Please don't all shout at me !!

[Pipkins]

We have loved Seabourn, and have so many happy memories. Am I allowed to say on this site that on our last cruise we were disappointed? We were on Pride from 14th April to 28th April this year, sailing from Athens to Lisbon.

 

Our complaints relate to the amount of trainees on board at the same time - obviously to replace staff moving onto Odyssey, and the menu was showing some unimaginative cost cutting- for example too many chocolate brownie type desserts......We had a several rough experiences in the dining room, and ended up eating in our suite the last two nights.....

 

Don't all shout at me at one!! We want to book again, but do others think it better to book Odyssey - otherwise we will be going to Silversea......are they running the triplets.....or twins.......down........? Thanks.

[JaneBP]

If you have loved Seabourn, as many of us do, I think that you might enjoy the Odyssey or Sojourn 'just because'. Many of the cruisers have enjoyed the new experience. That being said, it's too bad you had unfortunate experiences on the Pride. We have such high expectations and it's sad when they fall short. I have wondered if the menus on the Triplets would change with the Odyssey launch. Perhaps someone will address this.

[tulip 1]

I think a few of us have had a similar experience during these training periods.

It has been discussed on the forum before. I suppose Seabourn has to give all the new staff a location for training and the triplets where used for this. I wonder if the same might happen for next year's training. Mind you, they now have a year's experience.

I believe this is now a lot better. (We booked on the Oddessey for October and the Spirit for Christmas).

[duct tape]

I think this is the place for venting and/or complimenting!

[lincslady]

Pipkins - I think we met on Pride in April. I have to agree with some of your comments; I sent an email to the Guest Relations Officer after about the food. My impression was that the main problem was in the galley, with too many novice chefs, which is probably why there was repetition of some food - i.e. lots of scallops (which I can't eat) and funny puddings. However, virtually all the trainee staff were excellent, and we still enjoyed our cruise, and are going on Pride again on 8th October.

[Pipkins]

Pipkins - I think we met on Pride in April. I have to agree with some of your comments; I sent an email to the Guest Relations Officer after about the food. My impression was that the main problem was in the galley, with too many novice chefs, which is probably why there was repetition of some food - i.e. lots of scallops (which I can't eat) and funny puddings. However, virtually all the trainee staff were excellent, and we still enjoyed our cruise, and are going on Pride again on 8th October.

 

Hello again! Yes, I agree with what you say - hope you enjoy your October cruise - we have just started looking again to see which trips take our fancy. Nice to hear from somebody on the same cruise.

[Miss Jet Set]

Yes I agree about the amount of Trainees. We have been on the 'Spirit' three times

this year, the last one we left was on the 6th June, gradually the trained staff were

assigned to the Odyssey. I sent a complaint to Pamela Conover and did not get a very satisfactory reply. We are returning for the Christmas Cruise so we hope things will

have improved by then.

[josephone]

Hello, we were on the Black Sea Odyssey cruise and everything was generally very good. However, our experience on the Legend (our first Seabourn) was good, but not great. They ran out of wine and interestingly, onions. I suspect that the company goes overboard on the newest ship and the others don't necessarily get replenished as they should.

The wines on the Odyssey were superb, but not great on the Legend in January.

Thank you for noting these things. Too often Seabourn cruisers don't give all the information that you would like.

[mikey47]

We had our first Seabourn cruise in June in the Fjords and enjoyed it so much that we have booked Odyssey for sept 2010.

No evidence of lower standards and the food was excellent.

[cruiseyguy]

Did Seabourn significantly discount these cruises to reflect the possibility of diminished service because of the widespread use of trainees?

[wjf]

We were also on this cruise and thoroughly enjoyed it and thought it one of the best ever.

Having sailed nearly 200 days with Seabourn and encountered many chefs we have to say that Pascal is one of our favourites.

As far as the trainees were concerned we found them to be very willing and of a high calibre and although they were new to Seabourn they were recruited because of their previous experience in the hospitality business. The trainees were extra staff over and above the normal complement so their presence had no effect on the usual excellent level of service.

