Four Seasons at Sea
Four Seasons I
On the first day of spring — and, not coincidentally, the 65th anniversary of the very first Four Seasons hotel opening its doors — a 207-metre superyacht slipped quietly out of port into the Mediterranean. It was, by any measure, quite an entrance.
The vessel is called Four Seasons I, and it is exactly what you’d expect from a brand that has spent six and a half decades perfecting the art of making people feel looked after. Ninety-five suites, no interior cabins, a staff-to-guest ratio of one-to-one, and a transverse marina that opens across both sides of the ship for direct sea access. Oh, and eleven restaurants!
To be clear, this isn’t Four Seasons slapping its name on someone else’s cruise ship. Four Seasons I was conceived from scratch, in partnership with Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri — the same storied yard that has built vessels for some of the most discerning operators in the world. The design brief was essentially: what would a Four Seasons hotel look like if it could move?
The answer, it turns out, involves floor-to-ceiling windows throughout, Tillberg Design of Sweden handling the naval architecture, Martin Brudnizki doing the social spaces, and Prosper Assouline providing creative direction. The reference point for the aesthetic was the legendary superyacht Christina O, though filtered through a contemporary lens.
All 95 suites feature generous indoor-outdoor living — terraces, many with private plunge pools — and not a single one is an interior cabin. The standout is the Funnel Suite, positioned at the forward-facing prow: nearly 10,000 square feet, with the largest contiguous piece of curved glass at sea wrapping around it in a sweeping panorama.
Back to those eleven restaurants. The centrepiece is Sedna, which hosts a rotating Chef-in-Residence series pulling talent from Four Seasons’ most acclaimed properties around the world — Christian Le Squer from Le Cinq in Paris, Guillaume Galliot from Caprice in Hong Kong, Paolo Lavezzini from Il Palagio in Florence, among others. Each engagement brings an immersive tasting menu designed around the voyage’s destinations, which is the kind of programme that makes you want to spend six months aboard just to cycle through the full roster.
Beyond Sedna, there’s Horizon Bar — open-air, overlooking the sea, with its own plunge pool — and Bar O, a design-forward lounge dedicated to craft cocktails and rare spirits. Both sound like places where an evening could very happily disappear.
For its inaugural season, the yacht explores the Mediterranean before heading to the Caribbean and Bahamas in winter. Thirty-two voyages across 52 sailings, visiting 130 destinations in more than 30 countries and territories. The itineraries mix the expected — Saint-Tropez, Bodrum, the Greek Isles — with the pleasingly off-piste: Hydra, Montenegro, the Croatian coast beyond the obvious stops.
A second vessel, Four Seasons II, follows in 2027. For now, Four Seasons I has the Mediterranean to itself.
