New cruiser questions

Despite a less than great introduction to cruising, I am considering trying it again with Seabourn. I am presented with a favorable cruise package for a St. Thomas 7 day return to St. Thomas cruise. Would the ever helpful CC forum readers be so kind as to answer what may be silly questions, but those after reading as many posts on the Legend as I can, I am still not clear on? Many thanks!

Are there any "bad" cabins on the Legend?

What are the times for breakfast? When does it "shut down"?

How much motion would you feel on this ship, assuming you had a cabin on a lower deck or just in general?

How are the port stops organized? Do you generally disembark via a gangway or do you usually have to use a boat to get to the port? (These ports are St. Martin, St. Barts, Guadeloupe, Prickly Pear and St. Kitts). Is it time consuming? Any hints on avoiding crowds?

Which ports would you have an excursion pre-arranged?

Does one have to reserve for any restaurants? If so is it a ASAP situation? What are the dinner hours?

Our family really needs some R&R, so we are looking for a relaxing vacation, but I am just not sure cruising is the answer. We tend to be late risers on vacation and just like quiet beach and pool times. The "marina" back of the boat thing that Seabourn does sounds great, and on one or two of the days we would do excursions, port dependent, but generally we would prefer easy beach days. Does this sound compatible with Seabourn and this cruise?

The other thing is I really despise crowds. I am intrigued by the Legend since it is a small ship, but it's a small ship! Any comments on this would also be much appreciated.

Thanks!

of opinions and answers.

We LOVE SB (ex.for smoking policy),but not the ships without regular balcony,,like Legend.

Also the SB website answers many of the details concerning cruise and ship.Get brochure too;)

Thanks, I have read the basic brochures, I was just wondering if someone could answer those specific questions.

Thanks for any help!

If you are interested in specifics about the Legend and Seabourn, suggest you go on the Seabourn board. Be sure to find out when the ship was last refurbished as this ship has been sold and you may want to make sure it is in top condition. Here is a link to their board http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=130

Wills47, we are not new to luxury cruising but are new to Seabourn, and we are going on 3/30 on one of the St. Thomas circles. We have been to all ports on the itinerary either on Silversea, Regent or both.

I hope you will be coming in at least a day early to St. Thomas at an hour to enjoy a hotel or see something there.

Seabourn will have the Prickley Pear event. We have done similar bbq on Silversea. I HIGHLY recommend doing The Baths before that, as they are breathtaking. Bring a couple of those point and shoot cameras in case you got one wet in a cave. The beauty here is seldom matched.

In St. Kitts, there is lots to do on your own or with the ship. In the past, we arranged to go to Marriott with the Silversea concierge, and my husband golfed while I went to the casino and the beach. This time, we will probably do the scenic rail tour since his parents are along.

In Antigua, we have been there before and stayed on both ends of the island a number of times, so we are doing our own thing. The ships organized tour hits some of the touristy spots (on their schedule).

My in-laws are doing organized tours in St. Martin and in St. Barts. One time in St. Barths, we did ATVs with Silversea, and we loved it. That is a similar itinerary to SB's organized tour but a more fun way to see it. The other time in St. Barth's, we just went shopping and spent up some leftover Euros we had.

We've been to both islands in Guadaloupe and find that very few speak English more than a very tiny bit. You still need to do your own thing here. We like a beach crawl there and did this on scooters. We hit every beach on the island and took our pic at all of them. Instead, you could get someone to take you to a beach. Some are clothing optional, some are fairly deserted.

I can't remember if I covered them all.

If you actually booked already on a St. Thomas circle, you can find the times of the orgainzed tours are often in the morning, so you would need to get up those days. That is one reason this trip my husband doesn't want to do many organized tours because he loves to laze in the room for a good bit and maybe resnooze if the light or my noise wakes him (I'm awake at daylight).

If you are already booked, you can see online in the online docs which ports are tendered (a number are). Like I said, we have not been on Seabourn. The closest we have been on is Silver Wind when 288 were onboard the 296 occupancy ship. We have found all the luxury ships tender well and easily, with a few exceptions if there are waters that are too rough or unsafe where they have to move around due to wind or something. This is uncommon.

You didn't say who your first cruising experience was with, but luxury cruising is great because you don't deal with crowds and have very little stress at all.

On days when you have no excursion planned, you can sleep in and leave the ship at your leisure.....

If you miss breakfast in the dining room, there's always room service!

I think cruising is one of the more relaxing vacations....a new place every day with no effort on your part at all!

