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In late 2022, we saw the launch of Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection. While I’d say that this is Marriott or Ritz-Carlton’s entry into the cruising world, in reality this is just a licensing agreement. Nonetheless, this is a pretty special product. Not only can you earn and redeem Bonvoy points for Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection itineraries, but this actually seems to be a top notch product, competitive with the best cruise lines out there.
I haven’t taken a look at the cruise line since it launched, so in this post I wanted to take a closer look at Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, as I’m maybe considering booking one of these cruises.
In this post:
What are Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection ships like?
So far, Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection has one ship, with two more expected in the coming years. Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection’s first ship is Evrima, and it’s 624 feet long, weighs 25,400 tons, and it has 149 suites that can accommodate 298 guests. This is in line with the size of the more boutique ships that you’ll find in the industry nowadays.
As of the summer of 2024, we’ll see the introduction of Ilma, which will be quite a bit larger. That ship will be 790 feet long, will weigh 46,750 tons, and will have 224 suites that can accommodate 448 guests.
So if you value a more intimate cruising experience, you’ll definitely want to select Evrima over Ilma, though everyone is looking for a different vibe.
Despite the smaller sizes of these ships, they still feature plenty of amenities. For example, in the case of Evrima:
- The ship has multiple dining outlets, including The Evrima Room (the main all-day dining restaurant), S.E.A. (the specialty restaurant at an extra charge), Talaat Nam (a Southeast Asian restaurant), The Pool House (a casual all-day dining restaurant), Mistral (a Mediterranean restaurant), and The Living Room (featuring drinks and snacks)
- The ship has a Ritz-Carlton Spa with five treatment rooms, a beauty lounge, a grooming salon for men, a sauna, a steam room, a relaxation area, and of course a 24/7 fitness center
- The ship has a variety of other amenities, ranging from a marina and marina terrace, to a pool with whirlpools, to a kids club, to a smoking lounge, to an observation lounge
What are suites like on Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection?
Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection markets all of its accommodations as being suites, each with an ocean view and outdoor terrace.
Entry level accommodations are the Terrace Suites, which boast 300 square feet of interior space, and 54-81 square feet of exterior space. Meanwhile the top suite is the Owner’s Suite, and that offers 1,091 square feet of interior space, and 635 square feet of exterior space.
So while all accommodations are generously sized, arguably a 300 square foot room isn’t exactly huge.
Where do Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection cruises go?
As you’d expect for most luxury, non-explorer cruise lines, Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection generally sails in the Caribbean in winter, and in Europe in the summer. Itineraries vary by the week, and you can find all the sailings here. Most journeys range in length from five to 11 nights.
How expensive are Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection cruises?
Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection’s pricing varies considerably, depending on the type of journey you’re booking. Pricing is generally per person based on double occupancy. Note that if you’re traveling alone, you’ll have to pay 200% of the fare, meaning you’ll be paying double if traveling alone.
Just to give a general pricing range based on what’s currently for sale, one of the cheaper cruises is an 11-night transatlantic crossing that starts at $6,900 per person (~$630 per person per day), while one of the more expensive cruises is a peak summer seven-day Mediterranean cruise, which starts at $11,400 per person (~$1,630 per person per day).
What’s included with Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection cruises?
Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection cruises are more or less all-inclusive. In addition to the accommodation, rates include dining and beverages (at restaurants and bars, and in your suite), gratuities, onboard entertainment, premium Wi-Fi, and marina-style platform access with non-motorized water sports.
What’s not included? Dining at the specialty restaurant (S.E.A.), spa treatments, select premium beverages, etc.
Does Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection participate in Marriott Bonvoy?
For those of us who are into miles & points, one of the cool things is that Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection participates in Marriott Bonvoy:
- You can earn 5x Bonvoy points per dollar spent on cruises, and earn elite nights for the number of nights of your cruise; the spending even counts toward Ambassador status
- You can redeem Bonvoy points, with 180,000 Bonvoy points saving you $1,000 on a journey
- You can take advantage of select elite benefits
How do you book Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection cruises?
You can book Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection cruises either directly through the cruise line, or through a travel advisor. If you want to book direct, you’ll have to do so by phone, by calling 833.999.7292.
However, you can also work with a travel advisor — not only won’t they charge you anything extra, but they can add additional perks that you won’t get when booking direct. They can also add your Marriott Bonvoy number to the reservation, as those would be qualifying booking for those purposes. Ford and his team are happy to help with these requests, and can be reached at [email protected].
