse. To get an idea of what Seabourn might be like without Carnival's cash, sail on Silversea.

[JaneBP]

I cruise alone on Seabourn all the time. Don't let the naysayers cloud your opinion and don't bother looking for faults. It's a delightful time on which ever ship you have selected. Just enjoy it and take the option of having dinner at a hosted table. Great way to meet new cruisers. (You can speak with the MD and ask to be included if it's on one of the larger ships.) ENJOY!

(And check the Roll Call Forum for your cruise. If it's not listed, start a thread.)

[Emperor Norton]

There is some advantage in that you have not witnessed the slide, just as there is some disadvantage of finding this website before doing the cruise.

 

My suggestion would be to read the wiki for Seabourn. Reading this thread, you would think that CCL bought the company one or two years ago. The move to HAL is not good for past passengers and will probably get worse. To get an idea of what Seabourn might be like without Carnival's cash, sail on Silversea.

 

Perhaps I missed the glory days of Seabourn, or perhaps I got unusually lucky (or perhaps there isn't a universal gloom and doom). My cruise on Seabourn was better than Crystal, Regent, and Silversea.

[philipb]

There seem to be enough negative comments about Sojourn to suggest there is a problem. We have not been on Sojourn for a couple of years but our last three cruises have been on Odyssey. We disembarked about 5 weeks ago. I can assure you that we had none of these problems on Odyssey .... in fact, nobody even asked about our mortgage (think of the tax advantages :D ).

 

The stock response on this board is to blame Seattle or HAL. However, as we are not getting the same complaints about Quest, Odyssey or the triplets, that suggests that there is a management problem which is specific to Sojourn. Clearly, that needs to get sorted out.

 

About a year ago, Odyssey also had some problems (that was the first of our three in a row). By the time we were on our second Odyssey cruise, all those problems had been fixed and the service and food were outstanding. I would be willing to wager that the same will happen for Sojourn.

 

 

You may be right about Seabourn Sojourn being the 'problem' ship. We were on the November cruise - 33 days from FLL to Buenos Aires (via Panama). I wrote a full ship review at the time entitled "Nice ship - shame about the food". See http://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=216648 At the end of the cruise a troubleshooter from Seattle (Kevin Huxham) was brought aboard to try and fix things. The F&B manager (Marco de Oliviera) and the Hotel Manager (Hubert Buelacher) had failed completely to get to grips with with the problems in the galley. So the chef was put off (I think at Montevideo). According to 'wripro' things improved on the next cruise, but other posters confirmed that matters then deteriorated again in early 2013. I heard yesterday that another troubleshooter from Seattle (name unknown) had to be dispatched to try and sort matters yet again and it was suggested that the latest 'heads to roll' are those of de Oliviera and Buelacher. Can anyone on board now or recently confirm this?

[Mr Luxury]

if they swap everyone to the Quest from the Sojourn,then everyone can moan about the food and service on the Quest,it will freshen up this thread a bit.

Yawwwwwnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

[HappyFeet13]

Wow, a bunch of new posters have made specific comments about their experiences on Sojourn and they generally agree with my very first post that started this thread. If you review carefully, there are 4 other posters who have recently been on THIS SHIP, and they ALL agree there is/was a food quality and service problem. Why people like the last poster keep reading and posting detracting/condescending comments, even though they haven't been aboard this ship in recent times, (while saying how boring this all is), is beyond me. Do you work for Seabourn?. I do apologize for any inference that I was referring to "class" in the comment that I made in my last posting that some of the people I met on our recent cruise were not "people of means". I did not mean to imply anything negative about them. They were the nicest and most fun people I had the pleasure of sailing with, and would love to find them as shipmates on another cruise. I assure you that I would prefer spending time with them to spending even a second with MisterLuxury. I was only suggesting that this may support the premise that Seabourn has apparently taken to deep discounting of their prices in order to fill their ships. I don't believe they ever did that 5-10 years ago. Simply put, ten years ago most people couldn't afford to be on a "super luxury" cruise. More and more people now find Seabourn affordable and that means it can't be "super luxury" any more. When deep discounts are made, (as CommodoreDave said) cuts have to be made somewhere. All that said, if you review my posts, you'll note that I have a lot more good to say about our Seabourn experience, than bad. I personally believe they have (had?) a management problem re food/service on this one particular ship, and i believe that they can and will solve it.

