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Greek islands cruise: new updates from Seabourn?


Heather White
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10 hours ago, HRPro said:

Hank, were you on a Seabourn transfer from the airport to the pier or did you arrange private transportation?  We arrive very early and are hoping we don’t have to wait at the airport until closer to our assigned boarding time.  Have a great cruise and update us when you are able.

 

Susan

We made our own arrangements.  Arrived at ATH around 8:30pm and then walked across the street to the Sofitel for the night.  The following morning we just grabbed a taxi to the port which cost 55 Euros.  At the port nobody seemed to mind that we had arrived before our assigned time.  There were only a about a dozen folks checking in when we got to the port which was about 12:30.

 

Cruising on this ship with about 270 folks is akin to being on our own private yacht.       Tonight is our first formal night.  Yesterday at Akios Nicholas (Crete) it was very hot.  DW and I walked about 3/4  of a mile to a popular sandy beach where we spent the afternoon sipping cold beer and swimming in the delightful sea.  
 

Hank

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13 hours ago, Hlitner said:

We made our own arrangements.  Arrived at ATH around 8:30pm and then walked across the street to the Sofitel for the night.  The following morning we just grabbed a taxi to the port which cost 55 Euros.  At the port nobody seemed to mind that we had arrived before our assigned time.  There were only a about a dozen folks checking in when we got to the port which was about 12:30.

 

Cruising on this ship with about 270 folks is akin to being on our own private yacht.       Tonight is our first formal night.  Yesterday at Akios Nicholas (Crete) it was very hot.  DW and I walked about 3/4  of a mile to a popular sandy beach where we spent the afternoon sipping cold beer and swimming in the delightful sea. 

Thanks, Hank—good to know.  Looking forward to being onboard in early September and hoping the heatwave will have broken in another month.

Susan

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And now the latest wrinkle: the CDC today added Greece to a list of countries it labels as "Level 4: Covid-19 Very High" -- its category of highest risk for COVID-19 -- and advises Americans not to travel there.

 

It's non-binding, like the UK restrictions, so fully-vaccinated Seabourn passengers may not be deterred or significantly affected, but it' just the latest wrinkle in the ever-changing ebb-and-flow of "re-opening" and "returning to normal."

 

Wasn't it just a month ago that we were marveling at how well Greece had done with speeding up vaccines in order to re-open to tourism?

 

Sigh.

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This morning we were docked in Limassol where DW and I took a nice 5 hour excursion to some ruins, a winery (that makes blue wine) and ending with 1 1/2 hours in a nice village.  For those not on tours SB provided a shuttle bus to the city center.  One electronic sign said it was 39 (102f) which is pretty normal in this heat wave.

 

Last night was a formal night with at least half the passengers dressed nicely. No problems for those that do not dress up as it’s everyone for themselves.  Enjoying the afternoon sail away at the small Deck 5 pool.  A warning for salad bar lovers that SB salad bars are among the worst at sea.  But you can’t have everything perfect.

 

Hank

 

 

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49 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

This morning we were docked in Limassol where DW and I took a nice 5 hour excursion to some ruins, a winery (that makes blue wine) and ending with 1 1/2 hours in a nice village.  For those not on tours SB provided a shuttle bus to the city center.  One electronic sign said it was 39 (102f) which is pretty normal in this heat wave.

 

Last night was a formal night with at least half the passengers dressed nicely. No problems for those that do not dress up as it’s everyone for themselves.  Enjoying the afternoon sail away at the small Deck 5 pool.  A warning for salad bar lovers that SB salad bars are among the worst at sea.  But you can’t have everything perfect.

 

Hank

 

 

Nice going, Hank.

Are they serving Greek wines in the complimentary list?

Thanks. 

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4 minutes ago, marazul said:

Nice going, Hank.

Are they serving Greek wines in the complimentary list?

Thanks. 

No.  Mostly California, NZ, French and Italian.  But we did go wine tasting in Cyprus and it was the first time I ever had blue wine!

 

Hank

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1 hour ago, marazul said:

Are they serving Greek wines in the complimentary list?

 

1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

No.  Mostly California, NZ, French and Italian.  But we did go wine tasting in Cyprus and it was the first time I ever had blue wine!

 

This is something that's bugged me in the past about Seabourn, and where I think Silversea seems to have hit a home run with their newest ships.

 

I've always enjoyed the food and drink on Seabourn cruises, but I almost always comment that I wished the menus in the restaurant, as well as the wines and beers, would somewhat reflect the area we're sailing in. Aside from perhaps one dish at lunch, this is rarely the case.

 

Silversea has brought out its S.A.L.T. -- Sea and Land Taste -- program to directly address this. There's a restaurant with menus from the ship's current location in the world, as well as a bar featuring local-inspired drinks. The reviews from passengers on their Greece cruises this summer have been outstanding.

