stan01

I think it will be OK, there's plenty of room and may get some people to enjoy the table service in Collonade in the evenings. The TK/Solis staff should be available too if TK is closed.

I would call if you can't make them online and see what they say. The login protected part of Seabourn's website has been flaky for a long time.

I am surprised at how many likes I have (seven and counting), not sure if that means people agree or they are acknowledging a strong opinion 🙂 For Explora and Ritz Carlton: I do wonder if the shorter 6-8 day itineraries are going to attract a lot of families with children along with a younger demographics of people whose jobs don't permit longer vacations. These ships are not set up with areas for families, and if a poorly supervised group of kids takes over the pool area(s) it really would detract from our experience. Nothing against kids, just that these ships are not set up to handle them in a separate area where other passengers won't be disturbed. Of course some parents are very watchful of their kids and would not allow them to disturb others. But if the kids are disturbing others the crew seems unable to do anything in our experience.

Yes, the itinerary for Quest has not been released yet. Ship is in Bali in Nov 2025 so with loss of Odyssey they are not doing South America in 2026. Ovation is in Caribbean, Encore is in SE Asia (twice per year Red Sea passages planned), Sojourn is on a Rim of Fire world cruise (no Red Sea passage).

I think one big difference is the variety of top tier suites. SS has more choices for larger suites than Seabourn especially on newer ships if that is important. For us the ship is a resort, so we enjoy sea days and sometimes even stay on the ship when it is in port. Inclusive shore excursions like on Regent and some SS fares are not a good value for us. We do not enjoy competing for dining reservations or planning where we will eat months in advance, so for that we prefer Seabourn. We often travel in balcony suites so for us a ship where passengers who pay more get preferred access to dining reservations is not to our benefit. We enjoy the Seabourn ships and are not concerned about the interior decor. We prefer not to go on 7 day cruises, even if back to back to extend. It's a different experience for us with big changes in the vibe on board and possibly more kids. Seabourn is doing more of their Caribbean cruises as 7 days based out of Barbados which we do not like; we'd rather board in Miami and go out for 14 days. We are happy that the tux and gown expectation is mostly just on Cunard now. We do not wish to travel with many large suitcases. I do understand that others miss this formality and feel disrespected if others do not dress up to their preference. I think the tough love answer is "get over it". We've been on both SS and Seabourn, and will go on both again. Likely will not go on Cunard Queens Grill again. We also enjoy Seadream even though the ships are now 40 years old it is a fabulous experience for us. We have not been on Regent yet; they just seem a lot more expensive for us. We are watching Explora but so far its not clear to us that it is a superior product to Seabourn or SS but they will have a large fleet of ships over the coming years. Maybe we'll try Ritz Carlton. I think Four Seasons will be out of our budget.

Current version of Seabourn website says women (not men) can wear elegant jeans on elegant casual night. Men wear slacks on elegant casual night. https://www.seabourn.com/en/us/packing-list Not sure if that's another Seabourn website/IT error or intentional. Personally we find it easier to pack slacks than jeans anyways especially when travelling to warm climates (Caribbean in winter, Med in summer).

It seems right now it is variable and not predictable. We've seen and heard of open on sea days only, seldom or never open, and open most days. I think it determined by the discretion of the chef and hotel manager. There's clearly less waiter and bartender staff on board than in the past and they are rushed. I don't think that's what people want to hear ...

You'd want to check with your travel agent or Seabourn. We've found that information about Flight Ease arrangements is hard to come by and we've had to call to get details in advance. We aren't the type of people who accept "trust us, its all taken care of, you don't need to worry" so we ask questions and have them explain to us what will happen. That said, you may still be more than six months away from disembarking in Montreal so Seabourn might not have all the details arranged yet and you may need to check back in again about 30 days prior to get more information.

Haven't stayed at AKA but its Brickell location is great for a 1-2 night pre cruise stay. Walking distance to dozens of restaurants. Another choice is the Four Seasons Miami (in Brickell) which has a very large elevated pool deck with views of the city and out over the bay. We would not want to stay in Coral Gables for one night, would prefer to stay closer for a short hop to the port.

Yes, explanation is that it is a data entry error if Quest is showing Miami as a tender port on embarkation day.

This was well hidden, never knew it existed!

Did you book it as two 12 days, or one 24 day voyage? If two twelve days yes default would be one reservation for each leg. If it was booked as 24 days you'd get three. Doesn't hurt to call your travel agent or Seabourn and see what they will do. Or book another time on the afternoon you embark. On a 12 day cruise they will have a lot of capacity available since passengers only got one reservation in advance.

