FLOATING HOTELS
By Micheal Korb
THE RISE OF Ultra- Lu x ury Yachts
When the yacht drops anchor, a transverse marina folds open on both sides of the hull, lowering a platform to the waterline for swimming, kayaking, and other water sports. Eleven restaurants and bars range from a Japanese omakase counter to a champagne-and-caviar room finished in hand-laid seashells. All that splendor comes priced to a philosophy. Four Seasons charges per suite (hotel-style), not per person, from roughly $20,000 for a week in a Seaview Suite to as much as $350,000 for the Funnel. Notably, the fare is not all-inclusive. Breakfast, water sports, and Wi-Fi are covered; lunch, dinner, fine wine, and shore excursions are not. It’s a deliberate bet that this traveler would rather dine ashore in Santorini than be herded to a buffet. “Today’s luxury traveler values time, trust, and authenticity above all,” says Ben Trodd, CEO of Marc- Henry Cruise Holdings, the venture’s joint operator. “With the confidence our guests place in Four Seasons comes an equally high expectation for excellence.” The category’s pioneer, the Ritz- Carlton Yacht Collection, launched in 2022 and now runs three vessels — Evrima, Ilma, and Luminara — on the opposite philosophy: all-inclusive (down to the
personal butler) with meals and drinks folded into a per-person fare that starts around $10,000 a week. Earlier this year Ilma became the first ship to be awarded a Five-Star rating by Forbes Travel Guide. The collection’s signature is the themed voyage. This summer saw 44 sailings across more than 90 ports, among them an oenophile passage from Lisbon to Portsmouth — with tastings threaded through Porto and Bordeaux — and a dedicated golf voyage that tees off on Scotland’s storied links before a private feast at an Edinburgh castle. Explora Journeys, the youngest of the group, refuses to call itself a cruise at all. Its newest ship launches this season with 461 ocean-facing suites, many with private terraces and plunge pools. The yacht runs on liquified natural gas (LNG), which may appeal to travelers looking to reduce their carbon footprint. Its look is pointedly European and residential, meaning less floating hotel and more a friend’s improbably large yacht. What unites these buoyant bluewater hotels is a shrewd calculation: having perfected guest loyalty on land, the great hotel brands have decided the next frontier floats. And where a brand has resorts ashore, the voyage can be bookended on land — a few nights at the Four Seasons in Florence before you sail — so the journey unfolds under one roof, even when the roof is moving. For centuries, the measure of a grand hotel was its address. Now, it seems, the best address is no address at all. Finally, luxury is underway.
LUXURY HOSPITALITY HAS LEFT LAND BEHIND AND TAKEN FIVE-STAR LIVING TO SEA
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The world’s newest five-star hotels don’t have an address. They have a heading. From the Caribbean to the Greek Isles to the fjords of Norway, the world’s great hospitality names have taken to the water, launching a fleet of ultra-luxury yachts that blur the line between resort and ship. For the traveler who’s done the safari, the private island, and the palazzo, there is finally something new: a hotel that quietly relocates while you sleep. The most talked-about of the new fleet is the Four Seasons I, which took its maiden voyage out of Málaga this spring. The numbers behind it border on the absurd: a 679-foot vessel the size of a midsize cruise liner, built for €400 million, and yet it carries fewer than 200 guests and is tended by a crew of 180 (a near 1:1 ratio of staff to passenger). Each of the 95 suites opens onto a private terrace through floor-to-ceiling glass and contains the first transparent television ever installed at sea. But the showstopper is the four-level Funnel Suite, a nearly 10,000-square-foot work of art set within the ship’s glass funnel, featuring its own private elevator and outdoor gym.
24 | RUMMELE’S JEWELERS MAGAZINE
25 | RUMMELE’S JEWELERS MAGAZINE
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