A Seabourn newbie sails Ovation, Norway and the North Cape, June 11 2023

[johng75370]

8 hours ago, Mr Luxury said:

I am trying to find out how long the contract that Rick Meadows signed with Thomas Keller is.

We heard the original contract was 5 years, and last year they renewed for another 5 years.  

[lincslady]

What a shame.  However much many people have enjoyed his food, I feel sure that most would be happy to see something different, and for a shorter stint.  I was around on one of the ships when he was there getting everything sorted, and he obviously caused a huge amount of extra work and problems, insisting that everything was done exactly as it was in his restaurants - not easy on a cruise ship - new special ovens etc.  A pleasant chap to meet, but a typical top chef with his demands! Now, it is obviously easier just to stay with his methods  rather than finding someone with altogether different needs, I guess.

[Mr Luxury]

54 minutes ago, lincslady said:

What a shame.  However much many people have enjoyed his food, I feel sure that most would be happy to see something different, and for a shorter stint.  I was around on one of the ships when he was there getting everything sorted, and he obviously caused a huge amount of extra work and problems, insisting that everything was done exactly as it was in his restaurants - not easy on a cruise ship - new special ovens etc.  A pleasant chap to meet, but a typical top chef with his demands! Now, it is obviously easier just to stay with his methods  rather than finding someone with altogether different needs, I guess.

Yes,who needs a guy with a wok and a wooden spoon 😀

[sfvoyage]

Original TK contract took effect in 2015 and was renewed in 2020 during the early covid days prior to Rick Meadows' departure, hopefully for no longer than 5 years.  I am also looking forward to a new concept and don't care about partnerships with celebrity chefs.

[Mahogany]

3 hours ago, sfvoyage said:

Original TK contract took effect in 2015 and was renewed in 2020 during the early covid days prior to Rick Meadows' departure, hopefully for no longer than 5 years.  I am also looking forward to a new concept and don't care about partnerships with celebrity chefs.

I haven't sailed Oceania for at least 5 years, but thought their partnership with Jacques Pepin was a success. Unfortunately in my opinion, the only reason to sail with Oceania was their specialty restaurants: so good.

[JSC77]

To  jondfk, as well as SLSD and the others who have posted, I will repeat what I said on the other thread: thank you so much for all of your comments!   As I have mentioned, my wife and I will be on Ovation in just over one month for 21 days, embarking in Reykjavik and continuing on to a repeat of your Norway itinerary. It has been very helpful to read about the ship, crew, atmosphere, ports and excursions and more.

We are very excited to be back on Seabourn particularly with such a great itinerary.  
Thanks again to all of you and travel safely home!

[jondfk]

Well, time now for an overall summary of our first Seabourn experience.  As I pledged at the start we will comment on Seabourn as we experienced it with a minimum of comparisons to competitors, though I can see a couple looming just ahead.  As I also said in my opening posts it’s not my intention to debate long time Seabourn loyalists or the way things used to be, simply to review our experience as we lived it.

 

I thank SLSD who ran a parallel stream of our voyage, a few different perspectives are always helpful.  I especially appreciate the myriad of photos she posted, we took some, but I didn’t purchase the internet upgrade and without it uploads were impractical.

 

Okay, let’s start.  Embarkation.  On the advice of Seabourn regulars we slightly disregarded our assigned boarding time of 1pm, arriving about 12:20.  The actual checkin process couldn’t have been easier though no one ever asked to see my boarding pass in any form, a quick review of our passports and to the back of the boarding line we went.  Boarding started more or less the moment after our passports were scanned, we were up the gangway by about 12:35, if we had arrived at 1:00 doubtless we would have been aboard at 1:02.

 

We were herded (sorry, that’s the only accurate word) toward Colonnade for our first meal.  We were able to secure what looked to be the last two seats at a high table near the exit to the terrace.  As I’ve written elsewhere Mrs strongly resists the buffet, especially one lined outside the entrance, no problem though we ordered off the limited kitchen menu and the food arrived a reasonable time later.  Our waiter Miguel would become a favorite, we asked for him several days in the Restaurants.  Cabins were released at precisely 1:00.  By 1:15 Colonnade was deserted, hmm, perhaps aim for that 1:00 boarding time in August (when we sail again).

