Robisan

11 hours ago, caviarforme said:

 • Earn Tour Conductor Credits: When you book 9 full-fare guests, the 10th guest sails at a reduced fare. If you book a sailing in our Accelerated Tier, select voyages provide for you to book 7 full-fare guests with the 8th guest sailing at a reduced fare.*

I suppose everything's negotiable and SB can be, shall we say, flexible on what exactly is a "full fare," but at face value this isn't a very attractive offer. A "reduced fare" on 1 of 10 fares is barely a few percent off the whole booking. Even if the 10th guest is reduced 50% that's only 5% off the whole - and if the 10th was half-off or more they surely would've promoted that. Also note that in the fine print it specifies the maximum Tour Conductor Credit is 8 (the TCC's suite counts as pax 9 & 10), which means there's no additional benefit/discount for booking groups larger than 10.

Frankly, I'm not too concerned about this promotion. The offer is practically no discount, especially for groups larger than 10, and I don't think a group of 10 will materially change the ambiance of a 350-550 pax ship. It would be entirely different if this were a meaningful offer to groups 30, 50 or, heaven forbid 100.

11 hours ago, caviarforme said:

Award-winning fine dining that rivals the best restaurants anywhere...

Also, too, I mean, come on. The best restaurants anywhere? This transcends the world of flowery marketing writing into just flat out lying.

Clearly they violated the first rule of Crew Welfare Fund: You don't talk about Crew Welfare Fund.

Is this folly and farce? Crew Welfare Fund officially exists but it's untoward to officially speak of Crew Welfare Fund unless spoken to by a passenger who knows Crew Welfare Fund exists. "Tipping is neither required nor expected," but "you can show your further appreciation for the team by [tipping] the Crew Welfare Fund." Seabourn's goal is to "deliver the most luxurious experiences" but Seabourn "does not prioritize food on its Expedition cruises."

Or is this a promise delivered: A voyage "filled with unforgettable Seabourn Moments and memories"?

This from a Washington Post article today was of interest on this topic:

Save on short-term luggage storage

It’s a common hassle: Your next flight or train leaves in the evening but you have to check out of your hotel by midmorning — and it’s too inconvenient for your itinerary to leave your bags at the hotel after you pay the bill. Instead of dragging your suitcases around while you take in one more day of sightseeing, you can book short-term luggage storage using an app that has partnered with small stores and businesses to provide secure storage.  

A few of the many options include Usebounce.com, Nannybag.com, Radicalstorage.com and Stasher.com. Prices tend to start around $5-7 dollars per day per item.  

That option is often cheaper than using the short-term storage offered at large train stations and some airports — which are often located far from sites you want to visit.

11 hours ago, texanaust said:

Interestingly his response was that 'Seabourn does not prioritize food on its Expedition cruises.'

Reading this otherwise enjoyable travelog it seems Seabourn doesn't prioritize what I would consider expeditions on some of their Expedition cruises either. Really begs the question what are they even doing here? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  Happy that our correspondents are enjoying the experience despite some significant under delivery of promise.

16 hours ago, saminina said:

Ask to have a non pre cooked burger put on the grill.   It's not a problem.

Paying Seabourn per diems and having to ask for a non-pre-cooked burger is a problem.

Understanding that the survey was amenities focused on how they might be able to upcharge for ice cubes etc., the thing I'd be willing to pay more for is longer port calls and/or overnight port calls. All aboard at 20:30 (or later when possible) instead of 17:30 enables extended touring, perhaps even dinner in a local restaurant, with much less concern for missing the ship departure. Overnight even more so.

IMO the value of a port call increases exponentially with every additional hour there. I would sacrifice number of port calls per itinerary for length of time in ports. Indeed, my ideal itinerary would be a mix of longer port calls with sea days in between, since we enjoy both.

20 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

Not silly.  I've been involved with a number of survey/group sessions where non-disclosure agreements were part of the package.

Agreements and package are doing a lot of work here. Seabourn sending an unsolicited blast email survey to countless numbers of people is pretty far afield from the organized surveys you're alluding to.

26 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

They obviously didn't want to have wide dissemination of what they were asking,...

Obviously? They sent it out in an unsolicited blast email. They're either naive or stupid.

I'd like to have some of what they were smoking when they created some of these offerings. My favorite were those that offered 'Drink Packages available for purchase' combined with 'Unlimited soda, beer, wine and spirits in suite'. How does that make any sense? Perhaps the brilliant Seabourn web designers executed a hostile takeover of the corporate offices.

22 hours ago, Salf777 said:

I see a lot of excursions and we are doing a Yacht Harbors cruise and I don’t see like any thing like a day at the beach.

I wish SB would contract day pass excursions to some beach clubs or resorts on the Caribbean cruises with round trip transportation included. The crowded tourist beaches usually have very spartan facilities/amenities and are often beset with pestering local vendors. Beaches away from crowds usually have no facilities at all. There's always the nagging concern whether your return taxi will available. Etc. At our age, we prefer real facilitates, real food, ideally real cocktails and no worries.

9 hours ago, stan01 said:

In warm weather I don't find jeans to be practical and don't travel with them.  Instead I use something like Lululemon ABCs.  I have worn those on "elegant casual" nights.

