travelwell

We were committed to not doing the land over trip  but the answers to your post might just change our mind. 

I can not wait to follow the WC blogs. We also are booked on Regents 2021 WC. We have had a WC on our bucket list for decades. We have saved and even with our financial counselors blessing, for us this is a huge amount of money. This will be our one and only WC. We do hope to do segments down the road. I can not image treating a segment cruiser any different then those booked on  a WC. As I see it we are all in the same boat, hoping to see the world while meeting new people. 

Wes,

Thanks for the daily activity guide for your Sea day. It looks like I will be glad for the extra hour some days allow!

Great pool pictures. I love the way Regent handles chair hogs. We booked the 2021 WC that has an especially warm itinerary. Tend to love reading by the pool. Is it hard to get two chairs together on pretty sea days? Love the idea of casual evening dining by the pool, especially after full days.

i imagine the personal training costs some but what about the group classes? I think moving is probably a great thing to keep from gaining a zillion pounds. But exercise will be competing with beginning bridge, trivia, reading, sewing. Oh the choices! Can you take a photo of daily activities on ant given sea day?

LOVE reading about you cruise and appreciate the effort going into this!

So enjoying this thread. Taking notes for our first long cruise. I also wondered what photo 4 was. I have to say the last thing I expected to hear was liver. I assume this was a special request? I guess that is one way to get your Vitamins. 

Enjoying your review. This past February we enjoyed a warm weather Seabourn Odyssey cruise in a similar room. Agree totally with bathroom door issue though liked two sinks. Room itself beautiful with lots of storage space.

Loved Seabourn Square! I will say we had trouble finding seats most evenings in the Observation lounge.

Can not wait to hear the rest of your review.

Thanks! We booked Horizon suite deck 8 and best friends deck 9 for 2021 WC. The trade off is smaller room for more money for a big deck that we plan to really use. We did not want soot issue.

Can anyone tell us if soot is a problem on the Mariner Horizon suites?

Actually I am becoming aware of Regents Overland Program options as there are 11 tours offered for the 2021 World cruise we just signed up for. You may choose to leave the cruise anywhere from 2-4 days. Cost is between $999 to $8999 a person. Some include distances several 1000 miles away from the cruise ship and back. (example - Angkor Wat leave from Bali and pick up ship in Singapore). Apparently can sell out fast. These Overland Programs were news to me but you can see examples listed on 2021 WC itinerary on Regent websites.

Just booked this cruise as a retirement present to ourselves. Beyond excited.The shorter itinerary works better for us. Although we would have been interested in the west coast of Africa, not so much the east coast.

We used Viator to get thru Barbados airport. We were at the Hilton 30 minutes after landing bypassing 3 planes worth of passengers. The ride from the Hilton the next day to the cruise terminal cost us in neighborhood of 45 Barbados dollars. Be aware that the Hilton has a hospitality room that you can take a quick shower if you want to stay past check out time.

We are really enjoying this thread as we did the same cruise Feb 3rd to 17th. We loved this cruise in spite of the change in itinerary. We found the staff really tried to care for us and seemed happy to do so. We had a superb young waiter in the dining room, Daniel Mitevski. We had a whole group of"new friends" who felt the same way and we tended to ask for his section in the dining room. If any of you are presently on this ship and see him, please tell him Mark and Lisa so appreciated his exceptional service. We told corporate Seabourn the same.

On a side note, we were warned about the long lines at the airport when arriving in Barbados. We had heard reports of 2 hours in line to get thru immigration. We came a day early and booked Viator Fast Track Arrival Service. This was not cheap at $59 per person. That being said, we were met prior to immigration and walked by the lines of people. We were assisted thru immigration and to a taxi. We were at the Hilton 1/2 hour from landing. A great splurge.

We just got off the Odyssey and at least on our cruise there were primarily 2 seatings per night, around 6-6:30 or 8-8:30. That may explain why 6-6:30 slots showing up. Suggest you keep the time you have for now and talk to Grill when you arrive on ship. I will warning you the meal is huge and we were glad to have the extra hours to digest that the early dinner allows. Wonderful meal!

Things keep coming to mind comparing the premium to luxury cruise. The alcohol is noticeable as my glass seemed taken care of and no worries about signing. No worries about sharing bottles with table mates which we did on occasion on Oceania. These are not party cruises and we saw no drunkenness.

