placesiremember

As noted in my previous thread, I thought the beds were super comfortable

Hi Isklaar! The problem with the two evening shows was that the second show, which fit in with our later dining time as well, was often embarrassingly empty. In fact on our very last night the decision was made to have only one performance at 9:30. It seemed that the majority of passengers wanted very early dining and the 8:45 show.

she would consult a psychiatrist about her identity confusion. “Am I a small ship that has grown too large or am I a big ship pretending to be little? I know I’m supposed to embody luxury, but they keep cutting my costs…who am I, what am I?”

But first an introduction. This was the tenth cruise for Mr R and me; our first was a Silversea cruise back in 2001 that still sets the standard for luxury cruising, at least in our memories. Since then we’ve cruised mostly on Regent and Seabourn with a couple of unhappy attempts at more mass market cruising and one success with the genre on Celebrity (more about that later). After a couple of cold weather, experience-intense voyages to South America (Celebrity) and the Norwegian fjords (Quest) we were much in the mood for warm weather (be careful what you wish for…we had temperatures in the high thirties for most of the cruise and it was 41C when we flew home from Athens) and ports where we could mostly wander around without having to set alarm clocks for early morning excursions.

And so we booked a two-week Mediterranean cruise - or as we soon realised, we actually booked 2 one-week cruises- on the brand new Encore. I started to read some of the more negative reviews and wondered if we’d made a mistake but here in the UK deposits are non-refundable and I can live without a self-service laundry! So we boarded the Encore on 17 June in Athens prepared to love her.

Random thought

It’s difficult not to get caught up in the marketing hype that surrounds luxury cruising. I think that for Seabourn and the other luxury lines, this is sometimes an own goal. Expectations are raised to such a level that passengers are bound to be disappointed because perfection is promised and, of course, is never attainable.

The good things

There is much to criticise about the Encore but to start on a positive note, on the whole this was a very good cruise. Mr R and I thought the food, especially in the main restaurant, was excellent (subjective, I know) and we are fussy about good food. The staff, with rare exceptions, were competent, helpful, cheerful and efficient and made the cruise a pleasure. The beds were wonderfully comfortable, by far the best beds we’ve ever had on a cruise ship, they were up there with the best in luxury hotels.

The not so good things

The suite- We had a V5 midship cabin on deck 6, so the basic suite in a decent location. We knew it would be a bit smaller than the equivalent on the Odyssey ships, but didn’t realise just how much smaller it would feel. As the old joke goes “never mind the quality, feel the width”. Unfortunately, the suite is just a bit too narrow to be comfortable and, if it is going to be so narrow, why put a too shallow to be useful console/ledge on the wall across from the foot of the bed thus creating an annoying bottleneck just wide enough for one average sized person to walk through without turning sideways. Not nice, especially as Mr R and I always seemed to want to walk to and from the entrance/bathroom to the rest of the room at the same time. I quickly developed the “wait in the closet” technique as he passed by.

The passenger number and size of ship – We have happily sailed on Regent’s Voyager and Mariner with 700 passengers so had nothing against trying a Seabourn ship with 600 on board. However…I can’t really explain it but it seemed as though the ship was dimensioned for fewer passengers. I’m not sure why it felt this way as it was generally not too crowded (well the Colonnade got very busy for both breakfast and lunch) but I think it was partly that the theatre is too small for all the passengers (and the two shows a night concept didn’t quite work), partly that the pool/deck area seems just a bit too cramped, and partly that the absolutely absurd “retreat” on deck 12 means that outdoor space feels somewhat limited and, as many others have pointed out, outdoor walking is very restricted indeed. Mr R tried to use the gym a few times; he found it small, crowded and warm!

