AmateurGO

I did not ask for an "included wine list" at Guest Services and, of course, it should not be necessary to do so.  The Sommelier's job should be to help you select a wine appropriate for your meal, no matter the price point.  One piece of information the sommelier should get, directly or via implication, is your desired price range: in this case the price range was "included" but as soon as I said that, we were essentially ignored.  This happened twice in the Main Restaurant, so I gave up.  Another issue I had (but haven't mentioned) is that whenever possible, the staff pushed Alamos wine (Malbec and Cab).  I really feel this is below the standard of a "ultra-luxury" ship.  Alamos is a $7 - $8 (retail) wine, not something that should be the "house wine" on the Encore.  The servers were a bit surprised when I declined it.

The Retreat/Suite section of the Beyond had to include about 400 - 500 passengers/guests (perhaps you were looking at one of the smaller ships).  I would say that the Luminae restaurant on the Beyond was almost as big as the Main Restaurant on the Encore and it had at least three knowledgeable sommeliers/wine stewards.

I had the same problem for the two months prior to our April-May cruise on the Encore.  I ended up making our reservations on board soon after we got there.  I suspect the on-line function is off-line or "busted".

We did a 9 days cruise in the Retreat/Suite section of Celebrity Beyond about a year ago and did a 14 day Aegean Sea cruise on Seabourn Encore this April-May.  

I actually thought the Beyond provided a more luxurious feeling and a much more "personal touch" than the Encore.  Yes, the Beyond is big, but every suite has a "butler" assigned who helps you get quicker/easier access to restaurants, entertainment, off/on the ship, and anything you want for your cabin.  On about the second day, our butler asked what kind of wine we liked and two bottles quickly showed up in our cabin.  While our cabin attendants on the Encore were efficient, there was no feeling of such personal service. 

And the sommeliers...  We quickly established a rapport with the Beyond sommelier in the Luminae restaurant and he happily assisted us with making choices among the numerous wines available as part of the "package".  On the Encore, the main restaurant sommeliers only wanted to talk to us if we were going to purchase the "optional" wines, most of which were well over $100 per bottle.  (About 10 days into the cruise, an "assistant sommelier" in Colonnade finally got us a list of the included/available wines.)

My overall impression of the Encore is that about 90% of the crew thought much more highly of the ship and their services than we did.  And yes, that includes the food, even the Thomas Keller Grill.  I guess I just don't like "fish eggs" enough.

Two comments to this:

River cruises:  A typical river cruise boat has about 130 passengers and I would guess that, on average, there might be 3 or 4 such boats visiting AMS on any given day.  Roughly 500 passengers is a far cry from the 5000 passengers on some of the mega-ships, much less from multiple such ships at one time.

We very much enjoy visiting the Caribbean island of Bonaire (2 or 3 weeks at a time, not via cruises).  For the past 5 or 6 years (except for Covid19) the cruise industry has "discovered" Bonaire and there are sometimes two large (3000+ passenger) ships docked there.  The total population of Bonaire is 20,000 people: 5000 or 6000 people visiting on the same day is just too much!  The tourist industry in Bonaire is in the process of limiting the number and size of ships visiting on any one day, and I hope they make it work because the current situation is miserable for the residents and long-term visitors.  

I have just (finally) completed a rather complete trip report of our 14 day Aegean Sea cruise, (Athens to Athens via Istanbul) in late April and May.  The full trip report is at my personal web site (no advertising or such)  www.hammocktree.us/trips.html  and the Aegean trip is currently at the top of the list.  Warning: it is long with LOTS of photos.

For those with less time to read such reports, the short version  (the "Closing thoughts" in the full report) is posted below.  I suspect this may generate some "comments".

In General

This trip was both interesting and fun, as well as educational.  We learned a lot about Greek, Roman, and even earlier civilizations, and it did not even hurt our brains (well, not much, anyway).  We did get our fill of very old ruins of cities that were thousands of years old and it became somewhat difficult to keep them all straight (thus, one reason for this report).  After a while, seeing more ruins (restored or not) became somewhat like seeing yet another church in Italy or Spain.

The weather was definitely cooler and windier than we expected.  We seldom (ever?) needed shorts or T-Shirts and our somewhat waterproof windbreakers and rain hats came in very handy.  Perhaps the weather would have been better if we had gone two or three weeks later, but I am also sure that crowds would have been worse.  All of the local people that we met or talked to, the guides or otherwise, were friendly and welcoming and the towns in the Greek islands, especially, were amazingly clean and well maintained.

