It was announced today that Royal Caribbean Cruises will acquire 66% of Silversea Cruises, bringing both something each needed. I think it is going to be a very good things for both parties…and that is something that rarely happens. I will, of course, focus on the luxury end of things; with some historical perspective.
Silversea Cruises has, to my mind, always been missing “something”. While its owner, Mandredi Lefebvre d’Ovidio, has always been at the fore of the luxury cruise market, Silversea has suffered from a failure to find a true vision of what it is (other than of Italian heritage) and financial stresses. This had led, over the years, to a rapid and significant turnover of executives (other than at the very top) and ships that suffered from lack of consistency, maintenance and, of course, age.
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Silversea Silver Shadow |
While Silversea began working on updating its hardware with the 2009 launch of Silver Spirit, the ship build-out had many issues; most of which were related to financial issues including issues with its interior designer, which lead to a series of design flaws. With the Silver Shadow and Silver Whisper, Silver Wind and Silver Cloud getting a bit long in the tooth, things were not going well at all from the ships to the service to the cuisine. I, personally, experienced this during my 2013 sailing on the Silver Shadow. Goldring Travel’s Review of Silversea Silver Shadow (With Comparisons to the Seabourn Odyssey-Class Ships)
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Silversea Silver Discoverer |
Meanwhile, Silversea’s excellent expedition experience was being hampered by the same issues. And as it worked to expand in this high profit area, it ships were suffering as needed maintenance and upgrades were deferred. I personally experienced this in 2016 when I sailed on on the Silver Discoverer. Silversea Expedition Cruises – Exotic Journeys Focus on “The Journey” – Silver Discoverer Indonesia/Myanmar Expedition: Part IX (Reflections). The ship was literally just out of dry dock and it was in woeful condition with broken air conditioning, improper lighting, and tired staterooms…but the Expedition Team made it a fantastic experience; if not a luxury one.
It was clear things had to change…and, fortunately, it did! Silversea did four very important things:
- Obtained significant financing;
- Properly designed a state-of-the-art luxury cruise ship, Silver Muse;
- Converted the Silver Cloud into a true luxury expedition ship; and,
- Engaged in a serious refurbishment program of its existing luxury fleet
However, with all of these sorely needed investments, Silversea needed it ships to sail full and with strong pricing since there is all that debt it took on to do the foregoing that has to be serviced. In theory these upgrades would cause that to happen, but it only has to a degree. And that is where Royal Caribbean, with its very deep pockets and its world-class marketing and distribution systems come in.
There is a dirty little secret in the Luxury and Expedition cruise markets: Oversupply of ships both presently and into the future. On the luxury end, for example:
- Seabourn has brought on two ships in a two years (Seabourn Encore and Seabourn Ovation)
- Regent Seven Seas launched Seven Seas Explorer last year and upgraded its other ships
- Hapag Lloyd recently launched Europa 2
On the expedition end:
- Lindblad Expeditions is rapidly expanding and bringing on new hardware
- Ponant is focusing more on expedition and is bringing on six new ships
- Celebrity Cruises is building its Celebrity Flora for the Galapagos
- Hurtigruten is building new ships
- Quark Expeditions is building new ships
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Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas |
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Azamara Journey |
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