Seabourn Encore Review
Rating by category
Additional details
It is with great sadness that I am writing this review as I have never had to write a negative review before, however we have written to Seabourn since returning home and as they refuse to accept responsibility for issues then I feel it is my responsibility to inform potential customers of potential problems.. We chose the cruise as part of a long holiday to New Zealand. We had travelled on Seabourn Encore the previous year to Australia and were mainly satisfied so we didn’t hesitate to book again. There was not much availability so our cruise consultant chose a cabin for us.
Our cabin was appalling, ( see review below). We tried to change cabin, we were more than willing to pay to upgrade but the head of Guest Services said she would come back to us and never did.( we had already tried to get info about the cabin before leaving the UK)
It was very galling to see the Seabourn Venture staff and even guest entertainers had cabins in better areas than we were allowed to purchase.
Cabin Review
Veranda Suite
Cabin 707- I cannot call it a suite as it is not large enough or comfortable enough!!
The bathroom is appalling. If you stand at the right hand sink the back of your knees are wedged against the toilet. Not very hygienic. If you put something in the waste bin your face is almost in the toilet- even more unhygienic!! The shower is so small that if you try to bend to wash your legs or feet you bang your head, your elbows or your knees. We had rough weather and I bashed my head on the grab rail. I had bruises all over my body from the shower!!! There is no bath but we knew that, but they do not tell you that everything else is smaller too!!
They also do not tell you that the suite has all the same noise as suite 700 and suite 701
( which it does tell you about). When the anchor is taken out for the tender process you experience at least 15 mins of awful noise early morning and upon leaving port.
What they do not tell you about and totally deny is the horrendous noise in these cabins if they are rough seas or if the captain turns the speed up at night. We had rough seas and the noise was horrendous!! It sounded as though an elephant was landing in our cabin every 10 seconds for the whole day and night. Even when we did not have rough seas the noise was awful as the waves hit the front of the ship. Sleep or any sort of rest was impossible.Just listening to the recordings of the noise brings back awful memories.
They also do not tell you that there is no vanity area to do do hair or make-up, you have to use the dining table. Not very hygienic again!!
There is so little space between the right hand side of the bed and the wall the only way to get out is to face the wall and move side wards.
Usually the difference between veranda cabin grades is the position on the ship. Not with Seabourn. Cabin 707 was 60 sq ft smaller. Even our cruise consultant did not know there was such a big difference.
We begged Seabourn for information about the cabin before we got on the cruise and apart from telling us the size of the shower they had no other information.
We now know why they refused to give us the information.
Port Reviews
Dunedin
Used the shuttle and had a long walk round. Nice city
Wellington
Amazing museum especially the Gallipoli exhibition
Gisborne
Nice small town to walk around
Tauranga
Fantastic tour around. Tauranga is a stunning place.