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10 Day Caribbean Sojourn Review

nolatravelgirl

By nolatravelgirl,
in Seabourn Cruise Line

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tv24

tv24

Posted
Posted

Nolatravelgirl Thanks for posting the Herald. We are on a 68-day Sojourn cruise 1/4, and it's great to find some previews of the fun we will have. I intend to study the Heralds thoroughly. BYW, "Treme" has started again on HBO and I am in heaven again. What a fascinating tribute to one of the USA'a few truly unique cities. And I grieve all of the changes post-Katrina. Thanks again for taking the time to educate us!

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zich6

zich6

Posted
Posted
Day 6 – Antigua – Elegant Casual

 

Since I was a lazy slug the night before I was up pretty early and stood out on the balcony and watched as we pulled up to the dock and watched how they tied the ship up and got everything set up. It really is interesting to see how things work. The weather looked okay, but again there were these ominous clouds on the horizon.

 

10820594505_b08e86ee30.jpg

IMG_0924 by nolatravelgirl, on Flickr

 

We had pre-booked an all-day Catamaran tour on our own as the ship’s catamaran wasn’t all day and the tour with Eco-Tours seemed like a better value. We got off the ship and went to the designated meeting spot and knew things were bad when there was no catamaran in sight. A man approached us and said he had good and bad news. The good news was we were getting a refund, but the bad news was we weren’t going out. It didn’t look that bad, but he said they had checked the weather and it was going to get bad so we got cancelled.

 

Eli’s Eco Tour

http://www.adventureantigua.com/the-eco-tour/

 

We were already off the ship and decided to see what was going in town. It was only 9am so most of the shops and restaurants weren’t open. We wandered about town looking for something to do, but unfortunately it wasn’t looking good and we hadn’t done research for rainy day activities in Antigua. While walking around the skies burst open in a torrential down pour. We bee lined back to the ship and had to walk thru the group of Seabourn folks who were scheduled for the ship’s catamaran excursion. I couldn’t imagine boarding a catamaran in that nasty weather. We dried off and I watched from our balcony as that excursion went out.

 

Seeing that it was turning out to be a yucky day we did what anyone would do. Okay, most folks probably didn’t do what we did, but when life gives you lemons, turn around and make cocktails with those lemons. :)

 

Claudio & Miguel had opened the pool bar which was under the cover and conveniently our room was just steps away. Day drinking is how we spent our morning/afternoon. My liver was quite surprised as today was supposed to be a nice healthy day of snorkeling.

 

If memory serves me right this is also the day we went to The Colonnade for lunch to have the famous steak frites. It was a much thinner cut of meat and not nearly as good as the luscious piece of meat I had the evening before in the MDR, but it was tasty with the herb butter and the food was definitely a cut above the usual fare at the patio grill for lunch.

 

I can neither confirm nor deny that there were a lot of cocktails and wine consumed on this rainy day and we probably should have done something else, but alas we didn’t. I remember taking a few pictures that day from deck 9. You can see the ugly clouds and the wet deck.

 

10820908073_481bfb2256.jpg

IMG_0927 by nolatravelgirl, on Flickr

 

If you are wondering if the bar stocks your favorite adult beverage you can check out the patio bar selection here:

10820913043_0b58f23360.jpg

IMG_0928 by nolatravelgirl, on Flickr

 

It was unfortunate that we missed our snorkeling catamaran tour in Antigua but you have to go with the flow and make the best of things.

 

Dinner that evening was again a hosted table. We were dining with Cruise Director Heidi and two other couples. One couple was very interesting, he was retired and now a mystery writer. The wife worked in higher education and had one time worked at Sophie Newcomb in New Orleans so we had lots to talk about on that topic. The wine flowed freely and considering the “day drinking” from earlier I was definitely chatty. In one dinner “I” had come up with a list of suggestions for Heidi and team on how they could make caviar in the surf work even with the rain. It was all in good fun.

