Encore Christmas South Pacific disappointment

Interesting photos thanks!, with the history of this place and it's particular historical interest to many Australians, the photo of the old buildings is great. Just a shame the 159 Australians onboard did not get to see it close up on land!.

Interesting photos thanks!, with the history of this place and it's particular historical interest to many Australians, the photo of the old buildings is great. Just a shame the 159 Australians onboard did not get to see it close up on land!.

It's a shame Buddha / God / Mohammed / Yoda didn't realise there were 159 Australians on board and make the wind / tide play ball.

At the risk of repeating myself there isn't much Seabourn can do I'm afraid. If alternatives exist the company will swing into action as we saw on Sojourn in the Caribbean but if not then the next port of call beckons.......

Henry :)

It's a shame Buddha / God / Mohammed / Yoda didn't realise there were 159 Australians on board and make the wind / tide play ball.

 

At the risk of repeating myself there isn't much Seabourn can do I'm afraid. If alternatives exist the company will swing into action as we saw on Sojourn in the Caribbean but if not then the next port of call beckons.......

 

Henry :)

like they cant do much about including Mooloolaba in their itinerary?? Been there THREE times so far......NEVER been able to stop......Brisbane is about an hour south, docking is in a river....ALWAYS a safe bet......what's at Mooloolaba that is so special?? ummmm well there is a beach......

We've twice landed on Norfolk Island - by zodiac on both occasions and at different locations. You need an expedition ship to get there, unless you fly of course.

I'm just off the Quest and happened to notice that in the new Seabourn brochure the Sojourn is scheduled to visit Tristan da Cunha and neighbouring islands Inaccessible and Nightingale. Anyone booked on this trip had better prepare for a major disappointment. I'd rate the chances of landing on Tristan about 5% and zero for the other islands.

This is important information to know. I totally understand not landing if the conditions are unsafe. But, if conditions are generally unsafe, perhaps these ports should not be on the itinerary. I have a friend who has not been able to go to the port of Monte Carlo (TWICE!) due to poor conditions. This was on two different Silver Sea voyages. That kind of thing surprises me--but is, in my opinion, a different issue from what is being described in this thread. We docked on Monte Carlo just fine on a SB cruise last October.

Found this photo of the rebuilt Cascades wharf taken on the 5th Jan which doesn't look the wharf is ready to use yet but should enable cruise ships a better chance of tendering when finished

The wharf was meant to be finished at the end of 2017 so Seabourn could have used it instead of Kingston

It was mentioned that there were 159 Australians on board. What about the 127 New Zealanders? :) At least Australians can fly to Norfolk Island directly unlike us Kiwis having to fly over Norfolk Island to Brisbane or Sydney then back to Norfolk as the direct flights from NZ are coming to an end this January. The flights from NZ were only once a week as well. AIRNZ pulled out last May, Norfolk Air are pulling out this Jan. Norfolk Island Travel have chartered AIRNZ to take a group of us up to Norfolk in May for a Country Music week as everybody had paid a deposit when the flights from NZ were still going

We've twice landed on Norfolk Island - by zodiac on both occasions and at different locations. You need an expedition ship to get there, unless you fly of course.

 

I'm just off the Quest and happened to notice that in the new Seabourn brochure the Sojourn is scheduled to visit Tristan da Cunha and neighbouring islands Inaccessible and Nightingale. Anyone booked on this trip had better prepare for a major disappointment. I'd rate the chances of landing on Tristan about 5% and zero for the other islands.

I must admit I have never heard of those islands you mentioned so have just googled! Will be interesting to watch for those "landings". Can you tell me when this Sojourn cruise is? This year or next year?

There was a good discussion on Norfolk on this thread @ https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2578725

Note the crane on the wharf in the picture I posted can be under the sea during storms

When I talked to locals they said don’t bet on getting on - many cruise ships can’t get tenders ashore

Surely there’s got to be some tolerance and understanding that we are all at the mercy of the sea and this is a very exposed little island

Hopefully we make it ashore next month when Crystal Serenity makes it maiden call at Norfolk Island

 

I'm just off the Quest and happened to notice that in the new Seabourn brochure the Sojourn is scheduled to visit Tristan da Cunha and neighbouring islands Inaccessible and Nightingale. Anyone booked on this trip had better prepare for a major disappointment. I'd rate the chances of landing on Tristan about 5% and zero for the other islands.

