Since its founding in September 2001, SeaDream yacht club has accumulated a wide variety of awards, honors and accolades from authoritative travel industry publications, various organizations and associations and unsolicited comments from guests. Here are some of our recent honors:
Berlitz Ocean Cruising and Cruise Ships 2011—SeaDream yacht club is “Simply the Best” according to the 2011 Berlitz guide. Researched and written by Douglas Ward – the world’s top authority on cruising and cruise ships, the guide reviews 285 cruise ships. The 10 most highly rated, being officially “small” or “boutique”. “Small is Beautiful” said industry authority Douglas Ward. The 2011 guide announced that the 112-guest mega yachts SeaDream I & II are two of the top five sea-going passenger vessels in the world. Europa, a Hapag-Lloyd cruise ship which is significantly larger than the SeaDream yachts, is the only vessel placed above SeaDream II. Since SeaDream’s founding in 2001 it has been honored annually by the Berlitz guidebook.
Kreuzfahrt Guide (Germany)— SeaDream yacht club’s twin mega-yacht cruisers, SeaDream I and II, were awarded “Number One for Service” in the 2010Kreuzfahrt Guide, authoritative German guidebook. This was the second year in a row that SeaDream has been so honored by a panel of independent judges. The award was presented at ITB (International Tourism Bourse) Berlin, one of the world’s leading and largest travel industry trade shows.
Berlitz Ocean Cruising and Cruise Ships 2010
SeaDream yacht club is honored yet again by Berlitz and its yachts were described as “Ultimately Exclusive Boutique Vessels.” SeaDream yacht club has received yet another dramatic accolade from this highly authoritative guidebook. Since SeaDream’s founding in 2001 it has been honored annually by this publication. The top three seagoing passenger vessels in the world according to the 2010 edition of the Berlitz Guide are SeaDream I, SeaDream II (and scoring a bit higher) Europa, a cruise ship operating primarily for the German speaking market. SeaDream I and II rated five stars and topped 10 contenders in the “boutique ships” (50 to 200 passengers) category. By doing so it outscored cruise vessels of Seabourn Cruise Line, Silversea Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Sea Cloud and also the highly touted Grill Class of Queen Mary 2 The 2010 edition of Douglas Ward’s highly-regarded, independent cruise industry bible named SeaDream I and II as the tops in its Five Star Club and listed them as being “Crème de la Crème.”.
Porthole Magazine
SeaDream yacht club was named “Best Passenger Yacht Experience” in Porthole Magazine’s 2010 Editor-in-Chief Awards. Porthole is a sophisticated, international consumer cruise magazine that features well-researched articles on cruising and the cruise lifestyle. It is used as a resource by both travel sellers and cruisers. The award was reported by Porthole Editor-in-Chief Bill Panoff in the February 2009 edition of the magazine.
The Zagat Survey, 2009
Zagat, the highly-renowned organization that publishes reviews of restaurants as well as of hotels, inns and resorts, recently completed its first- ever survey of cruise ships and announced awards for the year 2009. SeaDream was named as having the Best Small Ships (under 200 passengers). The Zagat survey covered 22 major cruise lines and was voted on by 2379 regular cruisers who have taken 9.5 regular cruises, each averaging nine days. All told the surveyors had taken 22,700 separate cruises. Ratings were for “cabins, service, dining facilities and shipboard activities.” SeaDream topped all other cruise lines surveyed in four of these five categories. The only one that SeaDream didn’t top was “shipboard activities.”
Berlitz Ocean Cruising and Cruise Ships 2009
In the 2009 edition of this authoritative guidebook SeaDream yacht club’s twin mega-yacht cruisers, SeaDream I and II, topped the “Five Stars Club” winning over a field of 20 contenders. Berlitz rated the top three seagoing passenger ships in the world SeaDream I and II and a vessel called Europa that operates primarily for the German speaking market which scored marginally higher due to a rating it received for the guide’s Entertainment category. Yachtlike SeaDream does not offer the usual elaborate entertainment package believing its guests capable of—and prefer to— entertain themselves. SeaDream has been so honored by this publication in each new yearly edition since it began service in 2001.
Cruise Critic
The 2009 Cruise Critic “Editors Picks” named romantic SeaDream yacht club “Best for a Honeymoon Splurge.” Cruise Critic, the online guide to cruises, is one of the most influential travel sites on the web. Acknowledging the award, Bob Lepisto, President of SeaDream said “A honeymoon makes the most important moment in a couple’s life, even more memorable. For this special holiday, couples are looking for intimacy, pampering but unobtrusive service, fabulous dining and exciting destinations. SeaDream offers all; that and more.”
