Speakers Onboard

[planada]

We have been Regent cruisers since Crystal folded. Our last 2 trips were wonderful except for the lack of onboard historians, speakers, ect about the areas visited. Is this something Seabourn  is proficiently providing? I realize we get a good overview from the excursions offered but really enjoy the speakers provided on sea days and leading up to a port. Viking does a good job of this,  BUT….. they are lacking in other areas that we enjoy too. 

[nancygp]

i sailed close to 30 times with crystal prior to their demise.  I've been on a couple of seabourn cruises in the past year and have been very pleased with the speakers.

 

Nancy

[SLSD]

We haven't cruised since the pandemic (we will for the first time in June), but in the past, we have attended most lectures and enjoyed them on Seabourn.  With a very few exceptions, the lectures have been excellent.  I hope some current cruisers will tell us about the current speakers.  Hopefully SB is still having them!

[nancygp]

5 minutes ago, SLSD said:

Hopefully SB is still having them!

Yes, Seabourn still has speakers

 

Nancy

[johng75370]

We’ve been on 4 SB cruises post-COVID, and thought the quality of speakers was very good (maybe not at the level of Crystal, but still very good).  They have gotten better at showing on the website who the speakers are on each ship; you can check it out here: https://www.seabourn.com/en_US/conversations.html

 

[fdnycruiser]

Thank you for posting the link. Strangely, my Trans Atlantic on the Ovation April 9th, has no speakers as of yet. Always enjoy the lectures 

[nancygp]

2 minutes ago, fdnycruiser said:

Thank you for posting the link. Strangely, my Trans Atlantic on the Ovation April 9th, has no speakers as of yet. Always enjoy the lectures 

I don’t understand why seabourn hasn’t posted any speakers yet for our crossing as I’m sure we will have some.  There are currently 4 speakers listed for the Quest crossing in late March.

 

Nancy

[fdnycruiser]

I saw that. Maybe that was an error,and 2 should be on our voyage 

[BasandSyb]

While we have found Seabourn speakers to be generally ok with a couple who have been very good, it is a mixed bag. We try everyone once. Having an area of interest (or a political/diplomatic career) and sending in your resume to cruise lines for a free cruise (with sometimes a paying spouse) to sing for your supper, doesn’t guarantee an interesting outcome. Sometimes my toes have curled thinking that people in the audience would have greater academic knowledge and practical expertise in the subject area or tried to stop the eye roll and sit still for 50 mins and listen to boorish anecdotes and name droppers. That said, those with the gift of the gab can get away with nonsense with an entertaining presentation and be forgiven.

 

Our most incredulous experience was on a Regent Caribbean cruise  - a 20s something high school (secondary) science teacher had been engaged and given a topic on pirates - he had not indicated a specialty subject, but rather the ability to pull anything together. He did in a basic historical slideshow which would pass muster as wiki pirates - not what we would have expected as guest speaker. He and his wife were utterly charming and enjoyed their 14 day free cruise.

Have looked at presenters for our next cruise and it will be … interesting. Fingers crossed.