Seabourn Spirit Rome/Venice 25 Sept preview/review

[whatnot]

Jim, I'm glad you're having a great time! We loved Croatia on our recent Sea Dream Cruise. Have to agree with Alexander Criuiser, Rovinj is even more quaint than Korcula. Probably 10 years behind the other Croatia ports on being developed for major tourists. I think that's what made it so special. Great prices there too!

[Jim Avery]

Hello All. Once again anchored in the perfect picturesque spot. Weather here in Rovinj not quite as nice. Overcast, breezy, in the 50sF. The town is as advertised-very beautiful in the old sections. I agree, maybe even more so than Korcula. Korcula was, for lack of a better term "movie set" perfect where Rovinj is a "lived in" looking place with actual work going on. On several occasions, just as on SeaDream, we have had the tenders to ourselves. All stops so far have had 2 tenders running continually so hardly any wait time. The cold hard world intruded when we returned to the ship. Our suitcases were laid out for us to get cracking with the packing.:eek: On deck BBQ has been cancelled due to weather so we will have to suffer with the dining room. Alex-Cruiser, will go into detail about rooms, etc. in much more detail when we get home. This slooooowwww internet makes me want to be brief here. This will do it for posting till I am back on high speed (already paid for) access. It has been wonderful. There are nits to pick as on any ship but the short version is--Great! Will check in in a few days and whine about having to mow yard, work,etc. All the best.

Jim & Lois.

[rolltide1]

Jim & Lois, that week really flew by. I am so glad you all had such a great time. Thanks for the onboard postings, Jim, and I look forward to your full review. Safe travels home!

[DisneyJen]

Thanks again Jim!!

 

Safe travels as you wing your way back to the real world and the US!!

[Jim Avery]