Received email with subject: "Announcing the Collection, Seabourn's New Invite-only Cruising Experience" With a link to a somewhat expensive 10 day trip Lisbon to Barcelona on Venture, then also some shorter Med cruises. We typically do not take 7, 8 or 10 day Med cruises (too far to fly for a short trip, more children on board, back to backs take away a day of enjoyment). There isn't a lot of information about this, anyone know what the advantages of a Collection cruise are beyond a normal Seabourn cruise?

I would arrive around 12:00-12:15. There may be a little queueing but not too bad, get checked in, and have a seat in the waiting area for a bit. You should be on board between 12:45 and 13:00. Suites should be available when you board. Then you can go find some food. Remember its a small ship with about 450 pax maximum so boarding is pretty quick once they get going. If you arrive at 13:00 you'll probably walk right on board. Enjoy your trip!

Sky Bar is not open in the evenings (my recollection is it closed about 5:00 each afternoon but the hours varied a lot it often closed early. The Observation Bar is very close to 918 as well (one floor up and down the hall). Great for early morning coffee or after dinner drink; very busy for happy hour before dinner. Sky Bar is also next to the starboard smoking area which may make it more or less desirable to passengers with different preferences about that.

The Seadream ships are now 40 and 39 years old, there's really no way to compare them to a brand new ship if that's important to you. There's only so much refreshing that can be done. I'd be interested to read your view of the service, food, and "ambience" on Emerald though upon your return. We like mix of "luxury casual" on Seadream that is unlike any other cruise line we've been on.

The PH suites are large and have more room to maneuver, what do you need? Do you need a roll in bathroom and shower, or mostly extra space to maneuver a wheelchair? There is a step up into the bath. The larger suites with roll in showers are 550, 664, 665, 1012, 1132, and 1191 per the PDF layout on the website.

Get them Wi-Fi packages and they'll be fine when they don't want to join grandparents and parents (or any other teens who happen to be on board which is likely if this is during a school holiday).

If you want to be polite to your travel agent call Seabourn to get the quotes because they are the ones with the archaic IT system forcing their employee to sit on the phone for 20-30 minutes giving manual price quotes. We asked for quotes on 9 cruises Friday, each with a PH and V2. The lady who helped us was very nice and efficient (US customer).

The cruises aren't sold out. They aren't available to the general public since this is a pre-release for Club members. You have to call. In the US I called Seabourn and they gave me the pricing. Not sure what access travel agents have (they may have to call Seabourn and provide your Club number). The good news is that some of the prices at least from our observation were pretty good. The bad news is that Seabourn's website needs some work. The good news is Seabourn's website is a little better than sister company Cunard's website, which is a relic of 2001.

I wonder how they will handle advance bookings? They can't really add seating capacity in advance in case the weather is poor. Maybe they will allow more walk-ins or day-of reservations?

At home we eat dinner no later than 5:30 for better digestion, but on vacation we take our pills, have cocktails at 6:00 and dinner at 7:00 and love east to west cruises with those 25 hour days!

We prefer 2-3 week cruises so we find typical age on Seabourn to be between 55 and 80 (which is what the typical age was when we first cruised on Seabourn 15 years ago). Some younger, some older. Not many under 50 passengers. Not many over 90 passengers. On our 2 week cruise this year over Thanksgiving there were zero children. We'd would try to avoid a 7 day Med cruise for that reason.

I'd recommend searching and looking at the many YouTube videos so you can see what is important to you. People will have different opinions and preferences, but overall we find Seabourn to be less formal than Silversea which we prefer. Often more tuxes and gowns on the formal night with Silversea, and more people with sport coats on Seabourn. Some people are the opposite and prefer a formal experience rather than something like a luxury resort. Some people even get annoyed if they are wearing a tux/gown and others are not! I think those folks would be most happy on Silversea and Cunard Grills. Seabourn has multiple no extra cost dining options on board each evening but only one, transitioning from Thomas Keller Grill to Solis, allows advance booking. Allows for more spontaneous choices during the cruise, but again others will prefer to plan out their evenings months in advance rather than be more spontaneous. Some people are concerned about things like the size of the bathroom or decor of the ship, which are highly personal so difficult to know what matters to you. There are people who will not eat at a buffet so again areas where personal preferences impact their choices. Seabourn includes alcoholic drinks except for premium choices, not just wine and beer at meals. Seabourn does not include shore excursions or airfare in their pricing. We prefer this because we make our own choices and don't want to pay for something we will not use but other people seem to like it. I'd say try it for yourself and see what you think.

Does Seabourn still have gentleman hosts? On our last Quest cruise in November out of Miami there was a gentleman in his 70s/80s range who wore a Seabourn name tag. I didn't inquire further ....