Seabourn Odyssey Review

Our 6th Seabourn cruise...not the best

Review for Asia Cruise on Seabourn Odyssey
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HappyFeet13
2-5 Cruises • Age 80s

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Sail Date: Feb 2015
Cabin: Veranda Suite

Seabourn has beautiful ships and their small passenger complement makes it easy to meet new people. There are drawbacks with small ships...among them are small casinos and limited speakers and entertainment. That is offset by the fact that you have 5 star dining, and you eat when you want to, and generally whatever you want to. Smaller ships also can go into smaller ports, which is a huge advantage these days when it is commonplace to see several huge cruise ships all pulling into the same port at the same time. Seabourn sometimes takes advantage of this difference, and sometimes not. Had this been my first experience with Seabourn I might have given it five stars, but it wasn't, and I didn't. Here's why:

Seabourn services the "squeaking wheel" very well. If a guest is especially demanding, they get noticed and get better service. We have seen this over and over again on this and previous cruises. People who demand special meals, multiple selections, special drinks, lots of room service, etc. get quickly "known". And they are catered to. But the quiet unobtrusive guests will not find themselves quite so pampered. They will find spotty service in the main restaurant, (sometimes horribly, maddeningly slow), and they will notice that their name is not known to any crew members for a week or longer.

Shortcomings include horrid and expensive internet services. I will never figure out why, on an "all inclusive" cruise they charge such outrageously high charges for such outrageously poor and slow internet services. Their "tour packages" are generally poor. If there's nothing there, they will sell you a 4 hour or an 8 hour bus ride anyway. I'd say half the tours are a total waste of time and money. As to on board entertainment: On our 32 day cruise, they fired the bridge instructor on day 2 of our 2nd 16 day leg. From then on they offered "Teach yourself how to play bridge". They also had an expert aboard to speak about the Battle of the Coral Sea, among other topics, and he started by inferring that America had a lousy commander (MacArthur), lousy Admirals, and that Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 8! I understand a small ship can't have big orchestras and shows, but they can have a bridge instructor that is passable and a speaker that knows what he's talking about.

Cabin Review

Veranda Suite

Cabin V6

This cabin is located on same floor as Seabourn Square, which is nice. But it is right under the 7th level outdoor bar and storage. Not too noisy late at night, but daytime and early evenings you hear all kinds of bumps and scraping. I'd prefer 6 level, midships, which we have had before.

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