The Odyssey, on-the-sea, part II. (Alaska)

[highplanesdrifters]

Keep the posts coming!

[cruiseej]

19 hours ago, shark b8 said:

I was told they couldn’t make a Mudslide because “we don’t have a blender”.

 

That does seem odd. I have ordered a pina colada on multiple Seabourn ships in the Observation lounge, and they have always been able to make them. Even if they were to have a mix of pineapple and coconut premed, they need to add the run and ice and blend it; the only alternative is a large frozen drink machine, which I don't believe the have at the Observation lounge bar.

 

On the older triplets, at least, I  they also have a back prep area (on the side of the piano, near the door to walk out on deck), and perhaps they keep a blender there to avoid the noise at the main bar?

[SLSD]

1 hour ago, rkacruiser said:

 

There are several cocktails that were once very popular that are not ordered frequently now that a new generation of bartenders aren't familiar with them.  During a cruise recently, I ordered a Bacardi Cocktail on the rocks.  The bartender wanted to give me a shot of Bacardi Rum.  I had to explain what a Bacardi Cocktail was.  Then, he was able to make it.  

 

A Brandy Alexander made with ice cream is delicious!  

Considering the age group of most SB cruisers, you would think the bartenders would be up to speed on the 1970s and beyond cocktails.  This is on the food and beverage manager.  

[visagrunt]

3 hours ago, shark b8 said:

Btw, for those set to arrive in Canada as part of a future Alaskan cruise, you will be required to download the ArriveCan app, and fill out all the usual stuff these days: personal & passport info, vaccination record, arrival/departure dates/locations, etc.  Once fully filled out, you are rewarded with a handsome QR code, which theoretically will make border entry quick and easy.   We dutifully filled it out of course, and then…..no one ever asked to see it.   I’m not remotely suggesting that anyone should skip doing it, just…reporting our experience.

CBSA gets all the ArriveCan reports and the full passenger and crew manifests.  If everyone has a corresponding arrivecan submission and everyone reports as fully vaccinated, then they don't need to bother asking for the QR codes.

Same thing happened to us in Hawaii in January--dutifully filled everything out to get our code that nobody looked at (except, of course, that they had seen everything days earlier and cleared the whole ship).

[shark b8]

5 minutes ago, visagrunt said:

 If everyone has a corresponding arrivecan submission and everyone reports as fully vaccinated, then they don't need to bother asking for the QR codes.

Thanks, & yes, I suppose I could have intuited that the reality was some version of this….but (A) it was drilled into us by our Denali guide (and I think in several places on ArriveCan) that we would be *required* to show the code, or be denied entry, and (B) when we arrived in Vancouver and left the ship, we were in a long line of people that included lots of non-Seabourn passengers, and (C) I am aware of at least one Odyssey passenger who tested positive while onboard and was quarantining, so thus presumably could have easily entered Canada with the rest of the ship’s passengers:

 

 

 

[shark b8]

I don’t mean to make a big deal out of it, just noting the frequency of really tight, strict regulatory stuff that is required up front, that turns out to be lot more draconian than the reality that then plays out.  Which, I suppose, is a lot better than the other way around!

[shark b8]

As I think about, I guess there are a few areas I could identify which seem less ideal than pre-Covid cruising.  One, there are (at least so far) fewer Grand Salon lectures by guest experts.  Especially on the Antarctica runs, we really enjoyed daily lectures by the glaciologist or the ornithologist or the whale/penguin/sea lion naturalist, etc - and of course, some others which didn’t necessarily tie into the expedition itself, but were interesting & well-presented. There have been a couple of them from members of the Ventures team, but nowhere near the frequency or depth of previous cruises.  Also, we miss some of the events from a few years ago, such as Galley tours/dinners or Bridge Tours.  I’ll assume that Seabourn just doesn’t feel comfortable opening up those types of close-group events (especially in a food-prep area) just yet, with the cloud of Covid not yet fully dispersed.

