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Seabourn Cruise Line

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Seabourn Odyssey

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Seabourn Ovation

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Seabourn Ovation provides spacious suites, good food, friendly staff, and solid entertainment

Skagway

We are still onboard the Ovation, coming to the end of our two week cruise.  We are in the Wintergarden suite with an adjoining Veranda suite on deck 8.  The accomodations are spacious, but showing wear; especially the sofa and dining
table.  The two chairs in the room are not comfortable chairs for getting cosy and reading.  The mattress is worn on one side and there are lots of soft, but lumpy bed pillows.  The Seabourn Square coffee bar is very nice but the two sofas in the area are filthy!   I can’t believe they can’t find a way to clean them overnight!  Housekeeping in public rooms is not as detailed as it should be.  

The shops on board leave a lot to be desired! Definitely room for improvement there.

Our favorite option for dining and bar service was The Grill by Thomas Keller which closed on the last day of our first week.  It is now undergoing renovation to re open as another dining and bar venue; but not affiliated with Thomas Keller.  Now we are short one bar and fine dining option.  There are now only two indoor bar options.

The biggest disappointment for us has been the lack of fine California and French white wines.  They are literally out of most of them!

The staff are generally very friendly and helpful.

Ovation needs refreshing!

I just sailed on the Seabourn Ovastion with a seven day cruise, everything was as advertised and a great product value for money. The staff members are very attentive to your needs, and the cruise director especially so a lovely lady named Loula Geater was excellent in all facets odf her job. The food was to die for , the Seabourn Square with their cappucinos and lava chocolate chip cookies, the gelato bar all excellent in their own right. I had dinner at the famous Thomas Keller restaurant and it was ok but nothing to write home about a bit of a let down but the evening was salvaged since I have great company. The main dinning room aka The Restaurant also has very good food and the wine selection is also good. No need to go top shelf of you dont care to do so. The other eating venues were all excellent in their own right especially the patio. One thing i like is their bacon wrapped hot dogs and fries. IN room service also very good. Over all I give this sailing an 8/10. Why am I not giving a perfect rating? One reason is who ever designed the suites well might have been a mazochist since the air vent for the ac is right over the bed and no matter how much fiddling around I did it kept me up all night, the beds could also be a little comfier. BUt as I wrote those a minor issues, Seabourn has an excellent following amongst its fans,  I have become another one of them, since I booked another cruise for my birthday in September from Dubrovnik to Athens on the Ovation's sister ship the encore

Great cruise with Seabourn with minor critique 

After 4 previous sailings on Celebrity, we wanted to experience "ultra luxury cruising." We are an active couple in our early 70's and often felt that the bulk of activities on board were geared to elderly people preferring a slower pace or being content to read books, play mahjong, bridge and participate in trivia tournaments. The Seabourn Square was an incredibly sleepy area (like being in a public library) with no reason to linger other than to ask questions of the customer service staff or pick up a coffee. Celebrity ships have extensive gourmet coffee menus with an abundant selection of pastries. No such thing here - one barista struggling to keep up and uninspired, limited selection of pastries. No whipped cream on this ship to make a specialty coffee.

We booked a day at the Retreat ($149 while docked). We left after 2 hours and decided it was not worth it. You can read a book on your balcony or find a quiet spot elsewhere on the ship. Unbelievably for an advertised 6 star ship, the loungers were not padded  (same as on the pool deck).

They advertise unlimited caviar and French champagne as their signature. The champagne was very basic and not much different from most sparkling wines. None was offered on embarkation or when getting back on the ship on port days. In fact there were no greeters/staff to welcome cruisers back to the ship with even water or fruit punch like other ships do as a norm. No caviar stations were ever presented on the ship. Sure, you could order it from room service, or requested after 5 PM in the Observation Bar, but it was never promoted anywhere on the ship. It was offered once as an appetizer on formal night in The Restaurant (their higher end dining venue). The highly anticipated, signature event Caviar in the Surf and beach barbecue at Carambola Beach was cancelled last minute. The ship announcement told us that the waters near the beach were too shallow for the tender boats and had been that way for days. WHAT? Obviously they knew well in advance that it was not going to happen, but did not want to kill our anticipation. Instead they offered poor quality warm water lobster tails for lunch in the Colonnade buffet restaurant (but no caviar). So with last minute notification, we had no time to prepare or plan for a day in St. Kitts.

Colonnade was a basic buffet restaurant for breakfast and lunch with very limited selections compared to larger ships eg. no pasta station, one basic kind of pizza offered, and an extremely poor selection of mostly tasteless desserts. I try to lose a few pounds prior to cruising in anticipation of indulging in sweets while cruising (lol). Colonnade dinners were ala carte with nightly themes, Indian, Thai, Old England, Chinese and French. Unfortunately we were booked at the Thomas Keller on French night when they served my favorite escargots and French onion soup. We could have this daily on Celebrity. French night also served poached lobster, seabass, and chateaubriand.

Lasagna and Italian pastas were never available at any of the restaurants (No Italian night at Colonnade).

Thomas Keller restaurant was excellent. Cold water lobster from Nova Scotia and high end imported beef tenderloin.

We dined at The Restaurant 5 of 7 nights since it was elegant compared to the Colonnade restaurant. Formal night was nice with everyone dressed well. Men had to have at least a dinner jacket. Excellent beef tenderloin steak was available every day at The Restaurant except one when there was a fixed chef's menu with a less than adequate fish or beef as the entree. Another day I  previewed The Restaurant menu and was excited to see Coquilles St. Jacques as an appetizer and thought of ordering a double instead of a main dish. What was presented was one scallop floating in butter in a decorative shell. Obviously not Coquilles St. Jacques.  

Be aware that unless if you have a Thomas Keller reservation at 6 PM or want sushi at 6 PM, the earliest ANY restaurant on the ship opens is 6:45 PM. They are all closed by 9 PM. No pizza or light snacks anywhere. Otherwise it is room service. Most ships have access to a buffet or snack station until 11 PM.

On previous cruises ship captains we have experienced were often visible and we looked forward to their daily announcements which were usually filled with anecdotes and humor. We never saw Captain Bathgate and his announcements were boring and usually relegated to be delivered by someone else.

Two bands alternated at The Club or pool deck. Both were excellent. Entertainment highlights were the Seabourn singers with two dancers from Ukraine who put on two great shows in the Grand Salon. The singers also did a tribute to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons on the pool deck which was great.

A magician show by Adam Heppenstall was forgettable and we chose to skip Toni Warne's singing show. Not our kind of music preference.

The onboard casino has one roulette table, one blackjack table and a few slot machines.

Only one store for shopping in Seabourn Square that was rarely open that sold jewellery and a very small selection of clothing.

The demographic is definitely much older than Celebrity, with crew and passengers mostly from the UK  and most we spoke with were repeat cruisers with Seabourn.

The ship is beautiful, the cabins are spacious with exceptional bathrooms and the room attendants, servers and bartenders are all friendly and efficient.

Of course at the end of our 7 days we were sad to leave the ship meaning that part of our holiday was ending, but did not exit with a tear in our eye or a sense of satisfaction for a wonderful experience or that we were going to miss this ship with a desire to sail with her again.

Seabourn obviously caters to and appeals to a specific clientele but more attention to some of the aforementioned details should be addressed to justify their price point and claim to an "ultra luxury" experience.

Beautiful Ship - Not a 6 Star Experience

We're an active, mid-forties, couple who enjoy the freedom to holiday how we want. Seabourn is a significant misfit for people like us. 

First of all, there were no people like us on the boat. In five days, we think we at least saw everybody once. There was one other couple our age and they were feeling the same as we did, like misfits. The average age of this cruise couldn't have been less than 65 years old, brought down to that only by the two young teenagers on with their parents. We teased that we were on a floating retirement home. 

Seaborn requires a great deal of daily planning. With food only available in 2-hour increments throughout the day (save the room service which was in its own right no better than a hospital cafeteria), with some windows being even tighter, you have to plan your entire day around when you have to eat. We thought this was crazy! As a result of this, we only enjoyed two nice meals in the 5 nights we were on board. The night before last, the straw that broke the camel's back, was the spa that booked us for a 7:30 treatment, ending at 9. We were left with NO time to eat in the restaurant(s)! We were left with ordering room service and sitting in our room to eat after the treatment. Horrible experience. 

The excursions. They're set up for the age demographic and made for almost awkward outings. For example, we went kayaking through the banyan trees. This outing should have taken 1 1/2 to 2 hours tops. We had so many unfit-for-the-outing folks on the tour, it took four hours! People were unable to paddle, keep the boats going in the right direction and often even got lost. There was no access to food or restrooms for the entire outing! One fella lost his hearing aid and hat and went off to look for them, only to have to be rescued by us and the other couple our age (already mentioned). 

Each excursion departed unnecessarily early. Again, all we can figure is this was to cater to the demographic. We had to set alarms to be on time. And worse, they left smack in the middle of the small breakfast window! So, we didn't even once get to eat breakfast in the restaurants. The excursions were money wasted. 

The access and availability to general needs. The shop was never open unless at sea and getting access to simple things was hard as you had to plan your meals in the small windows and then plan a rush to the shop. Dumb. My wife needed to see the doctor for an aching swimmers ear, as you guessed it, they were only open for an hour or so in the morning and an hour or so in the evening. If you had anything else going on, something had to give. So, we left the boat with her ears aching. Man, I bet staff are falling over themselves to work for Seabourn! 

Everything but a bar or two closed at 10p, food at 9p. What?! What luxury resort in the world turns off at these hours?! The Four Seasons is ready and available for any needs, at any hour. All the entertainment was catered to a much older demographic too. We saw one show.

Needless to say, what we experienced wasn't even good enough to keep us aboard for a week. We left early. We are so sorry we weren't better informed of what sailing was like with Seabourn. We hope this review may help a person or two.

In our experience, it was a floating retirement home, with little to nothing offered for any different age demographic. If we'd known this, we'd never have booked. 

3 stars at best, and that's only because the ship itself was beautiful, the staff lovely and the 2 nights we did get to eat in the restaurant, delicious.

For a certain age and demographic

We chose Seabourn Ovation as we wanted a small ship, quality cruise without too much formality and found the perfect match with Seabourn. We have read some other recent reviews and are at a loss to understand some of the negative and insulting comments that have been made, certainly it was not a floating retirement home when we were on board, although granted it does have a higher proportion of mature, professional and retired people, than some cruise lines, thank goodness! We really cannot understand the 'whingers', perhaps they would be more suited to the demographic on the larger ships catering for the masses.  Most passengers did appear to be from the UK or USA and most that we spoke to appeared to be perfectly happy, embracing the experience, thankful for it and enjoying every moment!

The ship and suites are very elegant and well appointed and extremely comfortable, We were in a V4 suite on Deck 11 which was a perfect location for us getting our early morning coffee or night cap at the Observation Bar on the same Deck. Our suite attendants, Linisha and Albert, provided us with an exceptional level of customer care; we felt pampered and very well looked after by them.  The service we received in all venues was great from every crew member we met without exception, from the coffee shop, the guys in all four of the bars we frequented and all the dining venues, including room service, which we frequently had for breakfast.  We enjoyed all dining venues in different ways, fabulous to have such a choice and decide where to go depending on mood, appetite or menu (delivered to your suite the night before), we really were spoilt for choice and a 3 hour window (6pm to 9pm) was even enough for us to get our act together, have a cocktail or two and be out for dinner before 8.30pm.  The only dining venue which did not appeal to us was inside at the Colonnade however we ate outside on it's rear deck a couple of times and had the Indian Buffet which was the best Indian food we have had since moving from Australia to the UK eight years ago!

We really enjoyed our beach days and the crew worked so hard to deliver us caviar in the surf and the subsequent barbecue, we enjoyed our times in port and all of the excursions we took, in fact we enjoyed every moment of our Seabourn adventure, didn't want to leave and can't wait to go back next year. For anyone doubting us we had high expectations, these were met and exceeded, we are very fussy, in more ways than one and we were owner managers in our hospitality/accommodation business in Australia for many years so guess we know what we are talking about and we can be critical if things are not right; we found nothing to criticise on Seabourn, other than the 'whingers' of course!

Fantastic 14 Night Caribbean Cruise

Ketchikan

Rarotonga

We chose the Ovation for its itinerary of Iceland and finishing in Denmark, but we were blown away by the superior service and staff on the ship.  We have only cruised on larger lines before (Royal, Holland, Celebrity), and while those ships were nice, this experience was far better.  The rooms were huge, the bathrooms were enormous and it was close to feeling like a hotel room rather than a cruise ship.  The service was above and beyond fantastic.  Everyone was friendly and outgoing and although at some points in the dining room the service was slow-ish it was not for lack of trying by the wait staff.  We chose the same waiter each night that we dined in the MDR and he was superb.  The food in the MDR was the only knock on the cruise.  There were plenty of options, but nothing stood out as great and most of it was pretty average.  The food at other parts of the ship like sushi and the steakhouse were vastly better and we decided as a group that the sushi restaurant was the best food on the ship (as well as the friendliest staff).  We would sail on Seabourn again in a minute and although this was our first "luxury" cruise, we are hoping it will be our normal way of cruising.

Wonderful Smaller Ship Experience

St. John's (Newfoundland)

Have cruised with Seabourn before the pandemic and loved the whole experience. Could not wait to go another Seabourn cruise. Unfortunately things seem to have changed big time. Service standards in the main dinning room were bad, as was TKs. Room staff great along with all the staff at the Colonnade. Food serving staff seemed harassed and unmotivated and not very attentive. Sometimes you had butter on the tables other times you had to ask.The food standard and selections had also reduced in quality and variety. No one interested in greeting you back from shore trips at the tender terminal on land. The attendant was constantly texting on her phone and not interested in any customers. No cold drinks offered at port any more, just the standard water bottles at the little unattended tent. We came back from our cruise wondering what had happened to Seabourn and are seriously considering whether we would sail with them again. Not what I would call 6 star luxury or service - more like Premium. It's very sad to say but it did not come close to the advertised ultra luxury experience or our previous experience with Seabourn. It did not in our opinion come anywhere near what we had previously experienced, it seemed that lack of training and cutbacks had affected how the ship is now operated.