The big differences are on every day things. Whoever wanted to see the cooking class was able to come and those attending got full sized serving of both items cooked. We played trivia and our team won. Every person got a Russ stuffed Seabourn Bear. I left my sweater in Bangkok on a excursion we did on our own. Our room steward hear of my problem and somehow it was on my bed that evening. On another luxury cruise, Regent, we were called by the concierge two days prior to embarking in France that they were concerned we would not make our flight. They priced helicopter and taxi to airport and arranged us to depart with one of their guest speakers to catch limo that was portside.

We went years on mainstream cruises and then to Oceania. We enjoyed all cruises, especially Oceania but it was a noticeable difference when we jumped up to the luxury market just on ease of experience. Every day has little pinch me moments. We have cruised Regent, Seabourn and Crystal. Crystal is only cruise we had a bad experience with and would not go back. Seabourn to us is the top of the line for us.

You guys are right about the alcohol. Bars on Seabourn a great place to hang out before and after dinner. We often ate with people we met at the bar prior to dinner. This is not part of the culture we saw on Oceania. This post does bring back fond memories and great anticipation on boarding the Odyssey in a month.

Oceania was our choice of cruise line until we tried Regent and then Seabourn. Seabourne is now our "go to" line. The difference to us was dramatic. My husband and I were I in late 40- early 50's when we tried both these lines.

Rooms: Unless in a Penthouse or above on Oceania, smallest room on Seabourn wins by a long shot. This is perhaps the biggest FIRST impression between premium and luxury brands.

Service: Seabourn won handsdown. There is a huge uptick in service between a premium cruise and this luxury cruise. It was little things, no signing for alcohol etc. laundry facilities with free soap. Many times plates of appetizers sitting in your room after a long day. Refrig always stocked and restocked with favorite sofas/water. We are not huge drinkers but so much alcohol available we never used our room supply. A lot of Officer engagement with passengers.

Food: Subjective. I would give specialty restaurants the edge on Oceania but main dining room edge on Seabourn. You can make special requests on a Seabourn. We found main dining room service rushed and crowded on Oceania. No one beats room service on Seabourn. Fast and wonderful. You can have coure by course meal delivery to your room.

Seabourn has great special evens. Private beach barbecue with their trademark Caviar in the Surf with flowing champagne, caviar and steaks and lobster. They also have a fun on deck barbecue and dancing.

People: Similar. I would say leans slightly younger on Oceania but our Asian cruise on Seabourn felt young. Did noticed several people like us had tried multiple cruise lines moving up the chain from mainstream, to premium and then luxury. We had more business owners on Seabourn but both lines diverse, nice and unpretentious people ( I am a nurse). We developed friendship on both lines, encouraged by flexible dining.

Crowds: Oceania felt crowded at times, something we rarely felt on Seabourn

Shore Excursions: Rarely do but when have Seabourns very good, small groups good transportation compared to Oceania.

I will warn you that when you cruise with Seabourn you rarely want to go back to premium. I say go for it!

I am able to see the itinerary changes for the Oct sailing but nothing about the Feb 3rd sailing. Still planning on going but curious about final destinations...

We are booked on the Feb 3rd Barbados to Bardodos itinerary. We booked our plane and hotel reservations months ago. We are planning on going on this cruise. We are interested to see what the final itinerary will look like. I do feel for those people booked out of St Martin as that adds extra pre planning stress. Btw, Windstar was realitively easy to reschedule their itineraries, they go back and forth to same islands every week. I do hope this is not the action Seabourn takes.

My husband and I cruised RCCL in our 30's, lots of kids, crowds and noise. In our 40's we tried Oceania, really nice cruise that gave us a taste of luxury but unless in penthouse level rooms really small and we found with added charges cost often equal to price of luxury cruise. In our 40's and 50's we have gone on only Regent, Seabourn and Crystal. Had a not great Crystal cruise. See our old review if you care. We loved Regent and was our favorite until we went on Seabourn. Love Seabourn. Smoking not an issue anymore...

Four years ago our 2 week Asia cruise on The Pride was overbooked. A week prior we were offered our money back to exchange this cruise for any cruise in the next 360 days for free. We could not take the offer but it was Sooo tempting.

My husband and I got off a 12 day Asia cruise in January. We are in our early 50's. Yes, there are many places my husband might dress up in dark jeans with a sport coat but not at night anywhere on a Seabourn cruise. We did not see any jeans in the evening even amongst a handful of people who were 20 to 30 years younger. That does not mean the ship is stuffy but felt elegant. In the southern US, I would call most evening wear, resort elegant.I do believe you would really stick out in jeans and you would look inappropriately dressed. I am not sure if you would be turned around and asked to change though.