2SailingNomads

Good to hear Sacha got promoted to Sommelier, he was studying for it when we were last on with him, and Milos we have known for years going back to when he was on Seabourn.

We found the prices for the excursions offered for our upcoming Explora cruise to be laughable 4 to 5 times what we could book for a private tour. Then they sent an email to our TA advising them to sell the tours on our behalf.

No worries as someone who STILL has multiple clients paying a lot for my advice I am going into it with an open mind as I DO with every new experience. The fact that I recognize cost cutting - and have read multiple not so good reviews on this board including about many children on-board, poor service, repetitive menus, lack of chairs in the shade to mention just a few - in a product aspiring to be high end in less than it's first year of operation does make me wonder what next month or 6 months from now will bring. Having sailed on Seabourn for many years I have experienced their cost cutting measures, Changing to a lower priced Champagne is like AA removing olives from drinks many years ago, hoping no one will notice to save $$. Clearly you love the product, I am going into it with an open mind but will reserve judgement until on-board.

Exactly this is a COST CUTTING move plain & simple making me think my upcoming Explora next month will be 1 and done

Curious if Alex is the head Sommelier and Brendan the Bar Manager (Brendan I have known for many years, he was on Seabourn for many years and other than Captain Rado he is my favorite Scenic crew although now Wandille also joined Scenic) Who is the Captain, Rado, Ewan, James?

We like Regent, have done 3 so far with 2 more booked although might cancel one of them. Very nice ships (have been on Splendor 2x and Grandeur 1x) and in particular we like the outdoor space on deck 12 with a walking track, driving net, mini-golf, pickleball court, Bago, and bocce ball court. A true walking area unlike the small ones on Seabourn where you have to navigate around chairs, etc. We like the choices of dining venues on Regent and find the food to be pretty good, always available options at Compass Rose much larger than Seabourn MDR choices, and service for the most part is very good. Never have a problem getting a seat in the Observation Bar and plenty of space between tables in the bars on Regent, unlike the sitting on top of each other in the Seabourn Observation bar, if you can find a seat unless you get there by 6:15. I agree the prices on Regent are higher (but now Seabourn is getting pretty expensive on a per diem), although they periodically have some decent sales, 2 category upgrades help, and you can opt out of the airfare (so far we have never taken the air as we could do better) and from the 1st day you sail on Regent you get included laundry services (last cruise if laundry was out before 9 a.m. it was back the same day!) and Wi-Fi, but do not like paying for the “included” excursions, some of which are pretty good others not good at all and we prefer to book private tours but you are paying for it you at least try a few… We almost never do ship tours so Seabourn comes out ahead there if they are less expensive. I think Seabourn has a better revenue wine list (and with the Diamond discount there are some very good values). With 20 Seabourn cruises to date and 2 more booked, I do prefer the Regent (newer ones as from what I’ve heard would not sail on the older ones) ships and dining options. Seabourn wins in a lot of other areas, no forward facing open deck on Regent, lack on interaction on Regent with officers even the CD never spoke to us, Earth & Ocean is a nice outside dining option for dinner, although Setti Mari has outside dining. Regent has MANY more tables in the shade for dining outside at their pool grill than Seabourn does for the Patio Grill and offers a menu with multiple sandwiches at lunch in addition to a buffet and standard burgers / dogs, etc. plus they have sweet potato fries. Seabourn pizza (from someone who makes their own pizza) is much better… Seabourn definitely has more outside events, on our recent 17 day cruise we had one sail away party and one night time outside event, friends currently on Seabourn had 2 sail away parties in 3 nights. Theater layout on Regent is much better as is the entertainment. Seabourn Colonnade venue has more choices at lunch than the Regent Veranda restaurant. No always available caviar on Regent nor events where they focus on caviar. No last night epicurean equal on Regent. On port days always one of the specialty restaurants are open for lunch for sit down service and on sea days 2 are open, unlike on Seabourn when maybe the MDR will be open for lunch from just an hour.

We have sailed on Seabourn 20 times, but in the last year only once but 3 times on Regent. Both are very good, some things much better on Regent others better on Seabourn.

Plenty of tables for 2, might be for 4 but they will seat just the 2 of you. You really want to experience all the other restaurants the "main" dining room while fine is my least favorite (chef's table but you cannot book that by invite only is my favorite), the sushi @ Kokos, night market and Lumiere are what we prefer. (And if Captain Rado is on then a private dinner w/ him)

At some point in time you will be directed, once you have a booking, to log in their not very good web site and pick from the available tours (and provide info on pre-post & post air arrangements and emergency contact info). But as far as I know you cannot see them unless you have a reservation.

My wife got some in Funchal. Also available in Canada.

Look forward to your perspective having sailed 3 times on Eclipse 1 and 2

We know quite a few people now who use sturgeon and none have told us about nor apparently suffered the "nasty side effects" care to elaborate and enlighten us Hank?

We disembarked the Splendor on Feb 26th and it was a mess. Stood outside the ship waiting to board a crowded bus w/ no A/C to the luggage hall. Got processed pretty quickly once we arrived and got our luggage. And yes had to get a hand filled out paper stating the number of pieces of luggage we had. Were told we'd have to walk a fair amount to the taxi stand, but then a porter offered to get us a taxi closer. We were staying for an additional 2 days so just needed a ride to the hotel, and sure enough it turned out that the taxi cost was twice what it should have been, but at least we did not have to lug our luggage to the main taxi stand in the heat and sun. Would never disembark from there again. We do have a Seabourn cruise that leaves from there next year and already not looking forward to embarking in Barbados,

My wife has her sea bands (battery powered after one of the former Hotel Directors told her about them) and has recently discovered stugeron which she prefers over meclizine which makes her drowsy.

I vote based on my last post C19 cruises SB: 4.9, Scenic 5.3, Regent 5.5

It is the new CC rating system, just introduced now. Everyone please pick a random decimal number between 1.0 and 6.0, your vote counts, No rigged elections on CC we all are honest.

and why no plug in the bathroom for the hairdryer not unique to Regent - one thing Scenic got right

Scenic Eclipse has a lot of very good things going for it (including many ex-Seabourn crew), unfortunately the ship design, while stunning from afar, has multiple issues.

Flying out of LAS now and previously from SLC we always get hit with the non-gateway airport despite the fact that there are nonstop flights to AMS, LHR and from SLC to CDG. West jet code shared with Delta has nonstop to Vancouver. Not sure the qualifications to be a gateway, maybe volume of ships pax from that location?

We have taken an Uber to and from the port of MIA so would guess it would be the same for FLL. You can always try to schedule from the app and see if it recognizes the port.

Having been on Grandeur over Christmas I agree some service issues, and not just in CR but also in Chartreuse but Jorge is well aware of them and let us know he is actively working to resolve them.

Miami Airport is definitely not a flyer friendly place. Have to walk 20 minutes from gate to luggage carosoul and still wait 20 minutes. Arrive on an international flight walk 10 minutes to US Customs then another 5 minutes to wait on a line to recheck baggage.

We cleared the waitlist list for the Grandeur Christmas Panama Canal cruise last year several months before final payment was due.

We contribute to the crew fund, helps everyone. On our Grandeur cruise as we were leaving the last day the butler who honestly had done nothing special at all for us came running after us and when it was clear we were not passing him some $ quickly and abruptly left. Totally different than on our other 2 Regent cruises. All Inclusive to me means that.

Book an Uber