A leading resource for cruise ship reviews and news, this independent, on-line guide selected SeaDream yacht club for a top award in its 2008 Cruise Critic Editors’ Picks. SeaDream was honored for “Best Luxury Service.”
Berlitz Ocean Cruising and Cruise Ships 2008
SeaDream I and II topped the new Berlitz guidebook’s Five Star Club winning out over a field of 13 contenders. The Berlitz Complete Guide to Ocean Cruising and Cruise Ships is the highly-regarded, independent cruise industry bible. Once again the SeaDream twins, which have received this honor each year following SeaDream yacht club’s formation in the fall of 2001, were deemed by author Douglas Ward to once again be in an “Exclusive” category he states to be above luxury. There are only three vessels in the “Exclusive” category—SeaDream I and II and Europa, a cruise ship, operated primarily for the German speaking market.
Seven Seas Society
The Hamburg, Germany Seven Seas Society, whose membership is devoted to cruising and cruise ships, named SeaDream yacht club the World’s Best Cruise Line for 2008.
Fielding’s Guide to Luxury Cruises 2008
SeaDream yacht club’s twin mega yacht cruisers, SeaDream I and II were honored by this well-respected guidebook as the Best Small Ships in the World in the publication’s 2008 edition. SeaDream has been included in Fielding’s top ten passenger vessels since 2004 when the cruise ship guide was first published.
Kreuzfahrt Guide
SeaDream yacht club was named “Best Cruise Line for Service” by the authoritative German guidebook, Kreuzfahrt Guide. The award was presented at the 2008 ITB travel fair held each year in Berlin.
Capital
This influential magazine, the top business and financial publication is Germany, honored SeaDream yacht club in its winter 2007 issue by naming SeaDream I and II the top small cruise ships in the world. Although the publication’s staff annually rates the world’s best hotels and restaurants, this is the first time it has rated seagoing holidays. The award stated “…Exquisite yachting ambience…Guests feel as though they are aboard their own private yacht.”
Travel + Leisure Magazine
With a skyrocketing reputation for excellence far beyond its tiny size, SeaDream yacht club was honored with the World’s Best Award for Top Small-Ship Cruise Line in Travel + Leisure’s 2007 Readers’ Poll. This news was announced in the July 2007 issue of the publication. Travel + Leisure is considered by travel industry observers as a leading voice in worldwide travel.
In March of 2007 Travel + Leisure bestowed yet another singular honor on SeaDream yacht club. In an article based on its influential a Readers’ Poll, it named SeaDream one of the World’s Best Values. The magazine said “And once again, the results show that value is about more than price—it’s about making every dollar count.”
Earlier, for three years in a row—2004, 2005 and 2006—SeaDream yacht club dominated this magazine’s World’s Best Awards as “Top Cruise Line for Service.” In the November 2004 issue of the magazine it named SeaDream to its list of Best Small Cruise Lines for the first time. In 2004, among the six categories on which readers rated all cruise lines on a 100 point scale, SeaDream was number one in three of them—Service (98.39), Food (95.16) and Value (89.52).
Cruise Magazine
This leading UK travel publication named SeaDream I World’s Best Small Cruise Vessel for 2006.
Condé Nast Traveler Magazine Readers’ Poll
This authoritative travel publication named SeaDream yacht club the “World’s Best Small Passenger Shipping Line” for 2006. Additionally, SeaDream scored higher than any other passenger shipping operation—large or small—in the publication’s Readers’ Poll—and was the only one rated in the top 100 “World’s Best Travel Experiences.” In earlier Condé Nast Traveler Magazine Readers’ Polls—2004 and 2005— SeaDream yacht club received a perfect score for service was
listed one of the “World’s Top Travel Experiences.”
Condé Nast Traveler Magazine Gold List
In addition to SeaDream’s success in this publication’s Readers’ Poll, it also achieved high honors by being listed in its annual Gold List, a compendium of the World’s Best, Hotels, Resorts, Airlines and Cruise Lines. SeaDream has been on this list since 2004 when it scored a perfect 100, higher than any other passenger steamship company in the categories for Food and Service. The latest Gold List listed 12 cruise lines, of which SeaDream yacht club was the top scorer.
There have been many other awards, honors and accolades since SeaDream yacht club commenced operations in 2001. These have come from such publications and organizations as: CruiseReport.Com, Carlson Marketing Group, Hideaways International, Porthole Magazine, Travel Agent Magazine and Travel Weekly’s Magellan Awards.
