15Day+

We just got off a 40 day cruise from Ushuaia to Malaga on Venture with 170 passengers for the first 26 days and 230 for the remaining 14. The ship had approximately 230 crew including the Expedition Team. We were well taken care of…

Are you looking to book on Silversea or Seabourn? Your description looks like you are trying to book a cruise on Silversea.

For our July 10th booking Seabourn is using the George Hotel in Edinburgh and this is their packing information https://www.seabourn.com/en/ca/packing-list/arctic-antarctica

15 hours ago, Pallen1 said:

Dumb question here from a nooby sailing in mid-April: how does one go about putting in cabin preferences? Is there a specific place on Seabourn’s website I should find where to do so?

If Seabourn’s website actually worked you could access Suite Preferences from the Guest Registration page for your cruise using the “Prefs” tab. Unfortunately, once on the Prefs page (titled Benefits & Preferences) you have to go through a login which has not worked for me since last fall.

For us, we’ve never been to the Canary Islands so it’s worth giving up stops in St Louis & Tan Tan for a day in Tenerife.

8 hours ago, philbob84 said:

what brand of tea do they carry? 

For Afternoon Tea they serve TWG loose leaf teas

21 hours ago, bilbobill said:

Pre Cruise Day!

 

Wow it is hard to believe it has been almost a year since we booked our trip to Antarctica and our first ever Seabourn Cruise.  We have really enjoyed our 2 days in Bunos Aires staying at the Park Hyatt but are ready to get going.  I am glad we came early to BA as we have really enjoyed the people, food and sights and it also takes some of the stress away worrying about lost luggage or delayed flights.  The Park Hyatt was very nice but the Alvear Palace really has all the elegance you can imagine of BA in it’s prime – and our room was a super nice small suite.

 

Hopefully you tried Afternoon Tea during your stay in the Alvear Palace. We try to go at least once when we stay in Buenos Aires and will again next month before our Venture cruise from Ushuaia to Malaga Spain.

On 12/20/2023 at 5:30 PM, shark b8 said:

Yes, markandjie, previous two sailings were with Seabourn.  And yes, the holiday Antarctica voyage in 2015-16 was phenomenal with one glaring exception - the one day we were to do landings in South Georgia, the surge was so strong that they were only able to scoot the zodiacs up and down the coast, 30-40 yards from shore, no landings.  Seeing all those gazillions of penguins and seals, and not being able to wander around with them, was a disappointment.  It’s one of the reasons I wanted to do this one again - this time we’ll have 3 days in South Georgia, so fingers and toes crossed for better landing luck.  We are, of course, reading about the Avian flu closing some of the landing zones, but we’ll hope for the best.

My wife & I really enjoyed that 2015-16 Antarctic/South Georgia cruise on Quest and think it will be hard to beat. We're booked on our 2nd Venture cruise in 2 months with stops in the Falklands & South Georgia and we too hope to go ashore on Salisbury Plain to see all those King Penguins up close.

Looking forward to reading about your experience.

13 hours ago, markandjie said:

 

I'd highly recommend you read up on the impact of avian flu in South Georgia. From what we're hearing from expedition staff on the ship they believe it will soon be completely closed to landings. Apparently some sites there are already closed. 

Well that’s sad news but understandable. It sounds like we might get another zodiac ride along the beach like we did in Jan 2016…

Hopefully it will clear up for our 3rd attempt to visit Salisbury Plain on Venture in Nov 2025. 🤞

3 hours ago, markandjie said:

We're now headed back north towards the Drake, where we're expecting 4 meter swells. I've got some broader thoughts on the trip that I'll put in words in the coming days. A lot of it I think is around expectations for an expedition ship vs Quest & Sojourn...I expect much more expedition-oriented focus and activities on these trips, and the fact is as best I can tell we're getting a less impressive expedition experience now than we did in Antarctica on the Quest or Alaska on the Sojourn. Unclear whether the root cause is my elevated expectations, issues with expedition team staffing given competition in the industry, luck of the draw on weather and itinerary, something else, or perhaps all of the above. 

 

We were on Quest's Dec 2015 - Jan 2016 Antarctic cruise with you and think it would be hard to match it, other than getting to actually land on Salisbury Plain in South Georgia which we hope to do on Venture this coming February/March.

49 minutes ago, markandjie said:

We had afternoon tea on the Venture over the summer. But I don't think it happened every day. 

