Seabourn “Very Excited” For July Cruise Restart Says President Josh Leibowitz

Following the retirement of longtime Seabourn President Rick Meadows last year, Josh Leibowitz was named the new President of the cruise line and his duties now include oversight of all aspects of the ultra-luxury brand’s operations, including revenue management, deployment and itinerary planning, hotel operations, and sales and marketing. 

Porthole Cruise and Travel Magazine Founder and Editor-in-Cheif Bill Panoff caught up with Josh Leibowitz in Florida recently and learned more about the news that Seabourn will soon be resuming operation on board two ships beginning in July. Leibowitz was kind enough to answer a few questions about cruising’s return and he got us excited to get back on the water! 

Leibowitz was asked about plans to restart from both Greece and the Caribbean island of Barbados. 

“We have two options this Summer, Seabourn Odyssey will be in Barbados starting July 18th and we’re very excited about that. We know our guests are looking for a way to get out and re-experience life so that’s that South Caribbean and we’ll be visiting six islands on each of the 7-day itineraries and most people are actually booking 14-day itineraries starting July 18th,” said. Leibowitz. “We have marina day on every itinerary, we have a sea day on every itinerary and we have our signature caviar in the surf beach barbecue on every itinerary.” 

Pre and post-cruise stays are popular when it comes to cruising from a Caribbean island as it gives guests a chance to explore somewhere new. Leibowitz explained that Seabourn Odyssey is scheduled to leave port later in the evening, giving cruisers plenty of time during the day to fly in or explore before heading to port. 

Seabourn is also gearing up to resume operation from Greece on board Seabourn Ovation so Leibowitz was asked about the details. 

“We also have the Athens cruise which is on Ovation, our newest ship. The Seabourn Ovation will sail out of Athens on 7-day itineraries which are also combinable to 14-days. We actually have one guest who has combined cruises for over 40 days. We also have our marina day on those, our sea day and then we visit five or six beautiful Greek ports on each itinerary,” Leibowitz said. 

Seabourn Venture

One of cruising’s most popular trends for the past few years has been the influx of adventure and expedition ships available to consumers. Seabourn is one cruise line dipping their toes into the adventure cruise market with the completion of their first expedition ship, Seabourn Venture. 

A rendering of Seabourn Venture | Photo: Seabourn

“We are really excited about the Seabourn Venture. This is the first ever ultra-luxury expedition ship built in this caliber, so Seabourn will take you anywhere in the world. The ship is currently being built, it’s over in Genoa [Italy]. I’m actually going to see her in a couple of months, they’re making real progress on it, it looks incredible. We’ll have two submarines on each ship and listen to this, there are 264 guests on board and there are 26 expedition team members. The ratio is unheard of, no one else has anything like that and we’ll be sailing those starting with a winter itinerary which are the Northern Lights itineraries. So if you want to go see the Northern Lights starting from next January on, you’ll have a chance,” said Leibowitz. 

A stateroom rendering of Seabourn Venture | Photo: Seabourn

On the Northern Lights itinerary, guests will even have the chance to spend the day skiing as one of the shore excursions! 

Have you cruised with Seabourn before? Let us know what you thought in the comments below!