I must admit I have never heard of those islands you mentioned so have just googled! Will be interesting to watch for those "landings". Can you tell me when this Sojourn cruise is? This year or next year?

We are on this cruise and it's next week leaving from Rio (very excited!) We know we won't be able to land on Inaccessible or Nightingale Islands but had hoped to land on Tristan. Do you know it, is it as inaccessible as Inaccessible Island?!

We are going to Tristan, Nightingale Islands in March.

Landings do happen of course but dependant on the weather.

Landings by tender / zodiacs.

Kind regards,

Tony

I've done four landings on Tristan, all by zodiac, plus one landing on Nightingale. For Nightingale you will need zodiacs as there is nothing for the tenders. Even zodiacs are no guarantee - we drove up to a rocky ledge about a foot higher than the zodiac and scrambled ashore. The penguins there are wonderful and in clear weather there's a fine view across to Inaccessible, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site along with remote Gough Island.

Tristan has a jetty/wharf and it might just be feasible to land tenders there. I think the structure has been improved since we were there. But the waves just heave in, having travelled for 1000s of miles without slowing up.

I was speaking only yesterday to our expedition leader Iggy about Tristan etc and he didn't think the Sojourn would have zodiacs.

My photos give an idea of what's like -

'Fletcher'

Thank you for the excellent photographs of Tristan.

Kind regards,

Tony

I've done four landings on Tristan, all by zodiac, plus one landing on Nightingale. For Nightingale you will need zodiacs as there is nothing for the tenders. Even zodiacs are no guarantee - we drove up to a rocky ledge about a foot higher than the zodiac and scrambled ashore. The penguins there are wonderful and in clear weather there's a fine view across to Inaccessible, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site along with remote Gough Island.

 

Tristan has a jetty/wharf and it might just be feasible to land tenders there. I think the structure has been improved since we were there. But the waves just heave in, having travelled for 1000s of miles without slowing up.

 

I was speaking only yesterday to our expedition leader Iggy about Tristan etc and he didn't think the Sojourn would have zodiacs.

 

My photos give an idea of what's like -

 

Great photos!

I've done four landings on Tristan, all by zodiac, plus one landing on Nightingale. For Nightingale you will need zodiacs as there is nothing for the tenders. Even zodiacs are no guarantee - we drove up to a rocky ledge about a foot higher than the zodiac and scrambled ashore. The penguins there are wonderful and in clear weather there's a fine view across to Inaccessible, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site along with remote Gough Island.

 

Tristan has a jetty/wharf and it might just be feasible to land tenders there. I think the structure has been improved since we were there. But the waves just heave in, having travelled for 1000s of miles without slowing up.

 

I was speaking only yesterday to our expedition leader Iggy about Tristan etc and he didn't think the Sojourn would have zodiacs.

 

My photos give an idea of what's like -

 

Thank you for the marvellous pictures, it really gives a taste of Tristan. My husband has worked on both Falklands and Ascension Islands so this trip is going to be very interesting for him.

SB have informed us we definitely won't be landing on Inaccessible or Nightingale but we hope to land on Tristan.

Having perused a number of other cruising itineraries I notice that the small notes against some of the itineraries show 'tender operations subject to weather conditions' which knowing what we now know about Norfolk Island would probably be a more appropriate condition.

I also note that 'scenic cruising' is included as part of some itineraries showing that it could be an alterative where tendering operations are cancelled due to safety concerns.

My husband and I were on this cruise this past holiday and we were also disappointed. It wasn't just that the ports weren't open due to weather - I think everyone understands safety issues - but there were no provisions and little information at the ports where we did stop. It didn't feel like a Seabourn experience at all. As an example, on New Year's Eve our meal was very rushed in the dining room to the point of being rude. We were in and out of there in record time - maybe 30 minutes - and the food was simply terrible because it tasted like it had been sitting ready at the wait for an hour or more. Blech. By the end of the meal we were really happy to get the heck out of there and back to our suite. Walking out of the dining room a waiter who was hurrying around practically knocked me down while he was rushing to clear a table.

