Seabourn Cruises has announced the sale, to Windstar Cruises, of the three smallest ships in its fleet. Seabourn Pride will be the first to leave, in April 2014, followed by Seabourn Legend and Seabourn Spirit about a year later. Seabourn Pride will complete her already published programme before the handover. The three small Seabourn ship are each almost exactly 10,000gt and date from 1988 (Pride), 1989 (Spirit) and 1992 (Legend).
The initial order by the then new Seabourn Cruise Line for these 212-passenger vessels was for two, with an option for a third. That option was not taken up, and that ship was eventually built for Royal Viking Line as Royal Viking Queen in 1992.
By 1996 Seabourn was 50 per cent owned by Carnival Corporation (the remaining 50 per cent being acquired in 1998) and Royal Viking Queen, along with the two Sea Goddess ships, operating for another Carnival subsidiary, Cunard Line. These three ships did not really fit well with the rest of the fleet and so were transferred to Seabourn, at which time Royal Viking Queen became Seabourn Legend.