 

I wish Seabourn would adopt at least some of this thinking; it doesn't need to be an entire restaurant devoted to locale, but one or two items on each day's menu, along with local wines and beers, where appropriate, would be a nice step up in my opinion. 

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2 hours ago, Hlitner said:

No.  Mostly California, NZ, French and Italian.  But we did go wine tasting in Cyprus and it was the first time I ever had blue wine!

 

Hank

I'm interested in knowing why the wine was blue.  Was if flavored with something - blueberries?

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2 hours ago, Hlitner said:

No.  Mostly California, NZ, French and Italian.  But we did go wine tasting in Cyprus and it was the first time I ever had blue wine!

 

Hank

Too bad.  They should be including local wines.  I plan to agitate about it during my cruise. 

 

Which excursion were you on with the blue wine?  Was it the "Kourion Theatre, the Temple of Apollo & Omodos Village"?  The description doesn't say anything about stopping at a winery, but maybe they added it.

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23 minutes ago, cruiseej said:

 

 

This is something that's bugged me in the past about Seabourn, and where I think Silversea seems to have hit a home run with their newest ships.

 

I've always enjoyed the food and drink on Seabourn cruises, but I almost always comment that I wished the menus in the restaurant, as well as the wines and beers, would somewhat reflect the area we're sailing in. Aside from perhaps one dish at lunch, this is rarely the case.

 

Silversea has brought out its S.A.L.T. -- Sea and Land Taste -- program to directly address this. There's a restaurant with menus from the ship's current location in the world, as well as a bar featuring local-inspired drinks. The reviews from passengers on their Greece cruises this summer have been outstanding.

 

I wish Seabourn would adopt at least some of this thinking; it doesn't need to be an entire restaurant devoted to locale, but one or two items on each day's menu, along with local wines and beers, where appropriate, would be a nice step up in my opinion. 

Completely agree with you Cruseej.  A few years ago we had a conversation with the manager in the Collonade on this subject.  He explained that Seabourn/HAL's central food & wine ordering system does not allow for such local flexibility.  In short, they order the food and compose the menus centrally to control inventory and save money.  A business decision made by the corporation.

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30 minutes ago, tv24 said:

A few years ago we had a conversation with the manager in the Collonade on this subject.  He explained that Seabourn/HAL's central food & wine ordering system does not allow for such local flexibility.  In short, they order the food and compose the menus centrally to control inventory and save money.  A business decision made by the corporation.

 

Well, perhaps Silversea's S.A.L.T. program, if it proves as popular as the early reviews indicate, will be a wakeup call to Seabourn management. This is the type of difference that could cause me to choose one cruise line over the other if other factors were relatively even.

 

Seabourn obviously went to all-inclusive Internet in response to their competitors not charging, so perhaps this will influence them as well. 😉

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47 minutes ago, marazul said:

Too bad.  They should be including local wines.  I plan to agitate about it during my cruise. 

 

Which excursion were you on with the blue wine?  Was it the "Kourion Theatre, the Temple of Apollo & Omodos Village"?  The description doesn't say anything about stopping at a winery, but maybe they added it.

Yep that is the excursion.

 

 

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2 hours ago, jjs217 said:

I'm interested in knowing why the wine was blue.  Was if flavored with something - blueberries?

We did ask the owner.  He explained that it was a white wine which was left in contact with a type of red wine skins.  I assume it was a dark red/purple skin which was left in the wine for a period of time.  You might find something by searching the web for blue wine.  But it was truly as blue as blue curaçao.

 

Hank

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1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

A tux is no more bother than packing a suit.

 

For me, it is, especially for a short 7-10 days cruise.  If I take a dark suit, I can wear the jacket with other pants some other evenings, and the pants with a nice button-down shirt some other evenings. If I take a tux, it's the suit + shirt + cummerbund + tie for the formal night only -- and I still need to take a sport jacket for other nights. And I would typically wear different shoes with a tux that I would with more casual dress, so it's an extra pair of my size-13 wide shoes which take up 10% of the suitcase! So for me, it's all about luggage weight limits, not any other sense of "bother" or resistance to wearing a tux.

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1 hour ago, cruiseej said:

 

For me, it is, especially for a short 7-10 days cruise.  If I take a dark suit, I can wear the jacket with other pants some other evenings, and the pants with a nice button-down shirt some other evenings. If I take a tux, it's the suit + shirt + cummerbund + tie for the formal night only -- and I still need to take a sport jacket for other nights. And I would typically wear different shoes with a tux that I would with more casual dress, so it's an extra pair of my size-13 wide shoes which take up 10% of the suitcase! So for me, it's all about luggage weight limits, not any other sense of "bother" or resistance to wearing a tux.

