Has the Four Seasons Yachts project hit the rocks? A shakeup in top management doesn’t appear to have altered its plans to start cruising in 2025.
But it remains a mystery why to key execs keep abandoning ship. Cruise superstar Larry Pimentel, who was President and CEO, along with co-founder Philip Levine both left the company developing ultra-luxury ships in a partnership with Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts in January.
And in May, Thatcher Brown, chief commercial officer and head of joint operations for Marc-Henry Cruise Holdings, joint owner and operator of Four Seasons Yachts left “to pursue new opportunities,” the company told Seatrade Cruise News.
Everything was apparently going great when Pimentel was giving upbeat updates about the project before he left. “There will be nothing else like it on the open seas,” Pimentel told The Cruisington Times in an interview in 2023. “We are bringing together the very best across industries to create the pinnacle yachting offering, through world-class design, curated experiences and truly exceptional service. ”
Miami-based Marc-Henry Cruise Holdings that owns a Four Seasons Hotel in Florida has ordered two 90-passenger yachts from Italian shipyard Fincantieri for delivery in 2025 and 2026. Four Seasons Yachts was so confident of an overwhelming demand it opened invitation-only booking for cruises at prices that start at $2,500 a night per person and go much higher.
At the 2022 launch of the company in Monte Carlo, Levine and Pimentel said Four Seasons Yachts had been a dream of theirs for more than 15 years. Pimentel is a veteran luxury cruise executive who is the past president and CEO of Azamara, SeaDream Yacht Club, Cunard and Seabourn, and a board member of Virtuoso Travel.
So is the ultra-luxury yacht dream springing leaks?
The company is still taking bookings and says its first ship is on schedule to debut in 2025. It signed a contract in March to use the Versonix Seaware as its reservation system, for pre/post programs, air travel, on board activities, and shore excursions with an unlimited number of passengers and voyages.
Wallace Immen, Executive Editor, The Cruisington Times
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