TheBaron777

13 hours ago, Catlover54 said:

It's one thing to have an itinerary change, but this was taking things to a new level.  

 

Upon recovery, having imbibed some of the awful room service coffee, frozen watery OJ, and very sour (though purple-colored) yoghurt, we checked online to see what to do today.  We had some ideas about taking an Ueber to a couple nature locations, but then realized  Ueber was not going anywhere (no cars).  We settled on walking into town (which was indeed Trois Rivieres), hoping to get into the Old Prison Museum.  Internet showed it would be open, but the sign there said "closed Fridays."  Next we tried the Military musuem, but that was also closed, so we settled on touring the outside, and an old protestant cemetery (pictures to follow).  The Pop Museum was open, but we skipped it, given the orientation.

 

As Cruisr noted above, the town is not very exciting (and did not seem to wake up until around noon), but there are a few cafes for tourists.  

 

We'd seen the complimentary wine list, (and sampled a couple as well),  and therefore decided to go to the nearby SAQ wine shop in town to load up on more drinkable wines for our upcoming journey instead of paying 2.5-3x for the limited (though nice) selection of premium wines on board.

 

Complimentary wine list for this journey:

 

 

 

Oyster Bay is a $9 bottle.....(and cat p*&s IMO).....I believe Carnival use it as deck cleaner on their older ships.....shame on you Seabourn, SHAME - one redeeming point, the Montaudon is semi-decent.....better than the old Nicki-Fueey anyway....IMO....."Ultra-lux" ? 

Here's hoping that this list gets all dolled-up ahead of the WC 6th Jan departure on Sojourn !

Yuck....headache material....and all playing into their camp of “better stuff for purchase” don’t fall for it....ITS A TRICK !

Shame ! Shame ! Shame !

Good to see Dr Wine....urghm Weil enjoying the festivities last night 🥂[emoji146][emoji41]

Just boarded, what’s that smell everywhere ? smells like a rubbish dump....

 

777

It’s not a ‘new car / new ship’ smell - I asked one of the staff on boarding and they said it’s a problem they’re looking into - and they have fragrance diffusers around the stairs to try and disguise it....

Just boarded, what’s that smell everywhere ? smells like a rubbish dump....

777

Thanks for the advice Catlover54. We’re Diamond with Seabourn so the food isn’t new to us; I’m just reporting our thoughts. We’re aware of the option to request special meals. We tried that and ordered a Thai green chicken curry but what showed up was slices of chicken breast with basil and steamed rice as well as a Larb gai which came out as minced chicken with mayonnaise. Fortunately this cruise is going to Phuket soon

Yes - we landed at Tristan Da Cunha and it was a very special experience to meet the locals and see their village. We were very lucky as it’s clearly way too rough to tender on most days! Scenic cruising Inaccessible Island and Nightingale Island the next day was beautiful as well.

Welcome to the halfway mark of our Sojourn cruise from Miami to Asia. It is good to see everyone who boarded in Cape Town settling in, and yes, it was nice to have a later daylight departure due to the port closure / winds. At the risk of being unpopular (with the apparent inundation of “Cruise Criticers” onboard) - some observations if I may.

- Ex Miami, the average age of passengers was high, but ex Cape Town it’s almost like being on a floating nursing home, and with this comes the usual complaining about the dress code. I was stunned to over-hear people seated at the Observation Bar openly and loudly critique other passengers’ attire. “OMG - please no shorts” (it was 5:30 pm so shorts were still perfectly acceptable and much to my amusement the gentlemen in question left at 5:58 pm), “jeans - terrible, just terrible” (jeans are always allowed at the Observation Bar), and so on. And worst, at the Restaurant last evening, Food & Beverage Manager Antonio came to our table “because guests have complained about your jeans”, only to find out we were appropriate dressed (no jeans) and leave red-faced (and us embarrassed).

- Service very good so far but many of the best staff unfortunately left for Ovation in Cape Town or are leaving soon, mid cruise actually, in Myanmar. Our stewardess will change mid cruise and that’s an unwelcome first for us.

- Food generally good so far. The menus in The Restaurant cater to the 80 year olds (most meat / fish with some form of potatoes and vegetables and absolutely no spices). Anything non-western is nowhere to be found. The Colonnade partially makes up for this, but again, no spices anywhere, even in a curry dish. The food and service in The Grill are outstanding but as the menu hardly changes (except for a daily special), it quickly becomes boring on a long itinerary.

- The wifi went completely offline at Tristan da Cunah, for 4 days and is only 50% back online now, so even slower than usual - we’re surprised that’s possible in the first place. Perhaps even more concerning, they still don’t know what caused the blackout or how to fix the continuing bandwidth issues - and are selling the new guests internet packages at full price regardless.

- In quite a few spots, there are long lingering maintenance issues that simply aren’t being addressed, such as broken timber on the pool deck on both sides of the hot tubs, broken umbrellas at the Patio, malfunctioning gym equipment, etc. Pro-activity in resolving these issues is lacking.