Four Seasons Yachts: Luxury Cruises Launching Late 2025

In September 2022, luxury hotel group Four Seasons announced that it would be getting into the cruise business. The company has just shared some more details about what we can expect, and it really sounds like this will be unlike anything else at sea.

Details of Four Seasons Yachts’ first ship

Four Seasons Yachts is the name of Four Seasons’ new cruising venture, which is a partnership between the hotel group and Marc-Henry Cruise Holdings Ltd. So far plans for two ships have been confirmed, with the first expected to be delivered in late 2025, and the second expected to be delivered in late 2026, produced by Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri. Each vessel is estimated to cost an average of around €400 million.

While many details remain to be seen, here’s what we know so far about the first ship to sail for Four Seasons Yachts:

• The vessel will be 207 meters (679 feet) long and 27 meters (89 feet) wide, and it will feature 14 decks
• The vessel will feature just 95 accommodations, in an all-suite layout
• Accommodations will be a minimum of 54 square meters (581 square feet) including indoor and outdoor space, and 60% of the vessel’s inventory will be in excess of 76 square meters (818 square feet)
• Accommodations will have a minimum ceiling height of 2.4 meters (7.9 feet)
• There will be a “Funnel Suite” that’s 892 square meters (9,601 square feet) spanning four floors, which will feature a private wading pool, and a dedicated private spa area; we’ve never seen something like this on a cruise ship before
• The ship will have an onboard transverse marina, allowing guests easy access to water toys that you’d traditionally only find on privately owned yachts; this will also feature tiered lounging decks
• The aft deck will feature a 20 meter salt water pool (66 feet), making it one of the largest at sea; this can quickly be emptied and the floor can be raised, and converted into a multi-function area
• Four Seasons claims that the ship will offer nearly 50% more living space per guest than what’s currently available in the industry

Here’s how Alejandro Reynal, President and CEO of Four Seasons, describes this new initiative:

“Four Seasons Yachts represents a key pillar of our future growth and strategic vision, as we look to capitalize on new opportunities and build brand differentiation through immersive luxury experiences. The inaugural Yacht is a manifestation of this vision, offering a world-class Four Seasons experience, at sea and on land, marked by the genuine, personalized service that our guests know and love.”

Below you can find some renderings of the first yacht, as well as a video.

Four Seasons Yachts inaugural destinations

While Four Seasons Yachts hasn’t yet put any itineraries on sale, the company has hinted at what we can expect. For the 2025-2026 inaugural season, we can anticipate winter and spring itineraries in the Caribbean, and then summer itineraries in the Mediterranean. In the Mediterranean, you can expect destinations like the French and Italian Rivieras, the Adriatic coastline, and the Greek Isles.

The average journey length will be seven days. The ship won’t do the same itineraries back-to-back, though, as the intent is that you can book an itinerary of 21 days with distinct destinations throughout.

For the first year, Four Seasons Yachts is expected to offer itineraries to 137 unique destinations across 33 countries, with 76 late night evenings or overnights.

The plan is also to have pre-and-post hotel and overland programs, which will be unveiled soon.

Four Seasons Yachts pricing

Pricing hasn’t yet been announced for Four Seasons Yachts, so all we can do is speculate. Based on what I’ve heard, the intent is that this is basically an experience for people who might otherwise consider a private yacht, and that this will be priced higher than any other existing cruise options out there.

Will Four Seasons Yachts be able to attract enough people with deep pockets who may not otherwise consider a cruise? A few thoughts:

• The people who Four Seasons is targeting might otherwise consider chartering a private yacht, or doing a safari, so the question is if a 95-key yacht can have the similar appeal
• Even if the intent is largely to anchor and not go into port, there are limits to the destinations that can be served with a nearly 700 foot yacht; people aren’t going to want to have an itinerary to Mykonos and Santorini, or to Nassau and San Juan
• There’s a lot of buzz around this launch, so I suspect Four Seasons will have no issues selling out these sailings with loyal customers of the brand who are intrigued

All we can do as of now is speculate what pricing will be like, so I think that’s an interesting topic to discuss. Currently, what’s the top of the market for luxury cruise lines with itineraries to the Caribbean and Mediterranean? Maybe $1,000 per person per day on the very high end?

My initial instinct is that Four Seasons Yachts might realistically cost $1,500-2,000 per person per day. So maybe a week-long cruise for two people costs $20,000-30,000 or so. In the current environment, many luxury hotels get away with charging $2,000 per night for a standard room, so that seems like a reasonable premium. Given the number of premium suites, you can expect huge variance in terms of pricing.

Obviously this will be beyond most peoples’ budgets, but there are also a lot of very rich people out there. I could see the pricing being even higher than that, so let’s see. Anyway, I’d love to hear what others think pricing could be like.

Four Seasons Yachts sounds intriguing

I’m not much of a cruiser nowadays, though I have long been interested by the concept of taking a luxury cruise at some point, especially when our son is a bit older (it just seems like an easy vacation). With that in mind, a few thoughts.

First of all, if there’s a brand that I trust to maintain its standards in all ventures, it’s Four Seasons. Four Seasons has the single most consistently excellent customer service of any hotel group, and that’s something the company isn’t willing to compromise on. I trust that if Four Seasons is willing to put its name on this concept, it’ll actually be good.

Next, it is legitimately impressive how big this ship is all while having so few rooms. For example, Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection is another new luxury cruise line from a hotel group. That ship is 190 meters with 149 rooms, while this one will be 207 meters with 95 rooms. That’s a huge difference. That’s also partly what I’m basing my predicted pricing on.

Lastly, I really hope that Four Seasons can make these itineraries interesting. While some “explorer” destinations (like Antarctica) are tough without a purpose-built ship, I think the key to success for this will be interesting ports of call. The fact that the ship will be sailing to so many unique destinations in a year suggests to me that the itineraries will be interesting, and to some ports not frequented by other ships.

Bottom line

Four Seasons is getting into the luxury cruise business, with the introduction of Four Seasons Yachts in late 2025. This is an exciting development, as it seems like this ship will truly be in a league of its own when it comes to the level of luxury it will offer. I’m very curious to see what pricing will be like, as we should learn more in the coming months.

What do you make of the Four Seasons Yachts concept?