Royal Caribbean Group fully acquired ultra-luxury brand Silversea Cruises in July 2020, two years after purchasing a controlling two-thirds share of the brand in July 2018.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a significant moment in the history of our cruise line, and we all welcome the positive news,\u201d says Roberto Martinoli, president and CEO of Silversea. \u201cWe\u2019re in unprecedented circumstances and these are challenging times for not only the cruise industry, but also for many sectors, especially for those within the global travel industry. Now more than ever, we\u2019re grateful to be able to count on the invaluable support of Royal Caribbean.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of this support has come in the form of Royal Caribbean\u2019s new Healthy Sail Panel. \u201cThe panel is a very strong team of 11 industry-leading health professionals that will combine their knowledge and experience to provide clear guidelines to not only the cruise industry as a whole, but also to other travel sectors too,\u201d says Martinoli. \u201cWe\u2019re perfectly placed to lead the way in the healthy return to service once the time is right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martinoli believes the global cruise industry is exceptionally resilient, having weathered many storms in the past. \u201cCruise lines have always applied the most rigid sanitary protocols and used innovative technologies to safeguard the welfare of guests and crew, such as ultraviolet lighting and fogging,\u201d he says. \u201cOnce the time is right, we\u2019ll return to sailing with even stricter sanitary protocols to ensure that guests are safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Martinoli\u2019s view, Silversea has an inherent advantage in that it operates small ultra-luxury vessels with some of the highest space-to-guest ratios and crew-to-guest ratios at sea. \u201cThis will help to facilitate physical distancing and ensure high sanitation standards,\u201d he explains. \u201cHowever, this will never mean social distancing \u2013 meeting friends and enjoying a wonderful dinner will always be a fundamental part of the Silversea experience. Settings will probably be more spread out \u2013 with tables seating fewer people \u2013 but the essence of the unique Silversea experience will remain in place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Confident in the cruise industry\u2019s future, Silversea has continued to prepare for newbuilds joining its fleet. In June, the company took delivery of its newest ship from Netherlands-based Shipyard De Hoop, which implemented a series of strict health and safety measures to ensure its team could continue working safely throughout the pandemic. De Hoop also used innovative methods to conduct Silver Origin\u2019s sea trials. The ship\u2019s dynamic positioning system was tuned remotely from engineers in St. Petersburg, Russia \u2013 over 1,800 kilometres away.<\/p>\n
\u201cSilver Origin\u2019s construction is indeed an amazing story of resilience and I must pay my compliments to the incredible team at De Hoop, which overcame a number of obstacles to deliver our beautiful ship in such a timely manner,\u201d says Martinoli.<\/p>\n
Work also continues to progress well on newbuild, Silver Moon, which is due for delivery from Fincantieri in October 2020. \u201cI\u2019m especially eager to see the launch of our pioneering new Sea and Land Taste (S.A.L.T.) programme, which will unlock entire ecosystems around culinary discovery, with the programme changing with each port the ship visits,\u201d says Martinoli. \u201cThe S.A.L.T. Kitchen, S.A.L.T. Lab, and S.A.L.T. Bar onboard Silver Moon will enable travellers to form strong connections with each destination.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regarding the rest of the fleet\u2019s ships, Martinoli says Silversea will \u201cnot be too hasty\u201d when it comes to returning to service. Organising safe trips ashore will be a key consideration. \u201cIt\u2019s still too early to share details on our protocols for shore experiences, but we\u2019ll use the expert insight of the Healthy Sail Panel to address this concern. One option that we\u2019re exploring is to make the voyage experience as closed-loop as possible, with a series of enhancements to ensure that we\u2019re in control of every aspect of guests\u2019 travel experience. This way, guests and crew can be confident that everyone follows our enhanced procedures.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve remained in constant contact with all ports and destinations to work together on protection of passengers, crew and the communities we visit and we\u2019ll share itinerary details soon.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Silversea Cruises\u2019 Roberto Martinoli tells Sandra Speares why he is confident about the cruise brand\u2019s ability to resume safe operations in the wake of the pandemic Royal Caribbean Group fully acquired ultra-luxury brand Silversea Cruises in July 2020, two years after purchasing a controlling two-thirds share of the brand in July 2018. \u201cThis was a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":258,"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257\/revisions\/258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}