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cruiseej

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  1. Can one actually "expect" to see polar bears, or is it just a question of luck? (Sort of like seeing the northern lights.) But I'm sure you'll see puffins!
  2. Yes. That's one of the downsides to booking via Flight Ease. You get to pick your flights early and not pay until the cruise final payment deadline, but in many cases, you can't select your seats. We have a cruise this September for which we've booked our flights via Flight Ease, but we can't select seats pre- or post-cruise because the seats have been booked but not yet paid. We're debating whether to have our TA pay Seabourn for the flights now, three months before final payment deadline, in order to select our seats. But… there's a good chance flight schedules could be updated in June (typically about 3-4 months before the month of flying), so paying for the flights now could be problematic if the schedule of any of the flights is changed unfavorably.
  3. @Goodnote You should figure that excursions in Alaska will run between $50 (lumberjack show) and $100 (basic bus tour) up to $300 and more per person, the majority are probably in the $150-$250 range, but helicopter and seaplane trips cost more. Most of the excursions offered by Seabourn are the same excursions as those offered directly by tour operators. So if you're interested in a seaplane trip to Misty Fjords, you can google that and find the price from one of the seaplane companies; if you're interested in the White Pass Scenic Railway in Skagway, you can look up what it costs if you book direct. Seabourn's costs will often be somewhat more than if you were booking on your own; in some cases, Seabourn includes some additional benefit, such as a private card on the railroad, a stop for refreshments, etc. But you should be able to get a pretty good estimate of the cost of excursions you might be interested in. That said, I'm confused why you aren't able to get the information you want from the Seabourn website, which does show general pricing information for excursions. Click on the cruise you're interested in, and on the itinerary list, click on "Learn More" for any port; the pop-up window will show the excursions typically offered at this port β€” including a price. Of course, pricing may vary based on date; 2025 excursions will undoubtedly be a little more expensive than 2024 excursions. Is there a reason the pricing on these pages isn't what you're looking for?
  4. We're booked on a 14-day Venture cruise in Greenland and far northeast Canada in September. While there are many, many posts on this forum about clothing required and provided for Antarctica cruises, I can't recall and couldn't find in a search anything about gear for this particular northern itinerary. I've looked on Seabourn's website, and in the information available in the My Booking section of the site, and I've come up empty. I'd appreciate any information or insights from those who have done it, or know where to find this on Seabourn's website. β€’ Does Seabourn provide a parka/jacket for this cruise? (If not, I'd probably take my Silversea parka from Antarctica… if that's not too gauche! πŸ˜‚) β€’ Are there wet landings requiring boots? β€’ Does Seabourn provide boots? Or since we have our own from two previous expedition cruises (and I have large and wide feet) can I bring my own? β€’ Does Seabourn provide a backpack for zodiac excursions, or should we bring our own? (I have a really nice wet bag from our Silversea trip to South Georgia Island, but it's bulky and heavy and not ideal to have to lug along.) Aside from general cold/wet weather gear β€” layers, hat, gloves, waterproof pants β€” is there anything else we should be thinking we need to bring clothing-wise? Thanks!
  5. 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 β€” certainly in Antarctica β€” 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 β€” and correctly so β€” 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. 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.)
  6. I just looked at one of the "invitation only" cruises next year, and it now shows the prices, but where it normally has a "Book Now" button, it shows "Call to Book": That's better than showing "Sold Out" for a cruise which isn't. I didn't look at these one the website previously, so I don't know if this is a recent change in response to the complaints. So… problem solved? Or are there some still showing "Sold Out" when they are actually in a pre-sale? I guess the question is: what happens if someone happens to see one of these and calls, but was not part of the invited Seabourn club members? Would Seabourn allow them to book, or would they politely tell them that the cruise is only available for pre-booking to some guests now, but will become available to everyone on a specific future date?