Edited July 31, 2022 by shark b8

[cruiseej]

2 hours ago, shark b8 said:

there are (at least so far) fewer Grand Salon lectures by guest experts.  Especially on the Antarctica runs, we really enjoyed daily lectures by the glaciologist or the ornithologist or the whale/penguin/sea lion naturalist, etc

 

I think Antarctica cruises are a special category which have a much larger expedition staff. Alaska cruises are generally quite port-intensive, and as a result likely have fewer lectures. 

 

2 hours ago, shark b8 said:

Also, we miss some of the events from a few years ago, such as Galley tours/dinners or Bridge Tours.

 

That's definitely strictly a Covid thing; they haven't resumed these activities to try to keep the crew safe from more contact with potentially risky passengers. 

 

[saminina]

9 hours ago, shark b8 said:

Btw, for those set to arrive in Canada as part of a future Alaskan cruise, you will be required to download the ArriveCan app, and fill out all the usual stuff these days: personal & passport info, vaccination record, arrival/departure dates/locations, etc.  Once fully filled out, you are rewarded with a handsome QR code, which theoretically will make border entry quick and easy.   We dutifully filled it out of course, and then…..no one ever asked to see it.   I’m not remotely suggesting that anyone should skip doing it, just…reporting our experience.

Triple my experience.    I did it once and have skipped the last two times.  

[curmudgeon98]

It was interesting to find this thread, as we were on this first week ourselves; I recognize a bunch of that scenery.  For us, this was our first Seabourn cruise, though family members have put in several hundred days onboard various of the ships.

 

We had a simpler arrival; we had done the emed tests the day before.  We got to the airport around 10am, tried to get an Uber (none available), then took a taxi to the dock (which ended up $5 cheaper than the Uber estimate).  Dropped our bags at the truck by the end of the pier and wandered around town for a few hours (Drizzly day so we didn't feel like doing any of the typical excursions).  Came back to the ship around 3pm and pretty much walked on for check-in.  On a side note, pre-cruise communication was pretty lame; we kept getting emails every few days to "inform us of important additional information about your cruise", where the emails and attachments simply said to look in your boarding documents for the update and nothing notable had changed there.

 

Overall, I thought that there was a lot that went right about the cruise, but I felt like there were a lot of new crew on board who weren't quite up to speed.  It seemed like they were trying to learn special Seabourn touches, but not always getting the basics quite right.  Nothing big, but a little surprising given the Seabourn reputation.

 

We've done several Alaska cruises before, and really enjoyed this itinerary that hit more of the quiet and scenic corners of the Inside passage and wasn't tied to the standard tight movement schedules.  The only excursion we did was the Anan bear viewing trip; expensive but a lot of fun.  We booked that one as soon as we booked the cruise. 

 

I thought the quality of the music entertainment was better than we've had on other small ships; that was a definite plus for us.  We did some of the other lectures and activities, but since we were only on for a 7-day segment, we didn't do as much as we might have on a longer cruise. 

 

Nice mix of fellow passengers, people who were pleasant to engage with but mostly not stuck on themselves or their experiences.  There were a few kids onboard, quite well-behaved.  We did a couple of hosted dinners; they leaned on visiting/entertainment staff to host these rather than full-time crewmembers, but that worked out pretty well. 

 

We enjoyed pretty much everything we had from the Restaurant.  Breakfasts in the Colonnade had great fresh fruit selections, but some of the other items weren't as fresh and hot as I'd have liked.  TK Grill was good, but not compelling; I'm not sure I'd bother going to it on another SB cruise.

 

 

[shark b8]

Thanks for your thoughtful view, curmudgeon.  When you say….

 

“a lot of new crew on board who weren't quite up to speed.  It seemed like they were trying to learn special Seabourn touches, but not always getting the basics quite right. ”. 
 

…can you share specifics?

[shark b8]

Ketchikan today.  In my life-long quest to do every form of transportation in the known universe, we drove UTV vehicles 10 miles up the mountain to Lake Something-or-other, then took a ½ hour lake cruise, followed by a Dungeness crab lunch with a 5-choice beer tasting. I’m not a beer-guy but it was tasty, and well, who doesn’t like crab?!

