Roberto Martinoli has a brand-new luxury expedition ship for Silversea, as Royal Caribbean Group’s ultra-luxury brand has acquired the former Crystal Endeavor.

“It’s a fantastic asset for us,” said Martinoli, CEO. “She is incredibly generous in space and very well built. The level of finishing and the build standard is superb.”

Silversea will take delivery of the ship within the next week, he told Cruise Industry News, with operations set to start in November in Antarctica where the ship will take the place of the Silver Explorer, which will be redeployed. 

The ship will be renamed Silver Endeavour and the sales price is $275 million, he said.

Following her inaugural Antarctica season, the Silver Endeavour will move to the Arctic for summer 2023.

Meanwhile, the smaller 132-guest Explorer is slated to the leave the fleet in 2023. Guests booked on the Explorer for the 2022-2023 Antarctica season will be moved to the new Endeavour. 

Work planned for the Silver Endeavour includes signage changes, the trademark Silversea livery and a few restaurant adjustments.

In addition, Martinoli said that Silversea is considering adding more suites to the ship, which could come in place of some or all of the casino as Silversea does not have casino operations in its expedition portfolio.

Helicopter and submarine operations are not part of the Silversea program either, he noted. Those spaces could also be repurposed.

The 200-guest ship originally launched for Crystal Cruises in 2021 following a delayed delivery from MV Werften. Following the collapse of Genting and Crystal Cruises earlier this year, the ship was arrested in South America and then sailed to Gibraltar.

After it became clear the Crystal ships would go to auction and following an inspection by colleagues, Martinoli said he spent two days aboard and was convinced it was the right vessel for Silversea.