Catlover54

Am enjoying your blog and especially the photos. The girl in the mini-skirt could just as easily be from the late 60's.

Am looking forward to your review, so I can compare progress since I was on in January when I wrote my blog (height of Omicron then). 1. Can you tell how full the ship is? (That helps put service issues in perspective) 2. Are masks no longer mandatory in the Venetian Lounge or gym, per announcements you have had? Very recently, per a review, they were. Can you tell (per announcements) if they will still be mandatory on excursion buses, both inside and outside (per either SS or Norwegian/local authorities)? If so, must they be surgical or N95, or is cloth allowed? 3. I would be interested in learning what they are serving in the SALT restaurant on a Norway cruise (am assuming salmon will be part of it) 🙂 The SALT option is what had lured me back to SS after a few years of absence, and it was our favorite venue last January on Panama Canal cruise. 4. Is the little outside thermal pool aft behind the gym open/working? I loved that magical little spot for reading, with just the sounds of the ocean, and on a cold weather cruise (if open), could be nice for semi-private soaking. 5. Are you in a standard veranda suite? 6. Are independent excursions allowed and, if so, are masks required on private tours? No pressure to answer questions, and I thank you in advance for any offerings and contributions. Enjoy!

Were pax still required to mask when using the gym, or was it optional? Same question for the Venetian Lounge, and for excursions (inside, and outside?)

TrulyBlonde, I am pretty sure that there is nothing "blonde" about your brain 🙂 It's not as if you thought PITA is a food . . .

And this is why I am not surprised that the beautiful expedition ship Crystal Endeavor (less than a year old) was quickly purchased by SS, to become the SS Endeavor, likely starting with the 2023/24 winter season (or so we hope -- we loved that ship around Iceland in 2021, though of course much of the joy was due to the stellar chef, other excellent Crystal staff who are now scattered to the winds , and the breathtaking scenery). A&K also bought the roughly double-decade old Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity, to squeeze a little more out of them in their last years as A&K gets footing in the cruise industry -- a ship in the hand is worth two in the shipyard.. Every quality line is competing for good staff too, so excellent Crystal staff have found homes either on other lines (some have appeared on Seabourn) or on land. The bidding war may extend (or likely has already shifted) from the price on old ships to the price for new staff contracts -- costs which of course will be passed on to customers, perhaps sooner than the increased fuel costs for cruising. The origins of staff on ships may also start shifting, e.g., on the luxury German line, Hapag Lloyd, on a recent cruise, I noticed that many of the German and EU staff in the dining rooms have disappeared, and have been replaced by staff from Tunisia and other countries where the cost of living is lower and workers will more likely be satisfied with the wages they earn on cruise lines today.

The alternatives are to push governments, cruise lines, and others to note that despite the fact that " Scrapping coronavirus travel rules led to a 27-fold year-on-year increase in the number of overseas residents visiting the UK," there has not been a 27-fold increase in hospitalizations (at least not yet).. BTW, doesn't a land tour with Tauck still *require* being up to date on whatever the vaccine combination push of the day is? Plus, don't you still have to wear a mask on the bus regardless of vaccine update status? Not much real pro and con here. We do what we are told if we want to cruise and put up with it (with minor variations), we stay home, or we drive, maskless (though I see many people driving solo in my area, wearing masks) -- within our own country. DH had a bad reaction to the first booster (i.e., shot #3), was sick in bed for a week. So our choice is to wait until #4 (or a new version) is absolutely *required* to cruise, and meanwhile (due to ongoing quarantine risks and masks-on-buses-and-some-planes requirements, which we both struggle with) our cruising is half as much as we had in mind.

What an absolutely lovely video, with excellent music pairing ! Thank you. It brought back memories of the ports I had been to, and Trogir definitely looks like a new bucket list candidate.

