Silversea Cruises announced it is dropping the helicopter & submarine experiences offered onboard the former Crystal Endeavor ship, now Silver Endeavor, and adding new suites.
Chairman & CEO Roberto Martinoli has confirmed the news.
Aboard the 183-m expedition vessel, Crystal Cruises operated a 3-person mini-sub/submersible in Antarctica in its only season. The ship was also equipped with a total of 18x Zodiacs (electric amphibious RIB boats), 14x kayaks, 1x ROV (remote operating vehicle providing underwater footage), and 2x helicopters assigned.
According to Martinoli, cold weather waters were usually quite murky, so one could not see much from a submarine.
"We don't feel the need to have toys that can be used by only a portion of the passengers and are really only useful in a very limited number of places. Finally, there is more than enough to do and see on Silversea cruises.”
With no need for a helicopter hangar, and a casino, an attraction that Silversea doesn't offer on its other vessels, in both cases, they were considering adding suites since the cruise ship was very large in comparison with her passenger capacity.
The 2021-built (as Crystal Endeavor) ship Silver Endeavour is a polar-class vessel and was Crystal Yacht Cruises' newest vessel. This is the world's first purpose-built megayacht with a P6 (polar-class 6) hull designation. Before 2021, Endeavor's fleetmate was Crystal Esprit/now Nat Geo Islander 2 (1991-built). Since June 2022, the boat is owned by RCG-Royal Caribbean Group and operated by its subsidiary Silversea via Silversea Expeditions (fleet).