How do Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection and Four Seasons Yachts compare?
Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection isn’t the only cruise line associated with a luxury hotel brand. Four Seasons Yachts is expected to launch by early 2026. How do the two cruise lines compare?
Well, there’s no doubt that Four Seasons Yachts is a step up over Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection in terms of luxury:
- Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection’s current ship is marginally smaller than the Four Seasons Yachts’ ship, but has 57% more rooms (149 keys vs. 95 keys)
- Four Seasons Yachts’ entry level suites are 58% larger than Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection’s suites (473 square feet vs. 300 square feet)
While Four Seasons Yachts offers a more intimate experience, it’s also priced significantly higher:
- Four Seasons Yachts cruises generally start at $3,000 per suite per night (that price is per suite, not per person)
- Four Seasons Yachts cruises aren’t all-inclusive; they include breakfast, non-alcoholic drinks, and light snacks, but don’t include lunch, dinner, or alcohol
So while Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection is expensive to begin with, it’s significantly less expensive than Four Seasons Yachts.
Has anyone been on a Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection cruise?
Part of the reason that I’m writing about this now is that I’m seriously considering booking a Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection cruise, so I’ve been doing some digging myself.
For some background, as a kid I was kind of obsessed with cruises, but that the concept hasn’t had much appeal to me in the past 20 years. However, over the past couple of years I’ve been warming up to cruising once again, and it’s something I’d like to do again at some point, especially now that we have a kid, so cruising seems like an easy vacation.
We had actually booked a Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection cruise back when the concept was first announced, but due to delays, our sailing ended up getting canceled, and we couldn’t find a good itinerary on which to rebook.
Frankly I’d be curious to try both Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection and then Four Seasons Yachts when it launches, to see how they compare. While this is only a licensing agreement, I still find this sort of hotel and cruise crossover to be interesting.
Here’s the thing, though — to me the greatest benefit of a cruise is being able to explore destinations you can’t easily explore by land, at least with good accommodation options. On the surface, I have little interest in taking a cruise where where you’re just visiting ports that you can easily travel to otherwise.
That’s also kind of my issue with some of these itineraries — the destinations are largely kind of bland, and places that are best seen by land. The cruise line that most intrigues me is PONANT — not only does PONANT have small ships, but so many of the voyages look awesome. PONANT has journeys to everywhere from Antarctica, to Greenland, to Iceland, to smaller Pacific Islands. That’s the kind of stuff I’d like to see if I’m going to take a cruise.
Still, I’m even coming around to the concept of a cruise to a place I might not otherwise consider to be that exciting. It just seems like a relaxing and enjoyable trip, and there’s something nice about being at sea. That’s why I’m also curious if any OMAAT readers have taken a Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection cruise, and if so, what was the experience like?
Bottom line
Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection is Marriott’s entry into the cruising world, at least through a licensing agreement. One ship has now been sailing for a bit over a year, while the next ship should start sailing in the coming months. This seems like an all-around very luxurious experience, and I’m definitely intrigued.
What do you make of Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection?
I've found cruises to be incredibly relaxing. Unlike other vacations, you don't have to plan anything, entertainment is there, food is there, the ship takes you places where you can, if you want, explore. Maybe not as exciting as planning a trip to some interesting locale, but very nice if you just want a few days of relaxation with little need for thinking.
There is nothing so special about the Ritz Carlton cruises. There are many luxury curise lines out there. It is just a licensing agreement. As this cruise has been years delayed, I expect some problems to furhter come.
Ponant offers intersting itineraries like the one we took a few years ago from Niece to Malta touring the islands in between. You will be shocked how small the entry level staterooms are. 185sq/ft. One person had to stay in bed in order to be able to move around to use bathroom or get dressed. The food was only fair. We expected fabulous French meals with great French wines. We got frozen mussels from NZ...
Ponant offers intersting itineraries like the one we took a few years ago from Niece to Malta touring the islands in between. You will be shocked how small the entry level staterooms are. 185sq/ft. One person had to stay in bed in order to be able to move around to use bathroom or get dressed. The food was only fair. We expected fabulous French meals with great French wines. We got frozen mussels from NZ when they had fresh mussel farms at the islands we visited. If you are not using Tauck tours you will feel like an outsider, as those members had already established a connection on their 7 day land package prior to boarding. We are going on our final Ponant cruise this summer as we had left over cruise credits from covid time. No more Ponant!