 

Edit: my wife thinks it was every day

On our Venture cruise to Greenland in September 2022 Afternoon Tea was served every day in the Constellation Lounge on Deck 9 at 4pm.

5 hours ago, Covepointcruiser said:

We really enjoyed Earth and Ocean in the Colonnade.   Sorry you thought it was a dismal failure.   When on the Venture we had dinner every night in the Colonnade that they offered Earth and Ocean ad will continue to do so on future Venture/Pursuit cruises.

We agree with you entirely. Earth & Ocean in the Colonnade worked for us on Venture last September and we look forward to it again in February.

2 minutes ago, SDuckers said:

I love the Observation Bar at cocktail time!  DH and I set a standing order for caviar to be delivered to us there at 6 pm each night.  The piano player is always good and the view can't be beat.

 

Earth & Ocean (the patio grill by the pool during the day) has wonderful food each night.  The menu is very limited (usually a choice of 3 different appetizers and 3 different entrees) but wonderfully executed and inventive.

We are fans of trivia and enjoy joining a fun team that has a mix of experience but that doesn't get *too* serious about the game.

 

Seabourn Square is a great place to hang out.  Relatively quiet during the day time (except when trivia is going on), there's usually a jigsaw puzzle to work on, great view out to the back of the ship.

SeaBunny mentioned that her TA is on Pursuit which doesn't have a TK Grill or a Patio Grill. Unlike the larger ships, Earth & Ocean is served in the Colonnade a couple of times per week. A limited Sushi is served from 6 to 9pm in the Club on Deck 9.

Our favourite dining venue on Venture (Pursuit's sister ship) was on the deck by the stern Infinity Pool outside the Colonnade. We also enjoyed afternoon tea in the Constellation Lounge (Venture & Pursuit's equivalent of the Observation Bar) and coffee in Seabourn Square.

The Bow Lounge on Deck 6 has instrument clusters which mirror some of the information from the Bridge and a self-serve coffee station with a variety of treats. The Expedition Lounge on Deck 4 has a bar and comfortable seating by artificial fireplaces. On our cruise to Greenland, the expedition team gave informative talks in the adjacent Discovery Center which was also the venue for evening entertainment.

2 hours ago, Darspurs said:

Last week on the Encore an officer came in with champagne for everyone in the launderette. 
 

Well done Peppi

Our Venture cruise is scheduled to visit Banjul next March and after reading your description of "Highlights of Banjul" I think we'll give this tour a miss.

We would be interested in hearing from anyone who went on the "The Gambia Adventure Drive" (with those open-air trucks) or the "Makasutu Culture Forest Adventure"…

6 hours ago, cruisr said:

Don’t know if it is the same Captain but friends on the Venture in September Iceland/Greenland said they didn’t ever see him at all.  Never doing a walk about, never anywhere.  

I’m not sure what cruise your friends were on but we saw Captain Stig Betten almost every day on deck, in the Colonnade or in the corridors on the Sept 4th Iceland/Greenland sailing. We enjoyed conversations with him at dinner in the Colonnade and he made a point of wishing my wife a Happy Birthday as we disembarked from a kayak excursion in Skjoldungen Fjord.

11 hours ago, galeforce9 said:

So has the Alvear palace changed it’s name to alvear icon? 

No, the Alvear Icon is a modern hotel in the Puerto Madero area of Buenos Aires. There are many good restaurants within walking distance of the Alvear Icon and it's about a 20 minute walk to Casa Rosada & Plaza de Mayo.

If you happen to be in the Recoleta area, Afternoon Tea at the Alvear Palace (about $(US)50/pp) makes a very nice break from sightseeing.

11 hours ago, Hlitner said:

I find this thread very interesting so I will repeat some of my prior post.  Last week, when we heard that smoking was allowed on the Venture, we decided to telephone SB and "offer" to cancel our upcoming Dec cruise (to Antarctica) since we booked under the false impression that there was to be no smoking on the Venture.  Of course, we also made it clear we expected a full refund of our cruise and air fare.  Our "false" impression about no-smoking came from Seabourn's information clearly posted on SBs own web site and information given to us at the time we originally booked the Venture cruise.  

 

The Seabourn representative, after putting us on hold for about 10 min, informed us that we should "not believe social media" and there was no smoking allowed on the Venture.  She also told us that there was no Sky Bar on the Venture (I assume SB can read their deck plan just like they can read their own no-smoking policy).  When I asked for this in writing she told me that SB would send me an e-mail setting forth the no-smoking policy (we have never received this e-mail).

