SEATTLE, October 18, 2013 - Seabourn announced today that it has signed a Letter of Intent for the construction of a new ultra-luxury cruise ship with Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri. The new ship will be modeled after the line's three newest vessels, Seabourn Odyssey, Seabourn Sojourn, and Seabourn Quest, and will encompass the features that have made these ships so successful. Delivery is planned for the second half of 2016.

The vessel will replace the capacity that is leaving the Seabourn brand with the sale of Seabourn Pride, Seabourn Spirit and Seabourn Legend. These ships will be transferred to their new owners in April 2014, April 2015 and May 2015, respectively.

"We are pleased to be moving forward with the plans we announced earlier this year to build a fourth ship similar to the highly regarded new design we introduced with Seabourn Odyssey, Seabourn Sojourn, and Seabourn Quest," said Seabourn President Richard Meadows. "The experience and amenities offered by these award-winning ships have raised the bar in ultra-luxury cruising."

I just read that the 2nd of their newest Luxury Ships is being built.
Seabourn's Newest Luxury Ship being built

All these new builds, I love it! I heard Richard Branson is starting a new cruise line, I bet it will be unique.

Although we really enjoyed our one cruise on Seabourn, I am not sure we will cruise them again anytime soon as we felt they treated us pretty badly last year. We had a cruise booked for a crossing from Europe to the US and deposit paid. They held our deposit for 7 months, and then when the cruise date was about 12 months away, they cancelled the cruise. The offer we got was for 10% discount if we booked another cruise within 5 days or so. None of the alternative cruises they suggested would work, as we were trying to get home after a River Cruise so our dates were pretty inflexible. Although Linda tried, Seabourn refused to allow any flexibility or extension of the discount in the booking of another cruise, and we just couldn't find anything in that short time frame, so we just took our money back. So they got to earn the interest on our deposit for 7 months and we got nothing out of it - no future cruise credit, no future ship board credit, nada!! Plus I had to find another way to get back home (just ended up cutting the vacation short and flying back).
Not very good customer service in my opinion. Maybe as time goes by and this bad memory fades we will reconsider cruising on them again (they do have beautiful ships and I loved the free caviar!).

I am always happy to see more competition in the cruise market, and never discount the possibility of cruising any line, given the right itinerary and price. It is hard to give up my many perks with Regent for a cruise now and then, not a problem for me, for something different. Somehow, nothing has attracted me lately, but no telling what the future will bring with all these new ships! It amazes me how many are on the horizon, actually. I know I will always come back to Regent, however.

Well Olivia, you are doing Azamara in April, thats a new one for you, and several of us right? Or have you done them before?