2SailingNomads

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.

Interesting about the comments re: food. Although on that cruise over Thanksgiving they ran out of turkey after 30 minutes, unbelievable for a cruise that was mostly American pax. On our last cruise in November on the Sojourn we had lots of issues with service (under staffed, poorly trained, etc. and a lack of caring from the hotel manager - who supposedly was ex-Crystal can't say for sure as he never said a single word to us nor friends who also have hundreds of days on-board, hope he goes back there) but the food was some of the best we have had in 20 sailings on Seabourn. Now that does not dismiss the legitimate concerns voiced here, especially regarding repetition of menus over extended voyages, smaller portions, or the overall blandness of many items.

We have no issue with the taste of the Nordaq water, only issue is the temp of it sitting on top of the fridge, solved by using the fridge. Have not had issues with leaking but can see how it could happen. Both Regent and Scenic provide you with metal bottles which will stay colder and have no leaking issues, for our upcoming cruise we will bring our own bottles for going ashore.

From what I have seen, it appears only being rolled out to Venture and Pursuit so far.

Sushi restaurant is one of the best additions to the Ovation / Encore ships. Have yet to try lunch but have had probably 10 or more dinners there. Atmosphere could be a bit better but...

Yes as many as you can drink.

Chipped passport works great leaving the EU, unfortunately ours due to expire in a couple of years don't. We have TSA pre, going back to when it first came out, Clear, and Global Entry which 10 years ago was a PITA to get. I fail to understand in this time of all governments knowing way too much about any of us why there is not a universal "he/she is good to go". Reminds me of the second time I flew after 9/11. Let a person, I am being polite here, who looked like they should undergo additional screening to board the flight go thru. NOPE me on a biz class ticket had them rummage through all my stuff. Simply theater, Thousands Standing Around

Depends on on board destination services folks is our experience. We almost never book ship tours unless some place far from the ship or something like a rafting trip that will not be go to shopping center for "free time". One time there was a mix up in what we had booked when we boarded and what tickets were actually for. They accommodated the short notification canceled not doing that tour. On board crew aim to please.

What gets provisioned by shore side, and price, but usually the bar manager has a budget that he/she can use to buy local wines, but depends on the person (a former one got me local beers in most ports on multiple cruises) and if the area is known for wines.

Why not be upfront about the provider? Maybe he didn't know??

Another vote for Blacklane. Used them 3 times in Lisbon in the last 14 months. (And in other cities over the years.) Might not be the cheapest option but always reliable and clean cars.

Having sailed on Crystal, Regent, Scenic and Seabourn to date none of them had even decent internet. 2MPS if you are on when most people are off the ship or sleeping. The last couple of times on Seabourn it was vastly improved but will never be great due ships location and number of people using the same pipe. It will be interesting to see how good Starlink at sea will be and how they scale out. I am sure it will never approach the gig speed at home I have.

In fact Martin now F&B manager (actually he might be bar manager, last time i saw him a few months ago didn't pay attention to his position was glad to meet upagain) was the second time we sailed with him exactly the same. Coffee in the morning waiter in MDR at night.

I buy wine all the time on Seabourn so any OBC, which one of my TAs always provides, is not for things I wouldn't purchase. But to each their own.

Was on with you and agree the service was great most times., Around the pool was especially good. Food was very good in all restaurants but avoid the squid in Chartreuse unless you like old car tires, that was terrible. Included wines were decent - especially if you went to the complimentary offering session to see what else is available and then ask when elsewhere from a specific restaurant that you might have enjoyed their wine - (a wine in Chartreuse was nowhere else unless you asked for it I enjoyed). I don't go on a cruise for the entertainment but the few shows we did go to were very good and enjoyed Gino and the 5 piece band with the horns. Prime 7 and Pacific Rim were our favorite "specialty" restaurants but never had a bad meal on the ship. Loved the ship and the crew.

Sette Mari if you can sit outside is very nice. We did one night and only 3 other tables and had non-stop service. Was the best service wise meal. And food was good too.

Agree, room service from our butler was very good for a dinner when we choose to just relax one night in our suite. Couple of bottles of vino to go with it.

I totally agree with you i don't know offhand what we paid probably close to what you did but between dividends and OBC are ahead (15 cruises *250 plus the one 7 day at 100 or 125 I forget) and another $250 for our next cruise and the stock still has some value. Hopefully CCL figures out a way to become profitable and work its way out of the big debt load it carries.

Some of the cheerleaders live on. Luckily not all.

Or written by Chatbot...

Nice itinerary. Might have to look into it. But would prefer to sail into Sydney as opposed to a flight. Need to check the next and previous segments.

We enjoyed them all. Bad first experience at Chartreuse and lunch wasn't much better but 2nd dinner was so good we got a 3rd night. Pacific Rim and Prime 7 were very good as was Setti Mari. Compass Rose has a great menu. No bad choices on Splendor.

Talk about short notice. We have cruises booked out 14 months now come join me in 2 months. Maybe give us 10 months notice?