The excursions were also hit or miss. One example was the EOCE - once a year opportunity hiking trip that turned into a very dangerous expedition with no one aboard the Sojourn or anyone with Seabourn having taken the hike before. The problem was depending upon who you asked about the hike, you got a different explanation for what to expect The service staff in Seabourn Square were absolutely clueless about it.

An older man with a cane who clearly had trouble with mobility was allowed to board the bus to take the hike. Halfway during the hike with passengers helping the man with the cane and each other there was a pivot point where the group splintered off due to dangerous conditions (driving rain, slippery and wet rocks and coral, mobility issues) and the leader of the hike as well as the leader of the Ventures Team went on while others simply stopped following this man thinking he was insane to continue and put passengers' lives at risk. Some passengers became confused and lost separating from the splinter group. One passenger helped others to get back on the path and to the bus only to find the bus driver had taken off to points unknown.

Later that evening during dinner, some of the passengers who took the hike discussed the treacherous and dangerous conditions hanging on to a coral cliff side in the pouring rain on a 5 inch ledge over crashing ocean waves and rocks below. Everyone generally considered the hike "technical" and were ill-equipped to manage it safely.

Most of the passengers on this excursion felt as though they had passed a survival test. As an apology, the excursion money was refunded and the Captain invited those who were on the excursion to a cocktail party on the exclusive deck 12 in which he failed to show up and no one provided any explanation.

Passengers decompressed with one another. The cruise and the excursions and the crew had that "missing something special" throughout the holiday but the ridiculous excursion and the bumbling of the apology was almost comical for such a dangerous experience. The Ventures leader, Juan, again showed no leadership during the cocktail party preferring to not engage the entire group but rather a few of his buddies in the corner of the room. What a waste of time.

The few islands we were able to stop were beautiful and most enjoyable. The water was amazing and the islanders were friendly for the most part.

All in all though, if you hope or think you will have a "special" holiday aboard this cruise to Fiji, I would recommend you skip it. Instead book Antarctica and South Georgia Island. They have many more things figured out onboard and you will have an amazing holiday adventure.

2cats 2many you mentioned the Sojourn so I was wondering if you had replied to the correct topic as this cruise was on The Encore?

I have been waiting to see if anybody else who did this I presume the Shabadran Terraces tour, you mentioned as we only heard from another couple who were on this excursion the next day. They mentioned that there was a sudden downpour which caused problems, there was no rain at all where we were so it was a surprise to us, The couple also told us that the man with limited walking should not have gone. The couple we were talking to kind of laughed it off by saying that they were the reason the ship was late leaving

We did look at taking this excursion but when we read the information in the Exclusive Travel Planner of which everybody received about the tours where it mentioned hiking for 2.5 hours then also having to come back. It was also mentioned "This is a strenuous hike with narrow passes , inclines and uneven ground with temperatures and humidity being high we thought that this is not for us and we are reasonably fit so we took another tour

The Exclusive Travel Planner did also have fairly good information for each stop we made, maybe you did not read it?

We thought Seabourn went a little extra for New Years dinner by having a gold cardboard top hat with Seabourn and Happy New Year written on it in big writing for the men and a head piece with a feather for the ladies on the dining room table when we arrived. The meal was a 6 coarse Thomas Keller menu, which we are not particularly fond of, so for you to get through it in 30 minutes does surprise us as we were there probably the usual hour and a half or so

I think this shows how subjective any description of a cruise experience can be. We all need to remember this as we read reviews. We read terrible reviews of the Encore last summer before embarking on a September cruise. We had a fabulous time--good food (notice I don't say great), always great service, wonderful entertainment, etc. Now, this is MY opinion and others on the same cruise may have seen it differently. We took a number of SB excursions at ports--some were quite wonderful, others quite good and at least one somewhat subpar. There you go. All to be expected.

It does seem as though the description of the tour was pretty accurate in the literature which everyone gets in their suite. Preventing someone from booking or not allowing them to board the bus is straying into dangerous territory. "How dare you tell me what I can or can't do." I have seen people accompany their friends or partners but not actually participate or stop at a certain point.

