Friday, October 23, 2009. Seabourn Odyssey is alongside the wharf at the medieval city of Valletta on the island of  Malta.  The sky is a perfect Mediterranean blue. The brilliant sun pours down on honey-colored stones from the era when European Crusaders used this outpost for R&R in their campaigns for the Holy Land. Our correspondent Karen Sinclair knows a knockout picture when she sees one, and on that day, she does. Don’t you wish you were there?

Odyssey’s World Cruise departs January 5, 2010 from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. During the next 108 days, it will visit 42 fascinating ports on six continents, and 25 countries. Many of those countries require visitors to have visas. In a number of them, Seabourn Odyssey is able to acquire the visas for guests on arrival, but there are a number that require visitors to have visas before they arrive. That means that World Cruise guests have to apply and get their visas before they embark for their voyages.  If any guest has not done so, it is important that they check on Seabourn’s website to see what is required for their nationality and their itinerary.

Here are some visa requirements  for most nationalities:

• United States: Non-US citizens or residents must follow the regulations to acquire a visa to enter the United States. Those vary by nationality.
• Australia requires a visa to be acquired in advance for entry.
• India requires an individual visa to be acquired in advance for entry.
• Guests who are taking an Overland Journey in China (from the port of Hong Kong) are required to acquire a visa in advance of arrival. Those just sailing to Hong Kong do not require a visa in advance.
• Visas are also required for entry into Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Oman and Egypt, but these can be purchased on board for your convenience.

Today, Seabourn announced that it will not operate a planned five-month, 15-cruise series of voyages in the Indian Ocean aboard Seabourn Legend in late 2010 and early 2011. The vessel will instead be positioned back to the Americas at the end of its Mediterranean season to cruise in the Caribbean for the winter.
Seabourn’s President and CEO Pamela Conover said that the intended shoreside destinations remain apparently safe for visitors, but the high seas routes between them are currently vulnerable to incidents of piracy that have not been adequately controlled.
“It makes me sad to have to cancel these cruises,” she said. “I personally loved touring Kenya’s game parks, and the islands of the Seychelles, Madagascar and Zanzibar are lovely and exotic destinations where we sincerely had hoped to be able to take our guests. We look forward to a time when the sea routes are controlled enough for us to cruise there for a season.”
But if you are looking for an exotic Seabourn voyage in 2010 and 2011, you’re still in luck.  Seabourn Spirit will sail through Egypt, the Suez Canal, the Red Sea and Oman to Dubai. Spirit will then continue via India, Thailand and Malaysia to Singapore, to begin a season of cruises exploring Bali, Borneo, Java and the islands of the Java, Flores and Savu Seas.  Spirit will even venture southward to Australia’s Northern Territories and Great Barrier Reef.

Seabourn Pride, meanwhile, will be in Asia for the full year, and in the autumn will be sailing in China, Thailand and Vietnam, with land extensions to Beijing, Guilin, Cambodia & Laos and the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan.

Seabourn Odyssey will make a maiden circumnavigation of South America in early 2011, encompassing the Peruvian and Chilean coasts, the Chilean fjords and Patagonia, Cape Horn, the Falkland Islands, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and the Amazon.

Seabourn Legend’s voyages in the Caribbean are designed to take advantage of her intimate size, and features such as the fold-out watersports marina that can be deployed for a “Champagne and Caviar in the Surf” beach barbecue. Activities ashore range from snorkeling, yacht-racing, kayaking, hiking, horseback riding and zip-line adventures to visiting artists’ studios, tony boutiques or relaxing on world-class beaches. On board, deck barbecues and al fresco dining options make the most of the bucolic climate, as do Dancing and Movies Under the Stars.

Raoul Jack sent along a few more shots of Seabourn Sojourn alongside the fitting-out dock at the shipyard in Genoa. It was obviously a rather gray day, but we can get a good look at her sleek shape, which is looking lovely already, even without her coat of paint. A lot of the work going on now is inside, so the outer form doesn’t show radical changes from day to day. But there’s a lot going on.  I especially like the shot from astern, which gives a good view of those great terraces of open deck down the aft end—a great place to have a glass of Champagne and watch the harbor lights of another great port of call fade,  as you sail away to enjoy a delightful night at sea.

Win a complimentary 7-day cruise for two during the maiden year of Seabourn’s third new ultra luxury yacht, just by guessing the name the vessel will be given when she is launched in June 2011.

Use your imagination, your intuition – even your Ouija Board – to win a free week-long cruise aboard the next generation of ultra luxury cruising vessel. Like our other Seabourn yachts, their new sister will have the first name Seabourn. It’s the second half that you need to divine in order to win.

Take as many guesses as you want, and submit your guesses by e-mail to names@seabourn.com. Don’t forget to include your name and contact information.

Entries must be received by December 4, 2009. In case of identical correct guesses, the winner will be drawn at random from among all correct guesses.

