kej1

10 hours ago, Laylam said:

Yes, on Akpatok Island in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada, and they were visible from the ship. We got an even closer view from the zodiac, We saw 9 in total, 3 adults and 6 cubs. We were on Seabourn Quest cruising from Reykjavik to Montreal. in August 2019.

 

 

 

We were on a similar cruise in Aug 2018 on Quest.  Saw bears three times in the northern Canada uninhabited islands area.  1. Up close on a zodiac. 2. Further away but decenr viewing on a zodiac, better with binoculars but could see without them.  3.  Only through a strong on board telescope and strong binoculars from the ship. I think we were lucky!  Hope you have the chance too!

We were on Papeete to Guam April 14-May 15.  I concur with most of your thoughts and observations.  In particular the way you explain the expedition vs ocean parts of the cruise which we experienced as well. And I very much agree Seabourn needs to do a better job of communicating this and managing expectations up front.  BTW, one of our highlights was the submersible in Truk aka Chuuk lagoon where we did see a wreck.  It was amazing!  Thank you for sharing!

And yes the Tasmanian sparkeling wine is really nice but hard to find outside Tassie.  Drank it when there.  What you can find is Genevieve sparkeling from South Africa.  A friend of mine is importing to the states.  It’s what you get at most safari lodges throughout Africa.  culturewineco.com to order if you want to try.

21 hours ago, highplanesdrifters said:

@galeforce9

@BasandSyb

@kej1

 

Hey Bubble fans...

Are we or are we not the luckiest people in the world?

 

The big question is what's your fave in the under $80 category? 

 

Met some Aussies on board who loved some Champagne coming out of Tasmania.  Don't know how I'm going to find that in the U.S. 😃

Veuve Cliquot yellow label, Perrier Jouet Grand Brut, some tattinger, most and Chandon imperial or rose, just to name a few.  I’m partial to the Veuve at that price point.  Likely higher on the ship.  These are retail pricing.  Enjoy!  Love champers!

I’m a Krug fan over the others. Done tasting of  DP and Krug on SQ flights But I would not turn any of those mentioned down!  And it’s a matter of your own taste!  Cheers to great Champagnes!  Those you mention are all great.

And thanks so much to @highplanesdrifters for taking us along!  It did look like a great trip despite the frustrations on the expedition piece!  Loved reading it!

Our recent “ expedition” cruise on Pursuit from Papeete to Guam was similar to what @highplanesdrifters describes.  Lots of bus tours and pay excursions in many ports.  Buses were crowded ( think 200 people all visiting the same places) vs small and intimate groups.  We did go into expedition mode in Vanuatu ( although what we did is well documented on other expedition cruise sites) and most of PNG and Micronesia.  But things were a bit haphazard.  We had no idea even in regularly cruised ports what would be offered until the night before.  That was very frustrating especially for people like my husband interested in WW2 sites.  Would we see them or would we not?  ( we booked privates in advance so didn’t worry but at the prices Seabourn charged we should not have had to).  At the end of the day those large group tours were offered but at the last minute and having 200 people descend on these sites at once was not small and intimate.  The tours could have been staggered throughout the day so poor planning.  
 

Our expedition team had many great individuals and some very good lectures.  It was the organization, the communication, and lack of planning that was poorly  done.  I completely understand in some of the very remote ports it was hard to plan in advance and like on all cruises planned tours are sometimes canceled due to weather, inability to access a port etc, but there is no excuse not to have anything laid out in advance.  I actually looked on the SS website where they do publish many of the activities to get an idea of what we’d be doing on various ports and things.  Nine times out of ten that’s what we ended up doing.  
 

On the positive side Pursuit is a beautiful ship, the staff ( room attendants, dining staff, bartenders, guest services) were all terrific.  We had a great time but the extra charges for tours, the lack of communications and somewhat disorganization of the expeditions and activities was frustrating.  Again many of the tours could have been communicated on the website way in advance, people could have signed up in advance and this could have prevented  last minute scrambles.  Hopefully this will improve on Seabourn expeditions going forward. Or if they are going to be more hybrid with many charged tours it should be communicated and priced accordingly.  

