EXPLORING WILD PLACES IN LUXURY
A new breed of yacht-like ships cater to adventurers with money
Judging by the order book for posh new expedition cruise ships, the cruise industry expects a lot of boomers to spend retirement afloat in money and seeking exotic travel destinations. In 2018 and 2019 alone, more than a dozen new “mega-yachts” offering exploration in five-star-plus luxury will hit the water.
Expedition cruising is booming, as older, experienced travellers look to go beyond the ordinary. In style.
Many expedition ships are decommissioned Russian survey vessels or retired icebreakers, but the newcomers will be like yachts of the super-rich, carrying small numbers of passengers and a bevy of toys fit for a billionaire.
Want to view penguins torpedo under the Antarctic ice? Climb into your ship’s mini-submarine. Want to shower under a waterfall in Australia’s Kimberley? The on-board helicopter will whisk you there. Keen to tag along with streaking dolphins? Grab an undersea scooter and hang on.
The audience is “particularly daring,” says Edie Rodriguez, a Crystal Cruises veteran now with Ponant, “one who values luxurious comfort and amenities as much as life-changing adventures.”
SCENIC ECLIPSE
Scenic, the Australian river cruise operator, sets the water mark high with its first ocean-going ship, Scenic Eclipse, launching in August.
Futuristic and sleek, she features a pair of twin-engined helicopters, a seven-passenger submarine launched from a special bay on a lower deck, and 12 zodiacs. Allinclusive, she sports six upscale dining rooms for her 228 passengers, a 464-square metre spa, and indoor and outdoor plunge pools.
The ship has redundancy of every major system, even a duplicate engine room, and the highest possible ice class rating for a passenger ship — Polar Class 6 (Ice Class 1A Super), to ensure everyone gets back to civilization. All suites have verandas and butler service, not just the owner’s suite, which measures 232 square metres.
CRYSTAL ENDEAVOR
Close competition will come in the form of Crystal Endeavor. Crystal Cruises has long reigned at the top end of the big-ship cruise market and branched out to expedition cruising with the Crystal Esprit, rebuilt from a laid-up vessel and relaunched in 2015.
Old tonnage, no matter how well-appointed, is no match for the likes of Scenic Eclipse, and “in response to customer feedback,” Crystal has commissioned a new mega-yacht.
The first of four, Crystal Endeavor (the name is a nod to Captain Cook’s ship), will launch in August and offer two helicopters and a submarine, electric zodiacs, a scuba recompression chamber and Seabob underwater scooters. Her spa is double the size of Eclipse’s spa, at 929 square metres. A unique feature of Endeavor is a Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV ) which can explore extreme depths, such as to the Titanic at 3,800 metres, and feed images back to passengers.
LE LAPEROUSE
Bankrolled by the company that owns Gucci and St Laurent, the French cruise line Ponant operates a fleet of chic ships, and will soon welcome four new, smaller vessels. The first of the new quartet, Le Laperouse (they ’ll all be named for French explorers), sets sail next June in Iceland.
Cool features include an infinity pool with a glass wall (so passengers can watch you swim, I guess, if they get bored with the penguins), and a lounge below the waterline called The Blue Eye with a view of the ocean depths through big windows that resemble whale eyes. Audio from underwater hydrophones will pipe in whale music and other marine sounds while the sofas vibrate in rhythm. I kid you not.
ROALD AMUNDSEN
The Norwegians know a thing or two about ice-class ships and exploring. Hurtigruten operates a fleet of coastal ferries the length of Norway, and their upcoming Roald Amundsen, named for the first man to reach the South Pole and sail through the Northwest Passage, is purpose-built for expedition cruises.
This is no ferry, but “the safest, greenest, most advanced expedition ship ever created,” according to the line.
With a passenger capacity of 500, she’s much bigger than her polar competitors, and she’s also the world’s first hybrid-powered expedition ship, a sort of giant Prius at sea. The benefit, aside from cutting CO2 emissions by 20 per cent, is the chance to glide through pristine marine environments in total silence.