  7. I think the issue with cruises not yet on sale to the general public showing "sold out" is not as brain-dead/stupid as it's being labeled. They want to have a way to show upcoming cruise itineraries that are open for early booking to invited guests. The part of the website which shows cruise itineraries is not built to be conditional β€” to show or hide certain cruises based on someone's status, or even whether you are logged in or not. Of course, anything can be addressed with programming, but that would likely require some extensive redevelopment of the main part of the website. I think the easier fix would be for them to make two easy changes: 1) In their emails/letters marketing special pre-public booking opportunities, include a sentence to say: "These itineraries are not yet open for booking by the general public, so the website will show them as 'sold out'; you need to contact your Seabourn representative or travel agent for pricing and to book during your special early access period." 2) Instead of "Sold Out", display "Coming Soon" when the status is open for early booking. (Or it could say "Pre-sale", but that would probably prompt calls from people asking "how do I get the pre-sale?" when they aren't invited/eleigible.)
  8. You will likely be required to vacate your suite by 8 am. you can stay on the ship until 9 or 9:30, but you need to be out of your suite by 8. That sounds early to me. I wouldn't show up until noon, expecting boarding to commence at noon or 12:30. But it does depend on a variety of factors, particularly the local immigration officials. We were just on a cruise which departed out of St. Maarten. People were sitting in the cruise terminal checked in and waiting for boarding to begin, and when the two immigration agents showed up at 12:30, there was a round of applause as were were allowed to line up for clearance to head aboard. (They did not appear to be amused.) πŸ˜€
  9. @ChicagoAlli My wife and I are the ones who shared the cab with you to the Hilton! You shared your story, but I didn't know you were short on cash, or we would have been happy to help you. I'm glad you worked things out, were able to sit at the bar/restaurant at the Hilton for a while, and apparently got home okay. πŸ˜€ I'm sorry this ending put a damper on an otherwise fine cruise. (At least you didn't have our experience, with our American Airlines plane arriving late into Barbados and then being just a few minutes too late getting to Charlotte for us to make our connecting flight to Philadelphia. So we spent an extra night at an airport hotel in Charlotte, along with more than a hundred other passengers stranded by late connections.) As others have said, I would assume the people who were rude/argumentative/uncaring were from a ground services company Seabourn hires, not one of the destination services members of the ship. In either case, you weren't treated well, and it's worth emailing Seabourn about it. At the very least, I think they should refund what you paid for the excursion. All Seabourn may know is that you didn't show up at the designated time and place for your bus trip β€” if they even get that information from the tour operator. I do understand them not allowing people to walk to the terminal; the pier we were docked at was fairly narrow and had two ships doing turnover with passengers, luggage and resupply cargo. Not that it helps now, but on a prior Seabourn cruise ending in Barbados, we took the bus tour ending at the airport, and the bus stopped somewhere to meet a couple who took a taxi to catch up to us. So I'm just letting you know that your proposed solution has been used before, if it gives you more ammunition in making your case to Seabourn!
  10. If your luggage weight allows, I would recommend taking two pairs of pants for excursions, whatever kind you have. While they're not likely to get very wet, you might sweat in them during a morning excursion and prefer to wear a different pair for an afternoon excursion, or just for wearing around the ship once you get back onboard. For instance, I would often do a morning excursion, come back to the ship, remove all the layers, put on the other pair of pants, and go for lunch. The travel/hiking pants are great for wearing around the ship during daytime hours.
  11. I wasn't sure in advance, so I had one pair of both lined and unlined! I found that with a base layer underneath and waterproof pants on the outside, the unlined ones were perfect; the lined ones with the base layer were actually a little too warm on active excursions! I used the lined ones a few times on zodiac-only outings, knowing I'd be sitting still in the zodiac for about 90 minutes. If you were going to get one, I'd get the unlined. (I did not do kayaking, as I was more interested in getting ashore and doing photography.)
  12. The Gold benefit is one bag of laundry per 7 days, so you could send a bag on the first day of the cruise if you wanted. Then you'd have to wait until the 8th day to be able to get another free bag. If you and your wife each select the laundry bag as one of your two benefits, then you each get one bag per 7 days.
  13. We enjoyed Le Meridien for a stay earlier this year. Nice hotel, great location.
  14. Plus the 32 ounce porterhouse! (Intended for 2, but who's to say a hungry carnivore couldn't do it alone!)
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