A First Fond Farewell for Odyssey

[SLSD]

5 hours ago, SLSD said:

I left out an important word---Perhaps it IS time to STOP judging others based on their clothing.  

Yes, I'm embarrassed that I left out the most important word.  I've become increasingly uncomfortable about the description of passengers based on whether they have dressed with a flare--or are refined--or sophisticated.  I don't know about the rest of you--but those kinds of descriptions don't fit with my value system.  

Edited April 18, 2023 by SLSD

[wingit]

39 minutes ago, SLSD said:

Yes, I'm embarrassed that I left out the most important word.  I've become increasingly uncomfortable about the description of passengers based on whether they have dressed with a flare--or are refined--or sophisticated.  I don't know about the rest of you--but those kinds of descriptions don't fit with my value system.  

So true.

[Flamin_June]

I’m sorry.

I like to see people dressed with flare. I don’t know what is wrong with being refined or sophisticated. I myself am not comfortable with people who are rough or crude, but each to their own. 

[SLSD]

2 hours ago, Flamin_June said:

I’m sorry.

I like to see people dressed with flare. I don’t know what is wrong with being refined or sophisticated. I myself am not comfortable with people who are rough or crude, but each to their own. 

I also like to see people dressed with flair--I really do.  And there is nothing wrong with being refined or sophisticated--nothing wrong at all.  I have never seen a rough or crude person on a Seabourn cruise.  Of course we might differ on that definition.  Rough to me would mean wearing dirty clothing, speaking with constant expletives.   Sophisticated is a more difficult observation.  What one person sees as sophisticated, another might see as elitist or arrogant.  In my whole lifetime, I  have met very very few people who have impressed me with their sophistication.  And, I can't think of any I've met on a SB cruise.  That is not to denigrate SB cruisers by any stretch, but just to suggest that my understanding of sophistication might differ from that of others.  

 

No need to be sorry.  I KNOW you did not mean to be mean.  You were just giving us your viewpoint--and that is valuable in itself.  

[Covepointcruiser]

We ate early last night in the Restaurant and were surprised by the number of tuxes and glittery gowns.   We did not see that on the Ovation in the Caribbean.    We dressed up to the code but many seemed dressed for the QM2 standards.    Did not see the overly casual passengers but we sat by a window on the side.   They seemed to be very short of staff.

[purpleally]

5 hours ago, SLSD said:

Yes, I'm embarrassed that I left out the most important word.  I've become increasingly uncomfortable about the description of passengers based on whether they have dressed with a flare--or are refined--or sophisticated.  I don't know about the rest of you--but those kinds of descriptions don't fit with my value system.  

What about those that wear robes in public spaces?  Or those, after their morning swim, hold up towels so their partner can take off their swimsuit and then don a robe?

[texanaust]

48 minutes ago, purpleally said:

hold up towels so their partner can take off their swimsuit and then don a robe?

Some don't even bother doing that!  

[purpleally]

16 minutes ago, texanaust said:

Some don't even bother doing that!  

Ohhh, ewww 🤮

[SLSD]

1 hour ago, purpleally said:

What about those that wear robes in public spaces?  Or those, after their morning swim, hold up towels so their partner can take off their swimsuit and then don a robe?

Wow.  I've never seen that.  

[PaulMCO]

New Cruise line has plans for Odyssey...

 

https://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Insights/buying-Odyssey-Japanese-line-market-us

 

[purpleally]

39 minutes ago, SLSD said:

Wow.  I've never seen that.  

Every single morning. And, I’d guess they were well into their 80s

[SLSD]

15 minutes ago, purpleally said:

Every single morning. And, I’d guess they were well into their 80s

 They HAD to be outliers...

[Flamin_June]

3 hours ago, Covepointcruiser said:

We ate early last night in the Restaurant and were surprised by the number of tuxes and glittery gowns.   We did not see that on the Ovation in the Caribbean.    We dressed up to the code but many seemed dressed for the QM2 standards.    Did not see the overly casual passengers but we sat by a window on the side.   They seemed to be very short of staff.

Yes, there was a good turn out for formal night last night. I would guesstimate about 80% of those dining in the Restaurant had made some sort of effort to dress for the occasion. If not tuxes and glittery gowns then jackets, many with ties or bow ties, and cocktail dresses. Many more than the previous formal night. Another pleasing thing to witness was the wait staff around the pool this afternoon, offering passengers ready made drinks, fruit punch, passion fruit margarita, and sangria; something that used to happen regularly, but not seen on our previous two precovid cruises.

