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brittany12

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About Me

  • Location
    Florida
  • Interests
    cruising
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Oceania
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    Med

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  1. Not just important for cruise line executives to be aware of what factors—like MDR's being open for breakfast and lunch on all days— make passengers choose one cruise line over another, but for them to have a firm, well-publicized in advance policy across the entire fleet and then adhere to it in practice..
  2. A transatlantic cruise from Europe in middle of November. I've done several. Seas are frequently rough. Hurricanes are possible and windy, rainy days to be expected, even though sometimes it is like a lake. Cold outside temperatures in the middle of the Atlantic until ship gets closer to Florida waters are the norm. Outside dining on Colonnade or patio probably out of question for most of those days. No one except maybe a few brave Brits are hanging around at pool or pool deck. People staying inside. The point is that therefore for TA November cruises the MDR dining experience for breakfast and lunch becomes even more vital to people's enjoyment of the entire cruise experience. Maybe it's a small minority of us who prefer this, but it is the hallmark of a luxury cruise line to provide this more civilized, and now safer because of covid, luncheon dining option, even with truncated hours. The rule recent SB sailors had been insisting upon that they thought SB followed a policy, as criticized as it is, was that the MDR is open for breakfast daily but only open for lunch on sea days. Hello, because now it's reported that even this limited sea-day policy does not apply on the Sojourn TA cruise and people have had to crowd into Colonnade for lunch each day for the normal buffet meals service and lines. We now have just heard the ship is saying it is covid related, but "twochromic" suggests no one really knows the truth. To me, it sounds like poor planning or bad deployment of available resources. What can be done, besides bitterly complaining to on board management? All of those board and all of us who object to this breakdown of the SB past practice and promise, even in this unacceptable sea-day only form, have pens and keyboards, so we should write to SB management and let our voices be heard. Insist on an explanation and correction. Don't just complain here to sympathetic and unsympathetic voices.
  3. Forget the hyperbole. Forget counting the exact number of stars. 5, 6, 7....100. Everyone gets the underlying point—luxury means luxury. We all certainly know it from the prices we pay and the services we read are being promised. And from what the "luxury" competition provides. 6 days on the Sojourn TA that was just reported without any MDR open for lunch is an absolute disgrace. Why does everyone on board take it so calmly?
  4. Spot on, kjbacon. 6* by definition is table service meals 3X day.
  5. Their advertising says they are going to retrofit the two ships and that means fewer cabins and larger ones. But I don't see their doing much with those claustrophobic bathrooms even in the higher-priced cabins. Or making the newly designed cabins SS, Oceania, or SB size. Their service was excellent as was food. I'm sure they will get back to that level, but the ships are old and used to sail with twice the passenger count of SS. I for one will miss Fernando on our March cruise. But there is just so much these former SS staff now with Crystal can do.
  6. I tip my hat to Catlover 54, SLSD and the others who want the best from their luxury cruise experience and have the tenacity to speak that truth of what they have been witness to and what others have reported. Even at the risk of speaking ad nauseam on this subject. What is clear is that the different SB ships have had recent different MDR experiences for B and L. The optimum is that Colonnade and its fans should live and be well but —for us others who prefer the standard that any luxury line should be offering its passengers— the MDR should be open for a reasonable length of time at both breakfast and lunch on all SB ships every day and not just sea days. We should make achieving and maintaining that our mission and SB should be adhering to that standard..
  7. Beg to differ. I go back dozen cruises to 2012 on Odyssey and recall lunches in MDR in ports in Greece and other places.
  8. We've really gotten a bit lost on this thread into the creativity of dessert and bread displays in the Galley Lunch as well as looking to see if the beef has too much fat on it during a perusal of the buffet line. People on this site who prefer buffets for these and any other reason should be able to satisfy that on the special Galley Lunch or on the regular buffet line in the Colonnade as their choice for any meal they want. This thread really was originally about the responsibilities of a luxury cruise line charging luxury fares to meet its obligation and satisfy its promise of excellent food and superb dining venues to keep its MDR open on a regular basis for both breakfast and lunch in addition to the Colonnade. This is what a number of us who prefer that upgraded, more relaxing and enjoyable dining experience and remember the old days are still expecting from luxury SB. It should be both venues until such time as SB formally advises its current and future guests that such will no longer be the case. And it should not be one set of rules for one of the SB ships, imposed on the spot, and a different set of rules for another unless real on the ground operating circumstances require it.. When I am on the Cunard ships, I am dining in the top end, tableclothed, Queen's Grill for all three meals day on any of their four Queens.