Well, since I woke up at 4am this morning thinking it was lunch time, I managed to get quite a bit of catching up done. That leaves a little bit of time to at least start a review of a very nice first experience on Seabourn on the beautiful Seabourn Spirit Adriatic Enchantment Cruise, September 25 to October 2. Civitivecchia to Venice. I won't re cover the ports as I mentioned them in the day to day posts but I will try to cover all the questions asked and give my perspective as a Seabourn newbie. A number of persons have asked me to compare/contrast Seabourn to SeaDream. After having been on both, I have to say there are as many differences as there are similarities. I will get to that but let me start with the trip over as I have had a specific request for a report on US Air Business Class. From our little part of Florida, we have to fly from Podunk Intl. (VPS) to Charlotte, NC. For this we have the baby jets. Nice flight on time outbound and a pleasant 3 hours in the Club at CLT. The flight to Rome (and the return from Frankfurt to CLT) was on an Airbus A330-300. On these planes, row 1 has full lay flat seating. All the rest of "Envoy" business class has recliners. These are, IMHO, the most uncomfortable Biz Class seats yet. Even worse than Delta. I love the seats on Continental and can get some good sleep in them. That said, the meals and especially the cabin service were very good. So, Disney Jen, don't expect much sleep as the seats are firm and the foot rest/seat/back do not seem to line up right. Ok, now the good news, we arrived in FCO 40 minutes early!:D Romecabs driver was waiting and had us at the ship at 10:40am. What a surprise when there were porters there to take our bags. Now, all we need is a place to sleep. Luckily we met our first passengers, Silvio and Diane from Connecticut who were doing a back to back. They were coming off to go into town and showed us the ropes of the continual shuttle bus service from the docks to Civitivecchia town center. Free buses running about every 20 minutes. We went into town, had a cappuccino to try and stay awake and proceeded to wander about a surprisingly nice looking town. At 12:30 we took the bus back to the ship and were astounded to find that we could board!:D After passing through the metal detector, we proceeded to the gangway. Now, I know Seabourn is good, but I still do not know how the people at the gangway addressed us as Mr. & Mrs. Avery. We had told no one our name. We had not shown our ticket to anyone. How did they do it?? The man at the gangway checked our tickets, assigned an escort to us and had us taken to the Amundsen Lounge, the main show lounge on board. While waiting our turn to be checked in and photographed for our ID cards, we were given champagne and invited to have some of the food displayed, all by people addressing us by our names! The checkin was just as quick as on SeaDream, was completed before my second glass of champagne, and we were then escorted to our cabin, 117 an A1 on 4 Deck, by a young lady who also addressed us by name. By now we are really blown away by the crew we have met. It truly amazes me. We have been looking forward to this trip for about 6 months. The crew on board works long hours day after day for months on end but somehow, everyone in the crew we met for the entire week treated us as if they had been waiting just for our arrival. Truly a great crew. Our cabin was very reminiscent of SeaDream cabins with light wood trim and muted fabrics. It is a fair amount larger than SeaDream and has a larger picture window as you might expect on a larger ship. The bed/sitting area is reversed from SeaDream in that the bed is near the door and the sitting area is by the large window. At first we thought that was great and we really enjoyed it at breakfast (we had all but one day delivered to the room) but, as the week went on, we came to grips with the fact that the bed got in the way if Lois was at the dressing table (even with Martita's suggestion of swapping an ottoman for the chair) and a number of times, I walked across the bed rather than have Lois move. The bath is much larger with dual sinks which we really liked. The tub/shower arrangement is nice but I much prefer the great showers on SeaDream. Put that shower in this bath and you really would have something. The cabin also had a walk in closet. More than enough space for us and it is the only place we have ever stayed in where we did not have to ask for more hangers. The only gripe, the safe placement in the closet required me to get on my knees every time I needed to open it. Much easier placement on SeaDream. The only other issue concerning the cabin is that 117 is on the starboard side directly above the electric/hydraulic operated large steel door in the hull side. This door is where the Pilot comes aboard at each port, usually early in the morning. When this door is opened, the electric motor noises are very noticeable and when the big door hits its stops, our bed literally jumps 3"!:eek: Good thing we are normally early risers because when that happens, you are up now! Probably never hear it in other cabins. The Captain was Dag Dvergastein, Hotel Manager, Anton Winkler, Cruise Director Steve Wood, Chef de Cuisine Jes Paskins (who we sailed with on SeaDream in Mexico in 2004), Maitre de Hotel, Armand Louw. All were extremely good at their jobs and treated us magnificently. I have already posted about our dinner with Captain Dvergastein but I wish to add that as well as being a charming host, he is a fine Captain and has an exceptional crew. Will take a break now but more later. Will start with the passenger makeup.

J.

[rolltide1]

Thanks, Jim! Great start to the review, I am enjoying reading all the details, and I look forward to hearing about the rest of the trip.

[petlover]

Jim, Lois, Carol...all;

 

Tom and I flew from Venice to Athens to board the Regent Voyager Sunday Oct. 3. Well...not as planned for sure as we're still in Athens on the ship but our cruise was cancelled due to broken pod. We just eat, drink and stay merry waiting to get off. Sunday was my birthday and we still had a fabulous fun party docked. Regent is making arrangements to fly every one home in same class of service as originally booked. In our case, we're redepositing our one way miles used through AA ff and flying home tomorrow in Biz class on Regent's nickel. Everone is VERY disappointed but trying to make the best of it touring Athens etc. We all need to be off the ship by tomorrow as the ship is leaving the dock and will be anchored (how long, no one knows?) before going to Genoa to get fixed. If they're not able to get everyone on flights by tomorrow, they're puting us up at nice Athens hotel. Everyone is of course getting free internet and phone usage to make arrangements, call home etc. Most are just letting Regent make the plans to get us home.

 

I feel bad for many who are more affected than we are. One gal was meeting her parents at our stop in Israel and getting married. Many were booked on B2B's or had post cruise plans. Oh well, ship happens and Regent is making everyone "whole" and trying their best to get everyone home safely. Some are going to do land trips, our friends are going to go to Singapore to see their son and then Regent is flying them home from Singapore.

 

Till then, we're making the very best of an unfortunate situation. Glad we had our Spirit cruise the week before...we're lucky as some had only arrived in Athens the day of boarding. What a bummer. There is a write up in yesterday's USA TODAY.

