Granny's 2008 Adventure

[GrannyLorr]

Oh Jean...stop tempting me with informaton about MORE cruises! I have to stay home sometimes...but then again a ship actually sailing into Brisbane is rather tempting! OK...I will have a look....just dont tell John! ;)

I posted the crew pics as I know whenever I hear that the "Photo Famous Captain" has uploaded new pics to his site, I always love to seach the crew pics to see if there is anyone I recognise.....

The photo of Captain Dexter and Staff Captain Sigurd, was when we were doing a "rescue" of some crew from a fishing boat in the Chilean Fjords.....some say they just wanted to be rescued because they could smell the scones from afternoon tea! I was also able to give some photos of the rescue to the Safety Officer as he was too busy to take his own that day!

[Tony & Trevor]

Lorraine,

 

Really excellent photographs. ( Crina is in England and she has mailed me )

 

Hope you both are having a good rest!

 

Kind regards

 

Tony

[GrannyLorr]

I have just uploaded another couple of folders of photos. These ones are of the two Equator Crossings we did. The first one shows “Eric of the Lovely Legs” as King Neptune’s missus! This Crossing was as we were sailing South down the West coast of South America. The Pollywogs were all crew members, Stewardess’, Wait staff etc. There is also a good photo showing how well Captain Dexter can “grovel”!! The missus made him grovel lower and lower!

The second Equator Crossing had both guests and crew members as Pollywogs and just for good measure a few “Stripes” got punished as well! Chef Markus was the last one to hit the water!

[johnnycruise]

And to think some people say the pool on Seabourn ships is never used :p

[cands]

Wow! The first crossing looks like it was a beautifully stage managed affair with wonderful costumes - the best Equator ceremony I've seen.

 

The second looks like an out of control rabble of teenagers; reminiscent of my last day of high school:) . What a contrast!

 

What is common is that everyone is smiling and laughing.

 

After looking at so many pictures of the deck areas of the ship I have had a revelation of sorts about the Seabourn sisters - they are small!

I mean, I know they're small but the photos really show it!

 

Steve.

[fivestar]

Hi Granny,

For many months I have been following your travels like a few people probably lurking in the background and must say how wonderful to read. As a past Seabourn traveller on five occasions I truly believe that Seabourn has delivered no matter where we have travelled and if anything was a problem they always took care of it.

 

I am now planning Seabourn for 2009 on one of the South American legs and it is your valuable information that has helped me immensely. If not available then it will be somewhere else that takes our fancy.

 

Enjoy your camping trip and dreams of your next adventure. From a Gold Coast lady who is only a few moments away from you thanks again.

 

:)

[GrannyLorr]

Thankyou Fivestar....glad you have enjoyed it.

Cands, yes the ships are small, but as I have never sailed on anything else I have nothing to compare them with. I know I wouldnt like the huge ones, but probably would enjoy the mid size ones.....the next lot of photos I will show some of the "onboard" views.....there were a lot of photos of the various rooms on the Spirit ~somewhere~ in a thread long ago....I will try to find them......

Both Equator Crossings were a lot of fun...just glad it wasnt me who was a Pollywog....first time we crossed the Equator....we just lied!! As you said, in both pics everyone was laughing....:D

[cands]

.

 

Cands, yes the ships are small, but as I have never sailed on anything else I have nothing to compare them with. I know I wouldnt like the huge ones, but probably would enjoy the mid size ones.....the next lot of photos I will show some of the "onboard" views.....there were a lot of photos of the various rooms on the Spirit ~somewhere~ in a thread long ago....I will try to find them......

 

Both Equator Crossings were a lot of fun...just glad it wasnt me who was a Pollywog....first time we crossed the Equator....we just lied!! As you said, in both pics everyone was laughing....:D

 

Bring on more photos! They're fantastic. I'm looking at every one in detail. Thanks.

 

We have found that the smaller the ship, the more we enjoy the cruise. Sure there are some advantages with larger ships, especially in the variety of entertainment, but everything else favours smaller ship.

