CalmSea

1 minute ago, jondfk said:

Just went there to check for myself.  All tables set for dinner and the person working the area assured me the Herald is correct.  Closed for breakfast and lunch.

 

Sorry

I am sorry to hear that too!

2 minutes ago, jondfk said:

 although the asst manager parted with us last evening saying”see you in the morning”.

I suggest you call and find out whether the MDR is open for breakfast or not. I have known cases where the Herald gives the wrong information!

34 minutes ago, jondfk said:

 

Today, once again, the Restaurant is closed for both breakfast and lunch.  Fingers crossed some sort of special appears in Colonnade.  A report will follow.

On my Source App, it shows a breakfast menu for the Restaurant for today. Lunch is listed as closed. Same for yesterday. Can I bother you to check your Source App on board? I suspect the menu listing on the Soruce App is not up to date. The other possibility is that what is shown on board is different from what is shown when no on board.

3 hours ago, markham said:

So perhaps Seabourn is really “something else”. You get what you pay for.

As usual, I agree with most of Markham's analysis. Every time I compare prices of SB with SS and Regent, SB is quite a bit cheaper. If SB raise the price to one comparable to the others, without improving their offering, I would jump ship. Yes, I also find that services at SB are not as good as pre-covid. But, at this moment, with the price comparison as is, I am willing to accept some compromises. Yes, I accept what I am paying for, but it does not stop me from continue to give feed back and try to improve it.

On 8/11/2023 at 3:19 AM, AnnieO2019 said:

Out of interest, where is the interconnecting door in the suite? We have one on an upcoming cruise and I was wondering if it would be an issue. I can’t picture where it is. Thanks

It seems that no one has yet answer your query about where the connecting door is. Let me try. Most suites come in pairs. The doors to these pair of suites are next to one another. You can see your neighbours door when you are at your door. Behind the doors, the two suites share a common wall. The connecting door is on this common wall.  For a Veranda suite, this connecting door is located roughly opposite the door to the closet in your room. Hope this helps.

1 hour ago, jondfk said:

Well I guess you predicted the situation quite well, management has opted to solve the problem for today …. By closing the Restaurant for both breakfast and lunch. It appears that the lesson learned was, we can’t manage it so let’s just give up.

 

That was disappointing! I was hoping that when enough passengers show interest in having breakfast in the MDR, they would adjust by opening it, but not the other way around. After all the discussion about restaurant openings on the Ovation thread, I am still puzzled.

5 minutes ago, jondfk said:

This being a sea day, 3 meals offered today in the Restaurant.  Last sailing, for reasons unclear to me the Restaurant was open on Ketchikan day, which is tomorrow, stand by for an open / closed report.

 

If todays breakfast service repeats tomorrow we will be using room service the next 12 days.

 

I pray to have more positive news for my next report.

 

I see a silver lining in your breakfast episode this morning. Obviously, the management was not expecting the large crowd at the MDR. In previous sailings, usage of the MDR for breakfast is sparce. Because passengers are showing up in numbers today, the management should make adjustments for tomorrow. If not, please complaint but do not give in. There are many other good reasons to switch to room service on a port day, but switching because the breakfast service at the MDR is poor should not be one of them.

4 minutes ago, SLSD said:

No tables available?  This sounds like they need to use the Restaurant for breakfast as well.   I am assuming you were breakfasting in the Colonnade?  

I just checked the Source. The MDR is opened both for breakfast and lunch today.

This level of service is not acceptable.

Just a question, being a sea day, is the MDR open for breakfast?

I am glad to see that Michael Burke, the singer and guitarist is still on board. @TBfrPH, if you are into ballroom dancing, go to the Club at 6 p.m. and tell Michael you like some ballroom dancing music. He is very talented. He said he played in the band in the Cunard line before, and knows about the ballroom dancing music.  There will be other passengers requesting other songs too, so you may not be able to dance to every song. As I said elsewhere, it was the first time we danced to guitar music, but we find it quite enjoyable. We found the 10:30p band music not as suitable for ballroom dancing, but of course, it depends on what kind of dancing you like.

51 minutes ago, highplanesdrifters said:

The bean counters have deemed a the IT department a low priority for funding.

Apparently, the bean counters of all cruise lines are thinking of moving towards the airline booking model, where they don't pay commissions to the TAs, and where most customers book directly with the cruise lines online. If they are serious, they should put their IT department on the highest priority for funding! Personally, I think moving to the airline model is inevitable, but I think it will take their IT departments another 5 to 10 years to get there.

21 minutes ago, SLSD said:

We saw no heaters and none were offered when we asked.  They were not evident as built in because we did not see them either. We looked for them.   

Maybe the heaters mentioned by @Covepointcruiserand the infrared heaters mentioned by @Jimmycruiser are similar to the ones we saw on Odyssey. They do not have any red hot elements. They looked just like an extra ceiling panel, and can be easily missed. But they radiate heat.

We were on the Quest in 2019 and 2022 and ate many times at the E&O. There were definitely heat lamps. On really cold evenings, these lamps were no match against the cold wind when the ship was sailing. We tried to find a table which was as sheltered from the wind as possible, and dressed as if we were going on a zodiac excursion, with winter parkers, winter hat and a hood on top for extra measure. Once it was so cold we ate with our gloves on, and I remembered the food was worth the effort. What was served must be one of our favorites, such as the 24-hour lamb shank.

