Caribbean?

[MaggyCan1]

Well, fellow Cruise Critic contributors, I am booked on the SB Odyssey from December 1-8 for a Caribbean cruise.   As per my earlier post in this thread, I wonder what the vibe will be in terms of party-party vs. a more reserved atmosphere (but still fun).   I do prefer a somewhat more relaxed, mature vibe due to my (ahem) advanced years (59 this year!).   But I wanted to try one of the smaller 3 Sisters ships in the SB line to see how they compare to my experiences on The Ovation and The Encore both of which I absolutely loved.

 

So, we shall see...and I will post upon my return to share my thoughts.

 

Cheers!

[Tom504]

Replying to Camillus and MaggyCan — if the vibe feels too dissonant to what you need, consider this: on port days, don’t take an excursion. 

 

We we were in the Caribbean for 19 days and re-visited some of the same islands. Granted I am relatively new to ‘modern’ cruising and there are people far more knowledgeable on the board, but I discovered two things about shore excursions. The first is that there is rarely a connection to reality in the excursion description and what will happen, and that many of these islands are dirt poor and are not that interesting; this is especially true of the islands that were owned by the British. That is, the French tend to consider islands as ‘departments’ or ‘provinces’ and continue to pour in money, whereas the British ones tend to be on their own and it shows.

 

What I am suggesting is that you take yourself into each town, do some research first, maybe hire a taxi with agreements where to go, and then head back to the ship. In most cases you will have the ship to yourselves for hours before the majority of the excursion crowd shows back up. On the re-tresd to islands previously visited we always did this.

Edited October 25, 2018 by Tom504

[Camillus112]

Thanks for your suggestion; I will certainly make sea days out of some port days.

[jenidallas]

4 hours ago, Camillus112 said:

We will be sailing our first 7-day cruise after around 10 lengthier cruises...I am sort of concerned...  I can understand that 7-day cruisers want to make the most of their short stay in the ship, and most of these cruises are port intensive, giving them less time to savor all the ship's amenities.  I can foresee an underlying hurried vibe, which would seem stressful to me.  I will post comments next May.

I’ve taken two 7 nighters and to me, the reason the vibe feels different isn’t the cruisers themselves... it’s the pace.  

 

Seabourn still puts on all the bells and whistles with most (if not all) of this ge usual signatures... a welcome aboard party, a Rock the Boat, a Captain’s Welcome Party, a Club Party, a Block Party, a Caviar in/on the (fill in the blank), a Crew Farewell, an Epicuruan Event, and a Galley Market Lunch.  

 

And yes, people want to attend all of these things they’ve heard so much about so they are busy trying to squeeze it all in.  

 

And so few days on board and so much to already do (especially in the typical 7 night routings - the Baltics and the Caribbean - with shore excursions/activities) there is less time for meeting people and enjoying the slower pace of the ship.

 

Add to this that the 7 nighters are appealing to the still-working set who might be more attracted to the week-off model and you might also factor in little time to adjust to jet-lag.  

 

We don’t particularly like anything shorter than 10 nights and would prefer as many nights as possible.  But sometimes the really short cruises are the only ones that work with our schedules.  I think Ritz Carlton is going to do very well with the short itinerary executive market.

[Tom504]

Jenidallas: I totally agree with your assessment. At times it is hard to drill down to discover if a 14 day cruise is really two back to back 7 day cruises or a separate thing, but this is the key piece of data we consider when booking. 

[DUHCAR]

19 hours ago, MaggyCan1 said:

Well, fellow Cruise Critic contributors, I am booked on the SB Odyssey from December 1-8 for a Caribbean cruise.   As per my earlier post in this thread, I wonder what the vibe will be in terms of party-party vs. a more reserved atmosphere (but still fun).   I do prefer a somewhat more relaxed, mature vibe due to my (ahem) advanced years (59 this year!).   But I wanted to try one of the smaller 3 Sisters ships in the SB line to see how they compare to my experiences on The Ovation and The Encore both of which I absolutely loved.

 

So, we shall see...and I will post upon my return to share my thoughts.

 

Cheers!

From a fellow 6ixer - you'll be just fine!   We did a 7+7 there a few years ago and it was great. Nice to see some islands that you might not normally get to and assess their potential for a longer stay in the future.  Jenidallas describes it perfectly.

