With new land programs, an exclusive Caribbean experience, its first summer season in Japan, a growing partnership with PerryGolf and the upcoming opening of The Cormorant at 55 South, Silversea is giving travel advisors plenty of new ways to build beyond the cruise itself. Recommend chatted with Carol Cabezas, Silversea’s SVP of Global Sales and E-commerce, to talk about where the luxury cruise line is headed, the opportunities she sees for travel advisors and why advisors shouldn’t make assumptions about which clients are right for Silversea.
Recommend magazine: Silversea has a lot happening over the next 12 to 18 months. What are the key priorities for the brand during this next phase of growth?
Carol Cabezas: There are so many different things that are happening with the brand right now. But what I would highlight as the big-picture items really have to do with land. What we’re focused on right now is how we continue to add value to the guest in addition to the cruise component.
We’ve got a wonderful portfolio of land experiences that our guests can take either before or after the voyage. We have two categories to satisfy whatever the guest is looking for. If our guests want to come in or stay for a couple of days in a given port, they can opt for a city stay, and it’s something that gives them that same heightened level of experience and service that they’re used to with Silversea.
We essentially bring them into the ecosystem as soon as they land. So they’re taken care of from that point on to when they finish their voyage or afterwards.
Two nights…a taste of a destination. And it just is that little bit more to round out your experience with us. In certain places where there are more iconic things to see or further from shore, we’ve created land programs where you can do some of these more once-in-a-lifetime kinds of things, like Machu Picchu or the Taj Mahal….
It would be a real miss to not take advantage of doing something like this since you’re already on the other side of the world. That’s the concept behind this land programming that we’ve created.
It is simply to circle it all together. Rather than just having this one cruise piece, you can have your entire experience be handled by a brand that you’re comfortable with, that will do things the way you like them at a level of service that you’ve come to expect.
In the Caribbean specifically…it’s perhaps a little bit harder to find those more unique, uncrowded sorts of destinations. And so, we have now created an experience at Canouan, which is in the Grenadines. And this is exclusive for our guests. There’s a Caribbean-themed festival. They have all of their food and beverage…that they’re used to from the ship brought to shore. They have beautiful accommodations while they’re there.
And the last thing I would highlight is the onboard experience that we’ve been looking at—how do we continue to iterate? Of course, the service is always excellent, but how do we make more of an ambiance that people are looking for? And so, the team has created something they call Riviera. We started on Spirit when she was recently revitalized, and it is a whole Southern France experience out on deck, from the beverage menu, the dining menu, the furniture, the food, everything, the music. Everything about that whole deck is now very much like you’re in the Riviera. …It’s a very fresh approach.
Recommend magazine: What can you tell us about The Cormorant at 55 South and what it will add to the Antarctica experience for Silversea guests?
Carol Cabezas: We have the most talented, innovative and creative expedition team in the industry. They are always looking at, again, how do we add value to the guest’s experience? How do we elevate that level of service so that it differentiates Silversea? And they hit it on the head with [150-room] Cormorant because what they did was begin with creating our own branded air experience from Santiago into the destination. And then they embarked on, how do we then accommodate our guests while they’re waiting for their Antarctica cruise?
Previously there weren’t great options. You’re at the end of the earth. So, it’s very challenging to find accommodations that are at our same standard. We had to build it. And so that was the impetus behind the Cormorant. And again, it’s about having a guest enter our ecosystem from the very beginning, and we give them that same standard of service across the board from the beginning to the end.
The experience while they’re there is really special because it was designed with the local environment in mind. They’ll be able to do horseback riding. They’ll be able to see whales. There will be a lot to do there as its own destination, quite frankly.
[Guests will typically stay] anywhere from one to three nights, depending on the weather. If everything works out, they’re there for a night. If we have to wait a little bit longer, it might be two, it might be three nights.
Recommend magazine: Silversea is launching its first-ever summer season in Japan. Why was this the right time to expand the brand’s presence there?
Carol Cabezas: Japan is incredibly popular…. You have so many little islands. How could you possibly see this in any level of detail if you’re not moving around…and you can only do that on a ship. It’s best done via a cruise because it’s really hard to get that full perspective if you just do it by land.
When you think about our North American guests, it is about the same cost to fly to Japan as it is to get to Europe. We looked at LA, New York, Miami, so a cross-section, going to Tokyo versus going into the top places in Europe, and it was about the same cost. It was surprising to me. So, I thought I might bring that up and help kind of dispel this myth that it’s so much more expensive to get to the Far East than it is to get to Europe.
[The sailings offer] a fair amount of coverage across a number of the different islands, and there are a handful of opportunities to do some China and Korea. You have some range. We have six cruises that are combinable…[offering] a much bigger regional immersion.
Recommend magazine: How does Silversea work with travel advisors, and where do you see opportunities for advisors to deepen their relationship with the brand?
Carol Cabezas: We love our travel advisor relationship. We would love for advisors to take advantage of the training programs that we have. We’ve tried to make them super easy to use. We’re constantly refreshing them, making sure that it’s relevant information, that it’s interesting, that it’s helpful…. So, I would encourage travel partners…go through those videos. You can get certified real fast. And then you can claim, “I’m a certified expert for Silversea.” That kind of specialization we’ve always found to be super helpful to give credibility for a travel partner because it shows that they took the time.
Recommend magazine: Are there misconceptions among travel advisors about Silversea? What do you hear from them?
Carol Cabezas: Some advisors might not have the confidence to present Silversea as an option if they think that the client might not have the right level of discretionary income. But when they’re thinking of doing something that is unique, a celebration, a bucket list…it would be an injustice to the client if they didn’t at least put Silversea as an option.
For example, somebody who wants to go to Antarctica. This is a once-in-a-lifetime [trip]. Wouldn’t you want them to go with the best possible cruise line to take care of them? And when you’re talking those types of destinations, the differentiation in price becomes much narrower between different providers. I stand behind the fact that our team is bar none the best in expeditions. Any travel advisor should put Silversea as an option when it’s something that is a very special, unique type of experience that the client is looking for.
Recommend magazine: Silversea has the 60-day Grand Voyage Mediterranean coming in 2027. What does a voyage of that length allow Silversea to deliver that simply isn’t possible on more traditional itineraries?
Carol Cabezas: When you look at a collection like that, and that’s how I like to see them, it’s a collection [of voyages]. This Grand Voyage combines all four of the key areas across Europe. The only thing you’re not doing is Northern Europe, which I would advocate anybody do. Northern Europe is fascinating; it’s one of my favorite areas.
This Grand Voyage really brings together the entire region…. Because how different is a Greek or Turkish experience versus an Iberian Peninsula [experience]? The food is different, the language is different, the architecture, although there are many things that also overlap when you think about the Moorish influence and faith. It’s fascinating to see what things are different and what things are very similar….
I think the Grand Voyage is the perfect way to get a comprehensive view of the whole Mediterranean.
Recommend magazine: Finally, can you speak to the PerryGolf partnership and what makes it unique?
Carol Cabezas: The easiest way to think about it is…so many guests have golf as a passion. But it’s something that is quite difficult to organize on your own, and PerryGolf is uniquely positioned to give our guests access to nearly any of the most sought-after golf clubs in the world.
They know exactly what to do in terms of all the logistics, making it the easiest possible seamless experience for these guests to enjoy a cruise, but get all of the golfing in that they could possibly want within one of these voyages. And we partner with them to redesign a voyage to maximize that golfing time. In these different voyages, you’ll see that there is a broad kind of coverage of golf courses throughout the different ports of call.
We’re extremely pleased with this partnership. We represent the best in ocean travel; they represent the best in golf.
