145 Nights Australia & South Pacific Panorama Cruise

Amazing Alaska Cruise on Seabourn Quest

Let me start off by saying that we have been afraid of cruising with our daughter because of her severe food allergies. The allergies are severe enough that she always carries an epinephrine injector. It was my father who has been on Seabourn previously that suggested we try Seabourn because they take the issues of food allergies and dietary restrictions very seriously. Prior to the cruise I listed all my daughter’s allergies on the web site and submitted an SRI form regarding her food allergies and promptly received a reply from guest accessibility noting all the food allergies would be accommodated, this was a great relief to us. On May 30, 2025 we set sail on Seabourn Quest on a 7-Day Glaciers and Alaska Inside Passage cruise. The check in process was quick and efficient and we were welcomed aboard and directed to our suite on the 9th deck. Shortly after we entered the suite we met Carla the suite attendant. She ensured everything was to our liking she even brought my daughter a shorter robe to make sure it was comfortable. Carla and Leah went out of their way to make sure our suite was the perfect home away from home. They even went to the trouble of setting up a roll away bed every evening to make sure our daughter slept comfortably. At dinner time we felt a little uneasiness about finding something for our daughter to eat. The uneasy feeling did not last long as the hostess in The Restaurant assured us our daughter’s allergies were all listed in the computer and the dining manager would be speaking to us. Moments later Juan, approached our table and introduced himself. He verified the allergies and asked what she would like to eat. He assured us that all precautions would be taken to ensure none of her allergens were present. He even had us choose her dinner for the next night. The food came out exactly how she had ordered it and it was delicious. Throughout the cruise Juan would check in with us and asked if everything was perfect. The servers in The Restaurant quickly learned our names, and memorized our daughter’s allergies. Kristian, R-Jay, Fanwell, and Duncan quickly became friends and made us feel like the only guests on the ship. On the night of May 31, 2025, we celebrated her birthday and we were blown away when she was given a cake that was free of her allergens. For the staff to go out of their way to make her birthday celebration extra special was heartwarming. The ability of the Seabourn staff to make you feel welcome and valued was incredible. We felt like we made friends and it was truly bittersweet to say goodbye at the end of the cruise. These staff members, as well as others are true ambassadors for the Seabourn brand. Seabourn should be proud of the wonderful team they have assembled that I believe makes this the premier cruise line. The excursions were great. The Lumberjack Show was a Ketchikan must see. Whale watching in Icy Strait Point was amazing, and the UTV ride in Haines was a blast. I would've liked to have done the Zodiac excursions that were offered, they seemed fun. (There is always next time) I think it goes without saying that all of our fears of cruising with our daughter’s food allergies were relieved by the staff at Seabourn. Now that our cruise is over, there is only one question. When are we going on our next Seabourn cruise?

This cruise was better than we expected

This was our second cruise with this cruise line and we have cruised on seven other cruise lines (Azamara, Oceania, Viking, Celebrity, P&O plus river cruises). This cruise line would now be our favourite. We liked that you can always find seating and quiet spaces, even on sea-days. We like sitting outside in the shade and always found a good place to sit. We would sit in the Square often and we would often be the only ones there in the evenings. The meals in the main restaurant were normally very good, but we had the occasional poor meal (as you do). The couple of special meals in the main restaurant were amazing over-all. We normally had excellent service in this restaurant. The Solis Restaurant food quality is excellent. We didn't enjoy the 'casual' Colonnade restaurant night-time meals, but their lunch was good. It was also nice to be able to do a couple of meals outside on the pool deck which always exceeded our expectation. The coffee is superb in the square! The main-stage evening entertainment from visiting performers was good, but the shows that the 'on-board' performers put on we thought were terrible (not the performers, but the show design & choro are poor). The visiting speakers overall were interesting. The cabins are large and they are nice. We had fast embarkation and dis-embarkation.

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).