 

We moved toward our deck 8 suite about 1:30.

[jondfk]

I wrote a bit about our suite in the middle our my thread but I’ll recap here with a bit more detail.  Overall we liked the design of the room, in advance I couldn’t imagine how the narrow console shelf near the foot of the bed could be useful but I couldn’t have been more wrong, this became our charging station a drop point for all those things you pick up and put down every cycle.

 

Our suite attendants never stopped by to say hello, we later learned that some were welcomed with mimosas and small nibbles, none for us however.  We did meet our team in the hallway when we asked for help with our fridge which had a mind all its own, it would cool occasionally, and act as an oven occasionally, we never managed to get it repaired or replaced during the entire sailing.  The maintenance person who came on the third service call noted that I had medication in the fridge, he advised me to take it to the medical center, I told him that wouldn’t be necessary if the fridge simply worked as normal.  As I say, I never did, but after a certain number of attempts at correction we just gave up.  Not luxurious.

 

The service team did a good job in their day to day tasks, they figured out our schedule on adapted to if well for the most part, one evening turn down didn’t get done, but that really isn’t a big deal for us.  The only amazing things they did was, noting that we were moving the bath mat around quite a bit, they provided a second one, grey and very plush, luxurious.  

 

Now about the bath towels, unacceptable is the only word that comes to mind, small, very thin, scratch and non absorbent, I would be reluctant to wash my car with such material for fear of scratching.  Others complained and received upgraded towels, our request was met with a blank stare and a promise to see what could be done.  Nothing was the answer.  The most bizarre part was the hand towels in the public washrooms were plush and luxurious, exactly what I might expect in the bath.  Okay here’s that first point of comparison to others, our most recent 3 cruises have been in on Oceania and I can say the towel situation was the polar opposite, fairly basic hand towels in the public areas, but large plush towels in the rooms.  It’s clear O intend this to be the case as their towel racks are designed for the large plush towels provided.  A real fail by Seabourn on this point, it was also disturbing to learn that in fact everyone isn’t equal on Seabourn, those in “real” suites are rewarded with proper luxury towels.

 

About the bathroom itself, quite nice, fresh and clean.  The bathtub would, for us, be better used for additional cabin, shower space or a bit more room in the closet.  I’m sure there are some who relish a chance for a long soak at sea - but that’s not us.  The staff did a great job of keeping paper products stocked up which really should be the minimum expectation but often goes wanting on other lines.  The Moultin Brown products were of good quality, the pump bottles dispensed a small coin size squirt each pump which meant body wash for example required 10 of 15 pumps - annoying but something we likewise face at home.  Squeeze bottles would be preferrable. 

 

In all other regards we found the suite quite good.  Our midnight sun sailing proved the utility of the room dividing drapes on those nights that never became dark.  The table was sufficient for our few dine in breakfasts, the couch, in our case a dreaded sofa sleeper was okay for the limited use we gave it.  The veranda was impressively large and we did enjoy it on a couple of late port evenings when we ordered a cheese plate to enjoy before dinner.  

 

We liked the bar setup area, a place to prepare drinks and such, we didn’t use the bar per se, the bottles stocked weren’t quite what we requested, on the other hand the alcohol flows so freely everywhere that we (I really, Mrs doesn’t drink) felt no great need to drink in the room.  

 

On the whole the room seemed right to us.

[jondfk]

Bar service.  The Retreat is advertised as having it’s own unique bar menu, which suggests a dedicated bartender, and indeed we had one for the first few days.  A wonderful gent by the name of William who worked nights in Observation.  He was truly spectacular, unfortunately, he was called home on an emergency on the 4th day leaving without a chance to even say goodbye.  This sort of unplanned absence meant the Retreat was without bar service for the remainder of our sailing, the management staff who looked over the space could fill in for basic drinks but none of the special Retreat concoctions were possible without a trip to the Patio which simply wasn’t worth the time.  More about the Retreat later on.

