To give you an idea of how narrow it is, the canal is 80.7 feet (24.6 meters) at sea level and 69.9 feet (21 meters) wide on the bottom.  The beam of Seabourn Spirit is 63 feet (19.2 meters), making it a very tight squeeze.  Guests went out on deck and awed in the experience as Spirit Captain Emil Holthe and his team navigated through the canal with the assistance of local pilots.

Spirit Hotel Manager Hubert Buelacher shared some photos taken of Spirit approaching the Corinth Canal and during the transit.  It was so close that you can almost lean over and touch the walls!

Seabourn’s third new yacht, Seabourn Quest, will launch June 20, 2011, with a 14-day Maiden Voyage from Barcelona to Athens.  Quest’s maiden season will include seven-day Eastern Mediterranean cruises, between Athens, Istanbul and Venice, as well as a seven-day Black Sea voyage. In January, 2012, Quest begins a 109-day World Cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to Venice on an eastbound course via South America, South Africa, the Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean.

In 2011-2012, Seabourn Sojourn sails a series of nine-day Autumn Maritime Canada and New England cruises. Sojourn will also operate six 14-day Patagonian Passage voyages to the picturesque Chilean Fjords, Cape Horn and the Falkland Islands between Valparaiso, Chile and Buenos Aires, Argentina.  Seabourn Pride remains in Asia for a second season of year-round exotic cruises to  Japan, China, Vietnam, South Korea, Thailand and Taiwan.  New for 2011, Pride will operate a series of new 12-day cruises between Singapore and Bali with calls to exotic ports in Borneo, Sulawesi and Java.

In early 2012, Seabourn Legend will be in the Arabian Sea, offering Indian Ocean Delights to Oman’s capital city of Muscat and Mumbai, India.  Other new itineraries include a 60-day Stars of the Southern Cross cruise round trip from Los Angeles to French Polynesia, New Zealand, Australia and Hawaii aboard Seabourn Odyssey; new seven-day St. Petersburg & the Baltic cruises between Copenhagen and Stockholm aboard Sojourn; week-long Gems of the Adriatic and Dalmatian Discoveries cruises round trip from Venice aboard Seabourn Spirit; an 18-day Path of the Vikings transatlantic voyage from Dover to Quebec, and a 12-day Canada & Colonial Autumn voyage from Quebec City to Fort Lauderdale aboard Sojourn.

The hotel manager sent us this picture of Spirit taken during the stop at Cape Horn.

Seabourn Spirit - Cape Horn

“Each dish was picture-perfect and served by an attractive and amiable staff…”

Check out the elevated company we keep in her memory bank at:

http://www.maureenclancy.com

Here are some new pictures of the newly-refurbished Seabourn Spirit, which came out of drydock earlier this month.  She looks marvelous, and we have received many positive reviews from our guests about her new look and feel.

Guests can see changes from the moment they step on board in the Reception Lobby, which was transformed with honey-toned wood paneling, two-toned marble flooring and furnishings reupholstered in rich burgundy.  The Purser’s Desk is located in the Reception Lobby, where guests can talk to the pursers about any questions they have regarding their cruise.  Nearby is the Shore Excursions desk, which is staffed with destinations specialists ready to assist guests with their shore excursions bookings.

A few decks below is The Restaurant, where guests enjoy celebrity Chef Charlie Palmer’s cuisine in a rich, yet understated elegant atmosphere.  The Restaurant received new, handsome toffee-toned woods with creamy caramel accents, dramatic sheer curtains striped horizontally in violet and gold interspersing muted purple drapes, and flooring finished in sumptuous golden stone with sage infusions.

Stay tuned for more photos of Seabourn Spirit!

Seabourn’s original three sister yachts, Seabourn Pride, Spirit, and Legend, are being treated to a multi-million dollar makeover over the next year.  The look and feel of the public rooms on each vessel will be enhanced with open and airy interiors, modern embellishments, and richly colored contemporary on-deck furnishings. Spirit just came out of drydock with all the changes made, and Pride and Legend will have their turns next year.

