Excursion timings on Pursuit in Kimberley

[seabourn_noob]

We have booked a Kimberley cruise on Pursuit.

How can we book other shipboard activities (in particular, spa appointments) if we don't know when the Zodiac excursions happen on a particular day/  Are they staggered through the day?

[sanne]

I have on  been on several Kimberley cruises. And have another booked on the Pursuit next year.

 

No two days are the same. It all depends on the tides. So there would be no way of knowing when you will be out on a zodiac. The ship does not dock anywhere … there are no docks. Zodiacs may take you to a beach area for a wet landing some days, others you will be on a zodiac ride only to experience the wonders of the Kimberley. 
 

The only suggestion I have if you wish to lock in appointments is to do it at lunch time. We always seem to return to the ship for lunch. Hope that helps. 

 

 

[seabourn_noob]

Thanks.  That does help. It means that such appointments are best booked on sea days... 

[sanne]

I presume your Kimberley cruise is 10 days. That’s the norm.

 

There’s generally only 1 sea day. If you leave from Darwin, it’s the first day. If you leave from Broome, it will be the last day. All other days you will be out and about on the zodiacs. 

[markandjie]

This is one of my biggest frustrations with the Seabourn Ventures product...the ship operates on its own rhythm without much regard for the timing of Ventures activities. That means at times that you'll miss breakfast or lunch because of the timing of your zodiac ride, for example. Or that there's little advanced information on when you can/should book spa appointments to avoid conflicting with an excursion. Where they do accommodate and offer an earlier breakfast or later lunch it always feels like a last minute heroic adjustment rather than, you know, the thing they should have done in the first place. Hoping this changes, because otherwise it's a fantastic experience.

[cruiseej]

1 minute ago, markandjie said:

at times … you'll miss breakfast or lunch because of the timing of your zodiac ride, for example. Or that there's little advanced information on when you can/should book spa appointments to avoid conflicting with an excursion.

 

I understand the frustration, but I think this is the nature of expedition cruising. They don't know for sure where they are going to be in three days, or possibly even the next day. Depending on where in the world they are — certainly in Antarctica — weather conditions may dictate changes at any time. I just don't see how they can tell you when your excursions will be days or months in advance so you can book a spa appointment. As for meals, there's never a reason you have to miss a meal. There's always room service, if you have a very early excursion and want to eat in advance. Or you can generally go to Seabourn Square for coffee and a light bite. Or the Bow Lounge. It's pretty difficult to go hungry on even a small Seabourn ship! 🤣

 

For expedition cruising, I think the philosophy is — and correctly so — the destination takes precedence, and other things wrap around that. That might mean going out on a 7 am zodiac cruise and coming back to have breakfast. Or having room service breakfast if you need to eat before going out. In the afternoon, you can generally arrange to have lunch before or after an excursion, and if you need to eat outside the Colonnade's hours, there is Seabourn Square, snacks in the Bow Lounge, tea in the Constellation Lounge, and room service available. If you have a scheduled spa appointment at a time your group is slotted for an excursion, they can often accommodate moving you to a different group for that excursion. 

 

12 minutes ago, markandjie said:

Where they do accommodate and offer an earlier breakfast or later lunch it always feels like a last minute heroic adjustment rather than, you know, the thing they should have done in the first place.

 

The crew needs to be scheduled in advance, and have scheduled time off during their very long days. When the expedition leader and captain need to juggle where to go or when to go out, it means making adjustments for many crew members. Again, I don't know how you could expect them to anticipate what can't be planned in advance. If breakfast is normally scheduled to open at, say, 7:00 am, schedules for dozens of kitchen and service staff are built around that; when plans change, if they can juggle everyone's schedules to accommodate opening for breakfast at 6:30 am, they do it. That doesn't mean they have the capacity to open at 6:30 am every day, just in case it's needed.

 

(For what it's worth, we've also done two expedition cruises on Silversea, and it's operates the same there: first they figure out where we can go next, and then adjust everything else around that as needed.)

[markandjie]

9 minutes ago, cruiseej said:

If breakfast is normally scheduled to open at, say, 7:00 am, schedules for dozens of kitchen and service staff are built around that; when plans change, if they can juggle everyone's schedules to accommodate opening for breakfast at 6:30 am, they do it.

 

I hear you, and I think you're right. My only other expedition experience was a very small Celebrity ship in the Galapagos (<30 pax) and so that doesn't really compare.

 

Perhaps it's the presentation more than the substance of it. It doesn't feel to me that the destination always takes precedence, because the communications are that Hotel and Food & Bev are doing heroics to make it work at the last minute...as opposed to the narrative being more that "well of course the schedules will be different." And those crew a) deserve recognition for the effort required to make it all work and b) public kudos in general as they make or break the overall experience.