 

Cheers all!

[Martita B.]

Marcie

What a most disappointing situation ~I've been reading on other forums of the Voyager's pod problems. I am so sorry ~hopefully the pods will soon be repaired in Genoa.

A thought would be for you and Tom to contact Captain Dag and rejoin the Seabourn Spirit tomorrow (Oct. 6) in Zadar, Croatia. It would be a short flight from Athens.

Wishing all the Regent sailors safe flights home ~

Martita B.

[lincslady]

What a shame - particularly for someone who was getting married!! It sounds as if Voyager may be out of action for some time. I bet Captain Dag is glad he is no longer there!!

 

I wonder if Voyager was the first or one of the first to have this particular type of pod. We were on one of the 'trials' and she vibrated then, and I understand still does. Perhaps the pod design or manufacture has been improved?

[Jim Avery]

Hi Marcie & Tom:

So sorry to hear about the cancellation. Hope all ends well. We really enjoyed sailing with you both and hope to do the same again. All the best,

Jim & Lois.

[DisneyJen]

Welcome home Jim!

 

Thanks for the report on biz class on USAir as well as the first part of your SB/SD compare and contrast.

 

Looking forward to more!! HINTT!!

 

Oh Marcie ... How disappointing about the Voyager.

[Jim Avery]

The passenger mix was very good on this voyage. As previously mentioned, no kids-at all.:D Ages ranged from an apparent 30s to well, up there. We did not feel that we met everyone as we usually do on SeaDream but that is to be expected with almost double the passenger count. At no time did the vessel feel full or crowded with the exception of the open deck areas. More on that later in the gripes section (it will be small). The passenger makeup is: Australia, 13; Belgium, 6; Bulgaria, 1; Canada, 15; Switzerland, 3; Germany, 5; Denmark, 4; UK, 59; Ireland, 3; Netherlands, 6; Norway, 4; New Zealand, 6; Sweden, 2; US, 77; South Africa, 1. Total passengers, 205, total crew, 177. This compares favorably to SeaDream in the passenger/crew ratio. Keep in mind, the crew figures can be deceiving. The number of deck officers have minimums set by law so would be the same on both ships. The engineering staff required to run everything also has minimum levels required by law. I would be surprised if there were 2 more crew in the engineering department on this ship as compared to SD. Also, the deck crew required to dock and undock each ship would be roughly equivalent. The tender crewing is identical. This leaves far more staff available in the food/beverage/housekeeping sector and it showed. At no time did any venue seem understaffed except maybe the SkyBar at absolute peak late afternoon times but the famous Sean and David, along with one or two ladies as the load required, managed to care for us all very well. In fact, if we were to sit in any venue at any time of the day, it was only moments before someone appeared and asked if we needed anything. Very impressive. Not to say we have not had excellent service on SD at the TOY Bar or on the pool deck but we have had crew walk past empty glasses in other venues without a glance. Points for Seabourn here. For those who are interested (hi Frequent Traveler) the Champagne in the stateroom and the pour for this trip was French. Nicholas Feuillatte. We found it very nice, not that we are big Champagne drinkers. Master Mixologist Sean told us it is the favourite of Prince Charles. We are all aware of his exquisite taste.:eek: The cabin toiletries were Molton Brown. I am sure it is pricey and was perfectly fine but we really missed everyone on the ship as well as our cabin smelling of Bulgari. Points to SeaDream for cabin toiletries. The tenders were a bit larger than SeaDream as you would expect on a larger ship. The tendering staff, always using 2 tenders, and several times being tendered just the two of us was very nice. Recently on SD, they have only run one tender. On the downside, the tendering location on Seabourn is down a narrow stairway in the mechanical areas of the stern. Hard for the offloading passengers to get up the stairs with the outbound passengers already on the stairs. A far cry from the open air gangway and Pool Deck waiting area on SeaDream. Points to SeaDream but running 2 tenders counters that a bit. Ok, lets get the complaint department over with. :eek: One area of complaint is the oft mentioned pool deck. First, let me say both Seabourn and SeaDream have beautifully maintained ships. Inside and out they are clean and mostly very fresh looking. Our main gripe is a function of maintenance. As we all know, steel ships in salt water are a constant effort if they are to maintain a good appearance. SeaDream never has a speck of rust evident. Seabourn looks nice too but the big gripe--Chipping Hammers! For those who have not worked at sea, chipping hammers are double headed steel hammers used universally since the advent of steel ships. The purpose is to hit the rusted parts of the ship with the steel hammer to chip the rust away before re painting. It is noisy. Very noisy. We first thought it might be a halyard slapping the mast as the chipping in the machine spaces under our deck was a few compartments away. Each day it came closer. It became very obvious it was chipping hammers. Constantly, all day every day. Not only that, they set up shop painting the stacks--also with chipping hammers. All day long in the cabin or on deck the tap, tap, tap, of steel hammers on steel ship reverberated through the spaces. Very annoying if you need that power nap before starting all over again. I have never heard chipping hammers on SeaDream or any other passenger ship for that matter--including Carnival.:eek: Chipping hammers, air hammers, power grinders and other such noise makers are, unless it is emergency, for the shipyard. There are much quieter ways to address normal upkeep rust and repainting. I am hoping this is an anomaly as I have never seen reference to this constant daily noise on these posts before and I have to think you Seabourn regulars would have objected to the constant banging. We both put this down on our comment cards. Also, the exterior varnish at the SkyBar and on the rails was fairly tatty. It always seems just done on SeaDream. So, points here to SeaDream. The only other complaint is the pool deck/open spaces issue but I need to stop here. Will open with that later.