 

We enjoyed a cocktail or few every evening in Observation bar.  Lauren who was the mainstay bartender was very good, quickly learning our drink preferences, within a few days drinks began to arrive with little more than a tip of the head.  Others pitched in to help after William departed. On colder days, Michaela, the bartender from Sky Bar was assigned to operated cocktail service in Observation starting around noon, a nice touch which showed a bit of flexibility to deal with the  actual conditions of our sailing.  Evening nibbles arrived at 6pm a nice prelude to the evening meal.  We made it to the Club only once (on reflection we found this strange, but we just got so comfortable in Observation).  It’s worth noting that many particular alcohols listed on the menu were not reliably in stock and were not restocked during the voyage.  Yes, I know “supply chain”, but it is a tad annoying to find very common spirits available in every chainstore at home can’t be provisioned for the ship.  In general, and on this ship in particular, I’m in the camp of those who think the supply chain excuse for every shortage is weaing more than a little thin.

[jondfk]

Food service.  We enjoyed most meals in The Resteraunt and got to know a number of staff quite well.  Two evening servers in particular proved capable and memorable.  Lee, from Glasgow, provided us with excellent, attentive service.  As it happened he was the Retreat service attendant during the afternoon, so we got to know him quite well.  Given our large exposure he quickly learned our preferences and anticipated our requests. We never had anything other than a superb meal served by Lee.  Miguel, who we met on our first day lunch was nearly equally good, we ended up dividing our time between the two mainly driven by who had the better table (nearer the window) when we happened to arrive.  Breakfast service was a bit more spotty but again a superstar emerged in Mietra (sp) who had a quick smile and very positive attitude to start every day.  

 

The quality of food was very good, meeting every expectation, dishes were described well and the food matched the descriptions.  We had no reason to return any dish to the kitchen though we rarely do this in our daily life either.  Servers were very capable of describing the food to and made recommendations.  Evening servers to have an opportunity to sample the daily options which provides first hand feedback.  One odd thing was that the salad chef(s?) changed mid cruise.  Salads which were ordered before a certain date had a certain character, later in the cruise this changed dramatically.  For example, a caprese salad early in the sailing had a variety of tomato, some greens and a bit of EVOO, later in the sailing the greens and EVOO disappeared, the salad just seemed unfinished.  The same thing happened with the Chef’s salad on the daily menu, a completely different thing at the beginning and end of the sailing.  None of the changes were bad per se but it was strange to order the same dish a second or third time and end up with something so completely different.

Twice the kitchen failed to meet expectation as to timeliness, once the spacing from starter to main was crazy long, something like 45 minutes.  On a second occasions desserts simply never came, in this case were were told (at breakfast the following morning) that a printer jammed for something like 30 minutes with the kitchen staff amazed that a full Resteraunt had no interest in desserts.  The bad part of this second episode was that the servers, who came around to apologize and plead for patience after 10 minutes, then 20, then 30 just stopped coming by after that.  

 

As I’ve written previously Mrs doesn’t do the buffet when this is the only option, I serve as pack mule reporting what’s avaiable and building a plate for her.  We did this only once, on a port day when the Resteraunt menu didn’t appeal.  Food quality was good and compared to our embarkation day experience Mrs ruled Colonnade okay, for a buffet.

 

Strangely, we never made it to the Patio for lunch, an oversight we agree.  We did make it to Earth and Ocean twice.  Service was enthusiastic though on our second night (a late port night) they were competely full from before the official opening time.  We enjoyed the meals at E&O we might have preferred a 4th option but we do appreciate the kitchen is limited and so necessarily is the menu.

 

Thomas Keller.  We went twice as did most.  Quite different impressions though the food was excellent both times.  So, how was the experience different?  On visit one we were seated at a table close to the piano player without other tables immediately nearby - superb.  Visit two we were seated on the banquet near the (unused) terrace.  These seats were shoulder to shoulder and the interactive nature of the service (walking you through every step in the Ceasar salad for example) became tedius when experienced for the 4th or 5th time.  The general noise level in this very crowded section was quite a distraction.  We enjoyed both visits but lingered a bit over the first one and left as soon as cookies could be found the second.  Someone else might have described the banquet vibe as “lively”, we just found it loud.  It’s worth noting that a change in reservations system made some months before meant we lost our original two reservations and had to settle for less desirable days and times when we rebooked.

