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Gourmet Gal

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Everything posted by Gourmet Gal

  1. That was the in-jet, in-house champagne on my last Four Seasons Jet Experience in 2023. Tasty indeed! All 25 days of it. 😋
  2. Everyone’s palate is different. Some people really like it. It seemed a little sour to me and I preferred the Pommery on past cruises. For reference at home we drink Laurent Perrier Rose for an NV.
  3. Thanks, I tried that and it wasn't working for me. Perhaps because I was on an iPad? Anyway, thanks for the fix!
  4. It was Duval Leroy and definitely not to my liking. Had it with caviar on our first day and I suspect it triggered a migraine. My husband didn’t care for it either and he’s not too choosy at all! Anyway, we never finished the bottle and skipped champagne for the rest of the cruise. There was no Pommery or Monopole available when I enquired and we don’t care enough about it to pay the upcharge. BTW, the caviar wasn’t great either. Really bland and the accompaniments seemed like they’d been sitting too long and were dried out.
  5. Sorry. I wrote it up as a document and pasted it and couldn’t get the font resized here. You can zoom I guess. I’ve also submitted it in the review section so that should be up soon.
  6. The upcharge for the F1 was comparable to booking it through a third party like Senate Grand Prix. We were in the Caravelles building with catering all day. In general F1 is so popular right now the prices have really gone up. Yes, too late for anti-virals but he’s feeling better now and overall it was milder than his first bout which he also contracted on a cruise.
  7. Just back and finally able to compile my notes. We booked this cruise solely for the access to the race and it was certainly the highlight of the trip. Unfortunately, our other overall impressions were not as positive as we’d hoped for and we were left with a diminished opinion of SS. Read on for details and I’m happy to answer any questions. My DH and I booked this cruise as a Door to Door all-inclusive package. The D2D pricing included air fare, transfers and hotels at each end. We upgraded the air to business class and were pleased with the nonstop flights to Rome and from Barcelona. We ended up dropping the Barcelona hotel after SS changed it to an inferior conference-type property. We instead booked Hotel Neri in the Gothic District and booked all Barcelona transfers with them. The journey started happily with a prompt pickup from Blacklane. Driver was professional and friendly and the large SUV was roomy and clean. The United flight was one of the better international flights we’ve taken lately. Crew was excellent and meal was not as bad as is typically the case. We arrived in Rome in the afternoon and the SS driver was waiting for us. The vehicle, a Mercedes van, was rather rundown and not the cleanest but we were happy that things were going smoothly. That is until we arrived at the SS hotel, the Bernini Bristol. The staff were helpful and friendly but the rooms were small, dark, dirty and the bathrooms and some hallways smelled of sewage. There was some sort of insect biting me at night and some of our fellow travelers did not have A/C. Service from housekeeping was poor. The included breakfast was bland, low quality. We heard about several people with diarrhea/vomiting and while waiting for a taxi in front of the hotel we witnessed a guest vomiting in the gutter. Seemed possible there was some sort of illness on the premises. We were seriously disappointed in the poor accommodations and felt insulted we had to endure the three days here. There were no other rooms available. The only positive other than nice staff was the great location of the hotel so we were able to spend as much time as possible away from the property. On embarkation day the transfer to the dock was chaotic, slow and running very late. There were several busses departing the hotel and ours was packed. Already we noticed people coughing so we wore masks the entire way. Couldn’t help but wonder how some of the clearly sick passengers were going to answer the health questionnaire. Otherwise embarkation process was smooth but the soonest we could make it to lunch was well after 3:00 PM. Not a great start considering we paid such a premium for D2D. The ship appeared to be in good condition with some worn carpets and furniture but everything was very clean. There was a constant vibration allover the ship but especially in the bow and aft. Our mid-ship Verandah Suite was roomy enough and had great storage but the TV and interactive system were flukey and annoying to use. Our butler Anoop and attendant Thida were so nice, welcoming and helpful. They were both always smiling. We found the food and service all over the map in the various venues and even on different nights in the same venues. Silver Note was our favorite for dinner and we dined there twice. The musical duo was good but food and service were great. Unfortunately we witnessed an ugly dressing down of our server by a manager in full view of us. We didn’t understand why as we had no problem with the server but he was shaken and not himself after that. We saw him the next night in our second favorite venue, Indochine and he seemed to have recovered - as wonderful as ever. Atlantide was the worst for breakfast and dinner with extremely slow service and inconsistent food quality. The Grill was consistently terrible food-wise and they seemed to have the most inexperienced, unfriendly servers. La Terazza pastas were surprisingly poor quality with the same bland marinara showing up in multiple dishes. Service was generally good. On the breakfast buffet fresh berries disappeared after a few days but otherwise there weren’t many variations and baked goods were a weak spot. Seishen was so bad for lunch we canceled our dinner reservation there. The sushi was extremely poor quality - even my local grocery store has better sushi. La Dame was very nice and we enjoyed our meal there. We had the Rougie foie gras which I’d never had but I’ve heard raves about. It was actually more like foie gras flavored butter - not much actual foie gras. Pretty tasteless. The ambiance in La Dame was lovely and we enjoyed the quiet venue though our server was one of the least friendly onboard. The included wines here were adequate. We also enjoyed the Arts Cafe and Dolce Vita. In general, the food quality seemed diminished from our last cruise in 2022. Wines seemed about the same, some good but none great unless we upgraded. Couldn’t drink the new included champagne at all. Entertainment was good, not quite great but we appreciated how friendly the performers were on tours with us, especially Beatrice - she’s a future cruise director in the making. Some of the musicians were great, especially Chayan - we followed him all over the ship to hear him. Excursions were of mixed quality and for the most part there was a fair amount of disorganization. They were often late and the busses were packed. We booked a combination of included and select excursions and some of our included ones ended up being select but SS honored our booking terms. The guides were adequate to poor and the entire excursion experience became so tedious we turned in the tickets for the last two stops outside of Monaco. There we purchased the SS Apartment package for the Grand Prix races and it turned out