[seabourn_noob]

I want to thank everyone for their experienced comments.  Expedition cruising is new to me, and I now suspect that my real problem stems from Seabourn's decision to shoehorn guest interactions on these cruises into their website better suited for regular cruises. Why have a "book shore excursions" section when there are none to book? Why allow (and indeed encourage) people to prebook spa dates when the scheduling is too fluid to accommodate efficient pre booking?

[Woodrowst]

57 minutes ago, markandjie said:

This is one of my biggest frustrations with the Seabourn Ventures product...the ship operates on its own rhythm without much regard for the timing of Ventures activities. That means at times that you'll miss breakfast or lunch because of the timing of your zodiac ride, for example. Or that there's little advanced information on when you can/should book spa appointments to avoid conflicting with an excursion. Where they do accommodate and offer an earlier breakfast or later lunch it always feels like a last minute heroic adjustment rather than, you know, the thing they should have done in the first place. Hoping this changes, because otherwise it's a fantastic experience.

That is the nature of expedition cruising regardless of the cruise line.  If having everything on a specific schedule is important to you (and it is to many people), then expedition cruising may not be for you.

[toseaornottosea]

Based on my experience in the Antarctic on the Venture we were all broken up into color coded groups and if you had plans, say a spa booking, that conflicted with the time your color group was scheduled to go out on a zodiac excursion there was no problem going out with another group.  All you had to do was make the request with the expedition desk to go with another group.  They were very accommodating.

[markandjie]

19 minutes ago, seabourn_noob said:

Why allow (and indeed encourage) people to prebook spa dates when the scheduling is too fluid to accommodate efficient pre booking?

 

If spa services are important to you then I would recommend pre-booking them. Worst case scenario you will have to change or cancel them, but at least you have the slot. The expedition team will also work with you to put you in a different color group if your original group conflicts with your appointment, assuming your appoint will not start or will conclude with enough time to make it work.

 

11 minutes ago, Woodrowst said:

If having everything on a specific schedule is important to you (and it is to many people), then expedition cruising may not be for you.

 

I definitely wasn't clear, as that's not my point at all. In fact it's the exact opposite. My issue is that the ship (specifically Hotel and F&B) IS on a specific schedule and they are not always sufficiently flexible (or perhaps do not appear to be) to accommodate expedition activities.

 

Case in point: we had a hosted dinner the same night as the polar plunge. Due to the impressive volume of passengers who took the leap the briefing for that evening was delayed. We attended the briefing and then when we arrived at dinner we learned the officers and some guests had been waiting for us (and others) for 30 minutes because they did not move back the group dinner time to accommodate the change in briefing time.

[Woodrowst]

23 hours ago, markandjie said:

 

If spa services are important to you then I would recommend pre-booking them. Worst case scenario you will have to change or cancel them, but at least you have the slot. The expedition team will also work with you to put you in a different color group if your original group conflicts with your appointment, assuming your appoint will not start or will conclude with enough time to make it work.

 

 

I definitely wasn't clear, as that's not my point at all. In fact it's the exact opposite. My issue is that the ship (specifically Hotel and F&B) IS on a specific schedule and they are not always sufficiently flexible (or perhaps do not appear to be) to accommodate expedition activities.

 

Case in point: we had a hosted dinner the same night as the polar plunge. Due to the impressive volume of passengers who took the leap the briefing for that evening was delayed. We attended the briefing and then when we arrived at dinner we learned the officers and some guests had been waiting for us (and others) for 30 minutes because they did not move back the group dinner time to accommodate the change in briefing time.

I guess my original statement still stands.  Things changed and you had to decide between the polar plunge and a hosted dinner.  That happens on expedition cruises.   I signed up for kayaking on the Venture and then they announced that morning that there would be a special champagne celebration on the zodiacs at the same time.   So I had to choose between the kayaking and the zodiac (I chose the kayak).  It was no big deal.  It would have been unrealistic and privileged of me to expect the ship to change the time of either activity so that I could do both.  So my point stands:  Expedition cruising requires the willingness to be flexible.

[grandma*knows*best]

Mid day or evenings after 7 pm are usually safe times to book spa appointments if you don’t want to miss the excursions on an expedition cruise. Also if you have a conflict, there is usually no issue in going out in a different group.

 

You never miss breakfast; there is time to eat before the first zodiac tour leaves.

 

If schedule changes are so upsetting to you, expedition cruises would not be the best choice.

Edited February 26 by grandma*knows*best
Addition