I totally get it.  This is why I don't take a formal black tie appropriate dress on cruises.  They can be difficult to pack, will need pressing and will require shoes only worn with that dress.  What's more--if there are TWO formal nights, what woman wants to wear the same dress to both?  So--I usually take a black dress that will pass muster for formal nights.  I would love to have my more formal dresses on the cruise, but the packing logistics don't make sense for me.  

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4 hours ago, Hlitner said:

DW estimates about 20%.  I was one of them but since I have a tux it is no more bother then packing a suit.

 

Hank

Same for my husband - it is just packing one more suit and extra pair of shoes.
I am happy to pack numerous dresses/shoes.

We enjoy dressing for dinner.

Each to their own 😀

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32 minutes ago, Jane21 said:

Same for my husband - it is just packing one more suit and extra pair of shoes.
I am happy to pack numerous dresses/shoes.

We enjoy dressing for dinner.

Each to their own 😀

I enjoy dressing for dinner as well, but find the packing of multiple dresses to be daunting.  Maybe we need lessons!

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42 minutes ago, Jane21 said:

Same for my husband - it is just packing one more suit and extra pair of shoes.
I am happy to pack numerous dresses/shoes.

We enjoy dressing for dinner.

Each to their own 😀

 

It's not that we don't "enjoy dressing for dinner"; as I said, it's all about the weight of luggage. I have 50 pounds allowed. My bag itself weighs close to 10 pounds. Taking a tux is not just "one more suit and extra pair of shoes" -- it's probably about 10 pounds, or 25% of all I can take on a trip. For just one night (or two on a longer cruise). Both my wife and I are always right at the 50 pound limit; I have a digital scale and we're often between 49 and 50 pounds in both bags. Taking the tux outfit would significantly impact what I could have with me for day and evening clothing for the rest of the trip. Therefore, since I'm comfortable wearing a nice black suit, my wife is happy with that, and it complies with the cruise line's stated dress code for formal nights, that's what I go with. I don't mean to be (and don't think I am) flaunting any rules, and my black suit instead of tux shouldn't impact other passengers' enjoyment of their evening. 

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1 hour ago, SLSD said:

I totally get it.  This is why I don't take a formal black tie appropriate dress on cruises.  They can be difficult to pack, will need pressing and will require shoes only worn with that dress.  What's more--if there are TWO formal nights, what woman wants to wear the same dress to both?  So--I usually take a black dress that will pass muster for formal nights.  I would love to have my more formal dresses on the cruise, but the packing logistics don't make sense for me.  

I am for black silk pants and some very nice silk tops. They all pack down to nothing leaving plenty of room in the suitcase.  A big difference from my first few SB cruises where luggage was not a problem and every evening was far dressier than now. 

DH is happy to leave his tux at home and pack a suit like cruiseej. 

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23 minutes ago, cruiseej said:

 

It's not that we don't "enjoy dressing for dinner"; as I said, it's all about the weight of luggage. I have 50 pounds allowed. My bag itself weighs close to 10 pounds. Taking a tux is not just "one more suit and extra pair of shoes" -- it's probably about 10 pounds, or 25% of all I can take on a trip. For just one night (or two on a longer cruise). Both my wife and I are always right at the 50 pound limit; I have a digital scale and we're often between 49 and 50 pounds in both bags. Taking the tux outfit would significantly impact what I could have with me for day and evening clothing for the rest of the trip. Therefore, since I'm comfortable wearing a nice black suit, my wife is happy with that, and it complies with the cruise line's stated dress code for formal nights, that's what I go with. I don't mean to be (and don't think I am) flaunting any rules, and my black suit instead of tux shouldn't impact other passengers' enjoyment of their evening. 

We have 2x 32kg each. Not bothered how many cases we take.

We dress for ourselves.

As I previously said, it is each to their own 😀

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42 minutes ago, Jane21 said:

We have 2x 32kg each. Not bothered how many cases we take.

We dress for ourselves.

As I previously said, it is each to their own 😀

It's not paying for extra luggage weight that is an issue for us-it is actually dealing with the luggage (and yes we get help with it) .  You can say to each his own--without even knowing us or how we would really like to dress.  Sometimes there are multiple days (up to a week) on either end of the cruise and a need to pack all kinds of clothing.  We make the best decisions we can.  Mr. SLSD wears a jacket every night to dinner, usually with a bow tie. He dresses this way at home as well when we go out for dinner.  He packs dress pants and dress shirts.   I usually wear black dresses, black silk pants and tops  with  scarves and jewelry or something similar for dinner. I pack a lot of things that lay flat and take little space.  We actually love dressing up, but have difficulty packing everything we might like to pack  for a long trip.  And yes, we use the laundry services of Seabourn.  We try to travel with one large suitcase and a a tote with things we would want to have if all luggage was lost.  We would love to hear exactly how you do it.  I'm not familiar  with kg, but know that our large suitcases are usually 50 lbs.  

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