A tale of two cruises...

We are about to leave for Barcelona where we will embark Sojourn on August 11th. Having spent 26 nights on Sojourn in March '14, I know that I will be comparing. And when I disembark, I will be boarding Crystal, so I know I will be comparing. Please, no apples and oranges comments as I am aware of the essential differences between itineraries, travel seasons and the 2 lines.

My intent is to post only my onboard experiences. I respect that others on board may have varying experiences and opinions, either about the current cruise or those past on the line.

We are sailing with a positive attitude [and strong hopes that that large group will have disembarked in BCN]. In a lighter mood, if you hear someone advocating everyone experience the 8 course midnight veranda dinner, say hi.

Paula

Have a wonderful trip, Paula. I look forward to whatever post.

We're doing a very similar itinerary in September. Will look forward to your posts!

PaulaK,

Yea! Thanks for posting onboard. We love the Sojourn but are not able to cruise right now so look forward to hearing all about your trip. Hope the large group is on their way home when you board.

We are about to leave for Barcelona where we will embark Sojourn on August 11th. Having spent 26 nights on Sojourn in March '14, I know that I will be comparing. And when I disembark, I will be boarding Crystal, so I know I will be comparing. Please, no apples and oranges comments as I am aware of the essential differences between itineraries, travel seasons and the 2 lines.

 

My intent is to post only my onboard experiences. I respect that others on board may have varying experiences and opinions, either about the current cruise or those past on the line.

 

We are sailing with a positive attitude [and strong hopes that that large group will have disembarked in BCN]. In a lighter mood, if you hear someone advocating everyone experience the 8 course midnight veranda dinner, say hi.

 

Paula

Have you sailed Crystal prior to the all inclusive change? If so can you compare to the post all inclusive? When I sailed them they weren't all inclusive and there was a good 1/3 of the staff that would do zero work until the last few days at which point they'd attempt to be your very best friend in order to get a nice tip.

Let us know how that 8 course verandah midnight dinner works out ;)

Could you let us know which company the large party was, if you find out, please?

I forgot to ask aside from the pre-post inclusive question - which Crystal ship? Im not that familiar with the product anymore. I think the non-Symphony ship has the newer/more features.

The Serenity is the newer ship. For one thing it has Tastes, a terrific alternative dining option which the Symphony currently does not.

Have a great time, Paula. We are booked on the Crystal Serenity in March, and like you, were on segments of the Sojourn's World Cruise earlier this year. So comparisons are on my agenda. We've also done 2 crossings on the QMII during the interim, and just this week booked one segment on the QMII's world cruise for next year, after Crystal. Again, have a great time.

My mother-in-law is a Crystal convert. She sailed only Seaborne and Silverseas, too many to count, and tried Crystal - and has been too enamored to return to Seabourne or Silversea. She has many reasons, but the main reason is the variety of activities. She has done a handful of dancing cruises and is very active - much more so than I or my partner care to be on a cruise. So whatever floats your boat. For her, it's Crystal, and based on how she describes you, you will have an absolutely wonderful time.

We disembarked Sojourn this morning, having enjoyed a very nice cruise. Continuing pax were still recoiling from and recounting the horrors of the previous cruise passengers. We had a lovely group w the majority being from UK,USA and Australia.w a mixture of Japanese, Spanish et al. There were a # of children from toddler to late teens??pretty reasonable group w some youth activities held in card room.

Our weather..Barcelona to Athens was very good but still I was surprised at the number of pax who chose patio or Colonnade for dinner..also a lot of room service dinners. Graeme was the chef . Cuisine was pretty much unchanged from previous cruises except for the last2 lunches which had Greek items...and a relative absence of Asian cuisine. They have stopped putting the basic menus on the inside tables but continue to have them on the outer deck. There also is the addition of a young woman who greets you upon entering the MDR while Nick looks on/ dinner.

The MDR was closed for lunch for all days but one..the day at sea. Folks seem to love this pTio and Colonnade dining but I will not sail again under this arrangement.

