Current Sojourn staff

....... In the Colonnade there is a casual attitude regarding service. Groups of servers form in different areas and carry on conversations. They would of course jump to attention and disperse the moment an officer walked in. We even witnessed one server hide a plate full of desserts in a chafing dish when the buffet was being broken down. His teammates seemed very amused by this act.

I completely agree with your impressions of the food and service in the Colonnade. I was on the Sojourn a few weeks ago, and was also disappointed with both the service and the quality of the food in the Colonnade. I also noticed the "casual attitude" of the waiters. Too many times, we needed to flag down the waiter to get service or refills of wine, coffee. Service was not attentive much of the time. The Patio Grill wasn't a lot better, and the food selection there at lunchtime was limited. This was my first time on Seabourn, and I was not entirely impressed.

Sorry to hear two reports on less than satisfactory staff on Sojourn. We have cruised Sojourn 2 or 3 times; always very good staff. We cruised Quest and felt the staff were less good, and didn't somehow 'gel' into working well together. Then on a recent cruise on Quest the staff were wonderful (well maybe one rather stroppy exception).

It makes sense that some staff work well together and others do not. A lot must depend on the restaurant managers, senior wait staff and also the personalities of the individual staff. Get a few awkward ones on one ship and it can go a bit pear shaped. Unfortunately you cannot know when you book a cruise on whichever ship you will be getting the helpful, sunny tempered staff!

The problem with service in the Colonnande is that the venue lends itself to a more relaxed style unlike the MDR which is obviously a more formal setting.

There is nothing wrong with a more relaxed style as Long as there is still attentive service being offered.

There will always be guests that prefer one style more than the other.

The reason the MDR is sometimes closed is due to certain itineraries,weather and that the colonnade and patio grill are popular places to eat at lunchtime.

There is no cutting back of staff as these more popular lunchtime venues absorb the staff that would be serving in the MDR anyway.

Frankly, these comments about both the food and service in the Colonnade are rather schocking......even more so since it is the default dining venue.

Frankly, these comments about both the food and service in the Colonnade are rather schocking......even more so since it is the default dining venue.

I agree. I don't know about you, but on Sojourn in March we found the service in the Colonnade to be excellent. I recall that you had some concerns about the food but I think they were more general concerns about the menus rather than Colonnade specific issues, if I remember rightly.

I know you were onboard longer than us but during our time we found the F&B Manager was usually present during meal service. This clearly made a big difference.

These comments are worrying me, we're booked on Sojourn at Christmas, and are considering a Med cruise in September. It's hard to imagine that things have slipped so much in just a matter of 3 months, but I suppose it really does depend on the mix of crew and officers who are onboard.

Nigella, I agree that in March the service in the Colonnade was very good. Faud[?sp] the officer there was always circulating and the F&B manager was highly visible everywhere. Crew seemed happy,energetic and competent....so I really am quite surprised by these comments. We often enjoyed lunch in the MDR, a leisurely break for my husband and myself as we both still work. We also like the quiet and the service there.

Re: the menu/food---Basically, I am not primarily a buffet diner. Many enjoyed that aspect of the Colonnade. I found many of the chafing dishes of medium quality [such as chewy beef stroganoff] or conceptually odd [fajitas pre made and in a chafing dish]. The pastas are prepared earlier in the day and merely dipped in hot water; some arrive with the cheese already sprinkled on top/airplane style. There was a nice variety of carved meats but most were dried out....and there is only so much rotation of salads in 30 days. The fish of the day was usually excellent.

Poor food and poor service is not consistent with SB....and hopefully this will be corrected immediately. If not, SB will be taking itself out of the highly competitive 'luxury' market as some others ---perhaps pretenders to the category--such as Oceania seem to be receiving excellent reviews, particularly with regard to cuisine. Paula

Nigella, I agree that in March the service in the Colonnade was very good. Faud[?sp] the officer there was always circulating and the F&B manager was highly visible everywhere. Crew seemed happy,energetic and competent....so I really am quite surprised by these comments. We often enjoyed lunch in the MDR, a leisurely break for my husband and myself as we both still work. We also like the quiet and the service there.

