Above and beyond

[lydiamight]

My wife and I have recently completed the transatlantic crossing on the Odyssey from Lisbon to Barbados via Funchal in Madeira. We made our own travel arrangements and took the precaution of arriving in Lisbon on Tuesday 21st November to allow for plenty of time before embarkation at lunchtime on Wednesday 22nd.  All went well until we arrived at Lisbon airport on the Tuesday to find that BA had "mislaid" one of our suitcases---not a happy situation to be in when you are about to embark on a transatlantic crossing

 

I made a number of frantic phone calls to BA both in London and Lisbon during Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning and they could find no trace of our suitcase at Heathrow. Fortunately we had split some of our packing between the two suitcases but we were both missing a lot of the things that we needed for out transatlantic crossing.

 

A last minute shopping expedition in Lisbon for some essentials---white shirt, black trousers, black shoes, belt, underpants, socks, toothbrush, deodorant and an electric shaver. My wife settled for a dress and a blouse. BA had said that they would pay for "essentials" and i await with anticipation to see if they will refund me the Euro400.00 that we spent.

 

I figured that if our case didn't catch up with us in Funchal then we could embark on another shopping expedition there to buy additional items.

 

Once aboard I informed Maria in the Seabourn Square of our predicament. In my opinion Maria should certainly receive the "employee of the month"--if not the year, for the effort she put in to tracking down our suitcase. Upshot was that she managed to locate the case in Heathrow, get it flown to Lisbon and then flown on to Funchal. The Seabourn Port Agent in Funchal collected the missing case from the airport and it was in our suite by 10:30am on Friday 24th !!!!!

 

In addition to all of the help that we received from Maria she also informed us that as we were in such a distressing situation she had credited $250.00 to our shipboard account and we were to go into the onboard shop and purchase anything that we needed. All this despite the fact that we had not made our travel arrangements through Seabourn.

 

I think that this is a classic example of the sort of service that you can expect from Seabourn-----above and beyond.

 

 

 

[frantic36]

Thank you for posting such a positive story. Maria sounds like a true gem and I am glad she was able to help you resolve this issue. 

 

Julie

[lincslady]

Yes, thanks for posting.  We had a slightly similar (though not as horrendous)  experience to do with flights a year or two ago, and the lovely lady at the Square dealt with it in a  kind and efficient way; one of the best things about Seabourn is the way some things get done for you and the helper even seems to enjoy sorting things out.

 

It is important, obviously, to mention this sort of thing to Head Office, and also good to put it on this board.  Sometimes we are too inclined to complain rather than praise.

[johng75370]

Thanks for posting this - a "Seabourn Moment" indeed!   

[Hanoverian]

Great story.  I echo everyone else's comments, this is one of the many reasons why we sail on Seabourn.

[JK300]

Hi Lydia, happy that everything worked fine for you. What a great story.

Are you talking about Maria Gatti from guest services?

 

[koalapanda]

Seabourn  definitely looks out for it's guests. We have been fortunate to have been recipients of their unexpected extra effort and kindness.

Julio at guest services on Encore is amazing. Seabourns' unobtrusive style of "can do" is most gracious.

 

[MightyQuinn]

On 12/7/2018 at 2:08 PM, koalapanda said:

Julio at guest services on Encore is amazing. Seabourns' unobtrusive style of "can do" is most gracious.

 

I wonder if this is the same Julio who was recently a Barista on Quest?  He mentioned to us he had expressed interest in joining Guest Services and was hoping to be approved.  If so, he's a fabulous choice.  Very gracious and customer-focused.  I sure hope he'll be on Encore when we board next year.

[koalapanda]

Hi Mighty Quinn I cannot confirm that this the same gent'. He had been with guest services on Encore on our last 3 Encore cruises beginnning August 2017.

He is most gracious an unassuming gent who quietly works wonders.

[MightyQuinn]

Thanks for responding koalapanda.  Methinks we're talking about different Julios here.  I really enjoyed the Quest Julio and I look forward to meeting the Encore Julio soon!

[rols]

On 12/9/2018 at 8:29 AM, koalapanda said:

Hi Mighty Quinn I cannot confirm that this the same gent'. He had been with guest services on Encore on our last 3 Encore cruises beginnning August 2017.

He is most gracious an unassuming gent who quietly works wonders.

I think I know the gentleman you're referring to, and he certainly deserves the moniker 'gentleman' and he's really helpful. We had some better, some worse, guest services encounters on Encore but if Julio was in attendance, things got sorted out in a very understated and professional manner.