We are long time Seabourn cruisers recently off a 16 day cruise on Quest. Last year on an 18 day trip on Ovation we noticed many changes, not for the good. This trip, it’s clear the product has sunk far below what it once was. 1. Dinner Service in the Restaurant/Colonnade. Three dinners where we casually appeared between 7:30 and 8:30. Result: At least a half hour between courses. Water and wine filled once and never again. This situation was a topic of discussion around the ship and some had figured out that if you go right when they open, you will have decent service. So for all the next dinners we raced to get in line before 7 so that we could have a decent dinner. Many times the line at 6:50 snaked to the back of the ship. 2. Service in the Observation Bar. This was a cold trip so the Sky Bar and Patio Bar were useless. The Observation Bar was the only bar open before 6:30 P.M. and since we had to be in line before 7 P.M. to get a decent dinner, you had to be in the Observation Bar for a pre-dinner drink. It was packed. People would get there at 5:30 and put clothing on seats. At 6:15 there would be massive groups circling for a seat. And getting a refill or second drink - forget it. We, and many others, asked for the Club to open early. It never did. So now if you wanted to be at the Observation Bar you had to rush to get up there by 5:30/5:45 or you weren’t getting in. Now we are rushing to get a drink and rushing to get dinner 3. Service in Housekeeping. Hand towels missing, called Guest Services, called Housekeeping, three days later hand towels. Same with bath towels and a bath mat on different occasions. One night came back from a show, took a shower and did not notice until exiting the shower – no bath towels. Loved drying my long hair with a hand towel. They have taken away bottled water in the room and now have a jug. But that only works when you have glasses which we had only twice. 4. I could go on including waiting for tables at breakfast because there were no clean ones. The major topic everywhere in the ship was complaints and horror stories about dinners and shore excursions and such. That old thing about “have dinner when you want with whom you want” is a joke. Our whole schedule was about getting to the Bar and one of the Restaurants when they opened so we could get a seat. Ugly. They have removed the good champagne and replaced it with a very poor version. The Patio Grill buffet at lunch is half what it was. The great cranberry nut cookies they used to have on all ships are no more because “cranberries are too expensive”. This is not a luxury experience anymore. 5. We spoke to many staff about what had happened and the answer was they have gone from the former ratio of 2 guests to one staff to three guests to one staff (150 crew on Quest versus the former 225). It shows. I can’t imagine what would get us, long time Seabourn cruisers, back on board. Sorry to see Seabourn become what they have become. Read Less

We choose this cruise because we only planned ahead by 2 months and this cruise worked for our schedule. Awful from the start. Unorganized staff made it a nuisance to make anything happen. Food has been absolutely terrible. We’ve never been on a cruise that had such bad food consistently throughout the trip. For the same price as crystal cruises, seabourn offers much less quality of services and amenities. On the first day, the staff was not informed on the emergency drill. They had me and my sister running back and forth needlessly, because several people gave us different information that was all incorrect. Smoking is a pain on this boat. They let people smoke cigarettes many places, but the only place you can smoke a cigar is this tiny back deck area where they don’t offer any drinks or service. Even though they sell expensive cigars. It feels like a punishment. Finding the spot was huge pain because every staff member told us a different location, which again, had us running around the boat needlessly. My friend was looking for an espresso on our first day. Once again, misinformed staff sent us in circles. We finally find the correct spot, and they say they can’t help us because they closed the esspessso machine 2min ago. They said we could get some on the floor underneath. We go there, ask the staff, and they kindly tell us we can get espresso. Then a different staff member aggressively grabs my friends shirt and pulls him back. He tells him, “You can’t be in here. You need to leave now!” My friends tried to explain the situation and he responds “well send you a double espresso to your room” and they sent coffee. Just incredibly agressive and rude. The other staff says “I didn’t know the captain was in the room.” Like that would justify what happened. Rooms are dirty. Fingernail marks in the wall. Stained carpets. Broken toilets. Shower and bath drains don’t work. Scratchy towels. Broken AC. Lights only turn on in your room if you leave your key in the wall, which has been a huge unnecessary nuisance as well. Food has been terrible. The menus are very limited. This Thomas kheller chef forces half the menu to be standardized. So you can’t customize the food to your liking. I’ve never been on cruise with such bad food. That alone is a deal breaker. The service makes it worse. Even dining in “the main restaurant” they don’t refil your drinks unless you ask. They bring the wrong food or forget orders. They use this tablet system that apparently fails all the time, according to a waitress. Today I ordered room service. Waited over an hour. After talking to 3 people, they discovered it went to the wrong room. Excursions have been fun. But we’ve been doing private excursions separate from seabourn. The one excursion we did use through seabourn was wildly mislabeled. A group of 20 people thinking they’re spending a day at the beach with powerboats, instead spend the majority of the day riding in jeeps, WHICH WAS EXACLY WHAT WE DID THE DAY BEFORE. Incredible. Before the cruise, they let you fill out this online form of what drinks you’d prefer stocked in your room. They didn’t put what I requested and just left Myers in my suite. I’ve been on seabourn sojourn, and that experience was 100x better than this. I’ve been on crystal and reagent, and those were even better. If you believe in getting what you pay for, stay away from the seabourn encore. The lady who cleans our room is awesome and so have been some of the service guys. The bartender is really cool and clearly is working very hard. Read Less

