SDuckers

On our last cruise, the Cruise Critic "roll call" for our cruise had a number of people on it, and we created 2 (or maybe 3?) trivia teams ahead of time from the roll call folks who were interested. It's a great way to get to meet your fellow passengers. Highly recommend trying to get a team with Brits, Aussies, and other countries and not just US folks.

We like the Penthouse suites and that's usually what we book. Dh tends to wake in the middle of the night and likes to be able to get up and read or play on his iPad. The larger suites, with the bedroom more separate from the living area allows him to do that without waking me up. We booked an Owners suite (front) for the transatlantic crossing this past spring and really liked having the extra space given that the cruise was almost entirely sea days. On cruises with more ports I am not sure I'd see the value of the extra space. Also those front cabins get a lot of noise when anchoring. On the crossing, we only had that for our one stop in Madeira and on arrival in Barcelona so it wasn't that bad. On a more port-intensive itinerary it could get pretty annoying I think.

In a weird twist to this, dh and I wanted to book the 14 day Dubrovnik to Istanbul cruise for Sept. 2025, but were told all the Penthouse suites (which we prefer) were booked. BUT we could book two seven-day back to back itineraries for the EXACT SAME CRUISE in a Penthouse and get the same cabin for both legs (no having to change rooms halfway through). Because we booked these as two separate cruises, we qualified for double the OBC so that is nice.

Doctors will give a prophylactic prescription in advance of travel. However, do be sure to discuss with your doctor any medications you take (such as for high blood pressure) that must be discontinued while you are taking Paxlovid. My doctor's opinion was that the risk of discontinuing my BP meds was greater than the benefit from taking Paxlovid. But that's just me. YMMV.

We usually try to board after the initial "rush" at the opening of boarding, so that we don't have to hang out on the patio or elsewhere waiting for the room to be available. Other than getting on board to eat and drink what you've paid for already, I don't see a benefit to boarding early.

All regulars here are not in the least bit surprised that you and Nancygp are winners at trivia! You sneaky devils!

The only restaurant you need to make reservations for is Solis. Usually those open up about 6 months before the cruise. You can only get one reservation every 7 days. Shore excursions usually start being available not long after the itinerary opens up for booking.

I agree. This all seems like much ado about nothing to me. Or some people just look for a reason to grouse.

Most of the time they did two sittings for the evening shows. I think the times were 8:30 and 10, if I recall correctly. There were some nights they did an early show at 6 or 6:30 and then a different show later in the evening. We never had any problem finding a seat. The sight lines in the Grand Salon, with the multiple pillars, sometimes was a small issue, but we learned where the better seats were to avoid those pillars blocking some of the view.

I forgot to mention how great Handre was as the cruise "host." He was just delightful. Funny you should mention the issue of the passport entry stamp! We had the same issue leaving from Amsterdam (where we immediately flew upon arrival in Lisbon). We thought we somehow made a mistake not getting them stamped when we arrived at Schipol Airport, but there was no one around to do it. Probably because the flight began and ended inside the EU. So you are right, they should have been stamped on our arrival in Lisbon.

