Ritz Carlton’s Ilma Christened in Ft. Lauderdale

Ritz Carlton’s Ilma Christened in Ft. Lauderdale

The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection celebrated the christening of the Ilma on Dec. 11, 2024, at Port Everglades in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

The company said in a press release that in honour of maritime traditions, the ceremony featured a ceremonial blessing and the iconic breaking of a Champagne bottle, symbolizing good fortune and safe travels for all guests and employees on board.

Jim Murren, executive chairman and CEO of The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, and Ernesto Fara, president and CFO, joined from Seafarers’ House at Port Everglades.

They were joined by the Ilma’s Captain Magnus Bengtsson and General Manager Sasha Tyas, along with Father Sandford Sears, who is said to be known as “Father Sandy.”

Together, they celebrated a group of female leaders from The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, both shipboard and shoreside, who collectively fulfilled the role of the Alma’s godmothers.

“The christening of the Ilma marks a significant moment in our journey as we officially welcome this extraordinary yacht into our fleet. The Ilma represents growth and the exciting future of The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection,” said Murren.

“We are incredibly grateful to all those who have worked tirelessly to bring this beautiful yacht to life, from our dedicated team members to our global partners,” added Murren.

The celebration was held aboard the Ilma at Port Everglades and attended by employees from the company’s Ft. Lauderdale office, local officials and guests.

Joining the Evrima, The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection’s first ship, the Ilma debuted in the Mediterranean in September 2024, sailing from Monte Carlo to Rome.

For the 2024-25 winter season, the Ilma joins the Evrima in the Caribbean, offering voyages to the region’s islands. In summer 2025, the Ilma will explore Northern Europe, marking the company’s first itineraries in the North and Baltic Seas, calling on cities like Copenhagen, Reykjavík and Bordeaux.

Photo: From left: Ernesto Fara and Jim Murren

Rhapsody of the Seas and Silver Moon Make Inaugural Calls to Dominica

Rhapsody of the Seas and Silver Moon Make Inaugural Calls to Dominica

Royal Caribbean International’s Rhapsody of the Seas and Silversea’s Silver Moon made their inaugural calls to Dominica on Friday, December 2, 2022.

To mark the occasion, traditional plaque exchange ceremonies were held aboard each of the two ships, attended by government officials and captains.

The Rhapsody of the Seas and the Silver Moon thus become the third and fourth ships to make their inaugural calls in Dominica this season. The first ship to do so was The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection’s Evrima on November 24, 2022.

The Rhapsody of the Seas is scheduled to make a total of twelve calls to Dominica in the 2022/2023 season. The ship is currently on its 14-night Ultimate Caribbean Cruise which departed from Bridgetown, Barbados on December 4.

The Silver Moon, the sister ship of the Silver Muse, made its only call scheduled for Dominica in the 2022/2023 season.

After a call in Roseau, Dominica, the Silver Moon set sail to St Georges, Grenada and Bequia, Grenadines before arriving in Bridgetown, Barbados.

The Silver Moon is currently on its 16-night Bridgetown to Lima voyage which departed on December 5 and will make stops at St Vincent, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Cartagena, Colombia and Oranjestad, Aruba among other destinations.

As of November 25, the port of Dominica has received a total of 13 cruise calls carrying a total of 18,980 cruise passengers. Dominica will welcome 51 cruise calls in December 2022.

Meet 5 New Cruise Brands

While the major corporations continue to dominate the cruise market, there are several new brands entering service over the next few years. With their new products and ships, they’re adding a fresh perspective to the business. Cruise Industry News has looked at the plans of five of the new cruise lines.

Swan Hellenic
First ship: SH Minerva
Built: 2021
Capacity: 152
Inaugural Cruise: December 29, 2021
Region and Itinerary: Antarctica and South Shetland Islands

Swan Hellenic is returning to the market after a four-year hiatus with new management at the helm. The new cruise line is about to launch service in Antarctica and will be operating in the expedition cruising niche.

It aims to offer “cultural expedition cruising” to remote parts of the globe with its three new purpose-built expedition ships. Sailing areas include the polar regions, where the first ship Minerva will debut on Dec. 29.

According to the company, the vessel and its sister ships were designed with “state-of-the-art features” meant to provide “guests with an elegant, intimate and personal onboard experience delivered by 120 warm, friendly and knowledgeable staff.”

