We’re on board Seabourn Quest for a 10-night sailing of the Caribbean, taking a look at the Seabourn experience and all it has to offer. Follow along by subscribing to our email updates, checking our SeaLog, Twiter updates or Facebook posts.
A big part of the cruise vacation experience, regardless of the cruise line, is dining. Anyone who has ever sailed can testify to that and how some lines do a better job of it than others. Each has it’s own signature menu items and on board venues that are popular but universally a great deal of the experience is subjective. What one guest finds irresistible may not interest another leaving the definition of “good food” up to each of us. Then there is Seabourn who delivers exactly what each of their guests wants. Consistently. Without fail. Every day.
That’s a bold statement but one that is clearly accurate after just a couple days on board Seabourn Quest, the line’s newest ship.
Foodies?
It will not get better than this for you.
First-timers?
Sailing Seabourn first will ruin you.
Picky eaters?
Your ship has come in and it flies the Seabourn flag.
Special dietary needs?
There is nothing they cannot do and they will do it better than you may have imagined in your wildest dreams.
We had the pleasure of dining with the ship’s hotel manager last night, insuring that what we were about to experience would be the best they have to offer. We were not disappointed.
Every point of service one might expect from the finest restaurants at sea or on land was hit with exacting accuracy. The Prix Fixe menu, personally selected by the hotel manager, put the kitchen to task, requiring a wide and complex range of culinary skill, accuracy and timing to pull off successfully. They did not miss a beat.
But again, this presentation was for the hotel manager. If you’re not familiar with how cruise ships are operated, the hotel manager pretty much runs the show, has the largest department on board and the greatest impact on guests. Short of the captain ramming an iceberg, how well the hotel director does his job will make or break any given sailing.
Dinner with the hotel director and just six guests had to be taking top priority backstage. Or at least it would have in any other dining operation on the planet. Here, it’s just what they do and that ability, the system they have in place, is the number one factor that sets Seabourn apart from any other line.
Not long ago we covered Royal Caribbean’s premiere dining venue 150 Central Park on Allure of the Seas. Chef Molly Brandt and crew did a fabulous job with a unique menu that dazzled us and positioned the experience as one to be remembered and recommended. Also a prix fixe menu, the 150 Central Park experience was unique and arguably the best Royal Caribbean has to offer. A reasonable person would not expect the same level of quality in design or function at other venues on the ship.
The Seabourn difference is that they are able to maintain that same level of quality in all they do.
Room service means white tablecloth service in our suite or on our verandah. Simply bringing food to a cabin in a timely manner would be a win on other lines. If hot things were hot and cold things were cold, all the better.
The Seabourn difference sets the table, presents culinary creations selected from an extensive room service menu, off the main dining room menu during hours of operation or made to order via special requests of guests. Literally nothing is impossible for them to do and they do it with joy.
Clearly, there is a keen attention to detail here representing a bar set so high that other lines will not even see it, let alone strive to emulate it. Am I saying Seabourn is better than other lines? In a way, “yes”, “absolutely”, and “without a doubt” would be accurate answers. But “sort of” would be accurate too.
Seabourn is in its own little world and plays by its own rules.
This is not the world of the privileged that few will experience as over a million guests have repeated sailing with the line. Still, on board we find well-traveled passengers, accustomed to some of the best in food and service that the planet has to offer. They expect, demand and appreciate the best and Seabourn delivers.
Those passengers play a critical role in the Seabourn experience and one that is a bit difficult to wrap your head around without being on board, seeing it all play out first-hand.
Surely, regardless of the ship, the crew makes a huge difference. Surely, the clientele a line draws creates an ambiance that the hardware cannot dictate. Take a lazer-like focused crew then fill the ship with serious cruise passengers eager to share their experiences and gain new ones and add a culinary setting that allows anything to be possible and we begin to get a taste of all Seabourn can be.
It’s quite a difference.
