Seabourn Cruise Line

MV Seabourn Sun

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Operator: Seabourn Cruise Line
Year Built / Last Refurbished: 1988 / 1994
Length / Tonnage: 673 / 38,000
Number of Cabins / Passengers: 383 / 758
Officers / Crew: Norwegian / International
Operating Area: Year-round World Wide
Telephone / Fax: Tel 110 4517 / Fax 110 4514

There are warmly decorated ships with cold crew, and coldly decorated ships with warm crew, and then there’s a ship that breaks all the rules....the ROYAL VIKING SUN (recently re-named SEABOURN SUN). Except for us, cruise reviewers are unanimous in awarding 5 and a half to 6 stars for this ship. As we have mentioned elsewhere in this project, for years and years the French government has used the star system for its hotels and restaurants....and if the ultra luxe Hotel Crillon in Paris cannot achieve more than 5 stars, we think it ridiculous to give this or any other ship points beyond the very respectable 5 star level.

Giving more than 4 stars to the ROYAL VIKING SUN is a dilemna for me. On my sailing, the ship deserved no more than 3 and half stars, but close friends, who are experienced cruisers, report that enough on board changes have been made so the ship MAY be indeed a 5 star operation. That said, I STRESS that this report is based on our experience on board during a two week Norwegian fjord cruise less than two years ago and with additional input from North American Maritime Society’s Australia representative, himself a shipping man and a member of the Norwegian diplomatic corps whose uncoached comments after his transAtlantic sailing in this ship were absolutely the same as ours!

The comment card I, Goldberg, filled out aboard this ship reads: "Overall, even with her small cabins, VISTAFJORD outperforms RVSUN." I quote further from my commentary: "I shall not soon forget my cruise in the m/vROYAL VIKING SUN nor the many days I spent in my cabin...it's a very nice cabin...I got to know it very well”. A Cunard executive will probably call to scream at me, lambaste me, chastise me for writing these words...and making them public...but what we write is not only the result of opinions based on decades of interest in and work ships but a true account of our experience in this liner. And we know that senior management at Cunard does not sit idly by when negative reports of life aboard their ships circulate...and in light of their nonsensical last few years...ships burning, ships grounding, ship's toilets exploding...who can blame them?...One Cunard executive called a travel writer I know and loathe to take her to task for what she wrote about his company...(Hey...corporate arrogance in THIS business is amazing...

One major producer for Holland America got a call from an angry reservations supervisor and took the company's flack because the woman in Seattle didn't like the way that agent did something...She never stopped to consider..."Hey...I'm yelling at the customer here...and he COULD take his business elsewhere..." A lot of cruise executives ARE arrogant in this vein...Twice, when helping my travel agent with family cruise bookings....yes, Holland America...I ended up asking a reservations supervisor "Are you telling me you want to throw away XXXthousands of dollars of business?"...and she said..."Yes, I don't care if you cancel..." So I canceled...and booked us on....Royal Viking in one case and on Cunard in the other! Because of people like that supervisor...and the cruise business seems to attract such types like magnets pull in iron filings...I take the risk of the company's angry response...I do this for several reasons...and I list them here...Cunard cruises are very expensive and they have historically relied on the good will of the press to garner a reputation perhaps better than deserved...I believe the prices they charge forfeits their right to be held harmless from criticism...indeed, like any other premium product...should invite close inspection to prove their customer gets real value for price paid...and finally, perhaps I find it fun to follow the late, great Sam (Sam the Banana Man) Zemurray, who, after merging his small Cuyamel Fruit Company into the gigantic United Fruit Company in 1929 and went on to become head of that enterprise, said..."I had fun poking the giant's knees with my own little shovel." In its present form I don't expect Cunard to be around very long...the name will likely live on as it has for over 150 years...but let's not kid ourselves. All these people have in common with the bunch that ran those ships...and there were some wondrous vessels among them...is the name Cunard. And maybe in its coming incarnation...new executives will realize that it's not just a couple of travel writers you have to thrill...you have to provide good solid value for the dollars you take.