Second this. The Lululemon ABCs are light and comfortable enough to wear daytime on excursions yet still dressy enough for evening elegant casual wear.

Perhaps you should reply confirming your new, lower HAL pricing.

6 hours ago, Archipelago said:

I would just wear a dress shirt and jacket every night as I have done on Silversea

IMO if you wear a blazer/jacket it will absolve the "sin" of wearing a polo shirt and of course a dress shirt w/o jacket is also fine. Polo shirt is fine at Colonnade and E&O, and frankly you won't be turned away from the Restaurant either if you're comfortable not caring if a few diners snootily choose to be offended. Honestly, most won't care.

7 hours ago, alexandria said:

We had a server who abruptly and officiously "corrected" me when I decided to order two appetizers in lieu of a main, telling me that the menu required me to order one appetizer and one main.

This is ridiculous. They hand you a wide-ranging menu that requires a multi-lingual cryptologist to decipher and then they restrict your choices? Other than chef's prix fixe menu dining there isn't a fine dining restaurant in the world that would impose this restriction. At this price point unless the request is untenable the customer should never hear "no."

Try Netscape. Don't think they've updated their website since that era browser.

3 hours ago, CLOU said:

...the pre-dinner drinks crows...

Assuming this was not a typo, spot on! 

21 hours ago, skybluewaters said:

The only issue I've had there is that the tables are tiny (they were meant for drinks and not for eating).

This and the wait staff can be overly taxed handling both drinks and sushi, especially during the pre-dinner cocktail hour. If you're going to have sushi as a meal your experience will likely be better if you wait until the pre-dinner cocktail crowd has moved on to the dining venues.

1 hour ago, skybluewaters said:

 

Sad?  Are there lots of sober children in some third-world country who need alcohol?

It may be a financial loss, but not sure it qualifies as a sad event.

And this comes from someone who was near tears when they spilled a Negroni. 😢

So I take it you were "near tears" of joy? Surely not tears of sadness. 

1 hour ago, Vineyard View said:

Looking at the same itinerary for April 2025, and the pricing has gone to $1,414 per person per day, from $1,022 per person per day.

Acknowledging that some places can only or best be seen by ship and the advantage of seeing multiple places w/o packing/unpacking, nevertheless one could put together many extremely luxe land-based travel itineraries for that kind of money (and less) that allow multiple days per location at the finest hotels, Michelin level dining, private tours, limousine transfers, etc. Plus you never have to worry about missing "all aboard" deadlines after just mere hours per location and most of it can be cancelled within days of the travel date without penalty.

Perhaps there will continue to be enough cruise addicts and/or people for whom money is no object to remain successful, but IMHO the cruise business structure, especially at the high end, is dated and out of touch with online generations currently reaching and becoming an ever increasing percentage of the retirement travel market.

10 hours ago, shark b8 said:

A printed note in our mail-clip thing tonight:  

“Um…. Was anyone really expecting KFC or Taco Bell?”

 

So, Panda Express?

The whole cruising sales models and pricing gimmicks are such an antiquated racket. The worst part is the virtual requirement to pay a +/-10% commission surcharge to TAs (less what you can claw back from the TA in discounts, rebates, OBC, etc.). If you book direct with the cruise line they just pocket the unpaid TA commission and flat out refuse to credit any portion of the unpaid commission back the purchaser.

"Sail of the Year" has been going on since January and the offers have been, shall we say, evolving. In late January we were looking at the 11-day late March crossing from Miami to Canary Islands cruise on Quest, had the pricing nailed down and decided over the weekend to book it. Contacted the TA on Monday and soon found out that the previous day SB had revised the offer on the cruise, adding $500/pp OBC - and had increased the fare price by $600/pp! The new OBC was promoted as a limited time "sale" offer. Needless to say, we declined their offer to pay $1,200 for $1,000 of OBC and too clever by half Seabourn lost a booking.

10 hours ago, lincslady said:

In recent years I have asked for a large cup with a double espresso in, topped up with regular coffee, which is a reasonably acceptable substitute and saves giving explanations to the waiters. (This in the Colonnade).

I also didn't know they offer espresso in the dining venues. Thanks! Perhaps we need to compile a Seabourn Secret Menu. 

17 hours ago, Astride said:

I don't understand this obsession with caviar & champagne. Who cares?

These two sentences are self-refuting. 

14 hours ago, Hlitner said:

...for those of us who like truly full flavored coffee you have to ask for "French Press" coffee in the Colonnade.

I wasn't aware of this. Thanks! Still, it would be nice to have regular, non-Americano coffee available to go, especially when the dining venues are closed. Ah well, the first world problems of having to make do with cappuccinos. 

7 hours ago, johntstone57 said:

Another bugbear - no self serve tea/coffee machines. Making a cup of tea takes me seconds but on sea days you can wait for ages.

+1 on this admittedly small nit to pick. For those simply wanting a regular coffee or tea to go, a busy Seabourn Square preparing time consuming, custom ordered lattes and cappuccinos can be maddening. After 8am there is no other to-go alternative.

7 hours ago, shark b8 said:

I have figured out how to play yesterday’s archived game of L.A. Kings hockey in our room.  I’m excited about it.  Mrs Sharkbait is……less enthusiastic.  

Did you need a VPN to access that US-based content? If so, what are you using?