Nice little PR clip from Seabourn showing some video of the Odyssey. We'll be on board by this time next week!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOJtoU5NycM

I'm looking forward to hearing about your trip on the Odyssey. Although we enjoy Regent, it's time for Alan and I to widen our cruising horizons.

I'm with you Donna!! :D

Cindy,

You are going to love Odyssey! We sailed with her in July and we really enjoyed the cruise. The ship is truly gorgeous!

We thought the food was better than Regent and the service was on par. (In fact, there are a lot of Regent alumni now working for Seabourn.)

Have a WONDERFUL cruise!

Andrea

Pat and I are also planning to broaden our horizons on Seabourn, but not until 2011. A shame to have to start over building up perks, IF they even have them for repeat cruisers on Seabourn, but the cost/benefit analysis at Regent keeps getting worse from our (perhaps unique) perspective. Things we've liked on RSSC are being de-emphasised in favor of things we don't care much about, although I must say the values are there at this point. We've been on Cunard and Holland American, which counts for something with Seabourn, just not sure what. We do hope to see Barry Hopkins again, although he may have moved on to the even newer Seabourn Sojourn by the time we get to try Odyssey in Winter 2011.

Have fun and let us know how you found the Odyssey!

Count: Barry will be on the world cruise starting in January. He was not on our recent Caribbean Odyssey cruise but John Barron was and he sends his warmest regards to Ngaire and her LCT gang. John has been promoted to CD for the new Sojourn. He is a most personable guy and we were very impressed with his performance as Cruise Director. Barry is on the next two Caribbean cruises as well as the WC.

Forgot to say I will give a brief review of our cruise on the Odyssey as soon as I recover from the bad case of bronchitis I contracted on the cruise.

Well, we are onboard and having a great time. So far, the staff have all been terrific. The ship is beuatiful, but I think Regent suites and bathrooms are designed much better. We have had a couple of glitches, but I'll get more specific after we return - having to pay for the internet is a bummer! Also had to pay for pressing - another bummer!
Too bad Seabourn does not have a very good loyalty program (no perks per se - just a "free" cruise after you have cruised them a bunch).

Said hi to Barry yesterday. He deems to really like Seabourn and says he has met lots of Regent exiles!

More later.

Cindy

Barry was on my 1st cruise with Odyssey. I was only on it because Navigator went into dry dock early. Still taking my cruise on regent Jan 23rd and will compare those two. More perks on Regent but I dislike the included excursions and the food on Seabourn was excellent!!

Well, since someone else brought this thread back to the top, I'll post a brief a note about our cruise. I have been reluctant to post anything because my Mamma always told me if you don't have something good to say, keep your mouth closed. And I'm typically a positive person - I hate to be too critical and negative about anything.

I'm not saying there weren't some excellent things about the cruise - the ship was beautiful, the service was outstanding, and the best thing of all was all the free caviar you could eat - I had it everyday, sometimes twice a day! But we didn't think the food was that great (it's amazing how different folks have different personal perceptions). We also had a few issues that we feel were not handled very well by Seabourn.

I guess the best way to describe it is that we just felt Seabourn was not a "good fit" for us. We really missed Regent in so many ways, and are looking forward to being back on board Voyager this May.

I'm not saying we will never sail on Seabourn again, but I think the only way we would consider going back would be if there was an outstanding itinerary we couldn't get elsewhere, or they offered a really great value/incentive.

If anybody is really interested in the specifics of our experience, send me a private email and I will send you a report. I prefer not to post it on this forum.

I guess we are super loyal Regent cruisers. I know there are those who feel the same way about Seabourn and Silversea (we have not tried Silversea yet, but surely will some day).

Merry Christmas everyone!

After getting several email requests and receiving some encouraging words from Ngaire, I think I will try to go ahead and post my review here. For those of you who have emailed me, give me a week or so to get thru the holidays and I will get comments posted. Cheers everyone!

Cindy,

I'd love to hear your full review. We really liked Odyssey but as you said, it's all a matter of personal perception.

The one thing that disappointed me when we sailed was a minor thing but it could have been worse. During one of our shore excursions I passed out and a doctor (fellow passenger) treated me. Several other passengers and the tour guide told several Seabourn staff about this event when we returned to the ship but no one from Seabourn called to check on me or ask me to visit the ship's doctor.

Now, in this instance I was totally fine (just overheated and tired) but I still think it was bad form that Seabourn ignored the issue.

