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Seabourn has a new President

margbem

By margbem,
in Seabourn Cruise Line

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Mr Luxury

Mr Luxury

Posted
Posted
14 minutes ago, SLSD said:

Yes, we have had experience with them.  I had typed out a longer response earlier, but somehow it evaporated.  Probably just as well...

Yes CC are storing it for you in the cloud.

 

There is such a difference in atmosphere when there is a seven day turnaround.

I have spoken to and observed the crew on these trips when I am on for a long time and they hate it. The crew perform differently and are not relaxed.

Service is not the same and they can be tired and stressed.

The seven dayers come on and want everything at a fast pace because they haven't got long.

They also drink more and can be boisterous.

What about me I hear you ask.😁

I am calm and pace myself and encourage the troops to cope and they will get through another seven day hell.

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SLSD

SLSD

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, Mr Luxury said:

Yes CC are storing it for you in the cloud.

 

There is such a difference in atmosphere when there is a seven day turnaround.

I have spoken to and observed the crew on these trips when I am on for a long time and they hate it. The crew perform differently and are not relaxed.

Service is not the same and they can be tired and stressed.

The seven dayers come on and want everything at a fast pace because they haven't got long.

They also drink more and can be boisterous.

What about me I hear you ask.😁

I am calm and pace myself and encourage the troops to cope and they will get through another seven day hell.

I hear you.  To put what I typed earlier (which evaporated ) in a nutshell.  We did a back to back Baltic (14 days) and St. Pete (7 days).   The first 14 days were great--lovely passengers, lots of fun. The St. Pete leg (while wonderful for what we saw) was diminished by some really rude passengers.  People like us who were doing the back to back, but we had not yet met, were coming up to us and asking if we noticed the difference when the new passengers came aboard.  Of course we did.  They were even rude to our well educated and gracious  Russian tour guides.  It was astounding.  I found myself apologizing to our guides and tipping them extra generously to make up for the rudeness.  

 

But, let's not throw every 7 day cruiser into the same black pot.  Some are taking the trip of a lifetime and are wonderful people--it's just a crap shoot as to who is onboard.  

 

Mr. SLSD and I try to be gracious and unobtrusive.  Just as we strive to be in our daily lives.  

Edited by SLSD
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commodoredave

commodoredave

Posted
Posted

Seems the Brits like Seabourn more than most cruise lines, at least that's according a survey that appeared recently in the Daily Mail. I'm not sure we North Americans have the same expectations, but I will note that Seabourn ranked higher than most ultra-luxury lines.

The best and worst cruise lines of 2023 revealed by Which? - and Noble Caledonia is number one | Daily Mail Online

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Mr Luxury

Mr Luxury

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, Cantara24 said:

 Another one who reports to HAL president, not Seabourn president, not looking good

Schiller Appointed CFO for Holland America Line and Seabourn - Cruise Industry News | Cruise News

Yes,just moving people around who have been at "The Company" for years.

It's all Carnival like Silversea is RCCL

Explora is MSC.

Without these large companies we wouldn't be able to sail on the small luxury lines.

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cruiseej

cruiseej

Posted
Posted

The former CFO's LinkedIn page still shows him working as CFO at Holland America, so I wonder if this change was news to him as well!

 

I also note that the Seabourn website still lists Josh Leibowitz as president, more than two weeks after he was replaced. Silent protest by the back-office team at Seabourn? Incompetent marketing staff? The web marketing team was also laid off? 🤣

 

In other Leibowitz news, the "new opportunities" he was stated to be departing for appears to be… author! He has a book coming out in May: "Parenting MBA: A Degree in Parenting That Won't Cost You $200,000". It's billed as an easy-to-read book of parenting advice from the Harvard Business School graduate and former McKinsey & Co managing partner. Hopefully he'll next turn to writing episodes for "Below Deck". 

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SLSD

SLSD

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, cruiseej said:

The former CFO's LinkedIn page still shows him working as CFO at Holland America, so I wonder if this change was news to him as well!

 

I also note that the Seabourn website still lists Josh Leibowitz as president, more than two weeks after he was replaced. Silent protest by the back-office team at Seabourn? Incompetent marketing staff? The web marketing team was also laid off? 🤣

 

In other Leibowitz news, the "new opportunities" he was stated to be departing for appears to be… author! He has a book coming out in May: "Parenting MBA: A Degree in Parenting That Won't Cost You $200,000". It's billed as an easy-to-read book of parenting advice from the Harvard Business School graduate and former McKinsey & Co managing partner. Hopefully he'll next turn to writing episodes for "Below Deck". 

