SeaDream II Review

5.0 / 5.0
42 reviews

Great When Things Go Well; Terrible Management When They Don't

Review for the Eastern Caribbean Cruise on SeaDream II
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rjeffb
2-5 Cruises • Age 60s

Rating by category

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Value for Money
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Sail Date: Mar 2015

We stayed in the lowest-price cabin on board, and that was over $20,000 with airfare. This review is written with that in mind; this was not a $4,000 Princess cruise and my expectations, and this review, are calibrated accordingly. I should point out that even though the fare and port fees were over $18,000, this was the cheapest cabin on board.

First, let's get out in the open the main reason for the poor overall rating. For years we had wanted to visit Saba. As an aside, we had once missed the opportunity to dine at The Beach House at the southern tip of St. Kitts (we drove all the way there only to find they had closed unexpectedly) and we once attempted to climb to the top of Mount Nevis only to be stymied by No Trespassing signs, learning later that having a guide is a must to complete that climb. So we were thrilled to find a luxury cruise--ahem, I mean "yacht"--that was going to stop at all three of those places, plus visits to Montserrat and St. Barts, both our to-visit list. Expensive? You bet--but worth it to us to visit so many places on our bucket list all in one shot.

Or so we thought. Shortly after we boarded the Seadream II, we were handed a new itinerary announcing we'd be skipping Saba entirely. Seems that the seas had been too rough over the past several weeks, so they rearranged the ports of call. St. Kitts was out, too.

Cabin Review

Cabin Steerage, basically

Deck 2, lowest-cost cabins on board. Meaning, only $8,000 per person. Tight and a bit worn--stains above the desk, screws missing from hardware and different kinds of screws forced into holes? Maybe for a Motel 6, but not what one expects from a millionaire's private yacht. No balconies anywhere, by frankly really neither needed nor missed--in a very real sense the entire ship is your balcony.NO STABILIZERS + narrow hull = pack that Dramamine! The captain had a very annoying and unfortunate habit of announcing high seas when we were already pulling out, so take medicine beforehand. Hint: Concierge offers Dramamine for free but you have to ask, they don't advertise it. Or consider getting a Scopolamine patch, several of the repeat passengers had them.Bed is the typical cruise ship two twins shoved together, but the mattress was extremely comfortable (wen the ship wasn't rolling, anyway--twice I spend most of the night on the floor next to the cabin door, where the rolling was minimal). Some passengers claimed that the rolling was worse on higher decks, but on deck two in high seas the water makes quite a bit of noise as it slaps the hull right outside the bed. The cabin also suffered from what appears to be a common problem on smaller ships (we had in on the Seven Seas Navigator as well): the cricket in the overhead, that emits noise only when the engine is at certain RPMs. I eventually traced the source to the overhead public address speaker and stuck a piece of foil under the speaker, fixing the problem.The ship is generally quiet, and the clientele are not nearly as noisy as a typical megaship anyway. But if you're on deck 2, you'll want to avoid cabins that are aft near the main salon as there are loud parties there at least on the first and last nights.

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