We were only on the third cruise, so the staff was still shaking some things out. Service was excellent but the waiters in the The Restaurant needed more experience and the room service waiters were downright hysterical. (I know it's not an easy job but these guys huffed and puffed and made it look like it was the toughest thing in the world.)

The other annoyance was the fact that the hot tubs closed at 6pm (but that's the case on a lot of ships).

Other than those things, we had a great time. We loved the marina and pool deck and thought the food was very good (but a notch down from the meals we had aboard Celebrity Equinox the following week).

Can't wait to read your full review!

Andrea

Cindy, was John Barron your CD or had he just gotten off?

We just got back into town from a week on the road, So I'll try to get my review posted in the next couple of days.

Marcie - Barry Hopkins was our cruise director - he boarded the same day we did.

Andrea:

I think maybe they might have learned from your experience.
On one of our shore excursions, which was a catamaran trip with snorkeling and beach time, one of the passengers was trying to swim ashore. My husband and I had stayed on the boat, but the Captain and his helper had both driven the dinghy to the beach. I could see the gentlemen was getting in trouble, so I grabbed a life vest for him and was about to jump in to help when the Captain finally saw what was going on. I got the vest to the Captain in the Dinghy, and they got it to the gentlemen. But he still insisted in going over to the beach, so they put him in the dinghy and took him over. When he got out of the dinghy, he collapsed on the beach. They called emergency services, which came very quickly, and eventually 2 doctors from the local hospital also came to assist. At the time, we all thought he had a heart attack. An interesting development was that the Captain and helper were both on the beach, and the Odyssey started calling on the radio trying to find out what was going on. My old instincts as an emergency nurse kicked in, so I just picked up the radio and started talking to them, giving them our longitude and latitude, and updating them on what was going on. The doctor from the ship met them at the hospital. The gentleman was okay, and apparently was just suffering from extreme exhaustion. He actually rejoined the ship at the next port.
We had a couple of other incidents on this cruise. During the muster drill, a lady fell down the stairs. We could hear her scream from where we were, and it sounded awful! Fortunately, she was not seriously injured (nothing broken) but had to spend a couple of days resting in her cabin. Another gentleman fell down the stairs by the Sky Deck and broke his shoulder. I guess the doctor kept busy on this trip!

Way to go Cindy!!!!! Scary tales

Thanks heaven for your instincts Cindy - sounds like you were a big help. Agree with Joanna, way to go.

Seabourn Odyssey Review

Cruise Dates: November 28 thru December 10, 2009 Eastern Caribbean Cabin 609

Well, after several requests, I am going ahead with the review. I was reluctant at first because we did have some problems and I didn’t want to sound too negative or picky.

So I guess I will start with the things about the cruise which we really did like:

• The staff were very friendly and the bar and restaurant service was superb (Colonnade service was inconsistent)


Here's a photo of Barry and the entertainers at the sail away party

• Loved the never ending “free” caviar – I ate it every day!

The Caviar Sail Away - YUM!

• Loved that they had 2 outside bars – the Patio Bar, on the pool deck, and the Sky Bar, one deck up overlooking the pool (we hung out at the Sky Bar at noon almost every day). Both were open in the evenings as well.


The Sky Bar - Our hangout during the day

• Liked that the Patio Grill was open in the evenings for a very casual option (we only ate there once in the evening and it was very good, but not so great at lunchtime)

• Yes, we also liked that they still have black tie evenings (I know we are in the minority on this one, but we do still enjoy dressing up a bit every once in awhile for dinner, and so we did! We will likely still do so occasionally on Regent even though they are now all Elegant Casual evenings)

• On my birthday, they had some lovely chocolate cake with a candle for me at dinner, and when we got back to the room, I had balloons, a bottle of wine, strawberries with white chocolate mousse and 2 glasses of Cognac waiting for us.


Birthday Balloons


Strawberries and Cognac


• Loved the Nic-Nac peanuts from Germany at the Sky Bar! (My husband had me track down some to order for his Christmas present!)


