Windstar27

My husband and I were on this crossing. The first 11 days were relatively smooth. The last two before we disembarked in Lisbon were frankly terrifying.

To put things in context--we are seasoned cruisers. We've taken about 20 over 30 years, on ships of various sizes. We've completed 4 Atlantic crossings, including one on the little Wind Star. We have never experienced anything like this.

On the first bad day, the captain announced that winds were above 40 knots, with swells around 5 meters. The galley tour was canceled, and passengers were not allowed on the outside decks. On the second bad day, swells were 6 to 8 feet continuously, all day and all night. Waves crashed into the windows of our suite on deck 3. Glassware and dishes toppled off the tables in Amphora. There were crashes inside the kitchen. Guests who sat on bar stools in the lounge were thrown off (eventually the bar stools were taken away). It wasn't even safe to sit in a chair in the Yacht Club or the lounge--chairs slid around while you sat in them, whether they were on carpet or bare floor.

Around 4 a.m. Thursday night, my husband was thrown out of bed by a very high swell. He slammed head-first into the desk and skinned one elbow. That same swell sent a heavy table, ottoman and chair careening into the wall next to our cabin door, denting the wall in 2 places. Up on the main deck, it knocked the grand piano off the stage in the lounge. Some computer monitors were broken, as was the printer used to print boarding passes.

At 7 a.m. Friday, the captain came on the intercom and acknowledged extensive damage. He asked everyone to stay in their cabins until 8:30 a.m. while breakage was cleaned up. The Veranda and Yacht Club were closed, but breakfast was served in Amphora, amid very choppy seas. I heard later that some people were jolted out of their chairs at breakfast, and breakage continued to occur.

I'll try to post a few photos from our cabin during the worst of it. We kept the lamp table from crashing by using a Windstar bathrobe belt to tie it to the rail along the window. Glass bottles were clanking around inside our mini bar, so we stuffed a towel in there to keep them from breaking.

Throughout this, the staff were simply amazing. They cleaned up and went about their daily work very professionally. I'm sure they didn't get any more sleep than we did.

I still cannot believe that we sailed into these conditions.

We have stayed in 419 on Sojourn. The loudest noise in our suite was not the flushing, but the anchor or bow thrusters on docking. This would not be an issue on a transatlantic crossing, but it was our daily wake-up call in the Med.

Jacqueline Chambers will be assistant CD. She came aboard in Cartegena.

Current captain on Odyssey is Stig Betten. Handre was cruise director, but had to return home for a family matter. Sophie Tehrani was his assistant and is now in the CD role. The entertainers are assisting her with trivia.

Have the beds/mattresses changed in recent years? I don't recall any discomfort during my first two Seabourn cruises, in 2012 and 2013. But last summer, the bed on Sojourn was very hard. I'm finding the same on Odyssey now. I have requested a mattress topper. I have never had to do this at a hotel.

Julie, I was on the same 11-day roundtrip Civitavecchia cruise last July. I too enjoyed both shopping excursions with chef Neal Breen.

Our next trip is the LA-FLL Panama Canal cruise on Odyssey in March. Does anyone who has sailed this route know if shopping with the chef is offered, and which port it might be?

The convenience of shipping luggage definitely appeals to me. But don't your clothes get absolutely squashed from being packed so far in advance? Even the wrinkle-resistant fabrics?

We spent 21 days in the Mediterranean last summer in 419 on Sojourn (category A1).

The suite was around the corner from the corridor leading to the MDR. Very smooth sailing, and very quiet, EXCEPT for those mornings when we dropped anchor for a port. On our cruise, that was almost every morning.

We are fairly early risers, so the loud, clanking noise simply became our daily wake-up call. This wouldn't be an issue on a TA. As a previous poster mentioned, the window is large and clear.

We liked the quiet location of 419 and would choose it again for a TA, when we wouldn't be likely to use a veranda.

I just disembarked Sojourn amd must report that there was no clotted cream at tea on the last two days. :eek:

I am aboard Sojourn now and agree with Julie's assessment. This is our third Seabourn cruise--our second in the Med with Chef Neal Breen--and we are very impressed with the variety of foods presented, and the quality of ingredients. Taste is subjective, of course, but I am not seeing any decline in standards.

