SeaDream wins again

**Ally** · 07-12-2007, 08:16 AM

Another Top Award for SeaDream I and II This Time from Prestigious Travel + Leisure

MIAMI, FL July 10 ---With a skyrocketing reputation for excellence far beyond its tiny size, SeaDream Yacht Club has done it again.

The Miami-based operator of the twin ultra-luxury, mega-yachts SeaDream I and SeaDream II has just learned it has been honored with the World’s Best Award for Top Small-Ship Cruise Line in Travel + Leisure’s 2007 readers’ poll. The news of the magazine’s 12th annual World’s Best Awards survey results was reported a few hours ago on--- Today, the big NBC TV show.

Travel + Leisure’s simultaneous announcement pointed out that in winning the World’s Best Award for Top Small-Ship Cruise Line SeaDream Yacht Club outscored several other contenders. This information is available online at www.travelandleisure.com/worldsbest and in the August issue of Travel + Leisure, on newsstands July 24.

It was only last October that SeaDream received word it had been named World’s Best Small Passenger Shipping Line for 2006, by Conde Nast Traveler.

Travel + Leisure---published by American Express Publishing Corporation---and Conde Nast Traveler are the two of the most prestigious travel magazines in the world. Each year their readers vote for the best travel destinations, cities, resorts, spas, airlines, cruise lines and other industry specialists.

Not bad for little SeaDream that began life in the fall of 2001, just a few days before 9/11---obviously just the wrong time for a new leisure travel venture. But never mind, SeaDream succeeded in spite of unfortunate timing and a chorus of nay-sayers.

Commenting on the Travel + Leisure award, SeaDream’s President and CEO Larry Pimentel said “The Travel + Leisure awards are the true mark of excellence. I am overjoyed at this news and extremely proud of our entire staff. Of course, at the very center of this honor are the shipboard personnel on both SeaDream I and SeaDream II. They work tirelessly and provide a service that is unparalleled.

“But there are many others who are responsible for this success as well. They are members of the supporting team that provides the logistics for our operation---reservations, sales, provisions, purchasing, marine and technical staff and our folks in personnel and accounting---all of them.

“Honors such as these wouldn’t be possible if the entire SeaDream team didn’t pull together,” he added.

SeaDream I and II carry only 50 fortunate couples in 55-staterooms and sail in Europe in summer and the Caribbean in winter. The SeaDream twins call on casual and intimate yachting ports and also on classic cities and towns served well by international air carriers.

SeaDream Yacht Club has accumulated a wide variety of awards and accolades from authoritative travel industry publications, various organizations and associations and a steady stream of terrific unsolicited comments from its guests. All add luster to its growing international reputation.

Larry Pimentel---proudly busting the buttons on his blue blazer---added “It’s always great when someone says nice things about you and you don’t have to blow your own horn, so to speak.

“It’s even nicer when a vast audience like the Travel + Leisure readership sounds off on your behalf, and that’s what happened today,” he added.

But the SeaDream twins are also proudly blowing their own horns as we write this---in this case their ships’ whistles. SeaDream I is on a voyage between Rome and Athens and today is in Taormina, a small port town on the Italian island of Sicily. SeaDream II is sailing between Monte Carlo and Nice and today and is in Viareggio, an historic Italian fishing port, now an exclusive yachting resort.

“You can almost hear them back here in Miami and in our European headquarters in Oslo,” Pimentel concluded.

SeaDream Yacht Club Short Profile

SeaDream Yacht Club is the yachting venture by Norwegian entrepreneur Atle Brynestad, who founded Seabourn Cruise Line, and Larry Pimentel who was President of Seabourn under Brynestad and later President and CEO of the merged Cunard and Seabourn. Pimentel is President and CEO of the Miami, Florida-headquartered SeaDream Yacht Club and a co-owner. Brynestad is Chairman.

The company, founded in the fall of 2001, operates SeaDream I and SeaDream II, twin, ultra-luxury mega yacht cruisers that operate on mostly seven-day sailings in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, the Greek Islands, the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia and into the Black Sea.

The yachts are not only ideal for discerning travelers seeking an unstructured experience but also for small meetings and incentive groups or individual private family gatherings. They are available for full charter. Recent honors, awards and accolades include:

SeaDream I and II shared the top Five Star Club award in the authoritative Berlitz Ocean Cruising and Cruise Ships 2007 guidebook. Berlitz guide author Douglas Ward created a special category “Utterly Exclusive” for only three vessels he said were above luxury. Of the three, two were SeaDream I and II. Further, Cruise Magazine, leading UK travel publication, named SeaDream I “World’s Best Small Cruise Vessel for 2006.