Luxury Cruise Talk Logo

Keene Luxury Travel
800-856-1155 · 972-701-9292
Join Our Mailing List · Email us

Who's Online Now
6 registered members (Davefr, Yallcruise, Ralph W., Ngaire, DennisK, Jim B), 1,009 guests
Newest Members
DennisK, SuprDave, BarbD, johnsmithpmt, Juliehoover(41381 Registered Users)
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Seabourn Quest #230651 05/31/11 10:42 AM
Joined: Jan 1970
Posts: 15,171
KarenS Offline OP
Moderator
OP Offline
Moderator
Joined: Jan 1970
Posts: 15,171
You can read the article here along with a few pix of the ship.


Karen

Live long and prosper
Re: Seabourn Quest #230652 05/31/11 03:19 PM
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 7,967
jhp Offline
cruiser
Offline
cruiser
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 7,967
Always exciting to see new luxury ships coming out. So many since 2009....3 on Seabourn and 2 on Silversea. Lots of new beds to sell, maybe all the competition will bode well for us as consumers!

I saw on Avid Cruiser's website that he will be on Quest in early June before the official launch.

Re: Seabourn Quest [Re: KarenS] #233507 08/28/12 02:26 PM
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 732
P
peteropny Offline
cruiser
Offline
cruiser
P
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 732
We were on the Quest last week (8/17-24/12) on a charter from Istanbul to Athens (with some different ports - Limnos, Izmir, Cesme, Kos along with the last 2 more typical Santorini and Mykonos).

Please keep in mind the charter aspect, I will try to limit my comments on those that are not affected by the charter but I'm sure some aspects of my comments are affected directly or indirectly by the charter. I will also use comparisons to Regent since most people on this board are very familiar with Regent.

Cabins / Suites - very similar to Regent both in size and setup. We had a window "suite" since we booked kind of late and the only balcony "suites" available were high category ones in less than optimal locations and are basically the same with the addition of balconies (much like Regent's suites being all the same until you get to the Penthouse categories). Once you enter the cabin, on the right is the bathroom (with separate bathtub & shower - the vanity contains two sinks compared to Regent's one). Next comes the walkin closet. The "bed" area is also very similar except for a cabinet / credenza on the wall at the foot of the bed which provides more storage but makes the walkway at the foot of the bed narrower (I think this is a good use of space). The "sitting" area is where there are more differences. On the Quest there are narrow armoires on both sides of the room (head and foot of the bed) - with the one at the "foot" area containing storage space and the small flat screen TV (which has extensive movie choice that is on demand) - the one at the "head" area contains the minibar / small refrigerator as well as more storage. In the main area is a sofa that is pretty hard and relatively uncomfortable. On the opposite wall is where the biggest difference between the Quest and Regent - the Quest has a small dining table with two chairs as opposed to Regent's wall of cabinets with a desk area with one chair. On embarkation, three additional bars of soap (Hermes, LOccitane, and one other) was placed on the desk area without explanation (upsell or they were seeing if guests prefer some brand over another?). The "standard" amenity is Molton Brown.

General Decor of the Ship - The Quest is generally decorated in a more contemporary way than Regent - it often comes off a bit stark and industrial. There is no artwork "for sale" displayed on the ship.

Design of the Ship - We consider this a failure on the Quest. There is no central location for people to congregate (on Regent its the "main" lobby area with the "front desk", tour desk, future cruise booking office) - on the Quest its located at the very rear of the ship on deck 7 (which is away from the central elevators even) and once you are there, staff is located in cubicle type structures where you can't even see the people working. This same "Seabourn Square" contains the coffee bar, library, and computers for guests. The theater design is also an abject failure - it's located at the back of the ship (which seems to be rather unusual by itself) but the major problem is the design in the theater itself (placement of support pilars means there are very few seats (and none of the better aisle seats) that have an unobstructed view to the performance area that doesn't have a stage). A really positive aspect of the Quest is the number and location of pools / hottubs - aside from the main one there is a small pool and two hottubs at the rear of the ship and one hottub at the bow of the ship (although rather unusable if the ship is in motion) - the Spa has another set of pool / hottub.

Food - Regent is far superior - similar in the main dining room to Regent. Both Breakfast and Lunch in the casual restaurant (the Colonnade similar to Regent's La Veranda) has much more limited selection and hours open. The pool grill also seems to be not as good as on Regent. The one specialty restaurant (Restaurant 2) serves a fixed tasting menu only (similar to Regent's prior to Prime 7) - we didn't try it.

Service - Rather inconsistent - for dinner one night they tried to deliver Mark's choices to me and vice versa for several courses - another night, it took 15 min for them to take away the completed main course plates (another night they kept trying to take them away while I was still eating). The Club bar area (which the back pool / hottubs are located next to) has no service during the day so people who are using that pool area has to go all the way to the main pool bar area to get a drink / service (3 decks and 1/2 ship length away). Some of the difference could be cultural (on the Quest most of the staff is Eastern European while on Regent the staff is mostly Filipino) but I think it's more training. At the casual restaurant, there is a clear separation of duty (drinks vs order taking for the kitchen) which is really hard to figure out since they are dressed the same.

We found the timing of the shore excursions to be rather puzzling since they usually seemed to be gone during the main lunch time in the casual restaurant. However, this could be a function of the charter.

We always thought that Seabourn is a notch above Regent so we were a bit disappointed.

Please feel free to ask any questions that you may have (and a note to Karen to please feel free to move this post if there is a more appropriate place for it).

Re: Seabourn Quest [Re: KarenS] #233508 08/28/12 02:44 PM
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 1,761
seadog Offline
cruiser
Offline
cruiser
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 1,761
Very interesting, Peter. Thank you for posting your impression. It's so nice to have such a community that shares experiences in a way that is helpful to the rest! Nicely done.

Re: Seabourn Quest [Re: KarenS] #233509 08/28/12 03:15 PM
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 1,516
Lee Offline
cruiser
Offline
cruiser
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 1,516
Peter - thanks for taking the time to give us all that information. It was very interesting reading and will make us think twice before leaving Regent - although I wish Regent could come up with some really new itineraries. Lee

Re: Seabourn Quest [Re: KarenS] #233513 08/28/12 03:57 PM
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 11,641
joannapv Offline
cruiser
Offline
cruiser
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 11,641
Thanks Peter really enjoyed your post - having spent time with you I know your review is probably similar to same issues/view points/ we'd have for the cruise - I would not like the contemporary "feel" but that is just me -


Joanna
Re: Seabourn Quest [Re: KarenS] #233517 08/28/12 06:11 PM
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 1,569
Mrs. Marc Offline
cruiser
Offline
cruiser
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 1,569
Great review Peter Thanks


Arlene
Adventure before Dementia!
Re: Seabourn Quest [Re: KarenS] #233523 08/29/12 04:35 AM
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 1,434
Dreps Offline
cruiser
Offline
cruiser
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 1,434
Thanks for the review. It is consistent with what our friends reported following a longer non-charter cruise on the Sojourn. I remember that they particularly didn't like the included wines that were offered and the treatment that they received when they attempted to select alternatives.

--------------------------

Eugene

Re: Seabourn Quest [Re: KarenS] #233541 08/29/12 03:12 PM
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 5,658
cruisinfanatic Offline
cruiser
Offline
cruiser
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 5,658
really interesting review Peter and thank you. We had been thinking about trying Seabourn, but maybe we will just wait and see.


JoAnn

Moderated by  KarenS 

Keene Luxury Travel Offers
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.3