The entertainment was weak except for the on deck parties. The shows were weak. A guitarist played in the Club until the band joined after the show. This made the Club very dull. The pianist in Observation was excellent..David

They did have marina day.....no Galley lunch..but most other features seemed present.

A ..for staff attitude and efforts to please, cleanliness of the ship, palpable desire to make you happy, pleasantness of staff

B..for cuisine, especially the lack of zip

C/D entertainment..

F for closure of MDR for lunch

Thanks for your posts, Paula. Interesting reading. Will you have the time to write up a full review?

-We had a well attended & jolly block party on our deck which SB is now terming their signature event

-There is a new and charmingly animated new ACD Jacqueline

-The entertainment cast seemed good at the 2 on deck dance pArties...so I am assuming that it is the actual productions that were quite disappointing

-Apparently they anticipated that a # would not go into Rome as they had the bridge and galley tours on those days.

-marina day in the last, little known Greek port and caviar by the pool.

-no galley lunch

-Their movie under the stArs was Mamma Mia.....ouch

-The steel is not yet cut for the new ship

-kids program w counselor a..thru the cArd room

-beautifully cared for my his family toddler on deck 8..but not certain how many 3 chair wide inflatable pools...filled daily by staff..can be managed.

-heard rumors that SB may affiliate w Cunard

-room service menu has not changed and needs to

HMO..this itinerary beds to be tweaked so that you do. It hVe to rush back for a 5:30 on board in Rome and can spend 2 days in Sorrento

Hi Paula, I'm looking forward to your posts and hope you are having a great time so far. From my previous posts you know that I too was VERY disappointed that the MDR was closed for lunch on the Sojourn. BTW if you go to their website and look under dining, they advertise that The Restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I'm really interested in your dining experiences on the second cruise. Did you choose the dinner by reservations option? I will be sailing for the first time on Crystal in 2015 and am a bit concerned about the need to choose before hand and how that compares to Seabourn. Is there an upscale lunch time dining choice available?

Happy sailing.

Seabourn used to be affiliated with Cunard. They are now affiliated with Holland America Line.

Thanks ,Dan....on this cruise I heard from an officer that they may return to Cunard....no knowledge of the accuracy of this.

Not only do they /SB/advertise that 8course dinner at midnight on your veranda, but yes, even the welcoming paper upon boarding stAtes that the MDR is open for B,L & D but in fact it was open 8-9am for several B and only one ---the sea day---for lunch. As I don't enjoy buffets, both food ,noise and all the jumping around by pax and staff, this will probably be a deal breaker for us. We are thinking of can calling our Jan sailing (a staff member told me that because there were more sea days it probably would be open more---and we took no options on future cruises,

Love the. Crew/staff and spirit but I think that it may be time for us to try another line.Ultimately, it's a lot of $ to be dissatisfied.

Hi, Paula, I'm also very interested in your comparisons. My first ever cruise was Crystal several years ago and I adored it. Taking my first Seabourn in June right after (and I mean, the same day of disembarkment) a Holland America cruise. We're in a low verandar oom on Seabourn and a Neptune Suite on Holland, so it'll be an interesting comparison between these and my memories of Crystal. Looking forward to reading more! Have fun. :)

Seabourn used to be affiliated with Cunard. They are now affiliated with Holland America Line.

I wonder what switching from the HAL umbrella back under the Cunard umbrella would do.

Hi Paula, I'm looking forward to your posts and hope you are having a great time so far. From my previous posts you know that I too was VERY disappointed that the MDR was closed for lunch on the Sojourn. BTW if you go to their website and look under dining, they advertise that The Restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

 

I'm really interested in your dining experiences on the second cruise. Did you choose the dinner by reservations option? I will be sailing for the first time on Crystal in 2015 and am a bit concerned about the need to choose before hand and how that compares to Seabourn. Is there an upscale lunch time dining choice available?

Happy sailing.

