Seabourn - in the Med - food......and the rest

[kbwinn]

SeaDream still has fresh squeezed.

[lincslady]

Lincslady, is your comment about Regent reference to the cruises you took with them some time ago, or is this from your most recent experience ? I know you had a booking with them coming up some time soon but I'm not sure when. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts about your cruise with them.

 

Yes, we have had our cruise with Regent recently, and were sadly disappointed with all the food and wines with the honourable exception of the specialist restaurants, two of which you can only visit once. Mentioning this on the Regent board has naturally resulted in someone suggesting we should have ordered a different dish instead - in fact no dish we had in any course at any meal was better than just about acceptable, and some plain not good. I am at least in a position to compare recent cruises on SB and Regent, and from a purely personal point of view feel that Seabourn's catering dept. is very much better, and I would suggest probably has a better food and wine budget.

 

We will not be returning to Regent, primarily for this reason.

[vistaman]

Crystal still serves fresh squeezed OJ. It is wonderful to be able to stop by the Lido in the morning after a visit to the fitness center and watch the oranges rotate through the machine, and there is no substitute for fresh OJ in my opinion. However, this is no "deal breaker" for sure. But like Mighty Leaf Tea that they serve, it is indicative of the small things that make a line "luxury."

 

that is very true about the orange juice - the machines are in the Lido

but Crystal is weird about "bubbly" if you do ask for champagne they do serve Roederer Estate - a passenger must ask for " French Champagne" to obtain the complimentary Jacquart.

When mentionning it to the bar manager, F and B and even to the Hotel manager they were not very pleased at all - the reaction was the kind of :" he found something " - however if i said champagne i never did receive sparkling wine during the last cruise;)

[Nigella]

Yes, we have had our cruise with Regent recently, and were sadly disappointed with all the food and wines with the honourable exception of the specialist restaurants, two of which you can only visit once. Mentioning this on the Regent board has naturally resulted in someone suggesting we should have ordered a different dish instead - in fact no dish we had in any course at any meal was better than just about acceptable, and some plain not good. I am at least in a position to compare recent cruises on SB and Regent, and from a purely personal point of view feel that Seabourn's catering dept. is very much better, and I would suggest probably has a better food and wine budget.

 

We will not be returning to Regent, primarily for this reason.

 

We keep looking at Regent, not because we're dissatisfied in any with SB,but just for another option if the right itinerary came up.

So I'd been looking forward to hearing about your experience this time round.

Not surprised to hear that it was suggested you simply chose the wrong dish ;)

[lincslady]

Nigella - there were quite a few really nice things about Regent - unlike SB, very comfortable poolside loungers and balcony furniture; attractive bar/lounges for good cocktails and drinks generally, and the staff were pretty efficient and smiley, though not to my mind up to the general character and chat of SB staff. Of course, 700 people makes quite a difference, and the ship was full. There were quite a lot of children on board, but generally pretty well behaved, and there was some sort of kid's club which was a good idea. They certainly did not spoil our experience at all.

 

But we did feel that the wine servers knew very little about what they were serving, and generally you were asked 'sauvignon blanc or pinot grigio, or shiraz, cab. sauv. or (maybe) merlot' with no further knowledge on their part. Whereas SB has New Zealand s.b. of quite a good quality, Regent only had a cheaper Chilean one for example.

 

I would therefore say that if the food and wines are a very important part of your cruise, as they are for us, then SB is in my humble opinion way ahead of Regent apart from the noticeable difference in the quality of cuisine at dinner in the specialist restaurants to the regular meals - and we did not like the main restaurant at all. Regent does have some real cheerleaders, but generally they stick to Regent so IMO are not in a position to make comparisons. I suppose if you read all the reports on both lines you get a good overall picture - I admit a bias towards SB against the others we have tried, including Silversea and Seadream BUT we all have different priorities.

[Mr Luxury]

that is very true about the orange juice - the machines are in the Lido

 

but Crystal is weird about "bubbly" if you do ask for champagne they do serve Roederer Estate - a passenger must ask for " French Champagne" to obtain the complimentary Jacquart.

 

When mentionning it to the bar manager, F and B and even to the Hotel manager they were not very pleased at all - the reaction was the kind of :" he found something " - however if i said champagne i never did receive sparkling wine during the last cruise;)

 

 

Champagne can only come from France,anything else is sparkling wine.

 

Although there are some fantastic sparkling wines available.

[Les Picantins]

We keep looking at Regent, not because we're dissatisfied in any with SB,but just for another option if the right itinerary came up.

So I'd been looking forward to hearing about your experience this time round.

Not surprised to hear that it was suggested you simply chose the wrong dish ;)

 

While there are similarities between the 2 lines,you couldn't pay me to step foot on a Regent ship ever again do to the way my husband was (mis)treated after getting food poisoning onboard. Their cheerleaders also tried to discredit me as a poster as I beat to death the subject on a thread titled "food poisoning".

 

On the positive side, if you are ever held prisoner on Regent in your cabin after being poisoned, the suites and the beds are very comfortable.

[vistaman]

Champagne can only come from France,anything else is sparkling wine.

 

Although there are some fantastic sparkling wines available.

 

that is very true !!! and i am very sensible for it :)

 

my first incident about - Champagne sparkling wine - was on my very first cruise with the ms Vistafjord in 1990 when during the welcome party sparkling wine was served as "champagne" :D

[cruisr]

Hapag Lloyd?... a ship-load of Germans?! :D Seriously, wouldn't all the lounge chairs be taken by 6am every day and "reserved" for the rest of the day...?;)

 

Check this out:

 

OMG that is so funny. THat happened on every single cruise that I was on on the Vistafjord. There use to be fights amongst passengers. I was walking by when a Brit spilled a glass of water over a German because they got so frustrated with the "reserving"

[Roxburgh]

OMG that is so funny. THat happened on every single cruise that I was on on the Vistafjord. There use to be fights amongst passengers. I was walking by when a Brit spilled a glass of water over a German because they got so frustrated with the "reserving"

 

Many years ago - when the children were young - we would go to Club Med. There the mainly French staff would throw the 'reserver's' towels into the swimming pool if they were on an unoccupied lounger for more than 30 mins. They got the message.

[wripro]

I wouldn't throw them in the pool but certainly into the used towel bin. Their books or other items would go on the deck.

[Emperor Norton]

Crystals lost and found got tired of dealing with all the items I "found" on the ship.

[marama]

We loved our (only) Seabourn experience and are looking forward to the next. We had no real complaints about the food - but I have to say it was not as good as we had on our two Windstar cruises. If not for those Windstar cruises, we would have thought Seabourn fantastic!