Readers’ Polls, Critics, Travel Agents and Experts Agree on Top Rankings

In 2012, Seabourn continued to occupy the top ratings of the most prestigious awards in the travel industry. In annual surveys, high-profile consumer publications Condé Nast Traveler and Travel + Leisure discovered their readerships to be unified in naming Seabourn the Best Small-Ship Cruise Line, for the third and fourth consecutive year respectively. Cruise-specific consumer magazine Porthole’s annual readers’ poll showed Seabourn honored as Best Luxury Line, offering the Best Accommodations and Seabourn Sojourn named as the industry’s Best Small Ship. Seabourn also maintained its perfect record of inclusion on Condé Nast Traveler’s “Gold List” of top global vacation choices every year the list has been published, and became a charter inductee of the magazine’s Platinum Circle of the most consistent winners.

“We truly appreciate these magazines giving Seabourn’s customers a venue to express their support and endorsement,” said Seabourn president Richard D. Meadows. “These awards are absolutely a testament to the hard-working hospitality professionals who serve our guests on board. Of course everyone likes to be told they are the best,” he continued, “but in truth there is no greater honor than to see past guests returning up the gangway to sail with us again. Nothing makes our staff more proud than that.”

The ultra-luxury line also garnered some more specialized accolades in 2012.  The Spa at Seabourn has twice been awarded a SpaFinder® Wellness Readers’ Choice Award as Best Spa on a Cruise Ship, including this year. The newsletter Ocean & Cruise News, published by the World Ocean & Cruise Liner Society cited Seabourn cruises as the Best Cruise Value in the highest, Ultra-Deluxe, 6-Star+ category.

Professionally edited cruising guidebooks concur, with Stern’s Guide to the Cruise Vacation awarding the Seabourn fleet Six+ Black Stars, its highest rating, and the Berlitz Guide to Cruising and Cruise Ships awarding Five Stars and listing the Seabourn fleet among the highest-rated ships in the world.

With so many of Seabourn’s guests utilizing the convenience and expertise of a travel agent to handle their travel arrangements, it is important to note that the travel trade publication Travel Weekly’s annual Readers’ Choice Awards named Seabourn as the Best Luxury Cruise Line.

Finally, the prestigious American Academy of Hospitality Sciences has once again awarded Seabourn its highest honor, the Six Star Diamond Award.

Third Consecutive Win for Seabourn

We continue to impress the discerning readers of Condé Nast Traveler, who awarded us the prestigious “Readers’ Choice” designation as the “Best Small Ship Cruise Line” for the third consecutive year in the magazine’s 25^th annual survey of top travel experiences. It was the fourth time in five years that the magazine’s well-traveled readers have recognized Seabourn as the best.

The award celebrates our consistent ability to deliver exceptional vacations and outstanding service that attract and delight sophisticated, affluent travelers.  It is only the latest of many accolades the line has garnered.  Recently, Seabourn was named “World’s Best Small-Ship Cruise Line” for the fourth consecutive year by readers of Travel + Leisure magazine. In addition, the line has been included on Condé Nast Traveler’s prestigious “Gold List” of top travel choices for each of the 17 consecutive years since the list first appeared in 1994.

“We’re extremely pleased that Condé Nast Traveler readers named us the best once again,” said Seabourn President Richard Meadows.  “The readers continue to reward our dedicated and hard-working employees both at sea and ashore, who focus every day on providing our guests with the very finest travel experiences.”

Thank you to the readers for voting for Seabourn again! And many thanks to our amazing, hardworking staff who continue to deliver excellent service and special Seabourn Moments to our guests every day.

Pictured here from the Readers’ Choice Awards ceremony are Carolyn Kremins, vice president & publisher of Conde Nast Traveler; Richard Meadows, president of Seabourn; and Klara Glowczewska, editor-in-chief of Conde Nast Traveler.