 

Re: the menu/food---Basically, I am not primarily a buffet diner. Many enjoyed that aspect of the Colonnade. I found many of the chafing dishes of medium quality [such as chewy beef stroganoff] or conceptually odd [fajitas pre made and in a chafing dish]. The pastas are prepared earlier in the day and merely dipped in hot water; some arrive with the cheese already sprinkled on top/airplane style. There was a nice variety of carved meats but most were dried out....and there is only so much rotation of salads in 30 days. The fish of the day was usually excellent.

 

Poor food and poor service is not consistent with SB....and hopefully this will be corrected immediately. If not, SB will be taking itself out of the highly competitive 'luxury' market as some others ---perhaps pretenders to the category--such as Oceania seem to be receiving excellent reviews, particularly with regard to cuisine. Paula

Thank you for sharing your thoughts further.

We were so impressed with the crew in March. Someone who was doing the WC said that they felt that the mid cruise change of Captain to Mark Dexter made a big difference, in a positive way. I don't know about that, as Captain Dexter had been on board for about three weeks when we boarded in HKG.

Agreed on your final paragraph, we left SS because we felt the food was becoming poor and service was inconsistent. I do hope SB can rectify this situtation very soon.

We were on the Sojourn just two weeks ago and found the service and food in the Colonnade to be very good. In fact, we had more dinners in the Colonnade than the other venues which is different for us than past cruises.

Nigella,

re: the Capt Dexter statement

Perhaps they were referring to crew morale or disciplined service or attitude on board? As we know, the provisions and menus come from corporate.

For all--Why do you think SB decided to discontinue its WC when both Crystal and SS WC'15 are fully booked?

Nigella,

 

re: the Capt Dexter statement

 

Perhaps they were referring to crew morale or disciplined service or attitude on board? As we know, the provisions and menus come from corporate.

 

For all--Why do you think SB decided to discontinue its WC when both Crystal and SS WC'15 are fully booked?

Seabourn make more on selling segments rather than a full world cruise.

More Seabourn guests apparently prefer segments

What Seabourn does and what the other 2 lines do are on different planes and these planes are not parallel. In other words, Seabourn is trying something new and the others are doing what they usually do.

Seabourn is clever in its offering something new and that attracts attention with their shorter 4-6 week segments that the former WC passenger can string together if they like. The other 2 are also offering segments, no doubt.

Another way to look at trends is to ask how many of the 3 lines's usual and new passengers are doing a similar number of weeks. Maybe one company's demographics are doing /asked for shorter cruises than one or both of the others? And how many of the new people have crossed over from the others?

I have never been on SS or Crystal, nor do I intend to bother, partly due to the loyalty benefits and my ongoing satisfaction with Seabourn. But I would like to know about those who formerly were Seabourn world cruisers/multi-segment cruisers going across, why they left, what they expected and what they received.

Wripro often says he goes for the itineraries when he looks at cruise choices. So do I to an extent. But for 2015 and 2016 I am very pleased with Seabourn's itineraries on top of everything else. Consequently we are all booked and it's for a similar number of days compared to past years.

Happy sailing!

Seabourn make more on selling segments rather than a full world cruise.

 

More Seabourn guests apparently prefer segments

That's because some of us still have to go to work, unfortunately :p

Nigella,

 

re: the Capt Dexter statement

 

Perhaps they were referring to crew morale or disciplined service or attitude on board? As we know, the provisions and menus come from corporate.

 

Indeed, Paula. We spoke to a couple of crew members and they both said that Capt Dexter was renowned for running a tight ship, but was very pleasant and fair at the same time.

We were on the Sojourn just two weeks ago and found the service and food in the Colonnade to be very good. In fact, we had more dinners in the Colonnade than the other venues which is different for us than past cruises.

Thank you RNBMN. On Sojourn in March we also found that we dined more in the Colonnade than we had on previous cruises for the same reason.

Nick is now on Viking River Cruises