WHY IT RATES: Guests traveling on Seabourn’s adventurous expedition itineraries will experience remote destinations. —Codie Liermann, Associate Editor
Seabourn, the world’s finest ultra-luxury cruise line, has opened for sale the inaugural expedition season itineraries for Seabourn Venture, the line’s first ultra-luxury purpose-built expedition ship.
Between July 2021 and April 2022, Seabourn Venture will visit a vast number of breathtaking locations and remote destinations in the Arctic and Antarctica, as well as in the Amazon, Caribbean, Central and South America and more, offering guests the unique opportunity to experience ultra-luxury expedition cruising and exhilarating adventures.
The new itineraries include 25 immersive voyages, ranging from seven to 22 days, featuring ample opportunities for travelers to discover diverse wildlife, soak in spectacular scenery and nature, and learn about each region’s colorful history and culture.
The ship, which offers all oceanfront veranda suites, is scheduled to visit more than 150 unique and fascinating destinations across the globe—many of which few travelers have ever been—and over 65 new or notable destinations with a multitude of new and compelling expedition experiences.
Additionally, select voyages may be combined to create sailings of up to 30 days in length. The itineraries, fares and additional details of Seabourn Venture’s inaugural year are available at www.seabourn.com.
“We have thoughtfully and carefully designed these expedition itineraries to not just visit but also provide the best authentic destination experiences in some of the most interesting and hard-to-reach locations in the world,” said Richard Meadows, president of Seabourn. “Along with the ultra-luxury lifestyle we are known for, Seabourn Venture’s amazing and immersive voyages will deliver the ultimate ultra-luxury expedition travel experience that our guests will cherish forever.”
Highlights of Seabourn Venture’s expedition itineraries in 2021 and 2022 include:
The Arctic and Northern Europe
Following the ship’s delivery in June 2021, Seabourn Venture will kick off its maiden season in Northern Europe and the Arctic, where guests can explore the seasonal extravagance in the northern polar region, visit Viking ruins, view whales, walrus and seals up close, bike the winding lanes of the outer British Isles and trek to waterfalls and shining blue-white glaciers.
The ship will embark on a 10-day pre-inaugural “Highlights of the English Channel” cruise departing July 5, 2021, from Lisbon, Portugal, with stops along the northern French coast, England and Belgium before sailing up the River Thames to Greenwich (London), England.
The sailing will be followed by a 12-day inaugural “Northern Isles & The Viking Homeland” voyage from Greenwich to Tromso, Norway, departing July 15, 2021, and exploring the beautiful outer British Isles and the majestic Norwegian fjords.
Seabourn Venture will spend the rest of the season through September exploring the Arctic. The ship will sail on five 10- to 15-day voyages in the region, visiting many far-flung locations in Svalbard, the North Cape and other locations in Norway. Other destinations include Iceland; Greenland, and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago in Nunavut, the most remote and least-populated destinations explored during Seabourn Venture’s Arctic season.
Among some of the new destinations the ship will visit in the Arctic region are Scoresby Sound, Greenland, home to the largest and longest fjord system in the world; Sermilik Fjord, located in southeastern Greenland and renowned for the many icebergs that flow from multiple glaciers at its head into the Denmark Strait; Svalbard, Norway, where, if conditions permit, the ship may sail along the edge of the North Polar ice cap, home to diverse wildlife that have adapted to and this unique environment such as polar bears, whales, seals, rare arctic birds and more; and Pond Inlet, Nunavut, the eastern entry to the Northwest Passage and home to narwhals and belugas and a million nesting birds at Bylot Island.
Caribbean, Central America and South America
Following Seabourn Venture’s expedition voyages in the Arctic, the ship will make its way south in October 2021, stopping at various exotic locales in Bermuda, the Caribbean, Panama Canal, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile.
During three 10-to 14-day voyages, there will be opportunities to explore in Zodiacs under teeming bird cliffs, kayak among tropical coral islands, visit ancient Inca sites and snorkel unspoiled Caribbean coral gardens glittering with iridescent fish.
