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The etiquette - whether on Seabourn, Crystal, college, the White House, Buckingham Palace -- is the same.  You snooze, you lose.  In other words, if someone is late, you put their stuff in a basket.  Now, I agree with others, I'd wait a few minutes.  But I've done it both ways.  I've put other people's stuff in a basket if they are late (I wait 5+ minutes).  And I've had my stuff put in a basket.  I've never been offended by someone doing that.  After all, we're sharing these machines. If you're the kind of person who does not like other people to touch your stuff, either don't be late, or use the ship's laundry (which by the way people are touching your stuff). 

And BTW I would NEVER fold someone else's stuff.  I mean, come on, that's gross, and do you really think they want you to touch their stuff that way?

I get what you're saying about excursions.  But I guess I'd take a second look and see if anything is interesting.  That's the fastest way to use OBC.  Otherwise you're kinda forcing things.

On the other hand, on our last Seabourn cruise a few months ago, they had Blanton's bourbon for $40 a pour.  Which by the way isn't that outrageous a price.   I'd probably go for that.  And yeah, I'd hit the gift shoppe for Seabourn swag.

I'm more a bourbon drinker.  But for gin, I'm all in to Gordon's because of James Bond.  😁

I really like gin/vodka drinks, so I like their Vesper.  I also like their bourbon drinks.  This is a great thread.  We're booked for a cruise next year, so I'm looking forward to trying the other ideas here.

I didn't have steak the one time I've been in TK - - I had the chicken, just because it's gotten such diverse reviews. I thought the chicken was delicious.   We are booked for a 2 week cruise next year, and I hope we can go to TK at least twice, and I'll definitely get the steak. 

As for the restaurant, I did get steak on our last cruise (which was our 1st cruise and only cruise -- so far -- on Seabourn), and I had no complaints.  I think you'll be happy at either venue.

On 9/29/2019 at 11:33 AM, KenPhotoGeek said:

 

 

BTW, are there any other Star Trek TNG fans who refer to the Observation Bar as "Ten Forward", because, after all, it is on Deck 10, and it is all the way forward...?

Ha!  That's what I'll call it from now on!

SLSD - We have been on many Crystal cruises, and I can't remember even once that it felt crowded.  And the same was true of the Seabourn cruise we were just on.  So I guess I'd say the size of the ships fit the number of passengers on both.

I forgot to mention something, and it might be relevant to the ship sizes.  For a couple day/nights, the sea was very rough, and we really felt the waves on the Odyssey.  I can't remember feeling that on the Crystal ships.  So I wonder if the smaller ships are more prone to that.  I'd be interested in hearing from others on this.

Something positive about the smaller SB ships -- it seemed like wherever we went, the crew knew our names.  We never felt that way on Crystal.

Enjoy your SB cruise!  I would definitely recommend Crystal in the future, I think you'd enjoy it, if you like SB.

Final Thoughts and Comparing Seabourn and Crystal

So at the end of the day, we left the ship about 4 1/2 days early, and didn't get to see Golfo, Calvi, Marseille and Monte Carlo. 

We accomplished one of our main goals, to see if we could add Seabourn as a go to cruise line.  The answer is absolutely YES.  The 2 cruise lines (Crystal and Seabourn) are definitely peers, and I think whether a person prefers one over the other is just personal preference.

Here are our personal comparisons of Seabourn to Crystal:

Overall ship amenities:  We liked the Odyssey, but I think this one goes to Crystal.  Just because Crystal's ships are bigger, so they have more.  More bars, a big dedicated movie theater, more stores, more restaurants, the big spiral staircase.  For shorter cruises (like this one), I don't think this factor is very important.  The Odyssey has more than enough.  But for longer cruises -- like over a month, or a world cruise -- I think I'd want the bigger Crystal ships.

Food:  I'll break this one into a number of subcategories.

