Sea Dream I - Dover to Lisbon - Aug 30 - Sept 10, 2014

You certainly will have a great day, tomorrow, Vandrefalk. Mt St Michel is amazing. We also liked Jersey, and did it on our own.

 

Sudesh, wow! That's unusual. Lucky you. I hope that you can talk him into that chef's tour - it shouldn't be too difficult.

 

Thanks for reporting in and dealing with that pesky internet. Sounds like you were tenacious.

 

Enjoy and know that we are all living vicariously through you. What a great itinerary.

Sudesh is our favorite chef of them all. A Chef's tour with him would be the best. Thanks for the update.

Thanks for battling the internet war to post for us vandrefalk!!:p!!

Can't wait to the see the change in the Salon when we sail in January:D

You will love Mont St Michel!!

Please give our best to the crew.

Looking forward to more reports:cool:

Bay of Biscay weather looks amazingly good for the next 2 days. Hope all is well on board. Keep those cards & letters coming.:D

Vandrefalk - Please tell Rutzie and Brenda that we said ,"Hello" and think of them often. May see them in Dec. if we are on the same ship.

Can't wait to read more. Hope the internet gods are with you:) And hope the seas smooth soon. The Thai massage therapists have such a tough time with rough seas. You have the rock star crew. Our chef walk with Sudesh was one of our best vacation memories ever - ever. And Rutzie is so talented in addition to being a sweetheart.

Have fun and please don't break any bones, Vandrefalk :)

Vandrefalk and whatnot, you have a superstar crew on your cruise! Say hi to all familiar faces from both of us.

Your itinerary is amazing - so wish we had been able to join you but am hoping that temperamental internet settles down so we can continue to live vicariously through your reports while you are all still on board!

Am laughing out loud at FT's advice not to break any bones!!! Good advice. :D

Have not broken anything yet!! Cruise is lovely and weather is starting to warm up

. My St Michel was great but a big climb! Belle Isle was cute -- we managed a trip to a lovely hotel for oysters and wine. Tomorrow is La Richelle. More details when I can get to the computer as I 'm doing this from the IPhone.

Vandrefalk

Sorry for the typos!

Have not broken anything yet!! Cruise is lovely and weather is starting to warm up

. My St Michel was great but a big climb! Belle Isle was cute -- we managed a trip to a lovely hotel for oysters and wine. Tomorrow is La Richelle. More details when I can get to the computer as I 'm doing this from the IPhone.

Vandrefalk

Sorry for the typos!

I hope you knocked on wood after posting this:p

Thanks so much for checking in!

Belle Isle was cute -- we managed a trip to a lovely hotel for oysters and wine.

!

Vandrefalk, it sounds like you did this trip on your own. Three years ago this was an excursion offered by SD. Were you out on a balcony over a river or lake? I recall this as being an absolutely delightful afternoon.

Zimmy, we did do it on our own. SD had a tour around the island, but we wouldn't have gotten back til 7:30pm! The tour/port agent put it together for us and we went to Castel Clara -- a Relaix & Chateau hotel overlooking the sea. Just beautiful! And the oysters were outstanding!

Today was La Rochelle -- we opted not to do the tour to Cognac and went into town. Saw the market -- very cool! And just wandered around. The industrial port is quite some distance from the old port so they are running shuttle buses. DH is quite excited that we can see old German submarine pens from the ship. Unfortunately, someone is also loading grain in the port and there is dust evrywhere!

Weather is warming up and is quite nice, if a bit breezy. Tomorrow is Medoc and a tour if the vineyards.

Everyone is enjoying the cruise!!

Vandrefalk

Sounds wonderful vandrefalk! Loved the FB photo of you, DH and whatnot enjoying the market.

Glad to hear everyone is enjoying the cruise and the weather is cooperating!