 

I do hope that "Josh" or some other SB folks see this post.  If I am misrepresenting anything I would welcome an e-mail from them,   No need for any phone calls since anything said verbally by SB would likely be disavowed at a later time.  After the disinformation we got during the recent phone call it is difficult to give much credibility to any SB policy.

 

Here is the current information direct from the SB web site:

 

"We want to let you know of an important revision to our smoking policy. Our ultra-luxury, purpose-built expedition ships will be visiting many remote, pristine, rarely visited environments with diverse ecosystems and wildlife. As such, we are implementing a no-smoking policy on board our Expedition fleet to eliminate the possibility that smoking materials might harm the environment.

As a result, smoking and vaping will not be permitted in any area on board either Seabourn Venture or Seabourn Pursuit."

 

That does seem pretty clear.

 

 

Hank

Yes Hank, there is a Sky Bar outside the Club on Deck 9. Smokers used the area by the starboard hot tub.

When I expressed our displeasure to Venture's staff, I referred to the Dec 2021 email we received & Seabourn's FAQ about the non-smoking policy on Venture & Pursuit but to no avail. I guess we had been "misinformed" that Venture had a ship wide non-smoking policy for staff and guests.

Other than this negative issue, we enjoyed our Greenland cruise on this beautiful ship and would love to go back to Antarctica on her if the opportunity arises. 

We were on the Sept 4th Venture cruise from Iceland to Greenland and, as we toured the ship on the first day, encountered a smoker outside the Club beside the starboard hot tub on deck 9. I told the person that the Venture was a non-smoking ship and they informed me that they were given an exception to the policy.

I immediately expressed our displeasure to Seabourn Square, Cruise Director Sarah Bomber, Expedition Leader Juan Restrepo and several days later to Captain Stig Betten. They apologized and told us it was an exception given by Seabourn's senior management who had been on the previous cruise.

For us, this was the only negative to what was another wonderful Seabourn cruise.

We too were not impressed with the charter flight. We had no problem with seating, we sat in our assigned seats at the back of the plane, but we were not impressed with the lack of knee room, the absence of an entertainment system and the box lunch.

Since we only travel with carry-on luggage we were through security in Keflavik Airport in about 10 minutes and chatted with the shuttle drivers for about 45 minutes before the rest of the passengers finally appeared in the arrivals area.

The Hotel Borg was excellent and we had no problem with the 200 meter walk from the shuttle bus.

For anyone wanting to track Venture, and other ships including Quest, Seabourn has resumed the use of their Voyage Tracker web page which includes this voyage…

https://www.seabourn.com/en_US/experience/voyagetracker/index.html

We were on Ovation in March/April and did this for friends who were sailing on the Amsterdam when both ships were docked in Mumbai. The process needs to be completed several days in advance but was fairly straight forward including filling in a "Passenger Visitor Request Form", available from staff in Seabourn Square, and providing a photo copy of a valid piece of government issued photo id for each visitor.

I understand that having visitors come on board is at the discretion of the Captain.

We did the first 2 cruises on Encore and found the 2 shows a great idea. As has been suggested already we had a lot of sea days with no cause to get up early in the morning so the second show was well attended. There were a people who's dinner got the better of them and they nodded off to sleep !

 

I can see that on a port intensive cruise with early tours - why do the tours leave so early only to return back to the ship in time for lunch? you might find people heading off to their beds early.

 

I would have no hesitation in cruising on Encore again although our next outing happens to be back on Sojourn.

 

Henry :)

Henry,

Like you, my wife & I were on Encore's first sailing from Athens to Dubai and I have to agree with your comments about this cruise and Encore in general. She is a beautiful ship and the trip through Suez was most memorable. Based on the negative reviews I've been reading over the past 6 months, others have obviously come away with a different experience but we look forward to travelling on her again.

P.S. We enjoyed the videos you posted of our passage through the Suez Canal.

A Crystal cruise to Antarctica? Really??? The golden rule is never go on a ship with more than 100 passengers to Antarctica. I think maybe the Seabourn Quest with 450 might just be OK if you are prepared to compromise a bit on the experience . . . but a Crystal ship?

Having been on the Quest in Antarctica & South Georgia last season over Christmas & New Years I have to say that for us there was no compromise on the experience.

The MDR was open for breakfast & lunch on our Dec 2015 Antarctic cruise. We also enjoyed eating lunch & dinner outside under the heat lamps at the Colonnade. The scenery and wildlife were spectacular [emoji4]

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