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Seabourn Top Experts, Critics & Guests Evaluations

I regular refer people looking for objective evaluation of cruises and cruise ships to avoid magazine polls (Conde Nast, Travel & Leisure, Porthole, etc.) and look to objective experts like Douglas Ward (Berlitz) and Stern’s Guides. The reason is that the magazine polls can easily be skewed by improper voting, readership that doesn’t actually sail on the particular line and a host of other reasons.

But…as I usually say…when there is significant consistently between the popular polls and the expert evaluations, it is something to take note of. Such is the case with today’s press release from Seabourn.

SEATTLE, December 1, 2011—First-place awards and honors keep accumulating for Seabourn‘s intimate all-suite ships in 2011. Recent announcements by the editors of the twin Cruise Critic websites in the U.S. and U.K. confirm the opinions resulting from earlier readers’ polls at both Travel + Leisure and Condé Nast Traveler, naming Seabourn the best small-ship cruise line in the world. The readers of the popular consumer cruise magazine Portholehave also once again expressed their praises for Seabourn’s ships and accommodations. In addition, Seabourn’s fleet of six elegant ships also represents six of the ten highest scoring ships in the world, according to the ratings in the 2012 Berlitz Guide to Cruising and Cruise Ships.

“All of us are tremendously gratified by these honors” said Seabourn’s President, Richard Meadows. “We’re extremely proud of our hardworking crew who truly deserve the recognition for these awards.”

The editors of Cruise Critic’s authoritative web presence have collectively spent thousands of days at sea on hundreds of cruise ships. So when they single out Seabourn Odyssey, Seabourn Sojourn and Seabourn Quest as the “Best for Luxury,” they know whereof they speak. They also must have sampled the sublimities in quite a few shipboard spas before selecting Seabourn Sojourn and Seabourn Quest as being the “Best for Spa-Lovers.” Cruise Critic’s U.K.-based sister site also selected Seabourn as representing the “Best of Luxury” for the second consecutive year.

The newly released December issue of Portholemagazine announced that its readers had named Seabourn Best Luxury Line, and Seabourn Quest as the Best Small Ship in its 13^th Annual Readers’ Choice Awards, and had also cited the fleet for offering the Best Accommodations afloat.

Douglas Ward, the longtime editor of Berlitz Complete Guide to Cruising and Cruise Ships, is renowned for the meticulous and detailed scoring system he uses to rate ships of all sizes and shapes. In the 2012 edition, he once again rates all of Seabourn’s ships five-stars-plus, and also includes all six of Seabourn’s vessels on a comprehensive list of the ten highest scoring ships overall.

One thing you may want to keep in mind as you begin cuddling up for the cold winter and say, “You know, we should start thinking about our next cruise”, I am finding quite a number of 20121 Seabourn cruises with extremely limited inventory.

So for all of you that insist on following the flawed philosophy of waiting because the price may drop, I want to offer these two points:

(A) If the price drops, but the category and/or suite you want isn’t available, you probably have saved nothing…and may ultimately pay more; and,

(B) If you book with Goldring Travel and you find the price of your Seabourn cruise drops, just let me know and I will get you that lower fare…right up until the date your final payment is due.