7 Nights Alaska Fjords & Canadian Inside Passage Cruise

Seabourn Quest vs. Seadream

Just got off the SB Quest and wanted to leave a review and comparison with my favourite cruise line, Seadream. We chose Seabourn because the itinerary suited us the best and SD doesn't go to this region. Seabourn met or exceeded all our expectations except for two (important) areas. It is a well run company which makes embarkation, the paper work around the arrival, customs, billing etc absolutely seamless. This is not a small thing and we really appreciated the fantastic room they booked us in Sydney with a spectacular view of the Opera House, the private transfers to and off the ship as well as the lovely hotel we stayed in for our last two nights (in Auckland, NZ) before we head back home. Our cabin, a penthouse Spa Suite on the 10th floor deck, was fantastic. Lots of room, a long and wide deck squarely in the back of the ship, a wonderful bathroom with a separate toilet, great shower, and bathtub (which is not the right dimensions for soaking unless you are Andre the Giant), lots of storage in the excellent walk-in closet. Seadream's cabins, by comparison, are simply no match and terribly cramped (especially the bathrooms). The Itinerary, like I said, was very promising and leaving from Sydney Harbour was one of the big highlights of the trip.Simply breathtaking. The thing we found a bummer for us were that 1/3 of the trip was at sea. For us 5 sea days is simply too much. We cruise to unpack once and experience lots of variety, mostly with an eye to hiking. We use an app called All Trails and, the minute the ship docks, off we set for an adventure on foot. It's proven an unbeatable hassle-free way for us to do more of what we love (hiking and being out in nature) and less of what we don't (dealing with the logistics of travel). I know some people love sea days but we aren't loungers or big drinkers or socializers, and we get plenty of wonderful dining back at home so the pleasure of those days are lost on us. The second thing that will make us one-and-done Seabourners is the food. I'm in the restaurant business and love to cook. Very few of the dining experiences on board were really restaurant quality and frequently sounded better than they ended up being. Everything needed seasoning. It's what I imagine very high quality, luxury nursing home food is like. Lots of fancy sounding things that all tasted kind of ho-hum. Seadreams food isn't always perfect but it's MILES better and sometimes (especially the vegan menus) exceptional. When we arrived in Auckland we went to the nearest well-reviewed bistro I could find and the first bite of food we had there ( named Gilt, btw) we looked at each other and went, "Ok, we aren't nuts, this is ACTUALLY good food!"). Solis is the only venue that comes close to being a high end restaurant. We did enjoy our meals there both for the quality of the food and the size of the room. You can, however, only dine there once a week due to its size. The Restaurant is exactly the kind of place I don't want eat at: it's a sea of tables and looks formal but is somehow without charm and comes off as stuffy without distinction. Service the one bright spot. The Colonnade gave us one good meal on Italian night (an osso bucco that was gigantic but well prepared). Earth and Ocean was hit and miss. When it's good it's probably the best place on the ship to dine. Service here is oddly iffy (forgetful and lacking polish and then sometimes great) but the evenings we spent here felt cozy and charming. Breakfasts were such a disappointment after Seadream. Well all the food is a C to Seadream's B+- A quality. Seadream has only two areas you can eat (and room service is not a pleasant thing given the lack of deck or dining table). They are both, however, more charming than the dining areas of SB. That may be a scale issue more than anything, however. There just isn't anything to compare on SB with having breakfast al fresco on Top of The Yacht. It's just so lovely and everyone knows what you want and how you want it which for breakfast is pretty nice. It can't be easy feeding 400+ people endless meals day after day. I really feel for the complexity of this kind of operation but I wouldn't want to go back on Seabourn for this reason. The staff on SB are simply wonderful. Attentive, professional, smiley. Too many good ones to single out one. It took a while for the staff to reach Seadream warmth and superlatively but they did get there and then some. The only area that really is a disappointment when it comes to staff are the spa/massage crew. Our massages were $350 and $440 respectively and both of us thought they were terrible and terribly expensive. We immediately cancelled our 3 other massage appointments (on Seadream the Thai massage therapists are the best we have ever experienced on land or sea and we have them almost daily). We were perplexed by some of the stops we made on our itinerary as were some of the other passengers on our cruise. Two of the ports were really bizarrely dead commercial ports with little of interest and we somehow didn't go to Wellington or Picton which I know are tourist hot spots. Before going on the trip we filled out a list of things we wanted/hoped to have on board: oat milk for our morning coffee and grapefruit juice for cocktails. The ship had neither of them for the the first two days so we ended up buying our own and finally after I think it was days 5 they started to stock it but ran out twice before we arrived at our final destination. Reggie, one of the adorable baristas, told us he was so frustrated he wanted to buy it himself for us! If we as tourists could find it in the most out of the way little port (Stewart Island ) then surely the person in charge of purchases could have too. Very weird. On a separate note, we thought the other passengers on board (all elderly 60s-80s) were lovely. We aren't social so we didn't spend time with any of them but you could tell they were a classy, respectful (great with the staff), unpretentious lot. Honestly, we liked being among them more than the more rowdy and social SD crowd. In summary, it was a lovely well-maintained ship, that made several good stops (but not enough of them), had great staff, but unfortunately with a disappointing gastronomy (may be far too big a word for what we experienced!) we won't be going back on SB. But if food and daily ports aren't deal breakers for you this is a very good cruise experience. We didn't attend any of the evening entertainment so can't comment on that. If you can afford it, we highly recommend the Penthouse Spa Suites (I think they may be a bit more expensive than the regular suites but less than the super fancy suites).

