Based on the success of its 2018 Wellness Voyages Seabourn, the world’s finest ultra-luxury travel experience, is setting its sights on mindful, healthy living in the year ahead by announcing two content rich Wellness Cruises bound for Arabia and the South Pacific. Inspired by the rising interest in wellness that is transforming travel and lifestyles around the globe, each wellness cruise is being fashioned with input from celebrated physician, best-selling author and Seabourn partner Dr. Andrew Weil, whose exclusive mindful living program, Spa & Wellness with Dr. Andrew Weil is a popular offering on every vessel and every voyage in the Seabourn fleet.

With renowned Seabourn service, diverse itineraries and culturally rich destinations as a backdrop, the Wellness Cruises will be highly informative, enjoyable, and unforgettable. These specific itineraries will include lectures, discussions, classes, and demonstrations led by Dr. Weil and an additional four experts in Integrative Medicine and packed with information on how guests can enrich their lives for better mental and physical health.

“Wellness is a growing phenomenon – and rightly so – as people around the world seek to live better, healthier, and more mindfully for the benefit of their overall wellbeing,” noted Richard Meadows, president of Seabourn. “We have had great success with Spa & Wellness with Dr. Andrew Weil on Seabourn voyages around the world, and we’re excited to follow up our past two wellness cruises with these new opportunities to learn from a group of highly regarded experts.”

The Ancient Path to Wellness

The next Seabourn Wellness Cruise will launch with Route to Ancient Wellness aboard Seabourn Ovation, scheduled November 13-December 2, 2019. Bound from Piraeus (Athens), Greece to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the cruise will follow ancient trading routes in the Mediterranean to Agios Nikolaos, Crete, Greece; and Haifa (Tel Aviv) and Ashdod (Jerusalem), Israel; before threading the Suez Canal to the Red Sea and Aqaba (For Petra), Jordan. It will then turn east around the Arabian Peninsular en route to Muscat, Oman; Ras Al Khaimah and Sir Bani Yas Island, United Arab Emirates; and Doha, Qatar. Along the way, the program will offer a number of workshops, lectures, discussions and Mindful Living shore excursions to guide guests who want to lead a more mindful and healthier lifestyle. Scheduled speakers include:

• Andrew Weil, MD, a world-renowned leader and pioneer in the field of integrative medicine, a healing oriented approach to health care that encompasses body, mind, and spirit. Combining a Harvard education and a lifetime of practicing natural and preventive medicine, Dr. Weil is the founder and director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, where he also holds the Lovell-Jones endowed chair in integrative rheumatology and is clinical professor of medicine and professor of public health. The Center is the leading effort in the world to develop a comprehensive curriculum in integrative medicine.

• Ann Marie Chiasson, MD, MPH, the Interim Director of the Fellowship in Integrative Medicine at the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine in Tucson. Board certified in Family Medicine, Integrative Medicine and Hospice and Palliative Care, Chiasson has a deep interest in traditional energy healing paradigms and has studied with traditional healers from Mexico and Africa. Among her books is Self Healing with Energy Medicine, co-authored with Dr. Andrew Weil.

• Steven Gurgevich, PhD, Clinical Assistant Professor at the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine and Director of the Mind-Body Clinic. He is passionate about Mind-Body Medicine and the Mind-Body-Spirit connection. A guitar player as well as an author, he enjoys studying how the brain, mind and spirit affect our quality of health and life, as well as looking into near-death experiences and afterlife. Among his books is Heal Yourself with Medical Hypnosisco-authored with Dr. Andrew Weil.

• Russell Greenfield, MD, Clinical Professor of Medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine, and author of over 25 published academic works. He was one of the first four graduates of the Integrative Medicine program at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. He is passionate about transforming our system of healthcare into one that emphasizes health and healing, not simply disease management.

• Daphne Miller, MD, a practicing family physician, clinical professor, research scientist and Founder of the Health from the Soil Up Initiative. She has worked for the past 20 years exploring the connections between our ecosystem and our personal health. She is the author of The Jungle Effect: The Science and Wisdom of Traditional Diets; and Farmacology: Total Health from the Ground Up; and is a regular health and wellness contributor to the Washington Post.

Wellness in the South Pacific

Seabourn’s 2020 Wellness Cruise will be the Wellness in the South Pacific aboard Seabourn Encore, scheduled February 21-March 8, 2020. Sailing from the “City of Sails,” Auckland, New Zealand, the cruise will survey each of the country’s islands with destinations including Taurqanga (Rotorua), Picton, Wellington, Akaroa (Christchurch), Port Chalmers (Dunedin), Oban (Halfmoon Bay), a cruise around Fiordland National Park, and Milford Sound. Then it’s across the sea to Australia with Melbourne, Phillip Island in Victoria, Eden in New South Wales, and finally Sydney. The sailing will also feature the Ventures by Seabourn program of optional, for-charge expedition excursions.  Along the way, guests will be able to listen and learn from wellness experts, in addition to Dr. Andrew Weil (MD), including:

• Victoria Maizes, MD, Executive Director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine and Professor of Medicine, Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of Arizona. Internationally recognized, she has worked with Dr. Weil for more than 20 years to create and implement educational programs that reach thousands of health professionals. A highly sought-after speaker, she is editor of the Oxford University textbook Integrative Women’s Health and author of Be Fruitful: The Essential Guide to Maximizing Fertility and Giving Birth to a Healthy Child.

• Kenneth Pelletier, PhD, MD, Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California School of Medicine in San Francisco, Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona, and a medical and business consultant to government and corporations. He has authored 13 major books since the late 1970s, most recently Change Your Genes – Change Your Life: The Hope and Hype of Genetics. Among his most interesting projects are advanced studies of adept meditators who controlled bleeding, pain and infections.

• Julia Rucklidge, PhD professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Canterbury and Director of the Mental Health and Nutrition Research Lab. Originally from Toronto, her interests in nutrition and mental illness grew out of research showing poor outcomes for individuals with significant psychiatric illness despite receiving conventional treatments. She has more than 100 peer-reviewed publications to her name, and her 2014 TEDx talk has been viewed more than a million times.

• Karen Koffler, MD, started her medical career working in emergency rooms in inner cities and on Indian reservations, where she was often the only physician for hundreds of miles. A chance meeting led her to be admitted into the first class of physicians in the U.S. trained in integrative medicine by Dr. Weil at the University of Arizona. She has trained in acupuncture, mindfulness-based stress reduction, and the “recode program” to prevent and reverse dementia.

More details about onboard programming and Mindful Living tours will be announced in the coming months.

Wellness-minded travelers have an opportunity to benefit from Dr. Weil’s integrative approach to medicine and health at Spa & Wellness with Dr. Andrew Weil, available on board every Seabourn cruise. Created via partnership with Seabourn and OneWorldSpa, the program is led by an onboard Mindful Living Coach, a certified yoga and meditation practitioner whose role is to inspire and educate guests throughout the voyage.

Central to the program is daily practice of meditation and yoga, offered complimentary. Guests can experience Mindful Meditation, which introduces positive affirmations and mantras they can reflect on throughout the day. Yoga classes are varied with choices that focus on various physical issues, such as yoga to heal back and joint pain, headaches and body alignment, as well as to enhance creativity, mental focus and happiness. The wellness program also offers complimentary Mind and Body seminars to educate on philosophies and practices aligned with the program’s mission. Individualized one-on-one wellness sessions on select topics will also be available for a fee.