The SH Vega will follow the Minerva, entering service next April, while a third – yet unnamed – vessel will debut in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Ambassador Cruise Line

First ship: Ambiance
Built: 1991
Capacity: 1,590
Inaugural Cruise: April 6, 2022
Region and Itinerary: Northern Europe

Ambassador Cruise Line claims to be the first new British cruise line since 2010. The brand launched in 2021, announcing its plans to offer a “premium-value, authentic cruise experience, sailing for the British market from its homeport of London Tilbury.”

With a program of no-fly itineraries, Ambassador is focusing on the over-50s market looking for a traditional cruising product.

Ambassador’s first ship, the 1,590-guest Ambiance, was built in 1991 and is currently undergoing a major refurbishment in Croatia. Among the vessel’s main features are five restaurants, nine lounges, a swimming pool and a spa.

After the refit, the Ambiance is set to debut on Apr. 6, with an inaugural short-break cruise to Hamburg, before embarking on a mixed itinerary program with sailings to the Norwegian Fjords and the British Isles planned throughout spring.

Margaritaville at Sea
First ship: Margaritaville Paradise
Built: 1991
Capacity: 1,308
Inaugural Cruise: April 30, 2022
Region and Itinerary: Short cruises to Freeport, Bahamas

After doing a deal with Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line, the Margaritaville Resorts & Hotels group will operate a new cruise brand in 2022.

Called Margaritaville at Sea, the company will operate the Margaritaville Paradise on short Bahamas getaways beginning Apr. 30.

Currently sailing as the Grand Classica, the 1991-built vessel is expected to undergo an extensive refit at Grand Bahama before entering service for the new brand.

Margaritaville at Sea will sail from the Port of Palm Beach and is set to offer two-night cruises to Freeport in Grand Bahama Island. The product will provide guests with Margaritaville’s authentic culture, entertainment and food, the company said.

Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection
First ship: Evrima
Built: 2022
Capacity: 298
Inaugural Cruise: May 6, 2022
Region and Itinerary: Western Europe and Mediterranean

The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection is launching its luxury mega yacht service in 2022. The brand is planning an upscale boutique product, focusing on dining and wellness features, onboard its purpose-built first ship Evrima.

The vessel – set to enter service in 2022 – will offer 10 different dining experiences. Those range from steaks and seafood to fully customized lunches and dinners. Other features on the ship include spa treatments and a marina-style platform with sundecks ensuring direct access to water.

The Evrima also has some of the nicest accommodations at sea, including duplex suites and a 160-square-meter Owner’s Suite with its own private terrace and whirlpool.

The ship’s first cruise is scheduled for May 6 and departs from Lisbon, Portugal. The 11-night itinerary visits seven ports in the region – including Tangier in Morocco – before it arrives in Barcelona, Spain.

Explora Journeys
First ship: Explora I
Built: 2023
Capacity: 922
Inaugural Cruise: May 31, 2023
Region and Itinerary: Europe - Western and Eastern Mediterranean

When it launches service in 2023, Explora Journeys will mark MSC Group’s debut in the luxury market. The new brand will sail global itineraries on mid-sized purpose-built vessels and currently has four ships on order.

According to MSC, Explora Journeys will offer the “highest level of service and amenities,” while utilizing the latest technology to provide “journeys of discovery” through destinations “on and off the beaten path.”

The brand’s first ship Explora I’s first cruise is scheduled to depart on May 31, 2023. For its debut season, the 922-guest vessel is offering a program in the Mediterranean and Northern Europe before crossing the Atlantic for a series of itineraries in North America, the Caribbean and South America.

Small ships popular but proving difficult to get built

Shipyard problems have delayed Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection's first ship, the Evrima.

The small-ship cruise sector is booming, but getting its ships built on time is proving to be a big challenge.

Expedition and small luxury ships are among the hottest segments when it comes to passenger demand. But unlike the mega-liners churned out like clockwork by the big shipyards, small ships tend to be built at small yards, where inexperience with cruise work is the general rule.

The latest example is the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, a new entrant to the cruise industry that had hoped to make a splash this winter with its 298-passenger Evrima before the Super Bowl in Miami.

Instead, on Oct. 4, three months before scheduled delivery, Ritz-Carlton announced that the much anticipated Evrima (Greek for "discovery") would be delayed until June 2020 because of shipyard issues.

