The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection is the entry that made Part V necessary: the first time a hotel brand put its own name on a ship and asked to be judged by hotel standards at sea.
Position
Evrima entered service in late 2022, followed by Ilma in 2024 and Luminara. The proposition was not a cruise with better linen: suites with terraces, a marina platform opening onto the water, a high crew ratio, and dining and drink included across four of five venues, with gratuities and Starlink in the fare. It is the closest of the hotel-brand yachts to a true all-inclusive.
Why it is in the Library
Because everything else in this Part follows from it. Four Seasons, Orient Express and Aman all announced within months of Evrima sailing, and their chief executives said so. A single ship changed what a hotel brand was understood to be able to own — the Library records the moment the category opened, and this is it.
⚑ What the Ritz-Carlton did not do at sea
The register carries LHL-361 as a withdrawn code: a Ritz-Carlton private jet product that could not be verified to exist. The yacht is the group’s one confirmed mobility extension, and the contrast is instructive — announcing a category is easy, and only one of the two announcements produced a vessel.
What this model does not solve
A hotel brand at sea sells its land reputation and then operates under maritime constraints its land staff have never met: fixed itineraries, port schedules, a fixed number of rooms that cannot flex. The guest arrives expecting a hotel and finds a ship, and the gap between those two expectations is the risk the whole Part is built on.