The Seabourn Encore

The Encore was a very nice way to visit the island and was comfortable and provided good service, but not “great” service.  My overriding thought was that the crew, with a few exceptions, seemed to think more highly of the ship than we did.  The almost complete lack of local foods, the attitude of the main dining room sommeliers, and the relatively bland seasoning of the dishes was a disappointment.  The lack of a printed “daily events” sheet until the last day was a definite problem.  While the Seabourn app should have provided very up-to-date information about excursions (times, meeting places, etc.) we frequently arrived at the named departure/meeting point to find no one there.  If the meeting place or disembarkation point changes from that printed on the tickets or in the Seabourn app, someone should be stationed at the original location to redirect people. 

In both the main restaurant and Colonnade, the servers sometimes seemed to forget that there were patrons there waiting for service.  Rearranging the silverware drawer or organizing bottles of cold water sometimes took precedence over actually pouring that water for the guests.  After a few days we did figure out which servers were providing the best service (Ludwig, Julin, Xhemi), but so did the other passengers, so getting a table in their section was a challenge.  Aimee, the Cruise Director was doing an excellent job in sometimes difficult circumstances.  For several reasons, we had the opportunity to talk (socially, not “business”) to her several times and she was always pleasant, friendly, and glad to spend some time with us, although I knew she had many other things to be doing.  The entertainers (the band, the dancers, and the singers) all worked very hard and put on good shows and were friendly whenever we met then “off-line”.   Other than at the official reception at the start of the cruise, I don’t think I ever saw or spoke to any of the ships officers.

To compare the Encore to our other cruise experiences…..  I really think that the Celebrity Beyond, in the Retreat/Suite section, provided a more luxurious feeling and better service.  There were some disadvantages of being on a huge ship, but also some advantages and the staff (butler service for every suite) helped get past the crowds.  Comparing the Encore to our Windstar cruise experiences is somewhat like apples and oranges.  The Windstar ships (the ones we have been on so far) are certainly not as modern and luxurious as the Encore or Beyond, but the crew and the overall experience is more friendly and personable for a much more social and fun environment.  As of this writing, we have reservations on one of the newer Windstar ships in September, so stay tuned.

My $.02 USD worth thoughts (and that is about all they are worth)....   If anyone else has better info, I welcome any corrections.

Having taken 3 Seabourn provided excursions on our current cruise (Greek Islands) my assumption is that Seabourn would pay the tour providers enough that the guides would receive a reasonable basic tip, appropriate for the region and duties.  If you feel the guide has gone over and above the "basic" level, then tip accordingly.  For example, we had a 6 hour group tour for which the guide was very good... not outstanding but very good.  If we were on an independent tour, i probably would have tipped $40 - 50.   But, since I assumed that Seabourn was providing a basic tip, we tipped an additional $20.

Exactly, cruiseej...  The "appointment" approach is really just to try to spread out the arrivals in a reasonable manner.  I'm sure the appointment times reflect, at least to some degree, the time that the cabins are expected to be available.  Other cruise lines I've been on did not use an "appointment" approach, but did attempt to stagger arrivals based on the class of the cabin and/or the "status" (number of cruises, etc) of the customer.  Higher status customers were allowed/encouraged to board earlier.  I don't think anyone was ever turned away for being too early and the lunch venues were certainly the popular places.

If I read the Seabourn material I have received properly.....   If you arrive to the ship at your assigned check-in time, your cabin will be available.  If you arrive early, you may(!) be able to check in, but your cabin may(!) not be available.  I guess that one purpose of the assigned check-in times is to spread the arrivals and ensure that people will not be hanging around, waiting on their cabin.   

We are also on the April 23 Encore sailing and I got a revised 1:20 boarding time yesterday.  Since we're staying at a hotel in Athens, I suspect that our arrival at the dock will largely be determined by the check-out time at the hotel.

While we're talking about after dinner drinks on Encore.....  anyone know/remember the brand(s) of Cognac available?

Thanks

For what it is worth (as a first time Seabourn cruiser), I have had the same problem with getting a reservation for the TK Grill.  I completed our registration and payments about 3 months ago and have tried to make a reservation multiple times, for multiple different evenings throughout our 14 day cruise.  Every attempt came back as no openings available.  Now that we are within 2 weeks of our sailing date (4/23) I get the message there are no online reservations within 15 days of sailing.  I guess that we'll try again once on board, but it is disappointing that we are encouraged to make reservations early, and then are unable to do so.