[wripro]

Have you noticed that Crystal and Silversea have taken to dividing their 10 and 12 day cruises into two segments so people "of lesser means" can afford to book them? All the luxury lines are doing whatever they can to fill their berths and to attract a younger, still working demographic. They can no longer afford to rely on the retired contingent as they will all soon be retired into the ground.

[CraftyEC]

if they swap everyone to the Quest from the Sojourn,then everyone can moan about the food and service on the Quest,it will freshen up this thread a bit.

Yawwwwwnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

Please don't do this as we are due to sail on the Quest :P

 

Seriously, it does sound as if there have been some problems specific to this one ship of the fleet, which have not been fully resolved despite some attempts. I would think that SB should have been faster of the mark to recognise and address the problems, and I hope that they will do so in a timely manner.

 

This is against the background of several other factors: top-layer management by Carnival / HAL; a global economic recession; changing demographics on all cruises. Not all of these changes are good, but neither are they all bad. If a line kept only 'loyal' previous passengers it would, in the middle-term, find itself out of business as that specific demographic aged and retired from sailing. The suggestion that if more people are sailing it can no longer be luxury is disquieting, but understandable - not everything can be on the top rank, be it luxury sailing or examination results. I am reminded of a friend who is a headteacher at a high school who was informed by the political over-seers of the education system that 'all schools should aspire to be in the top 25th centile' - errrm, methinks they did not understand much about the concept of population distribution! However, I am uncomfortable with the concept that only a 'deserving' minority should be entitled to experience true luxury. Some people save long and hard to spend their disposable income on luxury cruising, others can book a cruise with little thought to the financial implications. Who is to say that one or the other is more deserving of pampering?

 

I'm sure that the many posters who have long experience of sailing on Seabourn and other luxury lines are right in that they have seen a diminution of some of the standards such as caviar and portion sizes, and some of these changes are to be deplored. But many of the 'new facts' which come to light, such as the use of frozen meat and fish is not new in any way, but is long-standing practice on most lines, and relates to such factors as US legislation, not laziness.

 

All that said I do agree that it would do Seabourn an enormous amount of good in terms of passenger satisfaction and goodwill if they looked carefully at their list of offered / included wines and improved them. I'm not talking about spending a significant amount more, or looking at small producers where there may be problems in consistency of supply, but at good quality wines which are easily available for less than the price they are probably paying for their current offerings. That said, it sometimes took a couple of attempts, but I never failed to get a pleasant and drinkable (not 'fine') glass of wine to drink.

 

Now then, I've succumbed :eek: in that I said I would go away and leave the thread, but I just haven't been able to keep myself from the occasional peek to see if any progress has been made!

[wripro]

These threads never make any progress. They just go round and round and round.

[HappyFeet13]

Wripro..."yes, I have noticed". Seems that there are many shorter and shorter cruises on the top luxury lines. I'm sure the problem is marketing. When I had my previous Seabourn experiences they had 3 ships to keep filled with a total of 600 passengers a day. I recall that there was close to a 1:1 crew/passenger ratio. The addition of the bigger Odyssey-class ships allowed them to significantly reduce their crew/passenger ratio, thus saving a ton of money. But with the addition of the 3 "big sisters" they had to find a paying clientele averaging nearly 2,000 people a day to fill all six of their ships. They also had to find interesting routes that wouldn't result in Seabourn ships being overwhelmed when they visit ports at the same time as 1,000 to 5,000 passenger behemoths. Their ultimate decision was apparently to become a different kind of company by selling their smaller ships and concentrating on getting themselves profitable. That might be a good plan if they now only have to concentrate on selling 1350 passengers a day. But at the same time they announced selling the little sisters, they announced that they will be adding a new ship that would maintain Seabourn's overall capacity. I guess they have a plan, but I don't know if the end result will be the same quality as the old, original Seabourn. I sure hope that it will be. The new Odyssey-class ships are very, very nice!

