Avide Seabourn fans, we seldom have anything but praise for the line, and although we preferred the original and smaller yachts, we continue to find ourselves on one of their ships a 30 or 40 days each year. Now … the best ocean vessel experiences require solid and reliable shoreside support and administration, and Seabourn's website and head office staff in Seattle are giving us a re-think on giving the line another dime or any more of our time. No less than a dozen accounting errors in pre-cruise purchases had us dealing with the shipboard back office staff every day. It was endless. Had it not been for our printed records and an American Express statement, we would have had a losing battle. Vacations are for relaxing, not for auditing the vendors accounting errors. Dear President Richard, please get your Seattle offices pencil sharpened and your website technology up to date. Cons: Smoking continues to be allowed indoors in public spaces. The retreat is an entirely useless waist of (for fee) space. Pros: Dining in all venues is 6 star, although it is much harder than it should be to get specialty reservations (much easier on Regent) so best to board with very limited expectations. Cabins are a tiny bit narrower than on the Sojourn class vessels, but the layout is nearly identical. The new dining table in the living area is a big improvement. Entertainment is sedate, but refined. Read Less

We have had many years of delightful sailing with Seabourn (Diamond Elite member). We have sailed exclusively with Seabourn for a decade. This time, our trip was from Dover (London) to Venice - about a month - on Ovation. The ships are lovely, as are the cabins. The cabin stewardess was excellent. The cruise director was excellent - but the apparent problems are far from his control. Sadly, the service throughout the remainder of the ship fell far short. The service on Seabourn has continually degraded since its office merger with Holland America. In the Restaurant and in the Colonnade, service was extremely slow. The norm to wait for coffee or a glass of juice was often 15 - 20 minutes. The staff were excellent - there were simply too few of them. The clear way to improvement in this area is to hire more staff and to train them well in the Seabourn manner. The spa is beautiful but it, too, seems understaffed. The major problem there is with scheduling. Armed with a page outlining my requests for dates and services, I was told they were unable to fulfill these requests. For guests who are aboard for two or more As for the decline in entertainment, that area, too, needs a huge overhaul. How long can two ships live on one show? The Tim Rice show is well done - but for two years now, it's the only show onboard that's been worth seeing. Seabourn no longer offers the exclusive service and the personal touches that originally made it shine, and which were the basis for Seabourn ships and cruises consistently ranking #1 in the industry. It's a sad realization, but Seabourn is no longer great; it's not even good. It has removed services, diluted service in public areas, reduced the numbers of staff (pre-dinner in the Observation Bar, it was next to impossible to get a waiter), and in general, the attitudes of the service staff have been reduced to that of the mid-range ships. For example, one morning, we were leaving the ship for an excursion and waiting for approval to debark. Three staff members were on duty in that area, and one was vocal about how badly the company treated its employees. This kind of attitude was also displayed by some staff members in the Colonnade. Two extremely large spaces on this ship and its sister ship, Encore, sit empty most of the time. The retreat (why in the world would someone PAY to sit in an area that's already available FREE?) and the beautiful deck area outside the Grill, under the Colonnade deck. We were told that Thomas Keller doesn't want his food served cold. If that is the reason, it is ridiculous. In the Mediterranean, the weather is balmy and the temperature outside is warmer than inside. The number of steps from kitchen to table is the same. Whatever the reason for this space sitting empty, it has involved very poor planning. Yes, guests could walk down all of the steps to get there from the Colonnade - but very few actually do it. The space sits empty. Whether the overall problem is lack of planning, lack of training training, hiring of so many new staff due to the two new larger ships, or to something else - is all irrelevant. Seabourn has lost its shine. No wonder its 2018 rank sank to #4 - another new low. The ports were fine, but the shore excursions, too, reveal that Seabourn is looking for a bargain - not for quality. Excellent tour guides still live in all of the ports; we didn't encounter any except on tours that we privately ordered. The ship's tours were fair - but did not begin to equal what Seabourn has offered since its inception. Too much emphasis on economy and Thomas Keller, and not enough emphasis on the guests. We will not likely return. Many other regular Seabourn guests shared their disappointment. Read Less