Friends in 3 different departments at Cunard as well as the ship's then Hotel Manager urged me to pass my story onto Cunard...and yet I hesitated to report this grizzly little tale to anyone in authority there for Hotel Manager had intimated that our comment cards would stir up trouble and no hornets' nest need I stir up! Besides,.there are a lot of other ships for me to sail in...and I didn't like this one enough to go back. I don't care how highly rated she is....I found her lacking in most of those areas I care about.

TravelPage.com Associate cruise editor Christopher Smith hypothesizes that it was the introduction of the ROYAL VIKING SUN that hastened the death of once stellar upmarket Royal Viking Line. When the ROYAL VIKING STAR, ROYAL VIKING SEA and ROYAL VIKING SKY debuted in the early 1970's, old time regulars of luxury companies like Swedish American Line and Norwegian America Line balked at the absurdly small cabins, faux wood wall coverings and the admittedly cheesy construction standards of Finland’s Wartsila shipyards. Over the next 15 years, RVL won over many of these same naysayers, by providing a service so close to the “old days”, exciting itineraries, and a level of ambience and comfort that rivaled the best of them. In fact, as late as 1990, it was commonplace to witness passengers engaging in verbal sparring, one insisting that Cunard/NAC’s SAGAFJORD was THE ship, the other person claiming loyalty to any one of the three ROYAL VIKING sisters.

When ROYAL VIKING announced the impending arrival of this new baby, every RVL alumnus quivered with excitement, and then they saw the rates! But anyway, RVL fans hoped that the new ship would carry the line into the next few decades. The designers of the ship solicited suggestions from past passengers and crew members from all departments so as to incorporate everyone’s ideas for the perfect ship. The results were less than satisfactory.....it’s like giving a dinner party for 100 strangers, but attempting to cater to each guest’s personal whim. It cannot be done. So when the ship sailed out of Greenwich, England down the Thames on her shakedown cruise, filled with 400 or so of the most loyal RVL passengers including that same, trendy travel writer Chris Smith, negative comments already flew fast and furious...”The ship has no character”....”The ship is too disjointed”......”Looks as if RVL couldn’t make up their minds”. Of course, any new ship will have teething problems, hopefully worked out during a drydock refit...But for some funny reason, not a single major design flaw was ever addressed...and this unfortunate “abomination of the seas” sails on and on, carrying people at highly inflated rates...and garnering rave reviews by a few travel writers blindsided by a Cunard which bends over backwards to thrill them with perks and gewgaws.

The Stella Polaris Lounge has magnificent views and comfortable seating...but the Midnight Sun Lounge has too much overstuffed furniture. Once highly touted by Royal Viking for its clubby, masculine feeling, the Oak Room is a cave of a room, rarely used...With a $100,000 unusable fireplace, “faux” might be the word to use for it...a “faux smoking room”, so poorly thought out that it is not even a waiting room. The Gym is adequate, with adjoining lap pool. Slanting downwards towards the bows is the enormous Main Lounge...redolent in bright cherry red, pink and orange. It has comfortable chairs and good sight lines, but furniture is so crowded together that it’s difficult for waiters to maneuver, especially during Captain’s parties and repeater’s receptions. The small cinema gets few visitors but the unevolved card room does. Quite popular is the small video library...where passengers gather to choose tapes to bring back to their cabins. An honor system prevails...you are supposed to sign out your tapes. Some do, some don’t.

There’s just ONE sitting in the enormous, three separate room Royal Viking Dining Room...and every one of these rooms has large windows looking out on the promenade..they’re so large that when seated at a window table, I got the feeling that I was a zoo animal being admired by a passing parade of jogging health fanatics. There IS a plus side to this triptych of windowed rooms, the tables are large, well appointed with necessary utensils, and the chairs, though of a most curious design, are comfortable.

The FOOD is fabulous! Quality and selection of the food served in the dining room and cabins is deserving of a 5 star award. Though not exotic, the finest ingredients are used, with sufficient and varied spices, so that one’s palate won’t be bored, not even on a world cruise...and menus are rarely, if ever repeated on a single cruise...

