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Silversea Cruises Orders Three New Ships

Credit: Meyer Werft
Credit: Meyer Werft

Published Oct 8, 2018 7:18 PM by The Maritime Executive

Royal Caribbean Cruises has announced orders for three new ships for Silversea Cruises.

Silversea signed a memorandum of understanding with German shipbuilder Meyer Werft to build two new vessels in a new Evolution Class, the first expected to be delivered in 2022.

Silversea also signed a contract with Dutch shipbuilder Shipyard De Hoop to construct a new expedition vessel, named Silver Origin, that will serve the Galapagos Islands itinerary currently sailed by Silver Galapagos. The new ship is expected for delivery in March 2020.

This year, Silversea Expeditions celebrates its 10th anniversary of luxury expedition cruising. The line currently operates the all-suite vessels: Silver Wind, Silver Shadow, Silver Whisper, Silver Spirit and Silver Muse. With the expedition ships Silver Explorer, Silver Galapagos, Silver Discoverer, and with Silver Cloud recently joining the expedition fleet, Silversea's itineraries encompass all seven continents. 

Royal Caribbean Cruises finalized its two-thirds acquisition of Silversea earlier this year. Regulators green-lighted the purchase based on an enterprise value of approximately $2 billion. Manfredi Lefebvre d’Ovidio remains Executive Chairman of Silversea and retains a 33.3 percent stake. At the time, the companies also announced Project Invictus, a multi-year initiative to take Silversea’s ultra-luxury offerings to the next level. As a result, the planned renovation of Silver Whisper in December 2018 will be much more comprehensive than initially anticipated and will include a partial refit of all guest cabins. Silver Wind will also enter into an enhanced dry dock in December 2018. Both vessels will join the overarching plan for a fleet-wide “Musification” which will take inspiration from the design of the very successful cruise line’s flagship, Silver Muse. The plan will be completed shortly after with an enhanced dry dock of the Silver Shadow.

Royal Caribbean operates the brands Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Club Cruises. It has a 50 percent joint venture owner of the German brand TUI Cruises and is a 49 percent shareholder in the Spanish brand Pullmantur Cruceros. Together, these brands operate a combined total of 59 ships with an additional 15 on order.