In a statement, Ritz-Carlton blamed "delivery and project cost" problems at the Hijos de J. Barreras shipyard in Vigo, Spain, for the delay. 

"With additional challenges around the former shipyard management, both the new board of Hijos de J. Barreras and the board of the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection are working cooperatively toward a long-term solution for the shipyard," Ritz-Carlton's statement said.

Ritz-Carlton joins Scenic Luxury Tours & Cruises, the German line Hapag-Lloyd Cruises and Norway's Hurtigruten in suffering delays, ranging from minor to extensive, in the past two years in attempting to bring their ships to market.

All were building ships of under 600 passengers, and all were being built at smaller, lesser-known yards.

The Scenic Eclipse was delayed several times before making its debut in September 2019.

The delays make life hard for travel advisors. Many have clients who want to be among the first to experience new vessels. Some agents are themselves booked on inaugural cruises in order to better evaluate new ships for clients.

When ships are delayed and inaugural plans cancelled, it is hard to explain to clients who have blocked out time off and who have high expectations that they will be the first to sample the ships.

"When it hurts the advisors, of course, it hurts us," said Ann Chamberlin, vice president of sales at Scenic, which christened its 200-passenger Scenic Eclipse expedition yacht in New York on Sept. 10. 

The ship, built in Croatia, was delayed not once but several times. All a line can do, Chamberlin said, is protect agent commissions, re-accommodate passengers and beg both groups for understanding. 

The delivery of the Scenic Eclipse was hurt by multiple issues, including worker strikes, financial malfeasance, management turnover and frozen bank accounts. In February, Scenic owner Glen Moroney invested in Uljanik Shipyard in Pula, Croatia, along with Croatia's DIV Group and Italy's Fincantieri to get the ship finished.

Scenic is not the only line to become a shipyard owner. After delays on its 530-passenger Roald Amundsen last year, Hurtigruten bought the Kleven shipyard in Norway to expedite the project.

In March, Hapag-Lloyd cancelled the first two scheduled cruises of the expedition ship Hanseatic Nature because of delayed delivery from the Vard shipyard in Norway. Fincantieri, which owns Vard, said in its most recent financial report that reorganization of Vard is a top priority and that some of its best Italian employees have been assigned to the job.

Lawrence Rapp, a principal at Seawise Consulting, said that many small yards are better prepared to build simpler ships.

In general, Rapp said, "these small yards are not aware of just how complex the projects really are. To get a prototype fully approved by [country] flag and class take much more time than they would anticipate because you have to go through impact-stability calculations, damage-stability calculations. And each time you make adjustments to one of these things, it affects the others and also the functionality of the ship itself."

In addition, small ships are more often designs from prototypes, rather than copies of previous ships.

"When Carnival or Royal Caribbean are building ships, they will build five, six, eight, 10 of the same class," Rapp said. "Once the calculations have been gone through and the design has been accepted, it's a whole lot easier to plan going forward."

In March, Hapag-Lloyd cancelled the first two scheduled cruises of the Hanseatic Nature because of delayed delivery from the Vard shipyard.

Moreover, small yards sometimes have to bring in workers who have cruise experience. 

"If you're a small yard and you're undertaking a project that is an order of magnitude bigger than anything you've ever done before, you're probably bringing in a lot of people who are not used to you, and you're not used to them, and relationships can be difficult to maintain," Rapp said.

Daniel Schaefer, CEO of Sea Cloud Cruises, is currently building a 136-passenger ship at Metalships & Docks shipyard in Vigo, Spain. The project has been in the works since 2008 when it was at another shipyard that went bankrupt.

"Most of the time it's that the yards have no experience in what they’re doing," Schaefer said. 

Small-ship owners are forced to work with them because getting a slot at one of the big yards is next to impossible. 

"Going to Meyer Werft in Germany, you get a slot in 10 years," he said. "So you have to go to some inexperienced yards and see if you get a berth there."

One common stumbling block is weight, Schaefer said. And then there's interior craftsmanship. "That creates a lot of problems. They come at the end because interior work is done at the end. And if you find out that it's not the quality you were expecting, you don't have much time to correct it."

Schaefer said Sea Cloud made its mistakes on a ship built in 2001 and is confident that the Sea Cloud Spirit will be ready for its August 2020 debut. He said the ship is already in the water at the proper weight and ready to be finished.

"Looking at the mock-up quality work, we're pretty sure our interior workers will do a good job," Schaefer said.