[Mr Luxury]

3 hours ago, Flamin_June said:

Yes, there was a good turn out for formal night last night. I would guesstimate about 80% of those dining in the Restaurant had made some sort of effort to dress for the occasion. If not tuxes and glittery gowns then jackets, many with ties or bow ties, and cocktail dresses. Many more than the previous formal night. Another pleasing thing to witness was the wait staff around the pool this afternoon, offering passengers ready made drinks, fruit punch, passion fruit margarita, and sangria; something that used to happen regularly, but not seen on our previous two precovid cruises.

Could we be getting back to some sort of consistency 🤔 

[BasandSyb]

18 hours ago, Mr Luxury said:

Could we be getting back to some sort of consistency 🤔 

I think that’s a bit difficult with dress,I believe the current Seabourn policy to be acceptable - my 20 cents worth: 

 

1. as mentioned there could be a range of issues including lost luggage.

 

2. On this cruise we have a number of partners caring for others and hats off to them, it’s so hard. A partner is in a long sleeved shirt, but it’s clear that getting the challenged other half into clothes has hit a snag. Just leading them into the restaurant has been lovely to see the effort made. (There but for the grace of god etc.) We have seen many similar cases. 

 

3. People join cruises linked with other travel for longer periods of time. Not everyone jumps on a 14 day with room in the case for jackets and a tuxedo. This cruise we are doing is 41 days hot steamy, then car travel and park hiking for a month, then Europe back into the cold, then sailing in Thailand. The variety of clothing required is difficult with luggage constraints even in business, and to ensure you are constantly clean and tidy and aren’t waiting on laundry in hot climes. You choose where to whittle it down and hope your pieces with jewellery will snaz up. This trip we have carry ons + 2 x 32kgs which also include significant weight with shoes, body wash, shampoo, creams etc due to skin sensitivity and all the staying alive pills! 

 

 

4. I’ve made comment previously about even our most formal occasions at home these days are jackets and no tie (including Parliamentary) - standards have changed - I won’t agree dropped, and there is no disrespect in the change just a recognition that people live in hot places and dress according to climate rather than historical standards.

 

5. if the Earth and Ocean and Colonnade had expanded menus - just add 1 or 2 more mains - passengers would not be forced into the restaurant and feel guilty about how they are dressed when their choices are limited. We are all paying for the same cruise and have an equal right to choose the food we want to eat.
 

Don’t be too harsh. There will always be a few outliers for whatever reason. Just look the other way and enjoy your dinner.

[billichka]

We boarded in Papeete and I had been concerned that I would look/feel out of place given my tendency to wear a jacket after 6pm on all nights, not just formal.

 

Thankfully I have been delighted to see many other gents with nightly jackets!

 

Cruise is going great so far… except for today’s sunburn which was acquired at the beach!  I will post a summary of my thoughts after we disembark in Honolulu.

[Covepointcruiser]

There are only two “formal” evenings on this cruise.   Anyone who could not pack a jacket has the option of Earth and Ocean, Colonnade, or Room Service.    The dress code is for the Restaurant.

[Flamin_June]

I can’t and don’t disagree with anything BasandSyb have said. I can remember wishing on our first couple of Seabourn cruises in the tropics, more than a decade ago, when a jacket was required in the evenings on every night apart from first and last, that elegant casual, jacket-less nights would be the norm on such hot weather sailings. This cruise I have only worn a jacket on formal nights or in the TKGrill, and even wore a short sleeved shirt to the Colonnade one night (I just wondered what it would be like - felt uncomfortable all evening},The sort of thing that gets to me is those people who look like they just can’t be bothered. It is mostly men. It’s things like coming down to the restaurant in a crumpled untucked short sleeved shirt that looks as if it has been worn all day. It just looks slovenly, and almost everyone else has made an effort to try and make it feel like an occasion. Then there was the time, not on this cruise I hasten to add, when an overweight gentleman arrogantly made his way into the observation bar for high tea wearing flip-flops, budgie-smugglers and a sleeveless vest. A stunned silence was broken only by the sound of one well-bred elderly lady sliding to the floor in a faint.

As a fellow passenger said to me, Seabourn have let the genie out of the bottle and they will never get it back in.

[SLSD]

11 hours ago, BasandSyb said:

I think that’s a bit difficult with dress,I believe the current Seabourn policy to be acceptable - my 20 cents worth: 

 

1. as mentioned there could be a range of issues including lost luggage.