Since 1999 my wife and I have sailed 300+ days with Seabourn. It goes without saying that over the years we have been very satisfied. Not so with our last two week cruise on the Encore in the Med. It has been a while since we last sailed on a Seabourn cruise and it will be a while - if ever - before we try again. The interior of the Encore including the suites is fabulous, but we cruise where the weather is good and the outside spaces are crammed and chaotic. The pool deck (serving simultaneously as a bar, as a restaurant and as a sun deck is at least 30% smaller than on the Odyssey class - for 150 more passengers. You will have lunch (if you can find a table) less than 10 inches from a sunbed maybe inhabited by a very large person in a very small bathing suit. Even if the food was good you could easily loose your appetite: You reach for the ketchup and you wind up with a bikini top in your hand.... But this goes to the core of our grievances: The food is actually horrible at all of their restaurants. We did not have one good meal out of the 40 odd meals we had during the two weeks. We could not fault the main Chef (from Bologna). He did what he could with an insufficiant budget and inferior ingredients: Dry, tough and tasteless meats. Tired fish. Too few mushrooms to make the mushroom soup taste of mushroom - not dish water. Ill smelling and ill tasting pork belly with a scallop on top with the texture of jelly. Mushy berrys at the breakfast buffet way past their last selling date. Now they have the new specialty restaurant to which Thomas Keller has sold his name. Shame on him. We dined there four times with exacly the same result: The cook has a better budget hence better ingredients. But the guy on this particular cruise did not have any idea whatsoever how to prepare them: The cured salmon was so salty that your palate burned. It was uneatable so it did not matter, that he had forgotten to remove the plastic wrap from the dish. A “grilled” Rib-eye for two was burnt to a crisp on the outside. The proud cook pronounced that it weighed 900 grammes. He cut it up in 14-16 slices at the table and slammed half of the slices down on my wife’s plate and the other half on mine. The plates looked like what you would feed a very big dog. We tried all the sides during our four visits. All of them were seriously over-cooked. Mushy and tasteless. For the first time ever we had a sinewy Lobster Thermidor. It is beyond me how he accomplished that. Once before on all of our Seabourn cruises we have had food as bad as on this one. On that particular one the Chef had a nervous breakdown and was totally unable to function. They had to fly in a trainer/replacement. My guess is that Seabourn has now finally been 100% “incorporated” in Carnival’s HQ in Seattle and has been forced to “piggy back” on deals with the vendors supplying their 4 star cruise lines even though they still charge six star prices. Finally a word about the ratio between newbees and experienced staff. It is way too high. My guess is 80:20. In fact Seabourn rely on the guests to train the majority of the staff who are on their first contract. As a guest you need to in order to get what you want..... Read Less

Thought it would be the best cruise for us-upscale and all inclusive However, we told our travel agent that we needed a sound proof separation between the sleeping and sitting areas. He spoke to Seaborne and their person said the curtain was sound proof. He said that all he has ever been told is that these curtains are purposely made thick to keep the light and sound from coming in from the seating area . The curtain was NOT sound proof. I did not sleep for 2 weeks because of my husband's snoring. The head person did NOTHING to help us. He said he was not able to build a wall. That was not funny to us. We wrote to Seaborne and they responded that they would not do anything about what happened. They even played a taped conversation with our travel agent and heard us telling him what we needed to make this trip doable.-a noise separation curtain. Also, for such a high price, it was incredible that Wi-fi and excursions was not included! This is a nickel and diming operation, not for people who have paid top dollar The food was very disappointing-lackluster and no creativity. Bascially the same menu and so many items repurposed. How many times can you have shrimp and salmon!!! Also found The Grill wanting. Expected top notch dining and did not get it. We must say the service crew was wonderful The bartenders, housekeepers and other service personnel did their utmost . That being said the administrative crew from the captain on down, were totally oblivious of their passenger needs, complaints and desires. We skipped ports and anchored out too frequently , abusing out time and investment. Read Less

We were so looking forward to sailing on the new ship as wehave done countless seabourn cruises, it's a beautiful ship but they are obviously cutting back, they did not have the staff to attend to customer needs and so the service was apppaling in all areas, there were 6 of us onboard and all seabourn previous customers and not only we felt this but others did as well The pool area was like club med and you could never get a seat as people would put there towels down at 7 am and they were never removed, also people would walk in the ommo areas and the pool with their drinks, why when you can get a drink anywhere on this ship Bar areas you would wait 20 min for a drink and cabins not serviced well Seabourn lift you game as this was a major dissapointment and we will not sail on this ship again Read Less

We WERE Seabourn loyalists but this cruise was just bad. No personal service, completely disorganized, a cruise director we almost never saw and when we did failed to say hello in the halls, food promised that never appeared. Each shore excursion was chaos - you had to go down the row of buses looking for your tour as there was no one to direct you. Disembarkation was chaos - a long line of passengers waiting to leave (after it was announced we could leave) while new staff were scanned in for a very long time. Long lines to find a table at breakfast. Long waits for drinks at the bar. The dress code (no jeans after 6) was completely ignored - even the staff commented on it. We booked another cruise on the ship but cancelled the day we got home. We are now looking at other cruise lines and will be very reluctant to book again. Read Less

Booking: Tried to book my suite and airfare online. Glitches in their system booked 3 suites and then cancelled my air from Austin, Texas. After several phone calls and approximately 4 hours with discourteous personnel, it was worked out. Flight to Port: Concern over short layover in Chicago. Another discourteous Seabourn clerk said, "We don't book flights you can't make. But you can purchase your own flight if you're concerned." We barely made the connection, by running, but we got to Copenhagen with NO luggage. Dining: Main Dining room was more than expected~ more time, 3 hours…for a 3 course meal. Food presentation was great, but taste was only adequate…disappointing. Shore Excursions: Not a diverse choice. Took a bicycle tour in Estonia, that should have been labeled strenuous. One cyclist was hit by a drop arm, knocked off his bike and bloodied… Entertainment: so, so… Cabin: Wonderful, spacious bathrooms, walk-in closet, great Stewardess! Disembarkation, Driver, Hotel: Driver picked us up in Dover on time. However, he rarely went to London and was lost for 45 minutes. When he did find the Grosvenor, he dropped us off on the wrong side. Booking fouled up, again. Had to fuss to get another room, and then for $700 it faced a tarred roof and engine room. The Seabourn agent on site had not a clue what her duties were! Reparations: Seabourn gave me a whopping $2000 toward my next cruise….I had spent $20,000. on this one. NEVER AGAIN!!   Read Less