 

Tip: If you want to be sat at hosted tables, be sure to let them know. I think it is a great way to meet other people and find out about some of the inner workings on the ship. To me small tables of 2 are meant for a romantic dinner or first dates. Most of the folks on the ship have been married for years and can have dinner alone any day of the year and why would you want to eat alone for whole the trip. Why not branch out and meet some folks. Unlike big cruise lines you aren’t required to sit with the same people each evening. You can mix it up and meet new people every night.

 

I went and saw the magician’s act afterward. He did most small slight of hand tricks and some light comedy. There were no trap doors, sawing people in half or making the audience/ship disappear. Like most of the other entertainment, it was good not great, but I didn’t book this cruise for the entertainment. The show was only an hour long, which is enough.

 

After the show I headed up to the Club and ran into Katy and Joe from our hosted table with Sophie. They were a riot and I had fun talking to Matt the bartender at the Club bar. I tested his knowledge of cocktails and asked him if he had ever made a “dirty girl scout.” We also traded some funny one liners about whether I may or may not have been a dirty girl scout. I had stumped the bartender with my dirty girl scout, but in reality I couldn’t remember how to make it either so I knew I would look it up online as soon as we got to St. John and internet on my phone was free since it was a US Territory.

 

Day drinking + dinner drinking + club drinking = totally done and off to bed. Antigua, I shall remember you fondly.

 

Sorry I'm coming to this late. Were Katy and Joe from Illinois?

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jenidallas

jenidallas

Posted
Posted (edited)
Sorry I'm coming to this late. Were Katy and Joe from Illinois?

 

Connecticut

 

You can believe me, if anyone aboard refers to me as "you girls" I'm going to be seriously ticked.

 

Understandably so!

Edited by jenidallas
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RonnieL

RonnieL

Posted
Posted (edited)

We just returned from the November 27 Sojourn sailing and we were totally disappointed... the food was awful, the ship needs maintenance and the staff was not responsive... we had booked 2 future bookings went we got on-board and cancelled them upon leaving... will not sail on Seabourn again!!!

Edited by RonnieL
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tv24

tv24

Posted
Posted

RonnieL: So sorry that your Sojourn experience was disappointing. Are you going to write a review? If not, could you provide more specifics about the problems with the food and response of the crew? We are boarding the Sojourn on Jan. 4 and I am eager to receive whatever info I can from my fellow Cruise Critics. It would help me plan and know what to watch out for. Thanks.

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Able Seaman H

Able Seaman H

Posted
Posted

I can only echo the sentiment of others. It must have been quite dramatic to warrant cancelling you two future cruises. Given the Sojourn is not that old I'm intreagued as to the maintenance required. I'm hoping it is still hanging on in there in a few days when we board :)

 

If you can find the time to expand on your comments it would help others to make a decision in the future. Decide whether your issues would affect them and so on. To be fair to Seabourn just coming on and saying it was rubbish is a little bit unfair although you are of course entitled to your opinion, you paid your money etc....

 

Henry :)

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Ravenscroft

Ravenscroft

Posted
Posted

Yes, ronnie, please do tell us more.

I was on Sojourn in the summer, in a group of 4, and none of us noticed any maintenance issues at all.

Interesting comment, especially as there's a thread elsewhere about a review by someone who was also very unhappy on the Sojourn recently. Coincidence?

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Able Seaman H

Able Seaman H

Posted
Posted

To be fair Ronnie does have posting history on here from 2011. Quite brief comments I grant you and seemingly obsessed with Caviar :)

 

 

Without further embellishment there isn't much more that can be added.

 

 

 

 

For the definitive verdict on Seabourn and specifically Sojourn you will have to wait until we embark on December 17th. I promise to deliver a fair and balanced review from a regular but first time Seabourn cruiser's point of view.

 

I'm not going with any agenda or peculiar expectations and I acknowledge the people looking after us are human.

 

 

Henry :)

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