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Robisan

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Everything posted by Robisan

  1. 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"?
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Paying Seabourn per diems and having to ask for a non-pre-cooked burger is a problem.
  5. 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.
  6. 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. Obviously? They sent it out in an unsolicited blast email. They're either naive or stupid.
  7. 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.
  8. 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. Second this. The Lululemon ABCs are light and comfortable enough to wear daytime on excursions yet still dressy enough for evening elegant casual wear.
  9. Perhaps you should reply confirming your new, lower HAL pricing.
  10. 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.
  11. 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."
  12. Try Netscape. Don't think they've updated their website since that era browser.
  13. Assuming this was not a typo, spot on!
  14. 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.
  15. So I take it you were "near tears" of joy? Surely not tears of sadness.
  16. 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.
  17. 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.
  18. "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.
  19. I also didn't know they offer espresso in the dining venues. Thanks! Perhaps we need to compile a Seabourn Secret Menu.
  20. These two sentences are self-refuting.
  21. 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.
  22. +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.
  23. Did you need a VPN to access that US-based content? If so, what are you using?
  24. "Available now for past Seabourn guests. Please call [ph#] or contact your travel agent today for pricing. Welcoming new Seabourn guests [date]." Problem solved. This is not rocket science.


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