Seabourn has been named the “Best Luxury Cruise Line” by the readers of Cruise International, a consumer cruise publication centered in the United Kingdom. We’re very honored to receive this distinction! Many thanks to all our guests who voted for us, and a big thank you and congratulations to our entire staff who gave our guests the “Seabourn Moments” they voted for!

Lynn Narraway, Seabourn’s UK managing director, accepted the award on behalf of the line. Here is a photo from the ceremony held last week at the Soho House in London.

(L-R) Liz Jarvis, editor of Cruise International; Kate Huet, managing director of OneStop4; Lynn Narraway; and Gyles Brandreth, host.

Cruise Critic recently ranked the best cruises for fitness, and Seabourn Odyssey, Seabourn Sojourn and Seabourn Quest were tops in the category of “Best Luxury Workout.”

“Seabourn Odyssey was the first new luxury ship designed since staying fit became a mantra for successful living,” wrote the author of the review. “As such, its designers have incorporated a more contemporary sensibility into the creation of a two-deck-high spa and fitness center, now also included on sister ships Seabourn Sojourn and Seabourn Quest.”

Seabourn also garnered an honorable mention in the “Best Water Sports” category for its retractable marina and water sports activities.

Last Thursday night, Seabourn collected a fourth consecutive title as the World’s Best Small-Ship Cruise Line from the readers of Travel + Leisure at a party in New York City celebrating the 2012 edition of the magazine’s prestigious annual poll. Pictured below is John Delaney (center), Seabourn’s senior vice president of marketing and sales, accepting the 2012 World’s Best Small-Ship Cruise Line award from Travel + Leisure Editor-in-Chief Nancy Novogrod (left) and Travel +Leisure Vice President/Publisher Jean-Paul Kyrillos (right).

The intimate, all-suite ships of Seabourn deliver accommodations, service, cuisine and attention to detail that place it among the elite in the global hospitality industry, according to the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences. For 2012, the prestigious organization has invited the small-ship cruise specialist into the rarified ranks of its Six Star Diamond honorees, comprising a roster of the world’s finest hotels, resorts, spas, luxury transportation providers and others who cater to the most discerning clientele around the world.

“Seabourn’s dedication to excellence in service, cuisine and its unique ability to provide travelers with authentic experiences in ports of call made it a standout among our original Five Star Diamond honorees,” said AAHS president Joseph Cinque. ”Then the company introduced three new luxury vessels that quite simply reset the bar for what luxury cruise guests can expect, and that made them a natural choice to be among our first Six Star award-winners.”

Richard Meadows, Seabourn’s president, said “We are proud to be in such distinguished company. Our onboard service team has a well-deserved reputation and commitment to being the best, and for that reason they wear the Six Star Diamond insignia with pride.”

For the second year in a row, Seabourn’s intimate, luxury cruise ships sailed to the top of Condé Nast Traveler’s prestigious list of the world’s 100 best cruise ships, based on scores achieved in the magazine’s annual Readers’ Choice poll. Seabourn’s fleet dominated the survey, occupying five of the top seven spots. Once again, Seabourn Odyssey was the highest-rated small cruise ship, with Seabourn Pride coming in second. Seabourn Sojourn ranked fourth, and Seabourn Legend and Seabourn Spirit rounded out the top seven. Seabourn Quest, which debuted to rave reviews in June of 2011, was not included in the poll but is a sister ship to the top rated Odyssey.

“These honors truly belong to Seabourn’s hardworking crew” said Richard Meadows, Seabourn’s president. “We’re extremely proud of them, and we know that these rankings are a direct result of the exceptional way they care for our guests.”

The list, published in the magazine’s February issue, outlines the scores of each ship in a variety of categories, including service, itineraries, food and dining, activities, design and layout, and more. Seabourn Odyssey, Seabourn Sojourn and Seabourn Legend received the highest scores in three categories: 93.5 for design/layout, 97.1 for cabins, and 98.8 for food/dining, respectively.

