Robisan

I can understand staff unrelated to RS at other dining venues being reluctant to accept a RS order, especially during multi-course dinner service. I do wonder what would've happened if @kej1 had called RS (instead of asking patio staff) and requested delivery to the patio.

Yes, this makes sense. I just never paid attention or noticed them.

The issue I see with ordering to the Obvs bar/lounge or any non-dining venue is collection when you're done. Uncollected used RS plates, glasses etc would be a real eyesore. Do guest just abandon them? Stay until collected? Bus them? Imagine multiple guests dining on RS and then leaving their mess behind. For lunch, my thought was delivery to the dining room. I don't recall, or payed much attention to, when they start setting the tables up for dinner, but the venue is there unused and my guess is room service food is prepared in that kitchen, so why not?

I've heard legend of ordering champaign and caviar delivered to the laundry room, so if I might ask a few related questions. Has anyone ordered it delivered elsewhere on the ship? Must it be ordered from your room first (or directly from bar staff elsewhere) as I don't believe there are any public phones. Importantly, has anyone ordered other room service items delivered to a location other than their room? For example, room service items delivered to the poolside dining area or other ship locations? Could one order a pot of coffee delivered to the Obsv lounge (say at 6:30am)? Asking this last one for a friend not happy that early bird coffee has been discontinued.

Curious about this footwear. Does anyone know the brand? Is that a pax foot or is that what the crew is outfitted with? TIA

Just to echo @Utopia1, this makes sense for mass market lines where virtually everything other than basic food is an additional charge, heavily pushed and promoted upsell. Not sure this holds for luxe all inclusive fares/lines. My guess is less than half of SB pax regularly purchase wine/spirits, with even fewer spa patrons. Neither are even lightly, let alone aggressively, pushed. An all inclusive fare that only covers overhead would be a poor business model basis IMO.

What an eyesore. Did you get a discount or some OBC for being placed in the ship's commercial/industrial section? The threshold for permission ought to be whether they could grant it to every guest. Imagine multiple antenna rigs off of verandas or tens of drones buzzing overhead. No thanks. Permission for one is permission for all.

Cocktails > Spell checking.

Not sure this assertion withstands scrutiny and the long term test of pax loyalty. Early morning coffee and noshes in the Obvs watching sail-ins was a big positive to my total experience. Cognac, wine selection, tea likely the same for others. You can't simply assume away the actual degrading onboard pax experience.

I look mostly to avoid people with dumb genes.

I can't speak to the sequencing or appropriateness of communications, but it's worth considering that ocean vessel staffing faced an almost 20% reduction and overall SB reduction around 15%, which meant that many good people with exemplary performance reviews had to be let go. I certainly don't think 1 in 5 SB staff is below par, so these were tough decisions, with the complexity of reallocating remaining staff to distant locations while maintaining seamless on-board service. I'm sure some staff were very surprised and hurt. I'm far from Seabourn management's biggest defender here (ha!), but there should be some recognition that this was a hard, unpleasant management task and no matter what they did someone was going to be bitter that they were done wrong. I'd like to see more than one anonymous complaint before I conclude SB handled this in bad faith.

Same.

Boo, hiss. In addition to early risers for me, we often skip dessert at dinner and stop by the Square a little later for some gelato or something sweet. If this becomes standard it's a dealbreaker for us. Little things matter. Straws and camels and grass being greener elsewhere. Perhaps my next letter to Natalya will include a request for return of our future cruise deposit.

Observation Bar early morning is the place to be on port sail-in days. For me it's an important part of the cruising experience. Plus DW won't be happy if I wake her early with room service, so really it's an essential part of the cruising experience.

Clearly now sharing the same IT department. Get the same message using four different browsers: Access Denied You don't have permission to access "http://www.hollandamerica.com/en/us" on this server.

Wasn't aware of this when I posted above and perhaps a fair counterpoint if there is a previously scheduled overnight later in Pursuit's pre-Antarctica itinerary where they intended to do this. If so, this would indeed be out of SB's control. Imagine if every port/country said hulls must be clean, just don't do it here.

Last fall we booked 46 days LA to Sydney on Quest this November. Due to significant health issues (thankfully OK now) we very reluctantly cancelled in June prior to penalty. We very much hoped to rebook if/when we were well enough to go. However, the fare has now increased fully 30% and combined with the troubling changes of late - particularly liquor degradation and apparent (cash flow related?) shortages and venue rationing of usual supplies - we cannot justify rebooking this cruise or any cruise with SB until it firmly resolves just what product they are going to be.

I hate to be the chronic complainer here, but Antarctica season preparation had to be known from the time they designed Pursuit's schedule - many, many months ago and certainly well before cancellation penalties effected for this cruise. To suddenly announce change of dates for every port stop, plus the elimination of a critical, unique stop, just nine days prior to embarcation is a breach of good faith at best and a deliberate misleading of buyers at worst. IMO a full refund if desired or a sizable OBC or FCC should be requested as compensation. To be clear, if these changes were due to an unforeseen issues I'd be much more understanding. But as described in the communication from SB, it's hard to see this as something other than deliberate bad faith.

I assume they gave you the option of a full refund if you're not happy with these significant changes.

A few places on the Internets suggest nleahy @ seabourn. com. Another old and maybe future option is natalya.leahy @ hagroup. com.

"Complimentary premium spirits and fine wines available on board at all times" At least the dishonesty is comprehensive. I emailed the office of the president with two very specific, simple questions and received the same canned, generic response within a few hours. I replied asking again for answers to my specific questions and have as of now, several days later, received no reply.

I'm not sure we really are. Without getting into definitions of what is mid tier, there are reasonable, drinkable vintage wines in the $20-30ish retail range (so wholesale at SB volume ~$12-20?) that are a step up from mass market grocery store level and worlds apart from $5 Beringer level. This really should be the minimum for the complementary list if they're going to tout "fine wines" as included. Wine connoisseurs may well looks at these as rubbish, but for a decent portion of passengers they'll meet the requirement.

I respectfully disagree with this. From your perspective and tastes what you suggest works for you, but for many of us for various reasons what works for you makes no sense. DW and I usually want just a single glass of wine at dinner. She generally prefers whites, while I generally prefer reds. We aren't wine aficionados, but like to have what we consider decent, every day drinkable wines at home - typically wines that retail between US$15 and $40+ at Costco (the lower and upper ends usually higher priced bottles on sale). With SB fares now mostly starting at over US$600pp per diem, I don't think it's an unreasonable ultra luxury to expect a glass of wine at dinner akin to what we'd have at home. Purchasing a $200 bottle (or any full bottle) fits none of our preferences. Generous OBC is just a refund of your own money, which effectively means you really are paying for those wines. In any event, we'd prefer to use our OBC refund on excursions and come home to reasonable complementary wines at dinner. If the SB "Ultra Luxury" "All Inclusive" fares require additional upsell payment on board for basic drinkable wines and (coming soon?) true premium spirits, what are we even doing here?

All I want for Christmas is video of Natalya serving and drinking Beringer While Zin at a hosted table. I want to see the look on her face when she swallows.

No burgundy/pinot at all. No cabernet, only a Shiraz blend. That's unacceptable. Overall seems like a very truncated list. Hope this isn't another bad direction trend.