"The service staff was very good with a huge contingent of South Africans on board along with Europeans. We did not see one food or housekeeping service person from the Philippines a common source for staff on both Regent and Silversea. Although friendly there is a distinctly more formal service atmosphere on board. One night at dinner in the main restaurant it seemed so much went wrong. Mixed up and wrong orders, people being served a main course while others had to wait and a very long time with several requests for extra sauces or condiments. This can happen on any ship on a given night of course."

I quoted the above from your review Ngaire. This was one of the parts where I thought no two people have the same take on the same thing. And that's what makes the world go round! I had the opposite experience, if I'm interpreting what you are saying correctly. I find the servers on Seabourn more friendly, more willing to engage and so Seabourn seems less formal to me :) When I was on Regent there were a lot of servers from the Philipines and they were very kind, warm and smiled a lot but (and I"m generalizing here) they didn't seem to want to get into full conversations as much as the servers on Seabourn. I've gotten into lots of conversations with them about their homes, their families, their travels, their jobs before they came to Seabourn, so it bridged the distance between staff and customers. Of course, it wasn't universally true, just like it wasn't universally true on Regent that the staff didn't engage with me. The Seabourn staff just seem more likely to linger at the table and have a conversation. Just my personal opinion, it's not a criticism of Regent just an observation that everyone finds Cruise lines (or airlines or dry cleaners) that they click with and become loyal customers of. Of course, a few more frequent cruiser perks on Seabourn would help, their loyalty benefits have got to be the worst (excluding the free 7 night cruise of course that can take you 20+ years to accrue).