  9. Yes the much heralded Galley lunch is a fancier eating at the trough event where everything is literally offered and thrown in as passengers line up and gorge. It's never appealed to us either. The one Princess cruise we ever took on their small 590 passenger sister ship to the Oceania and Azamara babies before it was scuttled had oblong plates at the buffet. Maybe 16'' long.The one meal there we were forced to have because the Military Tattoo at the Edinburgh castle was starting early. I will never forget the scene of how the Princess population loaded up those giant plates at the Lido buffet. And then return trips. There is no comparison of a fancy resort lavish buffet for breakfast or brunch and that offered in the Colonnade.
  10. SLSD says it all so perfectly his first paragraph. It captures the feeling a number of us have. Pre-covid the MDR breakfast and lunch attendance was about the same as I'm reading it is now.. They used and still use just a portion of the big room and have restricted hours for the few handfuls of us who ate there. But for those of us who appreciate its ambience (yes tablecloths1), selections, relaxed waiter service, and food—the hallmark of SB's reputation since its founding, and akin to what other luxury cruise lines provide—they managed to deal with the economics and still provided a good product. Even with changing economics, until they put us on formal notice in their literature or online that it is changing, and thus giving the consumer a choice where to spend our money, they should still do so.
  11. Strongly disagree with assertion use it or lose it. It's nowhere near the tuxedo and evening dress analogy. No. we are paying for it. If many or most passengers choose not to use this civilized and relaxing food service, that's no reason to shut down MDR for breakfast or even lunch so long as the luxury cruise line openly advertises and markets its various dining venues as open for all three meals and does not tell people buying cruises the MDR will be shut down. If they do that, then lower my fare and stop pretending you are a luxury line.
  12. " Attentive service, great bottles of champagne or wine, and a good lunch... topnotch staff...." If I am not mistaken Covepointcruiser, is this not the SB promise to every passenger for its cruises—without the walloping daily supplement it has decided to charge for this greater level of comfort and service upstairs at the Retreat? I am glad you enjoyed this extra degree of service and the seclusion, particularly during Covid time. To each his own. I like the point that this extra space on the Encore and Ovation for sunning and lounging —when it is crowded down below on the pool deck, because of its restricted size and large passenger component — should be available to everyone on the ship as part of the regular fare.
  13. When they built a few years the Encore and Ovation with basically the same footprint as the O ships, except a new squeezed in deck to accommodate the additional 15O passengers, one of the goodies they offered in the new square footage with the few feet extra width and 38 foot extra length, along with an expanded TK Grill and bar, was the Retreat as a special place that passengers would be willing to pay the daily fee to get away from the crowds elsewhere. Particularly the pool deck. Since its opening a few years back, most all of the messages I've seen on cruisecritic have been far in the negative.
  14. Thanks for your insight Catlover54, but I am a province in France spelled with two t's and not a she with just one.😉That's okay. Yes, the short breakfast hours in the MDR are not great if one has a morning excursion. Then there is no choice other than room service. Lunch is a different story. I can remember many a day in port on previous SB cruises pre-covid and eating a relaxing lunch in the MDR overlooking the enchanting port scenery while savoring a glass or two of wine. As I would be doing on land. Which is the way it should be on luxury lines charging luxury prices. It becomes an activity rather than a rush-job to eat and vacate. It's also a great place to stay away from the crowds if one is on an avoid covid at all costs mission. I just want transparency. IF SB must limit the days so substantially where THE major dining venue in the ship is closed for breakfast and lunch on such a continuous basis for any reason and because of real extenuating circumstances, that should be publicized to all well in advance.
  15. If this is sadly so, complaining onboard to F and B manager or on this website is not enough. Letters to SB management and calls to your trusted TA. Put the heat on. If these are the rules, let's demand that they be published in the fancy brochures we get in the mail and on their website or else it is false and misleading advertising.
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