• Buffets:  I'd say Seabourn and Crystal are tied here.  Buffets, by their nature, can only be so good.  The breakfasts and lunches of both lines are good.  Not everything is good, but there's enough tasty selections to be happy (at least for us).
• Pool eateries:  Here I'm referring to the places to get food around the pool.  Crystal wins here, with more choices.  Seabourn's made-to-order cheeseburgers are pretty awesome though. (No one beats Disney's chicken tenders though.)
• Main Dining Room:  I think this is a tie.  Both are good.  If pushed, I'd rank Crystal a little higher -- partly because they might have more menu selections (at least it seemed that way to me) -- but practically I think they are tied for high quality and high service.
• Specialty Restaurants:  Crystal wins here since they have Prego and the sushi place (I can't remember what they call it now).  We liked the TK Grill though.  Again, I think if it's a shorter cruise, just having the TK Grill is good enough, especially if you like America steakhouse fare.  For longer cruises, I'd rather be on Crystal as far as this category goes.
• Other restaurants:  Probably Crystal wins here, because it has more choices.  But we really liked Earth and Ocean on the Odyssey.
• Room Service:  Room service was mixed for us on Seabourn.  So I give this one to Crystal.
• Other:  Seabourn's caviar service is a really big factor for us.  You can order caviar any time you want, and it's usually served in under 15 minutes.  Seabourn wins hands down here.
• Overall food ranking:  Tied (since we like caviar so much). 

Entertainment.  Crystal has more options since they have bigger ships. But I think Seabourn's performers were better than those on our last Crystal cruise last September.  Also, Seabourn's sail away caviar party with the opera singers was more creative and better than anything we have ever experienced on Crystal.  So I'd say this is a tie, with a nudge towards Seabourn.

Service.  It's hard to beat perfection, and that's how I'd rank Seabourn on our cruise.  But we've been on many more Crystal cruises, and have always been happy with their service.  So I'd say this is a tie.

Cabin.  Seabourn wins this one with the larger cabins, and the bathrooms are better than Crystal's.  Unless you need an accessible bathroom, do not allow them to put you in an accessible cabin because you will be disappointed with the bathroom.

Wines:  I'd say this is a tie.  I think the secret for both cruise lines is to find out what complimentary wines are available that are not on the menu.  If you just look at the wine list on the Seabourn website, you will get the impression that Seabourn's wines suck, but in reality they pour many more wines on the ship.

Spirits.  My impression is Crystal had more selections of complimentary spirits.  Also, they offered pages of Manhattans, martinis, beers, etc.  So Crystal wins here.  But, this is not a big factor for us.  Seabourn has more than enough selections to keep you well toasted.  I mean, this is not like an all inclusive in Cancun with bottles of bright blue tequila. And do you really know what labels are in that Mudslide anyway?

Would we pick Crystal or Seabourn?  So in summary, I think we'd go on either cruise line, and our decision will be based on itinerary and cost for the time we wish to cruise.  But that's not the fun question.  The fun question is, all else being equal, which would we pick?

Personally, I'd probably go with Crystal.  The ships are bigger so there's more to do.  Something I missed on the Odyssey was a deck that you could walk all the way around the ship.

We like Prego more than the Grill (since we prefer Italian over steak), and Crystal has the sushi place too. 

Seabourn has bigger cabins but that's not a major factor for us. 

Also while the caviar on Seabourn is important for us, I bet if you told the Crystal waiter on the first day of the cruise that you would like caviar as an appetizer each night of the cruise, they'd probably make it happen. 

And even though I discounted it above, I like the creativity of Crystal's menus of Manhattans and Martinis.  It just makes things fun. 

But, as I said, I think both Crystal and Seabourn are very high quality, and it's probably just personal preference if you like one over the other.

Syracuse

This was our last day on the cruise.  We had to depart before sail away (by 5pm), so we decided to just stay on the ship and enjoy the amenities.

We decided to go to the Colonnade and try ordering from the menu again.  I ordered the lamp chops and poached eggs, and my wife ordered the eggs benedict.  This time, the service was fast and the food was excellent.