Now for the rest of the story…

The feelings were not so great beginning with embarkation process. Our documents said we could board at 1:30pm. We arrived around 1:00pm and along with lots of other folks, waited in the terminal building around 30 to 45 minutes. When we were allowed to board, we were herded to the dark and dreary “Grand Salon” where we were told we had to remain until our rooms were ready! They were serving canapés and champagne, but our side of the room was totally ignored for the first 20-30 minutes, until my husband got up and went to tell someone “in charge”. We finally got something to drink, but the environment sitting there was not at all pleasant. They need to take a cue from Regent, who allows you to wander the ship freely when you board and even have lunch at the pool grill! Yes, we all understand our rooms are not ready, but we don’t need to be corralled and held captive! After about 45 minutes, we had had enough. We grabbed our things and made our way out of there. The hotel director was “guarding” the elevators and asked us where we were going. We just insisted we were going up on the deck and kept walking – they weren’t very happy with us! As it turned out, we walked by our room and it was ready anyway, so we dumped our stuff and went out to get some fresh air and a cold beer from the Sky Bar.

The room was spacious – similar to the Voyager, but I did not like the layout very much. You could tell whoever designed it did not spend a lot of time actually living in one these staterooms. (I think the Regent staterooms are much more thoughtfully designed and laid out.) I like to be able to unload all of my stuff and stash it on the shelves and in cabinets. The Odyssey bathroom had 2 sinks (which some people like but we don’t care that much about). This severely limited the vanity space available, and there were only 3 VERY TINY glass shelves to one side of the sink – barely big enough to hold just our medications! So, we actually ended up covering up one of the sinks so we would have more counter space! Also had to store a few items underneath the sink. The closet was about the same as what we are used to on Regent, but the cabinets and drawers in the suite were quite small (shallow). Needless to say, we felt there wasn’t enough storage space. Plus all the cabinets had these pressure closures things they called “clicks”. They nearly drove me crazy trying to get them opened and closed. And, maintenance had to come repair them 3 times during our 12 day cruise because they wouldn’t stay closed! There was no desk, and the single plug was located down on the floor. Fortunately I always travel with my multi-plug power strip, but the plug was very hard to get to. The television is very small for the size of the room – I could not really see the screen well from the bed. Although it has an iPod dock, the sound quality was awful (sound actually just came through the TV speakers). Fortunately we had our portable iPod speakers which we always carry with us. There was a small vanity with a portable magnifying mirror. The magnifying mirror was nice, but the light source at the vanity was not sufficient to use for putting on makeup. There was a plug over at the vanity, but too far away from everything else in the room to be useful.

A view of the room

When we got to the room, none of the drink requests that we had made online were there (they finally got us fully stocked by the next day). There was also NO SAFE! The stewardess said the safe had been taken out some time ago because if was malfunctioning. I called guest services and asked about when the safe would be replaced. Their response was that they had no extra safes to install! I was essentially told too bad, nothing can be done, your SOL, and not given any options. After I hung up and steamed about this awhile, I called back and told them I was not happy and this was unacceptable – still no help. I finally asked if they had any safe deposit boxes on board, and the response was “oh yes, in the purser’s office” – why hadn’t I been offered this before? Reluctantly, I eventually marched down to the purser’s office (which by the way, was not marked in any way, and I had to ask 3 staff people before anyone was able to show me which door to go in). The “safe deposit boxes” were actually little double lock file cabinets which were located in the middle of a busy office with several desks and people working. Needless to say, there was no privacy whatsoever when I wanted to access the “box”. This whole thing was a real hassle throughout the cruise. To me the worst part is that reviews on some of the boards mentioned that the safe problem had been going on for a while – there is no excuse for not having adequate replacements. (Unlike Host Dan on Cruise Critic, they did NOT upgrade us to the Owner’s Suite!)

Our stewardess was very sweet and for the most part, tried very hard, but I felt there were some training issues here. The tiny shelves in our bath room were never dusted for the entire cruise, and were pretty dusty by the 12th day. Our balcony and the windows were not cleaned until I finally specifically asked the stewardess to do so, ON THE SIXTH DAY OF THE CRUISE. The windows were so bad we could barely see out. I was trying to be patient, as we had cruised through some volcanic dust on the second day of the cruise which made quite a mess all over the ship, but 4 days later, I should think that at least the windows and balcony should have been cleaned (we actually had wiped off the handrail, chairs and table ourselves).

We were in suite 609, which is fairly far forward. We did notice some of the vibration and shuddering others have reported. We typically don’t mind the vibrations that much (we always book a Horizon suite on Voyager, and there can be significant vibrations in those suites sometimes, but we love the location); however, the creeks and moans and squeaks in our Odyssey suite were pretty bad, making it difficult to sleep at times. On a new ship like this, you wouldn’t think there would be so much of this. The rooms located forward like ours was are also QUITE loud when the ship drops or weighs anchor. This wasn’t terribly bothersome to us, as we are early risers and were usually already awake when the anchor was being dropped, and having a beer on our balcony when the ship was departing. However, I did hear some folks complaining about this.