 

2. On this cruise we have a number of partners caring for others and hats off to them, it’s so hard. A partner is in a long sleeved shirt, but it’s clear that getting the challenged other half into clothes has hit a snag. Just leading them into the restaurant has been lovely to see the effort made. (There but for the grace of god etc.) We have seen many similar cases. 

 

3. People join cruises linked with other travel for longer periods of time. Not everyone jumps on a 14 day with room in the case for jackets and a tuxedo. This cruise we are doing is 41 days hot steamy, then car travel and park hiking for a month, then Europe back into the cold, then sailing in Thailand. The variety of clothing required is difficult with luggage constraints even in business, and to ensure you are constantly clean and tidy and aren’t waiting on laundry in hot climes. You choose where to whittle it down and hope your pieces with jewellery will snaz up. This trip we have carry ons + 2 x 32kgs which also include significant weight with shoes, body wash, shampoo, creams etc due to skin sensitivity and all the staying alive pills! 

 

 

4. I’ve made comment previously about even our most formal occasions at home these days are jackets and no tie (including Parliamentary) - standards have changed - I won’t agree dropped, and there is no disrespect in the change just a recognition that people live in hot places and dress according to climate rather than historical standards.

 

5. if the Earth and Ocean and Colonnade had expanded menus - just add 1 or 2 more mains - passengers would not be forced into the restaurant and feel guilty about how they are dressed when their choices are limited. We are all paying for the same cruise and have an equal right to choose the food we want to eat.
 

Don’t be too harsh. There will always be a few outliers for whatever reason. Just look the other way and enjoy your dinner.

Thank you for this reasonable and empathetic post.  

[MBP&O2/O]

13 hours ago, billichka said:

We boarded in Papeete and I had been concerned that I would look/feel out of place given my tendency to wear a jacket after 6pm on all nights, not just formal.

You think you have a problem 🙂 I always wear a tie with a jacket, and again like you I wear a jacket after 6pm.

[fudge]

18 minutes ago, MBP&O2/O said:

You think you have a problem 🙂 I always wear a tie with a jacket, and again like you I wear a jacket after 6pm.

Same here, never dine without a jacket and tie, thats why we chose this cruise line!

[SLSD]

2 minutes ago, fudge said:

Same here, never dine without a jacket and tie, thats why we chose this cruise line!

Mr. SLSD also always wears a jacket and tie in the MDR and at the TK Grill.  

[markham]

Who has the problem indeed, and what can anyone do about the “problem”?

 

What people do and say is a minefield. But only if you are trying to make sense of what any of this means.

 

Some of us know “old Seabourn” and I hasten to add that that was not necessarily more than a couple of years ago. Sure there were, even then, characters who did not respect the dress code as it was structured, but most of us were patient about it. (I am talking about those men who chose to wear what they liked after 18:00 in the Obs Bar etc). Next came the hollerers across the bar who had no sense that there were other people around who would be annoyed by their hollering. You know, about their idea of conversation ie projecting all they know, often about themselves, as if anyone cares, except for those who are equally as boorish.

 

Anyway, it seems to me that the “elegant jeans” policy, no signage much less attempt to remind passengers about dress standards, appeals for a more “broad demographic” has been deleterious to the Seabourn brand. It is now anything goes, so to speak, as exemplified by the baggy ancient trousered older male passenger who wore open toed sandals daily in the Quest MDR on our Jan-March Grand Voyage, no questions asked. Which made it not so grand at all. How so? There was the demographic that thought it humorous when staff told them to stay seated in the tenders, only for those passengers to joke among themselves, “what are they gonna do- throw us off? 
 

So there we are. It may very well be time for us nostalgic types to abandon the brand. After all, “times are a-changing”. Simple as that, it seems to me.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

 

 

 

Edited April 20, 2023 by markham

[Covepointcruiser]

We have found the air conditioning in the indoor dining spaces on the Odyssey to be set to a low temperature making men in jackets comfortable but ladies requiring sweaters or shawls.    This tropical voyage is not tropical in temperature in public areas.

[Mr Luxury]

1 hour ago, Covepointcruiser said:

We have found the air conditioning in the indoor dining spaces on the Odyssey to be set to a low temperature making men in jackets comfortable but ladies requiring sweaters or shawls.    This tropical voyage is not tropical in temperature in public areas.

I always wear a suit or a jacket for dinner and would never dream of taking my jacket off and my wife has a selection of wraps and shawls as you say it can get a little cold for the ladies.