Amazing photos and looks like a great time!  Please give our best to Maneil and Nolly from Kim and Charles. We had Maneil from Papeete to Guam and Nolly from Honaria to Guam.  We thought they were both terrific and we miss being on board!

Sounds like a great trip.  That stop is on our iten for next year when we do The Kimberly and then Indonesia, some additional PNG and end in Fiji.  Hope you are enjoying the suite.  Do you have Nolly and Maneil as attendents?  They were ours on the second half.

@frantic36 so glad you are aboard and already enjoying our room!  Have a great trip and I’ll be following along when you have time to post!

I have been to the Seychelles several times by air and land but not on a cruise ship.  December can be quite rainy but the dry season can be quite windy and the water can be quite rough ( July and August).  So don’t know if it will be rough but you could have rain.  

Sounds marvelous!  Things are looking up.  I believe Lucqui  was on our Quest trip to Antarctica and South Georgia. in dec2017/jan 2018.  If the same he was fantastic on that trip and sounds like he will be doing well on this one too now that you are in expedition mode!  Wonderful photos.  I was remiss in not posting many on our trip but my husband is the photographer and is just now really pulling them all together.  Thank you for sharing!  

Too bad it’s not a true expedition cruise but it seems you are having a good time!  Nice photos!

Not a good value.  In most European ports you can find this through third parties for a lot less.  Or with a taxi with which you can often negotiate.

I received the email today as well.  It was disappointing  to say the least.  We had some acquaintances that bought a “condo“ back in the day on the old “ world ship”.  They told us times got a bit challenging financially for the world and they received board approval to host groups when space permitted and not all owners were on board. They told us a horror story ( their words) about a car company that hosted an incentive sales event on the ship for a week and said it was a nightmare.  They said everyone was loud, drunk. And acted like they owned the place.  They said it was just awful.  They were looking to sell their condo.  I don’t know what happened but this is a huge turn off for me!  I’ll be looking elsewhere if this comes to fruition.  

Thank you for writing about your adventures!  It was lots of fun to read.

Yes, scuba was available at Chuuk as well as snorkeling and the submarine.

The people I spoke with that did the diving were happy with it.  Typically only one tank dives and they didn’t do it everywhere but they said they were happy.  In a couple of places ( I think Cook Islands) they set it up with a local shop as it wasn’t offered there from Seabourn, but may have been due to local rules.

On 5/13/2024 at 9:33 AM, frantic36 said:

 

I will be on Pursuit's first Kimberly cruise in June. So I can let you know what expeditions we get then. Having done a Kimberley cruise last year I am not expecting them to use the submarine due to tides in the area but I might be surprised. 

Have a great time on your cruise!  I’m sure you will.  We already miss being on the ship!

and when you can let us know what’s happening as we are still signed up for Kimberly to Lautoka Aug 2025!  

End of cruise Part 2:

Suite:  one more thing we really enjoyed to add to my previous comments is the dry closet.  I know it was designed for cold weather cruises like Antarctica, but we found it really useful for drying bathing suits, rash guards, water shoes, etc from snorkeling.  It’s a terrific feature.

Dining:  One more comment.  We enjoyed sushi a lot even though it wasn’t quite the same as enjoying when it’s fresh at restaurants.   We had it for dinner twice and it worked out really well.  It’s served in the club on deck 9 which also has a very nice atmosphere. It was usually crowded from 6-7pm so we’d go about 7:30 and service was quick and by then people who were going to the other dining venues were gone.

Entertainment:  We aren’t big on it but did enjoy listening to a cup on occasion when they played in the sushi bar.  There was a piano player ( never saw or heard), sail away parties, trivia, and a big selection of movies in the rooms.  If you are looking for a good critique on entertainment I’m not the one to ask but there were various things going on but seemed pretty low key.

Lectures:  There were some very good lectures by various members of the expedition team.  Lots on the culture, the geology, fish, and at long last a few on WW2.  We enjoyed them and they could be watched in the discovery center on deck 4, in your suite live, or a recorded version on demand.  
 

Expedition Team:  Individuals were quite good.  But the organization and communications was very poor.  We were not informed of any excursions at all before the cruise, even in ports that are well traveled by large and small ships and are clearly non expedition ports.