We did bring our own sodas from our cabin to breakfast, so we didn't have to wait for them.  Since our stewardess was great at filling our refrig with Coke Zero, so this was an easy way to ensure we had our beverage of choice at breakfast.

Since this was our last day on the ship, I walked around and did a final tour of the ship.  I discovered the top deck with this golf stuff.  We're not golfers, but I heard from others who enjoyed using these facilities.

I took a few pictures of the Grill.  Next time on Seabourn, I'm definitely getting the rib eye.

At 5pm, we departed the ship for the airport.  As it happened, we ran into our new friends Kevin and Lisa as we left.  This is the last picture that I took.  Ah, sad, but that's life.

Because of the way the flights lined up, we had to flight to Zurich and spend the night for our flight the next day back to the USA.  I took this picture of the flight map as it showed us flying from Syracuse.

Day At Sea - Dinner at Earth & Ocean

I've mixed things up.  Before Valetta, we had a sea day. 

That evening, we had dinner at Earth & Ocean, which is outside on the pool deck.

Beforehand, we had drinks at the Observation Bar.  This became our go to bar for pre-dinner drinks.  It was always crowded with a lot of energy.  One time we went to the Club, the bar by the casino, but it was dead.  So then we went to the Observation bar.

I acquired a taste for Seabourn's Vesper.  But I switched from a lemon twist to olives.  The olives made it much better.

Here's the menu from Earth & Ocean. 

We were incredibly impressed by this restaurant.  For us, this was the best dining experience during our cruise.

The presentation was excellent.  For example, here's the bread service:

But on top of that, they brought out this glass box full of smoke:

Inside, they have a smoked chicken salad for the bread - the bottom thing in this picture:

And this presentation of the short ribs:

Everything looked good.  We ended up ordering everything on the menu.  But just one of each, so we shared everything.

They were also pouring this delicious 2015 Bordeaux.  We planned to drink a Kosta Brown pinot that we brought onto the ship, but we liked the Bordeaux so much we just had that.  We told the waiter how much we liked it, and he delivered a full bottle to our room!  Again, the Seabourn service was excellent.

Our advice is, don't overlook Earth & Ocean.  This could be the best restaurant on the ship.

For dessert, we got caviar via room service:

Day 9 - Valetta (day 5 of cruise) - Walking Tour of Valetta and Mdina

Our TA comped us an 8 hour walking tour of Valetta and Mdina.  The guide was incredibly knowledgeable.  Here are a few highlights of the tour.

In St. John's Co-Cathedral, we saw this incredible painting by Caravaggio.

We walked up the baloncy (45 steps) and got this great view:

And we took a selfie:

Later in the Museum of Archaeology, we got to see the Sleeping Lady (from 3000 BC!):

In the Mdina Cathedral Museum, we saw these incredible engravings by Durer.  He's described as "the most famous artist of the Renaissance in Northern Europe."  I have to admit, I never heard of him before prior to this visit.  I guess I've spent too much of my life watching football.

Many movies and TV shows are filmed in Valetta and Mdina.  Including the Game of Thrones.

The above courtyard is where Jaime Lannister ambushed Ned Stark (see the below scene from GOT).

Here's a miscellaneous picture from walking around Valetta.  I have seen something similar in many places in Europe.  But so far (from what I've seen), only in Venice do they make a spritz with an olive at the end of a stick as a mixer.

For lunch I had rabbit, a local specialty of Valetta.  The guide told us the locals eat rabbit with their hands, and I did so (after all, what would you think of a person eating KFC with a knife and folk?).  I can't remember the last time I had rabbit.  My thought -- it was tasty, but had a lot of little bones.

Day 9 - Valetta (day 5 of cruise) - Breakfast from the Menu

At the breakfast at the Colonnades, you have the buffet, and you can also order from a menu.  Here's the menu:

Today I decided to order from the menu and get the steak and eggs (and a side of grits).