we had the best package of all those offered with an incredible view of over half the track, start/finish line, pits, podium and harbor. This was the best organized of all the excursions and well worth the substantial up-charge. Otherwise it doesn’t seem SS has their act together related to most excursions and if I were to cruise with them again I would book without included excursions and book independently. We noticed more and more coughing as the cruise progressed and despite our best efforts my DH also succumbed and began coughing towards the end of the cruise. Sure enough, once we got home and he was feeling even worse he tested positive for Covid. Miscellaneous notes: We never saw the captain and the cruise director was endlessly having to make additional announcements to correct himself and I saw him only once off-stage. On the two sea days I took Spanish and Italian classes just as a little brush up and they were really not very useful at all and poorly organized. I canceled all our spa appointments after visiting the spa on embarkation day to reconfirm and the spa director tried to upsell me by stating thar my 50 minute massages were not really full-body, only back and neck. Never heard that before and it didn’t jive with the written descriptions. Standard WiFi was super slow. My DH purchased the upgrade and didn’t have too many issues but we couldn’t share it simultaneously so I was stuck on slow speed. Now that we’re home and can consider this cruise in it’s entirety we have no desire to cruise with SS again. Just too many negatives. We canceled a 2026 Japan cruise and if we cruise again we’ll be looking at alternatives, probably Ritz Carlton and Four Seasons. In the meantime we’ll be substituting our Japan cruise with a private land-based package.
  8. Interesting, what makes you think fares will go down? Seems to me the only way they would adjust the fares is if demand decreases.
  9. One difference between those hotel chains and SS is that if something does go wrong they’ll bend over backwards to make it right for you. That used to happen on SS but there are many recent examples of corporate indifference and employees not having authority, motivation or the ingenuity to be responsive.
  10. Thanks for the balanced and informative review. I can tell that you put much thought into your observations and you truthfully presented positives and negatives. Unfortunately the negatives reflect many of the same observations reported by others across the fleet and including on Nova and including reviews from longterm SS cruisers. Many of the ships are receiving very mixed reviews especially in the last 9 months or so. It seems the RCI culture has fully infiltrated SS and turned it into something difficult to really categorize as luxury anymore. I will soon have my own review of a recent cruise on Spirit to post and had many similar experiences to yours.
  11. Looking2Cruise are you an influencer or TA? I also find it unusual that you submitted your review to the cruise line before posting it here. Or perhaps you’re an attorney?
  12. Most concerning that the launch of Nova as a new generation ship and the newest vessel did not include attention to service, food and wine quality. SS had a chance to put their best foot forward and really impress but the result seems to be muddled and underwhelming.
  13. Well, the decision has been made now that my DH has tested positive for Covid. This is the second cruise he’s contracted Covid and luckily he’s not very sick this time. He developed a cough in the last few days of the cruise - there were more and more coughing people onboard as the cruise progressed, unmasked and not even covering their coughs. There were some people who clearly embarked with some sort of illness and obviously were not truthful on the health questionnaire. We masked when concerned about the amount of sick people around us and we both had Covid boosters several weeks before. Disappointing. I think we’re done with cruising.
  14. The included excursion quality has indeed diminished. On my recent Spirit Med cruise the best included excursions that I had booked were changed to select excursions carrying a charge. My zero charge was grandfathered in but still, those excursions were only marginally better. The quality of tour guides was inconsistent and busses were full. One of the select excursions I booked was a cooking class in Trapani for $300 per person and it was almost torture. The couscous dish was one nobody would ever cook and the accompanying lunch was just okay but with very poor service. It all took place at a winery and the wines were not explained at all. If I ever book again with SS I’ll do so w/o “included” excursions. I don’t think they can properly execute the program anymore.
  15. Yes, as mentioned it is frustrating there is an offer to book another “similar” itinerary but no details. I booked before a more than 30% increase on my Japan cruise and the 15% “discount” is not an incentive to rebook. In fact it is yet another incentive to delete SS from all my future travel plans. They promote cruises by encouraging to book before fares increase, cancel said cruise and then squeeze out a higher fare anyway if you choose to rebook. Original fares should be honored and prorated if the replacement cruise is shorter or longer.
  16. The new replacement cruise has not yet been posted but all the others in that general time frame are now waitlisted. The replacement cruise is still planned for Japan Cherry Blossom time so the entire region has not be eliminated. I had booked a hard-to-get aft suite because of booking early but now, even if I wanted to rebook the choices may be limited. Anyway, we may just book a private tour of some new-to-us Japanese cities and sites. There are nice options that don’t include cruising.
  17. Just received a notice that this cruise is canceled and there is a replacement cruise offered at 15% discount but the original cruise had a huge fare increase after we booked. Of course the details are not presented in the notification so am awaiting more info. All I know now is the replacement cruise is one day shorter with a similar itinerary on the same ship. We’re just off the Spirit and after that experience we were considering canceling the Japan cruise anyway and would have lost our deposit. Now if we opt for the refund we lose nothing. It’s tempting to take the money and run but I want to have all the details. Will follow up here if anyone is interested.
  18. This is all encouraging feedback. On land I much prefer FS and resent the constant “nickel and diming” at RC. It seems though the upcoming FS yacht will be operated more like a floating hotel so my first thought is that compared to typical cruising then the FS product may not be as good a value. Any feedback regarding value as a cruise product at RC?
  19. Quite a bit of speculation here. Does anyone really have the scoop? All that matters now is that SS is clearly not what it used to be and future actions by the company will determine if it is a blip or the new reality. I’m on Spirit right now and while it’s not a disaster, things do feel different. I have a few more days to go and I want to digest it all and will write a review or post some observations soon after. I am planning to try RC or FS on my next cruise, though.
  20. You might do a further search here in the Ports of Call forum. There are many threads.
  21. Gourmet Gal