In many ports during the first two week segment, there were only third party excursions allowed so why did we find out what they were the night prior at the 6:15 briefing? Also a number of the third party tours were at a cost to the passengers.  Not complimentary.  It was a mix.   Then everyone had to scramble to sign up on the app or at guest services.  This just didn’t make sense.   I had called Seattle numerous times trying to find out about tours of WW2 sites in Guadalcanal ( Honaria) and Rabaul but nothing.   So before we left we booked private tours in both places.  As it turned out the night before group tours were out on but we stuck with our private as decided 200+ people on tour buses would not provide the kind if experience we’d enjoy despite when I had talked to Seattle before leaving they had claimed tours would be small and intimate.  

I must admit I’m a planner so I typically looked at other expedition ship websites like Silversea and Ponant to see what we’d likely do and people were amazed I knew in advance.  Now to be fair some of the other ports we visited were quite remote and the team really didn’t know what we’d be doing til we arrived in the morning.  These usually consisted of a village visit and various water activities in the afternoon - kayaks ( charge), sub ( charge), scuba ( no charge on this cruise but limited to small group I think 6-8), snorkeling ( free and all snorkel, mask and fins provided), and sometimes a beach.  Overall the activities were great, just seemed very disorganized and this was the consistent comment across all guests we met.  I hope they get their act together on this as it is an important aspect of the cruise.  The other disappointment for many was the lack of WW2 emphasis but they did add 3 lectures toward the end of the cruise ( after we’d visited most if the key sites).  
 

HQ:  I had an extremely concerning situation with Seattle.  I almost always book my own flights having many miles from traveling internationally for business for many years.  When I saw the Seabourn price on the business class from Guam to Honolulu I  jumped on it.  Seabourn booked me on the flight to Guam leaving this morning from Guam at 6:55 am.  Two days before I left my home for this trip  I received a call ( on a Sunday) from flight ease saying they needed to change my flight and I’d need to overnight in Guam as the ship although arriving at 10:00pm the night before could not disembark passengers until after 6:00 am the next day so I couldn’t make the flight.  I was not happy as we’d already made plans to stay in Hawaii for a few days and then I’d booked my onward flight myself.  I asked them to wait til the next day ( Monday) so I could verify with mgmt at Seabourn. They said yes but an hour later my flight had been changed.  Anyway I very reluctantly changed my Hawaiian plans at great expense but they were my plans so I had to live with it.

Late in the cruise I find out half the cruise is on the flight Seabourn moved me from and they are now as I write this all off and on their way home.  By the time I found out Seabourn refused to change us back as the cost had gone way up as only a few seats left!  
So for me, I won’t be using Seabourn air again!  Not a great end but we did have a lovely time on Pursuit and do have another booked for next summer ( Broome to Fiji).  

Now hanging out in Seabourn Square to our Guam hotel transfer!  Luckily they are letting us disembark the ship at 11:00am so we don’t have to wait long hours to check in!  
If anyone has any questions please let me know.  I’ve been terrible about not posting photos - my husband is the photographer.  Maybe we will add some to this post later!  Thanks for following along on this wonderful adventure!

We did not receive the letter but did tip the crew fund and received a nice letter from mgmt thanking us.  We are still on the ship, getting off soon.

I don’t recall ever having a problem with the bedroom window and light.  

We have stayed almost exclusively in the Penthouse spa suites.   On the O class we prefer the corners although as mentioned if the area is windy the deck is not as usable as the inner suites.  Our neighbors who we met on board in 1091 preferred the inner suites as they use it for sunbathing and it’s more

protected.  The window on the side in the bedroom is small ( compared to the suite we are in now on Pursuit where it’s a full half wall of floor to ceiling windows) so to me it’s nice but the thing we really enjoy is the deck although we don’t mind  bundling up if it’s cool or windy.  So a lot depends on if you want more space and wind protection or prefer the side with the peak around the corner view and the small window in the bedroom.