Guests who have sailed on Spirit say she’s a real stunner, looking fresh and stylish.  We’ll post photos of Spirit’s new look in the next couple of weeks, but in the meantime, here are some renderings to give you an idea of what the yachts will look like after their refurbishment.

Seabourn Odyssey and Seabourn Spirit

Seabourn Odyssey and Seabourn Spirit were together at Dubrovnik, Croatia on Wednesday, July 29, and we got this picture sent by the Hotel Managers. There is a bit of perspective at work, since Odyssey is really only about a third longer than Spirit. She looks bigger than that, because she is closer. But the family resemblance is striking. They will be together again at Venice several more times this year, when both will be disembarking and embarking guests.  Looks like their guests had a beautiful day in picturesque Dubrovnik. You can see the town walls and the red-tile roofs of the UNESCO World Heritage Site just beyond Spirit on the right.

With the addition of Seabourn Odyssey in June 2009 and Seabourn Sojourn in June 2010, Seabourn can explore more far-flung ports of call, such as Palopo on Sulawesi; Zanzibar; and Madagascar.

In 2010-2011, Seabourn will operate year-round in Asia – a first. New Asian ports include Dalian, China; Busan and Inchon, Korea; Nagasaki and Kagoshima, Japan; and numerous Indonesian destinations, including Bali, Borneo, Komodo Island and the Karimoenjawa archipelago.

Seabourn will call at 44 destinations that are either brand new for the cruise line or where they have not called for years. These include: Jeju Island, Yeosu and Mokpo, South Korea; Djupivogur, Iceland; Doha, Qatar; Kuching, Malaysia; Fremantle, Australia; Mayotte, Comoros; Sir Bani Yas, UAE; Manama, Bahrain; Mangalore, India; Muara Port, Brunei; Port Stanley, Falkland Islands; Sibenik, Croatia; Sihanoukville, Cambodia and Szczencin, Poland.

Seabourn will return to Indonesia for the first time in years as Seabourn Spirit offers Gems of the Java Sea with stops in Singapore, Kuching, and Kota Kinabalu , Java, Bali & the Barrier Reef, from Singapore to Darwin, and a Spice Islands Holiday round trip from Singapore.  Seabourn Pride’s China Journey operates between the People’s Republic and Taiwan for the first time.. Other new Seabourn itineraries include China/Korea/Japan Journey from Xingang (Beijing) to Kobe; Indian Ocean Edens from Dubai to Mahe, Seychelles; and Pearls of Arabia round trip from Dubai.

A newly-expanded destination services department offers guests land-based activities, including escorted Seabourn Journeys extensions to Bhutan, Kyoto and Tokyo, an African safari in Kenya, a four-night Florence and Venice Journey, and a five-night Laos and Cambodia Journey.

Seabourn Personnel and Training Manager Jo Poelmans reports from Seabourn Pride in Paracas Bay, Peru that his covey of Seabourn Academy cadets are having a splendid seminar on board.  They are training for a range of different positions, from waitstaff in the Restaurant to cooking duties in the galley to training as Seabourn suite stewardesses in the housekeeping department. Jo took them all to the forward whirlpool spa located on Deck Five for a formal portrait, and they are indeed a great-looking bunch. That’s Jo seated in front.

In the second picture, Jo is showing cadets from the Restaurant service brigade the finer points of preparing Crepes Suzette, a scrumptious flambé dessert that is a favorite of Seabourn guests. One of the first, and most important lessons about tableside flambé preparation is the skill of positioning the portable cooktop so that the fire sprinklers don’t come on and soak the table when the flames leap up after the brandy is added. Jo is quick to add ( with a laugh) that this portion of the hands-on training is undertaken only after the cadets have had their orientation and training in emergency procedures in case of fire….