 

Just to give you an idea of where I'm coming from, here's a list of the ships we've been on and their approximate sizes:

 

Norwegian Star (old) - About 30,000 tons, 800 passengers.

Oriana - 69000 tons, 1800 passengers

Pacific Princess - 31000 tons, 680 passengers

Star Princess - 109000 tons, 26000 passengers

Royal Princess (old) - 45000 tons, 1250 passengers

HAL Westerdam - 82000 tons, 1916 passengers

Celebrity Summit - 91000 tons, 1950 passengers

HAL Statendam - 55000 tons, 1266 passsengers

Crystal Symphony - 51000 tons, 940 passengers

 

The only cruise where passenger crowding was an issue was Star Princess - never again. The big offerings from the so-called premium lines HAL and Celebrity were actually pretty good as far as crowd control were concerned.

Crystal Symphony was probably the best with the highest space ratio, but we also really enjoyed both the Royal Princess (now sadly gone to P&O UK) and Statendam.

 

Cheers,

Steve.

[Winner]

I don't blame you for never sailing on Star Princess again--26,000 passengers??? That's quite a crowd. Did you have to line up for the next meal as soon as you finished breakfast? My father claimed that was the worst part of crossing in 1943 (not his choice of "cruises"). The meal lines were continuous and endless, and the food was not exactly gourmet.

[cands]

I don't blame you for never sailing on Star Princess again--26,000 passengers??? That's quite a crowd. Did you have to line up for the next meal as soon as you finished breakfast? My father claimed that was the worst part of crossing in 1943 (not his choice of "cruises"). The meal lines were continuous and endless, and the food was not exactly gourmet.

 

Yes, they called it the 'Black Hole of Calcutta' cruise, with only 20 people per cabin!

There were no queues for food because the food ran out after the first day:) .

 

Now if only I could go back and edit that post. Star Princess of course carries about 2600 people:o . (It just seems like 26000!)

 

Cheers,

Steve.

[GrannyLorr]

One more lot of pics been uploaded.

[JaneBP]

One more lot of pics been uploaded.

 

Fabulous! Thanks for sharing. Methinks that Adrian is a favourite of yours, he seems to be in so many pics. (And rightly so, I might add).

[PittsburghJack]

Granny,

 

Excellent pictures. Mrs. Jack is beginning to anticipate our upcoming voyage. She even purchased a new camera !:)

 

Jack

[cands]

Wonderful! I love the animal collection on the window sill with the raging sea beyond!

 

Steve.

[GrannyLorr]

Fabulous! Thanks for sharing. Methinks that Adrian is a favourite of yours, he seems to be in so many pics. (And rightly so, I might add).

 

Think you may be right Jane, although they were "all" our favourites.....:D

[JaneBP]

>"We’re still focused on the port-focused cruises, preparing for the Baltics this summer on our second ship trip."

 

Will you be on the May 26th Pride cruise? (I know it's not really summer, yet). My brother and sil and I are on that one and we will be in St Petersburg on 5/30 which is apparetnly the birthday of Peter the Great. I have signed up for the Moscow trip, long but I shall never get there again, for sure. There is a lot of information on the CC Ports of Call BB.

[JaneBP]

PS: FWIW, I had a long chat with Carol Frey about the port excursions in St Petersburg, because I plan to hire a private car and guide.

 

She highlighted:

Splendid St Petersburg

Hermitage Museum with early opening

St Isaac's Church of the Spilled Blood

Moscow and the Mysterious Kremlin

Peterhof, Grand Palace and Parks

Intimate Evening at Catherine's Palace (Includes Dinner)

Touches of Everyday Life

[GrannyLorr]

From a Gold Coast lady who is only a few moments away from you thanks again.

 

:)

 

Fivestar, you may well be only a few moments away from me....until a couple of weeks ago we were part of the Gold Coast......dumped into Logan now.....:eek:

[fivestar]

That is council's for you!

