Once viewed by wealthier vacationers as mass market, déclassé venues for watery cocktails, garish waterslides, buffet stampedes and Norovirus outbreaks, cruises are now chic.
Everyone from Martha Stewart and Tom Brady to Kendall Jenner and Dakota Johnson was onboard the Ritz’s recent launch of Luminara, the hotel brand’s new ship, which has been floating around the Mediterranean.
Savvy investors and luxury brands are recognizing cruises as the next frontier for high-end travel.
The billionaire Francois Pinault, whose family has owned French cruise line Ponant for a decade, bought a majority stake in the luxe cruise line Aqua Expeditions earlier this year.
Bernard Arnault and LVMH have invested in an Orient Express ship that is currently under construction and set to be delivered next year.
Following in the Ritz’s wake, in 2026, the Waldorf Astoria will wet its feet in the cruise space with a Nile River trip launching, while the Four Seasons will set sail in the Caribbean and Mediterranean. The Aman will hit the high seas with a 50-suite ship in 2027.
“There is an arms race between high-end hotels to get into the luxury cruise space,” Jim Murren, CEO of The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection told me.
For the hospitality companies, it’s an easy way to enter a new and growing market — luxe cruises are expected to expand from $10.5 billion this year to $19.8 billion by 2033 according to Business Research Insights — while relying on the safety of their existing brand.
“If you’re a new entrant who has decided to get into a new product, it is far easier with a known branch attached like a luxury hotel — people will pay 15% more if there is a name like Ritz Carlton attached,” Richard Clarke, a senior analyst for global hotels, cruise lines & online travel at Bernstein told me. “It is a well trodden path to expand beyond your core product and see what else you can do.”
Various luxury hotel companies have recently launched high-end clothing lines, bedding collections, and bags, while branded residences have been popular for years.
“The fact it’s all coming at once is proof the concept works … and the high-end consumer has never been more attractive,” Clarke said.
Unlike mega-cruise ships, which can’t reach more intimate ports and can hold more than 4,000 passengers, most of these high-end vessels are nimble enough to reach harder-to-get-to destinations like St. Barth’s in the Caribbean or Capri in the Mediterranean.
Ritz’s new boat, Luminara, accommodates just 452 guests while another of its ships, Evrima, has room for only 298 guests.
The Ritz ships include restaurants designed by Michelin-starred chefs, sprawling suites, extensive spas, infinity pools, marinas with water sports galore and art collections that feature works from Andy Warhol, Henri Matisse and Alexander Calder.
Ponant’s ships — which have room for fewer than 40 guests — even offer an underwater lounge with ocean views. Ponant is known primarily for exploring far-flung destinations like Antarctica and the North Pole, while Aqua Expeditions goes to remote rivers like the Amazon and Mekong.
The upcoming cruises from the Aman, Four Seasons, the Orient Express and Waldorf Astoria will feature sprawling suites and amenities such as a Japanese Zen garden and a jazz club.
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Most of these trips start around $20,000 per week and go up in price from there depending on factors like the size of your room and how much caviar you order.
While it’s not surprising companies would jump on this growing market, it has surprised me how quickly travelers have embraced it.
Just why — apart from a barrage of influencers posting about their trips — are these vacations catching on?
Part of it is very careful branding of these cruises. In marketing materials, the vessels are referred to as yachts not cruise ships. Silver-haired retirees have been swapped out for glam influencers, models, and movie stars.
“The fact that yachts are splashed across tabloids makes it seem like it is the kind of vacation you should take,” Clarke noted.
For multi-millionaires who dream of being billionaires (or at least scoring an invite on one of their yachts), the new upscale cruise is a way to have a private yacht experience without buying one themselves — ala Jeff Bezos or David Geffen — or paying six figures to charter a vessel.
They’re perfect for the Instagram era where everyone wants to “show some rail” — a reference to the myriad photos taken in front of the enclosure on the ship.
“It’s an entirely new category, designed for travelers who seek the privacy and exclusivity of a yacht charter, paired with the elevated service and amenities of a luxury resort-at-sea,” Murren said.
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