Around the world, cruise lines are cutting the ribbon on extremely expensive new vessels\u2014then keeping them ind<\/p>\n
Normally, when a new ship wraps construction at a shipyard, it\u2019s cause for a party, with executives in sharp suits and free-flowing Champagne. But when the sparkling 596-passenger ultraluxury ship\u00a0Silver Moon<\/em>\u00a0joined\u00a0Royal Caribbean Group\u2019s elite Silversea Cruises brand in late October\u2014the culmination of a $380 million, 20-month project\u2014there was little pomp and circumstance. No media were on hand at the Italian shipyard to\u00a0ooh<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0ahh<\/em> over such exquisite design features as bespoke Lalique panels in the French restaurant and handcrafted Savoir beds in the top suites.<\/p>\n This time, even Royal Caribbean\u2019s top brass bowed out of\u00a0the celebration and\u00a0teleconferenced\u00a0from Miami. And the ship\u2019s handover, in Ancona, Italy, came with a cringe. After all,\u00a0Silver Moon<\/em>\u00a0has nowhere to go. With border restrictions and a\u00a0second wave of the Covid-19\u00a0pandemic freezing all kinds of travel, she may have to wait at least until spring to make her maiden voyage\u2014and start turning any kind of profit.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very painful in many ways,\u201d says Jason Liberty, Royal Caribbean Group\u2019s executive vice president and chief financial officer. \u201cAll this energy\u2014whether it\u2019s design, creating unique activities and venues\u2014obviously you\u2019re investing money as well, and you take delivery of the ship and you can\u2019t do what you do best:\u00a0delivering the best vacations in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Liberty isn\u2019t alone in his frustration. At least 10 ships\u2014ranging in cost from $75 million to near $1 billion\u2014have wrapped construction amid the pandemic, representing an industry investment of more than $3.84 billion. Three additional vessels debuted at the beginning of the year. Most are stuck in holding patterns until the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its counterparts around the world greenlight a return to cruising.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Around the world, cruise lines are cutting the ribbon on extremely expensive new vessels\u2014then keeping them ind Normally, when a new ship wraps construction at a shipyard, it\u2019s cause for a party, with executives in sharp suits and free-flowing Champagne. But when the sparkling 596-passenger ultraluxury ship\u00a0Silver Moon\u00a0joined\u00a0Royal Caribbean Group\u2019s elite Silversea Cruises brand in […]<\/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-277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277","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=277"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":278,"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277\/revisions\/278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deluxecruises.com\/deals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}