J.

[DisneyJen]

Interesting observations Jim.

 

Looking forward to more ...

[Jim Avery]

Ok, lets get the complaint department over with because this was overwhelmingly a great cruise. The open deck space and particularly the pool space on the triplets has often been criticized. I have to agree. The pool is useless. The pool is on deck 7 tucked behind the Veranda Cafe/Restaurant 2 between the bases of the twin stack uptakes. The pool is almost constantly in shade and the views are obstructed by lifeboats. Contrast this with the wonderful aft pool deck with expansive views on SeaDream and it is no contest at all. Additionally, the open spaces on deck 8 aft of the Sky Bar are limited to narrow side decks as the majority of deck 8 is an open well to deck 7 where there are two hot tubs and some deck chairs. View from the tubs and deck chairs are also obscured by lifeboats and tenders. This lack of deck space with a view or with sun exposure results in considerable "chair hogging". On SeaDream, there are so many outdoor spaces and so many deck chairs/Bali Beds that this does not usually present a problem. Also, SeaDream staff at the Pool Deck and Bali Beds do a good job of removing the left "chair hog" items and re setting the chairs with fresh towels. We solved this problem by remaining at the SkyBar most of our outdoor time.: Besides, we live in Florida and Arizona. Who needs to lay out in the sun?:D Also, the deck 5 hot tub forward has been found and was always crowded this trip. That area is in the bows and, if you are on a chair, you also have no view, just the steel bow bulkheads. Major points to SeaDream, especially in the Caribbean, for the open deck spaces and pool. Also, the quality and comfort of the deck furniture is far superior on SD. Now, as I am involved professionally in inspecting and critiquing vessels, I am prepared to offer, without charge (though a free cruise would be readily accepted:D:D), a possible solution. First, remove the existing pool. Throw it away. Next, elevate the 2 7 deck hot tubs to 8 deck port & starboard of the existing Satellite dome. Extend 8 deck from the aft end of the SkyBar deck all the way back to the existing 8 deck open deck space between the stacks. This would involve removing the decorative dome over the central stairwell. Install a nice pool just forward of the existing satellite dome supports. Finally, the removal of the existing pool would free up space for a much needed expansion of the Veranda Cafe/Restaurant 2 area. The previous open deck area on deck 7 would have the pool and associated equipment in the center but the outboard sides of 7 deck would provide shaded seating for those seeking that. This would provide a nice useable pool, much more useable open deck space with un obstructed views on deck 8 and a much improved Veranda Cafe/Restaurant 2 (which we enjoyed and used often). This could be done in short order by any major shipyard during a normal drydocking. Naval Architects would handle the minor stability changes, if any. Seems like a win, win, win. As it exists today, we would probably not sail on the triplets in the Caribbean. These changes could make it a much better warm weather ship. Just a suggestion.: So, how was it overall? Simply marvelous. We had such a nice time on board. The crew is simply the best. They all made us feel so welcome. I won't re do all the itinerary as I have already posted the days but Chef Jes's walking tour of the markets in Corfu had to be our favorite. Especially when we ate the fish we had seen purchased the day before. Corfu did not impress as it reminded me of a Greek St. Thomas.:eek: Crowded, all about shopping, with some nice beaches. Our favorite stop was Lipari. Simply an enchanting town to walk through. Loved the other stops as well but Lipari spoke to us more. Swimming off the Marina in the Gulf of Squillace was very nice too. I forgot to mention in Korcula that in the beautiful old town there are cats everywhere.:eek: All apparently healthy and well fed but cats, cats, cats. Naturally no mice seen but also, not a single dog. They must have all jumped into the sea and ended it all.:eek: As dog people, I just wanted to see a friendly face.: So, it was a wonderful trip. The food was perfectly to our liking and the Indian meal in Restaurant 2 was as good as any we have ever had. "Only" gained 8lbs. Primarily due to all the walking, not to any restraint on my part. Would we sail Seabourn again-Absolutely! Probably not in the Caribbean unless they sailed from an American Port. With soon to be 6 ships in the fleet, I hope they would consider keeping one sailing from the various American ports and moving with the seasons. For sunny, warm locales, SeaDream would be our choice but for Europe and many other venues, Seabourn would be hard to beat. All the best.