The SERVICE...well...that was another matter entirely, and I prefer to think the service we got was the exception rather than the rule, but whatever it was... it was neither marginally nor even minimally acceptable...that was OUR experience... and I’m not here to write about YOURS...I write about what I know...I write about what I experienced...what I felt. I also add personal recollections of others I know and whose judgement I trust...So, about the service in the Royal Viking Dining Room...TravelPage.com Associate Cruise Editor Chris Smith wrote in his comment card: “The reason I put "UNDECIDED" about enjoyment of cruise and future sailing with RVL lies with the Maitre d'Hotel. Our dining room experience was totally unfavorable. Swedish waiter Gustav and Dutch assistant, Johnny, brought everything at once....rushed us through meals...so if either of us lingered over caviar...the Chateaubriand was served either cold or soggy (depending upon where the waiters had stashed it after dropping off our caviar). One 5 course dinner was served in 42 minutes!!!!

At lunch, Johnny repeatedly delivered incorrect food orders. We felt the waiters tolerated us, but we were not made to feel welcome.” Whenever this happens... and it can on any ship... a discreet word to the maitre’ d or section captain should yield satisfactory results... but on the ROYAL VIKING SUN, the pompous Italian Maitre d’Hotel was of no help. He became immediately arrogant AND defensive AND insulting, and all but inferred that we were too inexperienced to know good service from bad AND we've been on 200+ cruises! So, with no resolution in sight in the dining room, after 4 days into the cruise, we took every meal in the Garden Cafe or our cabin...That's not what we wanted to do but know better than kicking a dead horse...so that's what we did for meals..At least in the cabin we were charmingly served by the Penthouse butler, who was instructed to do whatever he could to make us comfortable in the cabin.....he was thoroughly examplary of the way Royal Viking USED TO BE. So you, potential cruiser, must decide for yourself...if you are going to spend $500 or MORE per person per day for this ship, do you want to have to put up with such nonsense?

I almost hate to say it, but there is more...In an age of cruising where dining options now abound, it is NOT acceptable to offer no lunch buffets when in port...ESPECIALLY unacceptable in a ship whose operators pride themselves on the rave reviews their largesse can garner them...Other than a sit down lunch at your assigned table in the dining room, which we would not enter after day 4, the only lunch offered on days in port was at the burger bar...where only burgers and hot dogs, some stale sandwiches and a few salad items....OH! I FORGOT...there WERE FRIES!...It was either that for lunch, or bother room service. It’a BIG no no for a “five star operation”.....only at sea were lunch buffets served in the fully functional Garden Cafe.

As our cruise was so port intensive, if we desired a quick meal without dressing for the dining room, our choice was limited on almost every day of this cruise to either burgers and hot dogs or little, stale sandwiches poolside, or room service....There is NO EXCUSE for eliminating a lunch buffet in port. Ships with ratings as low as 1 star, with home office budgets far less than Cunard, provide this amenity. And 5 stars means is all about CHOICE... that passengers should have an abundance of choices, and if being compelled to take meals bedside in the cabin is the best choice, that IS unacceptable...and makes us grade this ship sternly...so with such restrictions on CHOICE...let us repeat that this was not a viable choice at the prices charged. Other passengers remarked that they did not find the lack of a buffet acceptable, either. Nor were the limited hours for bar service in the Stella Polaris a hallmark of the best at sea, nor does closing the Midnight Sun Lounge for 2 hours every evening, with the excuse that "all the passengers are in the dining room" work. We weren't....and when we had been, we had been processed through the dining room in our first two nights aboard in 42 minutes.

The food served in the Garden Room, a “casual alternative dining” area, was abysmal....greasy, poorer than coffee shop quality. The other alternative dining room, the Venezia, was not operating during my cruise.