On the Odyssey this year, there were no heat lamps, but there were black radiating heaters, which we found to work better than heat lamps. The heat was less directional, and covered a wider area. These radiators were not conspicious. We only found out because once we had dinner there and feel warmth coming from overhead.

We often found services at the MDR to be a zoo on formal nights that were held after the Captain's reception or the Seabourn Club reception. The problem was that everyone wanted to go to the MDR at the same time after the reception. Running out of the main attraction on the menu is one problem. Slow service and all the problem it triggers was another. We have encountered similar problems in other cruise lines too. We have adapted by skipping the MDR on those formal nights, and go to the other eating place instead.

Regarding oyster, we had them on the Odyssey. We were so excited to have fresh oyster for the first time on SB, but we were disappointed. We like the mild and sweet taste of raw oysters, but the ones served are so heavily favored that we could not taste the oyster at all. 

14 minutes ago, DTtravelers said:

Or…. As another option you could take the light rail for $3.50 each.  26 minutes so it will get there before the taxi.  

Don't forget that there is an additional YVR surcharge of $5.00 in the direction from the airport to downtown.

Last June, when we disembark at Canada Place, the place was a chaos, with two other ships disembarking at the same time. We did took the 5 minutes walk to Waterfront station and took the Canada line to the airport, and with no surcharge in going this direction. However, one has to know how to get the correct entrance. The closest entrance to Waterfront station from the cruise terminal takes you to the wrong line.

6 minutes ago, JMB56 said:

The Club does not show on the app in relation to my upcoming Venture cruise … just the Restaurant.

On the right of Gourmet Dining, click on View More.  The Club is under Lounges heading. See whether it let you download the Club. Below the Lounge section is the Wine section, where you can download the wine selections.

3 hours ago, JMB56 said:

I would be very interested in your analysis of the wine offerings.  We sail to Antarctica on Venture at the end of November (our first Seabourn cruise). We certainly are not ‘wine snobs’, but he idea of drinking £5 plonk each night does concern me.  I guess that’s what the OBC is for.

Can you download and see the menu of the Club in your Seabourn Source app? Since I had booked a cruise on the Odyssey for next year, I can see the Club menu. For complimentary wine, it lists 2 champagne, 3 whites and 3 reds. The list seems to be the same as the one I saw onboard the Odyssey in June. I have no trouble asking for those wines in the restaurant.

2 hours ago, jondfk said:

but hey, taxis leave on demand right?

 

And it is a flat rate of cdn 38 from YVR to downtown.

49 minutes ago, skybluewaters said:

@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. 

 

I have noticed that the soup at lunch the next day often contains ingredients listed in the dinner menu of the night before. Yes, I do agree we should not waste food and agree with this use of the left overs.

5 hours ago, 2SailingNomads said:

We were on from July 9th to 30th.  First 2 weeks MDR was usually open for lunch - we rarely do breakfast so didn't pay attention.  3rd week was not open for lunch and worse not on disembarkation day for last breakfast which we always do. Only the 2nd time that has happened.

 

Interesting. On the Covid-19 thread, it was noted that there were many cases on board, including some staff being quarantined. Maybe SB do intend to open the MDR for lunch, if there is sufficient demand, and if there is sufficient staff.

If the chef dinner is an excursion to a land based Michelin Star restaurant, would the price still be too high?

36 minutes ago, santrah said:

Another question please....if the weather means that the ship cannot tender do Seabourn try ttheir best to find an alternative dock/port or just pur on a seaday?   Azamara have always been efficient in alternative ports ?  Oceania don't appear to find alternatives! 

I think the answer is yes. In our 2019 cruise on the Quest, the sea was too rough to tender to L Anse Aux Meadows in Newfoundland. The captain went to St. Anthony instead, and made last-minute arrangements to bus us to L Anse Aux Meadows. Being in quite a remote part of Newfoundland, they could only found yellow school buses. Not the most comfortable bus, but I didn't remember hearing any complaints, and we ended up visiting two ports on the same day.

@SLSD, thanks for sharing your experience. After reading what went on during this "Marketing Zoom Conference", I have the impression that it is aimed neither at improving services, nor at keeping existing loyal clients. It seems that the aim is on how to attract new clients.

21 minutes ago, A Tucson Guy said:

Last year on the Dawn, we asked in advance for Peking Duck. Sadly this chef did not know how to prepare Peking Duck as it was so so. Other meals were great but we will not request Peking Duck. We will just go the Peking Duck restaurant in Manhatten and pig out- haha.

I think we should try to stretch the limits of the chef. Let him/her know that the Peking Duck is not up to par, and maybe the next time will be better. I had often wonder asking for shrimp dumplings or fried won ton. The ship should have all the necessary ingredients on board, if they willing to make the skins of the dumplings or won ton from scratch. 

2 hours ago, highplanesdrifters said:

Let's hear yours, I need some new ideas!

 

Order some dishes local to the ports you are visiting. In order to give time for the Chef to gather the ingredients, I suggest the following time line. 

1. Look up what is a famous local dish for a port you will be visiting in 2 days.

2. Order the dish to be served in 3 or 4 days time.

The Chef should have time to get prepared, to buy whatever local ingredients required while in port, and to serve you a day or two later.