We also had some trouble with room service. We always have breakfast in our room – everyday on every cruise we take. So, I am pretty consistent about filling out my little card and putting it on the door before we retire. In fact, I always fill it out before we go to dinner, so that just in case (LOL) I have a little too much to drink, I’ll already have the breakfast order taken of and don’t have to worry about figuring it out when we get back to the room. The first incident with room service was on the second day of the cruise. When our breakfast order did not come within 15 minutes of our requested time, I called to check on it. The fellow answering the phone said that there was no time indicated on the card. Although I find that hard to believe, I gave them the benefit of the doubt this time, although I was a little miffed that they did not bother to call us to find out what time we wanted delivery. They had it there within about 30 minutes, so I forgave them this time. Then, 5 days later, it happened again. I am certain that this time I did not forget to include the requested delivery time, as I had my DH double checking the card for me each time, just to be sure. On this morning, we had an early departure for a shore excursion, so I was pretty upset when I called room service to check on our order, and the guy once again told me there was no time indicated! He insisted he had the card right there, and there was no delivery time. We had to leave the room in 30 minutes, so having it delivered then was not an option. So, I had to go scurrying down to the Seabourn Square to grab us a couple of muffins so we would have something on our tummies. I told the guy from room service I would like to have the card brought to my room so I could see for myself that there was no requested delivery time indicated. Guess what? The card was never delivered – wonder why??? No apology was ever delivered either!!

I had read so many reviews about how wonderful the food was; we had great expectations which never materialized. Again, I recognize that in this particular area, personal preferences play a huge role. The food was quite good on a few nights, not quite as good on others, but nothing really spectacular in our opinion. Two meals we really enjoyed were the Osso Bucco, and the Lobster Thermidor . We both really like fish, and tried several different dishes during the cruise, but they were terribly bland and tasteless (tasted like they were poached or steamed, but that’s not how they were described on the menu). Once the fish was undercooked and inedible. Anyway, during the course of the 12 days, I think we ended up ordering lamb chops from the “classic fare” menu 2 or 3 times, because the other choices were not too exciting. I will add that we had dinner at the Patio Grill one night, and the fish there was grilled to perfection! I think it’s nice to have this outside casual option, but we typically enjoy the ambience of the dining room in the evening, so we only ate at the Patio Grill one night. We also ate one night at the Colonnade, and ate lunch there a few times. The food was okay, but we felt the service was not quite up to speed, especially at lunch time. Another interesting thing was that the Colonnade typically served the same things as the main restaurant, with the addition of some standard dishes like salmon or a steak dish, which they offered every night. Seems to me they should offer more variety. We would probably have eaten there more often in the evening if they had offered something different than what was being served in the main dining room. Here’s a sample of a couple of menus.

We had lunch at the Patio Grill most of the time, even though it was pretty unexciting. They typically had the same things every day (salad bar, hamburgers, hot dogs, some sort of very dry grilled chicken), with one “specialty” dish, like fried calamari, or lamb kabobs. Their hamburgers couldn’t hold a candle to those on Voyager! And alas, no steak sandwich either!! We really missed our grilled fish, which we typically have for lunch almost every day at the Pool Grill on Voyager – they did not offer any grilled fish at all for lunch at the Patio Grill.

On Regent ships, our favorite after dinner hangout is the Observation Lounge, so of course we had to try the Observation Lounge on Odyssey. Needless to say, there was no Frankie Holiday or Jerry Vasi, and it was a pretty quiet place, but the piano player was okay. The décor and lighting is very bright, even at night, and it has a totally different ambience (doesn’t have what I consider that “cozy” feeling like I get on Voyager). The worst thing was, there is NO dance floor in the Observation Lounge?! So, we ended up just dancing next our table. Kind of silly (LOL)!


Having some laughs with new friends at the Observation Lounge

Believe me, I am no health nut or exercise junky, but I do try to walk a couple of miles every day. I really missed the nice walking tracks I am used to on Regent. Some folks were walking around the Sky Deck, and I tried it, but it was a very small loop with lots of obstacles (lounge chairs and people everywhere, and trying to maneuver through the Sky Bar area was a challenge). I just gave up. A ship this size should be able to have a larger walking deck. I stuck my head in the gym one day, but it seemed very small and crowded, so I didn’t go back.

