It is said that symmetrical is more attractive. In faces, drawings, architecture, or even literature. We usually prefer symmetrical to asymmetrical, although sometimes the different is much more interesting. Speaking of architecture, specifically naval architecture, Magazine had the exceptional opportunity to take a trip through the Adriatic to appreciate that of a new ship, the Silver Nova. She went on trials during the days leading up to her inaugural cruise. At the outset, we can say something: the asymmetry in a luxury ship is destined to change this market. This is the highlight of the brand new ship from Silversea, the ultra-luxury shipping company of the Royal Caribbean group.
Silversea is a benchmark in a sector: luxury and expedition maritime travel. Here each shipping company looks askance at what its competitors are doing. Founded in Monaco almost 30 years ago, it wanted to recover the glamorous Italian and European style of ocean crossings. Since then it has not stopped growing and improving, until between 2018 and 2020, a giant became a shareholder: Royal Caribbean, owner or co-shareholder of five different cruise companies. In the case of Silversea, it owns 100%.
Knowing that luxury and ultra-luxury travel is constantly growing, it has supported it and allowed it to grow to the point that in the last three years it has added five new ships to its fleet. These are both expeditionary, those that reach the last corner of the planet, and conventional, which in this area, in reality, are never conventional.
Directed by the Italian Barbara Muckermann, one of the few women who preside over a shipping company, its goal is that, in the coming years, one in three ultra-luxury segment passengers sails with them.
The big change in this company’s new ship is an asymmetrical and vertical design. This greatly improves the spaciousness of the indoor and outdoor public spaces.
Naval architects have played with the openness and perfect connection with the sea and the ship’s destinations. This is the case of the outdoor pool. Instead of being closed in the middle of the deck, it is on the side of the boat, to starboard. The 426 square meters that its area occupies provide an open and generous area, with clear views. It is literally water on water. As is a jacuzzi that hangs over the water on the port side a bridge above, where the landscape you are in practically enters the bubbling water.
Additionally, at the rear of deck 10, the so-called Dusk Bar offers an impressive 270-view view over the stern. If you are sailing, this means that your vision can be lost in the wake. In the interior design, the entire atrium that occupies bridges 3, 4 and 5 is glazed and the suites are concentrated only on three floors, which has allowed us to play with the height of the public bridges, with much higher ceilings than usual. , allowing more luminosity than on any other boat.
The ships are made of iron, iron that floats and metal that sails. However, on the outside of this ship, glass rules, occupying more than 4,000m2 of its exterior, so that the light, which can obviously be filtered, invades everything, even the theater-assembly room. These rooms are usually a dark space illuminated by artificial light. Here this is flooded with natural light if necessary.
From the shipping company there has been an obsession with eliminating visual barriers to the outside, so that the sea and the different places where the Nova moors, anchors or sails, are part of the experience, not only when you go out on deck, but in practically any common or private area. A total feeling of spaciousness and of being at sea for all the people on board. “When I’m on the pool deck, I feel like I’m on the rooftop garden of a large coastal hotel. We have achieved this effect in a place where, in addition, the landscape always changes,” says a satisfied Barbara Muckermann.
The rest and privacy spaces of this shipping company’s travelers are always cared for in detail, although with the new design of the ship, the interior configuration is, if possible, more spectacular. The Nova has 364 suites of 13 different categories. They are all, obviously, exterior. The sea and the light rule. They all have butler service and comfort details in armchairs, sofas or loungers that allow you to feel at home, a luxurious house without fanfare, with large mirrors, windows and outdoor terraces of different sizes. Their beds are captivating and the room service is impeccable.
Among those of different sizes, the crown jewels are the Otium, a new category of suites that have glass walls with views of the exterior of the ship’s design. This allows a single space in the aft starboard corner. Guests of the 123-square-meter Otium have a living room that can be converted into a private dining room or can choose to receive guests for dinner on their own terrace in port or while sailing.
Sea and Land Taste or the taste of the sea and the land, is the gastronomic project that Silversea commissioned Adam Sachs, writer and editor of travel, gastronomy, lifestyle and a true globetrotter. There are few people as well traveled through the kitchens, restaurants, taverns or eateries of the world as this American. The shipping company has hired him for a gourmet’s dream mission: to find the best on land during stopovers and also the best of the different ports and their regions to be able to ship it.
“Food doesn’t have to be fancy to catch my attention. It just has to be delicious, authentic, made with care and, above all, have an interesting story behind it,” Sachs tells us. He knows well who to go to on a stopover so that a small group of travelers can have the right experience on land: a cheese factory, a unique winery, a family tavern or an exquisite unknown restaurant.
