Food experience on Seabourn gone downhill since Carnival taken over.

[Able Seaman H]

Keeping the dining room open for half a dozen guests, sometimes none at all isn't practical. The staff are better deployed elsewhere.

 

If the Colonnade isn't your thing for breakfast why not call room service and take breakfast in the comfort of your suite / balcony?

 

I'm happy to mix it up in the Colonnade. Every hotel I've stayed in requires you to work out a plan for breakfast to fit in with their offering. You can't rock up and expect them to fit in around you, it just doesn't work.

 

If the only thing stopping you from enjoying something you miss is the breakfast / lunch main dining room situation is there a danger you are cutting your nose off to spite your face? Particularly when there are other options.

 

Henry :)

[lincslady]

It is a pity that one cannot find out in advance about dining room closures for breakfast and lunch. On our fairly recent trip on Odyssey the dining room was open for an hour for breakfast and lunch every single day. There were very few passengers taking advantage, usually 3 to 5 tables occupied, but it was open nevertheless. We were on deck 4, so walked through most days at those times. No idea if the decision is by the Hotel Manager, Chef, Restaurant Manager or whoever. A company wide policy would help.

[Gercru]

Able Seaman,

in a five star hotel, you will certainly find a restaurant open for lunch (no self-service, with tablecoths etc.). The Colonnade is different ( e.g. the wraps and rolls lunch on Encore was nice to look at, but not what you would expect for lunch in a European-style five star hotel).

How come ships like TUI Mein Schiff offer very good quality lunch in their restaurants every day, though occasionally only 20 to 50 out of 2,500 guests attend?

[Tony & Trevor]

Is Seabourn considered '5 stars'? The Encore when we were on was certainly not.

 

 

Kind regards,

 

 

Tony

[PaulaJK]

Sorry Henry but happily my nose remains on my face. The other 'luxury' lines do offer a dining experience at breakfast and lunch. They also offer a buffet which is more varied than that offered by SB if buffets are your preference. There have been a few posts recently commenting negatively on Colonnade's chafing dish breakfasts, both quality and repetitiveness.

 

I don't expect any hotel or ship to work around me....but if they advertise themselves as luxury they need to provide something close to that.

[sananda]

The problem with the MDR during lunch is that the majority of guests go off The ship on tours and those few left on the ship eat mostly in the patio or colonnade so it becomes nonsensical for Seabourn to keep it open.

I am one of the very few that use the MDR for breakfast and lunch if I eat lunch at all.

I know that it would be lovely to have the MDR open for every lunch but the only way to do that would be if an awful lot of guests were to frequent it but if you don’t use it,you lose it.

 

 

Stop making excuses for Seabourn's lack of service.

 

Holland America keeps the main dining room open everyday for breakfast and lunch. So does Princess cruise line. Even the common parent line for Holland, Princess and Seabourn, lowly Carnival, somehow manages to keep the main dining room open for breakfast and lunch. Yet "luxury" line Seabourn somehow can't afford it? or they can't properly figure out how to adequately staff it?

 

I don't care if there are other options available. If a single passenger wants to make use of the main dining room during the posted hours of operation and they are unable, then that is not five star service and it is a failure on Seabourn's part.

[Emperor Norton]

Everyone has his or her own opinion about catering on cruise ships. For me, I find the Thomas Keller Grill Restaurant a big improvement over R2’s mini bites and decor, an evening I book well in advance and look forward to. Same with some of his dinner menus in the Colonnade. Further, and while I am usually quite happy with the MDR choices for dinner, we have enjoyed fabulous special order menus there on a couple of special occasions.

 

That said, please advise where you find the culinary satisfaction you are seeking. We have our first Silversea cruise on the Whisper in 3 weeks and I

am keen to see how they compare with Seabourn.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

 

Unless SilverSea has changed for the better since I was on (which is of course quite possible) expect your rice and pasta to go snap, crackle or mush.

