2SailingNomads

For the most part any cruise with included tours will cost more than one with out them. If just a financial decision than easy, but if you want to compare other aspects of the cruise- service, food, venues, whatever criteria is important to you then one has to take them all into consideration. After sailing on Regent which is usually more expensive than Seabourn given an identical itinerary unless Regent is ridiculous priced for now until we have a bad experience I will spend the extra for Regent, based on my last few not so good Seabourn cruises. (And other long time Seabourn cruisers who were on with us felt the same). I am not the only person on this forum to express a disappointment with recent cruises. Several other long-term Seabourn cruisers have weighed in touting SS and other lines.

Prime 7 and Pacific Rim were our favorites

Good points. I can not say every cruise line, rather I should have said cruise lines under the same corporate parent typically use the same vendors - go to the Regent board to see examples- and I have heard of various CCL lines especially HAL having identical tours (and website just different branding) as Seabourn. Price is profit for the cruise line. A $150 tour on a bus to the same cable car that you can walk to or take a $15 taxi R/T and the cable car is $20 is a convenient proposition to many. We know people who book based on what ship tours are offered. It works for many cruisers and then they complain when 60 minutes of free time... To each their own.

Yes towels quality has gone down as have other things. Staffing levels, at least on our 2 last cruises subpar, too many inexperienced crew, luke warm food, etc. We are hoping 3 weeks from now to find it is the Seabourn we have 400+ days on, not the most recent experiences.

Seabourn and most other cruise lines use the same local companies. We usually avoid ship tours and book private unless something like going to Marrakesh which is a long way and don't want to miss the ship. That said we did a few Regent included tours and they ranged from decent to very good. I believe frantic36 will be doing a Regent cruise in the future and can add her take on the included Regent tours.

Good info on temps SLSD, thanks as we board on the 9th. Planning on what to pack.

Who are the bar tenders in Observation bar, club, patio and Sky Bar?

We had a similar thing with a Scenic ocean cruise last year. US price was $30,000 while the price in pounds was 30,000 so 26% higher if we used our UK agent.

From what a very high end restaurant owner told me years ago, so called "fresh fish" is kept on ice once caught. Frozen is what the name implies. I doubt a ship could have fresh for more than a couple of days

Used to be easy but the last few cruises more difficult even when we know the Sommelier very well. I think as others have said they have limited supply so do not want to be held accountable if you ask for X and it is gone. Best to befriend a wine waiter or Sommelier.

We too were on this cruise. We were never bored but we enjoy sea days to not have an agenda other than getting out of bed and eating and drinking as we decide and the hours pass by. A good book and a drink be it water or stronger and I am happy. Did enjoy the boat building contest albeit 1 entry. What entertainment we saw we enjoyed especially Krew Capers.

Bring back the great Phillipino trios from the little sisters and early days of the O class ships in the Club. I have 0 interest in a DJ on a ship especially if playing disco (I am the definition of an anti disco person, give me Twisted Sister who I saw all the time during discos heyday playing clubs in NY ripping disco) can't say on this forum the motto back then.

Hi Markham. Any updates on your take vis a vie ship, food, service especially given your last experience on the Quest?

How is the food, included wines, service? We will be on in 4 weeks from today.

David E knew knew our name the next morning on the Legend after talking to us for less than 5 minutes at sail away. When we boarded the Pride 2 years later he knew us but not our name and went to get our passport info. (We all had good laugh at that fumble) Spent many times on other cruise with him on and off ship and was there for him in his last days, won't go into that.

I agree Handre is a very nice person, my point was that IMO and others he is not the best CD Seabourn ever had, and it took 3 cruises (we found him to be a bit aloof) until he made an effort to know us unlike David E, Heather, Nick, Jan et al.

I beg to differ, David E - who before your relatively recent time on Seabourn, David going back to the little sisters was the best, and Jan (interesting history between the two of them) same little Sisters, but agree Handre is an excellent 3rd given Heather and Nick left years ago.

We get an email from a club rep, usually a few months in advance, and lately a phone call inquiring as to what we want. Works well since our preferred bar setup is not on the standard list on-line, plus we ask for other things like pillows, extra hangers, top sheet, etc.

As a long time Seabourn loyalist I have to say my 1 so far Regent cruise was so much superior to my last 3 Seabourn cruises. And on that Regent cruise we ran into people we knew that also were formerly loyal to Seabourn and they will never go back. That said we have 2 Seabourn cruises booked but also 2 Regent. Time will tell ..

True, a few years ago we crossed the Atlantic smooth as a lake. Got into the Med and was rocking and rolling.

