BasandSyb

Thanks Nops. May see you “out and about” on Venture. We are enjoying a lovely spring day on the Gold Coast with a gentle ripple on the ocean.
 

Appreciate the comment Woodrowst. We always organise our own air as we usually do more than just a cruise. Not sure I would in the future given some of the layover and routing horror stories I’ve heard. We also have airline preferences for our longhauls from Australia.

Good to hear it seems to be a combo of the rubbish website and updates rather than any sinister.

Am I the only one who uses other websites to search for cruises and only then navigate to the Seabourn site to check prices? Always looking for a longer cruise I need to see the pre and post cruises for possible extensions and also where the other ships are at the same time in case jumping to another is appealing. The Seabourn site is not terribly useful for this purpose (I’m try to be kind but get very frustrated).

What I need is a chronological list and maps. Seabourn provides a map but when you drill down on the cruise it disappears. The “map view” becomes a tedious running commentary about “verdant hills”. A cruise calendar would also be useful. Years ago they were published in the brochures - perhaps they still are but I don’t want more paper in our lives!

My control freak mind is obviously at odds with intuitive website design.

Now I’m starting to worry. We have bookends for our 4 month holiday - Pursuit in February and Venture in June. Hopefully it will be clear soon. Perhaps they are playing with a range of itinerary changes.

I don’t want to alter the air travel again until things settle.

We received email notification this morning that our May/June 2024 Scotland/Norway/Svalbard cruise on Venture has had an "adjustment" and will now end in Edinburgh and not Oslo. A charter flight from Longyearbyen to Oslo will now be a flight to Edinburgh. "Adjustment" is a fabulous euphemism!

While this is extremely frustrating in as far as we only altered our homeward flights 2 days ago and paid an additional $600 each for the privilege, now a further change will be required... the bigger puzzle is we simultaneously received an email about the current sale extension. Checking to see the current price for the Norway sailing, the website now shows a blank for the ship name on the cruise leg prior to ours and also the first half of our B2B. When searching on the normal Seabourn website (not using the email link), it won't show anything for Venture in 2024.

Website glitch or should I start a conspiracy theory 🤔

After years of saying how much pfaff we thought TK was/is and having our dining options reduced on a cruise as we avoided its mediocrity, the direction of this thread is bringing much joy.
 

Our preference has always been to showcase amazing crew. 
 

2 votes for Asian/French fusion

Have you checked out the 28 day Japan circum-navigation March 2025 or the pre/post with a couple of stops in the Philippines etc.

We haven’t noticed Seabourn doing such an extensive Japan run previously. Other lines have.

Not if you are using your phone vs iPad/laptop.

Totally agree with Covepointcruiser. We have included laundry but never use it. Easier to use appropriate care for your clothes rather than submit to a very busy laundry. Too many ruined items in the past - including linen shirts caught on rollers. Unfortunately most clothes these days have 5% elastane or spandex (even denim) and heat is a killer. Other than heartbreak for favoured items, if you continue on with your travels after the cruise it is expensive and time wasting - IF you can find suitable replacements.

The laundry is an excellent facility.

Arggghh - Odyssey, not Sojourn. Planning next year’s trip. How early does holiday brain start?

We did 6 weeks in March/April on Sojourn and the 6 of us remarked it was far better than pre-COVID. The food was excellent and varied (TK was still…TK - doesn’t rate with us), service was very good.

COVID was on the ship and himself caught it, self tested and stayed indoors for 7 days with no symptoms. About 12 affected cabins at its height. It was dealt with well and quickly fizzled out. A week in your room on a 6 week cruise while a nuisance was fine. He was treated like a king! Same on a 14 day would be very disappointing. I can understand Seabourn’s nonchalance, but don’t condone it. I applaud your very difficult decision.

We did the cruise in March. Hong Kong can be cooler in Jan/Feb and also northern Vietnam. However, the further south you travel there is little seasonal variation.

We’ve done the region many times over the years for short breaks (different seasons) and can’t recall much temperature variation except a slight lessening of humidity.

Great memories flooding back. Our first Seabourn was HK to Singapore on the Pride in 2010. We also did Athens to Singapore on the lovely Pride.

SLSD - picking up on your earlier comment about escaping heat - HK to SNG is extremely hot and humid. At the very least three changes of clothes per day (out and about; back on ship and freshened up; dinner). I’m used to 33-35C with 90% humidity, but the Chu Chi tunnels tour in Vietnam just about did me in - but extremely interesting.

Seabourn website - appalling. It’s worth its own thread with the hope the new management might follow this site. I can never find anything even using filters. As we normally book long cruises we look at the before and after cruises with a view to linking if interesting. All we want is a list or calendar of dates for regions and ships. Vacations to Go is our starting place as it provides a list and great filters. If something looks interesting by date, length, starting and finishing ports you can then bring up the map. Looking as the pre and post cruises is a snap. We have been doing this for years. Seabourn could close its marketing department and we wouldn’t notice.