 

As for Seabourn I found the TK nights in the Colonnade to be very erratic in terms of taste. One visit is excellent the other not so much. I've heard that recently (Quests TA from Dover) that some of the preparations were dumbed down to better suit Wonderbread palettes.

 

As to a change post Carnival? Ive found that the chef you have makes all the difference in the world (Jes is still my favorite).

[marama]

Well, we did use it and lost. Luxury lines such as Crystal and SS have lunch dining ..and Regent Explorer always has one of its soecialty restaurants available. We do not enjoy chafing dish buffets in a noisy and not clean area. ..just us... but it took SB off of our go to list. They've survived and so did we...but I miss SB.

 

We enjoy the Colonnade although I would agree that some days can be better than others. We love sitting out on deck for breakfast, lunch and dinner and in fact, I am relieved on the rare occasions when I don't want to try anything from the hot buffet at lunch, as it all usually looks delicious. When its beautiful and sunny and you are in the Med, why on earth would you want to be indoors? I agree though, you would never find us within a mile of a Filippino buffet, similarly a German one. Fortunately there's never been one when we have been onboard, only the TK evenings - which we wish they would leave in the TK Grill.

However, not clean? Its certainly not a thought that has ever crossed our minds in any SB dining venue.

[wripro]

I don't care one whit whether only six people use the MDR for lunch or if the staff could be better used elsewhere. One sails on a luxury line for the options and Seabourn needs to find some way to give whoever wants to use the MDR at lunch a way to use it. If I don't want the Colonnade and I don't want room service I should be the one to decide if I can eat in the MDR, not Seabourn.

[Emperor Norton]

I don't care one whit whether only six people use the MDR for lunch or if the staff could be better used elsewhere. One sails on a luxury line for the options and Seabourn needs to find some way to give whoever wants to use the MDR at lunch a way to use it. If I don't want the Colonnade and I don't want room service I should be the one to decide if I can eat in the MDR, not Seabourn.

 

 

 

Playing the devils advocate. Shouldn’t that luxury extend to say parents and their ill behaved brood taking over the pools/tubs or letting them free roam a restaurant? That’s luxury to them (the parents - someone else is dealing with their kids).

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[PaulaJK]

Emperor////I don't even 'get' that example. Luxury also should not extend to other forms of rule breaking, bad manners or even running around naked!

 

My 'not clean' does not refer to the buffet area but the fact of patchwork quilt placemats that are merely superficially wiped off after each use. Have you ever seen the dirty rag used and the bucket of dirty water it has been wrung out in? This was 2 years ago & hopefully everyone will respond that this no longer applies.

[Emperor Norton]

Emperor////I don't even 'get' that example. Luxury also should not extend to other forms of rule breaking, bad manners or even running around naked!

 

 

 

My 'not clean' does not refer to the buffet area but the fact of patchwork quilt placemats that are merely superficially wiped off after each use. Have you ever seen the dirty rag used and the bucket of dirty water it has been wrung out in? This was 2 years ago & hopefully everyone will respond that this no longer applies.

 

 

 

The wipe the dirt off applied on the Explorers faux inaugural in 2016. I’ll let you know about 2018 (Also too many restaurants in the US).

 

I think the issue is to some now is there are no rules when it comes to THEIR children and THEIR vacation. THEY spent good money on it. How dare they be denied. Luxury is never hearing “no” no matter how asinine or disruptive the request. Sadly when it comes to children and Ill behavior I have yet to see a line eject them like they would an adult.

 

Naked? Saw a lot of that in the concierge lounge on Oceania when their robes split open.

 

I don’t disagree with having a civilized lunch option that’s not a buffet or cafeteria is luxury. I guess my point kind of was that it seems to me that for some of today’s parents when it comes to their children there is no wrong.

 

/sorry Regent in 2018

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sfvoyage]

My 'not clean' does not refer to the buffet area but the fact of patchwork quilt placemats that are merely superficially wiped off after each use. Have you ever seen the dirty rag used and the bucket of dirty water it has been wrung out in? This was 2 years ago & hopefully everyone will respond that this no longer applies.

