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.

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.

The latest update from Neil Carney at the Odyssey shipyard….

As we all know Seabourn Odyssey will be named in Venice. But it is a proud moment to actually see her name spelled out on the bow. As you can see from the photo, the starboard bow now has the steel letters of her name spot welded in place. (more…)

Odyssey Blog Correspondent Neil Carney gives us an update on the two Seabourn yachts that are also under construction…..

Neil Carney

“Whilst a lot of attention is being focused on the building of MAR062, or Seabourn Odyssey as you know her, it should not be forgotten that there are an additional two Seabourn sisters also under construction – MAR063 and MAR064. (more…)

The Seabourn Team pouring over table details for the main dining room.

Check out a few words from Adam Snitzer, one of our trusted blog correspondents….

“It’s amazing how much attention the Seabourn team is paying to Odyssey decisions and details.  For instance, we are taking the dining experience very seriously. The show plate is a great example. If you aren’t familiar with a show plate, you might have heard it referred to as a “charger.” When you go to a nice restaurant, the charger is the plate that remains on the table when your appetizer plate is removed. We’ve had two meetings and there’s been a lot of work done between the meetings as well.  We’ve been talking about everything from chair upholstery to lighting, to the ceiling height, to the curtains… all  of these play a role in deciding which china to put on the table – especially the show plate, which to me really creates a first impression. (more…)