We rose this morning and had breakfast in The Restaurant. There have been so few people in The Restaurant in the morning, the staff seems to really be glad to see us. It has turned out to be an extremely relaxing way to have breakfast, sitting by the large windows watching the waves race by. Being on Deck 4, you feel you are riding the waves.
During the past two weeks, they have inundated us with flyers claiming that if you book future voyages while on-board, you will not only ensure the cabin you wish (if available), but they also will give you 5% off (if they remember). They also claimed our travel agent (Maxine) would get "full recognition" of the new booking (Maxine: please let us know if that is not correct).
We spoke with Warren (Cape Town), the Cruise Sales Specialist. We told him this trip has spoiled us and we were interested in the same suite (Wintergarden) on essentially the same route next year. There are two Seabourn transatlantic cruises in the Spring of 2017. The first leaves Ft. Lauderdale on March 31 and arrives in Barcelona 15 days later. It not only stops in Funchal, but also Tangier, Morocco and Malaga, Spain. This would add two more cities, one more country and one more continent to our list of visitations. Sounded perfect! This cruise was on the Seabourn Quest (a carbon copy of the Seabourn Odyssey). Unfortunately, both Wintergarden Suites are already booked. I asked if one of the five Owner's Suites was available and the only ones available were on Deck 6. We originally booked one of those Deck 6 suites for our current cruise (the only ones of that type that were still available), but then changed to the Wintergarden Suite when we got additional information. The Deck 6 Owner's Suites are forward, have very truncated verandas, the windows look out on a public deck and there were reports of loud anchor chain noises from former guests.
The second transatlantic voyage next year is on the Odyssey (our current ship). However, it departs from Bridgetown, Barbados on April 15 and arrives in Monte Carlo 14 days later. In addition to Funchal, it also stops at Barcelona, Spain and Marseilles, France. The Wintergarden Suite in which we currently residing (#744) is still available. This cruise would take us to Barbados for the first time (never a top destination for us), but we would incur additional travel time and cost to get to Barbados (as opposed to Ft. Lauderdale). Nevertheless, we asked Warren to book the Wintergarden Suite on the Odyssey and put us on the waiting list for either of the Wintergarden Suites on the Quest. In addition, T also asked Warren to add us to the waiting list for the Owner's Suite (#731) which is mid-ship on the Quest. Warren assured us that if any of these suites on the Quest become available, we could easily (and with no penalty) switch our booking from the Odyssey to the Quest. He also said we were first on the waiting lists.
We mentioned that we did not book our current cruise until June of last year, Warren noted that the first crossing of the season (in late March) always sells out faster than the subsequent crossing in April. He was not sure why. SO, we are booked for April 2017 on the Seabourn Odyssey from Barbados to Monte Carlo, with options on the Quest. Warren pointed out that there is no cancellation fee if a booking is canceled 120 days or more before departure. Therefore, he thought there was a chance that someone currently booked in one of the Wintergarden Suites (or Owner's Suite) on the Quest might cancel before the deadline on December 1, 2016. He said if someone does, they will notify our travel agent (Maxine).
Warren also mentioned that Seabourn will start offering a 150 day "around the world" cruise next month for the 2018 season. We will need to look into that.
That was all very exciting. On a more somber note, we got word yesterday from Maxine that, on the next segment of our trip (Oceania Riviera from Barcelona to Athens), they have canceled our Rome shore excursion due to low participation. This was the premium excursion that we signed up for and were most excited about. Very disappointing. We went back over the other shore excursions supposedly being offered and sent Maxine a prioritized list of alternatives. We have not heard back from her yet. Currently we are seven hours ahead of Houston time. Tomorrow it will be eight hours (GMT+2), so that communications with Maxine are becoming more disjointed. We will be getting ready for dinner about the time she gets to work in the morning.
Last night, we were getting dangerously close to running out of diet tonic water to dilute my gin. Helen told us last night she was "still looking". Apparently, we have exhausted the ship's supply. Today, Helen showed up with a liter bottle and said it was the last one she could find.
As we left for dinner, we found an invitation for dinner tomorrow night with the Cruise Director, Jan Stearman. Also we were invited to a Madeira wine tasting tomorrow afternoon. T did not hesitate..."we will attend!".
During dinner in The Restaurant, I saw some dolphins (I did not have my glasses on so they could have been Mermaids) jumping along side the ship. After dinner, T suggested we capture the horizon at sunset. It has cleared nicely this evening. At least you can see some blue sky.
Lastly, when we returned from dinner, we found luggage tags and our Barcelona post-cruise tour tickets in our mail box. Just a sad reminder that this cruise is coming to an end :-(.
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