We have had two minor service issues, both rectified after we mentioned them.

One was almost comical. Guest services contacted us three times--by phone, by handwritten note, and in person-- to ask how they could accommodate our special diet requests. But we hadn't made any such requests. Their persistence was admirable....I hope they were able to determine the correct party.

We got another call last week. Same lady, same rugs, same spiel. When I told her she had already called us, she apologized and hung up quickly.

I think I will convey my annoyance to Seabourn.

JVilleGal, the tour we took was a Seabourn shore excursion to Ephesus and the Terrace Houses.

I specifically chose it because it was the only one that did NOT mention a carpet demonstration in the tour description. But the tour did conclude at the carpet shop.

Our home phone number is unlisted, and I am very guarded about giving it out. There is no way they would have my information unless Seabourn provided it.

This afternoon I received a phone call from a woman who claimed to be affiliated with the carpet store in Kusadasi where many Seabourn tours conclude.

She asked for me by name, and said I "might remember her" because I had visited the shop with other passengers last summer (July, in our case).

She told me that the shop had brought some carpets to New York City for a showing and didn't sell them all. Rather than carry them back to Turkey, they were contacting past visitors to see if we might want a "private showing" of rugs in our homes (!!) I told her their carpets were lovely, but we didn't need one.

Did anyone else get this call? It is bizarre on several levels:

We attended the carpet-making demonstration, but did not buy anything.

We never gave them our home phone number.

We live 2 hours from New York.

Were they really going to schlep a truck full of rugs to my house?

I can only assume that Seabourn gave (or sold) my home phone number to them. Any thoughts on this?

We just sailed the same route 2/14 to 2/21. Very accurate summary. I can't speak to price drops since we always book less than 90 days ahead, but then we usually have to pay higher prices for airfare.

On our trip, Candles dining moved to the Star Deck outside the Veranda for a few nights because of rain squalls & wind. It's a better location than the pool area. They used clear plastic barriers to protect against the elements. Even with the barrier in place, we had a lovely view of another sailing ship, the Sea Cloud, which was lighted beautifully at night.

Also worth noting:

WiFi is slow and expensive, which I expected ($50 for 100 MB; $100 for 250 MB). The new internet plan--which measures megabytes rather than time used--is confusing. I could never tell how much space I had left. I was able to check email on my tablet in our suite, but not on the Yacht Club desktops. Conversely, I was able to view Facebook in the Yacht Club, but not in our suite.

Mixed drinks were expensive, averaging $9 and $10 with the automatic 15 percent gratuity. On the plus side, the variety of wines by the glass was quite good--even better than we found on Seabourn. The free latte and cappuccino drinks were well-made. They were available in the dining room and at the Veranda as well as at the Yacht Club coffee bar.

Don't cut your arrival for departure too closely! Our paper cruise ticket gave the all-aboard time as 6 p.m. But when we boarded the ship, we discovered that all-aboard was at 5 p.m., with sailing scheduled for 6 p.m.

We just completed the Yachtsman's Caribbean route, sailing 2/14 to 2/21. Our Deck 3 suite looked great, except for a large carpet stain near the entry door. The chipped and worn desktops we saw on our 2012 cruise have been replaced. Some public restrooms had wallpaper that looked dated, but were very clean. Housekeeping was impeccable in public areas and in our suite. Crew were painting and varnishing on days when most people were ashore. We have sailed many times on the Surf; I think it looks better than ever.

@Paula, we are doing two 10-day segments, Barcelona-Athens and Athens-Monte Carlo. It is port-intensive; we have only two sea days out of 20.

PaulaJK, The RM is Nicholas Botha. I am not sure if Antonio is aboard. MDR has been closed for lunch every day.

I am aboard Sojourn now. The ship is in tiptop condition. Service has been outstanding. French market dinner last night in the Colonnade, sourced from the Ajaccio market, was one of the best meals I have ever had at sea. MDR has been open every morning for breakfast. Colonnade coffee is still weak, and MDR dishes are undereseasoned, but ingredients are of good quality. Complimentary wine choices are much better than they were on Odyssey two years ago. The singers/dancers and musicians are quite good. We are on until Monte Carlo, if anyone has a question. Hamish Elliott is the captain.