[DebbieH103]

Oregon50, as frequest Silversea cruisers, I'm not sure what was meant by the comment about SS being what you'd get w/o Carnival cash. We have been on all sizes of SS ships, and we love the butler service and the dining and the cabins. We have been to wonderful places all around the world.

[Laylam]

You may be right about Seabourn Sojourn being the 'problem' ship. We were on the November cruise - 33 days from FLL to Buenos Aires (via Panama). I wrote a full ship review at the time entitled "Nice ship - shame about the food". See http://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=216648 At the end of the cruise a troubleshooter from Seattle (Kevin Huxham) was brought aboard to try and fix things. The F&B manager (Marco de Oliviera) and the Hotel Manager (Hubert Buelacher) had failed completely to get to grips with with the problems in the galley. So the chef was put off (I think at Montevideo). According to 'wripro' things improved on the next cruise, but other posters confirmed that matters then deteriorated again in early 2013. I heard yesterday that another troubleshooter from Seattle (name unknown) had to be dispatched to try and sort matters yet again and it was suggested that the latest 'heads to roll' are those of de Oliviera and Buelacher. Can anyone on board now or recently confirm this?

We disembarked the Sojourn on the 6th March after a FANTASTIC cruise. We were particularly lucky with the weather and able to eat outdoors most days. I posted on page 11 of this thread that the cruise met all my expectations. We dined in all four venues and overall were very happy with the food and service. The meals I least enjoyed were those I served myself from the Buffets in the Colonnade & Patio Grill. I think it was a case of too much choice + indecision = Dog's breakfast!! I enjoyed all meals ordered from the menu in both of these venues.

 

The Chef was Martin Kitzing, F & B Manager was Paul Beswetherick, Hotel Director was Karl Eckl. Guest Services Manager was Alistair Seliers & Restaurant Manager was Bogdan Stefanescu. I don't see the names 'de Oliviera' or 'Buelacher' anywhere.

[kiskadee]

I held off commenting as I thought this thread would eventually die a natural death. As that has not happened, and the thread has returned to its original subject, I will post about my experience on the Sojourn in October 2012. Our previous Seabourn cruise had been an absolutely superb med cruise on the Quest, so we had high expectations.

 

Every cruise is an entity unto itself and depends on how various “forces” come together for its duration. On this particular cruise the passenger demographics skewed to more casual, older Americans, many with mobility issues, from warmer US climates (mostly FL, TX and CA). The weather was for the most part cool and dreary.

 

Consequently, the indoor area of the Colonnade was an absolute zoo every day. Main Dining Room hours for breakfast were very limited, so after 8:30 am the Colonnade was crushed (people standing around waiting for tables/seats to open up, places to be cleared, etc.) Now the interesting part: the undercover, outdoor tables were set for breakfast daily, but if one chose to sit outdoors (a completely acceptable alternative to this northerner) one was completely ignored. I enjoy a small morning meal of bread, cheese and fruit, so I was not looking to order off the menu. I do, however, expect that if coffee cups and flatware are placed on the tables that someone will actually come to offer me coffee. It did not happen – we had to go indoors and seek out a server on more than one morning.

 

I do not generally eat lunch on board if the ship is in port, so I have no comment on what happened at that meal, though the Galley Market lunch at sea was well done.

 

The dinner menus in the Main Dining Room were an odd combination of totally boring/uninspired and overly fussy. The Colonnade had a series of interesting “Market” nights. The most varied menus (printed daily in the Herald) were at the Patio Grill. However, during the ten-day cruise it was only open one or two times – and you did not find out if it was actually opening or not until 7 pm or so.

