2SailingNomads

Ignoring hypothetical Chapter 11 filings, IMO the root cause of poor service comes down to 3 things: many long time crew left under the prior management to Windstar and other lines, under current management many others left to new start ups like Scenic (great Ex-Seabourn crew but ship has some design issues), and more arrribution due to the pandemic. Several long time crew we know took land-based jobs when the cruise industry shutdown. Last cruise on the Ovation had a very lot of good from many we knew from the past but also multiple failures from inexperienced crew members. As someone who hires and mentors people it comes down to 2 things: did you make a good hire or a mistake? and can they meet the objectives given the training if allowed enough time to properly train. My guess is the allotted training time has been cut short since the pandemic and they are taking 2nd round picks (to use a NFL analogy) when in the past Seabourn only had 1st round picks. JMO

Curious about mixers, say low calorie Cranberry juice.

We had planned to be on the current voyage but when the itinerary changed so did our plan. If what was a non-smoking small ship now caters to exceptions (I heard part of it had to due with crew restrictions supposedly) we will drop it off future considerations given the exorbitant price. Hello Seabourn there are easily 20 other high-end expedition ships coming on line in the next 3 years. Seabourn lost a lot of top management and great crew over the last 6 or 7 years to other lines. Windstorm for one and now especially Scenic. With Four Seasons just albeit a few years in advance, Explora etc. How many more of the very good crew will move on? On our Scenic cruise 80% of the hotel staff were ex-Seabourn. That alone says a lot about my favorite cruise line, Seabourn. Fix it Josh or let someone else.

We prefer small ships, first was on Seabourn Legend, last one on Scenic Eclipse but have done 450 and 600 Seabourn and 900 Crystal (once) but have a cruise booked on Explora that we are looking forward to. Having seen many greats bands, performer's, shows on land I personally do not pick a ship for the entertainment. I would prefer an interesting conversation with someone I just met vs. a mediocre performance. JM preference.

Pricing discrepancies in different currencies is not unique to Explora. We booked a Scenic cruise a year or so ago. As we use both a US and UK based agent I got quotes from both, which are usually pretty close. This time the UK agent was way more expensive. I used a VPN and sure enough the UK version of the Scenic website had the identical amount for the cruise as the US one did, despite the pound being at the time about 30% more than the US dollar.

And only 1 cruise in July.

Send it to our TA and a day or 2 later have it. TTypically we give one month prior statement.

Yes he was never part of the on-board team, he was hired to build the team, plan the experience, and manage the people doing the actual expeditions. I believe I had heard, but could be wrong, he was hired away from SilverSea. With all the new expedition ships coming on-line I expect many will be moving around - time will tell how many of those ships can be profitable in a few years, at least at the current price points, most of which are 2K US or more per day.

Alaska is amazing, IMO only second to Antartica.

Antarctica & Patagonia Expedition Team | Seabourn

Exactly if 5 cases on-board then no concern. If 50 then need to change your behavior. And we did get C19 from being on the ship - flew home day we disembarked and was sick before we got to the arrival airport and positive when tested so hence my complaint about lack of transparency. Although we were mostly careful had we known the infection rate we would have avoided certain situations we thought were safe. No guarantee it would have made a difference but knowledge is a wonderful thing if one has a brain to use with it.

I was looking at the Ventures expedition team bios today and it appears, as I had heard rumors of, most of the former (and IMO best) have left Seabourn. Iggy for sure. Not sure if Robin West is still part of the team but no mention of him in what I saw.

Unfortunately "But the big error on Seabourn's part is that they weren't honest with their customers about exactly what happened" is the problem. Not the old Sebourn. Meet the new boss, not the same as the old boss.

I think this all goes back to the total lack of honesty / transparency that the corporate heads have adopted. Clearly when we were on the Ovation from MIA -> LIS there were at least 50+ C19 cases between crew and guests yet they denied any issue existed. Cruises we were interested in next July that I could not believe would go to Russia now disappeared with no replacement. Something smells rotten IMO. I looked today and, given some of the exorbitant prices for nothing special cruises next July means I'll look elsewhere, same price with included biz airfare on other lines. So sorry to see Seabourn management taking down a great product. We had booked what looked like an appealing and reasonably priced itinerary to try out the Venture but they changed all the of interest ports. Sad...

I think we were on the same cruise MIA -> LIS and the lack of transparency re: Covid cases was more than disappointing. Despite walking down the various halls and seeing the benches. Tell us the TRUTH, we can understand what it means. Seabourn is in denial IMO about what is happening on the ships.

Barron is back on Seabourn? If it is who I am thinking of he was the 2nd least CD I would ever want to sail with.

So sorry Julie about Keith still being positive. Send him our regards and we both are hoping he is being negative tomorrow. Really was not surprised about you both since as I told you we both got it on the Ovation, luckily not until we got home the day we disembarked. Do you know how many other cases are on-board? On the ovation they kept it a secret.

Love Hamish and Gail

We recently returned from the Scenic Eclipse - not an expedition cruise, rather Lisbon to Bergen - but it was very good. Ship is beautiful, and the crew, at least restaurant / bars crew are all some of the best ex-Seabourn and we knew most of them and to say they were glad to see us was an understatement. Not to mention the head chef and corporate hotel manager. Service reminded us of from our first cruise on the Legend 400+ sailed days ago - albeit without David E. Will say the butler was close to retiring and not of much use. Food was excellent and ALWAYS HOT which has been an issue for years on Seabourn. On Seabourn food is delivered to a station and can sit there for more time than needed depending on where the in-charge people are and by the time it gets there, especially given the kitchen often messes up the order - why is beyond me - warm at best. I remain a loyal Seabourn cruiser but will return to Scenic in a heartbeat for the right itinerary, especially so long as so many of the ex-SB crew remain with the company. (I heard more than a few stories as to why they moved over - time will tell if that remains the same)

Suggestion for airport to Monte Carlo - take the helicopter. All of about 8 minutes flight time and beautiful scenery. Too various car services prior to discovering it and would greatly recommend it.

I seem to have seen, somewhere in the 800+ posts here, about Regent requiring you to take a flight after a certain number of hours when disembarking but cannot find it. Anyone have info on that? Has to be after noon or ??? Thx.

All the airlines are over loaded these days. Some are better than others, in particular Delta allows you to instead of being on hold listening to the same thing 900 times to request they call you back. Hawaiian & AA the two most recent ones I dealt with require you to hold for indeterminate amounts of time, and in the case of HA had to call back 3 times after 45-70 minutes on hold each time and the person I eventually spoke to did the wrong thing until I got the 3rd one. So does this mean even if you contact them at 270 days - which for us is coming up in a couple of weeks - you will not hear back for a 7-10 days?

This is great info and should be a sticky at the top of this forum IMO.

I would have had a word or two with the Hotel Manager. That crew member was clearly accepting money to provide preferential service. Years ago a crew member, who was a long time employee, told me that the crew can accept tips but are supposed to put them into the crew welfare fund. I do not know if that really was the case or still is, but it seems reasonable to me.

Seabourn air can be great (we got business from Lisbon back to the US on our recent TA for 1/5 what I could get it) but at the same time for a future cruise leaving / returning to MIA it was twice what I paid. I do not want Seabourn to be SS or Regent regarding airfare.