A couple of observations.  My wife and I prefer Diet Coke (or Coke Zero) for breakfast, rather than juice or coffee.  For some reason, it took forever to get a soda during breakfast.  At lunch it was instant.  But for some reason, it took forever to get a Diet Coke at breakfast.  The workaround is to bring a soda from your cabin refrigerator to breakfast, and that's what we ended up doing. 

It also took a long time to place our order from the menu, and to get the food.  Probably about 15 minutes.  Now, everything is relative.  In a standard restaurant on land, 15 minutes is maybe reasonable.  But when you're trying to eat breakfast and then hurry off to your excursion, 15 minutes seemed like an eternity.

Here are pictures of my breakfast.  The steak was good.  But the yolks of my over easy eggs were hard.  So, this was not a good showing for Seabourn.  But we did have a better "ordering off the menu" breakfast experience later, which I'll write about in a subsequent post.

5 minutes ago, Isklaar said:

The song is "Time to say goodbye",  the version that I am most familiar with is by Andrea Bocelli (sp?) and Sarah Brightman.

Thanks!

That evening after the caviar sail away party, they served a clam bake in the Colonnade.  Seabourn writes:  "At The Colonnade, special theme nights feature Chef Keller-influenced dinners that pay homage to his American childhood. His interpretations of classic comfort dishes, such as Clam Bake and BBQ Ribs will be served family-style on platters to complement the essence of sharing in a relaxed spirit of fun and togetherness."

Because of the events of the day, we asked if we could get this as room service.  We just felt like crashing in the room.  As I mentioned, Seabourn was great, and they served it in our room (I didn't ask if this was special, or if they would do this for anyone who asked).  We ate dinner with the bottle of champagne they gave on embarkation.

The salad and dessert were good.  The clam bake was a basic clam bake.  I feel kind of ungrateful given how great Seabourn was and the fact they served it via room service, but I want to provide my honest thoughts, and I'll tell you that this is one dinner you can skip and instead go to one of the other restaurants (IMHO).

Day 8 - Mahon (day 4 of cruise) - continued

First I'll circle back to Day 8, when we were in Mahon.  We found out about the death in the family while on the Mahon tapas tour.  At that point, we left the tour to contact family back home.  Also once back on the ship, we let Seabourn know that we would have to leave the ship early.

Seabourn was great.  They offered to let us use the ship phone to call home.  They gave me and my wife 1000 minutes each of WIFI so we could keep in contact with home.  They helped with the logistics of trying to fly home from a small island off Spain (which seems daunting when first faced with the prospect, but turns out to be not so hard, just time consuming).  So Seabourn was great in every way.

Our new friends that we met on the ship were all very supportive too.

I'll also mention that United Airlines was great too.  They changed our flights at no cost.

As things worked out with the timing back home, we didn't have to leave the ship for 2 days (which was day 6 of the cruise).  So we took advantage of this time to the extent possible given what had happened.

Caviar Sail Away Party

As you can probably tell by now from this report, my wife and I like caviar.  We don't often get it because of the price -- maybe once a year, if that -- so to us, the fact you can order caviar (that's pretty good caviar) any time you want on Seabourn is a big plus to us.

We ordered caviar at least once each day of the cruise, usually sitting by the pool, but sometimes via room service or at dinner.  We didn't see many other people ordering caviar outside of when it was on the menu at dinner, so this may not be a big factor for other people.  But this is such a big advantage for us, that (all else being equal) we would probably pick Seabourn over Crystal.

Seabourn also has fun events involving caviar, like this sail away event from Mahon.

This event was very well attended.  The Seabourn singers sang opera during the event.  My wife and I both thought the singers were excellent, and added a special ambience to the event.

Even though the event was crowded, the caviar line never got long -- at most, maybe 5 or 6 people, and eventually there was no line.  So you could just walk up and get more caviar.  In fact, towards the end of the event, I found out they were serving caviar upstairs too, and there were even shorter lines there.

And at the end, the crew just left the caviar there for anyone to take.

I went kind of overboard with going back for seconds.  For fun, I took a picture of each of my caviar servings during the sail away event:

My wife and I thought this was a great event.  As I mentioned, the singers were great and made it special.  Here's a video of them as the ship sailed away from Mahon.  (By the way, what is the name of this song?)