Edited October 26, 2018 by DUHCAR
Typoo

[raphael360]

On 8/25/2018 at 5:38 PM, whystayhome said:

Just back from 7-night Caribbean on Celebrity. It was OK. Wondering what quickie Caribbean’s on Seabourn are like. Is it the usual passenger mix/vibe, or is it noisier, younger, more of a party crowd, etc.? Thanks.

Linda

Hi Linda,

We did a 14 day Barbados to Barbados cruise in 2016 and  LOVED it and are doing it again in December..  It was one of our best Seabourn cruises (10 to date) because it was laid back and SO relaxing.  Also, the ship gets into ports the big boys can so we're usually the only ship in town.

To answer your question: Except for a Seabourn "Rock The Boat" party we experienced on a New Years Eve cruise, the Seabourn crowd is never noisy or loud.  Young?  Hardly :0  The dance floor in the night club is usually empty by 10:30.

With that said, I read a lot of threads from people (who have never been on Seabourn) talk about us like; "because the booze is free, we're going to get drunk and crazy everyday".  I've never met anyone on Seabourn who drinks more on the ship than they do at home.  We've done all of the sub-luxury cruise lines and Seabourn is just a totally different product and a different crowd.  If one is looking for first class service and the best food on the seas, Seabourn fits the bill.  If one is looking for glitz, noise and parting, Seabourn my not be the best choice - in my opinion.

[whystayhome]

Thanks for the information.  Just got off the Odyssey and was talking to a crew member about how I had never seen anyone obnoxiously drunk on the ship. She commented that we must go to bed early (we do).

 

Linda

[raphael360]

Linda,

I should have read your signature line before I commented.  My goodness you've taken a lot of cruises :)  From you bio I can see you're friendly with Holland America.

 

I live in south Florida and have taken many quick 7 day cruises because the ports are only a 30 minute drive, I only had to take a week off of work and they tend to be pretty inexpensive.  What could go wrong?  Our last was a 7 day on the Oceania Riviera.  Oceania is ok and the Riviera is a very nice ship but I find the 7 day "Miami" crowed to be pushy and rude.  For example: we were waiting for an elevator down to get off on debarkation day. There was poor older woman, who could hardly walk, was waiting next to us.  The elevator doors opened and had enough space for 1 person so I started to help this woman on the elevator.  The mob on the elevator started yelling that she couldn't get on - really yelling.  I managed to hold the door open and help this older woman on but there was no kindness on THAT elevator.  One would think the ship was on fire.

[MaggyCan1]

Hello Raphael,

What a good and decent person you are to help this lady onto the elevator!   And what a bunch of rude, obnoxious boors those idiots were who did not want to let her on!    One can only hope that one day karma will get them, and they will find themselves boorishly treated by others.  

[raphael360]

Maggy,

Thank you for the kind comments.  I remember the old "Love Boat" TV series were everyone walked off the ship, happy and getting hugs from the cruise director (Julie).  That is exactly how it is on Seabourn most of the time.

 

There is this strange, almost "twilight zone", experience that happens both in Miami and Ft. Lauderdale when disembarking a ship.  You will never see so many people mob the exit trying to be first off.  They start lining up by the door 2 hours before disembarkation and push and shove as soon as the doors open.  I call it the, "first person off gets a free cruise" syndrome.  This same strange experience happens down here (in south Florida) at performances in the theater.  As soon as people realize the last number is being played by the performer, they storm the exits towards the parking lot in the middle of the final performance.  I've live here since 1977 and I still can't get use to it.

Raphael

 

[MalbecWine]

On 11/18/2018 at 12:04 PM, MaggyCan1 said:

Hello Raphael,

What a good and decent person you are to help this lady onto the elevator!   And what a bunch of rude, obnoxious boors those idiots were who did not want to let her on!    One can only hope that one day karma will get them, and they will find themselves boorishly treated by others.  

Yes, Karma is a b***h.  It will always come back to haunt you.  Kudos to Raphel.

[Camillus112]

Raphael, I wish to meet you at some point...you are a real gent!!

 

[raphael360]

4 hours ago, Camillus112 said:

Raphael, I wish to meet you at some point...you are a real gent!!

 

Awww.  That is so sweet.  I'm on Seabourn 3 times a year.  December - Caribbean,  Feb - Australia to New Zealand,  and next spring - the Med.  We could do the Monti Carlo casino and play Baccarat like James Bond.  We could be British spies on assignment. 😉