First let me say this is my 1st review ever. We have been on over 140 cruises and have over 150 days on Seabourn but they have seen us for the last time. Unfortunately Seabourn has implemented so many cost cutting features including a new set of Auxilliary Generators that come on whenever they leave port or come into port to Dock. They run for a solid hour at 3:00 am - 6:00 am or Midnight depending on when they leave or dock. It is so loud you can't hear your partner in your cabin. We were on for 30 days and never got a decent nights sleep. When the Hotel Manger Pepe was asked about what to do or what the reason is he played dumb and said "We don't know" and could do nothing to solve the problem. This is intolerable. Furthermore, we have witnessed the pencil pushers cost cutting to the bare bone on Seabourn. The food is severely limited choices and bland and usually cold, with only 1 real restaurant that you can go to at night. It is a joke to say they have 5 dining venues - they count ROOM SERVICE as a dining venue. At the grill you can only have 1 booking per week, the Patio is 32 degrees on some cruises and impossible to eat outside in that. The tours are outrageously priced at $279 for 3 hours bus ride in city? The enrichment lectures are planned during dinner - is that convenient? Dinner starts at 7:00 pm and the shows are at 9:45 PM. Great if you want to stay up to midnight everynight. Better not cuz you will be waking at 3am with the generator. This is a terrible value for money spent - there is nothing 6 star- grand or gourmet or high end about Seabourn and you are kidding yourself if you hope otherwise. Read Less

We booked Owner's suite 701 having been told it was "subject to noise when anchoring". What we got nstead was and hour to an hour and a half of extremely loud banging, grinding, clanking and intense vibration. When we reported this issue we were told that it was the thrusters not the anchor as the ship was not anchored and that we were to expect the same for the remainder of the cruise. We were also told that "at least" on our one sea day we could relax since the ship would not docked. That day we were woken to hammering and noise due to maintenance close to our suite. Even after complaining this went on for over one hour. It is clear to us that Seabourn sold us this suite with full knowledge of the existing problem and used deception to do so. Buyer beware that if you are going to reserve suite 701 and pay this much money you will subjected to a very stressful experience upon arrival at port and also departure which will make your vacation a very stressful one. Aside from this the Encore is understaffed, service is simply average and entertainment leaves a lot to be desired. We have been very disappointed overall with our experience with Seabourn and will not be sailing with them again. Seabourn is obviously only interested in making money without concern for providing their guests with the superior experience and service they advertise. Read Less

I have never written a review before. We checked in to our Winter Garden suite which was very nice. Overall the ship was beautiful and general staff were great.The problems were with the hotel management. It was comical. We had to eat dinner by 9pm in European summertime while its still daylight outside. My wife made several attempts to make appointments with nail technicians and hairdressers to be told the only appointments available were in the evening around 8pm therefore we had to eat dinner in our room as she finished at 9pm.We could not get a booking into any of the restaurants when we wanted to. Because of this we ate room service for several nights a row. We went to the cruise guest services for assistance and to voice our dismay. So they made a booking in Thomas Keller restaurant for three nights later. When we arrived at the restaurant we were told we had no reservation. This was very upsetting whilst embarrassing and humiliating. It was the last straw for us. We disembarked the cruise at the next port three days before the end of the cruise. After speaking to the Service Manager on several occasions the first time we saw the Hotel Director was on the morning of our disembarkation. A bit late. Entertainment was designed for 65 to 85 year olds with no atmosphere for any other age group of which there were many. The ship is hopelessly understaffed. With such a beautiful ship and the money we spent we expected some priority with reservations or at least a coordinator to help. We have been on many cruises before and have never had a problem with the management style before. It feels as the ship is run for their convenience not the guests. I'm sorry to say Seaborne Encore was a very disappointing experience. Never again. Read Less