What do I know--but it seems to me that Seabourn is operating with skeleton back office staff.  Not updating websites is a giveaway.  A company on top of things would be coordinating announcements with website updates.  

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Mr Luxury

Mr Luxury

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, SLSD said:

What do I know--but it seems to me that Seabourn is operating with skeleton back office staff.  Not updating websites is a giveaway.  A company on top of things would be coordinating announcements with website updates.  

I think Handre is there on his own  😁

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DTtravelers

DTtravelers

Posted
Posted

For what it's worth... 

 

Re: the new Seabourn President.

 

We initially sailed on HAL quite a bit and really enjoyed our cruises, so I have no negative thoughts on the HAL person being promoted.  We chose their smaller ships (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Statendam) primarily for the itinerary.  They each held about 1200, but are now all gone, replaced with ships that carry 2200 to 2600.  In this, they moved away from us.  Obviously ships of that smaller size were out of fashion...  except for the 9 Viking Ocean ships, the 6 MSC Explora ships on order, the... you get it.  So Carnival Corp now has a gap in their offerings, moving toward "bigger is better" along with RCCL and Norwegian, and away from us!

 

We were along side the Crown Princess (~3,000) in Hawaii years ago and asked some of the passengers how they liked it.  They said it was nice, but you had to wait in line for everything...   

 

So we moved in the direction of Seabourn, had a spectacular 43 day cruise to Antarctica on the Quest, loved it, and haven't looked back.  We really liked the Quest and Odyssey, will try Encore this fall, and have been looking at Venture cruises.  Seabourn covers a nice range from 250 to 550 passengers, and Carnival/HAL should realize what they have and do everything they can to maintain, market and promote it. 

 

So new Seabourn president, your challenge is to make it work for all of us!  And I hope that you are based in Seattle.

 

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cruisr

cruisr

Posted
Posted
18 minutes ago, jdk-atlga said:

Cruise Industry News is reporting that the Odyssey is being sold - effective in 2024. There is a separate new thread started for this. 

Sorry, I started one also as I did not see another.

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adoctor

adoctor

Posted
Posted

I suspect that the sale of the Odyssey and Josh Leibowitz departure are connected.

I really need to hear some positive news from Seabourn. Since the resumption its all been about service failings, cost cutting, and staff exits. 

This is no way to run a railroad let alone a luxury cruise line.

 

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DTtravelers

DTtravelers

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, adoctor said:

I suspect that the sale of the Odyssey and Josh Leibowitz departure are connected.

I really need to hear some positive news from Seabourn. Since the resumption its all been about service failings, cost cutting, and staff exits. 

This is no way to run a railroad let alone a luxury cruise line.

 

That same thought (about Leibowitz and the Odyssey) crossed my mind.   Timing is interesting.

 

As far as seeking positive news...  for what it's worth, we sailed Odyssey for two weeks last year in Alaska and had a great cruise.  We are signed up to repeat the cruise again this year.  We wouldn't waste our time and money if things weren't up to expectations.  I'm sad to see her leaving.  But at least they did it in a way that didn't disrupt our summer plans.

 

I constantly remind myself of that old adage: "Believe half of what you see, and none of what you hear."

 

Happy sailing

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frantic36 Holiday Sharing Rare

frantic36

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, adoctor said:

I really need to hear some positive news from Seabourn. Since the resumption its all been about service failings, cost cutting, and staff exits. 

 

Don't believe everything you read especially on this board. Both @shark b8 reporting from Sojourn and myself currently on Quest have been reporting some glitches but generally great cruises and I am reading similar on other cruise lines. I will respond to a complaint about Quest posted today once I can respond appropriately.

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Mr Luxury

Mr Luxury

Posted
Posted
49 minutes ago, frantic36 said:

 

Don't believe everything you read especially on this board. Both @shark b8 reporting from Sojourn and myself currently on Quest have been reporting some glitches but generally great cruises and I am reading similar on other cruise lines. I will respond to a complaint about Quest posted today once I can respond appropriately.

Julie,

Have you seen Michael Sandoval who works for TK and is an ambassador going from ship to ship.

He messaged me to say that he was going to Quest to help out and mentor.

 

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saminina

saminina

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, toseaornottosea said:

I find it hard to believe that with Liebowitz leaving on March 1st they could make a deal for the sale of Odyssey between then and now.  It wouldn't surprise me if he was involved in putting that deal in motion if not in place.

It's a transaction that would have been conducted higher up than his lowly position.

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