Three days, no news. They are either having too much fun or the internet has taken another hike. Hope all is well on board.:D

OK, OK, Jim -- I am back. We were just having too much fun!! The internet is actually working quite well. After La Rochelle, we were in Medoc. Did the ship's tour and saw some of the countryside and went to Chateau Phelan Segur, where we had some quite assertive Cabernet blends. One of our group bought a couple of bottles -- and we have ham, cheese, and fois gras from other locations, so plan an alfresco snack tomorrow! San Sebastian was wonderful! The buildings lining the water front hide the fantastic architecture and wide boulevards behind! Whatnot arranged a wonderful tour of tapas tasting -- pintxos in Basque. We went to about five delightful little places and had such things as shrimp on skewers, beef, cheese, etc. All washed down with great wine! In Santander we took the ships tour to a well preserved midieval village called Santillana del Mar -- most buildings were 12th, 14th and 15th centuries. Today is a sea day -- grey and cloudy. We had a lightening storm last night which was quite spectacular. And this morning there was a huge pod of dolphins off the starboard side.

Tomorrow is Vigo, Spain -- then Porto, Portugal -- and then Lisbon, where they throw us off. :mad: We have been particulary lucky with seas -- smooth with only a few swells. All is good!!

May not post again til we are home -- and expect Cole and Whatnot will post their impressions as well. All in all, it has been a GREAT cruise and, as always, I will hate to get off. At least I have two more to look forward to next year -- albeit they are on SD2. Fortunately, I love the crew on both ships!!

Vandrefalk

Thanks for the update. So glad the weather cooperated.

Some final thoughts!

We are home and pretty much over the jet lag. The day at sea was pretty miserable. But the next day, we saw not only dolphins but whales!! Several sightings. I was surprised there were whales in that part of the Med, but apparently it isn't unusual. What a treat!

Vigo was the tour to Bayona -- a lovely little town with an impressive parador (Spanish hotel). Beautiful views and a lovely wine tasting. Porto was interesting -- after I saw all the hills in the old town, I was pretty sure I didn't want to go back and wander around! We had a nice boat trip on the Douro and then a very interesting tour and tasting at one of the port wineries.

It was pouring rain in Lisbon. They had to debark us from Deck 4 -- not sure if it had anything to do with the fact that the gangway had fallen into the water the day before -- the tides were so extreme when docked, that we would leave in the morning having to climb UP the gangway to the dock! When they tried to bring it onboard the last night, it fell in the water and one crewman was injured. Saw him the next morning and the doctor had taken good care of him. The crew got the luggage off in record time and got it under cover in the terminal. Unfortunately, it was a long walk for us to the terminal and even though they gave us umbrellas, my tote was completely soaked by the time we got there. There was also a subway strike, so cabs were non-existent! We finally managed to get all our group to the hotel and had to wait a couple of hours before our rooms were ready. Rain finally eased up and we went for a nice lunch -- several of our group had hamburgers with bacon, cheese and a fried egg! :eek: Manuel had recommended a restaurant in the old town for dinner, but with the weather, we opted for a really nice place nearby. Wonderful fish!

Trip home was fine -- though others in the group had some issues.

So -- ship looks pretty good, although there were some issues with electricity and water in some cabins. Food was wonderful, except for one night when the advertised rib-eye was anything but. I'm not an expert on beef cuts (other than filet!), but even I thought it tasted more like a tough strip steak.

Crew is incomparable, as always -- that's what keeps us coming back. Rutzie did her show and was outstanding, as always. Zimmy -- your DH should have been there! Once again, I got commandeered to sing "My Way" with her!

While on board, I found out that my October cruise (Rome-Barcelona-Lisbon) has a group of 97 booked for the first week! :eek::eek::eek: I've now switched over to SD I for the same time period for Athens-Istanbul-Athens. So one trip on SD 2 and one on SD 1 for next year!

So, all in all, another great cruise.

Vandrefak

Thanks for the wonderful review, Vandrefalk, and for making us feel like we were sailing with you. My DH would have loved to be there singing with you and Rutzie.

A group of 97? And they didn't just consider it a charter? That is so wrong. I'm glad that you found out in time before you had air booked, and that you found another voyage.

Thanks V. Always like your reviews. I agree with Zimmy, a group of 97 is a Charter! If I were one of the ones sold the few remaining cabins, I would be most annoyed. Glad you found out in advance. Did you ask or was the info volunteered?

Vandrefalk: Now that you mention it, I seem to remember that we used Deck 4 to get off the ship somewhere, and it could have been Lisbon. Probably had to do with the height of the dock compared to the water level. I thought it interesting that we had to do that. But we have sailed into Lisbon twice, and I only remember doing it once. Or maybe some of those dead brain cells would have remembered doing it again.