Segments of World/Grand cruises - have had no problem joining for a while or people joining us for segments. A tip though - don’t book a segment during a holiday season. We have endured a 10 day segment when the ship was swamped by party people from Europe for a warm weather Easter cruise and it certainly changed the atmosphere on the ship. No sitting by the pool and evenings ended early to avoid raucous behaviour in the bars. I can only imagine this is what doing a long cruise in the Med would be like - having 7 day turnarounds changing the “vibe” would not make me happy.

😩we were wondering the make of aircraft as we do a bit of regional travel. Seems it doesn’t matter.

Thanks to the OP for raising the question.

Thanks, yes, that’s what we’re going to have to do. It’s just uneasy feeling these days sending luggage separately not knowing when you will see it again. We will have to get some trackers. The reference to 45 kg or more was across multiple bags, which we are allowed with a number of airlines given business plus status credit. 32kg total each would solve our problems and provide himself room for a couple of pairs of size 12 shoes😇
 

As said, we travel so far we don’t go for just a week or two.This time we are doing 3 cruises (21, 11, 26 days), travel in between and are away for 4 months. You do need some clothes rotation to cover weather, adventuring, dining. 😀

We have known a number of wait staff with wrist, shoulder and back issues relating to carrying the heavy trays, including one who had to return home mid contract for treatment and another who had to leave with ongoing issues. Standard size dishes and trolleys won’t detract from service. It’s the way the finished product is delivered into the room which is the more relevant aspect, not how it is carried down an internal stairwell or through a hall. Some of the young chaps are gun-ho, but we all know the costs longer term.

We are on Pursuit in February 2024. The Seabourn itinerary states the luggage limit is 34kg total weight per person checked across a max of two bags per person. I assume it’s the same for November 2023.

Thanks for posting the query as we are also trying to look practically at our luggage. (Living in a hot climate we will have to purchase cold weather gear and then donate it to the charity shop in the hope they can turn it over).

Our beef at the moment is that we are also doing the Arctic in May/June - Leith to Longyearbyen with a charter flight ending in Oslo. The limit for that flight is 23kg total weight per person checked.

We understand there are charter flights involved, but how can Seabourn provide a luxury product and not link luggage to business class luggage allowances AND/OR aim to make the allowances consistent 34 vs 23kg. Given we live at the end of the earth, when we travel we go for a while as it takes us 24 hours to get anywhere. 23kg is an economy flight for week’s getaway, 34 is starting to get a bit more realistic.

For this trip we decided to keep travelling for the several weeks between cruises with RTW flights given it was more cost effective. Business class allows us 45kg plus each throughout. Seabourn is 34kg first cruise and then 23kg. These days the staying alive pills take up half the case for that period of time.

At least we can cut back on evening wear for the cruises. I won’t be wearing jeans, but I may end up dining in hiking boots 😀

I guess this harks back to an earlier post about people and what they wear on board. You never know what they are doing, where they are going, or if their luggage actually arrived on time for the cruise! What to do with 2 x Seabourn jackets will be the next 1st world problem.

18 hours ago, Mr Luxury said:

Could we be getting back to some sort of consistency 🤔 

I think that’s a bit difficult with dress,I believe the current Seabourn policy to be acceptable - my 20 cents worth: 

1. as mentioned there could be a range of issues including lost luggage.

2. On this cruise we have a number of partners caring for others and hats off to them, it’s so hard. A partner is in a long sleeved shirt, but it’s clear that getting the challenged other half into clothes has hit a snag. Just leading them into the restaurant has been lovely to see the effort made. (There but for the grace of god etc.) We have seen many similar cases. 

3. People join cruises linked with other travel for longer periods of time. Not everyone jumps on a 14 day with room in the case for jackets and a tuxedo. This cruise we are doing is 41 days hot steamy, then car travel and park hiking for a month, then Europe back into the cold, then sailing in Thailand. The variety of clothing required is difficult with luggage constraints even in business, and to ensure you are constantly clean and tidy and aren’t waiting on laundry in hot climes. You choose where to whittle it down and hope your pieces with jewellery will snaz up. This trip we have carry ons + 2 x 32kgs which also include significant weight with shoes, body wash, shampoo, creams etc due to skin sensitivity and all the staying alive pills! 

4. I’ve made comment previously about even our most formal occasions at home these days are jackets and no tie (including Parliamentary) - standards have changed - I won’t agree dropped, and there is no disrespect in the change just a recognition that people live in hot places and dress according to climate rather than historical standards.

5. if the Earth and Ocean and Colonnade had expanded menus - just add 1 or 2 more mains - passengers would not be forced into the restaurant and feel guilty about how they are dressed when their choices are limited. We are all paying for the same cruise and have an equal right to choose the food we want to eat.
 