 

Service in both the MD and Colonnade was cheerful, but spotty, disorganized and noisy (read heated discussions between servers and broken dishes not caused by roiling seas). Room Service was reliable for the two nights we could not deal with the offerings in the MD and chose not to plow into the hectic environment of the Colonnade.

 

Don’t even get me started on the bar service. As mentioned, due to weather and (I guess) low demand among the passengers, the Patio and Sky Bars were often randomly and unexpectedly closed. One day we came back from shore around 2 pm and not a single bar was open. After ordering a couple of beers from Room Service, we learned that the Observation Bar had opened at 2:30 that day. As a passenger/”guest” I should not have to go from Patio to Sky to Club to Observation lounge (or call Seabourn Square) to get a beer! At the very least, there should have been notices placed at the closed bars of what was available where and when.

 

I realize that most of the passengers on this particular cruise were not interested in eating meals (or for that matter having a beer) outdoors in 50 degree weather, but younger, thicker-blooded seaman such as myself were totally abandoned to the will of the majority. I respect the right of Seabourn to deploy its assets as it sees most prudent, but the individualized treatment they advertise was not apparent on this voyage.

 

Will we sail on Seabourn again, most likely. But our next trip is a land vacation in South Africa….maybe a cruise in 2014 or 2015?

 

FYI - I don’t go out of my way to meet people when on vacation, but on this cruise we were seated at dinner in the Colonnade one evening with several others. Moments after arriving, one of the guests (one of the few non-retirees) asked, “what do you do to pay the mortgage?” Since I don’t have one I replied “nothing.” This pretty much shut down the conversation, but it was a bit bothersome…..

 

This was a very fair review showing that there definitely was a problem on Sojourn. I sincerely hope Sojourn's problems will be sorted out very soon as we have friends going to the Baltic in July and after them listening to me saying how wonderful Seabourn is I will be more than a little embarrassed if this is not the case. I was on the Sojourn world cruise and everything was perfect so this is obviously a recent problem. So, come on Seabourn , get all these problems sorted out .

[commodoredave]

Have you noticed that Crystal and Silversea have taken to dividing their 10 and 12 day cruises into two segments so people "of lesser means" can afford to book them? All the luxury lines are doing whatever they can to fill their berths and to attract a younger, still working demographic. They can no longer afford to rely on the retired contingent as they will all soon be retired into the ground.

 

I love seeing the youger, still working demographic on any cruise line, including luxury (hey, I used to be younger, working full time and poor)! They add a lot of good value and interesting conversation. What I don't like is people who book for the lower last-minute price instead of what the cruise line stands for and then try to change things around to their different standards. Let me give you a real-life example.

 

In mid-2000 we took a 4-day cruise return from NY to Halifax on the QM2. I had sailed with Cunard twice before, including on the old Caronia which was an exceptional experience. So my TA suggested I give the relatively new QM2 a try. We booked far in advance and were looking forward to a traditional and refined Cunard experience. Instead, the cruise line deeply discounted fares shortly before sailing and filled the ship with people who acted like they were in an episode of Jersey Shores. They were loud, boisterous, usually drunk and hogged every space on the ship. Extended familes camped out in the Golden Lion Pub for entire afternoons. And the buffet restaurant became a card room. And as soon as dinner was over, they would change into jeans and a t-shirt before going to the show.

 

We felt cheated. We had paid full fare for what we expected to be a traditional Cunard experience, and instead got Carnival on steroids. Luckily, our TA told Cunard about our experience and they gave us an OBC to try the QM2 again, this time on a trans-Atlantic. We did, and the experience was wonderful -- completely different from the deeply discounted 4-day cruise that could have been an episode of Jersey Shores (hey, maybe it was). And we have done the QM2 crossing twice more since then.

 

The bottom line is that everyone, regardless of income or fare paid, should be encouraged and welcomed aboard any cruise ship as long as they are willing to respect and adhere to the standards that the cruise line markets and that other loyal clients have paid for (usually at a higher price) to enjoy.