My opinion: avoid CDG at all costs unless a 4+ hour layover, and good luck if you do miss your connection - worst experience ever and I have flown close to 2 million miles; AMS and LHR we have found to be fine even with all the issues last year: have only had very good experiences on KLM, both across the Atlantic and inter-Europe. Any time I can take the KLM LAS -> AMS flight I will. Have had good luck with BA, despite their reputation. YMMV...

We did that also. The boat was fairly large but did not feel crowded.

Have sailed the Med in late Fall several times, weather was mostly comfortable, did not have much rain at all. Best is less crowds and heat.

And that accomplishes exactly what benefit? Improves the Seabourn experience how? How many corporate meetings did it take to arrive at this monumental change? At least the person who makes name badges has work for a few more days now.

Interesting question: Scenic Eclipse I and soon to be II are small 228 pax expedition ships (and in Antarctica they try to pull into the ice so pax can walk down the gangway and be on the ice, in fact ICE is what the captain lives for). Being so small it can do what Seabourn claims and go into very small ports, narrow channels, etc. Have been on Eclipse I twice and will be on II in the Fall, but unless there is a must do itinerary that will probably be the last time. (Ross sea and NW passage being 2 possibilities although Ponant has a much more interesting Ross sea itinerary). The ship while strikingly designed is really not a good ship for warm weather cruises, as was driven home on our Sea of Cortez cruise last month as the outside space is very limited and not really geared toward being outside in the warm weather. The ship has 2 helicopters and a submarine. While I am not a fan of having those on an expedition ship I will admit the helicopter trip we did over the fjords in Norway was amazing. There is a lot to like about the ship and the product in general, but there are multiple design flaws: single very shallow sink in bathroom except in the high end suites; a cool in-wall TV that can not be viewed when there is day light coming in; small closet spaces; no forward facing bar (e.g., Obs Bar); the outside bar does not have seats. On the other hand, they have severely oversized stabilizers for the size of the ship, the Captain showed a comparison, what is on the Eclipse is what you would find normally on a 3000 passenger ship, so you do get a smooth sail in rough waters. They have an open bridge policy and the Captain we sailed with both times was very welcoming. We thought the food was very good, and there are multiple dining options. There is no main dining room, rather an Italian themed restaurant (with other choices like fish and steaks) open at night that is the largest; a sushi bar that seats 10 or 12; an Asian fusion restaurant; a “Night Market” with 2 seating’s per night of 8 people – with a menu that changes every 3 days and has a series of 8 courses; a French restaurant; a buffet that is only open for breakfast (and a menu you can order off of for breakfast in addition to the buffet) and lunch; and a bistro-style place that is open for breakfast, all day snacks and coffee like the Square, along with a limited lunch and dinner menu. There is also a chef's table that is by invite only and of course room service. Included spirits are comparable with Seabourn, but the complimentary wines on Scenic are far superior. Seabourn's revenue list is superior but we really never felt the need to order revenue wine on Scenic unlike on Seabourn which we do most nights. And they have an incredible scotch collection of which almost all are included. One issue is that for some reason they do not have every complimentary wine available in every venue, especially in the buffet and bistro area, almost every day the waiter would have to go to another floor to get whatever wine I asked for at lunch but they did it cheerfully. TP and towels are an area that need improvement, The towels while in good shape are not fluffy, soap / shampoo / condition are in big dispenser bottles in the shower. They have a Dyson hairdryer and you can actually plug it in and use in the bathroom. Dry your hair in the bathroom, what a novel concept. Every suite has a butler but we really did not use them much other than telling them what drinks / spirits we might decide we want when returning from being out, not sure what real value they are. Entertainment is very limited to the CD, assistant CD and a pianist. But the room used for lectures, performances, etc. has very comfortable recliner chairs. I think the expedition team on Seabourn are superior, at least they were but have not been on a Seabourn cruise where we had any expedition teams since pre-Covid. Destination services, similar to Seabourn and Regent seem to never be at the top of their game as far as having details about ports unless you are doing a ship tour. Several ports do offer included tours. The biggest asset is the crew, many (on our first cruise in June of 22 we were told over 70%) of the hotel crew are ex-Seabourn. (A former Seabourn restaurant manager joined Scenic early on and recruited a lot of who he thought were the top people from Seabourn). We recognized many of them and more than a few that we did not recognize knew us. The service on Scenic is excellent, wine glasses never are empty, you do not sit on a couch in the main bar area waiting for 10 minutes (like can happen in the Obs bar) for someone to come by. Within a few minutes of being seater water is on the table and wine / beer offered. I do not think we met a single crew member for whom it was their first time being on a ship. We will be back on the Ovation this summer and just today were looking at a cruise on the Encore for next year, I certainly hope that the next experiences will be far superior to our last cruise on the Sojourn last November which if our first Seabourn would have been one and done. The good news is there are now more choices than ever for high end cruises.