I thought it was also very interesting, in fact quite chintzy IMO, that almost all of the flowers on board were fake (even those on the tables in the Restaurant!).

We didn’t go to any of the evening shows and also did not use the spa, so I can’t comment on those.

We were also pretty disappointed that they had to cancel our beach day and caviar in the surf. That is one of the things that really attracted me to the cruise! But, of course I don’t fault the cruise line for that – we have to blame it the weather Gods! It was just too rough for the staff to safely transport all the stuff over to the beach.

I recognize that much of how we perceived the cruise boils down to what we are used to. We have about 100 days on Regent, and our other cruise experiences have only included a couple of Princess Cruises many years ago, a Windstar cruise, and the Queen Mary 2. I have read many reviews by frequent Seabourn cruisers who tried Regent for the first time, and did not like it all. I am sure we need to keep an open mind, and we might try Seabourn again; but, at this point, probably only if there was an extraordinary itinerary we could not get elsewhere, or there was a great bargain.

Don’t let me give you the impression that we had a rotten time, because that’s NOT true - we had a GREAT time – we always do! It’s just this time, after 12 days, we were really ready to get off. We were on the Voyager for 30 days once and STILL did not want to get off!

We are looking forward to returning to our beloved Regent and the Voyager this May. We think the staff is just the best there is! We also think the food is a bit better. (Although we have been on a couple of cruises with Regent where the food was good, but not outstanding - I think a lot depends on the chef at the time.)

If I failed to address something one of you might be interested in, just let me know!

Happy New Year everyone!

That took a lot of time to write all that Cindy, and you did a great job of describing your experiences. I also enjoyed the pictures. Thank you for your review.

There were some big issues but there were a lot of little things that could have been handled easily that piled up to cause your dissatisfaction. New ships do take some time to get the kinks worked out so hopefully many of these issues will be resolved.

I often think men must design these cabins. The lighting and counter space around the vanity areas makes it pretty clear that it was not a woman who designed the cabin. When Regent put those silly little wall vanities in the big suites where the drawers were so small you could not put anything in them I really scatched my head. They looked good but unusable. The vanity in the standard room was so superior. We all need counter and storage space, particularly in a bathroom and plenty of plugs for computers and other electronic devices.

Hopefully things will improve it is a stunning ship from the outside.

I soooo agree with you Ngaire. These ship designers should have women consulting if nothing else. Same guys who designed little league pants for boys in white -- and then the team tells you that they must come back clean with no stains and you cannot use bleach - go figure.

Wonderful review, Cindy. The no safe issue had me scratching my head, you would of thought they could handle that situation better.
Maybe you can edit the title of your post to include the word review and after this post starts to drift down to the bottom of the page, I can move it over to the review section for easy future access.

Karen - At your suggestion, I added review to the title. Feel free to move anytime you feel it appropriate. Thanks!

Thanks Cindy for such a thorough review. It does sound like you had more than a few glitches but still had a good time with your positive attitude. I recognize the man serving the caviar from a Regent ship but can't remember his name.

Hi Cindy

Thanks for you review, it was very good and I appreciate the time it took for you to write.
I was on the same cruise you were on but we had a safe. That is unacceptable and I believe Host Dan's upgrade was due to more than a safe.

We felt the vibration pretty bad several times--we were in 810 I think. We had no issues with room service and I really liked the food. The service was not as perfect as Seabourn people raved about, but there were a few staff that were nothing short of outstanding.

My husband celebrated his 60th but all he got was a huge towel "cake" and a bottle of wine. No ballons and no real cake.

We are on Regent on Nov 23 and am looking forward to that since its been 2 years.
It will be interesting when I compare the two.

Cindy,

Many thanks for the excellent review. While many of the new ship type of issues will probably be worked out, think we will wait trying this ship until the vibration problems are resolved. Noticed on another thread that the Silverseas Spirit has no vibration issues and is receiving reasonably good reviews for only being in service a short time.

We were seriously considering taking a 2 weeks cruise on this ship in late July, great itinerary. However, the vibration problem is a deal breaker for me. Based on the various reviews I have read it doesn't seem to be limited to a specific section , which makes it more difficult to pick a cabin not affected by the vibration.

The whole episode of the safe deposit box and poor room service sends red flags regarding service and can do attitude. Seems like this ship is not ready for prime time. They are inagurating a twin ship this summer, the Sojourn. I hope they have avoided the vibration issue on that one.