On the larger ships the views are not as good as they only have the smallish door and window that is identical to all the smaller rooms.  We actually moved our couch under the tv as we could see out the smaller windows that way.  The inner suites were configured differently with the furniture better located to take advantage of the view.  Anyway we aren’t crazy about the larger ships so prefer the O class.  And do remember there are stairs to get up to the room.  There is an electric chair but I’ve never seen it used.  On one cruise a gentlemen was injured and it was broken so they had to move his room.  So keep that in mind too.  There is an elevator to the spa suites on the larger ships.

Here is my almost post cruise summary of Seabourn Pursuit Papeete to Guam.  Actually it was two segments : Papeete to Honaria and Honaria to Guam.  A bit over half got off in Honaria and flew by charter to Sydney.  This first segment had a bit over 200 passengers.  The second segment was almost full and seemed it.  Dining room was more crowded as were excursions.  
 

Part 1:
 

Ship:  Beautiful, lots of outdoor space, lots of places to sit outside or on the various indoor venues.  Seabourn square was pretty busy indoors and sometimes outdoors ( some days just to hit and humid to sit there).  But you could also go to the forward lounge on deck 6 which wasn’t crowded, or even the forward lounge on deck nine ( no service but a nice place to sit and read or catch up on work or email with a coffee or tea from the square).  It had very few people during the day.

We did not us the pool but others seemed to enjoy a dip.  It’s small but people used it.  There are sun loungers located all over the ship and many other than those by the pool were empty.   But it was hot  and humid so only a couple of handfuls of people were sitting in the sun.  
 

Suites:  We had a signature suite on the aft of deck 8 and loved it.  It’s a beautiful suite with a living area, bedroom, large deck and a hot tub, We didn’t use the hot too much as it was quite warm and humid but did use it a few times.  You do need housekeeping or maintenance e to adjust the temperature.  They kept ours like warm which was fine for this trip.   You can hear noise from the club on deck 9 sometimes  ( thump thump from music) I’m a light sleeper - did not effect my husband at all.  You can also hear the ship’s positioning system as they rarely need to use anchors on this ship.  And you can hear people walking around upstairs in the morning - I’m assuming moving furniture around and cleaning as the club is closed.   None of this was too bothersome and would not prevent me from booking this room but good to know.  

We did often have drinks in the evening on our deck and a few times breakfast.  We really liked it and would book it again although since this was a pretty active cruise we probably didn’t use it as much as one could but since I had to work part of the time it was a wonderful spot for working!

We met some people staying in the two story Wintergarden Suite and it was beautiful.  Gorgeous floor to ceiling glass with killer views.  Deck smaller but views fantastic.  I can see this would be very popular as well. 

Other suites we saw looked very nice and on an active cruise like this more than adequate as you don’t spend a lot of time in your room ( except those of us like me that had to work some of the time). Starlink was great and with the upgraded package more than adequate.  Even was able to do some zoom calls and if course FaceTime.  
 

Dining:  It was fair to very good depending.  It seems we are at a point now where we are running out of some things.  I think it’s pretty hard to provision on many of these ports.  I’m sure they will stock up in Guam.  We had a couple of special meals which we enjoyed.  I asked again the other night and was pretty much told no - don’t know if the issue was provisioning or not but I didn’t push it. ( I had asked for Dover sole).  The MDR tended to be the venue of choice.   We ate occasionally on the patio outside the Colunnade for dinner which was also popular but inside was rarely full at dinner.  I personally just don’t care for the atmosphere in the Colunnade indoors as it reminds me of a college cafeteria.  And the food was typically only fair although it was nice to sit outside on occasion in the evening.  Lunches got old fast as the MDR was only open  on sea days.  When only the Colunnade was open it was very crowded and the patio seating where we would sit always had a wait.  Lunches in the MDR were never crowded but I’d say they typically had a between ten- twenty tables depending on the day.  It was a much more relaxing place to eat lunch.

We had room service breakfast most days and it was very well done.  We often had caviar in our room in the evenings and did room service lunch twice.  I asked a couple of times on the patio if I could order from the room service menu and was told no but I saw several others did so I suppose it’s possible.  I think I wasn’t assertive enough when asking.  
 

Now I’m off to a lecture.  Part two to come later.

I mean leaving morning after tomorrow!

Hmm, I’m on the ship and leaving tomorrow and did not receive.  But was planning to contribute.