Frankly, I find both Four Season Yachts (which I would not book due to the resignation in February of its President, highly regarded cruise legend Larry Pimentel along with one of its founders and Board members, leaving management inexperienced with the intricacies of cruise line management), luxurious but rather bland. And while you may not be one to socialize, I'd be wary of the type of guests that would find these cruise ships (and itineraries)...
Frankly, I find both Four Season Yachts (which I would not book due to the resignation in February of its President, highly regarded cruise legend Larry Pimentel along with one of its founders and Board members, leaving management inexperienced with the intricacies of cruise line management), luxurious but rather bland. And while you may not be one to socialize, I'd be wary of the type of guests that would find these cruise ships (and itineraries) attractive: people looking to replicate their hotel brand experiences rather than being adventurous). I have had great experiences with PONANT as not only are their hardware modern and of classic beauty, but their itineraries, particularly Antarctica and the Arctic only accessible by sea, fantastic gourmet food and an interesting, experienced traveler international guest demographic. For the highest level of luxury of the PONANT vessels along with their itineraries, I'd suggest exploring LE COMMANDANT CHARCOT: https://us.ponant.com/cruises/on-board/vessel-le-commandant-charcot?utm_source=google&gad_source=1&ectrans=1&utm_content=Lien_texte&utm_campaign=Generic-Cruise_type&gclid=Cj0KCQjwn7mwBhCiARIsAGoxjaJIEkBEABQTwkk67mo8KQACnKQJASauA9BoJRbGa7vxsEILRHMH1F8aAvAjEALw_wcB&utm_medium=cpc&_gl=1%2A9r685i%2A_up%2AMQ..
What doesn't make sense to me is that the eleven (11) night Caribbean cruise is priced the same as the six-seven (6-7) night Caribbean cruise????
We sailed on Evrima through the Caribbean over NYE in December 2022, not too long after its first sailing. Suffice it to say, there were issues. Many issues. We were offered a discount to try them again. So we shall see in July.
On the positives, I can confirm that there was a free flow of Champagne and that was appreciated :-). Rooms were very nice and food was generally good. I would also...
We sailed on Evrima through the Caribbean over NYE in December 2022, not too long after its first sailing. Suffice it to say, there were issues. Many issues. We were offered a discount to try them again. So we shall see in July.
On the positives, I can confirm that there was a free flow of Champagne and that was appreciated :-). Rooms were very nice and food was generally good. I would also say the other passengers onboard were younger and more diverse than what I have seen on other cruises - they also wear a lot more Gucci and Prada!
The biggest issue I had with our Ritz Carlton cruise was that they boast certain features that sound great, but never materialized. For example, many of our excursions were cancelled. They state that because of their small size, ‘they can go where the others can’t’. Yet, each we pulled into a ports right behind a Carnival Cruise or Norwegian or Celebrity or something. Hardly exclusive. They highlight the Marina, but it was never opened for us and you can only use it when not in port. The Concierge sounds great, but we found little value for them as everything on the ship was always booked and they were not familiar with many of the ports on our itinerary.
This summer we are heading to Croatia, Montenegro and Slovenia. I am acting as my own concierge this time around. Hope this time is a better experience….
My husband and I took a Caribbean cruise on Evrima and loved it! It was also our first cruise ever, which most people on board said would ruin other crises for us. The food was good, service Amazing, and loved how everyone referred to the unlimited Moët as Ritz water. I agree that the ports weren’t super amazing, but it was so relaxing to be on the boat. We definitely liked it so much that...
My husband and I took a Caribbean cruise on Evrima and loved it! It was also our first cruise ever, which most people on board said would ruin other crises for us. The food was good, service Amazing, and loved how everyone referred to the unlimited Moët as Ritz water. I agree that the ports weren’t super amazing, but it was so relaxing to be on the boat. We definitely liked it so much that we booked another trip on Ilma in Scandinavia in 2025. It would be cool to see your take as well as a comparison to the Four Seasons.
Itineraries are real yawners.
I'd also consider a river cruise. We did a danube cruise on Tauck a few years ago. We were the youngest by far, but Tauck really delivers a great experience, and you get access to all sorts of smaller towns.
Ponant looks great.