Obviously everyone to their own opinion but this is how we found it.

[mikey47]

Did Seabourn significantly discount these cruises to reflect the possibility of diminished service because of the widespread use of trainees?

 

Not that I'm aware of.

[Roxburgh]

We were also on this cruise and thoroughly enjoyed it and thought it one of the best ever.

Having sailed nearly 200 days with Seabourn and encountered many chefs we have to say that Pascal is one of our favourites.

As far as the trainees were concerned we found them to be very willing and of a high calibre and although they were new to Seabourn they were recruited because of their previous experience in the hospitality business. The trainees were extra staff over and above the normal complement so their presence had no effect on the usual excellent level of service.

Obviously everyone to their own opinion but this is how we found it.

 

We were also on the Athens to Lisbon cruise and would agree with this. The only disappointing service we had concerned one of the more experienced members of the crew and certainly not one of the trainees.

 

On the subject of deserts, I have taken Chef Bjorn's recipe for the molten chocolate cake home and it is playing to rave reviews from our dinner guests.

[Pipkins]

Did Seabourn significantly discount these cruises to reflect the possibility of diminished service because of the widespread use of trainees?

 

Well, we wondered about that, and, if that was the case, we were overcharged, as well as being disappointed !! ;-)

 

If we had been made aware that there may be a larger proportion of trainee staff, and been given a corresponding discount, then, of course, it would be a different matter. Good point though....

[lincslady]

Well, we wondered about that, and, if that was the case, we were overcharged, as well as being disappointed !! ;-)

 

If we had been made aware that there may be a larger proportion of trainee staff, and been given a corresponding discount, then, of course, it would be a different matter. Good point though....

 

In response to Cruiseyguy, we felt we paid the normal amount for our cruise (discounts for Club, on board booking and some agent's discount) but no more. There were some on board with GTY on their labels, so it may have been sold off for less after; I try not to discuss prices with others on board - it is bad manners, and someone is always disappointed!

 

My final (I hope) word on this is that I did not feel that there was any cost-cutting, and the bar and waiting staff and our new stewardess helping the main one were all super, BUT on looking through my diary there were a few items on the menus in the evening, and the resulting dishes, which were not up the standard we have been used to, and I was told on very good authority - no names - that there were too few experienced chefs and too many new ones in the galley which caused this. I am sure the company are aware of this, and now they are more used to getting staff organised for the new ships things will improve. However, we did meet two Brit. couples who were newcomers to the line, who both said they were disappointed with some of the food. Lets face it, it is heavily advertised by Seabourn, and by those of us who have done several cruises, and we all want everyone else to love Seabourn as much as us.

[beargal]

Interesting thread.

I had not posted previously on our Dalmation Cruise in May but cost cutting was evident. The most glaring place was in Seabourn's decision to leave the port lecturer in Venice and not put him on board for the cruise so they could use the cabin for someone else! It was our first and most likely only time we will be in the ports of Croatia, Slovenia and Montengro so we were very disappointed. We have been on all three sisters so this was not our first time on Seabourn. For several passengers who were on the first time they discussed many times with us the lack of information on the ports. One gentleman was writing an article for his hometown newspaper on his trip and was going to point out the lack of lectures.

We of course did not realize why the lecturer was not onboard until he was allowed on board for the second 7 days of our trip. He was an interesting and entertaining lecturer and would have greatly enhanced our travel experience. We did write about our disappointment on our comment cards.

The other area seemed to be the dining room where we noticed what appeared to be not enough staff during dinner. We felt badly for our table staff as they seemed to have several more tables to handle than we noticed in prior cruises.

There were enough little things during this cruise that added up to us canceling our already booked cruise on the Legend next January and going on Crystal instead. Hopefully we will be back on Seabourn someday but not next year.

Rebecca

[GrannyLorr]

On the subject of deserts, I have taken Chef Bjorn's recipe for the molten chocolate cake home and it is playing to rave reviews from our dinner guests.

