Ovation cruise - Seabourn 6 years on.

[Techno123]

We returned from our Norwegian cruise on the Ovation just less than a week ago. We thoroughly enjoyed it and Seabourn has definitely been our first love up until now but there were definitely a few more negatives this time round. I will divide this into different areas and remember, this is just our opinion (in fact even Mr Techno and I couldn't agree on everything 😁)

 

Food and Dining and Whine (sorry wine)

The Colonnade - Breakfast had more than enough to keep us going - it's amazing how after a few days we always return to fruit and a piece of toast or a croissant. The cold buffet at lunch was nowhere near as good or varied as I remember and the cured meats were cut far too thick. Hot options were generally very good.Not enough chocolate desserts for Mr Te hon but the drunken goat cheese more than made up for it. Went twice in the evening and very happy with the food both times.

 

Main dining room - Only went for dinner which varied from excellent to awful (dry chicken and slow braised short ribs like shoe leather) but was generally very good. I would like to see them offer a choice of sides as they do in the TK grill.

 

TK Grill - hated the TK concept on the Odyssey but went twice to the Grill this time and some of the best meals we had onboard.

 

Earth and Ocean - too cold and wet and Mr Techno refused to eat dinner in his rain coat!

 

Sushi - never had 'proper' sushi before. Marie and June were amazing at guiding us through everything. Preferred the small plates but very much enjoyed the experience.

 

The Sommeliers lunch in the main dining room was fabulous and the galley lunch equally so although it seemed a huge amount of effort for the 'experience' of walking through the galley but I was impressed with the insistence on hand hygiene.

 

There was definitely an upsell push on the extra cost wines for the first 3 days. The included wines were fine, some better than others. We had a taste of each of the recommended each evening and just swapped to one we did like if we weren't so keen.

[Techno123]

Service - we really could not fault the staff, they worked hard, were cheerful and engaging, remembered our names and preferences such as my skinny latte, double shot at Seabourn square and our aperitifs in the Observation bar.

 

I found the service in the Colonnade at lunch a bit disjointed mainly because there did not appear to be enough staff. That intuitive touch of never being able to see the bottom of your water glass (or shock, horror wine glass) was missing. In the main dining room everyone seemed to know what they were doing and everything flowed much better. I overheard a complaint one evening that the service was too slow (I found it a bit quick to be honest). We all like a different pace to our meal - if you sit with the same serving team each evening they get to know your preferences but asking a question re preferred pace & making a note on the iPad could smooth this out.

 

Suite attendants were great as usual, Officers engaged whenever they met you.

 

I did overhear more complaints than I ever have before though.

[Techno123]

Entertainment - the singer/pianist in TK Grill was excellent as were the band. Several external acts - we particularly enjoyed the Barricade Boys and Leanne Mitchell (both excellent). The Seabourn Dancers were very good and the Singers whilst not the strongest were good but some of the shows were too contrived (push the button) or just not very good (Tim Rice) even though it was apparent a lot of work had gone into the shows. The singers were far better during the deck serenade. 
 

The cruise director (Loula) was engaging, full of fun and seemed to be everywhere. What I found a bit cheesy was her introduction at the beginning of the evening shows to a rendition of 'isn't she lovely'. I have never seen a male CD introduced by a rendition of 'mad about the boy' or similar 😜

 

Whilst the Herald appeared to have lots on offer on sea days, there was very little to do during the day that did not involve sitting down. It would have been good to have some more active activities (the dance classes were great) interspersed with the far greater number of sedentary offerings. The retreat has taken most of the space that could be used for deck sports (pickle ball/golf net/putting green etc). The fitness suite had a good selection of equipment but a limited number of classes which again were more of the stretchy variety.

[Techno123]

Itinerary  - visited some beautiful places (despite the weather) The North Cape was interesting but we definitely preferred the Fjords and the inside passage to Tromso - it's a shame one of the fjords was cancelled prior to the cruise. 

 

Excursions were expensive but the 2 we did were good - Ventures team were professional and informative. 
 

We managed to do some really good, active excursions independently which we thoroughly enjoyed.

[Techno123]

So did we enjoy our cruise? We absolutely did and we also met some really fun and friendly people onboard. Could some things have been better? Yes but we now have experience of sailing with a range of different (but similar) lines we find each has elements that are better than others. Is Seabourn still our favourite? Close but no. We sail on the Explorer in November so I will use these posts to remind me and help me compare her with the Ovation. (The Nova cruise is a bit far away)

[SLSD]

46 minutes ago, Techno123 said:

Service - we really could not fault the staff, they worked hard, were cheerful and engaging, remembered our names and preferences such as my skinny latte, double shot at Seabourn square and our aperitifs in the Observation bar.

 

I found the service in the Colonnade at lunch a bit disjointed mainly because there did not appear to be enough staff. That intuitive touch of never being able to see the bottom of your water glass (or shock, horror wine glass) was missing. In the main dining room everyone seemed to know what they were doing and everything flowed much better. I overheard a complaint one evening that the service was too slow (I found it a bit quick to be honest). We all like a different pace to our meal - if you sit with the same serving team each evening they get to know your preferences but asking a question re preferred pace & making a note on the iPad could smooth this out.

 

Suite attendants were great as usual, Officers engaged whenever they met you.

 

I did overhear more complaints than I ever have before though.

Thank you for your report.  I think your itinerary was the same as ours, but just later?  We did not hear complaints on our June cruise. By the way, Mr. SLSD and I don't always agree on everything onboard.  Can we say he tends to be less discerning than I am???  

 

Great photos!  Thank you for posting them.  And so your favorite cruise line is?  We are preparing to perhaps book a cruise with Silversea for the first time since 2005.  It is a bit of a leap for us--as we are used to SB.  

Edited July 28, 2023 by SLSD

[Techno123]

4 minutes ago, SLSD said:

Great photos!  Thank you for posting them.  And so your favorite cruise line is?  We are preparing to perhaps book a cruise with Silversea for the first time since 2005.  It is a bit of a leap for us--as we are used to SB.  

Thank you - yes it was the same itinerary and we definitely intend to visit Norway again but hopefully some different Fjords. We have booked the Nova for 2025 and are combining a Singapore to Hong Kong cruise with a two week land tour of the India Golden Triangle and the Himalayas. 

 

We have sailed Regent twice (third time in November) First time, not a patch on Seabourn. Our cruise before Christmas on Navigator, however, had several areas which were better (not the ship though 😜). We like to be active (very active in Mr Techno's case) so these may not resonate with everyone. We preferred the Trivia, liked the MENSA quiz, we liked the opportunity to choose a main then sides in Compass Rose - similar to the TK grill, cold selection much better at La Veranda plus more 'stations' such as pasta of the day, no retreat so space for deck sports, sea days had lots of different games to take part in (usually something every hour) active interspersed with the more sedentary activities, they had spin bikes 😂

 

For some reason, Seabourn have placed bikes on the prohibited list. On our last 2 Seabourn cruises Mr T brought his mountain bike with him which was a big draw for him and he had hoped to do the same this time. We were told no but with no reason. We asked the Captain and Staff Captain on Ovation and they had no idea why either, especially as they have staff bikes on board.