We chose this cruise for the itinerary which included a stop in the outer Hebrides and the Orkney Islands.
The ship is very nice though the design is odd. A good half a dozen times we encountered other passengers who joked about being lost / felt confused by the layout. The pool area creates a separation between cabins, and not in a good way.
The enrichment activities on this cruises weren't ...
I choose this ship for two reasons. One I liked the itinerary and two I wanted to try a luxury cruise line. The itinerary was good in that it started in Stockholm allowing me to spend two days before departure exploring the city without rushing and it ended in Copenhagen where I did the same thing. It also included two overnights ( 3 full days) in St. Petersburg where there is so much to see. I ...
Great itinerary. Lots of stops in Ireland. One really gets a feel for the country and island. Northern Ireland was also very interesting. Most of the excursions were satisfactory but tame. We did some trips on our own (such as to Bushmills Irish Whiskey Distillery and Antrim Coast), Limerick, and other places where we wanted to spend more time. But many of the ship excursions were half day and we ...
This was a fabulous cruise in so many ways , but our cabin allocation was very disappointing.
We generally cruise with Silversea and assumed that all the verandah cabins on The Encore would as on Silversea, be of the same standard, simply differentiated by their position on the ship- we have always found this to be the case with Silversea.
Unfortunately we were allocated cabiin 851.
This ...
The Seabourn Encore looks beautiful outside and inside. We boarded in Barcelona for 20 days cruising the western and central Mediterranean before returning to Barcelona. It was a great trip. But there were shortcomings. For wha we paid, we expected a little more. The ship, which resembles a yacht, is easy to get around in. The main dining rooms are attractive. The suites, while not huge, are very ...
Nice small ship, great itinerary. Scotland, Iceland, Greenland. There are three "castes" on the ship: The Antarctica experienced (orange parka), the Alaska experienced (blue parka) - and the rest :-). Most in their 70+.
Excellent stateroom, very spacy (28m2). Good housekeeping.
Dining good - but not so good as expected. Food often was not made to order, so often food was overcooked. Service ...
We selected the Ovation for our 5th cruise with Seabourn as it was a new ship with an interesting itinerary that included several less travelled ports where one did not face hoards of tourists. Our previous cruise was on Silversea as the Seabourn itinerary was sold out. Silversea fared quite favourably in terms of service and food but the Silver Shadow was badly in need of refurbishment.
The ...
On June 9th, my husband and I embarked on Seabourn's new ship, the Ovation. We joined the ship in Amsterdam and our voyage ended June 30th in Stockholm. It was a fun 21 day journey, enhanced by a beautiful new ship and a hardworking crew.
As others have mentioned, service was not perfect on this cruise, but, most of the time it was excellent. I choose not to dwell on a couple or three ...
Chose this 15 day trip with Seabourn because of our interest in travel around Iceland and Norway. Our previous experience has been with Oceania and Regent.
Overall, the cruise was excellent, particularly the competence and attitude of the staff and the attention to detail. Ironically, the worst service we received was in the Thomas Keller specialty restaurant. Variety and quality of ...
This was our second Seabourn cruise, the first on the Quest. We had a blast on our Sojourn cruise and happily checked off another bucket list with this cruise around the UK and Ireland.
I'm surprised to have read some recent reviews about the food. We eat out all the time at home at some very nice restaurants, and have high expectations for our food. We have learned to temper those expectations ...