Thanks everyone for your kind words and thoughts.  Now that we are back home, I'll complete the trip report over the next few days.  Then at the end I'll provide final thoughts on the cruise, and our comparisons of Seabourn and Crystal.

A quick update.  We've had a death in the family so we have to leave the ship early. 

My wife and I talked about it, and we've decided that I will finish this trip report.  But I'll finish it up after we're home.

For now, I'll just say that Seabourn has been credibly understanding and helpful.  For the entire cruise, including this, the service by Seabourn has been top notch.

Updated Report on WIFI

In a previous post I criticized the WIFI.  I have to take that back as it was stupid user error on my part.  To get in the WIFI you have to log in, which gets you into all the free areas.  But then you also have to click in to get access to the Internet, and that’s when your package kicks in.  

The WIFI is okay for browsing - I’ll know better when I try to post pictures (before this I was using cellular).

13 hours ago, Kittykat52 said:

Referencing the Ossetra caviar, I also went on line to D’Artagnan. The caviar was on sale for 99.99; however, shipping cost was outrageous,  around $25.00 and it was not even expedited. So, I went to Amazon Prime and bought the same caviar from a different distributor for 105.00  with free over night shipping since I am a Prime member.

 

That’s good to know.  We probably will be buying some too as we’re enjoying the caviar here.  Later today I’ll write about the sail away caviar party they had last night.

28 minutes ago, saminina said:

Can you tell us what D'Artagnan has to do with the caviar served aboard your ship?

 

It’s a place on the internet where you can buy the caviar they serve on the ship.

1 hour ago, Kittykat52 said:

Looks like you are having a very good time. The food looks fabulous, especially the caviar. Two questions: are the shore excursions included? What about the food on the tour, specifically the hiking tour where you had the orange juice, quiche, and tarts?

 

No, the excursions are extra.  But the food is included in the excursion price.

Day 8 - Mahon (day 4 of cruise)

Today our excursion was a walking and tapas tour of Mahon.  Mahon is a town on the island of Menorca, Spain.  We ended up having to leave the tour early, which I'll tell you about later.  Here are some pictures of Mahon, that I took before we left the tour.

Day 7 - Palma de Mallorca (day 3 of cruise)

Today our excursion was a hike from Deia to Soller.  The hike was only 4.5 miles, but at places it was a challenge, with steep upward climbs and long down paths with loose stones.  The Seabourn literature said the hike was "strenuous" and we didn't pay much attention to that.  But they were accurate, the hike was strenuous.  My wife and I are in good health and relatively good shape, so it was fine for us.  But I'll certainly pay more attention in the future when Seabourn says something is "strenuous" (or similar words).

Many great sights along the way.

At about the midpoint we stopped at a place for delicious orange juice, quiche and tarts

Once back in the room, we had our first bad Seabourn experience.  My wife called room service for a light snack and some drinks.  They never came or called back.  It was like the person didn't take down our request.  It wasn't a big deal, but kind of disappointing.

Before dinner we went to the Observation bar for drinks.  I also took better pictures of the buffet.  Again it looked delicious but we didn't have anything as we were going to dinner directly after.

Here is the menu from the main Restaurant.

Our friends ordered a wonderful burgundy.  It really opened up in the glass.  We brought one of our wines, an Overture.  Overture is the second wine of Opus One.  We bought it during our first real trip to Napa in 2002.  It was the last bottle we had.  I was afraid it might be corked.  But again Seabourn showed great service.  The cork was fragile, so two sommeliers worked on it to get it out without crumbling.  And then they decanted it.  Luckily it wasn't corked. 

We got the white sturgeon caviar appetizer.  The presentation was different.  It looked like all caviar.  But the waiter said to eat it from the bottom.  And then you saw why.  It was delicious.