Rachel, I just read this blog, and would like to thank you for your informative and objective blog trip report and review. I can always count on you to speak frankly, pro and con, and with your usual subtle humor, and I appreciate it. With some reviews where people just rave about everything being wonderful, and perfect, at all times, wheeeee, I tend to be skeptical, (even though it could be true, from their perspective) but not with you. Over the years, your reports have helped me plan trips -- I take notes, screen shots, and read more about some of the things you report from ports even if I do not comment. Your port and excursion information was most useful, especially for the ports I have not been to. Even though I will not likely be able to convince DH to set foot on a Regent ship again for quite some time (he had too many experiences he does not consider acceptable on a luxury ship, last was in 2019, given we have luxury alternatives), the ports and excursion and even hotel info is still helpful. I am glad George is improving, as he likely would given facts you describe, and you are indeed lucky that you did not have to have a negative test to return, a change in policy that fortuitously happened just a bit before you flew home. I am in the minority of Americans, i.e., I still have not had Covid despite many exposure opportunities and multiple cruises post-Covid . This is despite being on chronic (not acute) immunosuppressive therapy, the Covid medical facts right now are such that I would have been fine being in the same crowd of 'gate lice' crushing shoulder to shoulder boarding your Delta return flight, or even sitting next to George who almost certainly was already infected flying home, and even without a mask. I know it's just a matter of time before I get infected, because I have no intention of hiding at home, I would just prefer I *not get quarantined* , especially if I am with my DH (he HAS to be out there taking photos, daily, not just sitting in a cabin). That will be the next step for increasing cruise freedom -- elimination of quarantines for people who test positive, along with elimination of all mandatory masks. Then I could back to my original retirement plan, which was to be on a luxury ship twice as much as I am now. Maybe we will meet on a SS cruise (we liked the Moon a lot) , or maybe I can scout a Regent cruise solo (one of the newer ships) and convince DH to later join me. I wish you both well and happy future cruising.

My guess is that given all the games and snacks, and stuff shoved under the bed, that suite was occupied by kids or teens. In the haste of disembarkation, perhaps the "classy" parents did not think to check their kids' suite nearby before they left, and there's a lot more "education" that needs to happen back home. If you've ever done a SB cruise at holiday time when extended well-off families are on board (many from certain states and/or certain countries) , you will know there are plenty of kids, and other pax, who would be likely suspects for what some of us would consider inconsiderate behavior (e.g., people who unnecessarily yell personal communications at 6:15 AM in the hallways, people who play video games or sports competition video with audio on full blast and no headphones while sitting in the dining room at dinner , people who come to lunch in the MDR wearing thongs revealing dirty toenails, people who rush to sit in the disability seats on tours but then are suddenly spry enough to dash off the bus at view spots and block everyone's view while they use their selfie stick to get the best shots, and of course people who "take over" and block key sun loungers for the whole day or even pay tips to staff to reserve them). My favorite, however, was not on SB (though it could have been) but on Crystal Endeavor, an expedition ship, when the male teens in a family of 15 decided that in addition to endless yelling, because they were bored it'd be fun to throw rocks at a bird sitting at the shore on an island, which was a nature preserve. When they were ultimately told to pipe down, the complainers were accused of being 'culturally insensitive'. Now that DH and I are retired, we can mostly avoid holiday time cruises.

Considering Fudge had a nasty virus with very sore throat and aching all over at 4 AM, even if it is not Covid (I assumed you checked for it when the throat pain hit) it might not havve been the safest move to head out into public dining rooms and bars or take a crowded tender. He got sick in the middle of the night on day 1, so might be infectious to others a few days more, The crew wear masks which may or may not protect them , but pax without masks sitting closely to you do not and could infect youn or other

". . . . So overall an excellent start with the exception of our suite...Unfortunately our Stewardess(es) did not prepare our room properly. The toilet was dirty (and I don't mean ring around the collar, I mean brown water). We also found nappies/diapers and a whole cupboard full of games, junk, etc. Totally unacceptable. Our first contact with the stewardess (we gave her two hours) also did not render results so we had to escalate. After a re-clean we came back and found cards, bottles and plastic debris under the bed (I am not kidding), plus the carpet had not been cleaned. There were chunks of food on the floor, the couch and the chair. The Head Housekeeper just arrived and was profusely apologetic-she agreed that the condition of the suite fell well short of Seabourn standards. I will report on the results of cleaning #3 tomorrow!. . . ." The filth on the first round could have been due to a suite having been accidentally "missed" during the initial cleanup rounds. More disturbing is the junk under the bed and food chunk presence on the "reclean" round. Something is wrong with the assigned stewardess. Even mainstream lines typically had immaculate rooms at least at the start of the cruise (but of course where they then fail is on quality of food, public passenger space, and other service).

I like forward to your review of the ship, and hope you will speak frankly! I have no loyalty to any one luxury line (I mix and match), and have tried several lines since Covid (less total cruise days than I originally had planned due to the restrictions), so I love objective information. For reference, perspective, and orientation, if you don't mind answering, how many prior SB cruises have you done and how long ago, i.e., any since Covid? Some reviewers (on CC and elsewhere) are so happy to be cruising at all since Covid that despite paying high prices, any problems encountered are excused (especially since they are also present on other luxury lines), i.e., a "count your blessings" type of approach (perhaps healthier). Others continue to understandably expect top service for the top prices they pay and are unhappy when expectations are not met. I'm somewhere in between.