The award is a complimentary 7-day cruise in a minimum category suite anywhere the new ship sails between her second scheduled cruise in 2011 and June of 2012, and is subject to space availability. Prize cruise does not include airfare, ground transfers or onboard purchases. All expenses not specifically stated are the sole responsibility of the winner. The award is not transferable and non-refundable. All terms and conditions of Seabourn Cruise Line’s standard Ticket Contract of Passage, as well as those stated in the General Information section of Seabourn’s brochure, shall be applicable to the cruise.

In case the winner is unable to utilize available space during the maiden year, a 7-day cruise on another Seabourn yacht may be substituted.

Since we started this blog, it has been mainly focused on Seabourn Odyssey. There were, and still are, many great stories to tell about that amazing vessel. But we also have a myriad of topics about the three other Seabourn yachts as they branch out and explore ever more exotic destinations. Plus,  Seabourn Sojourn is under construction as we are writing this, and there are tales to tell about that as well. Plus, we can’t forget that a third new Seabourn yacht has already been started (her keel was laid at the same time as Sojourn’s).

In January, Odyssey will set off around the world,  providing a lot of interesting topics for us to discuss including special shoreside events along the way, guest celebrities and chefs and much more.  So we have decided to expand the focus of this blog to encompass all the Seabourn yachts– their staffs, their guests, their itineraries and the new yachts a-building.

This will be a process, rather than a “presto.” We have already begun…you’ll notice that the countdown clock in the upper right corner is now tallying days ‘til the Sojourn debut.

So we invite you to check back often, and watch as we expand our focus beyond Odyssey to the broader Seabourn world. As always, we welcome your comments, suggestions and questions, and we appreciate your interest.

Seabourn has just won a prestigious award from one of the leading luxury travel agency groups—again. On August 20, at their annual Travel Mart convention in Las Vegas, the Virtuoso Travel Network announced that, for the second consecutive year, their membership had voted The Yachts of Seabourn the Best Small Ship Cruise Line in their Peer-to-Peer Awards poll. Virtuoso is made up of over 300 agencies and some 6,000 travel advisors worldwide. The Virtuoso award is a little different from the readers’ poll awards that Seabourn won from Condé Nast Traveler and Travel + Leisure this year. Both of those are voted on by people who have sailed on Seabourn. In the case of the Virtuoso award, the voters are travel agents who book their clients on Seabourn cruises. (OK, probably some of them have sailed on board too!) The point is that they not only rate Seabourn by how well their clients like their cruises, but also by how easy it is to do business with Seabourn. So that provides an extra measurement of how the company is performing for another set of customers. As Seabourn’s president and CEO Pamela Conover put it, they “…put their own reputations on the line along with ours.”

Seabourn also tallies guests’ “votes” by means of a questionnaire filled out at the end of each cruise. The questionnaires ask for numeric ratings and verbatim comments, and are read by onboard management and headquarters executives as well. Then, the results are discussed in meetings of department heads on board and by the department heads with their staffs. That way, any issues are quickly addressed so they don’t continue from cruise to cruise. Seabourn takes a lot of pride in the awards it has received. They mean a lot to everyone involved. It’s just one more way of knowing our guests are happy. And that is the key to everything.

In his Virtual Gourmet newsletter, John Mariani blogs about his recent and delicious experience aboard Seabourn Legend. John ranks his Seabourn dining experience with authentic European fine dining and stated the luxury cruise provided him with his best cruise dining experience ever!

The comedian Brother Dave Gardner once observed that “…the worst I ever had was wonderful,” and he might as well have been referring to the suites on Seabourn Odyssey. The minimum category accommodation on board is still a spacious ocean-view suite with 295 square feet (27.5 sq m) of space and a five-foot picture window. There are just eight in category A, all the way forward on Deck 4.  Because of the shape of Odyssey’s hull, the first few are slightly smaller, (271 to 283 square feet). There are 18 Category A1 suites, all with the picture window, but further amidships on Deck 4. Like all Odyssey’s suites, they feature walk-in closets, comfortable seating area, dining table for two, one queen-size or twin beds, a fully-stocked bar and refrigerator, writing desk with personalized stationery, a makeup vanity, interactive flat-screen TV with music and movies on demand and a granite bathroom with separate tub and shower.

The most plentiful type of suite on Seabourn Odyssey is the Veranda Suite, categories V1 through V6. These are located on Decks 5 to 9, and have an inside space measuring 300 square feet (27.7 sq m) plus a private veranda of 65 square feet (6.1 sq m). Among the thoughtful touches that they share with all Seabourn Odyssey suites are Molton Brown Therapies Range bathroom amenities, plush robes and slippers, a hair dryer, a personal safe, a world atlas, book of short stories and an umbrella.

Time Lapse  Construction Video of Seabourn Odyssey