    changes?

    Supposedly none onboard Spirit now.
  22. You would definitely need more sampling to determine if French labor laws are creating a deficit in service. You may also be making some assumptions. Staffing levels may vary by ship and the hotel managers may be more creative with covering each venue. And personally, I don’t care if there’s no staff to “greet” me nor does 5 minutes seem like a long time for a plate to be cleared.
  23. Gourmet Gal

    changes?

    The new champagne is nothing special.
  24. Welcome to SS. The Moon is a lovely ship. My must do can be done on most ships and that’s a visit to the observation lounge during the morning sail-in. The SALT cooking classes are a nice activity as well. Th excursion groups seem to be at least 20 on my current voyage on Spirit and yesterday 2 bus groups converged on a winery for a tasting with about 50 people. Honestly, the excursions are hit or miss. You may want to read the descriptions carefully and perhaps choose a few and then book a few on your own. The ships are small so the Roll Calls are usually rather limited so you may not get the chance to share an excursion. Enjoy your cruise!
  25. The point about timing and distances is valid. We’re on Spirit right now and I have a feeling that in most ports we’ll not be docked so departure times are 30-45 minutes in advance of the published tour times. So far after 2 ports there seems to be poor logistics. Everything is running late related to included excursions. If you book independently you will not be able to catch the tender until the first excursions have departed. You’ll have to just bully yourself onto the tender. With the new pricing structure it’s tempting to just book without excursions.
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