Don’t be too harsh. There will always be a few outliers for whatever reason. Just look the other way and enjoy your dinner.

I don’t think you can go too wrong with either.

We did Dover to Boston which included Reykjavik, Heimaey, Isafjordor and another port I can’t recall at the moment.

We did a private Golden Circle tour which was about 6-7 hours so didn’t see much of Reykjavik, ship tour at Heimaey, walked around the other place and hired a car in Isafjordor which was delivered to the dock. It was a superb day of magnificent scenery and would highly recommend. 
We will certainly go back for more.

It’s available in all bars on Odyssey. 

The highlight was a slice of an apple cake from Mamsens while waiting for trivia. I don’t do desserts (and definitely not at 11:00) but it was stunning. It looked like cake but was wholly apple with spices and fresh cream on top. The strudel you have, when not.

I will follow as I want to understand my opinion in another context. Thanks

15 hours ago, Flamin_June said:

Well, that puts a poor cheeseburger into perspective. How was the wine?

Actually much better than we have on board at the moment. They re-stocked in Cairns.

I posted a reply weeks ago, but it seems it was sucked into the cyberspace vacuum. We did 14 days Cairns to Singapore and Bangkok in November 2022. It was last minute availability as they had significant itinerary changes due to COVID country lockouts and this became a sampler cruise. We 6 Seabourners had been curious for some time to try the product. We pretty much concurred with the following post cruise thoughts -  in brief:
 

Capacity 900, guests 300 and fewer after Darwin and Bali when travel agents doing familiarisations departed. We had seemingly lots of space, but meal times were quite busy.

Ship - beautiful and well maintained. Lots of light and open space.

Room - much smaller than Seabourn verandah. No walk in robe. Cupboard alongside the bed for hanging clothes. Extreme nuisance for access to clothes, coat hangers knocked against the door all night. About 1/3 less storage space than Seabourn - wouldn’t want to do a longer trip.

Bathroom - no tub (Yeah!). Large practical shower. One sink, not two, but large for washing if needed. Very little storage. 

Crew - predominantly Filipino and Indonesian. A few European MDs.

Food - less than ordinary. 6 of us concurred. We had a couple of nights that were particularly problematic and management organised 2 special dinners in a private room - these also ended up with issues and poor quality meals. 

Pools - 2. One in the middle of the alfresco eating area - couldn’t think of anything worse for a swimmer or diner. The main pool has a sliding roof. Our cruise was a warm (hot/humid constant 32C +) every time it sprinkled rain the roof would be closed. The indoor temp around the pool would have been near 38-40C with 90% oppressive humidity. Very unpleasant and I recall the whole area had minimal use as the water was also too warm. There is limited seating/loungers outdoors. I cannot fathom how 900 people would use this area on a warm Med cruise.

Entertainment - we normally go to a few shows. We did not go to one. I cannot recall why, but assume lack of interest. I recall a magician and a pianist. The CD was virtually non-existent. If you didn’t do trivia you would never have seen him. Very disengaged 10 questions in 10 minutes and left the room as quickly as possible. The A/CD did a better more personable job, but 10 quick questions is hardly worth bothering about. There was a group of lecturers on board travelling from the cruise start in the US. They won everyday as many questions were on repeat. Not a great experience.

We had a drinks package. Every time we ordered a drink. We were asked our room numbers to the extent we thought it would be easier to have them tattooed on our foreheads. The bar staff seemed to do endless paperwork on drinks consumed and the amount of liquor in bottles remaining. They are either operating under a highly bureaucratic manual system, or had a theft issue, such was the scrutiny. If a bottle ran out it could be up to 48 hours to be replaced. The elusive store room key!

There was a more intimate whiskey bar come nightclub. About 2/3 the size of the Seabourn O class. A very good band and an excellent singer who could belt out anything (Filipino group). The room was too small for this entertainment for 300 guests. Could not imagine the experience with 900 mulling around looking for an elusive seat.

Would we go again? No. We initially thought if there is an interesting and different itinerary. We have subsequently found a couple, but then agreed the on ship wouldn’t we worth it despite the cheaper price.

Ultimately, thoughts of a full ship and how it would service passengers scared the heck out of us.

I understand it does have a strong Australian following.

I hope this is helpful.

And the truth will out. Subterfuge always ends with red faces. In cricket parlance - always best to play a straight bat (unless you are HQ engaged in conspiracy theories about where the next demand for a cruise credit is going to come from) 🙈🙉🙊

Fabulous. Enjoy. We have done the Paul Gauguin cruise line in this area 8 times and when staying on land always hit the Carrefour - pate, cheese, baguettes at 1/5th the price of home! Forget the cholesterol for a few days. The wine is also great although more expensive given import duties. Can’t go too wrong.

so jealous. Have a great time in Moorea.

Be afraid, be very afraid!