This New Luxury Expedition Ship Has 2 Submarines, a World-class Crew, and an Amazing Spa

The world’s latest expedition cruise ship launches as we speak, promising an expensive new period in a few of the world’s most distant locations. The 264-passenger Seabourn Enterprise simply launched into its first official voyage from Tromsö, Norway, marking the primary time the Carnival Company–owned luxurious cruise line will provide adventurous sailings on an expedition ship constructed for excessive environments.

Seabourn, a favorite cruise line of Travel + Leisure readers, is thought for its on-board service and over-the-top meals together with complimentary caviar and Thomas Keller steakhouses on ships such because the Seabourn Ovation. Now, with the 132-suite Enterprise, the all-inclusive model will provide a unique kind of luxurious: Zodiac journeys, wildlife-watching expeditions, and off-the-grid explorations beforehand obtainable to solely probably the most hardcore of adventurers.

„This ship is actually catering to a visitor that wishes the perfect, and that wishes to dwell every second to its fullest,“ says Josh Leibowitz, president of Seabourn, in an unique interview with T+L.

The Enterprise can be crusing the following few months within the Arctic to locations corresponding to Longyearbyen, Norway; Greenland; and the far north of Canada. Later in 2022, the ship will sail south earlier than transiting the Panama Canal; navigating the coasts of Peru and Chile; then heading for Antarctica, the place it will spend the upcoming Southern Hemisphere summer season.

One of many Enterprise’s key options can be its stacked assortment of water toys, together with two submarines for underwater exploration, a fleet of 24 Zodiacs, kayaks, and scuba gear. Nevertheless it’s the 26-person expedition crew on board that can actually make the visitor expertise particular, says Robin West, Seabourn’s vice chairman and common supervisor, expeditions.

„The on-board expedition crew is what brings locations to life,“ West tells T+L in a one-on-one interview. „It is one of many bigger groups within the business, with an enormous range of abilities, assets, and educational backgrounds: submarine pilots, floor supervisor officers, lead kayakers, kayak guides, bear guides, ornithologists, marine biologists, geologists, climatologists, dive masters — you understand, there’s an array of crew members!“

A few of the extra notable consultants embody Robert Egelstaff, a kayaker, and Trevor Potts, a lecturer, who collectively recreated Ernest Shackleton’s 800-mile journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia Island. „They’ve lived the expertise, and that is the sort of caliber of individual that’s sitting at your dinner desk,“ says West. Different execs that can spend time on Enterprise embody university-affiliated researchers {and professional} paddlers, plus consultants in historical past, anthropology, volcanology, and different in-demand disciplines.

The arrival of Enterprise comes at a time when numerous cruise lines are launching expedition ships to capitalize on shoppers‘ seemingly limitless curiosity in getting the heck out of dodge.

„We have determined to create the world’s preeminent approach of visiting areas that may solely be reached by ship,“ Leibowitz says, whereas noting that „we’re nonetheless extraordinarily small as an business.“

„While you add up all of the ships that discover these totally different areas of the world,“ he observes, „it is nonetheless tiny in comparison with the variety of people who go on a safari every year or that go to the nationwide parks.“

Whereas super-exclusive, off-the-ship adventures are a key promoting level of each Seabourn Enterprise and a forthcoming sister ship, Seabourn Pursuit, anticipated to launch in 2023, the cruise line is not skimping on the interiors. Each ships may have eight totally different on-board eating choices — that is a ton for such a small vessel — and suites will begin at a large-for-cruising 335 sq. ft. Each room will get a non-public veranda, and a small variety of spa suites add stepped up tub facilities and particular entry to the on-board spa.

Seabourn Enterprise may also have some next-level design options from Tihany Design, as T+L recently reported. „Putting wood-paneled staterooms, tactile particulars like cashmere throws, and floor-to-ceiling home windows [will] body ever-changing vistas,“ per the article. „The ship’s two-story Wintergarden suites are among the many most elaborate lodging at sea, with Duxiana Axion beds and hideaway TVs within the bedrooms and, within the residing areas, Bang & Olufsen audio know-how and well-stocked moist bars.“

Whereas Enterprise is the road’s latest ship, each one in every of Seabourn’s vessels has come out of the pandemic with a refresh, Leibowitz says. „Our ships had been fully reimagined throughout the pause,“ he notes. „We have now a whole lot of recent and wholesome recipes, new leisure, new music, new reveals. We’re aiming to come back again with a completely new expertise — a brand new vibe — that you just may describe as ‚energetic luxurious.'“

Which is not to say there aren’t moments to chill out, even throughout a once-in-a-lifetime journey to Antarctica, Greenland, or off the coast of South America, Leibowitz provides. „As a lot energetic luxurious as there may be, there’s additionally some fantastic chill luxurious the place you may really feel relaxed and at residence,“ he says of Seabourn ships, together with Enterprise.

„When you come up and say, ‚I might like gin and tonic,‘ we’ll make the tonic for you proper there on board,“ he continues. „And when you’re ingesting that, sitting up within the commentary bar, searching over the gorgeous, huge ocean — perhaps the solar is setting — we have now somebody simply casually enjoying the piano, and also you’re most likely listening to one thing you listened to in highschool — and also you’re most likely eager to sing alongside. That is chill luxurious.“