jeffbrig

We got ours a few days before sailing, when our boarding passes were ready. Time slots are pretty soft... I've been on two cruises in the last 15 months. The first, our Seabourn transfer from the airport got us to the port a couple of hours before our "boarding time". We were immediately checked in and allowed to board. On the second, we were staying near the port and made it earlier than expected. No lines, no waiting, checked in and boarded immediately. My suspicion is that boarding slots is more a concession to covid protocols and not wanting crowded terminals. But this is more an issue for huge ships, not Seabourn. FWIW, the two sailings we've been on since covid had 100, and 220 passengers. So absolutely no congestion at the port.

As a whisky drinker, I was pretty happy with the offerings. Most of what's on board is included. Each bar venue will have a list of ultra premium options available for purchase. Well below typical bar prices. Yes, I sampled most of them... Macallan 25, Yamazaki 18, Laphroaig 30, Elijah Craig 23. Those are all $1k+ bottles. The Macallan was the most expensive, at around $100 for a pour - it's usually 3x that in bars in my experience. Ultra premium pours measured from a shot glass - that's 1.25-1.5 oz? Highland Park 18, Blanton's, JW Blue, etc. were available at much lower prices. Most of the premium options fell in the $13-$20 range on our recent cruise. Free (included) stuff I remember off the top of my head: Macallan 12 (sometimes Quest), Highland Park 12, Woodford Reserve, Knob Creek 9, Basil Hayden's, etc.

On the last 2 Seabourn cruises I've been on, I believe passengers were asked to disembark by 10am.

Also worth noting - the upgraded "stream" internet package that's available for purchase is included at certain suite categories. We recently traveled in a penthouse spa suite and the upgraded internet was included.

I hope you don't mind me crashing the thread. Here's my absolute favorite pic from when we at Sawyer Glacier (Tracy Arm Fjord) on Sept 12th! Took this while kayaking...

OK, you're going to hate me. We got on the Odyssey the day you left. We had approximately 5 minutes of rain on our entire 10 day sailing. We even had clear blue skies in the "Misty" Fjords.

Glad to hear you made it, Laylam! In case it helps anyone else, I'll share our experience with forms /apps and boarding the Odyssey in Vancouver yesterday. We flew in 2 days before the cruise. Used ArriveCAN and the automated kiosks at customs without any issues or delays. We filled out veriFLY for boarding the cruise ship, including uploading negative covid test results. At the pier, seabourn had a side desk for veriFLY check-in. They looked at our confirmation and pretty much waved us thru. Super easy. As for your 2nd arriveCAN, this wasn't clear to me until we got help from the seabourn people at the pier. We had prepared a dummy arriveCAN for our departure (yes, I realize this makes zero sense, it's an "arrive" app). What they actually wanted was for us to submit one for the end of the cruise when we return to Vancouver. We deleted the dummy one, and it took 5 minutes to submit a new one and show them the code. Then they waved us thru and we boarded the ship.

So I put all our information into veriFLY, including vaccine and covid test results. My wife did ArriveCAN on her phone, and it reused stored info from our flight entry, which did not ask for test results. We'll see what happens tomorrow...

I think we are on the Odyssey with you tomorrow.

It's not for entry into Canada. It's a requirement to board a passenger cruise ship at a Canada port. While rules/restrictions are generally thawing out, it seems this one has yet to be lifted. https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/travel-restrictions/cruise

Interesting anecdote.... when I was taught to play Mah Jongg by some Chinese colleagues on a business trip, they doled out playing cards to track points each round. At the end of the night, we counted out the difference, and then some RMB exchanged hands. I somehow managed to break even!

FYI for anyone else boarding at a Canadian port. We're sailing out of Vancouver on Sept 6th (the first day of the change). The way it was explained to us by a Seabourn rep is that even fully vaxxed, Canada requires a negative test within 3 days to board the ship. This a Canada requirement, not Seabourn. We were told either a PCR or a proctored antigen test is acceptable. We plan to do a proctored home test before we fly to Vancouver.

Shark - I think the operative question here is.... after this long vacation, do you still remember where you live and how to get back there?? 😆 We leave Sunday and board the Odyssey on Tuesday. We just bit on an offer today to upgrade our V1 cabin to one of the aft view penthouse spa suites. Now I'm REALLY counting the days until we board....

Appreciate the thread Shark. 👍 We're flying to Vancouver on the 4th and boarding the Odyssey on the 6th.