 

[shark b8]

attn: foodies.  In the Restaurant, grilled fig with prosciutto & goat cheese. New, I think, and pretty tasty.

 

[shark b8]

This takes me back to our first Seabourn, on the Spirit (!) in 2013.  Always thought this was whimsical and charming by the housekeeping staff, wondered why it mostly went away.

 

 

[curmudgeon98]

8 hours ago, shark b8 said:

Thanks for your thoughtful view, curmudgeon.  When you say….

 

“a lot of new crew on board who weren't quite up to speed.  It seemed like they were trying to learn special Seabourn touches, but not always getting the basics quite right. ”. 
 

…can you share specifics?

A few little things:  on making up the room, housekeeping would keep "neatening" the phone cord - except it would end up wound so tight that you couldn't answer the phone.  Housekeeping also didn't check/restock the fridge without being specifically requested.  On the tables at the back of the Colonnade, it seemed a 50/50 proposition whether the salt shakers would actually have any salt.  The occasional response that something would be done "instantly", when five minutes was the actual (reasonable) timeframe.  In the restaurant, bread tended to be offered once, then vanish, and butter was scarce.  Pacing of meal service was also sometimes a bit erratic.  

 

Minor stuff; it was perhaps more a matter of having high expectations based on the Seabourn reputation.  Staff friendliness was excellent, as was the attempt to anticipate drink orders (nice, but I'm not always so consistent in what I feel like on any given day ...).

 

 

[SDuckers]

On 7/30/2022 at 2:00 PM, shark b8 said:

Btw, for those set to arrive in Canada as part of a future Alaskan cruise, you will be required to download the ArriveCan app, and fill out all the usual stuff these days: personal & passport info, vaccination record, arrival/departure dates/locations, etc.  Once fully filled out, you are rewarded with a handsome QR code, which theoretically will make border entry quick and easy.   We dutifully filled it out of course, and then…..no one ever asked to see it.   I’m not remotely suggesting that anyone should skip doing it, just…reporting our experience.

We had the same experience last year with the BIMSafe App for Barbados. It was a royal PITA to load everything onto it, and then no one ever looked at it.  Nonetheless, I'm a rule follower and have already loaded all that I can to the ArriveCan app.  We can't do the last part until 3 days before arrival.

[labonnevie]

13 hours ago, shark b8 said:

This takes me back to our first Seabourn, on the Spirit (!) in 2013.  Always thought this was whimsical and charming by the housekeeping staff, wondered why it mostly went away.

 

 

On one of our first Seabourn cruises they had a towel folding class. 
The grandkids were pretty impressed when we showed them we could make an elephant!

[shark b8]

As the sign says….

 

[shark b8]

We took a cruise of the area, saw sea otters relaxing on their backs, with hind feet in the air….

 

 

[shark b8]

…as well as whales. LOTS of whales.  I will sheepishly admit, we Hawaii-types are more than a little spoiled, we are lucky enough to see them from our lanai in the winter, but - fun to see them in their summer home.

 

 

[shark b8]

 

 

[shark b8]

The closest shot I got was the briefest one  - one guy giving us a goodbye wave as he dove.

 

 

[adolfo2]

On 8/1/2022 at 2:58 AM, shark b8 said:

This takes me back to our first Seabourn, on the Spirit (!) in 2013.  Always thought this was whimsical and charming by the housekeeping staff, wondered why it mostly went away.

 

Yes, it's "cute" but time consuming. I would rather they spend their limited resources on more important tasks 

[shark b8]

For Hubbard Glacier we mixed things up a little, went aboard this catamaran rather than the zodiacs.  Quite nice - spacious and comfortable, ceiling-high windows and plenty of outdoor viewing deck space.  And they did what we’ve done, fished some glacier ice out of the water to chop up in drinks.

[shark b8]

Difficult to convey the immensity - 1,000 feet deep and 6 miles across.