We can’t say it enough: THANK YOU to our extraordinary staff for their hard work and dedication. We’re very honored to receive this recognition.

First-place awards and honors keep accumulating for Seabourn’s intimate all-suite ships in 2011.  Recent announcements by the editors of the twin Cruise Critic websites in the U.S. and U.K. confirm the opinions resulting from earlier readers’ polls at both Travel + Leisure and Condé Nast Traveler naming Seabourn the best small-ship cruise line in the world. The readers of the popular consumer cruise magazine Porthole have also once again expressed their praises for Seabourn’s ships and accommodations. In addition, Seabourn’s fleet of six elegant ships also represents six of the ten highest scoring ships in the world, according to the ratings in the 2012 Berlitz Guide to Cruising and Cruise Ships.

“All of us are tremendously gratified by these honors” said Seabourn’s president, Richard Meadows. “We’re extremely proud of our hardworking crew who truly deserve the recognition for these awards.”  

The editors of Cruise Critic’s authoritative web presence have collectively spent thousands of days at sea on hundreds of cruise ships. So when they single out Seabourn Odyssey, Seabourn Sojourn and Seabourn Quest as the “Best for Luxury,” they know whereof they speak. They also must have sampled the sublimities in quite a few shipboard spas before selecting Seabourn Sojourn and Seabourn Quest as being the “Best for Spa-Lovers.”  Cruise Critic’s U.K.-based sister site also selected Seabourn as representing the “Best of Luxury” for the second consecutive year.

The newly released December issue of Porthole magazine announced that its readers had named Seabourn Best Luxury Line, and Seabourn Quest as the Best Small Ship in its 13^th Annual Readers’ Choice Awards, and had also cited the fleet for offering the Best Accommodations afloat.

Douglas Ward, the longtime editor of Berlitz Complete Guide to Cruising and Cruise Ships, is renowned for the meticulous and detailed scoring system he uses to rate ships of all sizes and shapes. In the 2012 edition, he once again rates all of Seabourn’s ships five-stars-plus, and also includes all six of Seabourn’s vessels on a comprehensive list of the ten highest scoring ships overall.

For the second year in a row, Seabourn has been named the “Best Small-Ship Cruise Line” by readers of Condé Nast Traveler in the magazine’s 24^th annual Readers’ Choice Awards.  This is the third time in four years that the magazine’s well-traveled readers have recognized Seabourn as the best.

The honor is a testament to the line’s consistent ability to deliver exceptional vacations and outstanding service that attract and delight sophisticated, affluent travelers.  It is only the latest of many accolades the line has garnered over the years.  Most recently, Seabourn won its third consecutive “World’s Best Small-Ship Cruise Line” from readers of Travel + Leisure magazine. In addition, the line has been included on Condé Nast Traveler’s prestigious “Gold List” of top travel choices for 17 consecutive years from 1994, when the list first appeared, through 2011.

“Condé Nast Traveler readers are very discerning and experienced, and we’re exceptionally pleased that they named us the best once again,” said Seabourn President Richard Meadows.  “We’re gratified that the readers have again rewarded our dedicated and hard-working employees.  This award is for the entire team at Seabourn, all of whom strive every day to provide our guests with the very finest travel experiences at sea.”

John Delaney, Seabourn’s senior vice president of marketing and sales, attended the awards ceremony in New York City on Monday. Here is a photo of John at the event.

By now you are surely aware that in June, Seabourn was voted the World’s Best Small-Ship Cruise Line by the readers of Travel + Leisure magazine for the third consecutive year. John Delaney, Seabourn’s senior vice president of marketing & sales, went to Los Angeles to accept the award at the ceremony on behalf of everyone at Seabourn. We finally got a picture of the ceremony, and here it is.

Travel + Leisure Editor-in-Chief Nancy Novogrod, John Delaney and T+L VP/Publisher Jean-Paul Kyrillos