 

Finally, we used room service for a few breakfasts and, as mentioned, for a couple of sail away cheese plates.  Service was prompt, nothing was missed (notable as this is often a challenge) a couple of special requests were met without delay.  We never attempted a full noon or evening meal in the suite, this just isn’t our thing.

[jondfk]

The Retreat.  I’m aware this concept offends some long time Seabourn sailors.  Despite the cool weather sailing we reserved The Retreat for the entire voyage and did manage to use it every single day.  One day was too cool to be there for more than a couple hours, one day we were rained in slightly early, but otherwise we spent several hours every day there which struck us a good value for money.  Strictly speaking could we have found adequate space around the main pool, likely yes, but we enjoyed having the ability to come and go as we pleased arrive early or late and basically just know we had a place anytime we wanted it.  The service provided was truly top notch.

 

Summary.  We choose this sailing for the itinerary, we’d always wanted to try Seabourn and the two fit together.  Will we sail Seabourn again.  A bit of a trick question given that we’re booked on Odessey in just six weeks, so yes definitely we will.  Did we consider this sailing the all out luxury experience we might have expected, in many respects yes, but in other respects we found gaffs and stubbed toes that really shouldn’t have been.  The price of this unusual sailing was quite high on a per day basis, we are in the fortunate position to be able to afford such travel, still we do look for value versus price paid and I’m not sure we found it here.  We did meet some exceptional staff on our sailing and a handful of such people can materially affect ones overall impression and such is the case here.  

 

All and all we left with a quite favorable overall impression.

[Mahogany]

JON, thank you for all your onboard postings and the very descriptive follow-up after debark.

 

In hindsight, it's too bad you didn't go directly to the Hotel Director with your failing fridge problem, especially with a need for refrigerated medication. And I would have mentioned the snarky advice to store your medicine in the medical center.

 

You're right. Most of us Sebourn Sailers don't understand the need for The Retreat. But you got your money's worth, and the service was probably very good since the space is underused.

 

And I agree, the "supply chain" excuse is old. When I was on Ovation in April, there were Restaurant mishaps because of failed technology. Can't orders be taken by hand in emergencies? 🤔

 

Enjoy your Odyssey sailing.

[jondfk]

12 minutes ago, Mahogany said:

JON, thank you for all your onboard postings and the very descriptive follow-up after debark.

 

In hindsight, it's too bad you didn't go directly to the Hotel Director with your failing fridge problem, especially with a need for refrigerated medication. And I would have mentioned the snarky advice to store your medicine in the medical center.

 

You're right. Most of us Sebourn Sailers don't understand the need for The Retreat. But you got your money's worth, and the service was probably very good since the space is underused.

 

And I agree, the "supply chain" excuse is old. When I was on Ovation in April, there were Restaurant mishaps because of failed technology. Can't orders be taken by hand in emergencies? 🤔

 

Enjoy your Odyssey sailing.

You are completely right about the fridge, I really should have escalated this issue it was never right from start to finish.

 

Regarding the Retreat, correct again, it wasn’t fully used though on one particular date it was 50% used.  The manager told me it had been 100% booked for 70 days in a row while wintering in the Caribbean.  Fact of hyperbole I do not know.

 

[gbldcl]

Jon...

Nice to read your always fair and informational words again. We (Gordon & DeeDee, next to you on Grand to Hawaii) have decided Princess is no longer for us and have been traveling with Viking. We have two Oceania Vista cruises booked and are seriously considering Seabourn, so it was great to read your review. Thanks.

Best regards,

Gordon

 

[jondfk]

On 6/30/2023 at 8:44 AM, gbldcl said:

Jon...

Nice to read your always fair and informational words again. We (Gordon & DeeDee, next to you on Grand to Hawaii) have decided Princess is no longer for us and have been traveling with Viking. We have two Oceania Vista cruises booked and are seriously considering Seabourn, so it was great to read your review. Thanks.

Best regards,

Gordon

 

 

Hi Gordon:

Ah yes, I'll never forget the rattling of the chains . . . 

I won't say we're totally done with Princess, but two weeks at Travis did leave a mark.

We're on Vista sailing Westbound Panama Canal in January of '25, perhaps see you aboard?  

 

I wrote a similar newbie thread when we first sailed Oceania a year ago in April.  You might enjoy it too