[Laylam]

This was a very fair review showing that there definitely was a problem on Sojourn. I sincerely hope Sojourn's problems will be sorted out very soon as we have friends going to the Baltic in July and after them listening to me saying how wonderful Seabourn is I will be more than a little embarrassed if this is not the case. I was on the Sojourn world cruise and everything was perfect so this is obviously a recent problem. So, come on Seabourn , get all these problems sorted out .

My recent experience would suggest that your friends are in for a great time. I do wonder how many of Sojourns "problems" on this particular itinerary could have been weather related? I have this song in my head......

Hello Muddah, hello Fadduh,

Here I am at Camp Grenada

Camp is very entertaining

and they say we'll have some fun if it stops raining.

 

I went hiking with Joe Spivy

He developed poison ivy

You remember Leonard Skinner

He got ptomaine poisoning last night after dinner.

 

All the counselors hate the waiters

And the lake has alligators

And the head coach wants no sissies

So he reads to us from something called Ulysses.

 

Now I don't want this should scare ya

But my bunkmate has malaria

You remember Jeffrey Hardy

They're about to organize a searching party.

Take me home, oh muddah fadduh, take me home, I hate Grenada

Don't leave me out in the forest where I might get eaten by a bear.

Take me home, I promise I will not make noise or mess the house with

other boys, oh please don't make me stay, I've been here one whole day.

 

Dearest fadduh, darling muddah,

How's my precious little bruddah?

Let me come home if ya miss me

I will even let Aunt Bertha hug and kiss me.

 

Wait a minute, it stopped hailing,

Guys are swimming, guys are sailing,

Playing baseball, gee that's better,

Muddah Fadduh kindly disregard this letter.

[johnnycruise]

We disembarked the Sojourn on the 6th March after a FANTASTIC cruise.

 

The Chef was Martin Kitzing, F & B Manager was Paul Beswetherick, Hotel Director was Karl Eckl. Guest Services Manager was Alistair Seliers & Restaurant Manager was Bogdan Stefanescu. I don't see the names 'de Oliviera' or 'Buelacher' anywhere.

 

Karl Eckl and Bogdan Stefanescu are true assets to Seabourn - very personable but at the same time clearly focused on the operation of their respective departments. It appears Seabourn brought in the "A-Team" to correct any perceived shortcomings on the Sojourn.

[Mr Luxury]

Karl Eckl and Bogdan Stefanescu are true assets to Seabourn - very personable but at the same time clearly focused on the operation of their respective departments. It appears Seabourn brought in the "A-Team" to correct any perceived shortcomings on the Sojourn.

 

Yes,totally agree

Karl and Bogdan are indeed the A team.This proves that Seabourn head office knew about the problems that the Sojourn was having and took action to sort it out.

We all know that there can be problems on any ship from any cruise line but it is a test of good management that can sort it out quickly.

I understand that all is now well on the Sojourn from recent onboard reports.

[Paminflorida]

This is fantastic news -- we board Sojourn in Manaus next Monday, March 25th! Can't wait to enjoy every minute and I will post a full review when we return in early April! :D

[Emperor Norton]

This is fantastic news -- we board Sojourn in Manaus next Monday, March 25th! Can't wait to enjoy every minute and I will post a full review when we return in early April! :D

 

If Karl is still on, say hello to him for me;)

[HappyFeet13]