Crystal is a great product and very comparable to Seabourn except on a larger ship. We always do dining by reservation and they are very accommodating if you want to change the time. One plus for Crystal is that their main dining room is always open for lunch and the food is excellent. In our opinion the food is better than Seabourn. For example, you never see fresh oysters on Seabourn, but if they are obtainable, Crystal will have them. One downside for Crystal are the smaller cabins. Overall, both lines are very good. Hopefully Seabourn will get its act together and keep the main dining room open for lunch like a five star line should.

Crystal is a great product and very comparable to Seabourn except on a larger ship. We always do dining by reservation and they are very accommodating if you want to change the time. One plus for Crystal is that their main dining room is always open for lunch and the food is excellent. In our opinion the food is better than Seabourn. For example, you never see fresh oysters on Seabourn, but if they are obtainable, Crystal will have them. One downside for Crystal are the smaller cabins. Overall, both lines are very good. Hopefully Seabourn will get its act together and keep the main dining room open for lunch like a five star line should.

Crystal is a good product but it has it's own faults. The dining by reservation doesn't work well when the ship is fully, or almost fully booked. Our experience two years ago when we sailed Crystal on a 19 day trip in August. They couldn't accommodate changes too reservations unless you were happy to eat at 9 or 9.15pm, which we were not happy to do. So dining with others was not the easy experience we had enjoyed with Seabourn.

To complicate matters they sometimes changed the show time from to shows to one show at 7.30pm which was our preferred dining time we had selected months prior. Therefore we missed the show. Sometimes it didn't matter but in the Emerging Artist's Program there was some I really wanted to see.

Friends who travelled later in the season on a November sailing when the ship was sailing just over half full had no problem with Dining by Reservation as they were able to accommodate them easily. Therefore they were much happier with the Crystal product.

So each line has it's own problems.

Julie

The suggestion if accurate that responsiblilty for Seabourn might pass to Cunard from HAL doesn't give a lot of confidence that Carnival's management yet know what to do with Seabourn as apart from economies of scale through group buying power Seabourn with its current place in the cruise market doesn't fit naturally under HAL or Cunard - maybe they think that because of Cunard's grill class its a better fit than with HAL. In the last 4 years Seabourn has moved from a stand alone brand based in Florida to being under the wing of HAL in Seattle and now if true could end up with Cunard under I thing P&O Uk's management in the UK

No one sails on Seabourn for the shows.

If the rumor here is true- that Cunard takes on Seabourn "because" of Cunard's grill class- I hope that Cunard's management has some new visionaries at the helm. And I would like to know who they are.

Firstly, Seabourn is a great product and I still think some of the HAL management are coping with the differences with their mass market brand product and a true luxury brand. Maybe because of the relative sophistication and willingness to criticise, Seabourn's loyal cohort has probably rocked the HAL boat often enough to get its management wondering about its own capabilities.

And then there is Cunard, a mass market line but with its grill class, and traditions that includes a quasi class system embodies in separate dining rooms and cabin characteristics. Very different from HAL but in the grill class comparable to what Seabourn offers as far as the grill cabins and grill dining rooms are concerned.

My problem with the idea of Cunard taking over from HAL is about management vision. I am not at all sure whom at Cunard gets Seabourn. When I was on a QM2 crossing last year and in the grill class, its officers failed to host a welcome party for the grill class- as had been a tradition in earlier years. What did they do? They offered a mass party to meet the captain for everybody at 8:15 pm which I was told was convenient for them, the first seating people and the second seating people. That was that. So the 400 or so grill class people would have to eat early or late to accommodate that nonsense schedule of theirs and join the 2000 strong queue. HA, just ridiculous!

So as I said above, it's about vision and inspired management. It will be interesting to see this unfold. Unless of course it doesn't.

Happy sailing!

After Carnival Corp bought Cunard in 1998 they merged Cunard and Seabourn. In 2002 Seabourn was put under Holland America but with separate operations center in Miami. In 2011 the Seabourn operations center in Miami was closed and operations transferred to Holland America headquarters in Seattle.

Would be interesting, but do not think short term realistic, if put Seabourn back with Cunard after not working last time.....