FlaviaOfTheMonth

Definitely hope some SCUBA options open up as several of your stops are world-class dive areas.

OK so it sounds like "signing up for the SCUBA" means that you must select the SCUBA option for the trip right when booking. That might be how they would limit / control the number of divers. I want to avoid being on a boat with tons of divers competing for what appears to be 12 dive slots. If the numbers are controlled in advance that would be ideal. Regarding the AOW requirement, it is possible to get AOW in 2 days of diving after taking the on-line study portion at home. In my opinion it is much less challenging than OW and is more about refinement of technique rather than learning something entirely new.

How do the slots work? If there are 16 divers at a given port, can they all dive? And thank you very much for your real-time updates!

I will wait for your report.

I could not find any good reports on the SCUBA experience. I won't book until I see some evidence that this concept is fully baked.

I must have gotten lucky as the chef on our cruise came to me each morning to discuss an option for dinner that night. Generally it was just a variation of something that was already on the menu. I will say they subbed tofu for meat several times but we were on board for 17 nights. That seems like the best "recipe" to me -- make normal items that can be slightly modified for vegan or no-dairy guests.

We sailed the Wind Spirit in 2021 and I found eating as a vegan to be fairly easy. At that time they did not have any specifically vegan creations but a ton of the regular menu and buffet stuff worked. At that time I don't think I would have even considered asking for "vegan pancakes" as it is too much to ask the kitchen to cater to a couple, or in my case, the only vegan on the ship. I'm glad to hear they are increasing the options for vegans. In particular the beach BBQ events -- lunch and dinner -- in the South Pacific could have used a vegan option other than salad.

To be clear, I was not referring to COVID.

You're not seriously asking why boorish behavior in public has become normalized I hope.

We have only sailed Carnival twice, most recently a month or so ago. Tried sea day brunch with our large gang and it was disappointing. The legendary 12-hour french toast was very oily and was not any better than the stuff at the Lido. Thick, yes, but not tasty. It was also tough to get coffee refills or any alternative to milk for the coffee. We won't do it again but considering the dirt cheap pricing on this cruise we were not expecting much.

Thank you. That sounds a little different from how they present the SCUBA program for the two expedition ships. I would not expect it to be like a dive liveaboard but would want to be able to have definite dive opportunities at multiple ports, barring bad weather. The lack of response here though seems to indicate the program has not really spun up yet. We've had pretty good luck with diving on cruises. The choices are either booking third-party and fighting to get on shore early enough, or booking through the ship (when offered). We have done both and generally it works out fine. Windstar has been the best though, they offer the outings and the dive boats dock right at the ship. We would love another line that offers easy SCUBA access.

This is a show-stopper for this class of ship to Alaska for us. It's designed to be used with these landing/exploration craft and if they are not used, the cruise is a fail. It's much better to just be on a larger / cheaper ship in that case, IMO.

Has anyone had first-person experience with the SCUBA on the expedition ships Pursuit or Venture? Seabourn's site mentions many SCUBA opportunities on these ships and also refers to an on-board divemaster, however I can only find a single review that mentions SCUBA at all, and that guest found that every SCUBA opportunity was cancelled and the staff appeared to be somewhat unaware that there even was a SCUBA program. There are no photos of guests diving on Seabourn's IG. I know these ships are pretty new, but is this(SCUBA) a real thing or not? And if so, how integrated is it with the ship? Can you dive right from a ship's zodiac? Is there a limit or headcount on how many can dive at each location? We are basing our cruise choices largely on SCUBA opportunities on and off the ship. If SCUBA is not a real part of the deal with Seabourn we will look someplace cheaper.

Yes, we all enjoyed the cruise. The son with the travel issues is 31 and we had another son, 24, join us as well. They had each been on 1-2 other cruises when much younger. The itinerary we had, RCI's 10-night Greek Isles cruise, is the kind we like. No beaches, lots of stuff to see right from the ship and many great ports. The historical aspects of several of the ports was a bonus. We really enjoyed Ephesus and Pompeii in particular. I don't think either of our sons will be cruisers after this trip though. The travel snafu was fairly insignificant, but neither of them really found the onboard experience to be to their liking. I think they will both stick to land-based travel in the immediate future.

It’s bizarre to me that so many of you feel like the Finland option was a reasonable suggestion. After flying for 12 hours, an added seven hours of flight time plus layovers makes sense to some of you. If that is “doing everything possible” I would hate to see what not trying looks like. If air2sea does not have access to common flights in Europe, maybe they should not be operating there. I mean they have one job.