Encore officers

[nancygp]

51 minutes ago, Tallante said:

A little younger!  Lots in their 40’s and 50’s.  The disco goes onto 03.00. On deck 5, We would never do a 7 day back to back again.  Totally different atmosphere on board.  With Ports every day nothing going on around the pool deck either.

7 day med cruises definitely have a younger group with a different atmosphere plus your cruise is port intensive.  While I’m now in my early 60’s, I started lux cruising in my early 40’s.  I never cared for 7 day port intensive cruises as my primary vacation.  However, not everyone can or wants to take  vacations longer than 7 days plus a few more for, travel time.

 

I do believe there’s a large group on the encore currently 

 

Nancy

[nancygp]

10 hours ago, Tallante said:

I’m only repeating what I believed Aimee said, when I asked her how long she had been with Seabourn that it was her first .Seabourn Contract.

Understand…I was only stating the facts as I know them…as we got to know Aimee from our October Quest cruise, we’ve kept in touch.

 

Nancy

[Tallante]

3 hours ago, Mr Luxury said:

Good to see that you still call it a Disco.

Those were the days 😀

Indeed. 

[Tallante]

2 hours ago, nancygp said:

7 day med cruises definitely have a younger group with a different atmosphere plus your cruise is port intensive.  While I’m now in my early 60’s, I started lux cruising in my early 40’s.  I never cared for 7 day port intensive cruises as my primary vacation.  However, not everyone can or wants to take  vacations longer than 7 days plus a few more for, travel time.

 

I do believe there’s a large group on the encore currently 

 

Nancy

Absolutely.  Let’s not talk about that group!!

 

[lincslady]

If there is a 'large group' on board, which can seem like a part charter, it can alter the atmosphere considerably.  They stick together, are sometimes groups from a company who give out short cruises to their 'best' employees, etc. etc.  Often people who are not used to cruising and take huge pleasure in drinking as much as possible  because it is there and so on and tend to be noisy and commandeering the  public rooms.  I wish Seabourn and the others would either do full charters or no groups at all.

[Tallante]

On 5/25/2023 at 10:47 PM, lincslady said:

If there is a 'large group' on board, which can seem like a part charter, it can alter the atmosphere considerably.  They stick together, are sometimes groups from a company who give out short cruises to their 'best' employees, etc. etc.  Often people who are not used to cruising and take huge pleasure in drinking as much as possible  because it is there and so on and tend to be noisy and commandeering the  public rooms.  I wish Seabourn and the others would either do full charters or no groups at all.

One large party from the US departed in Istanbul and a group of 250 Mexicans have now boarded. 

[lincslady]

2 hours ago, Tallante said:

One large party from the US departed in Istanbul and a group of 250 Mexicans have now boarded. 

I see that this was originally a 21 day cruise, then obviously subdivided into three weeks and then with different part charter groups getting on board.  250 is a very large group.   Not ideal for those on for some time, though, and I hope it does not spoil things too much for you.  I suspect Seabourn is doing more of this chartering - no doubt for financial reasons.

[Tallante]

46 minutes ago, lincslady said:

I see that this was originally a 21 day cruise, then obviously subdivided into three weeks and then with different part charter groups getting on board.  250 is a very large group.   Not ideal for those on for some time, though, and I hope it does not spoil things too much for you.  I suspect Seabourn is doing more of this chartering - no doubt for financial reasons.

We booked this trip as a 14 day cruise. 

[Mr Luxury]

3 hours ago, Tallante said:

One large party from the US departed in Istanbul and a group of 250 Mexicans have now boarded. 

That's the entertainers 

[lincslady]

I must admit that I would be somewhat annoyed if I  had booked it as an individual - whether for 21, 14 or 7 days, to find over a  third of the ship occupied by a large group.  They might be fine, but my limited experience of  groups on board has not been great.  It depends on how they are all 'related' - if just a travel agent's block booking who don't know each other it could be fine, but if they are all employees of a company being rewarded for good sales or whatever they tend to be the sort who are loud and drink a lot, I have found.  And it sometimes means that public rooms are closed off to the regular customers for their 'events'.  Naturally, Seabourn do not warn you in advance of these happenings.