6 Stars from start to finish

This was our first Seabourn cruise and 24th cruise overall. We sailed on 12 different lines, including Crystal, Silversea, Oceania, Azamara and more. It was a great cruise. The service was the best we had on any cruise line. Embarkation: very smooth and quick. We arrived at the terminal at 12:15, they opened check in at 12:30 and within 15 minutes we were on the ship. Cabins were already ready. Good job! SB still does a muster drill in the restaurant while Oceania moved to virtual drill. Food: The food was between good and very good, excellent on very few occasions, and it lacked the Wow factor that we experienced on Oceania. The service was outstanding across all venues. Overall food at dinners: 8.5 out of 10. Food at lunch buffet: 9.5 out of 10, one of the best we had on any ship. Breakfast buffet was good, but with a relatively limited selection. I asked for fresh pomegranate juice, but they didn't have any, even the bottled one. Dining options are relatively limited. There is the main restaurant that is open for dinner only most of the days, The Colonnade which serves as a buffet for breakfast and lunch and has table service for dinner, and Solis, a new venue that you can reserve once per guest every seven days. The menus are not extensive, but the quality is very good. There is also Earth & Ocean which was just okay in our opinion. Shore Excursions: the excursions were okay overall, but very expensive. Maybe because it was mainly in remote Canadian ports with no competition? Unlike many other lines, they don't fill up the buses, and the average group size was around 25-30 people. But some excursions had around 35-40 people, which to me is unacceptable. Overall: 7.5 out of 10. Entertainment and activities: excellent. Evening entertainment included a show in the theatre at 9:45pm and some live music around the ship in the various lounges. There were 3 guest entertainers with 2 shows each, all of them excellent. They had deck party twice, both very nice. We had 3 guest lecturers, each gave 4 lectures. Overall Entertainment and activities: 9.5 out of 10. Cabin and attendant: The cabin was very nice, and the cabin service was excellent. Every cabin has a large bathroom with tub and shower, as well as walking closet, and curtain that separates the bed from the sitting area. The only complaint is the shower which is pretty small, especially considering the overall cabin size. Overall: 9.5 out of 10. Internet: They have StarLink, and the Internet was the best we had on any ship. I was amazed to see see speeds over 50 Mbps on a consistent basis. Overall: 10 out of 10. Staff: I have only good things to say about the staff. They were extremely friendly and tried very hard. No request was too big. The best crew we had ever. SB is a very casual line. They do have one formal night on shorter sailings, but you need a jacket only in the main restaurant. The whole atmosphere is very relaxed and casual. We like it much better than Silversea. Overall, we had a fantastic trip. Nice itinerary, great weather. I would rate our overall experience 9.5 out of 10. We already booked another SB cruise 2 days after our return. 

Great Cruise on Seabourn Quest

This was our first cruise on Seabourn and we are hooked. The ship was beautiful, the cabin spacious, the food excellent and the staff very friendly and helpful. SHIP - The Quest is a beautiful small (450 passengers) luxury ship. It is lovingly maintained by the large staff. We really enjoyed being on a small cruise ship. Even though our cruise was sold out, the elevators were fast and almost always empty and we never had a problem finding a seat in any lounge or around the pool. CABIN - Our cabi was large and comfortable. Plenty of storage. It even had a walk-in closet and double sinks in the bathrooms. The bed was very comfortable and the balcony was large. FOOD - We found the food and wine to be first rate in all the venues as was the service. The cocktails were innovative and excellent as well. 24 hour room service is available. STAFF - This is where Seabourn seems to really stand out. The staff are helpful, professional and very friendly. The take care of every need. ENTERTAINMENT - We were not expecting much considering the size of the ship. but were very surprised by the quality of the entertainment on board. PORTS - We greatly enjoyed all the ports with one exception, Durres, Albania, which is a rather depressing industrial city trying to recover from decades of communist rule. We made the mistake of not doing an excursion to the countryside here and instead walked the city with several other couples. Bad idea. As for the other ports, we were especially fond of Kopar, Kotor and Lipari. Sadly we could not visit Amalfi due to rough seas.