Jim & Lois

[Jim Avery]

Forgot the trip home. It was quite a trek. Left the ship at 8:15am. Walked from the ship to the Foscari Palace hotel, a nice small hotel on the Grand Canal between Rialto Bridge and Ferrovia. Early, no crowds, got to see a lot. Only downside, schlepping 2 bags. Its Venice, half the people you see are dragging bags. Took a nice nap and then went walkabout again. Perfect weather and found a nice canalside cafe for pizza and a beer after all the fine food on the Spirit. turned in early as we had a 3:30am wakeup call. 4:30am the pre arranged water taxi arrived. It was a beautiful Riva Limousin in polished mahogany. Also, it was the fastest I have ever been on! Approx. 50 knots-In the dark-passing everything in our path. Made it from the hotel on GC to the airport dock in under 15 minutes! Glad Paolo new where all the bad spots were and avoided them. We were checking in Lufthansa as USAir does not serve Venice but LH is a Star Alliance partner. Had not flown LH for many years. The stories are true. They even weigh carry ons. Any bag-any- over 10kilos (22lbs) is checked. No problems outbound on US Air but LH is different. This totally defeated the "no checked bags" strategy as we were checked VCE/FRA/CLT/VPS!!:eek: Think about it, an Italian loading the bags on a German plane for transfer in Germany to a US plane for transfer in CLT for a mini me jet to Podunk International. Bye bye Chicos. We were booked Biz Class which on LH from VCE to FRA was an Airbus A321 with 3 and 3 seating throughout. The difference in Biz is that the center seat cushion folded into a tray for drinks (which we did not get). Some Biz. As this was the day of the most recent terrorist scare, we were searched 6 times by the time we got home. No time for lounges or any other stuff. The good news is our bags showed up at customs in CLT. We then did the usual, gate checked on the scale model jet for VPS. The grand finale, after near 24 hours in motion was the 5, yes I really mean it, 5 screaming infants in front, directly behind, and next to us. I really see the need for birth control.:D Anyway, Rolling Stones on the iPod headphone at full volume helped somewhat. Come fly with me come fly, lets fly away. Frank would not be amused this day and age. All the best,

J & L.

[Cammiem]

Hi Everyone!!!