 

Now I am starving!! ;) Maybe we should start a "recipe" thread on this board, so everyone who comes off the ship with "their" favourite recipes can share with the rest of us. I have been rather upset lately, turned the house upside down and cant find the recipe for Bananas Foster that Chef Markus gave me.....:( I want to make it next time we are out "camping round the camp fire".......yes I DO do that when Im not cruising.....

[Crewmember]

Hi

 

Funny how some still talk about the trainees.

I thought it was a well know fact by now that the trainees were onboard as extra crew.

In other words, 16 extra crew that mostly observed or just "helped" the regular crew.

Some of you might have observed as well that they were sleeping in some of the suites (4x4).

;-)

[Daneite]

Hi

 

Funny how some still talk about the trainees.

I thought it was a well know fact by now that the trainees were onboard as extra crew.

In other words, 16 extra crew that mostly observed or just "helped" the regular crew.

Some of you might have observed as well that they were sleeping in some of the suites (4x4).

;-)

 

They may have been extra but they were left to serve and make mistakes by themselves! That was on the Spirit in March/April, they totally took over the station with one regular crew member in charge, many mistakes were made but we did not complain and would not have until your post. The regular crew were enjoying their extra time off. I can understand some people complaining about the service they received, we were fortunate in that we were onboard for nearly 8 weeks so we saw the trainees at the beginning and at the end, it was just unfortunate if your cruise was at the beginning of the trainees venture into the restaurant and verandah. If you joined towards the end of their training period you probably would not realise that they were trainees (apart from their badge).

[Chairsin]

After having just returned from 12 perfect days on the Pride I can tell you there was not a trainee in sight and the food was better than ever. We traveled with friends new to Seabourn. he is a real foodie and i was hoping he would be satisfied. By the end of the trip he delared the food was between a Michelin 1.5 -2 star.

[LN50]

Hi Chairsin, good to see this post, we are making our first trip on the Spirit in October and were wondering about the negativity in some of these posts.

 

Looking forward to it all again now.

 

Linda

[Chairsin]

Linda,

Somtimes the more we travel on Seabourn the higher our expectations become.That said we found the service on this recent trip flawless. Here is one example. On our first night the six of us were at dinner in the dining room discussing, what else, food!I was saying that while i have been lucky enough to dine at some terrific restaurants all over the world in only one restuarant, my favorite, the Inn at Little Washington , has the following ever happened. As soon as I sit down to dinner one of the waiters immediately picks up on the fact that I am left handed and switches my place setting. The next morning at breakfast in the restaurant on the Pride as soon as i sat down one of the young waiters switched my silverware. Clearly our waiter from the night before overheard our conversation and passed it on to his fellow crew members. And f:rolleyes:rom then on it almost became a game to see which of the waiters had gotten the word and would switch my silverware. Of course when my wine glasses were switched one evening when we were having three different wines with our dinner MoMo waa almost thrown off.

[Roxburgh]

Another little story to add to the previous one. When we were on Pride in April, one afternoon we were drinking Mojitos at the Sky Bar. Various bar staff were testing their mixing skills on us .... Ian, Donovan, Jenni and one other (whose name I forget ... sorry). The best Mojito was Jenni's. Jenni was, of course, the trainee (although she graduated on that trip).

[Crewmember]

They may have been extra but they were left to serve and make mistakes by themselves! That was on the Spirit in March/April, they totally took over the station with one regular crew member in charge, many mistakes were made but we did not complain and would not have until your post. The regular crew were enjoying their extra time off. I can understand some people complaining about the service they received, we were fortunate in that we were onboard for nearly 8 weeks so we saw the trainees at the beginning and at the end, it was just unfortunate if your cruise was at the beginning of the trainees venture into the restaurant and verandah. If you joined towards the end of their training period you probably would not realise that they were trainees (apart from their badge).

 

You are telling us the Hotel manager let crew have time off while sailing?

lol

[LN50]

sounds like a fine way to spend an afternoon trying all the different mojitos....

I could quickly get used to this life....:)