Quality time on land and also on board, thanks to a specific restaurant that changes its menu every day, adapting to the country where you are or at the chef’s table, a beautiful kitchen, where courses are given and dinners are organized at Petit Committee for a maximum of 16 people interacting with the chefs.
One of the pleasures of sea travel is eating well, varied and lately increasingly healthier, with more vegetarian and vegan options. In addition to the two SALT spaces, the laboratory and the restaurant that changes every day, the Nova has six more dining areas: The Kaiseki, with Asian cuisine, for 40 diners, including those who enjoy an exquisite sushi bar. The Silver Note, a small restaurant for only fifty diners inspired by a jazz club with live performances. There is also La Dame, the French restaurant carried on all ships in the fleet, considered the most exclusive, with large glass panels by Lalique and the best Parisian cuisine.
On deck 10, the design of the ship has allowed for an outdoor space called The Marquee. It is an exquisite terrace with wonderful views to port and starboard, plants and a huge pergola. Here they prepare dishes on the grill and with hot stones, in addition to having “the best pizzas at sea”, as the previous president of the company, the Genoese naval engineer Roberto Martinoli, always liked to say. Finally, La Terrazza is the largest and most varied gastronomic space on board.
An exquisite selection of sculpture, ceramics, paintings and photography is spread throughout the ship. A team of four art curators led by Mariangela Capuzzo, have been in charge of selecting works of all kinds for the different and generous private and public spaces of the ship: 1,766 works of art and 230 books by 59 artists from 25 countries.
Among all these works, a collection of images by the famous photographer, Steve McCurry, ambassador of the shipping company, pieces by the Barcelona artist Cristina Figarola and murals by the Japanese Aiko Tezuka stand out. “With the decoration of the different spaces of the Silver Nova, the intention is to give the feeling that we are in the home of someone who is well traveled and what we see are his memories of different expeditions. Some are very valuable and others are simply good and beautiful memories of their stays around the world,” the curator explains to us about everything that is exhibited and decorates an exquisite ship.
Places are made by people. That, applied to a ship, refers to the crew. There are 544 professionals for the maximum 725 passengers that the Silver Nova carries on each voyage. And if passengers travel in fabulous suites, the shipping company also takes care of the crew’s spaces, both their cabins, a total of 310 single or double cabins, and the common areas where they spend their free time and rest.
The crew dining room, for example, has 360m2, an almost permanent schedule to attend to all work shifts and is tastefully decorated, as is the bar, the meeting room and the bow terrace. The crew also has a gym with Technogym machines, a small spa and massage chairs. With the professionals well cared for personally, since there are many days of navigation and coexistence, everything goes much better on board. For all.
This industry has changed and has to change even more if it wants to continue growing. All newly built ships are becoming more sustainable and their predecessors are being adapted or permanently retired. In the case of the Silver Nova, the great news is that it is the first ship of this company that is already adapted to have engines powered by Liquefied Natural Gas, the cleanest transition fuel. Hydrogen is also on the way.
Thus, compared to its immediate predecessors in the fleet, this ship will emit 40% less carbon. “We have always been very careful to reduce our impact and preserve the beautiful and remote places we visit,” says Riberto Bruzzone, vice president. Maritime Operations Senior of a company whose philosophy is to reach any place in the world.
A world that is beginning to rationalize maritime visits by ships, demanding certain characteristics to be able to moor in its ports. “We understood that it was time to start a new class of boat that was extraordinarily focused on sustainability and we have done it,” he says. This is evidenced by the fact that, in ports of call, the classic smoke does not come out of the chimney, since only LNG is used during stopovers. In aspects such as air conditioning, water regeneration, noise or recycling, the improvements are substantial. It all adds up. The passenger already knows this and is beginning to demand it.
The new Silversea ship already has its itineraries scheduled until spring 2025, a few months in which it will visit the entire planet. Her inaugural season is already underway in the Adriatic and Mediterranean, sailing along the Dalmatian coast, before alternating between Rome, Barcelona and Lisbon for the rest of the autumn. In November she will sail to New York from Portugal to begin some itineraries through the Caribbean and Central America for the winter season. She will then cross the Panama Canal to reach Peru on a 31-day journey from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Callao.
In the summer of 2024 it will be the season for Alaska and the Canadian Pacific to then sail from Vancouver to Tokyo. Later it will sail through Asia, the Pacific islands and large and small ports in Oceania. And so it adds up and continues until its return to the Mediterranean in 2025, when its twin is already operational.
