22-Day West African Discovery: Cape Town To The Canaries

Seabourn only permits service animals on board, defined as those animals that are individually trained to provide assistance to an individual with a disability. We do not permit our guests to bring pets, therapy/companion animals, and other animals that do not meet the definition of service animals. If you have any questions about whether the animal you wish to bring on board is, in fact, a service animal, you may contact Guest Accessibility.

Your itinerary may include ports of call that have very specific and strict requirements that need to be met prior to your service animal being allowed off of the ship. Please be sure you understand the requirements for a service animal to disembark in each port of call. The best places to obtain specific information on required documentation and immunisations for your service animal are the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s website, local customs offices in the specific ports, and from your service animal’s veterinarian. All documentation and immunisation requirements are established by government authorities and not by Seabourn. Should you need assistance in locating this information, please contact Guest Accessibility.

To board the ship, your service animal must have current vaccinations. Records confirming the vaccination status should be provided to Guest Accessibility prior to your departure. We also recommend that you carry the immunisation records with you in case they are required at any port of call. If you do not have the proper documentation and proof of vaccinations for your service animal required at a port of call, or if there are local quarantine requirements, your service animal will be denied the right to leave the ship. If your service animal is denied the right to leave the ship in a specific port of call, the staff and crew will work with you to determine what actions may be possible to allow you to visit the port without your service animal. Please note that in your absence, you will need to provide for the care and supervision of your service animal. Except in those circumstances where your service animal has been denied disembarkation, you may not leave your service animal unattended on the vessel or in your suite at any time.

The Australian quarantine authorities have changed their approach regarding service dogs on-board cruise ships. Unfortunately, their new approach makes it practically impossible for us to accept service animals on domestic or roundtrip cruises from Australia. The Department of Agriculture now considers these cruises to be akin to an international voyage and therefore under ‘biosecurity control’. As a company, we are incredibly disappointed with the Department’s new approach, and we have written to the Federal Minister to ask for a return to their previous way of doing things. At this time guests will not be able to travel with service animals on voyages that end in Australia or call upon a port in Australia after visiting a foreign country. Guests sailing on voyages that begin in Australia will be able to sail with their service animal provided the voyage does not return to Australia after visiting a foreign port. Should you have further questions please contact Guest Accessibility via email at Access@Seabourn.com.

For guests with food intolerances or allergies that are not life-threatening, please contact our Reservations Department. For guests with life-threatening food allergies, we ask that guests provide detailed information to Guest Accessibility by completing a Special Requirements Information form (SRI). Guests should indicate on this form which foods may potentially cause a severe reaction.

Guests with a variety of severe food allergies sail with Seabourn regularly. Our galley staff on board is accustomed to and experienced in dealing with these types of needs. The galley itself has many different areas of food preparation, which can help reduce the possibility of cross-contamination. It is important to note, however, that meals are prepared in open galleys on board the ships, thus there is always the possibility of some cross-contamination. As such, Seabourn cannot guarantee that a guest will not come in contact with those items. Although Guest Accessibility will provide the ship with an advance notice of all food allergies detailed on an SRI submitted to them, it is recommended that guests also contact the Maitre d’ upon boarding to review the details of these special dietary needs.

Guests under 21 years of age must be accompanied by a parent, guardian or chaperone who is at least 21 years old; one adult chaperone is required for every five people under age 21. A guest must be at least 6 years of age at the time of embarkation in order to sail on voyages to Antarctica or on Expedition Cruises. We will not accept reservations for infants 6 months or younger for non-transocean sailings, 12 months or younger for transocean sailings at the time the cruise commences. Seabourn cannot accept a booking or carry any guest who will be 24 completed weeks or more pregnant on the last day of the intended cruise. All pregnant women are required to produce a physician’s letter stating that mother and baby are in good health, fit to travel, and that the pregnancy is not high-risk.

Attire During the Day

• During the daytime, casual, resort-style attire, including shorts and jeans, is welcome in all lounges and dining venues. Swimsuits, brief shorts, cover-ups and exercise attire should be reserved for poolside, on deck or in the spa and fitness centre.

In the evening (after 6pm) there are two different dress codes:

Elegant Casual

• Men: Slacks with a collared dress shirt or sweater; Jacket Optional.
• Ladies: Slacks / skirt, blouse, pant suit or dress. This is the dress standard for all dining venues
• Jeans are welcome in all dining venues during the day, but not appropriate in The Restaurant after 6pm.

Formal

• In the Restaurant, Men: Tuxedo, suit or slacks and jacket required.
• Ladies: evening gown or other formal apparel. Dress in other dining venues is Elegant Casual.
• Jeans are welcome in all dining venues during the day, but not appropriate in the Restaurant after 6pm.

