In May, 2013 my husband and I cruised from London  The cruise crossed the North Sea to the Norwegian fjords, Oslo, Gothenberg and finished in Copenhagen. We had a balcony cabin on deck 7 and book some of the excursions but by no means all.

My booking process was most unfortunate. I was quoted a price for the cruise and for insurance and paid my deposit. When the time came to pay the balance the insurance price had doubled. I talked to three people and finally faxed a copy of what I had printed out showing the original prices. A booking supervisor called and left a message that they"could not replicate that quote in the system and therefore the new price was in effect." I bought my insurance privately and went to pay my balance and the booking supervisor had arbitrarily added the newly priced insurance into my balance. I then had to get that removed. I wrote a letter to John Delaney, Senior VP of Sales and Marketing protesting the level of customer service; he continued the same level of service by not bothering to reply to my letter. When I discussed this with those who actually work for Seabourn I was told they call this the "Carnival Factor". Apparently the level of service that is more common to Carnival is now prevalent in Seattle.

When we embarked in London our spirits were raised significantly by the efficiency of the process;from leaving our driver to walking onto the ship and being whisked off to lunch at the Colonnade took all of twenty minutes. It was cold in London and as we strolled the decks exploring the ships one of the bartenders noticed I was cold and asked if he could get me some hot tea. He then raced down a deck and came back with a tray of tea. The booking process was fast fading from our minds! Read more