Silversea Cruises has received approval to buy luxury expedition ship Endeavor, a polar vessel that debuted last year for Crystal. She will be renamed Silver Endeavour upon joining Silversea, which counts five expedition vessels (four designed for polar regions) in its 11-ship fleet. The company paid $275 million for the ship, which Crystal had built for €350 million. Crystal’s price, at €1.9 million per berth, makes the ship the most expensive expedition vessel ever built.
“The ship is very well built, designed and conceived,” said Roberto Martinoli, Silversea’s president and chief executive officer, who recently returned from two days exploring Endeavor.
“There are so many similarities it made me wonder if they used the Silversea design platform,” he said, laughing. Silver Endeavour will launch in November 2022 in Antarctica, sailing Silversea’s Antarctica Bridge sailings. Beyond that? Here, Martinoli shares his impressions.
What’s your take on the design of the ship? Is there something about Silver Endeavour, design-wise, that you find inspiring, clever and/or innovative?
“She is very luxurious, far and above the other Crystal vessels. She perfectly fits our needs. Suite sizes and configurations, and her layout, open decks, dining options–you name it–it’s a perfect, suitable design for Silversea.
“I was also surprised by how easily she will adapt into our expedition fleet.”
What’s your favorite feature?
“It has to be the aft pool, in an enclosed space with a great glass dome, an unusual feature for an expedition ship that operates in cold water, especially because she will spend 90 percent of the time in this environment.
“There are other features we don’t need. For instance, there’s a casino, which we don’t feature in our expedition fleet. There’s a helicopter hanger and landing pad, and we’re not a big fan of that feature. In both cases, we’re considering adding suites as the ship is very large compared to its capacity.”
Would you use Silver Endeavour as a platform for designing Silversea’s own expedition new builds?
“That’s difficult to say because we’ve already been looking into options for an expedition design to follow on that of Silver Origin [which launched in Galápagos in 2021].”
Design-wise, is there anything urgent you have to change on the ship before it enters service for Silversea?
“We’ll change all the things you would expect, such as livery (the exterior painting of Silver Endeavour), the ship’s name, signs around the vessel. We also will make small touches to the dining experiences to make them fit with what we have on other expedition ships, namely venues similarly found on Silver Cloud and Silver Wind.”
Silver Endeavour has some new toys and twists, including plans for a helicopter, along with a submarine and a remote operational vehicle (or ROV) that aren’t found on Silversea’s other expedition ships. Will they stay?
“We’re not going to use the submarine and helicopter for a couple of reasons. One is that cold weather waters are typically quite murky, so you can’t see much in a submarine. We don’t feel the need to have toys that can used by just a portion of guests. And they’re actually only useful in a very limited number of places. Finally, there’s more than enough to do and see on Silversea’s cruises.
“We will, however, incorporate the ROV. Remote operational vehicles allow us to explore even deeper beneath the surface and to share insights and learnings with our guests.”
What should we know about Silver Endeavour’s sustainability?
“She is a wonderfully updated vessel, debuting last July and sailing until January. She has Azipods, an efficient propulsion system, and on my explorations onboard you could tell that energy efficiency was a big focus during construction. Other critical features include advanced waste systems, dynamic positioning, the most-updated internal combustion engines. For a small ship like Silver Endeavour, it’s very good.”
Fun Facts about Silver Endeavour
Silver Endeavour will replace Silver Explorer for this winter’s Antarctic season, sailing all of its Antarctica cruises. Silver Explorer will resume operations for the upcoming 2023 Kimberley season as scheduled, subsequently sailing in the South Pacific before leaving the fleet in November 2023, when her charter agreement ends.
Silver Endeavour will receive a minor refurbishment before she sails. Changes will occur with signage, livery, construction of new suites, cosmetic tweaks in terms of restaurants and other minor changes. Silver Endeavour will enter dry dock briefly.
Besides carrying kayaks, Silver Endeavour will have one of the highest Zodiac-to-guest ratios in expedition cruising.
Silver Endeavor is classified as Polar Class PC6. What does that mean? Ships classified as PC6 as being capable of “summer/autumn operation in medium first-year ice which may include old ice inclusions,” the International Association of Classification Societies says.
Key specifications: Silver Endeavour is 164.4 meters long (about 540 feet), operates at a maximum speed of 19 knots and has eight public decks. The crew-to-guest ratio, as with similar sized expedition ships like Silver Cloud and Silver Wind, is approximately 1:1. And the space-to-guest ratio is approximately a generous 100 GRT.
Silversea welcomes Silver Endeavour’s former crew to the Silversea family. For more information, visit crewcareer.silversea.com.
As part of Royal Caribbean Group’s RCL Cares program, RCG will protect the deposits of travelers who were booked on Crystal Endeavor and make a new booking on one of the Group’s global brands – Silversea, Royal Caribbean International or Celebrity Cruises. More information on Silver Endeavour will be published on www.silversea.com on Aug. 23, 2022. In the meantime, travel agents and guests who want to know more may email endeavour@silversea.com