I would get and read a guidebook on those ports, so you'll have an idea about which beach you'd like to go to, and other things that might interest you. A bit of research goes a long way!

Despite a less than great introduction to cruising, I am considering trying it again with Seabourn. I am presented with a favorable cruise package for a St. Thomas 7 day return to St. Thomas cruise. Would the ever helpful CC forum readers be so kind as to answer what may be silly questions, but those after reading as many posts on the Legend as I can, I am still not clear on? Many thanks!

 

Are there any "bad" cabins on the Legend?

 

What are the times for breakfast? When does it "shut down"?

 

How much motion would you feel on this ship, assuming you had a cabin on a lower deck or just in general?

 

How are the port stops organized? Do you generally disembark via a gangway or do you usually have to use a boat to get to the port? (These ports are St. Martin, St. Barts, Guadeloupe, Prickly Pear and St. Kitts). Is it time consuming? Any hints on avoiding crowds?

 

Which ports would you have an excursion pre-arranged?

 

Does one have to reserve for any restaurants? If so is it a ASAP situation? What are the dinner hours?

 

Our family really needs some R&R, so we are looking for a relaxing vacation, but I am just not sure cruising is the answer. We tend to be late risers on vacation and just like quiet beach and pool times. The "marina" back of the boat thing that Seabourn does sounds great, and on one or two of the days we would do excursions, port dependent, but generally we would prefer easy beach days. Does this sound compatible with Seabourn and this cruise?

 

The other thing is I really despise crowds. I am intrigued by the Legend since it is a small ship, but it's a small ship! Any comments on this would also be much appreciated.

 

Thanks!

I was surprised to see this thread resurrected! I did post on the Seabourn board and I was kindly given a lot of good information. I thought it might be useful for someone else doing a search to answer my own questions!

The cabin: we had an oceanview cabin on what I believe was the lowest floor (closest to the ocean) on the Seabourn Legend. All cabins are suites and we loved ours! Sitting in the window watching the ocean was mesmerizing at night and we loved looking out in the morning. We had a very large balcony cabin on our first cruise and I can honestly say I didn't miss it at all. You're too busy enjoying the completely uncrowded deck to miss a balcony, which for the Legend are Juliet style, so my humble opinion would be to skip it unless it really does affect your enjoyment of the cruise.

Breakfast; served on the Veranda it is fully open until 10am and the service is wonderful. You can enjoy the morning air and a lovely breakfast. No breaking down early or crowds like Celebrity, just easy and relaxing! That said, we also enjoyed room service quite a few days for getting a jump on the day and expediting things. The waiters were always on time and adorable. We were absolutely spoiled by them, so I can't tell you which is better!

Motion; no more motion than on the Summit, and actually I think that perhaps less, we were at the very tail end of the Summit, which probably lent itself to more motion. My daughter experienced much less seasickness on the Legend, however it was also more port heavy than a Bermuda cruise. (No sea days).

Tenders; I can see why Seabourn regulars kindly chuckled at me on the Seabourn board. What a non issue. The longest we waited for a tender was twenty minutes because one had just left. You simply relax in the club and watch BBC. Easy.

Excursions: I only booked one, which was ziplining and I thought it was perfect and very well organized. Very relaxing as well. I will book more of their excursions as appropriate in future cruises. I recognize that they will cost a bit more, but for sheer convenience I would find that worth it.

The marina was used once during the week, and then all of the sea toys were brought out at Prickly Pear for the Barbeque day. We loved both, and were very impressed by the availability.

On the Legend there are two restaurants, the main dining room and Restaurant 2. We did not have any problem getting a reservation, and actually since we liked the main dining menus better two nights we changed the reservation twice without any problem.

Crowds are not an issue on the Seabourn small ships. At all. I was absolutely enchanted by Seabourn, and now my only regret is that I found them too late. They are selling the small ships and I hope I can squeeze in another cruise before they are sold off. I think perhaps I will have to look at Windstar for another small ship experience after the little sisters are sold, and I am sad about that.

Hope this helps someone! I am now a new cruise convert, but I confess that I will probably confine myself to Luxury cruises only, or stay home!

One of my favorite features is a great 24 hour room service menu. In addition, there is in-suite dining with the lunch and dinner menus from the MDR. Room service can be delivered course by course, but don't do that; just have it delivered all at once. Plus there is unlimited champagne and caviar as well. You can mix and match to your hearts desire.

Wills47,

Your post reinforces exactly why I love Seabourn so much, especially the triplets.