Silversea or Seabourn in the Baltic?

[athena39]

I know that the ships of these two cruise lines sail right into St. Petersburg and dock in the city. Which one would you choose for a cruise in the Baltic?

[Paul Motter]

They are so close it makes little difference. I would go with the best deal for the money. or if the money wads close I would go with the best itinerary.

But ship vs. ship - they are both great and very little to compare.

[KathleenMatt]

I would probably go with the newer Seaborne ship.. It is larger and it is newer and therefore I think it would be better..I have not sailed on the newer Seaborne ships but have sailed with Seaborne and I have sailed with Silver sea. I also sail frequently with Crystal.

There is smoking on the ships but we were not bothered by it.

Food will be great along with service. You will see the difference based on the price.
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[Paul Motter]

Thanks for the comparison, but Silversea does have a fairly new ship, Silver Spirit, that is slightly larger than Seabourn Odyssey and has more suites onboard.

Seabourn has almost all standard balcony cabins with maybe just about eight or 10 suites (they are all called 'suites' of course). I only say that to draw a distinction between the "type of cruiser" you might find on either brand.

You could say Seabourn is less stuffy - if you get my drift.

[Iamboatman]

Actually you have two different options with Seabourn: The smaller Seabourn Pride (about 200 guests) and the larger Seabourn Sojourn (about 450 guests). The Pride tends to have longer 12 day cruises and the Sojourn shorter 7 day cruises.

The big reason I would select Seabourn over Silversea (not that Silversea is a bad product) is that Seabourn is fanatical about consistency of its service and cuisine not only from cruise to cruise, but ship to ship. Silversea has admitted issues with each ship being different and there being consistency issues between cruises.

Silversea's Cloud and Whisper are also two different ships, but keep in mind that the Cloud hasn't been "buffed up" in a while.

If you are looking for what I believe to be the most luxurious (but not over the top) cruise ship in the world, the Seabourn Sojourn fits that bill.

If you want to avoid stuffy or formal atmospheres, Silversea is known for being more formal and restrained. While you can have formality on Seabourn, the fact is that you can avoid it as easily as engage it.

[Paul Motter]

In 2011 it looks like Seabourn has the traditional Baltic itineraries while Silversea is focussing more on Norway, the English Channel and even the Arctic.

If you want to see St Petersburg, Copenhagen, Helsinki and all the traditional Baltic ports it does not look like Silversea is offering it in 2011. But Seabourn has a July 14 cruise

Day Ports of Call Arrival Departure
1 Copenhagen, Denmark---5:00 p.m.
2 Warnemunde (Berlin), Germany 7:00 a.m.9:00 p.m.
3 Bornholm, Denmark 8:00 a.m.1:00 p.m.
4 Gdansk (Danzig), Poland 7:00 a.m.8:00 p.m.
5 Klaipeda, Lithuania 8:00 a.m.1:00 p.m.
6 Riga, Latvia 9:00 a.m.5:00 p.m.
7 Cruise Baltic Sea------
8 St. Petersburg, Russian Federation 8:00 a.m.---
9 St. Petersburg, Russian Federation------
10 St. Petersburg, Russian Federation---5:00 p.m.
11 Helsinki, Finland 8:30 a.m.5:00 p.m.
12 Mariehamn, Finland 12:00 p.m.5:00 p.m.
13 Stockholm, Sweden 8:00 a.m.---


Starts at about $5249 per person.

[Iamboatman]

I don't want to go astray here, but Seabourn also offers the Artic Circle type cruises in Norway. They are extremely popular for a select group.

[GrannyLorr]

I wrote a day by day report on Seabourns Baltic cruise last year, while onboard The Pride. However it is on another "forum".....if you get my drift!