We just got back home after taking the Ovation transatlantic crossing from Miami to Lisbon, so I thought I'd give a quick report here. Overall, our experience was excellent. For the most part, service was attentive and timely. Some servers were particularly outstanding. There were a few "clunkers" but they were by far the exception. The cruise was mostly full. Based on the roster of passengers we got at the end, there were 550 passengers on board and I think I recall that full capacity was 600. But the ship never felt crowded. Other than a little bit at lunch after daily team trivia ended. The main dining room was open for both breakfast and lunch every day except our one port day in Funchal, Madeira. We never ate there, so I can't report on how many did or how the service was. We preferred the Colonnade for breakfast and either the Patio or Colonnade for lunch. We ate lunch at the sushi restaurant one day. It was okay but nothing special. Frankly, after that we sort of forgot it was there. We had dinner our last night at Solis. The food was very good, and the sommelier was very helpful in helping us select a premium wine (we had ship credits to use up!) to match our meal. I definitely would have liked to be able to eat there more than once. We were on the waiting list for a second reservation but never were contacted. We loved Earth & Ocean. Menus, while very limited, are inventive and delicious. Colonnade had a lot of themed nights. TK BBQ one night, TK ribeyes another (they were great!). Also Indian Market, Thai, Italian, Chinese and Vietnamese nights. You could still order from the "classics" menu even on those specialty nights (other than the TK nights). We ate in the dining room on three or four nights. One night we agreed to share a table with another couple. It was okay but we really didn't have much in common and sort of wished we hadn't agreed to share a table. So it goes with that. We also attended a hosted dinner with a Seabourn staff member. That was a night when, for some reason, service was excruciatingly slow. We wanted to see the show (I believe it was the night Handre was giving his piano performance) so couldn't say for dessert and barely had time to finish our dinner before we had to leave. One night we had arranged with Chef Lindsay for a special dinner of sweetbreads. They were outstanding. Sadly the "sommelier" had no clue how to pair a wine with that entree. I get that that is an unusual entree, but when her first suggestion for pairing was a rosé champagne we knew we were on our own. Team trivia was VERY highly attended. I think the first day about 180 people participated. That number dropped off as the days went by but the Club was still very crowded each day for trivia. It was a lot of fun. The evening entertainment options were really good. One of the Seabourn singers I swear should be singing opera at the Met. We also had Johnathan Christopher https://www.jonathan-christopher.com/ perform twice. He was outstanding. Also hung out around the ship and was very friendly and personable. A celloist named Wendy Law also performed twice. https://www.wendylaw.com/ She was amazingly good. We also invited her to join us for dinner at Earth & Ocean and she was delightful. We were in Suite 700 at the front of the ship, and while we were warned about the noise we would get when anchoring at a port, we were not warned at how noisy that suite would be with waves slapping the ship's hull in choppy seas. Sometimes it sounded like a bomb was going off, which was disconcerting in the day time and not conducive to good sleep at night. The suite also is far away from everything except the Observation bar and the aft hot tub. Given how much we were eating, it was probably a good thing to have those longer walks! The layout of the suite itself was great, and particularly appreciated given the number of sea days we had. We got to take a galley tour with the head chef (Chef Lindsay Lewis) and that was very interesting. It was particularly interesting to find out how they maintained fresh produce for a 12 day cruise with only the stop in Funchal. I will say it was somewhat apparent by the last day that fresh fruits and vegetables were almost used up. It wouldn't be "cruise critic" if I didn't mention a few negative nits (besides the afore-mentioned "sommelier"). We had arranged for Seabourn transfer to and from the ship. On the transfer from our hotel in Miami to the ship, we never received any communication from the transit company regarding when we would be picked up. Since boarding didn't start until 1:30, we thought we would be safe to go to church at 10:30 and be back at the hotel by noon for pick up. Surprise! We were on our way back to the hotel at 11:15 when we got a call from the hotel that the driver was there to pick us up. Why so early we didn't understand. Even with a REALLY bad traffic jam due to a Miami Heat basketball game, we still were at the embarkation terminal by 12:30 and had to wait there with many other folks for almost an hour. I would have rather been in our hotel room. Our first morning on the ship, we woke up early and since the Colonnade didn't open for breakfast until 8, we decided to order room service. Called the room service number and got the "Hold music" for 30 minutes with no one picking up. So we gave up on it. Mid-cruise, we got a survey and I mentioned this. The head of food service called to explain that their phone system had glitches that morning and that's why no one picked up. So they DO pay attention to those survey responses. If anyone has any specific questions, I'll do my best to answer them!

The TK burger is still available at the Patio at lunch. According to my husband, it wasn't as good as he had remembered. In particular, the patty wasn't hot and seemed like it had been pre-cooked and warmed up. My "regular" burger was just fine.

1. Other than Solis, generally no reservations are required. Sometimes they'll do a specialty night at the Colonnade that requires reservations, but you do that once you're on the ship. 2. The selection of restaurants on Seabourn is more limited. Main dining room, Colonnade (buffet at breakfast and lunch, seated at dinner but more casual than the MDR), Earth & Ocean (poolside patio) and (on some ships) sushi. DH and I love Earth & Ocean but the menu is much more limited, and no reservations so sometimes there's a wait. 3. Other than formal night, there isn't really a strict dress code. Somewhat nicer at dinner in the MDR (no shorts, and only "elegant" jeans). You will be just fine in nice jeans and a button down. 4. All suites have a minibar with included water and soft drinks (tell your suite attendant what you like). 5. It used to be iffy, but now that the ships are tied into Starlink, I hear the WiFi is quite good. If you want the ability to use streaming services, you'll have to upgrade beyond the complimentary WiFi though. 6. Other than the expedition ships, no excursions are included on Seabourn. You will fall in love with Seabourn!

I think FlightEase might be able to parse the various airlines and connections issues easier than us doing it. I don't have any particular info re: a change in itinerary, but back in 2017 we had booked a Seabourn cruise specifically because we wanted to go to Istanbul and Ephesus, but Seabourn pulled out of Istanbul and deleted Ephesus as a stop. We ended up going with a completely different itinerary after that. Given the known instability in the region, it's not far-fetched to have it happen again. I'd rather have Seabourn and FlightEase deal with changing our flights if that occurs.

We have always booked our own flights, because when we did price comparisons FlightEase never seemed to be particularly competitive. But we have booked a cruise out of Dubrovnik in the fall of 2025, and looking at the difficulty of getting there from Houston, along with concerns about the possibility of this cruise changing departure point, has lead us to conclude using FlightEase makes more sense.

Not a Seabourn cruise, but we did a Dolphin Swim in either Costa Maya or Cozumel (can't remember) on a Royal Caribbean cruise last year. They also required you to leave phones and cameras behind and offered only to purchase the pics taken by the photographers. I thought it was money well spent because the quality of the pics was far better than what I could have taken down there in the water. Here are my favorites: