flyerstef

I think we were able to book kayak's about six months out? You only need to book it once, it'll show on the first day of the cruise as an excursion, and then seabourn will figure out when you will be able to go. Same goes for submarine, same way to book.

There are two flights back, around 10am and 11am, you'll be out of your room by 8am and off the ship shortly thereafter.

Most flights out are afternoon/evening and you'll be there with lots of time to spare..,.possibly far too much time.

There is a holiday inn near the airport that rents day rooms if you need a place to hang before your flight.

Same for antartica, only on sea days .

I took this screenshot this morning from our antartica cruise registration - 75 lbs in two checked bags per guest, plus 22 lbs in carry on.

My regular drink after dinner, no problem at all finding it on board! 

ooh I am definitely interested in hearing about the Rocky Mountaineer, and I think there is probably a fair amount of overlap between folks who would be interested in a luxury train such as that and Seabourn cruisers. I'd love if you kept posting here!

lol @catlover!! We definitely thought the same, the discount on the cruise was worth more than any possible interest!

And as you suspected, our travel agent just let us know that we have been moved to the Antartica xmas cruise on Venture.

No paperwork yet, I imagine Seabourn has their hands full at the moment and we must be low on the list given how far away our sailing is. So still waiting to find out what will happen to the specific room we selected, along with this being the first time we paid in full in this far advance, it's also the first time we selected a room in advance 😛 

uh oh, we are booked on the xmas cruise to Antartica on Pursuit 23-24 which is also gone from the website. I still see it when I log in, but that's all. And of course for the first time in my life we paid the full amount early in order to get the early bird discount... 

TY for posting the link to the article on Yahoo!! I was on the last half of the cruise with them (including on the ebike excursion in Curacao), and my husband & I had thought that they were part of the (large) travel agent contingent aboard.

Very interesting that they weren't, and they did seem to be having a good time! Fun read.

Seabourn did eventually make it right with everyone who needed refunds due to canceled sailings.

We are doing final payment this week for the Pursuit Xmas Antartica Cruise 2023 because 10% early bird ends up being a significant amount of savings. We are also happy to be able to confirm the exact room we want on the exact sailing we want.

It's all refundable on the regular schedule anyway, so I feel like the risk is minimal.

I was on Odyssey for the last cruise prior to dry dock in Curacao. We got off the ship by 10am Saturday in aruba, and it was settled back in Curacao that night.

The crew told us the main purpose for the two week dry dock was to re-do the Colonnade to better support the non-buffet style dining they're now doing at night in there.

Really looking forward to seeing the updates!!

The cruise we're thinking about booking in March is about $500 less pp for an ocean view cabin then it was two days ago. not bad at all!

Oh I’m well aware. I’m sure all of that is why I’ve had in my head that seadream doesn’t allow children - there is a big difference between “allowed” and “welcome.” 

That’s great to know - I’m not sure why we’ve all assumed sea dream is out until my niece is older, she handled regent like a champ, maybe we do need to head back there as a family!

I think either Seabourn or SeaDream would work great depending on what you're looking for.

Both have amazing food and service. Absolute luxury. Both are all inclusive, meaning no added gratuities, no alcohol fees, etc. Seabourn's basic level suite is a little bigger, but at that level it doesn't really matter much to me. They both go to smaller ports where you're less likely to find the town invaded by Royal/MSC/Costa/Carnival. 

SeaDream does not allow children at all, whereas Seabourn does, but they don't have a children's program so you tend not to see lots of kids - there was ONE five year old on our most recent trip. 
 

On both Seabourn cruises we met more than one gay couple, and found a group of folks in our age range to hang out with (we probably end up making friends from 30-60, we're in our 40's). Our most recent Seabourn cruise last week had an LGBTQ meet up on the first day as well, which we've never seen listed in the program before. That cruise also skewed slightly older than our previous cruise in the Mediterranean with Seabourn, probably more average 60's than 50's that we've seen previously. 

I also rather enjoy the entertainment on board 🙂 they're not huge big shows, but they're perfectly suitable for the hour or so they occupy between dinner and bed. There's more than enough other stuff to do anyway...I'm always surprised how busy we end up being on board.

SeaDream, while AMAZING, is much more of a private yacht experience. There's no trivia, no shows, people are much less social in general, and much more into enjoying the company of the people they're on the trip with. There's one pool, one bar, two restaurants. And 150 people max on board, which means you truly are waited on hand and foot - you can ask for anything you want and they'll make it for you. It's a whole other level of service beyond "luxury." I haven't been on SeaDream in about 10 years due to the lack of socialization - we've wanted that as much as anything else lately - but we're definitely due for one soon..it's a very special experience.

SilverSea and Oceania are both on our to-do lists - Silversea for the service, and Oceania for the food, but the overall age seems to run older, so we're probably holding on that for a few years. 🙂 We did a Regent cruise with my family this past summer and did not enjoy the crowd on board. They were older and rather grumpy, which was just weird for families traveling to Alaska. Regent and SeaDream both were majority American, whereas every Seabourn cruise we have been on has been majority European...which we also enjoy a great deal.

Really, you can't go wrong with either Seabourn or SeaDream. You will be welcome, and as long as you're ok adding about 10-20 years to the range of "your own age" (age is a mindset more than a number, right?) you'll meet a whole slew of like minded couples. 

I’m not really who you wanted to hear from - but I use an ecig. I hang out in the smoking areas on board (I actually love and miss the smell of cigarette smoke), and don’t use it in the room. There is no need to. I’m looking forward to many nights on the back of the boat in two weeks...we love it there. 🙂

That said, I don’t see how they could stop me or even know I did it if I was to vape in the room. If you are really that sensitive, I would be extremely cautious...these things are getting smaller and smaller and easier to hide (no visible vapor exhaled, etc). 

They do, but you don't really need anything. We were all nervous and had all of our paperwork & tags for our first cruise, then met a ton of people on board who just showed up with nothing in hand.

I would think you'd have your packet by now though, it tends to come about 6 weeks ahead of time. It goes to your travel agent, maybe check with them (if you have one) to see if they got it? 

31 minutes ago, Mike.NJ28 said:

This is Wonderful!

 

We are sailing in May around the Mediterranean on the Odyssey, and have 1 payment left! Anybody have a Coupon to share?

Thanks!

 

Michael 

Heya Michael - absolutely,  just email me at stephaniepb (at) gmail with your full name/addy/booking number and I'd be happy to refer you!

Hi - I have referral coupons for new seabourn cruisers. Email me at stephaniepb (at) gmail with name/addy/booking number and I'd be happy to refer.

Thanks!

Hi Annie! We are on the same cruise! Also have not booked any excursions yet, will definitely be watching this thread

We went with Regent to Alaska in July of this year. I posted the comparison of the two below over on the RSSC forum here. We'll be sailing again with Seabourn in February - I don't know if we'll ever do RSSC again. But for the Alaska cruise, with the 2 for 1 deal they were doing at the time (we were a large group), the price was right.

Just got back from a Regent cruise on Mariner to Alaska a few days ago, and sailed Seabourn in the Med last summer. For context, have also sailed SeaDream, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian.

I think I can definitively say we prefer Seabourn by a mile. Regent is very nice, and I think had I NOT have been on SeaDream/Seabourn I would have found it spectacular compared to the other cruise lines of the world.

Food and drink is free and plentiful, there are always staff around in some form or another, the ship is large enough that there are always quiet places to curl up and watch the scenery or read a book, and the balcony suites are great. I also just loved Alaska and have only wonderful things to say about the itinerary as a basic, intro to Alaska trip.

Now the comparisons. And I FULLY admit this is nitpicky, but we're talking luxury cruising. If I wasn't going to nitpick the details, I wouldn't be on this type of cruise.

- Regent costs more on average than Seabourn. This is (I am guessing??) because they include flights and excursions. We did not take the flight, and instead got $600 taken off of our overall bill. We did have transfers from airport to hotel to cruise in Vancouver, which we since learned were charged $70 per. The walk from hotel to cruise was 5 minutes downhill and we skipped the bus entirely.

- Excursions also fill up EXTREMELY quickly. We ended up deciding to do 2 premium (additional cost) excursions, and fortunately cleared the waitlist for the 2 non-premium we chose. Quality wise, they were all great, no obvious difference between free and non.

- Same with spa reservations - no appointments were available. Ever. The ENTIRE CRUISE.

- our suite door was left wide open one day, I don't know for how long. We came back from an excursion and the bolt was thrown to keep the door open...we only noticed AFTER showering and realizing we could hear outside voices very closely.

- Basic maintenance wasn't there, surprising for a boat that was just refurbished. The toilet in our suite clogged one morning, and flooded our entire bathroom another. A panel in the ceiling rattled all night one night, keeping us both up. At least one elevator was out of service every day.

- Also basic service - there weren't any towels when I got out of the hot tub (in the cold, in Alaska). Never saw our room steward after the first day, and had to leave notes asking for more towels and the mini bar to be re-stocked. Cleaning rags were left in the room twice. Cups would be left on tables around the ship for a long time. I couldn't find a napkin anywhere in the coffee bar. Staff would often be congregated near a service door chatting for a noticeable amount of time.

- Restaurant reservations for the two specialty places requiring them also filled up fast - opening at midnight, and gone by 6am. We were part of a party at 7, and could only make "adjoining table" reservations in advance. Once on board, they did make adjustments to accomodate us - we were given a shared table at 6pm (restaurants normally opening at 6:30) for our two special dinner nights.

- The staff will say no or not know answers, and often are not particularly helpful. I got an "I don't know" when I asked for a ladies room the first time I was on the ship, I heard one woman being loudly told that she would need to go to another deck if she wanted soy for her coffee (at one of the bars)...little things like that. There definitely were staff who were very kind and helpful, but that was more the exception than the norm. In general the staff was more heavily worked than on Seabourn (for example: one bartender doing service for 3 resturants and a stand up bar), and just had less time & were not empowered to help. Also only saw the cruise director on television (the "Mariner Today" TV show)...never in person.

- Wine selection was okay, I found things I liked, although I usually had to ask for them as they weren't the wines of the day (very similar to Seabourn where you just have to ask). Liquor collection was not anywhere near as good. We spotted Pinnacle Whipped Cream vodka the last day, which was just hysterical.

- Passengers. I have never seen so many miserable looking people on a vacation! I am used to saying hi when I pass people in the hallway, and generally tend to get to know a fair number of people on board by the time the cruise is over (and I'm normally not a huge extrovert in real life). In general, people were not friendly and would not even smile in a shared elevator. Dunno if it was just this cruise, Alaska, more families, Regent...whatever it was, it was noticeable and very strange.

- Food was much better in general on Seabourn. Regent had a significant lack of fruit, vegetables and salads on Regent, with most veggie preparations being very overcooked or dripping in butter. They were also very small - a quarter cup of corn as a side. Seabourn's specialty restaurant is miles above any of Regent's as well.

- Regent did go out of their way to make a special cake for a birthday we celebrated on board, and decorated the celebrant's room, which was very much appreciated. I think the difference here is more that we had to ask for it, follow up on it daily to make sure it was on their radar, and so on. Seabourn's unexpected "wow moments" are real and we definitely experienced those last summer. Everything that happened on the regent ship happened because we made it happen.

So I wouldn't NOT recommend Regent or tell someone not to go, but when comparing the two...I definitely suggest Seabourn over Regent.

I'm doing a cruise next February with a late sail away and was wondering the same. Have either of you taken your cruises yet...what happened? Thanks!

I drink bourbon so I definitely paid the most attention there. This is from last summer, I definitely need to go on seabourn soon to update this list!

All bars have Makers Mark and Jack Daniels.

The bar in the club also had Basil Hayden and Woodford Reserve Double Oaked.

Just got back from a Regent cruise on Mariner to Alaska a few days ago, and sailed Seabourn in the Med last summer. For context, have also sailed SeaDream, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian.

I think I can definitively say we prefer Seabourn by a mile. Regent is very nice, and I think had I NOT have been on SeaDream/Seabourn I would have found it spectacular compared to the other cruise lines of the world.

Food and drink is free and plentiful, there are always staff around in some form or another, the ship is large enough that there are always quiet places to curl up and watch the scenery or read a book, and the balcony suites are great. I also just loved Alaska and have only wonderful things to say about the itinerary as a basic, intro to Alaska trip.

Now the comparisons. And I FULLY admit this is nitpicky, but we're talking luxury cruising. If I wasn't going to nitpick the details, I wouldn't be on this type of cruise.

- Regent costs more on average than Seabourn. This is (I am guessing??) because they include flights and excursions. We did not take the flight, and instead got $600 taken off of our overall bill. We did have transfers from airport to hotel to cruise in Vancouver, which we since learned were charged $70 per. The walk from hotel to cruise was 5 minutes downhill and we skipped the bus entirely.

- Excursions also fill up EXTREMELY quickly. We ended up deciding to do 2 premium (additional cost) excursions, and fortunately cleared the waitlist for the 2 non-premium we chose. Quality wise, they were all great, no obvious difference between free and non.

- Same with spa reservations - no appointments were available. Ever. The ENTIRE CRUISE.

- our suite door was left wide open one day, I don't know for how long. We came back from an excursion and the bolt was thrown to keep the door open...we only noticed AFTER showering and realizing we could hear outside voices very closely.

- Basic maintenance wasn't there, surprising for a boat that was just refurbished. The toilet in our suite clogged one morning, and flooded our entire bathroom another. A panel in the ceiling rattled all night one night, keeping us both up. At least one elevator was out of service every day.

- Also basic service - there weren't any towels when I got out of the hot tub (in the cold, in Alaska). Never saw our room steward after the first day, and had to leave notes asking for more towels and the mini bar to be re-stocked. Cleaning rags were left in the room twice. Cups would be left on tables around the ship for a long time. I couldn't find a napkin anywhere in the coffee bar. Staff would often be congregated near a service door chatting for a noticeable amount of time.

- Restaurant reservations for the two specialty places requiring them also filled up fast - opening at midnight, and gone by 6am. We were part of a party at 7, and could only make "adjoining table" reservations in advance. Once on board, they did make adjustments to accomodate us - we were given a shared table at 6pm (restaurants normally opening at 6:30) for our two special dinner nights.

- The staff will say no or not know answers, and often are not particularly helpful. I got an "I don't know" when I asked for a ladies room the first time I was on the ship, I heard one woman being loudly told that she would need to go to another deck if she wanted soy for her coffee (at one of the bars)...little things like that. There definitely were staff who were very kind and helpful, but that was more the exception than the norm. In general the staff was more heavily worked than on Seabourn (for example: one bartender doing service for 3 resturants and a stand up bar), and just had less time & were not empowered to help. Also only saw the cruise director on television (the "Mariner Today" TV show)...never in person.

- Wine selection was okay, I found things I liked, although I usually had to ask for them as they weren't the wines of the day (very similar to Seabourn where you just have to ask). Liquor collection was not anywhere near as good. We spotted Pinnacle Whipped Cream vodka the last day, which was just hysterical.

- Passengers. I have never seen so many miserable looking people on a vacation! I am used to saying hi when I pass people in the hallway, and generally tend to get to know a fair number of people on board by the time the cruise is over (and I'm normally not a huge extrovert in real life). In general, people were not friendly and would not even smile in a shared elevator. Dunno if it was just this cruise, Alaska, more families, Regent...whatever it was, it was noticeable and very strange.

- Food was much better in general on Seabourn. Regent had a significant lack of fruit, vegetables and salads on Regent, with most veggie preparations being very overcooked or dripping in butter. They were also very small - a quarter cup of corn as a side. Seabourn's specialty restaurant is miles above any of Regent's as well.

- Regent did go out of their way to make a special cake for a birthday we celebrated on board, and decorated the celebrant's room, which was very much appreciated. I think the difference here is more that we had to ask for it, follow up on it daily to make sure it was on their radar, and so on. Seabourn's unexpected "wow moments" are real and we definitely experienced those last summer. Everything that happened on the regent ship happened because we made it happen.

So I wouldn't NOT recommend Regent or tell someone not to go, but when comparing the two...I definitely suggest Seabourn over Regent.

OK I've rambled enough, happy to answer any questions if anyone has, but will stop here.

I did Athens --> Malta on the Odyssey this past summer. We didn't have a beach day, but they did still do the "caviar in the surf" party - just in the pool! :)