From Gelato University to Onboard Coffee Roasting: Inside Seabourn's Biggest Culinary Shakeup in Years
Seabourn rolled out sweeping culinary upgrades across its entire luxury fleet, from Gelato University-trained chefs to freshly roasted coffee and live cooking stations at The Colonnade.
Luxury cruise lines talk a lot about their food. Seabourn is doing something about it.
On February 25, 2026, the ultra-premium cruise line announced a comprehensive overhaul of its culinary program, rolling out sweeping changes to two of its most-used onboard venues: Seabourn Square and The Colonnade. The upgrades — now in phased rollout across the global fleet with completion expected by mid-2026 — represent one of the more substantive dining refreshes the line has made in recent years. Read the full announcement on PR Newswire.
What Changed at Seabourn Square
Seabourn Square has long served as the ship’s casual social hub — the kind of place you wander into for a mid-morning coffee or a light bite between excursions. The new menus significantly expand what’s on offer.
Guests can now order freshly prepared warm items including breakfast sandwiches, savory quiche, and Roman-style pizza. A new lineup of toasted sandwiches — Monte Cristo, Croque Monsieur, and others — rounds out the all-day menu, which runs from 10:45 a.m. to 6:15 p.m. Breakfast service begins at 6:15 a.m.
But the two standout additions are the coffee program and the gelato.
The coffee at Seabourn Square will now be brewed from beans roasted directly on board — a rarity even among high-end cruise lines. Guests can also pre-order their preferred drinks through the Seabourn Source app for seamless pickup, which is a quietly clever way to reduce the one friction point that tends to frustrate people at any cafe: waiting.
Then there’s the gelato. Seabourn brought in chefs trained at Italy’s Gelato University — yes, that’s a real institution — to craft handmade artisanal gelato available fleetwide. That’s not a detail you typically see in a cruise line press release, and it signals how seriously the brand is taking this refresh.
The Colonnade Gets a Live-Fire Makeover
The Colonnade, Seabourn’s main casual dining venue for breakfast and lunch, has also been completely refreshed. The new menus center on seasonality and regional influence — ingredients and preparations that reflect where the ship is sailing at any given time.
The live cooking stations are the headline here. Guests will find made-to-order omelets, carving options, a daily fresh-fish station, and fresh-pressed juices, all prepared in front of them. Two ships — Seabourn Encore and Seabourn Ovation — also received additional bistro-style seating as part of the renovation. The Colonnade changes have already been rolled out across the fleet.
Why This Matters Beyond the Menu
Seabourn president Mark Tamis put it plainly in the announcement: “Culinary is one of the most meaningful ways we connect guests with the destinations they explore.”
That framing is worth noting. Seabourn isn’t positioning these upgrades as amenity additions — it’s positioning them as an extension of destination immersion. The rotating regional specialties at The Colonnade, the fresh-fish station, the locally inspired offerings — the underlying logic is that what you eat on board should feel connected to where you are.
For luxury cruise travelers, this distinction matters. The all-inclusive, ultra-premium segment of the cruise market is intensely competitive right now, with Seabourn squaring off against rivals like Silversea, Regent Seven Seas, and the fast-growing Viking. Every touchpoint — including a mid-morning gelato — is part of what separates a $15,000 voyage from one that merely costs $15,000.
What This Means for Prospective Guests
If you have a Seabourn voyage booked in 2026, there’s a reasonable chance the upgraded menus will already be in place by the time you sail, given the mid-2026 completion target. Guests on Seabourn Encore and Seabourn Ovation are particularly well-positioned, as those ships are also getting the additional Colonnade seating.
For anyone still in the planning phase, these changes add another layer of appeal to an already strong dining reputation. Seabourn has consistently ranked among the top lines for food quality, and this overhaul suggests the brand is investing to stay there rather than rest on prior accolades.
The coffee alone — freshly roasted on board, pre-orderable via app — might be enough to win over a certain kind of traveler. But for most guests, the full picture here is a cruise line taking its culinary identity seriously and making tangible, verifiable improvements rather than simply rebranding what already exists.
That’s a harder thing to pull off than it sounds, and Seabourn deserves credit for doing it quietly and specifically.
Source: PR Newswire