". . . .I do have to say that the staff are some of the best at sea." I assume you are not referring to the staff carver who kept insisting that bloody chicken was just fine. The tendency of many staff even on luxury ships to deny factual reality and treat pax like idiots is one of my biggest irritants when cruising. Another is giving misinformation instead of saying " I don't know, let me find out for you" . It seems to be something that staff, if they think they are too busy to correct a problem , have learned they can get away with. I would rather they just acknowledge that the customer is displeased, or that they don't know an answer, and act accordingly, instead of trying to pull a fast one. My favorite is when they insist that a refrigerator, or AC, I know is broken is working just fine. They then get confused and look for more creative excuses when I show them the mini-thermometer I carry with me that objectively measures temperature. Fortunately most staff on luxury lines tend to be better overall , but I have not done SB since Covid yet (have done 5 other cruises since Covid though not SB, and soon I will also be able to use up my cruise credits on SB Quest, before they expire). I had originally signed up for a SB Venture cruise, thinking with a new ship the staff would be top notch (like they were when the Crystal Endeavor was released last year) , but then the itinerary was changed so much it did not work for us. I will keep my fingers crossed that things improve in the next couple months, because we are past the point of no return on our Quest booking.

Terry wrote: ". . . . Apparently after the Covid shut-down period, Barcelona is trying keep the pollution and affects of such big ships farther away from the heart of their population. Surprising news to me. . . ." I'm not following what the connection is between Covid and pollution, unless local people who still had it really good without tourists embarking and disembarking in their front yard decided "YES! Let's make this permanent." Or maybe those in charge were considering this anyway for quite some time, and Covid convinced them it would be a good thing to not have cruise ships in the harbor. Fortunately I have already been to Barcelona many times, but one of its appeals for revisits was its easy on/off. If this new docking plan is permanent, and the logistics become like Venice, there is less appeal to me. Will Lisbon be next?

I always have to smile when Europeans traveling to another part of Europe for a cruise complain about having a "long and tiring start". Just add another 13-15 hours to that, (not even counting the run-down feeling from jet lag) and you can imagine what a Californian has to go through on his "start".. I'll take your day getting to a cruise over mine anytime! You are *so fortunate* to live so close to so many wonderful ports, and I envy you. Have a wonderful journey -- and if it doesn't go all that well, remember it's not that hard to come back!

Thank you for your very detailed review, and for supporting your opinions with specific factual reports. The most important thing you wrote, to me, is "many of these are small issues and on their own would not have spoilt our holiday. The problem was they appeared almost every day. This was basically 3/4* service and food but at 6* prices." That is what is key. If other "luxury" lines are similarly duping passengers, SB will get away with this long term. If there is nowhere to run for luxury at sea (at least not on an English-speaking line, excluding Hapag Lloyd's luxury German or German/English ships), some people will just do land trips or stay home. We cruise primarily for itinerary (DH in particular wants interesting photographs in port), and just want a ship without crowds and lines, and a comfortable cabin that is adequately cooled and without daily battles dealing with broken things and trays not removed. Nice food (at least 1-2 dishes, somewhere) is a bonus, preferably without having to deal with a scrum at a long line buffet. We think of these as easy to satisfy *for the prices*. SB usually did this (other than on some voyages with comical service), and hope we will not be disappointed when we reboard her in September.

I love reading about the myriad of experiences, pro and con, people describe. That is why a forum is so good (especially if people speak frankly -- thank you). DH and I were in port there a year before Covid. As I recall one option to book , though expensive, was time on the beach at a luxury hotel, but since we're not beach-baking addicts and have had multiple skin cancers, and DH needed something interesting to photograph, we instead just walked through town looking for interesting images. We window-shopped (couldn't find anything of interest) , passed the yachts and $15 cups of single espresso offered (probably $20 by now), and then went to the hill and the other side of town (less prosperous) for an overview of the area as the sun started going lower. Hot wind and my fatigue limited our visit to a couple hours. Dinner reservations were impossible to get short notice at a nice restaurant because locals had them booked up weeks ahead of time for the holidays. I am glad we checked it out, and we had some good exercise, but do not absolutely crave a return. I would love to know the name of the restaurant rkacruiser was at with the French bread, just in case. Nolatravelgirl, I think the shopkeepers are used to catering to The Beautiful People who own homes on the island and are regulars, and know that cruisers are unlikely to buy more than a little bit. Our neighbors used to spend 3 weeks around Thanksgiving there, and loved it, but they would mostly cook in the rental. They stopped going 4 years ago because the rental prices were soaring and it was hard to get there by plane, and they had started to experience some of the "you're not welcome here" vibe that nolatravelgirl described, even though they weren't cruisers.

