Seabourn diving into expedition cruising with ship orders: Travel …

Seabourn has signed a letter of intent for two purpose-built expedition ships, giving Carnival Corp. an entry into the up-and-coming segment.

The move comes several weeks after Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. bought 67% of Silversea Cruises, which also has a luxury expedition brand, although Seabourn officials said they conceived the idea a year ago.

Since 2015, Seabourn has marketed a series of expedition shore excursions called Ventures by Seabourn on some of its cruises. The new ships, due in 2021 and 2022, would deepen the luxury line’s involvement in expedition cruising.

“Demand for expedition travel by luxury travelers continues to grow,” Seabourn president Rick Meadows said when explaining why Seabourn began laying plans for a stand-alone expedition product last year.

At 264 passengers each, the two ships won’t even add 1% to Carnival Corp.’s fleet capacity of about 190,000 lower berths. But luxury expedition offers relatively high revenue per day, and almost all of Seabourn’s competitors in the luxury cruise market are now offering a dedicated expedition capability.

The exception is Regent Seven Seas Cruises. A spokesman said Regent is focused “100% on providing our guests with the best luxury ocean cruise experience. We have no plans to expand into the expedition market.”

Like many of its competitors, Seabourn will outfit its ships with some intriguing nautical toys: two submarines. The 23,000-gross-ton ships will also carry 24 inflatable Zodiac boats and a complement of kayaks.

The cruise ships will be built to PC6 Polar Class standards for ice resistance by a new joint venture formed by the Italian shipyard T. Mariotti and the Dutch shipbuilder Damen Group. 

T. Mariotti built three of Seabourn’s luxury ships from 2009 to 2011: the Seabourn Quest, Sojourn and Odyssey. Damen Group has not built in the cruise sector but has experience building mega-yachts and ferries. It features a sleek prototype expedition vessel on one page of its website.

The cost of building the ships was not disclosed, but the smaller ships are a fraction of what it costs to build a Carnival Cruise Line vessel. The relatively low entry cost has contributed to an array of new entrants to expedition as well as expansion by established lines such as Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, which just ordered a third expedition ship.

Crystal Cruises is another luxury operator with plans to start expedition cruises, beginning with the 200-passenger Crystal Endeavor in 2020.

Ashton Palmer, president of ExpeditionTrips, a Seattle travel agency, said it’s an exciting time to be in the expedition segment.

“It’s certainly a new era in expedition cruising, when you look at all of newbuilds and the activity and the investment across the board,” Palmer said. 

Some of the luxury expedition players have more experience than others in extreme climates and conditions, Palmer pointed out. He said clients have been generally happy with the Ventures by Seabourn program, including trips to Antarctica.

“They have some experience with the Ventures program. They know how that works,” he said.

Still, Seabourn’s track record is only three years. In expedition, Palmer said, “There’s no question you have to have expertise, you have to have safety first, and you have to know what you’re doing. Their success will hinge on having the right people involved who can create a new product for them.”

Seabourn recently promoted Robin West to vice president for expedition operations and planning. A native of South Africa, West started at Seabourn as expedition leader during Seabourn’s inaugural season of four voyages onboard the Seabourn Quest to Antarctica and Patagonia between November 2013 and February 2014. He was promoted to director in 2017.