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Help..First Timers


Lynruss60
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We are thinking of booking a 7 night Caribbean Cruise this November.  We have cruised a couple times but wanted to try a smaller ship as not too keen on the mass big ships.  We have a few questions.

1.  Is it better to book direct through Seabourn or a travel agent for the best price?

2.  Is the water sport deck open every day we are at port?

3.  My husband does not like to wear a jacket, but is fine with a collared shirt.  Will this be fine for dining?

Thanks for any advise you can give us!

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1. If your travel agent offers any perks / incentives, then it’s better than Seabourn.

2. In all my cruises I’ve never seen it used.

3. A jacket is required in the main dining room on the two “formal optional” nights. We never pack jackets and dine elsewhere on those nights. 

Edited by florisdekort
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Welcome to Cruise Critic Lyn & Russ (?)

 

A couple of additions to Floris' reply.  The water sports platform may be opened occasionally, especially in the Caribbean.  We have seen it open twice over 3 or 4 cruises.  On a seven day cruise, you should have only one “formal optional” night, and a jacket is not required then in the Colonnade or Earth and Ocean. 

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It's been open on every Caribbean cruse I've been on that had a beach BBQ day (aka Caviar in the surf day)  except one bad weather day.  That day captain decided not to open the big door in the back of the boat and let the waves roll in.  We said - yeah!

 

It looks better in person than on the brochures for sure.

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In all our cruises I've seen it open maybe 6 times.  Once in the Amazon, multiple times in the Caribbean, once in Greece and a couple of others that don't come immediately to mind.  IMO the beach b-b-q is usually preferred.  Someone told me a few years back - was a crew member but can't vouch for how accurate this is - that the marina's work better on some ships than others and on the ones it doesn't work so well they usually opt not to use it.  That may also have been resolved in a subsequent drydock.  

 

I would definitely use a TA - almost all will give you a discount and maybe some additional perks.  W/ Seabourn direct you are basically paying list price.

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Hmm. We must just have been unlucky. It was never opened on our 3 Caribbean cruises (and also not during caviar in the surf / the beach BBQ), not on our Amazon cruise and not on our 2 Greek Island cruises. Maybe next time then 🙂

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It’s seems like it is closed more that it is open.  I know with the Caribbean cruise we are looking at, we have a lot of tenders.  You would think they would open this quite often as it seems like a great perk for a smaller cruise ship. Thank you all for all the info.  

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19 minutes ago, Lynruss60 said:

It’s seems like it is closed more that it is open.  I know with the Caribbean cruise we are looking at, we have a lot of tenders.  You would think they would open this quite often as it seems like a great perk for a smaller cruise ship. Thank you all for all the info.  

I would not book a SB cruise solely for the water sports platform feature. There is a hundred other reasons I choose SB over the larger ships for sure.  It’s like flying a private jet from Florida to NY vs taking a Gray Hound bus. 

Edited by raphael360
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I have seen the water deck opened one time---we have been on three SB cruises.  We did not participate, but the activities looked like a lot of fun.  I wish I could remember WHERE it was opened, but I do know we were anchored.  

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We were able to enjoy the water deck on our first SB cruise last month to the Greek islands.  It guess it makes sense after thinking about it, but the rules are no one allowed in the water off the deck.  Not intentionally, but we did fall over backward off the doughnut while being slowly pulled back to the ship.  We didn't get yelled at, however, ...

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Our first (and so far only -- but we are anxious to sail SB again) Seabourn cruise was on the Legend in the Caribbean.  Admittedly a long time ago and we loved SB but I remember how disappointed we were that two things that were marketed extensively -- the watersports platform and beach barbecue, for some reason were not available on our cruise.  We were led to believe they would be.  And we had at least two ports where we were anchored.  It would be nice if they would tell us on the itineraries which ports would have these two opportunities.

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5 hours ago, AllisonJames said:

 I remember how disappointed we were that two things that were marketed extensively -- the watersports platform and beach barbecue, for some reason were not available on our cruise.  We were led to believe they would be.  And we had at least two ports where we were anchored.  It would be nice if they would tell us on the itineraries which ports would have these two opportunities.

I think the water deck is used when sea conditions are just right--and at the captain's discretion.  I don't think there is a way to predict that.  I seem to remember that we were told the day before that water sports were planned if the sea conditions were optimal.  

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We have had two cruises where the water sports have begun, only to be ceased about 30mins to 1hr later due to conditions and another where they didn’t start also due to water conditions.   Although things looked quite calm from the deck, once on the water it was a different story. The sea conditions usually only get tougher but occasionally they smooth out. The captain can never win but usually they are correct. 

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I’m always surprised how calm the seas look from deck 10 only to see the tender bobbing 4 feet when trying to board.

I can't comment on SB from yesteryear but I've been done 6 weeks on SB in the Caribbean and we've had 6 Caviar in the Surf/beach BBQs and 5 open swim platform days.  The swim platform wasn't open one week due to rough seas.  Again, captain didn't want the back end of the ship to fill up with dirty sea water.

😜

Edited by raphael360
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12 hours ago, raphael360 said:

 The swim platform wasn't open one week due to rough seas.  Again, captain didn't want the back end of the ship to fill up with dirty sea water.

😜

 

On the “Little Ships” Pride etc.  they had two barge like tenders that were used to go ashore instead of using the life rafts as they do now.

These tenders were kept in the water sports platform compartment.

They would “sink” the stern of the ship about two feet (by adjusting or pumping in ballast water) and just drive the tenders into the compartment.

It was an interesting operation to watch.

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Agree the tenders on the Little Sisters were superior to what is used on the O-class ships, and fit in well with the overall Seabourn experience.  I prefer the new ones on the Encore and Ovation to the O-class ones.  I remember the first time we got on a tender on the Legend and I thought now this is class compared to what I saw on bigger ships.  

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  • 3 weeks later...

The water sports deck is usually open once per seven night cruise. It will obviously be on a day when passengers are tendered to shore and the ship is at anchor.

 

I do not wear a jacket, except on formal nights on Seabourn cruises. . . and then I wear a tux or dark suit.

 

I usually book through a travel agent, because she guarantees Seabourn's lowest price and offers perks such as shipboard credit and champagne. She is also my advocate when I have a dispute with the cruiseline.

 

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