skybluewaters

I'm confused. If this was a "quick hop hover," what was your flight itinerary and where was the "tight connection?" I'm very sorry that you are having to go through this turmoil. Try your best to enjoy every moment of your cruise and put this inconvenience to the back of your mind!

I would use the word "Only" advisedly. They sometimes add excursions (port city by port city) much closer to the cruise date. It would be worthwhile to check once a week or so up until the cruise.

If you're keen on tonics, you might be interested in the "Ship Made Tonic With Gin" cocktail which is listed in the "Celebrity Cocktails" menu of The Observation Lounge bar. The tonic is made onboard using raw quinine powder. Regarding Fever Tree tonic, I have asked for it several times pre-cruise via the Preferences section of the Online Registration, but have always gotten Canada Dry or Schweppes in my mini-fridge instead, which is just fine.

Well, Nancy, tell them to get on the ball and get it ready by October 21! 😀

I hope that Crystal re-implements the ability to book a cruise directly from their website. This was possible on OC and I found this very useful, especially because we could see which specific cabins were available. I'm actually surprised this is not currently possible, because it most certainly would lead to more bookings.

By all means! I very much appreciate your perspective on cruising.

Thank you...I look forward to your observations.

It is well known that there is some transmission of Covid by fomites, but numerous studies have shown that this is markedly less significant than airborne transmission. Some important quotes from this article: 1. "Despite the important findings, the researchers note that this is an observational study and as such cannot prove causation." 2. "Since we didn’t systematically sample household air, we cannot rule out airborne transmission occurring in parallel." This last point is critical and seems to make the findings of the article rather meaningless. It is still useful to wash hands and to clean surfaces, but doing so will only put a small dent into the spread of Covid.

@USN59-79 That's a good point. However, I would say that what's left over from dinner one day is often incorporated into lunch the next day.

As several people have mentioned, there's a lot more involved than just the price per square foot, of course. But those things (food, service, entertainment quality, etc.) are subjective. There are two measures that are objective: price per diem and size of cabin. Some might prefer the Seabourn experience over Crystal, while some might prefer the Crystal experience over Seabourn...that's all debatable. What isn't debatable is the price you pay and the size of your cabin. In any event, this is mostly a moot point because there are very few veranda or ocean view cabins on the new Crystal ships and they are mostly in undesirable locations.

...and at ~ 50% higher price. The point is that the entry level veranda cabin on Crystal is markedly smaller than the entry level veranda cabin on the other ultra-lux lines. And when you say "50% larger," yes, the old veranda suite was 215 sq ft, while the new Aquamarine Suite is 323 sq ft. But on Seabourn, for example, the basic veranda suite is 315 sq ft. Since, on average, the price per diem of an Aquamarine Suite is 50% more than Seabourn's basic veranda cabin, you're paying quite a bit more for an extra 8 sq ft of space.

Could you please elaborate? In particular, was it the menu choices, the quality of food, the preparation of the dishes or something else that informed your opinion? I've never had a bad meal at the TKG, so I'm curious as to why you had such an "abysmal" experience. Thanks.

I recently asked our cabin attendant this exact question and she said that SB policy is that the staff cannot accept unopened liquor from the cabins.

And let's not forget the service peacock that someone tried (unsuccessfully) to bring aboard a United flight in SFO several years ago.

@texanaust Thanks so much for posting the pictures of Heimaey. We were just on Ovation for the circumnavigation of Iceland and that was the only port we couldn't enter (due to rough seas preventing the safe deployment of the tenders, on July 4). Looks like we missed a gorgeous stop!

The "Plan Your Day" link is only available once onboard, but the ability to see the menus of your next cruise's ship is available for many months prior to embarkation. If you need to download a pdf in order to see it, there must be some glitch somewhere. The "Add Security Photo" link has always shown up on my app about two weeks prior to embarkation, usually at about the time the "Boarding Pass" link appears. I dutifully upload both of our photos each time, although I doubt that it needs to be done. @Mauzac Sorry you can't enjoy the fun of checking out the menus in anticipation of your next cruise. I really enjoy doing this, imagining what I would choose for each course and also which restaurant I would pick.

Is your next scheduled cruise on Odyssey? If not, you won't see it. Currently, the logo appears on the Earth & Ocean menu page. However, it won't appear if you view the menu via the "Dining at a Glance" link. It can only be seen by clicking on the "Earth & Ocean at The Patio" link.

I'll answer my own question: yes (perhaps). I've recently noticed the logo of a travel agency displayed on (of all places) the daily menus of restaurants on the Seabourn Source app. As I anticipate my next cruise, I enjoy checking out the dinner menus of the ship that I will be sailing next (in this case Odyssey), and for the first time ever, I've seen a brightly-colored logo of a travel agency showing on the daily menu. This started last week and is only on an occasional menu. The logo is not a link to the travel agency's site, it's just the logo itself. An internet search shows the company to be a niche agency located in the United States. CC doesn't allow direct references to travel agencies, so I won't mention them by name. It appears that this agency sponsors/arranges/charters cruise ships for a certain theme. Could it be that the current cruise on Odyssey is being used by that agency for one of their cruises and perhaps the logo on individual menus indicates to their passengers which restaurant to go to that evening? Or is it simply an advertisement? Anyone else notice this, especially if your next cruise is on Odyssey and you're able to view their daily menus?

If there's an itinerary with a stop at Akureyri, that would be a big plus because you can take an excursion to Godafoss waterfall from there. On the other hand, although Reykjavik is a nice city, your time might better be spent going for an itinerary without it if you're more interested in seeing the dramatic landscape of Iceland and will be limited to three stops. The other small towns that SB visits are quaint, with gorgeous natural surroundings and are nice to walk around. If you think this might be the only time you visit Iceland, consider a cruise that circumnavigates the island with six stops, as SB sometimes offers.

Very much so. There are very few (only 22) double guest rooms with verandas, and they are sprinkled about the ship, almost exclusively in poorly-located areas, either right at the elevators or far front or far aft. It's clear from looking at the deck plan of Symphony that they're located only where new suites couldn't be placed.

Although we can't know with certainty, I believe most Seabourn passengers do tip extra. On the penultimate day of a cruise, I see lots of "handshakes" from the passengers to the room attendants, the bartenders, waiters, some of the entertainers, etc. It's only natural to want to go above and beyond, even if it is already included.

Looking at these pictures, a perfect day for us would be strolling through that town, along the pier, and up the hills. Quiet, peaceful, at our own pace, no group to contend with, just perfect.

I would have considered burning it.

The "what's left" applies not only to your choice of cabin, but also to excursions and TKG bookings, not to mention that the cruise could get sold out if you wait too long. I understand the disappointment in not getting the best deal possible as well as the disappointment in not being offered at least token compensation, especially for a passenger who is almost at the Diamond level. In no way, however, would that ever prevent me from further bookings if otherwise I was happy with the cruiseline, which you obviously are based on your numerous previous cruises. The money is already spent, and you did so willingly. Now enjoy your cruise, which I bet you will!

That's right, the in-suite fridges are meant to keep drinks cold, but they are not cold enough to reliably prevent the buildup of bacteria in leftovers.