After four Seabourn journeys, I can say the experience is so enjoyable that I have no interest in trying other cruise ships. Comfort, food, service etc all first class. Furthermore I make three points:
(A) whoever thought up and/or designed the Town Square concept should be given a double bonus;
(B) the system operated by the banks where one’s account is automatically closed down ...
We were concerned about the larger Seabourn ships since we had only sailed on the smaller ones previous to this.We liked this better....never seemed crowded except for the pool deck during sail away from Sydney Harbor.The bigger ship gave more options which we enjoyed.We were 2 couples neither of which had visited Australia and New Zealand so we thought this would be a good introduction.It ...
We chose the Seabourn Encore for 2 reasons: we wanted to see New Zealand and after trying other 6 star lines we wanted to try another. The itinerary was great. We had to miss Phillip Island because of the weather. That was ok with us; we really appreciate the captain taking safety so seriously. The rest of the stops were good. Embarkation in Sydney was fairly easy. The ship is clean and ...
After an incredibly wonderful experience on the Seabourn Quest last year in Antarctica, we were cautiously optimistic that a cruise on a different Seabourn ship would live up to our expectations. Here are our thoughts – and a few comparisons – organized by category:
Itinerary
The Sydney to Auckland itinerary is readily available on a number of cruise lines. What intrigued us about this ...
After tying other cruise lines, we happily choose Seabourn, with this being our third cruise with them in 2.5 years. The Encore is just a year old, but still looked new and stunning. It offered us beauty and comfortable elegance. Even on sea days, we rarely ran into other passengers, it was that spacious of a ship with one of the best space-to-passenger ratio in cruising that helped feel like it ...
we chose this cruise because we did not want to drive australia and new zealand but still wanted to see both countries first hand. the ship is not even one year old and is deluxe. we arrived in sydney 3 days early and did our own exploration. the food was very good and the service was usually but NOT ALWAYS, responsive. breakfast was a challenge to get FAST service and especially hot coffee (a ...
all dining venues close at 8:45. If you want something to eat later--only room service. Food quality not nearly as good as Crystal & Regent (& even main stream lines like Princess) NO vegetables. No one ever knew if beef was farm raised or if the fish was wild caught or farmed. The Grill was the best of all the dining. There were vegetable sides on the menu & the food was much better.
The ...
We chose this cruise as we had always wanted to see Australia and New Zealand and this seemed the ideal opportunity to do so on board the new Seabourn flagship, Encore.
The embarkation process was very efficient and first impressions of her were very positive. The public areas, the dining rooms and bars and the facilities on board looked great.
However, and this is a big one, there is NO ...
Our fourth Seabourn; this one to Australia-New Zealand. (Previously: Norway; then Mediterranean/Adriatic, then Antarctic (Wow), then this one, somewhat less overwhelming than the last.
New ship, the Encore, c. 600 passengers. Substantially larger than the previous class of ships (Odyssey/Sojourn/Quest) which in turn were bigger than the previous ones: Spirit et al.) Yes, there are more ...
Having sailed on Seabourn 3 prior times , on the Seabourn Legend(200 passengers) and twice on Quest and Oydessey( 400 passengers) , we were hoping for the same level of service on the Encore (586 passengers on our cruise). Unfortunately, the service level was below expectations as compared to previous cruises. Not sure if understaffed, but definitely inexperienced staff abound. There were about 6 ...