Could it be that the comments that I and others made about food and service on the Feb 2 cruise ( and the earlier thread by someone else, "...too bad about the food") were accurate? And could it possibly be true that Seabourn monitors these boards and takes appropriate action? Of course it is. And that is a very, very good thing! There have been 321 posts since I began this thread, and 15,881 views...one of the "most watched" threads on the CruiseCritic Sojourn board. That is a lot of potential Seabourn passengers who are being influenced, for better or worse, by what is posted here. That's why I think Seabourn has some "plants"...those who will defend the line no matter what. I'm sure other lines do the same. It would be stupid not to. I'm sure that Seabourn would FAR MORE have preferred me being a passenger who went directly to the top management aboard ship. They pride themselves on requiring every service employee learning the face and name of every passenger. They give them photos that are taken when we board ship. It is a simple thing to identify those to whom special, special attention must be paid. If they can identify people who post on these boards, and single them out for extraordinary care, they can get away with less than stellar service and quality for everyone else. The purpose of my posts was not to get better food, bigger portions, faster service for me. It was to describe to others what it was like aboard ship at that time. I had hoped that Seabourn was smart enough to see these postings, watch them to see if I was a "nutcase" or "complainer" to see if any others aboard ship supported my postings. Thankfully, four others did, and no one who was aboard ship at that time disagreed with us. The fact that Seabourn made some significant staffing changes and that early reports indicate that "problem may be solved" is a testament to the power of public boards like this one, and to those of you who were aboard ship and posted here to tell how "it really was". Thank you all for doing that. That is why my posts have been careful to explain how much I enjoyed all of the OTHER positive aspects of sailing Seabourn Sojourn and the pleasure of being with the people aboard them...both passengers and crew. Seabourn is dear to my heart...I have many wonderful memories from my five cruises with them. I truly hope they can capture and retain all of the things that made them one of the top cruise lines in the world.

[Emperor Norton]

Could it be that the comments that I and others made about food and service on the Feb 2 cruise ( and the earlier thread by someone else, "...too bad about the food") were accurate? And could it possibly be true that Seabourn monitors these boards and takes appropriate action? Of course it is. And that is a very, very good thing! There have been 321 posts since I began this thread, and 15,881 views...one of the "most watched" threads on the CruiseCritic Sojourn board. That is a lot of potential Seabourn passengers who are being influenced, for better or worse, by what is posted here. That's why I think Seabourn has some "plants"...those who will defend the line no matter what. I'm sure other lines do the same. It would be stupid not to. I'm sure that Seabourn would FAR MORE have preferred me being a passenger who went directly to the top management aboard ship. They pride themselves on requiring every service employee learning the face and name of every passenger. They give them photos that are taken when we board ship. It is a simple thing to identify those to whom special, special attention must be paid. If they can identify people who post on these boards, and single them out for extraordinary care, they can get away with less than stellar service and quality for everyone else. The purpose of my posts was not to get better food, bigger portions, faster service for me. It was to describe to others what it was like aboard ship at that time. I had hoped that Seabourn was smart enough to see these postings, watch them to see if I was a "nutcase" or "complainer" to see if any others aboard ship supported my postings. Thankfully, four others did, and no one who was aboard ship at that time disagreed with us. The fact that Seabourn made some significant staffing changes and that early reports indicate that "problem may be solved" is a testament to the power of public boards like this one, and to those of you who were aboard ship and posted here to tell how "it really was". Thank you all for doing that. That is why my posts have been careful to explain how much I enjoyed all of the OTHER positive aspects of sailing Seabourn Sojourn and the pleasure of being with the people aboard them...both passengers and crew. Seabourn is dear to my heart...I have many wonderful memories from my five cruises with them. I truly hope they can capture and retain all of the things that made them one of the top cruise lines in the world.

 

You may want to adjust your tinfoil;) I think you're confusing mindless cheerleaders with an actual useful plant. Look at some of the other boards. They all have their share of "(insert cruise line here) can do no wrong". However, those cheerleaders can turn (and posts pointing out lapses in service or quality help). Case in point I made some negative comments re: Regents food and service. Hamburgler rabidly defended Regent stating I was wrong, no clue etc... However, on their most recent cruise they left Regent. Why? Food and service weren't up to snuff.

 

While Seabourn could have people reading this board it's far more likely they listened to the feedback of guests who are on board and guests who take the time to fill out the comment cards (or call/write into HQ). Were they to read this board they'd have no way of knowing who was or wasn't on the ship. To give into that level of trolling would be an epic fail.

[oregon50]

Jim, please read post number 2.

 

I don't know.....has anyone started a thread that is so full of himself?