 

I have seen your latest photos and must say I am reliving the sea days from 18 months ago and way, way overdue for another Seabourn experience. DH and I have looked at other cruise lines but they just don't seem to offer what we are looking for and that is a relaxed time being pampered and the crew on Seabourn are always there with a smile and nothing is too much trouble. I was tempted to do a crossing but worried that too many "party" style games would not be to our liking so did not look any further. Not saying we are unsociable but if I wanted that I would go on another cruise line.

 

I cannot wait for the new ship to arrive on the oceans as those beautiful outdoor beds that they have look divine and I can imagine a glass or two of wine and reading a good book on those lazy sailing days will be heaven.

 

How did you find the crossing??

[GrannyLorr]

ummmm The Crossing......well I would definately say that there is a "different crowd" on Crossings, than on other cruises.....now that may only be what we experienced, and others may not agree. If you break up our other two BIG cruises, into individual cruises, I think we have done about 10...plus the Crossing. On the other 10 we bonded with a lot of people and have made some lifelong friends....on the Crossing there were very few we became friends with. The "party" games are not a problem, as we didnt even know they were taking place until after they were over...and one was only the next doorway to our suite! (I think we were at one of Chef Markus' cooking demonstartions at the time......I should have worn "plaid" to the demo :D ) The suites are very well sound proofed and it was very rare to hear any outside noise.

One major problem we found with the Crossing was the smoking......so if you are a smoker you would be fine....if not.....reconsider. Usually other people smoking doesnt particularly bother me (I am an ex smoker so understand how people "need" to smoke) There were far more smokers on the Crossing than we have ever found before. For example....The Club has one side for non smokers and one side for smokers.......on the South American Cruise, the non smoking side was packed to the rafters and there were only a couple of smokers on the other side.....if you wanted a seat you had to sit on the smoking side most nights....or stay out of The Club...which a lot of people chose to do.......on The Crossing, the smoking side was packed so it was much easier to get a seat on the non smoking side. On our South American Trivia teams, there were no smokers....on our Crossing Trivia team there were 5 out of 10 were smokers. (We chose to join that team so not complaining....just pointing out a fact)

There was also a lot of smoking outside the Dining Room, in the Atrium, people were going in and out the Dining room all throughout the meals to have a smoke.......butts were piled high. On the other cruises there were complaints about this as well, but I only ever saw one or two butts in the ashtray.....

Then of course the best part of the Crossing is all the sea days....we really love the sea days and had lots of time to read and relax so enjoyed that. It was a good way to end our trip.

[Iamboatman]

FYI Seabourn has just announced that the area outside the Dining Room and the Purser's Square will no longer allow smoking as of June 7th. This may have been put in place as a result of the condition you experienced on the crossing.

[cruiseyguy]

I've been on several "regular" Seabourn cruises, including one in SE Asia & the Middle East that Granny Lorr was on, and from what I've heard from crew & pax, the crossings are totally different experiences. I'll leave it at that.

[MedMar]

Hi Granny: great photos! We enjoyed the cruise in South America also. We did not enjoy the smoking on board and it obviously was worse during the crossing. We are happy that Seabourn is finally removing the disgusting ashtry from the dining room foyer and banning smoking in the elevator foyers. However, we wish they would ban smoking in the Club and the big observation lounge as these places aren't well-ventilated and even one smoker can make the venues unpleasant. I wish that smokers would learn some consideration for the rest of the world and realize that we don't need the diseases that come from second hand smoke!

[CruisinMatt]

I am currently on the Legend crossing and finding the number of smokers minimal. I've also been on several "regular" Seabourn cruises and didn't find it much different.

 

With so few area where one can smoke, what is the issue?

 

--from a non-smoker

[JaneBP]

>"With so few area where one can smoke, what is the issue?"

 

That the major spaces (Lounges and Club) are often most unpleasant to be in because of the odors and smoke. Also, there is often smoking of cigars at the Sky Bar during lunch and dinner times. I know it's tough, but it's so unpleasant. Second-hand smoke is unhealthy for both passengers and crew.