Curious thing about this ship - her coffee tasted like I imagine swill tastes...briny, metallic and thoroughly unpleasant. And a final note....regarding wine prices....the selection of wines is fantastic...no doubt about it....but the prices for many labels are in the stratosphere....just because the ship is catering to a wealthy crowd doesn’t give the line license to extort you off at every turn.

There are really only 5 varieties of cabins on ROYAL VIKING SUN....138 square foot inside doubles, (best taken as singles), 191 foot outside doubles with your choice of bathtub/shower or just shower, 238 foot outside doubles with private verandas, 362 square foot deluxe A grade cabins with verandas and 488 foot penthouse suites. Lots of storage space, the size of the bathrooms, amenities such as refrigerators, VCRs, TVs, and wonderfully comfortable beds with thick down filled comforters are found in each and every cabin. BUT......entering our Cabin 25, an A grade cabin with veranda on embarkation day, I was taken aback by the large slash in a cushion of the leather sofa, the one inch gap with exposed metal floor at the seam of the living area carpet, and the bathroom and veranda doors which had fallen off their tracks and would thus neither open or close. Here’s that word so oft used in this review....UNACCEPTABLE.

As for good locations versus bad locations of cabins, here’s a plus.....there are no bad locations.....so if you are inclined toward booking a regular outside cabin, go for the lowest price. The only difference between that cabin type, located on Pacific Deck, and cabins costing hundreds of dollars more, is that you get two portholes instead of a picture window.

Let’s try to avoid stereotyping here....OK, I CAN’T avoid it...but we must call them as I seem them. With precious few exceptions, on Chris Smith’s 14 Royal Viking Line voyages, he found a preponderance of not so interesting well to do people who made repeated efforts to outsnob each other. On my three Royal Viking trips I found much the same...oh, MY..how grand some of these people are! Of course, there were a handful of really fun, successful people who had enough self confidence to refrain from such “nouveau” behavior. In any case, many of the passengers, especially those on long haul voyages, are getting on in years, and their joie de vivre wanes with each passing nautical mile. I shudder to consider that the passengers’ attitude may be due, in part, to the attitude of the crew.....though competent, their spirit seems to have been drained out of them over the years....the newer crew members seem friendly enough, but there are plenty left in the higher echelons who seem to have decided that an uppity snobbish approach to service is what the guest expects....which might be okay, except that this attitude leaves me cold......and that’s how the ROYAL VIKING SHIP feels.....cold.

She goes everywhere from a long winter world cruise and transAtlantic sailings in spring and fall to two week European and warm weather cruises. See the brochure. We don’t feel comfortable enough to either recommend this high priced item or is either of us in the mood to spell out her list of ports...so if you’re still interested in this one, the easily obtained brochure will reveal all.

and it's a grizzly little tale... It began with a stunt executed by the Maitre d'Hotel...Seeing the Hotel Manager about the service in the Dining Room one morning, I was surprised that he tried to “jolly” me, offering me to change my table. I've been in luxury ships where should a passenger be displeased with the service, they change waiters, not tables. As a nameless Holland America Line Chief Steward wrote in 1929 in a list of thoughts for all staff, "Nobody ever won an argument with a passenger." I know that the SUN’s Hotel Manager and Maitre d’Hotel have heard that because I told them. I'd not heard of that one before...a Hotel Manager thinks all he needs do is offer to change a man's table. I refused his offer to change tables, and answering his question: "Where will you eat?" with a firm "In my cabin...", he knew he had no way to change my mind. We chatted further quite cordially until Hotel Manager said as I was taking my leave: "I already knew that you were not happy."