[Mr Luxury]

Just now, lincslady said:

I must admit that I would be somewhat annoyed if I  had booked it as an individual - whether for 21, 14 or 7 days, to find over a  third of the ship occupied by a large group.  They might be fine, but my limited experience of  groups on board has not been great.  It depends on how they are all 'related' - if just a travel agent's block booking who don't know each other it could be fine, but if they are all employees of a company being rewarded for good sales or whatever they tend to be the sort who are loud and drink a lot, I have found.  And it sometimes means that public rooms are closed off to the regular customers for their 'events'.  Naturally, Seabourn do not warn you in advance of these happenings.

Pot luck a cruise,isn't it.

They'll be out of Tequila before you know it.

[SLSD]

Hmmm...what is the best way to avoid a partial charter?  I've been thinking it might be wise to avoid the Greek Islands and the Caribbean.  It seems that partiers prefer warm cruises with lots of sun to cool weather locales.  And yes, I would be very disappointed if a chartered group of 250 were on our cruise.  It would change the dynamics entirely. I am so sorry for those of you on the Encore right now.  

[SLSD]

Here's the page on the SB website about charters--partial and full---and it mentions dedicated space and activities for the chartered groups.  

 

https://www.seabourn.com/en_US/charters.html

 

[Tallante]

13 minutes ago, SLSD said:

Here's the page on the SB website about charters--partial and full---and it mentions dedicated space and activities for the chartered groups.  

 

https://www.seabourn.com/en_US/charters.html

 

 

13 minutes ago, SLSD said:

Here's the page on the SB website about charters--partial and full---and it mentions dedicated space and activities for the chartered groups.  

 

https://www.seabourn.com/en_US/charters.html

 

From what I’ve heard on board you are more likely to come across the corporate charters on 7 day cruises which is apparently how they are treating the Greek island cruises in the Med.  I guess we have just been unlucky with our choice of dates although our trip was advertised as either a 14 or 21 day cruise, but there are change overs every 7 days. At Ephesus the corporate guests had tables reserved for them. With 250 corporate guests they will basically take over the restaurant.  It was formal night today and we avoided the restaurant and ate at Earth and Ocean.  Only 2 tables occupied.

 

[SLSD]

31 minutes ago, Tallante said:

 

 

If you look at the SB website and at the brochures sent to your home, you will see that MANY cruises are advertised as 21 day, 14 day, and 7 day.  If you look closely, you will see that the 7 day cruises are almost always a subset of the 14 day, 21 day cruises and so on. Now I think our upcoming 14 day cruise is not two 7 days put together--but I could be wrong.  

[lincslady]

Sometimes the port at a 7 day interval will be unlikely to be suitable for disembarking and embarking, like  some of the small Greek islands,  which could give a clue as to whether it might be used for  changeover day.

[cruiseej]

On 5/23/2023 at 1:16 PM, Tallante said:

We boarded on Sunday and Aimee is still the cruise director.

 

We boarded Sojourn Saturday, and our "cruise director" Jan informed us that Seabourn has changed the titles from "Cruise Director" to "Entertainment Director", and "Assistant Cruise Director" is now  "Entertainment Manager", effective this week. I assume this is fleet-wide, or perhaps as these staff members rotate on for a new contract.

[2SailingNomads]

7 hours ago, cruiseej said:

 

We boarded Sojourn Saturday, and our "cruise director" Jan informed us that Seabourn has changed the titles from "Cruise Director" to "Entertainment Director", and "Assistant Cruise Director" is now  "Entertainment Manager", effective this week. I assume this is fleet-wide, or perhaps as these staff members rotate on for a new contract.

And that accomplishes exactly what benefit?  Improves the Seabourn experience how?  How many corporate meetings did it take to arrive at this monumental change?  At least the person who makes name badges has work for a few more days now.

[SLSD]

12 hours ago, 2SailingNomads said:

And that accomplishes exactly what benefit?  Improves the Seabourn experience how?  How many corporate meetings did it take to arrive at this monumental change?  At least the person who makes name badges has work for a few more days now.

And I always thought the Cruise Director's role was more than entertainment.  At least that is what I observed.  Handre seemed to really care if people were comfortable--for example. I remember being out on the deck for a Rock the Deck Party and Handre rushing over with blankets for us--unsolicited.  I've seen so many instances when Cruise Directors surveyed a situation and decided to make one announcement or another--not always related to entertainment.  So, the new title seems to be a narrowing of their job description.