Live from the Seabourn Quest, Montreal-Montreal, 9/22/22-10/4/22

[JodiandFrank]

1 minute ago, mcmarya said:

Curiosity Question:  Has the Quest had Speakers/Conversationalists on board?

We were on Aug 29 to Sept 10 and they had two different speakers.  Nothing of interest to me, but my husband went to one talk and he found it interesting.  

[Catlover54]

2 hours ago, mcmarya said:

Curiosity Question:  Has the Quest had Speakers/Conversationalists on board?

 

On this 9/22-10/4 trip, we had one speaker (an elderly retired Australian officer), who started a series of four 35 minute talks on day 6 of the 12 day cruise (the last two were given on our one sea day).  

 

I had just gone to SB Square the day before they started to ask if we were going to have any enrichment speakers, and the guy I spoke with  asked, "What is enrichment?"  They just don't call it enrichment. 

 

So I was happy to have the officer.

 

You could listen to the talks live, or (later) on your TV (when it worked, which was most of the time).  He first talked about Labrador and Newfoundland history (where we were supposed to be before the cruise ports had to change due to Fiona), and later a couple topics related to more of less regional history.

 

He was fine.  As a fan of history,   I would not call him a dynamic or riveting speaker, but good enough, and I understand he has done talks on dozens of cruises so he is popular with someone.  I noticed him dining with some pax in the Restaurant a couple times, and he was also available to some degree after his talks.

 

SB is not known for its enrichment speakers on non-expedition ships (i.e., it is not like Viking or most SS cruises), but the Quest did at least have this guy on my cruise, so that was good. 

 

 

[labonnevie]

3 hours ago, JodiandFrank said:

We were on Aug 29 to Sept 10 and they had two different speakers.  Nothing of interest to me, but my husband went to one talk and he found it interesting.  

These talks were about astronomy, nothing to do about Canada, New England, the history of where we were or anything related to our cruise. Very disappointing. 

[jsiegel]

The Oct 4-16th cruise had two speakers who gave talks about various aspects of Canadian history and culture.  I attended a few and they were very interesting. 

 

Jackie

[Astride]

On 10/16/2022 at 12:08 PM, christraveller said:

Those non SB chocolates left on your pillow seemed familiar. They are available in Canada at Costco.  Decent Swiss dark chocolate. 
 

welcome home!

They look like the chocolates from Costco that we get when we get a certain score at bowling. We pay 25 cents Canadian & get one of them as a  consolation. How cheap can Seabourn get?

[Catlover54]

38 minutes ago, Astride said:

They look like the chocolates from Costco that we get when we get a certain score at bowling. We pay 25 cents Canadian & get one of them as a  consolation. How cheap can Seabourn get?

 

The Thomas Keller chocolates came for a couple days, then disappeared again -- maybe supply problems and these were fillers?  I don't know if they reappeared on the subsequent cruises.

[jsiegel]

7 hours ago, Catlover54 said:

 

The Thomas Keller chocolates came for a couple days, then disappeared again -- maybe supply problems and these were fillers?  I don't know if they reappeared on the subsequent cruises.

 

We received TK dark chocolates every night on the Oct 4-16 cruise.  

 

Jackie

[skybluewaters]

We also received TK chocolates each evening of our 14-day Odyssey cruise in September.

As many (most?) passengers do, I currently have 28 of them in my candy drawer at home.

Hmmm, since Halloween is coming up soon....🤔

 

If Seabourn eliminated the chocolates as well as the caviar and redirected the savings into the general F & B budget, I would be happy. 

[SDuckers]

17 hours ago, skybluewaters said:

We also received TK chocolates each evening of our 14-day Odyssey cruise in September.

As many (most?) passengers do, I currently have 28 of them in my candy drawer at home.

Hmmm, since Halloween is coming up soon....🤔

 

If Seabourn eliminated the chocolates as well as the caviar and redirected the savings into the general F & B budget, I would be happy. 

Like you, I bring home all the little chocolate bars, and give them to my kids and my business partner who loves chocolate.  But keep your hands off my nightly caviar in the Obs. Bar!  LOL

[cruiseej]

On 10/18/2022 at 5:47 PM, skybluewaters said:

If Seabourn eliminated the chocolates as well as the caviar and redirected the savings into the general F & B budget, I would be happy. 

 

On 10/19/2022 at 11:41 AM, SDuckers said:

But keep your hands off my nightly caviar in the Obs. Bar!  LOL

 

And this is an illustration of the problem Seabourn (and other luxury cruise lines) face in an era when prices have gone up significantly due to higher operating costs and they need find ways to trim costs around the edges without affecting the overall cruise experience for the majority of customers. But we all value different things: from top-level food ingredients to reasonably good quality included wines, from unlimited caviar to pillow chocolates, from premium soaps to afternoon tea, from pre-travel packets with travel wallets and printed luggage tags to printed copies of the Herald delivered daily, and so on.

 

It seems apparent they can't deliver the exact same experience they did 10 or 15 years ago without pricing their cruises too high to fill their ships, so senior management makes decisions about what is expendable or not to shave a few dollars of cost here and there. Whatever they choose to eliminate or reduce or substitute, some customers will be unhappy and others will shrug and say "I never used/cared about  that anyway". Hopefully they are smart enough to survey customers before making certain changes, and to listen to feedback if they significantly miscalculate customer reaction to a change they make. 

[Vineyard View]

I understand and do not dispute the business scenario that you represent. I agree that it is impossible to satisfy 100% of people. That said,  I would argue though that there has to be truth in advertising, or your reputation as a business should rightfully be challenged. If SB advertises services, then they should deliver those offerings unless there is a legitimate exception to the rule at that particular scenario, and  then that should be explained in some way. Continued lack of advertised services and offerings, that are rightfully considered when one pays for them, results in false advertising. 

[cruiseej]

@Vineyard View For whatever it is or isn't worth: does Seabourn actually advertise that The Restaurant is open for breakfast? When I look at the Seabourn website, on the Life on Board tab, and click on Gourmet Dining, the page for The Restaurant mentions lunch but not breakfast. (Not that the website is the definitive arbiter of what is or isn't offered — the page for The Patio mentions Earth & Ocean in the evening, but there is no sample dinner menu listed as there is for the other dinner venues.)