16 Nights Greek Isles, Ephesus & Turquoise Coast Cruise

A Lovely time on Seabourn Encore.

We have sailed with Seabourn previously, this is our fourth cruise with them. We chose this itinerary because its close to where we live (Cyprus) its only 1 hr 20 minutes to Istanbul. We flew the same day and boarded the ship. The boarding went very smoothly, we were a bit late boarding so we went straight to our spa penthouse suite. We upgraded thanks to an offer from Seabourn, a paid upgrade. We were pleased we did, the suite is quite large, with a lovely wrap around balcony. Overall, we had a fantastic cruise, the crew were amazing, we like Seabourn square a lot, the staff are friendly and helpful the coffee shop is great. The only down side is that they dont open the main restaurants for lunch? We like trivia so that was special, we won twice which was good. Dining: The Colonnade is OK but its a buffet service, the food is good, good choice however its only Luke warm. We dined in the main restaurant, the food was very good as was the service. The speciality restaurant the Solis is very nice however, you may only get one booking because it is very small, it is the best restaurant on the ship. We also had "in suite" dining sadly it was not good. The portions for my meal was tiny and once again the food was Luke warm. The service in the bars was very good, both the club on deck five and the observation bar. The entertainment was very good, we went to see the ex head of MI5, she was very good, the Seabourn dancers we also a delight. Disembarkation was very smooth, no problems there. Internet: Because we were in a Penthouse suite we were allowed 4 devices, the speed was good.

An excellent experience!

We did a round trip from Athens visiting Antalya and Marmaris in Turkey, Cyprus and Crete and it was excellent. Embarkation and disembarkation were both a breeze and we went straight to 'The Colonnade' for lunch and Champagne. It was first class and set the tone for the week. Cases were promptly delivered to the cabin that was available from 1.30pm. The cabin was amongst the best we have had including Suites and a balcony cabin on Celebrity Edge when it was only 3 weeks' old. The bathroom was huge with an excellent shower, the bed supremely comfortable, the Molton Brown toiletries a pleasure to use and the stocked fridge and welcome bottle of Champagne nice touches. The only improvement I would make is having a balcony door that slides rather than opens out onto the balcony which took up space and made it a little awkward. The weather for the week was superb, ranging between 26C and 31C and each of the ports had something to offer and were interesting. The entertainment was invariably good and the energetic Seabourn Six put on two good productions. The sail away one afternoon featured two of the Seabourn Six singing Operatic arias and they were superb. The drinks on board were varied and we had a few cocktails but mainly focused on the champagne and quite delicious Cala Provence rose which was available throughout the ship. The staff were very good, some not as attentive as others but we had no complaints. The food was a notch above what we have experienced on other lines with the Colonnade lunch buffet being very good every day, The Restaurant classy with a range of options which were tasty and well plated and I enjoyed Solis more than my wife who did say her 'seabass' was excellent! I opted for the 8oz fillet steak and greedily asked for some 'gambas' on the side which were huge so my self styled 'Surf and Turf' hit the spot. We never bothered with breakfast as we like to laze in the morning with just coffee and orange juice. We have another Seabourn cruise booked for March to Cape Verde and after our recent experience we are greatly looking forward to it. We are also cruising with Celebrity in two weeks' time so it will be interesting to see the comparison but I have a feeling that Seabourn will be a 'go to' option from now on. In short, our Seabourn experience exceeded our expectations!

Seabourn home run

Seabourn hit it out of the park! We have been fortunate enough to have cruised around 40 times and this was the best all around we have ever been on. After 20 Celebrity and several Oceania,Azamara(Royal Carib with the kids) we have found,for us, nirvana. The Encore felt like a large yacht(with real teak decks!) Food and service were A++. Our cabin was comfortable with a great bathroom and bed. We recently sailed the new Silver Nova in Alaska and felt Seabourn was slightly ahead due to warmth of crew and superior food(our 2 cents). For us,our only dissapointment was a weak lecture program and no comedian. Another slight dissapointment(yes-a huge first world problem) was the itinerary was weak…Albania was not worth getting off the ship. Kotor was wonderful and we enjoyed Napfali but the being on the Encore was much more enjoyable than many of the ports. We can’t wait to enjoy Seabourn again!