Taking him up on his gambit, I asked him what and how he knew. "You said some nasty things about the ship like this is an awful ship and said Cunard made a mistake buying it." To this amazing lie I asked for more details...perhaps the source... I don't know about you, but I don't like someone to tell me I said things I never said. As luck would have it, the source was even then in sight....and I insisted he be called in. Closing the door behind Maitre d’Hotel, I demanded he repeat what he told Hotel Manager and he did...reiterating a story so obscene in its attempt to predispose Hotel Manager against me in order to short circuit any trouble for Maitre d'Hotel and his waiters that had it been feasible to disembark at the next port I would have done so. For I had said nothing of the sort...and as Cunard’s own Public Relations Department of the time and the Hotel Staff in the VISTAFJORD can tell anyone...until this ROYAL VIKING SUN nonsense, I was the number one Cunard fan among travel writers! So when I looked the Maitre d’Hotel in the eye and said: "YOU ARE LYING!" he took no umbrage, as he knew he WAS lying....and Hotel Manager knew it, too...diplomatically trying to chalk it up to a language misunderstanding, but that made it worse...because since age 10, on the order of my late "Godfather", a former Italian Line senior Captain, I am fluent and literate in that language...indeed with a University degree in it...there was no language misunderstanding. In a life of travel I have not yet had such an experience, that of a petty officer depicting me in such a manner as to invalidate any complaint I might have, and then to act in the manner he did. This story, I need not mention, is hardly the stuff of five star plus cruising, this is the stuff of the old Soviets. I do not yet look upon the hour or so I spent with these men with anything other than an agitated distress. But no matter....No crew member has ever really won an argument with a passenger!

And Maitre d’Hotel was only one of the unpleasant characters in this crew...Two abrupt, unsmiling and rude ladies at the Reception Desk should really have considered work ashore....maybe as guards in a penitentiary... Not the particular object of their rudeness, I was just often witness to their repeated unpleasant treatment of Cunard’s passengers.

Chris Smith had sailed in the ship on her delivery voyage from Britain to Florida in 1988... when she outclassed almost every other ship afloat...so even though many new ships had come into service since her debut way back then...her operators always marketed her as the cream of the crop, allowing me (Goldberg) to expect a lot from the ship. After all, both RVL and Cunard proudly touted her as the world's top rated cruise ship!!!.. Above all, I expected an atmosphere and attitude akin to what I experienced only three months earlier in the VISTAFJORD...That ship's crew have an obvious love for their liner and work with an attitude that suggests they really want you around. It didn’t take any time at all to learn that I had made a mistake thinking that the ROYAL VIKING SUN could be in the same league with the VISTAFJORD... The Asst. Cruise Director welcomed passengers to some functions on behalf of "Royal Viking Line". I ran into her once and when I asked her to do me a favor..."Next time you welcome passengers on behalf of Royal Viking, PLEASE slip in the word CUNARD first," I got a dirty look for that. Another item that did not much thrill me was an announcement of future cruises in the ROYAL VIKING SAGAFJORD and in ROYAL VIKING VISTAFJORD. My gut reaction was this: There are a lot of people on that ship who are not happy that Cunard owns Royal Viking and unfortunately, some of them are in very responsible positions.

Located above the gangway is a plaque with the words “Welcome Home” carved in it. When Chris Smith sails in other ships considered deluxe, like VISTAFJORD or SONG OF FLOWER, he truly feel at home. This nut, Goldberg, prefers smaller, simpler ships like the STELLA SOLARIS or ODYSSEUS or the steely sophisticated COSTA CLASSICA...But neither of us feels at home on the ROYAL VIKING SUN. And who’s fault is that? Attempts at making a passenger feel welcome came across as forced, corporate, and with only a few exceptions, never, ever sincere. It just seemed like too much work to have fun on this ship.

In fairness, we know that there has been a changeover with the crew.....there’s a new Captain, (the much touted Captain Ola Harsheim curiously left the company sometime after the ship ran aground on a reef in Egyptian waters), there will be a new hotel manager as the present article is expected to retire soon.....so with a little redecorating and more attention to maintenance, there may be hope for the ship yet. After all, she certainly has enough space for exceedingly high levels of comfort......she just needs to GENUINELY smile now and then.

Again, Chris Smith, writing to the line: "In conclusion, it was a peculiar trip, tainted with a bad feeling in the dining room, making us feel like outcasts, by no means a part of the shipboard community, and now we feel like the "bad seed" of the RVL family. Personally, I'm hurt and disenchanted."

For all this and for so much more, we give this ship the above rating.