Shhhhh! Want to discover your own private ultra-luxury cruising paradise? I mean way over and above the usual cruise vacation experience!
Try and imagine sunning on deck in your lounge chair and suddenly unexpected treats like mango sorbet topped with champagne, or an ice cold rolled face cloth arrive, without asking, from your ever attentive cruise staff.
Maybe it is the exquisite cuisine, the all suite accommodation and the exceptional service that brings people to Seabourn as their choice for the best ultra-luxury cruising. Perhaps it the fact that these almost “personal” yachts provide one of the most pampering and intimate cruise experiences available.
Seabourn’s three “yachts” (Seabourn Pride, Legend and Spirit) provide a vacation beyond compare. The ships carry only 208 fellow passengers and almost one staff for every guest traveling. Their suites range from 277 square feet to 575 square feet, all with marble clad bath and roomy walk-in closets. Every suite has five foot picture windows or for the extra treat many have French balconies to let the wonderfully calming and romantic sea breeze in.
Your Seabourn experience begins the moment you board and are escorted to your suite. There you are warmly met by your room stewardess (yes they are called that) carrying champagne chilled just right and asking you to take your choice from a fine selection designer soaps; introducing you to your suite’s plush cotton robes, duvet cover and fine Egyptian cotton linens. And it just gets better.
Seabourn’s cuisine, planned by celebrity chef Charlie Palmer, presents more than 200 specially created signature dishes served in an open seating “Restaurant” where you can dine when you want and with whom you want. The tables glisten with Porsgrund china and Schott Zwiesel crystal and fine wines and spirits are included of course, as is a complimentary in-suite bar fully stocked to your specifications!
For casual indoor or outdoor dining there is the Veranda Café and very imaginative “tastings” menus served at ‘2’, Seabourn’s casual dining alternative to the restaurant. This epicurean feast of 11 courses is usually available on alternate nights, but don’t miss the regular menu as it will please the most discriminating palate. Make a reservation or you will miss out!
On several sea days, Seabourn will also provide a barbecue grill on deck with outdoor seating, and of course, 24 hour room service is just a phone call away. This is not ordinary room service – you can choose anything from gourmet pizza to the ultimate in romantic dining! You can choose to be served course-by-course from The Restaurant menu in the privacy of your own suite. Or make up your own menu and yes you can invite your friends to join you!
After dinner, it may be Movies Under the Stars(TM) with first run films (with fresh popcorn) or what could be more romantic than time spent dancing on deck to live music, under the stars with the moonlight glistening on the water.
Can you imagine uniformed staff wading into the turquoise waters bringing you chilled caviar and fine French champagne? My favorite experience, Caviar in the Surf(TM) is offered by Seabourn on all tropical cruises. This is an over the top experience and to me is one of the signature events of a Seabourn ultra-luxury cruise.
Each of the Seabourn sister vessels feature water sports from the ship’s unique aft marina. On tropical and select Mediterranean cruises, you can swim, snorkel, windsurf, kayak, water ski or try to ride a banana boat – all complimentary. If you just want to lounge around on deck – take advantage of their Massage Moments – complimentary again, of course!
Their onboard spa presents all you will need for keeping shipshape, from hair care and facials to pampering massages and fitness classes, plus a well equipped gym and the services of a personal trainer.
It is no surprise that the Yachts of Seabourn have been voted the World’s Best Small-Ship Cruise Line by Travel + Leisure Magazine and World’s Best Cruise Ship by Condé Nast.
From personal experience, I can tell you that there is almost nothing the Seabourn staff won’t do to ensure your happiness. Anything! Anytime! Now that’s ultra-luxury cruising. Even better – Seabourn is building three additional ships for arrival in 2009, 2010 and 2011.
Source by Sid Kaplan