Seabourn Service and food was not what it used to be. 

My husband and I had a fabulous time on our first Seabourn Cruise. We were a little apprehensive, as the price was a bit of a stretch for us. We were very pleased with our overall experience. Although, we did have one really rough sea day, we didn’t know if the smaller ship made it worse or not, because we have experienced some pretty rough seas in bigger ships also. 

We have previously cruised with, *Holland America, *Princess, Disney, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, celebrity and Carnival. (*=mostly) All cruise lines have pros and cons including Seabourn. For us, we felt Seabourn had far more pros than cons and overall was superior, to the others we have sailed. as should be expected from a luxury brand, 

Some of the highlights for us:

We have never experienced a more quick and easy embarkation process. We arrived about 10 minutes prior to our assigned time (hard to judge taxi wait times and traffic in a strange city). Someone was just finishing with the luggage porters as our taxi arrived. By the time our luggage was out of the taxi, the porters were ready for us. We had printed and stapled luggage tags to our bags, but they attached new color coded tags took our bags and sent us into the terminal for check-in. Same basic scenario inside, the couple ahead of us was just finishing up their document check as we walked up. It was less than 15 minutes taxi to stepping onboard the ship. 

We had not been able to prebook TK Grill, so we headed to guest services at Seabourn Square to book a reservation. This was quick and easy and as we were finishing up, it was announced that suites were ready. So we took our carry-on bags in and headed to lunch.

Our suite was clean, comfortable, spacious and felt upscale. It had a nice sitting area and a decent sized balcony. There was also a walk in closet with ample storage space, and a safe.  The bathroom was spacious for a cruise ship and had  2 sinks, a shower and a separate tub. 

The service is personal without being intrusive. The staff quickly learned our preferences and were quick to fulfill requests.  We were especially impressed with how visible  the crew was throughout the voyage. (And their interaction with the guests) There was the very rare hiccup, but again far superior to the mass market lines and the recovery was good. One of  my main dish meals was not up to standards, everything else was great so I wasn’t going to say anything but my husband said they need to know. So I told them, they offered something else but I really had plenty to eat so I declined. The next morning When we returned from breakfast there was a fancy plate of treats with an apology note and a hope to meet expectations going forward. I thought it a nice touch. 

We really enjoyed the lower passenger count and the lack of lines or crowding. The only lines, and they weren’t particularly long, were do to most of our ports being tender ports and the one non tender port being a little ways from the city so most people took the shuttle bus provided. Both of those things meant people arrived back to the ship in groups. Still it was handled quite efficiently, with minimal waits. 

Disembarkation was as quick and easy as embarkation. 

This was a special cruise for our 40th wedding anniversary and my 60th birthday. We were glad we made the decision to splurge and have no  regrets spending the extra money for this luxury experience. 

We only were on this sailing for 7 nights. When I put in the date for this sailing it came up as a 14 night, many guests continued on and also many guests had already been onboard for the prior cruise.

Fabulous!

Saint John (New Brunswick)

This was a 14 day cruise that left From Copenhagen, circumnavigated Iceland and returned to Copenhagen. We have been on Seabourn at least 6 times and this was our second time on the Ovation.

We like the larger size, compared to the 3 older and smaller ships,  which is most noticeable in the Thomas Keller restaurant and bar. We were told there were only about 325 passengers, and the captain said there were more crew than passengers. The service was wonderful.

Good food, great cabin and cabin service, beautiful lounges and restaurants. Great piano lounge artist in the Keller bar.

My only complaint is the odor and pollution coming from the smokestacks. Sometimes you can smell it throughout the ship; of course it is worse on the back, esp behind The Club. I think they could scrub their stacks better, if they do it at all.

There must be better technology to cut down on the air pollution nowadays.

I think Seabourn offers great value even if it is relatively expensive. You only have to look at the prices for Regent and Silversea, etc. I can't believe they are that much, if any better.

BTW, I also like Premier Aqua Class and Retreat Class on Celebrity, because each of those classes has it's own, intimate dining room ("Blu" and "Luminae.") You pay more for those classes on Celebrity, but you also get great food and excellent service. The cabins are not as nice, but you have what I think of as an advantage of being around a more diverse group of people in the bars and other public venues on that Premium, but not Luxury line. Seabourn is pretty much all upper-middle class white folks. Nice people, but rather homogeneous.

I think there were maybe 5 guests younger than 25 on our cruise. Four of them seemed quite bored and I felt a bit sorry for them. I myself would not take children on a Luxury cruise.

This ship has the best laundry facility of any ship I have been on.

Impeccable Service

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