Yachts of Seabourn One of the biggest trends in the
cruise world right now is booking passage on small
luxury ships.
A
favorite stomping ground of Seabourn Pride is the Carribean.
Here, the 440-foot vessel stops in St. Lucia.
Since the day of its launch – when Shirley Temple
Black burst a champagne bottle over the bow – Seabourn
Pride has sailed with a certain savoir-faire. Although the
ship can carry as many as 208 guests, the feel is really
more of a large oceangoing yacht, where the pampering and
the exotic panoramas never seem to end. In addition to being
the largest ship in our survey, the sleek 440-foot vessel
is also the fastest, capable of reaching a cruising speed
of 16 knots.
The Ship
An extreme makeover in 2003 took Seabourn Pride to a whole
new level of comfort and style, including the addition of
plush balcony suites on the fifth and sixth decks. But the
great thing about this ship is the fact that every cabin
is a suite – with a queen bed, a spacious sitting
area, a large walk-in closet, and a coffee table that easily
converts into a proper dining table for romantic meals or
those times when you simply feel like dining in the privacy
of your own cabin. Floor-to-ceiling sliding-glass doors
or picture windows in the suites afford incredible views
of the passing scenery or the port to which you happen to
be anchored.
Larger also means more facilities – an intimate library
stocked with hundreds of books, a computer room with Internet
service, a card room and casino, a gymnasium and spa, three
different whirlpools and an outdoor swimming pool. Shows
and lectures are staged in the roomy Magellan Lounge, while
nightly piano music entertains guests in the glass-enclosed
Constellation Lounge on the top deck. A floating “marina”
that unfolds at the back of the boat features myriad water
sports (sailing, kayaking, windsurfing, waterskiing) and
a special steel-mesh pool for ocean swimming.
The Frills
Seabourn goes out its way to create an ambiance like none
other on the high seas. From simple pleasures like movies
under the stars (with fresh popcorn) and on-deck massage
to more refined charms like caviar beach parties and the
Dress Circle onboard enrichment program and lecture series,
Pride delivers an experience that even much larger boats
would be hard-pressed to match.
Aureole maestro Charlie Palmer dreams up culinary delights
for the whole Seabourn fleet, a menu of upscale dishes that
runs all the way from classics like prime rib and rack of
veal to more offbeat treats like citrus-marinated fluke
and barigoule of artichoke.
Alleviate your after-meal guilt in the Spa at Seabourn,
recently voted the best seagoing health-and-beauty center
by readers of Conde Nast Traveler. New Elemis therapies
combine touches of various exotic spa cultures, including
Thai and Balinese massage, Japanese shiatsu and Reiki, Hawaiian
lomi lomi and Indian Ayurvedic treatments.
The Cruise
From the Amazon to Patagonia and New England to the Norwegian
fiords, Seabourn Pride covers a lot of geography in a given
year. But one of its favorite stomping grounds is the Caribbean,
in particular a cruise departing November 11 that calls
on legendary yacht havens like St. Barts, Virgin Gorda and
the Grenadines, and more out-of-the-way places like Isla
Margarita off the Venezuelan coast. The ship's shallow
draft allows it to slip into bays where the big cruise ships
can never venture. Among the posh shore adventures planned
for this trip are a Caviar in the Surf beach barbecue at
Virgin Gorda and Mayreau. From $5,376 per person.