 

Now that you brought this up, I, too, recall being surprised at how quickly and superficially the placemats are wiped in between guests at the Colonnade. Definitely not sanitary. It's still the case as recent as this August and will probably be so on my cruise next month.

[PaulaJK]

Emperor, I am confused.....how did a discussion re the dining room being open for lunch bring in parents and perhaps poorly behaved children.

 

Sorry to learn that the placements are still handled in this manner. What really turned me off was watching the

Table staff then rinse the cleaning rags in a bucket of dirty water stationed under the tray for used dishes.

 

Otherwise I found the ship very clean.

[texanaust]

And when the main dining room is closed for lunch, you can forget about the advertised "order off the MDR menu" in-suite room service. Not 5-star.

 

Closing the main dining room for lunch also means special orders are unavailable such as pommes moscovite!:mad: These special touches are what used to separate Seabourn from mass market offerings.

[lincslady]

I think the important point here is, as I mentioned before, the inconsistency in the opening of the restaurant for breakfast and lunch. I agree that it should be open, even though we would rarely use it, but on many cruises there have been whole cruises with no opening at all, and others, with many port days,when it was always open. No apparent logical reasoning behind this..

 

A pity no one from the company ever comes on these boards to explain things, as does happen on some other boards.

[RustyRollock]

It's such a personal thing. For us, eating in an almost deserted, soulless MDR for breakfast or lunch is a pretty depressing experience so we rarely go there.

[MJN1]

To get back to the topic of this thread....

 

We are currently on the Odyssey and - with the caveat that tastes are different - find the food quality overall very good and the MDR has been open everyday for lunch except embarkation day.

 

Yes, it's called cruisecritic but nothing to critize on this cruise...:cool:

[marama]

Emperor, I am confused.....how did a discussion re the dining room being open for lunch bring in parents and perhaps poorly behaved children.

 

Sorry to learn that the placements are still handled in this manner. What really turned me off was watching the

Table staff then rinse the cleaning rags in a bucket of dirty water stationed under the tray for used dishes.

 

Otherwise I found the ship very clean.

 

I have never noticed this - but then we always eat off the plates provided, not the placemats.

 

All the best,

Marama

[lincslady]

I have never noticed this - but then we always eat off the plates provided, not the placemats.

 

All the best,

Marama

 

Just what I was thinking- however, they do put your knife and fork etc. down on the mats, I think. I must be terribly unobservant compared with some people. Luckily I cannot remember ever having a tummy upset on a Seabourn ship.

 

For us the nicest thing about the Colonnade is the ability to eat outside when the weather is good - probably because being from the UK we do not have so many chances.

[markham]

I once asked an assistant maitre d’ about this. He said the plastic woven place mats were routinely run through the Colonnade’s dishwasher.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

[wripro]

Playing the devils advocate. Shouldn’t that luxury extend to say parents and their ill behaved brood taking over the pools/tubs or letting them free roam a restaurant? That’s luxury to them (the parents - someone else is dealing with their kids).

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

What a completely inappropriate analogy. Let's not make this about kids even though I am totally against them on luxury cruise lines. This thread is about offering an option to dine in the MDR whenever ones wants to, not only when it's convenient or cost efficient to Seabourn.

[Mr Luxury]

It is my understanding that the decision to close the MDR at lunchtime rests with the Hotel Director and not any directive from head office.

I have never been on a Seabourn ship when it has been closed.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[galeforce9]

It is my understanding that the decision to close the MDR at lunchtime rests with the Hotel Director and not any directive from head office.

I have never been on a Seabourn ship when it has been closed.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

 

 

Lucky you but it has happened to us more than once.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[oregon50]

Lucky you but it has happened to us more than once.

 

And probably all other humans reading this thread that have had more than one port stop on their voyage.