 

Am checking-in from home.

 

Can I just tell you how tough it is to go from being pampered all day to being at home and having to do everything myself. :(

 

A huge thanks to Jim Avery for posting during the cruise. I was too frugal to pay for lots of Internet time. :rolleyes: Plus, when you're sipping champagne all day, who wants to drag out the laptop to post?!? :eek::D

 

Overall - I loved the Seabourn experience.

 

MB - thanks for your little tips. I enjoyed your barstool. And Sean is so charming. Those onion rings - fabulous!

 

We had the pleasure of dining with Captain Dag. He's tall!!! Charming, too.

 

Chef Jes - what can I say! He's absolutely amazing. Very passionate & enthusiastic about what he does.

 

Maitre d' Hotel Armand - adore him!

 

Servers Niel, Lojos, Deon - how I wish they were here with me at home. Absolutely adorable. Actually - I loved all the servers. Once my jet-lagged mind adjusts, I'll be able to provide more names.

 

I interviewed Chef Jes & Armand for my blog. So thankful to them for giving me a bit of their time.

 

Will post a more thorough review in the coming days. Pictures, too.

 

Please - tell me where my morning mimosa is...:D

[CruisingDoctorWu]

Jim Avery: I agree with your sentiments on the pool deck/outdoor spaces on Seabourn. I think I would not be inclined to take another trip on one of the triplets; especially in the Carribean. Seadream would definitely be my first choice. Though, I did love the french balconette's on the Legend; fresh air with breakfast was the best (and the full room service as well). I might look at the larger triplets for (Sojurn, Odysessy Quest) other itineraries.

 

CDW

[DisneyJen]

Thanks for a thorough and thoughtful review Jim!

 

Agree 100 percent with Jim and CruisingDoctor Wu on the assessment of SB in the Caribbean. I think your ideas on rearrangement the pool are excellent Jim.:D

 

I can't imagine your flight from CLT to VPS:eek:

 

Glad to see you have arrived home safe and sound Cammiem. Looking forward to your review and photos.

[margbem]

Brilliant review, Jim - thanks!

[wripro]

Jim,

 

Thanks much for the extensive review. I'm so glad you enjoyed your SB experience. The location of the pool has been a known drawback ever since the Pride debuted in 1988. The suggestions you made for changing things are excellent but probably would cost more than SB is willing to invest in the triplets at this point. That is why you will see at least one of the larger new ships in the Caribbean from now on.

 

Petlover,

 

So sorry about the Voyager situation. I hope you have a safe trip home.

[frequent traveler]

For those who are interested (hi Frequent Traveler) the Champagne in the stateroom and the pour for this trip was French. Nicholas Feuillatte. We found it very nice, not that we are big Champagne drinkers. Master Mixologist Sean told us it is the favourite of Prince Charles. We are all aware of his exquisite taste.:eek: J.

 

Welcome back Jim & Lois. Glad you enjoyed your voyage. I am always interested in Champage. Nice is a good description for Feuillatte.

 

Have you booked another voyage?

 

FT

[Jim Avery]

Hi FT:

No, have not booked another yet. Will take the joy of long haul flying to wear off first. Blows the mind to think that 2 24 hour periods of stress, discomfort and sleep loss cost more than 7 days in the lap of luxury traveling to wonderful destinations. Defies all logic. SB has some interesting possibilities out of Ft. Lauderdale. Hope you are all doing well.

J & L.

[JaneBP]

>"Will take the joy of long haul flying to wear off first."

 

That's why you need a minimum of a B2B! Of course, I had to retire to do that.

[DisneyJen]

>"Will take the joy of long haul flying to wear off first."

 

That's why you need a minimum of a B2B! Of course, I had to retire to do that.

 

You're my hero Jane!! I like this reasoning:D

[ganttc]

Thanks for all the postings Jim!

We had a wonderful time - even with you on board. No complaints. Zippo.

I found Seabourn Spirit food and service even better than the Legend last year....and that says lots. Nervous about the big ship next year, but several crew members said they were great....Fingers crossed.