This is good to know. I like to make marks (in different colors and sizes :)) on the Herald and carry it around with me. We will be on in a couple months and hope we will be able to ask for the schedule to be printed out for us daily, instead of having to ask for it one at a time each day. I also like *well-designed and easy to use* TV information, and menu, schedules, but as a backup to the paper.

You "really don't understand the alcohol in the suite thing", but there is a little thing called Covid going around, which can either make you sick or get you quarantined. Some people worry that sitting and drinking at a crowded bar with strangers boistrously talking and laughing is more likely to get them exposed to Covid than drinking their liquor in their suites with their spouses. Plus, some people drink their drinks in their underwear. 🙂

Most people who cough (both before and during the pandemic) do not have Covid. There are many, many reasons for coughing that aren't even infectious (and even if they are, people recover). We just notice them more these days because most of us worry about getting Covid and getting banned and quarantined (and some, a minority who still cruise as opposed to staying home, worry about getting hospitalized). How was the Scenic voyage otherwise? I considered them in the past, but then was deterred by their non-refundable deposit, the way they crudely handled river cruise pax a few years ago when river water levels changed, and the lack of communication they showed when my TA had tried to book a cruise for me pre-Covid (they were reportedly rude and very difficult to deal with out of U.S. in her encounter)

Sorry, no reassurance. Ecuador is a cesspool. We were there as a port (disembarkation) on a Moon cruise in January (no riots then but Guayaquil was a very depressing place, poverty mixed in with a police state). For our "safety" (i.e., due to their fears of ultra-vaccinated and tested tourists infecting their unvaccinated and untested natives with Covid) we could not exit the bus (had armed escorts). Maybe SS will figure it out, or maybe not. Our original schedule in January was to disembark in Lima, not Ecuador, and we were stuck short notice with what they offered. Any interest I had in Galapagos before was killed a few months ago. I want nothing to do with Ecuador ever again.

Do the "owners suites" on L'Austral type ships, which have long but narrow balconies, have a chaise lounger on them, or just 2 upright chairs and a little table? I cannot tell from the online graphics and cartoons. Alternatively, (if anyone has done this), if they only have 2 upright chairs, would service allow placement of one chaise, lengthwise?

Yes. Unfortunately when I was on in January I did not take pictures of Atlantide menus. But I found these that were taken by CC member Bitob shortly thereafter.

I think I understand your point that no one who cruises SS is a pauper (I agree!). But perhaps having been a high level federal employee, and receiving a generous federal pension for life, which is annually aggressively adjusted for inflation, is more likely to provide a sense of being somewhat "inflation proof" ? 🤔 But if someone saved X amount of dollars for a pleasant retirement after running a small independent private business, based on estimated conservative annual rates of return and inflation estimates a la best financial planning advice, it may have a more serious impact on their luxury cruise plans in retirement when inflation suddenly surges higher than it has been for 40 years, investment yields and market valuations of assets suddenly decline, and social welfare taxes in their state and community continue to rise (not to mention when Covid-related travel expenses also rise -- testing, unreimbursed quarantine expenses, etc.) . Pax who wanted to leave their kids a sizeable legacy may also be more concerned and less "inflation proof." Over the years I have read CC, it has surprised me (and in hindsight, it shouldn't have) how many people taking luxury cruises are indeed VERY concerned about relatively modest price issues. There are certainly people cruising SS whose income relative to expenses, even in retirement, allows them to be oblivious to costs, even if they are still cruising commercial lines instead of just buying their own private yacht and private jet to get around the headaches of commercial. But there are dozens of posts on luxury line forums relating to how to save $100 here or $200 there (often requiring great effort), how to get an extra discount, how outraged they are about "small" surcharges for this and that, etc. I've also lost track of how many discussions I have overheard in person on luxury lines where people discuss strategies on saving a bit here and there with frequent flyer miles and other loyalty clubs. So even on the "luxury" cruise or other market, there are many people here who still pay great attention to inflation and other sources of high relative net costs . Think back on when various currencies, be it the Euro or the Canadian dollar, had lost value relative to the U.S. dollar -- some people even declared they canceled cruises, or decided to cruise on a cheaper line. Others may save up to do just one or two "special" trips, (anniversary, birthday, etc.), and inflation may price them out. And of course we also have pax who, just out of principle (even if they can "afford" inflated prices) won't want to pay more, and will find something else besides cruising to amuse them.:)

Have you been on since Covid?