And thanks for the encouragement for my wonderful singing voice. I sang with Rutzie in Norway and we drew a huge crowd. Truth be told, we also had a professional singer on the bill that night. After she sang, I channeled Al Jolson and told the audience they ain't heard nothing yet. And that is what they were going to get from me - - nothing. DW tells me that if I do this again, I really ought to learn the words. If we didn't get 50% off our cruise fare for singing, I'm not sure I would do it. I'm still looking forward to when we can sing together, dear.

Zimmy's DH

Jim, Miami notified my TA, who notified me while still on board. Hayden (CAD) tried to get more info and understood I wanted to finalize with my TA in order to preserve discounts I got last fall on the Costa Rica cruise. All has worked out well and while I think my DH will enjoy the new itinerary more than I will, it still leaves a couple of western Med cruises to do in the future!

Zimmy's DH -- I have heard you sing (and heard about Norway :)) and I know how good you are! One of these days we'll both join Rutzie! Also glad to hear you get the same discount as I do :D

Vandrefalk

Thanks for another great review vandrefalk!

Wish we could have seen your performance ... One of these days we will cruise together!

I've been planning to post my final impressions but LIFE JUST GETS In THE WAY! But I'm finally there!

Vandrefalk did a fabulous job of reporting for the cruise as always! I will add a few things.

THE GOOD THINGS:

Crew: Outstanding! Can't imagine there are any better crews anywhere than on SD I and SDII.

Service: Excellent as always!

Food and Drink: Again top notch! Sudesh is #1! Love Manuel at the bar!

Captain: Really liked Capt. Ericksen. He's really a neat guy. Even Brian, the waiter said "He's cool".

Ports: They were very good. Enjoyed all of them.

Passengers: We had a great time with our group of ten, but we also enjoyed meeting lots of other interesting people.

THE NOT SO GOOD THINGS!

LARGE GROUP: There was a large group of 30 some people. They did not take over the yacht and were not obnoxious. The issue was that they did all private tours with their own tour guide. Therefore, some days no ships tours had enough people for any tour to go and other days only one tour went. We all made it work by using local cabs, etc. I had just never seen this happen before and I think there were some frustrated people who could not go on the tour they wanted.

CONDITION OF THE YACHT: Frankly it was hard to believe SD I had been into dry dock in May. Sure there was new decor in the Salon and flat screen TV's and new glass doors in the staterooms, but that was about it. I have been a Sea Dream cheerleader for quite a few years but my DH and I are beginning to have great concerns after this trip. The air conditioning was nonexistent at times. You could turn it all the way down to the coolest possible and the temperature was the highest possible. When you complained and they decided to turn it on again, you had these little black specks of something that fell out of the ceiling air vents onto the white bedspread and the coffee table top. They would stain your clothes or the bedspread, etc. When you complained about the stuff coming out of the air vents, then you had no air conditioning! This happened to almost all of our group. Then we awoke one morning to no electricity in our room. Had to go report it and after an hour or so we got electricity again. Another day the sofa lights would flicker off and on so we had to get them to work on that. Our friend was getting ready to get in the shower and the water quit. They had to have that worked on.

I love Sea Dream but these issues are not what you should have to endure on a luxury cruise line. We did not book another cruise while on board. That is a first. One reason was our concerns about the condition of the yachts and the other was that there really wasn't a cruise that we just had to book (the one I wanted was chartered!)

We will look at future schedules and keep reading these boards to see what the future brings as far as solutions to our concerns.

Just catching up on this board again and saw your reviews, Vandrefalk & whatnot.

Thanks for your honest and well balanced reviews of your cruise. It really is ashame that the ship's overall condition was not representative of the same level of excellence as that of the Capt., chef, (Sudesh!), CAD, and the rest of the crew. They all strive to do their very best to make sure all passengers on board are safe and feel special - like it is "their" yacht.

Unfortunately, it sounds like the issues going on with the ship were in direct contrast to the outstanding service, which is surprising given that SD1 did just have a recent dry dock "makeover." Nice to have some cosmetic upgrades, yes, but the AC, water, and electricity issues you mention are definitely serious problems that need to be addressed.

Anyway, thanks for both of your reviews. Always enjoy reading them.