The “luxury” issue

I never sailed on Seabourn’s small triplets and I don’t know if others’ memories are a bit rose-tinted, but it does seem that they were truly luxurious. The Odyssey class ships, I think, tried to keep up many of the traditions with varying success. The Encore continues with some of the same ideas but I’m not sure that they work any more. So, the caviar on deck idea might have been the height of luxury/decadence a couple of decades ago on a very small ship; but queuing for 10 minutes in the hot sun for the tiniest scrape of caviar to be doled out does not feel luxurious or generous; it just feels odd (for some bizarre reason I kept thinking of Oliver Twist…please Sir, may I have some more!) The unlimited champagne poured constantly and generously is a great idea – or it would be if the champagne could be upgraded to something a touch better than the ubiquitous Nicholas Feuillatte.

Thoughts about dining

As mentioned previously we thought that, in general, the food in both the main restaurant and the Colonnade was very good indeed. The main restaurant was never open for lunch; I suppose the rationale was that this was a cruise with no sea days. I’m quite happy with the Colonnade for lunch but I imagine that there were quite of few of the older/not so mobile guests for whom a served lunch would have been preferable. In addition, the combination of the weather being so very warm and the ports being not terribly conducive to full day tours,meant that a high proportion of guests were on board for lunch. I thought the lunch hours in the Colonnade (12-2) were very early and restrictive for what was a very relaxed cruise. It would have been just about acceptable if one could enter the Colonnade at 2, but at 1:55 each afternoon, staff walked around reminding everyone that the buffet was closing…and it most certainly did, on the dot!

Both the restaurant and the Colonnade were quite busy for dinner. Our usual preferred time for dinner is 8PM but this was not really possible as tables for “second seating” generally didn’t become available until about 8:20-8:30 and dinner theoretically ended at 8:45. However, unlike the lunch situation, guests could and did enter the restaurant right up to the closing time. There was only one real mess up with evening dining and that was on formal night the first week when it seemed that everyone, including us, decided to eat in the main restaurant and there was just not enough space. People were queuing and being sent to bars to wait, getting angry, staff getting flustered etc. It ended, for us, with a late rushed meal at a terrible table inches away from a waiter station and a determination to avoid the situation week 2 (we booked the Grill for that evening).

The Thomas Keller evenings in the Colonnade were a mixed bag. We went to the Clambake the first week and thought the food was good and the experience enjoyable. We weren’t interested in the Rib night a few days later and week 2 brought a repeat of the Clambake and a steak night that didn’t appeal so we only had the one dinner. While I think the concept is not bad, it does limit the choices for dinner and I think contributes to the busyness of the main restaurant.

We tried to eat dinner one evening in the Sushi restaurant but were faced with a long queue and so went elsewhere. We ate lunch there one afternoon, but were disappointed that sushi is only available in the evening. Lunch is Bento Box, which we usually quite like; unfortunately it was not great here, seemed to be the ever-present chicken breast or salmon, this time with a bit of Japanese inspired sauce.

Finally

Finally, I mentioned earlier that we had a good experience on Celebrity earlier this year. We chose the Celebrity Infinity for a South America cruise partly because the timing and itinerary worked for us and partly because I thought a bigger ship might be helpful in rough waters. It was our first experience with the “ship within a ship” concept; we booked a large suite and besides the amazing amount of space, we had the fun of very special service. The separate restaurant for suite guests, Luminae, was open for all three meals and there was never a problem getting a table, seats were reserved for some of the popular evening shows, there was a concierge and concierge lounge, etc. etc. It was the complete and total opposite of everything we love about Seabourn which, at least until now, has always had the sense of total luxury for everyone on board regardless of accommodation, but in the new reality of larger ships and cost-cutting, it is certainly an option we will consider again in the future.

Chunky, I'm confused. I thought Luminae didn't "do" formal nights. If I've misunderstood, we'll have to book specialty for those evenings.

Thanks everyone. A table for 2 is important for us, so very relieved to hear it shouldn't be a problem.

How easy (or difficult) is it to get a table for two in Luminae? And are the tables for 2 very close together?