The itinerary in the preliminary document booklet will inform you of the number of Formal evenings to expect during your voyage. As a rule of thumb, Formal evenings are scheduled as follows:

• Cruises up to 13 days: One Formal evening
• Cruises of 14 to 20 days: Two Formal evenings
• Cruises of 21 or more days: Three Formal evenings

(Note: Extended Explorations, Holiday voyages and crossings may be scheduled differently.)

Attire Ashore

Packing clothing that can be layered is the best way to plan for cruising in virtually any climate. For tropical cruises, bring light, loose-fitting garments that can be paired with a lightweight jacket or sweater. For cooler climates, pack extra layers of warmer garments such as a light top coat and some sweaters. When dressing to go ashore, it is helpful to be aware of the customs of the countries you are visiting. In some ports men and women should not wear shorts. Many cultures prefer that women wear dresses or skirts when visiting shrines, churches, mosques and temples.

Some of our more adventurous destinations like Alaska and Antarctica voyages have additional special packing requirements.

• Packing for an Alaska Cruise
• Packing for an Antarctica Cruise

Please Note: Firearms, explosives, fireworks, other weapons and knives or sharp blades over 2.5 inches long and illegal drugs of any kind are prohibited without exception.

Full list of Prohibited Items

For safety reasons drones and any other remote controlled aerial devices/toys, as well as hoverboards or similar devices are not allowed on board our ships.

ON SEABOURN VENTURE AND SEABOURN PURSUIT:

We are implementing a “no smoking” policy on Seabourn Venture and Seabourn Pursuit, our two expedition ships, which includes e-cigarettes. Expedition travel visits many remote and rarely visited environments that are pristine, with diverse ecosystems and wildlife. We have implemented this policy to eliminate the possibility that cigarette butts and other smoking materials would end up harming the environment.

ON ALL OTHER SEABOURN SHIPS:

For the comfort of all guests, most public areas on board, as well as guest suites are smoke-free.

Cigarette smoking is permitted in the following areas:

Smoking of electronic cigarettes is permitted in guest suites. Smoking of water-pipes, glass-pipes or other smoking devices is not permitted on board. Smoking is not permitted on open decks during fuel bunkering operations in port.

Inside smoking of cigarettes is not permitted.

Outside smoking of cigarettes is permitted in designated areas of Seabourn Odyssey, Seabourn Sojourn, Seabourn Quest, Seabourn Encore and Seabourn Ovation:

• The designated smoking area for all ships is the starboard half of the Sky Bar open deck.
• Cigarette, cigar & pipe smoking is allowed on the starboard half of the Seabourn Square outside deck.

Guests are asked to refrain from smoking anywhere inside the ship, including in guest suites, on verandas and balconies. If you have any doubts about any area, please consult your onboard staff.

Any guest who smokes inside staterooms or on adjoining verandas in violation of our policy will be charged a US$250 cleaning fee per day of violation

Seabourn ships offer guests access to the internet by means of transmission between satellites orbiting approximately 20,000 miles above the earth and our mobile shipboard system. While this technology enables mid-ocean access in virtually every part of the world, satellite service is frequently noticeably slower and slightly less reliable than land-based methods of access due to the motion of the ship and limitations of bandwidth. There are two main reasons for this:

• The available bandwidth from satellite transmission is much lower than is available from most shoreside systems served by stationary cables with much greater bandwidth capacity.
• In addition, a shipboard system is typically serving a greater number of users simultaneously than most shoreside networks. Many shoreside users use wireless cell phone systems for internet access, further reducing demand on hardwired systems. Each user’s data transmission occupies a portion of the available bandwidth. More users means slower service.

For these reasons, we ask that guests not use internet service for high volume uses such as gaming, file sharing or streaming video content. The internet service on board is generally quite adequate for all guests’ usage when web browsing and sending or retrieving email.

Guests can access the internet either at terminals located in Seabourn Square, or wirelessly using their own wireless-enabled devices in most locations on board, including in guest suites, lounges and most areas on open decks.

Your ship’s small but modern basic medical facility is staffed by a doctor and a nurse. This facility is equipped to provide medical care for illness or accidents that may arise during the cruise, but is not intended to provide ongoing medical treatment. Since we are either at sea or in ports where availability of medical facilities and pharmaceutical products may be limited, we suggest you bring adequate supplies of prescription medications and other health-related items.

Full laundry, dry cleaning (on selected ships wet-cleaning) and pressing services are available. Suite attendants take care of pick-up and delivery. Same-day service is available at extra charge if requested by 9:00 a.m. A complimentary launderette with washers, dryers, laundry soap and ironing facilities are available onboard all Seabourn ships..