Tonight the menu was supplemented by the Thomas Keller inspirations (which I guess they offer every other night).  The waiter recommended the twice baked boursin cheese souffle.  I was glad I ordered it, it was delicious.  My wife ordered the tomato soup, which she was was very good too.

My wife and I both ordered from the classics menu for our entrees.  She got the Fettuccine Pasta (lobster bolognese and lobster foam).  It comes as an appetizer.  The waiter offered to make it an entree size, but she wanted just the app portion.  She enjoyed the pasta, but the description was probably better than the actual dish.  (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture.)

I ordered the New York steak.  It was okay.  Tasty but a little tough. 

21 hours ago, Catlover54 said:

 

The Colonnade offerings are huge, compared with the Crystal embarkation lunch ...

 

I agree that Seabourn's embarkation lunch buffet had a lot of selections (and you could order things too).  I think on Crystal they also offer a lunch buffet on embarkation on the pool level, in addition to the sit down lunch in the main dining room.  We ended up eating at the main dining room, and here's my lunch from a year ago.

Observation Bar, the Main Restaurant and the evening show

Last night was the only formal night of the cruise.  Probably about 10-15% of the men were wearing tuxedos.  So I would not have felt out of place wearing one, but I'm glad I decided just to wear a jacket and tie as it takes less space to pack.  I think most people were dressed formally, although there were a few in casual wear.

We started the night in the Observation Bar.  The appetizer buffet looked good (especially the shrimp), but since we were about to go to dinner we didn't eat anything there. 

I liked the "celebrity cocktails" list.  Not as extensive as Crystal's Manhattans and Martinis lists, but still interesting. 

I ordered the Vesper.  For James Bond fans, Crystal's version of the Vesper is more authentic than Seabourn.  If it ever comes up in a trivia question, a Vesper (according to Bond) is 3 measures of Gordon's gin, 1 measure of Vodka (Bond didn't indicate a label) and a half measure of Lillet.  Crystal makes it exactly according to this recipe.  Here's Seabourn's:

So you can see that Seabourn doesn't follow Bond's recipe.  Also, for real Bond geeks, Seabourn makes another mistake.  They list Lillet as vermouth.  But Bond makes a point of saying that Lillet is not vermouth.  Seabourn's martini is good; is just not a Vesper.  (I would not be surprised if I'm the only person on this ship who cares about this.)

Last night, we dined in the main restaurant for the first time, as the first night we were at TK Grill.  Here are the menus.

You'll see that "Ossetra Malossol Caviar" was on the menu.  We asked our waiter if this was the same caviar as they served at other places on the ship.  He said it was.  So that sent me on a quick search on the Internet, to see how much it costs.  D'Artagnan has a small tin on sale for $100.  So according to this, I'm pretty sure my wife and I have had at least $500 worth of caviar so far.

In fact, last night, our waiter served us the normal caviar app, plus extra caviar!  I'm not sure why.  We didn't ask for it.  But we mentioned to the waiter that we were enjoying the caviar, so I guess based on that he served the extra caviar.  Here's what he brought both myself and my wife:

So far, we are very pleased and impressed with Seabourn's service.  This is just one example.

We also enjoyed dinner last night.  In addition to the caviar, my wife and I each ordered the foie gras with a glass of sauternes.  The foie gras was perfectly cooked and delicious.  It's also interesting to note that the sauternes is complimentary, but not on the list they show you. 

For my entree, I ordered the Beef Wellington.  I thought it was very good.  My wife ordered the lobster tail.  The taste was good, but she thought is was a little dry.

Last night, we went to see the show, That's Life.  A couple of observations.  First, there's only 1 showing, at 945pm.  That's kind of late for us.  I think that's one of the tradeoffs on being on a smaller ship (unlike Crystal, for example).  You don't have as many entertainment options (for example, this ship doesn't have a movie theater).  But now that Crystal is moving to open seating, I wonder if they will scale back to one showing a night?

Second, I thought the Seabourn's singers and dancers in the show were better than those on our last Crystal cruise back in September 2018.  That's just my opinion, I'm sure others will think the opposite.