Earlier this week, Seabourn Odyssey sailed into Lyttelton (Christchurch), New Zealand, which is home to Captain Mark Dexter. He considered it to be one of the highlights of his career.
Writer Celeste Moure sailed with her family on Odyssey last September in the Mediterranean. It was her first cruise and once she experienced Seabourn-style cruising, from the impeccable service to incredible cuisine, she was hooked.
Celeste writes, “Seabourn is about understated privileges and pampering that includes free-flowing champagne, personalized stationery and Hermès soaps.”
Read about her Seabourn Odyssey experience, which was just published in the L.A. Times.
Odyssey World Cruise Guest
After spending the fall sailing in the Caribbean, Seabourn Odyssey said goodbye to Fort Lauderdale and set sail on Seabourn’s first world cruise, a 108-day voyage that departed Jan. 5, 2010, from Port Everglades. Guests who will be making the whole round-the-world cruise enjoyed a complimentary gala pre-cruise overnight at the Ritz Carlton Fort Lauderdale on January 4th, with a festive cocktail reception enlivened by various “ports of call” featuring food and drinks inspired by the places the guests will visit during their voyage. A lavish dinner dance followed, with entertainment by a balletic contortionist, spirited Tahitian dancers, a Chinese Dragon Dance troupe and operatic arias performed by a soprano vocalist. While the weather was a bit chilly in South Florida, the temperature didn’t dampen guests’ spirits and they were eager to embark on this once-in-a-lifetime experience aboard the beautiful Odyssey.
The 450-guest vessel will visit 42 ports in 26 countries on six continents as she sails across the globe from Ft. Lauderdale to Athens, Greece. From the wonders of the South Pacific to the exotic lands of Asia, guests will visit far-flung destinations and experience exciting and new cultures – all of which will undoubtedly create lasting memories!
Stay tuned for future posts on Odyssey as she carries her fortunate guests around the world.
It’s always great to see honest reviews of what the Seabourn cruise experience is really like. We know how fabulous a Seabourn cruise is – so it’s great when others share their unbiased opinions. Cruise enthusiasts have a lot of choices – and we realize that you want to know as much as you can about our ships before booking a Seabourn voyage. In this Cruise Report article, Rickee Richardson provides an extensive and comprehensive review of her Seabourn Odyssey cruise. Everything from the accommodations to the dining experience to the recreation options are divulged in great detail. Rickee calls Odyssey a “mega-yacht” and dishes fun facts like, “The bed is high enough off the floor to allow even the largest luggage to be stored underneath” and even marvels over the deliciousness of Seabourn’s famed breadsticks.
So if you are thinking of booking a Seabourn cruise or are just curious what Odyssey is really like, check out this article and enjoy.
“With so much uncertainty in the world, and a questionable worldwide economy, it is nice to know that there are still a few places where compromise is not an option. Seabourn is one of those places.”
Seabourn has been honored by readers of Porthole Cruise Magazine again. We won in three categories in the magazine’s 11th Annual Porthole Readers’ Choice Awards – the ”Best Luxury Line,” the “Best Small Ship (Seabourn Legend),” and “Best Accommodations.”
The 2009 Readers’ Choice Awards are the latest accolades bestowed upon the company’s four intimate cruising vessels. Seabourn has consistently received top honors from a number of well-respected and discerning travel publications and experts.
Seabourn continues to show why we’re the best. This year, we were honored with two 2009 Cruise Critic Editors’ Picks Awards, bringing home “Best New Luxury Ship” for the Seabourn Odyssey, as well as “Best Luxury Dining” for the entire fleet. In addition, the prestigious Virtuoso Travel Network, which consists of more than 6,000 luxury travel advisers, selected Seabourn as the “Best Small-Ship Cruise Line” for the second year in a row. We also received the high distinction of the “2009 World’s Best Small-Ship Cruise Line” by readers of Travel + Leisure in its 14th annual readers’ survey.
We’re proud of the staff at Seabourn. Job well done!
Seabourn Odyssey at Port Everglades
Seabourn Odyssey has made it to the USA! It was a beautiful morning in South Florida as the new luxury ship breezed into Port Everglades at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on the morning of November 10, carrying more than 400 guests who sailed in her maiden transatlantic cruise. The ship and guests received a warm welcome from the port with the display of colored spray arching from a port-sponsored fireboat, as well as from Broward County’s very own Nova High School Titan Band, which assembled on the dock in their green and black uniforms and greeted them with lively, energetic music. It was the first coastline the pampered guests had seen since they left the Portuguese island of Madeira on November 2.
Seabourn Odyssey’s maiden call in the U.S. will begin with inspections by the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Public Health Service. That will be followed by a two-day open house. The first, on November 11, is for the proud staff who work at Seabourn’s Miami headquarters, and the next day is for travel agents eager to see the vessel USA Today called “…quite simply a game-changer for the luxury segment.”
On November 13, Seabourn is sponsoring “Arts Odyssey,” a gala overnight cruise benefiting the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts and three of its resident companies: The New World Symphony, Florida Grand Opera and the Miami City Ballet. The gala will also feature a performance by Broadway star Bernadette Peters.
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:
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.
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!
We were thrilled to be selected by the readers of Condé Nast Traveler as the Best Small-Ship Cruise Line in their annual Readers’ Choice Awards last fall. And now, Travel + Leisure magazine has released the results of their 14th annual World’s Best survey and their readers have again voted The Yachts of Seabourn the World’s Best Small-Ship Cruise Line. Are we ever proud now! The best news, in a way, is that these votes of confidence from our guests are the results of cruise experiences before Seabourn Odyssey even joined the fleet. With Odyssey already pleasing guests and Sojourn getting set to do the same, we have high hopes for the future. Thanks to everyone who voted for us, and special thanks to the crew of our Seabourn yachts, who send everybody home happy and ready to cast their ballots for us.
