Just off Carnival Cruise Lines transformed Carnival Liberty to check out their Funship 2.0 initiative, we traveled from Orlando to San Juan to join Seabourn’s new Seabourn Quest in progress on a 13 day Caribbean cruise. More than a few times on Liberty, lunch meant a stop by Guy’s Burger Joint, the extremely popular new dining venue on board featuring burgers crafted by the Food Network star. On the way via JetBlue we enjoyed complementary in-flight entertainment and guess who pops up on the screen in front of me?
Like I needed to be reminded of how much I tipped the scales after a Fieri-induced weight gain from 6, count em, 6 of the blow-away-any-burger-consumed-at-sea creations, flying at 38,000 feet brought a Food Network channel via DirectTV. Doug Parker from Cruise Radio already hit that hard in a recent post. As luck would have it, I watched as we zoomed through the sky at 500 miles an hour to San Juan where it dawned on me: Odds are there will be no Guy Fieri burgers where we are going.
I’m hoping that another celebrity chef, Charlie Palmer, will bring a similarly high level of quality via his influence on the Seabourn offerings. I’m told he does. A frequent guest on NBC’s Today Show, Palmer is also the author of four cookbooks; Great American Food, Charlie Palmer’s Casual Cooking, The Art of Aureole, and Charlie Palmer’s Practical Guide to the New American Kitchen. But can he make a burger to end all burgers?
We’ll find out today as we board Seabourn Quest for a spin around the Caribbean that ends in Florida’s Port Everglades ten days later. Those on board right now started at Port Everglades two days ago. Odds are all the other kids have chosen up sides, formed their own little cliques and otherwise bonded making us outsiders. They may even be plotting ways to keep us from getting in on the fun they probably started planning the first night at that critical meet-and-greet we missed.
Little do they know that I have brought along a secret weapon.
Daughter Whitney (@WhitneyCruises) just got off Disney Dream yesterday before rendezvousing with me at the Orlando airport for the trip down here. Whitney is a veteran of many at-sea kids clubs and brings skills on group infiltration these kids on the Seabourn cruise have no doubt never experienced. At age 12, she busted out of Camp Carnival. At 14 she infiltrated the adults-only Skywalkers nightclub on Princess with ease. And so it went through a dozen sailings on a number of lines. Now in her mid-20′s, Whitney will be heading to Germany shortly to bring out new Disney Fantasy and brought with her on this journey a new tricked-out camera.
It seemed appropriate to bring staff along on this sailing and fast-on-her-feet Whitney now armed with a good dose of Disney magic and professionalism should temper my default view of all things cruising: that of a wide-eyed 16-year old who never quite grew up.
Seabourn Quest looks to be a totally different experience for us. The wiki facts alone on this ship highlight the notion that this is going to be unlike anything we have ever done.
Seabourn Quest weighs in at 32,000 tons. The smallest ship I have ever been on was Royal Caribean’s Empress of the Seas at 48,500 tons. That ship is not even in the fleet anymore, transferred to Royal Caribbean subsidiary Pullmantour in 2008. Carnival Liberty is 110,000 tons so Seabourn Quest is less than a third the size of the ship I was on two days ago and it would take more than 7 Seabourn Quests to equal the size of Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas that we were on a few weeks ago.
Other than the sheer size difference, there looks to be a number of other features of the Seabourn experience that set the line apart from others. We’ll get into that next along with
- Our experience arriving in San Juan via plane rather than cruise ship (a first for us and way different)
- Pre-cruise hotel review: Embassy Suites and Casino, San Juan
- How NOT to make a good impression on the hotel casino staff
- Transfer to the port in San Juan and embarkation
We’ll be tweeting via me (@OrlandoChris) and Whitney (@WhitneyCruises) during the sailing as we discover what Seabourn is all about and posting on Facebook along with accounts of whatever may come our way right here including what the Seabourn equivalent of a Guy Fieri burger would be.
Stay tuned.
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- When this cruise line says “all-inclusive”, they mean it (chriscruises.net)
- Carnival Funship 2.0 hits the ground running on Carnival Liberty (chriscruises.net)
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