Nice Cruise news article on state of Expedition cruising, Conrad C, SVP of Silversea featured

[WesW]

Good read on state of play of expedition cruising, with Silversea featured prominently.

 

Conrad Combrink, SVP, head of SS destinations quoted numerously.

 

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/25970-expedition-cruise-players-bullish-on-near-term-recovery.html

[cruiseej]

Thanks for the link, Wes. While it's a fine puff piece on the expedition cruise industry, I find that it conveniently and conspicuously ignores all the pitfalls and problems cruise lines are dealing with. Silversea recently canceled its much-heralded "first expedition world cruise" on the Cloud, and canceled more than half a season's sailings on the Wind due to both supply-chain delays in work on the ship and the need to merge two sets of itineraries into one -- but none of this is mentioned in the article. Seabourn has had multiple delays and cancelations launching its first expedition ship.

 

I also found Combrink's quotes about the future of new expedition ships to be self-serving. He says “I don’t think we are going to see huge further growth, especially considering the last 18 months. I don’t think there’s a huge desire for many companies to go out and build more tonnage,” he said, pointing out to the fact that many of the recent newbuilds were replacement vessels, replacing old tonnage. Huh? Seabourn, probably Silversea's most direct competitor, is set two bring two new expedition ships into service in 2022 and 2023; neither replaces an existing ship. Ponant in launching its latest new expedition ship this winter, and has two more under construction. Viking, Crystal, Sunstone (Vantage), Coral, Hapag-Lloyd, Lindblad, and Mystic (Atlas) are some of the cruise lines with forthcoming new expedition ships. These ships are generally not replacing older expedition ships, they are expanding this segment of the cruising industry.  If anything, Silversea is a bit unusual in that it does not have any new expedition ships on order or under construction. 

[PaulMCO]

I agree -- rather self serving.  With new builds from Seabourn, Crystal, Ponant, Quark, Atlas, Poseidon etc.. and no new builds from SS. I think SS will find the competition in the future stiff.  These new builds have additional advantages that SS will never have, including undersea viewing portals, helicopters for inland explorations, submarines, plus easier, quicker and safer launching of zodiacs.