SD

[petern6827]

We are Seabourn and Caribbean fans, and love to cruise in January. 

 

But we have fallen in love with SD 1's itineraries for Jan 2023, and with SD in general based on the comments here and the reviews.

 

Alas... my TA tells me the only cabins available for our preferred January cruises are the convertible/thin walled ones. I've read the cautions regarding these cabins on this site. So....I'm seeking your thoughts:

 

Should we hold off on SD until perhaps 2024, and book SB or Regent (which we've also enjoyed) for January 2023?

 

Or, take one of the available cabins and hope our neighbors are tip-toeing whisperers?  (and not tap-dancing wailers.)

 

 

 

 

[TrapperZimmy]

Your decision to take the 2023 cruise depends upon how risk averse you are.  I don't want to be the one to tell you that you should have nothing to worry about, and then you will come to Chicago to find me because a punk rock group booked the next cabin.

 

As a practice, we always want a non-Commodore cabin, and book early so we have that option.  Part of the reason is because the wall is more solid than the removable wall.  But it also affords a little more storage space in the small drawers and shelf on the wall.  (My memory may be imperfect, but I remember the removable wall being nothing more than a wall with a mirror.)  We had one half of a Commodore cabin on one sailing, and yes we could hear muffled noises from next door, but it wasn't that big a deal.  You have to remember that most SD regulars will tell you it doesn't matter what the cabin is like because we only use it for sleeping and getting dressed for dinner.  By the time the party people return from the TOY bar or the piano bar, they are ready to turn in.  Also, SD passengers are typically more courteous than you would find in the general population.  We are well-traveled and know what it is like to be next door to a party, and we don't want to be "those people."  I have rarely seen or heard a party going on in a cabin.  Can it happen?  Sure, but I'd say the odds are highly against it.  If you want to really play it safe, book both rooms and enjoy the second bathroom.

 

Our experience is limited to that one sailing out of 20 or so.  I'd be interested in hearing from those with more experience.

[Richard&JohnSTX]

On 8/25/2022 at 8:43 PM, petern6827 said:

We are Seabourn and Caribbean fans, and love to cruise in January. 

 

But we have fallen in love with SD 1's itineraries for Jan 2023, and with SD in general based on the comments here and the reviews.

 

Alas... my TA tells me the only cabins available for our preferred January cruises are the convertible/thin walled ones. I've read the cautions regarding these cabins on this site. So....I'm seeking your thoughts:

 

Should we hold off on SD until perhaps 2024, and book SB or Regent (which we've also enjoyed) for January 2023?

 

Or, take one of the available cabins and hope our neighbors are tip-toeing whisperers?  (and not tap-dancing wailers.)

 

 

 

 

We were on a Caribbean cruise last November in half of a convertible suite because that was the only one available when we booked.

 

Maybe heard a cough or two but absolutely no problem.

 

Go for it - you will love SD.

[petern6827]

TrapperZimmy and Richard&John STX:

 

Thank you for your wise, relevant and sensitive responses.

 

I can agree that the likelihood of encountering a loud and/or oblivious shipmate is small. (And it's possible my singing in the shower could be as offensive to them as their snoring, coughs or other noises might be to me.)

 

We are proceeding as booked, and we're looking forward with great anticipation to experiencing SeaDream!

 

In our cruising may we all experience 'fair winds and following seas'

....and in our lives too.

 

Thank you all again !

 

 

 

 

[SWFLAOK]

Our first SeaDream cruise was on deck 4 with only half of the passenger capacity. This was pre Covid, but for some reason, the ship was lightly loaded. It was a cruise being sold through the local SW Florida PBS as a bird-watching cruise, but while we live do live there and heard of it through PBS, we booked it on our own. I don't remember if it was a connecting room, but there were very few passengers on deck 4. We really enjoyed this cruise from Barbados to St. Thomas, despite some high seas, and some port changes. There were very few people onboard that stayed up late. We met many friendly people onboard, and most of them were not from our home area since they stayed together and didn't mingle much.

We did our second and third SeaDream cruises back to back last spring, taking my brother along. My brother booked a deck 2 cabin, and we booked a commodore suite on deck 3 so we would have room for the 3 of us to socialize in our cabin. We booked it during Covid, hoping it would be over, and we were close to that for our cruises from St. Thomas to San Juan, and San Juan to San Juan. We only needed a Covid test done on the pier before boarding. We passed, and enjoyed our 2 weeks onboard. There were a some new crew on each of the 2 cruises, but the experienced crew kept a close eye on them.

Again, we found that there were no loud passengers heading back to their cabins at night.

The crew said that the only time they have problems with loud and obnoxious passengers is on charter cruises. They had just finished one before our cruise, and they had a few incidents (and broken furniture to repair, especially at TOY).

[Carnac767]

We'd booked a deck two cabin for our upcoming SDII cruise because it was $1400 cheaper than a deck 3 cabin, and I didn't care about port holes versus picture windows.  But then I realized we were in one of those convertible cabins and began to wonder if noise would be a problem.  I probably wasted $1400, because I moved us to a non-convertible on Deck 3. As everyone says, we won't be in the cabin much except to sleep.  Oh well.  On every cruise I book, I'm like that guy in the meme, out with my nice cabin but looking back over my shoulder at the pretty cabin that just walked by.

[TrapperZimmy]

Ranking the cabins on SeaDream is like trying to rank the locations for the Splash.  Some may be better than others, but is there really a bad one?  Don't think so.  Hey, you're on SeaDream and not at home.  That's enough for me.