Seabourn Venture will stop at several new locations in this region, including Pio XI Glacier in the Chilean Fjords, which is the only glacier in Patagonia that is growing—at a rate of 50 meters per day—rather than shrinking, and Jorge Montt Glacier in the Aisén Region of Chile at the north end of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field.
Guests may also spend a night in Puerto Natales, where a climb of Dorotea Hill provides a lookout from above that may include a sighting of the majestic flight of the condor that nests on the vertical walls of the hill.
Antarctica
Beginning in November 2021, Seabourn Venture will spend the austral summer season at the southernmost continent. The ship will offer nine exhilarating voyages, spanning 11 to 22 days, and provide the ultimate authentic experience on the Antarctic continent and islands, South Georgia and the Falkland Islands.
Guests can experience these amazing surroundings by Zodiac, kayak or even from the unique submarine perspective of the underwater world; view different species of penguins, seals and whales; visit sites of historical and geological interest; gain first-hand insights into regional scientific research; enjoy scenic cruising of spectacular waterways and passages. The exciting schedule features voyages departing from Ushuaia, Argentina, including a 21-day “Ultimate Holiday Antarctica & South Georgia” cruise departing December 14, 2021.
For the first time, Seabourn Venture will call at multiple new locations in the Falkland Islands. These outer, remote and windswept islands are home to nearly 65 percent of all black-browed albatrosses on the planet.
Based on the day’s weather and most favorable anchorage positions, Seabourn Venture may call at the following islands: the remote Saunders Island, the site of Port Egmont, which is the first British settlement in the Falklands established in 1765; Steeple Jason Island, a remote, protected nature reserve highly prized for its exceptional abundance of wildlife, including the largest colony of black-browed albatrosses on Earth, as well as penguins, southern giant petrels and king cormorants; West Point Island, where guests have the opportunity to meet the Napiers, the island’s only occupants whose great uncle established the farm in 1879, and visit the rockhopper penguins, black-browed albatrosses and other wildlife; and New Island, one of the most remote of the inhabited islands, lying on the western fringe of the Falklands Archipelago and supporting some of the largest concentrations and diversity of wildlife in the Falklands, with more than 40 species of nesting birds.
The Amazon
Between March and April 2022, Seabourn Venture will set sail on a series of five seven- to 12-day expedition voyages in the Amazon, where guests cruise in Zodiacs along the Amazon River and visit ancient sites and indigenous Amazon villages. The voyages will explore varying environments shaped and differentiated by the Amazon River itself.
These can be divided into three major regions: Flooded Forests and Blackwater Tributaries—Manaus, Brazil to Rio Jutaí; The Frontier Amazon—Rio Jutaí to Leticia, Colombia; and The Seaport in the Jungle—Leticia to Iquitos, Peru.
On April 30, 2022, Seabourn Venture will return to Europe with a 12-day “Western European Waterways” cruise from Praia, Ilha de Santiago, Cape Verde, to Greenwich, England, stopping at the Canary Islands, Morocco, Portugal, France and Belgium.
On select itineraries in the Arctic and Antarctica, guests will fly into a designated city where a hotel overnight and charter air to the embarkation port the next day will be included. Similarly, select itineraries will include a charter air flight at the end of the voyage from the disembarkation port to a city where flights are more readily available. These include voyages that begin or end in:
—Longyearbyen, with air to/from Oslo
—Kangerlussuaq, with air to/from Reykjavík
—Ushuaia, with air to/from Buenos Aires
Seabourn Venture is scheduled to launch in June 2021, with a second yet-to-be-named sister ship slated to launch in May 2022. The ships are being designed from conception for expedition travel blended with ultra-luxury and personalized service by leading travel experts and seasoned professionals with great depth of experience in expedition, hospitality and luxury cruising.
For more details about the award-winning Seabourn fleet or to explore the worldwide selection of Seabourn cruising options, contact a professional travel advisor, call Seabourn at 1-800-929-9391 or visit www.seabourn.com.
SOURCE: Seabourn press release.