For going ashore, the custombuilt explorer boats are purported to be “virtually unsinkable.” (Where did we hear that before?)
Roald Amundsen’s first Antarctic voyage in October is sold out. A sister ship, Fridtjof Nansen, launches in summer of 2019.
RITZ-CARLTON: UNNAMED
High-end hotel firm Ritz-Carlton is also going to sea. A subsidiary dubbed The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection will consist of three ships (as yet unnamed), with the first arriving in fall of 2019.
More than 400,000 Ritz-Carlton Hotel guests have cruised in the past year, according to president and COO Herve Humler, so the market seems to be in place.
“This unique combination of yachting and cruising will usher in a new way of luxury travel for guests seeking to discover the world in a relaxed, casually elegant and comfortable atmosphere,” Humler says.
They’ll cruise to ports with a particular cache, such as St. Bart’s and Monaco, rather than to remote corners of the world. Lacking amenities like helicopters, submarines and polar-class hulls, the Ritz-Carlton ships look to be less well differentiated from existing luxury ships, such as those of Silversea Cruises.
WORLD EXPLORER
Quark Expeditions has for years been pushing the boundaries of polar cruises with historymaking trips such as the only circumnavigation of Antarctica with passengers (twice), and trips to the geographic North Pole using nuclear-powered Russian icebreakers. Helicopters have often been part of these trips, while luxury has not.
So Quark has entered into longterm leases of the 178-passenger World Explorer, now being built by owners Mystic Cruises. While of the same over-the-top calibre of yachts like Scenic Eclipse, she is a step up in the luxury game for the polar company.
World Explorer will offer Quark passengers luxury features such as all-balcony, all-suite accommodation, Euro-chic decor, a glass-domed observation deck, an extensive library, and activities like kayaking and camping in Antarctica. The maiden Antarctica voyage is December, 2018.
MAGELLAN EXPLORER
A few down-under companies are upgrading their expedition fleets, including ANTARCTICA XXI, a tour operator that will be chartering the new Magellan Explorer, starting in fall of 2019, a muscular cruiser purpose-built for the White Continent.
The line offers the opportunity to fly from Chile over the famously rough Drake Passage to join the ship in Antarctica, cutting out time and seasickness.
CORAL ADVENTURER
Veterans of cruises along Australia’s wilder coasts and Papua New Guinea, Coral Expeditions is bringing forth the new Coral Adventurer in April, 2019.
Itineraries will cover Australia, Indonesia and the South Pacific, with initial trips focusing on the remote Kimberley region, with 10-day voyages between Darwin and Broome, Australia. Coral Adventurer will carry only 120 guests in 60 suites, some of which feature extra-large balconies and soaker tubs.
GREG MORTIMER
The newly patented ULSTEIN X-BOW will make waves, or rather smooth them, when Aurora Expeditions christens a ship that is the first to feature the newly developed bulbous bow that resembles the nose of a submarine. It promises to reduce pitching in all wave heights.
The Greg Mortimer, named for the company’s founder, has a passenger capacity of only 120, features hydraulic viewing platforms that extend out from the hull, a custom marina deck for launching water toys, and a backup propulsion system to guarantee a safe return from back-of-beyond.
HONDIUS
Netherlands-based Oceanwide Expeditions will launch in 2019 a ship it says will be the strongest ice-strengthened vessel operating in the polar regions, the Hondius.
Classically designed to resemble a small, elegant ocean liner, it will take her 174 adventurous passengers to climb mountains, snowshoe, kayak, camp and paddleboard in wild corners of the Antarctic continent.
HANSEATIC NATURE
German shipping conglomerate Hapag-Lloyd, operator of the ship widely regarded as the world’s best, Europa 2, will bring out the expedition ships Hanseatic Nature and Hanseatic Inspiration in 2019.
Spanning the globe from the Amazon to the poles, Nature will operate only in German, while Inspiration will cater to an international crowd, offering service in German and English.
The line’s Hanseatic will go to Canada’s own One Ocean Expeditions and sail as the RCGS Resolute beginning in November.