We also had a gala dinner New Years Eve on Sojourn. That evening is the busiest of the year in the dining room and there are, as you say a number of courses, usually with just one menu option for the main course. Amazingly special requests were still being accommodated. To get through in 30 minutes seems remarkable. It took us nearly that to enjoy our deserts, coffee, petit fours and table side conversation.

We then headed off to see the New Year in with our fellow guests and entertainment team. I appreciate others might choose to retire early to their cabin.

For future reference it might be worth exploring alternatives to the main dining room when a special dinner is being served. The Colonnade, Thomas Keller, room service, Sushi and possibly the Patio Grill subject to weather and planned deck usage. From memory it was closed on Sojourn in preparation for the deck party - but I stand to be corrected. In 120 or so days I've yet to get round to eating on deck at night !

As has been mentioned already people's perceptions and aspirations are personal to them.

Henry :)

Interesting ... Thecat123 ... we were on board Holland America's Prinsendam this New Year's Eve and received headgear (top hat and feathered tiara) also - except that ours were metallic blue and silver and said "HollandAmerica" . Looks like a bulk buy and an overlap between the two lines. I would hate to see either line lose its unique character but I suspect that slowly this will happen since they pretty much share management.

I am not surprised that there have been a number of posts on other threads about this Festive Season cruise where three of the nine port visits were cancelled.

This was our sixth cruise with Seabourn and we had not experienced any port cancellations previously. Other cruisers with more than 300 days with Seabourn advised that it was almost unprecedented for Seabourn to cancel so many ports.

Having arrived at Norfolk Island, we were particularly disappointed with the Captain's decision to leave the area immediately after announcing that tender operations would be too dangerous. After the announcement I abandoned my breakfast to rush to the deck to take photos of the old Kingston settlement before it disappeared out of view. As far as I could see there was no reason to prevent the ship from remaining in the area for half to an hour to allow passengers to view the island through binoculars and take photos.

From my point of view the Captain's responsibility in addition to sailing the ship safely is to optimise the passengers' cruising experience. There were no efforts to partly 'save the day' by providing an alternative island experience such as sailing around the island (at a safe distance of course) and/or conducting binocular viewing activities from the decks.

In my opinion Seabourn needs to do more work to ensure the robustness of its itineraries while providing varied and interesting destinations and develop alternative destination experiences when going ashore is not possible. A hastily prepared program of sea day activities is not enough.

Whilst the 10% discount on a future cruise is appreciated it does not compensate for the destination experiences lost.

I can understand your disappointment and agree with your comments. Passengers should be given the opportunity to spend time viewing the island, from the ship, before the ship just sails off. Norfolk Island is well known for ships missing port. (I remain disappointed that our ship didn't explain why we were leaving Akaroa NZ, without allowing passengers to disembark, despite smooth seas. I was on a lower deck waiting my turn to disembark for a day tour, when I learnt we were sailing off, so would have appreciated time to just enjoy the bay scenery from the ship. I learnt later that the ship had trouble getting passengers back on board, the previous visit.)

Just been looking at the Australia and NZ link on Cruise Critic about the storm which is hitting NZ at the moment

Several different cruise ships have been missing ports and having nowhere else to go to get out of the weather ending up with lots of sea days

I believe Encore missed Dunedin due to the fog as well

I feel sorry for all the passengers who have traveled from the other side of the world

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2592111&page=2

We have friends boarding the Encore on the 6th in Auckland. Hope the worst of this storm has passed by then.

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The only reason I posted that was for all the people in the poll who said Alternative destination experiences should be provided when tenders are cancelled

Where and what do the shipping companies do where there is poor weather as with the storm hitting NZ at the moment?

We are on the Encore, berthed at Wellington today. Port Chalmers, the port for Dunedin was closed by the harbour authorities, completely fogbound. The ship’s fog horn was sounding for most of the day, as well as the aft bells. Yesterday we missed Kaikoura, a tender port, due to the extreme winds, and up to an eight metre swells. The ship was very stable, and handled it well. We have to balance the missed ports with safety, and the fact that we had the calmest three day crossing of the Tasman Sea, although very foggy. The highlight was the sail into Milford Sound in full sunlight and calm, and the serene sail through the fiordland in the evening in twilight sun, as we ate on the patio. The food and service have been excellent. Many staff still here on the Encore from our sailings a year ago. New Zealand is beautiful. We’re happy.