**** UPDATE **** 2 February 2022
The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection has confirmed a new start date of its first vessel, Evrima, of 6 August 2022.
In a statement to LATTE, the cruise line cited “ongoing supply chain and labor challenges created by COVID-19, and the impact on construction operations, The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection will reschedule its inaugural voyage”.
Douglas Prothero, CEO of The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection remarked: “Like many in manufacturing, we have experienced significant impact from COVID-19 variants as it relates to labor and supply chain disruptions, and we have had to reevaluate the timing of our first voyage.”
“We continue to make significant progress on EVRIMA and look forward to welcoming guests onboard this summer. We thank our guests for their support as we continue to navigate an evolving global landscape,” Prothero said.
Impacted guests and their travel agents are being offered alternative itineraries in 2022, 2023 or 2024, as well as the option to “discuss reimbursement options”.
LATTE‘s original article follows below.
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Further delays for the launch of The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection [RCYC] appear to have been confirmed by the yet-to-sail ultra-luxury cruise line.
Already, the 298-passenger Evrima has suffered multiple setbacks and delays in construction. The most recent was a six-month postponement of the yacht’s debut from November 2021 to early-May 2022.
Evrima was scheduled to begin service on 6 May 2022 from Lisbon, Portugal however it is now understood that the ship’s inaugural sailing will be on 6 August 2022 – a seven-night roundtrip voyage from Athen (Pireaus) to the Greek Isles and Turkey.
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Multiple impacted Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection guests who were booked on sailings in May 2022 – some of which who had just sent their final payments – were informed by their booking agents of the change, with COVID cited for ongoing ship delays.
The apparent three-month delay will impact 12 Mediterranean sailings that had been scheduled to depart. Those sailings are still currently listed on the cruise line’s website.
Should this latest delay be verified, collectively the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection’s first vessel will be more than 2.5 years behind its initial launch date of February 2020.
A few weeks ago The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection’s parent company, The Yacht Portfolio, signed a letter of intent to acquire Sea Cloud Cruises and its three triple-masted luxury tall ships.
“Sea Cloud offers such a unique, environmentally-friendly experience in the cruise space, which aligns well with our continued focus on building a strong portfolio of niche luxury brands,” Douglas Prothero, CEO of The Yacht Portfolio said.
And in the past week, RCYC has released its 2023/24 Caribbean program. More details here.