What was your favorite Seabourn cruise?

[Navis]

Hello! So we are relatively new to cruising, having only cruised 6 times and all on those on NCL vessels.  We have decided to make the change to Seabourn and are very much looking forward to our 14-day Caribbean cruise next spring on the Odyssey.  In the interim, we've started looking at other cruises in later 2020 and, honestly I think I find almost all of the itineraries interesting!  It's been hard to narrow it down. Thought I would just reach out and ask all of you Seabourn veterans and leverage your vast experience. 

 

If you had only one Seabourn cruise you could take again, what one would you select?  Why that one?  Many thank in advance for your input.

[Thecat123]

Antarctica on Seabourns Quest  would be the best we have ever done and we have been around

It one of those places which photos dont do it justice. Just to go ashore and meet Happy Feet and his friends was tops

Antarctica is one of those places one has to go and see for yourself to understand what Antarctica is about

[SKP946]

I’ll second that, Antarctica on Seabourn is just so far ahead of any other cruise we’ve been on.👍😀

Edited May 8, 2019 by SKP946

[kej1]

I will third that and include many more years of land travel.  The Seabourn Antarctica Cruise was one of our best trips ever.

[Thecat123]

Just out of my curiosity I wonder if someone picks another country/cruise if they could mention if they have sailed Antarctica or not in their reply?

People who have cruised Antarctica could understand what I mean as to being a top cruise designation

 

[Isklaar]

Hong Kong to Singapore (Sojourn 2014). I did take that cruise again in 2018. Closely followed by Montreal to Fort Lauderdale (Quest 2016), super cruise despite challenging weather and sea conditions and a couple of changed/missed ports. 

 

I haven't yet been to Antarctica.

[MJN1]

"favourite" can mean many things...

 

From an itinerary pov we loved Anchorage to Tokyo, Dubai to Monte Carlo and an all around the Black Sea cruise. Also Istanbul to Venice. Interesting ports, scenery, routing, cultural exposures.

 

From a wonderful,  relaxing vacation pov 14days Greek islands from Athens to Athens. Lovely ports to stroll around. No need for excursions. 100% stress free.

 

Have not done Antartica, but you asked for variety.

[Haworth]

Islands of the Mediterranean on Seabourn Legend, great ports, fantastic crew and an excellent group of passengers

[SLSD]

We've only done two Seabourn voyages (and not Antarctica) and loved both of them.  One was Mediterranean, a round trip beginning and ending in Rome.  We loved Corsica, the Amalfi Coast, Malta and various other ports on that cruise. Great weather, lots of time out on the deck enjoying everything. 

 

  Our other SB cruise was last summer from Amsterdam to Stockholm, including St. Petersburg, Copenhagen, Helsinki. Hamburg, Tallinn Estonia , another Finnish port, a Lithuania port, a Polish port as well as a few others.  It was a great cruise.  These two cruises were on the Encore and Ovation respectively.  

 

Edited May 8, 2019 by SLSD

[Fletcher]

My all-time favourite cruise was aboard the old 100-passenger Clipper Odyssey, sailing from Tahiti to Easter Island.  My favourite Seabourn trip so far was on the Quest - guess where!

 

[T^2]

Hey MJN1 - a bit of a diversion off topic.  when did you do the 14 day r/t Athens trip?  We are scheduled for July and wonder how much things could have changed since your trip in terms of needs of excursions.  I am thinking there might be one or two ports where I might want to do an excursion (on our own) and then the balance roaming around on our own.

[Philandher]

Our favourite Seabourn cruise is always our last one!

[jenidallas]

14 minutes ago, Philandher said:

Our favourite Seabourn cruise is always our last one!

 

I concur with this.  Too many great itineraries to pick just one.  Like someone said above, I've had favorites for a lot of different reasons.  I don't know that I've had an itinerary that I wouldn't do again either.

[MJN1]

17 hours ago, T^2 said:

 when did you do the 14 day r/t Athens trip? 

Mid September 2018. Weather was perfect. Ports still a bit crowded so. Guess July crowds will be more and Temperatures a bit higher. Assume excursions will be similar if not identical as they are handled by local suppliers. We looked up the excursions Silversea did several years ago when we visited some of the same ports and the ones on SB last year were identical.

[ab21au]

12 hours ago, jenidallas said:

 I don't know that I've had an itinerary that I wouldn't do again either.

 

For us, this is so true. 

[kent9xxx1]

On 5/7/2019 at 10:20 PM, SKP946 said:

I’ll second that, Antarctica on Seabourn is just so far ahead of any other cruise we’ve been on.👍😀



 

I'm trying to convince my SO of an Antarctica cruise.  Are you saying you have been on a few cruises to Antarctica and none of them come close?  

[Flamin_June]

Sojourn, SW Pacific, Nov-Dec 2018.

Tendering ashore by zodiac, Ureparapara (pop.c.400)

[Navis]

Thank you all for sharing your experience! It’s funny, all of our short list cruises were mentioned above! I guess birds of a feather! 

 

It it looks like we’re leaning to Antarctica or Alaska, but it looks like we can’t go wrong with any choice. 

[Catlover54]

My favorite SB cruise was the first one, 2015, Athens to Istanbul and then immediately a second, BTB, Istanbul to Istanbul, doing black sea ports,

both  5/5.  It is the food and service, but especially the service, that made those cruises so good, rather than my love of the ports per se, though they were also interesting. Since then I have absolutely enjoyed the cruises but rated them 4/5 ( closer to 4.4)  due to some service concerns, given the high price, which are now unfortunately present on all English language luxury lines due to rapid expansion and difficulty finding good staff.

 

If you are just starting with luxury cruising, consider starting with tried and proven Alaska, (one of the longer ones, 10-14 days or so, so there are less kids and family groups like there are on seven day cruises). 

[Lefty Bob]

We loved the trans Atlantic.  Best is east to west.

[jozi]

We loved out six month SB cruise Kobe to LA.

 

Kidding.

 

We did (Sojourn) Kobe- Seattle May 2017  and on the last day one of our trivia teammates mentioned a round trip LA/LA 30 day South Pacific cruise in the fall that sounded lovely. We talked about the trip all summer, had all sorts of practical reasons not to. So we ended up booking in September. It was fabulous.

 

And it really did feel like a continuation of the spring trip,  with some of the same guests (two couples from our trivia team plus another that we poached from the winning team the spring cruise), entertainers, CD Sophie, Brenda who served our noon trivia drinks. Totally different weather and vibe; we were glad we decided to go. 

Edited May 12, 2019 by jozi

[Thecat123]

23 hours ago, Navis said:

Thank you all for sharing your experience! It’s funny, all of our short list cruises were mentioned above! I guess birds of a feather! 

 

It it looks like we’re leaning to Antarctica or Alaska, but it looks like we can’t go wrong with any choice. 

 

Navis having done both Alaska and Antarctica I would do Alaska first as Alaska would be then more impressive. 

I don't know if you have looked at Seabourns Video Gallery which gives you a good idea of different places which might help you make up your mind? https://www.seabourn.com/en_US/video-gallery.html

One of the advantages of sailing with Seabourn as compared to some other lines is that Seabourn have Zodiacs to get you real close

Another cruise we enjoyed was Singapore, China, Philippines then back to Singapore 30 days I think

Also sailing around New Zealand was good as long as the weather is good and I live there  😀

[whystayhome]

My favorite Seabourn cruise is the next one!  Seriously though, Antarctica. Would love to do it again. Would recommend starting in Chile because once you have seen Antarctica, the fjords/glaciers don’t seem that impressive.

 

Linda