Is there a blurring of the line between Seabourn and HAL?

[Keith1010]

Ronster, we also enjoy Windstar, love the smaller ships - and there is always Seabourn and SS for when we feel like a change. Jazzbeau, thanks for the tips, we are currently looking at rivercruising and wondering where to start - there are so many. Will follow up on your advice.

 

You might want to also check out the Crystal River Cruise vessels.

 

Host Jazzbeau and others gave us great suggestions when we were looking at River Cruise Vessels on the River Cruise Board. Several who know that we liked Luxury recommended Tauck and Scenic.

 

At the time Crystal had not yet deployed their first River Cruise Vessel. The reviews I have read including photos have really been superb. You could check some of them out.

 

This live report was done by one of our good friends who we highly respect and have sailed on Ocean Vessels before on his first ever River Cruise and as you read through it he added lots of photos and also ended it with a summary review. You may find it helpful.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2538382

 

Keith

[JPH814]

Ronster, we also enjoy Windstar, love the smaller ships - and there is always Seabourn and SS for when we feel like a change. Jazzbeau, thanks for the tips, we are currently looking at rivercruising and wondering where to start - there are so many. Will follow up on your advice.

 

 

 

We love Seabourne and have been very Happy with Uniworld for River cruises.

 

 

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[Ronster737]

Thank you Ronster, that is very helpful. We are considering doing Star Pride [oddly, ex-Seabourn!] for Iceland and they are much cheaper than Ponant or Scenic so the question was how they compare -- what I'm sensing is not quite the same level of luxury but perhaps more value at the end of the day.

 

Now as to your cruise on Avalon: you will probably have a good time, but this is an odd choice because Avalon is very much middle of the road among river cruise lines. Based on your preferences here, you would prefer the more luxury river lines: Crystal (new but so far so good), Tauck, Uniworld (but look at the decor before you book, some are very turned off), Scenic -- and in the same vein as Windstar: AMAwaterways (which is our favorite on the same 'enough luxury and more value' proposition).

 

Now that you mention it, our first two fabulous cruises were on the now WindStar smaller Seabourn boats. Our Avalon is on a newer vessels and rated in the high nineties about people liking it. Sad to see some of the newer Seabourn ships in the lower 70%. For the prices they charge it should be an embarrassment to the line. But if people keep showing up, why not?

 

I don't need the newest boat, fanciest food, etc. I just expect what I paid for. We did an owners suite on Royal Caribbean last spring and I had zero complaints, because I paid for Royal Carribean. I just think Seabourn is resting on their laurels as far as bookings go. After our first two experiences I recommended them plenty of times to friends and coworkers. Been awhile since I could do so in good conscience.

[marama]

Thanks for this, Keith and JPH737, I will put those on the shortlist. Lots of homework to do, I can see!