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On March 20, 2026, Four Seasons did something it had never done in 65 years of existence: it launched a ship. Four Seasons I set sail from the Mediterranean on the exact anniversary of the company's first hotel opening in 1961, because luxury brands do not believe in coincidences.
Four Seasons I costs roughly $3,000-$3,350 per suite per night on Mediterranean sailings -- but lunch, dinner, drinks, and excursions are extra. Budget $3,500-$4,000+ daily for two. By comparison, Regent Seven Seas runs $700-$1,200 per person per night with everything included. Four Seasons I is extraordinary, but it is not for everyone. Compare ultra-luxury options on GoCruiseTravel.com.
Source: GoCruiseTravel.com — Four Seasons press release, March 2026; One Mile at a Time pricing analysis
The numbers: 207 metres long. 95 suites, none of them interior. 15 decks. A one-to-one guest-to-staff ratio. Eleven restaurants and bars. The largest contiguous piece of glass ever installed at sea, wrapping around a 9,975-square-foot penthouse called the Funnel Suite. And a price tag that starts around $3,000 a night before you eat dinner.
That last detail is the one worth lingering on.
Four Seasons I is priced like a hotel, which makes sense given that it was built by a hotel company. Rates are per suite, not per person. The smallest Seaview Suite starts at 537 square feet of combined indoor and outdoor space -- roughly 46% larger than the entry-level Terrace Suite on the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection. The Funnel Suite, at nearly 10,000 square feet with a private splash pool, elevator, and outdoor gym, can exceed $45,000 a night on peak Mediterranean sailings.
Mediterranean itineraries, entry-level Seaview Suite. Transatlantic crossings start lower at ~$1,900.
Source: GoCruiseTravel.com
Here is what the base rate includes: your suite, breakfast, non-alcoholic beverages, light snacks, and gratuities. Also included: all meals and drinks for children under 12, which is generous if you are bringing children on a vessel where the cheapest suite costs more than most family vacations.
Here is what it does not include: lunch, dinner, alcoholic beverages, shore excursions, and spa treatments. Four Seasons estimates you should budget an additional $250 per person per day for food and drinks. For two guests, that is $500 daily on top of the suite rate, pushing a week-long Mediterranean voyage in the entry-level suite past $24,000.
A ship where breakfast is complimentary but dinner is not. Four Seasons has reinvented the minibar model at ocean scale.
To be fair, the dining is not an afterthought. Eleven venues include Terrasse for all-day Mediterranean, Miuna for omakase, and Sedna -- the fine-dining flagship -- where rotating Michelin-starred chefs like Christian Le Squer of Le Cinq in Paris cook multi-course dinners. The culinary program alone likely justifies the extra spend for the right traveler. The question is whether the right traveler wants to think about the bill at all.
When Four Seasons needed a captain, they recruited Kate McCue from Celebrity Cruises. McCue made history in 2015 as the first American woman to captain a mega-cruise ship. Over nearly a decade at Celebrity, she became arguably the most famous cruise captain alive, with millions of social media followers and a public profile that transcended the industry.
Left in 2025 for Four Seasons Yachts. First American woman to captain a mega-cruise ship (2015).
Source: GoCruiseTravel.com
Her departure from Celebrity was not quiet. It signaled that Four Seasons is not dabbling in cruising -- it is competing. Hiring McCue is the maritime equivalent of a tech startup poaching a senior VP from Apple. You do it when you want the industry to take you seriously, and when you want your customers to feel they are boarding something that matters.
McCue now commands a vessel carrying roughly 190 passengers. At Celebrity, she captained ships with 3,000. The scale change is deliberate. Everything about Four Seasons I is built around the premise that smaller means better, and that the people willing to pay for it already know the difference.
Four Seasons I does not exist in isolation. There are four established ultra-luxury cruise lines already sailing the same waters, serving the same demographic, and charging meaningfully less. Here is how they compare.
The table reveals something that pricing alone obscures. Regent Seven Seas -- often considered the gold standard of all-inclusive cruising -- wraps everything into the fare: every meal, every drink, every shore excursion, even business-class flights on longer sailings. When you calculate the true daily cost of Four Seasons I after meals, drinks, and at least one excursion, the gap narrows. But it does not close. Regent still comes in meaningfully cheaper for a couple, and you never sign a check.
On top of the $3,000+ suite rate. For two guests, adds ~$3,500/week.
Source: GoCruiseTravel.com
Silversea and Seabourn split the difference. Both include all dining and premium beverages but charge for most shore excursions. Their ships are larger and less intimate than Four Seasons I, but their suites are well-appointed and the service is polished. Explora Journeys, the newest competitor from MSC's luxury division, offers a more contemporary aesthetic at the most competitive price point in the ultra-luxury segment.
So why would anyone pay the Four Seasons premium? Because the ship is, by most early accounts, genuinely unlike anything else at sea.
The design language is residential, not nautical. Suites feel like high-end apartments, not cruise cabins. The Funnel Suite -- nearly 10,000 square feet with 280-degree wraparound glass, a private splash pool, and its own elevator -- is the kind of space that exists to be photographed for architectural magazines and then actually lived in by people who read them.
Largest suite at sea. Features the largest contiguous glass piece ever installed on a vessel.
Source: GoCruiseTravel.com
The marina is a genuine engineering achievement: a transverse opening that spans the full width of the vessel, allowing sea access from both port and starboard. L'Oceana Spa includes a hammam, thermal circuit, and cryotherapy. The 20-metre saltwater pool is the kind of detail that sounds unremarkable until you realize most cruise ship pools are the size of a generous bathtub.
Fincantieri, the Italian shipyard, calls Four Seasons I the world's first "intelligent" ultra-luxury vessel, with systems designed to personalize everything from cabin climate to dining preferences. Whether that translates into a noticeably different experience or just a more expensive one remains to be seen.
Four Seasons I is for a specific traveler: someone who already stays at Four Seasons hotels, who values design and culinary programming over all-inclusive convenience, and who does not want to be on a ship with 700 other people. The pricing model assumes its guests do not think about add-ons -- they think about experiences.
If you want the ultra-luxury cruise experience without tracking extras, book Regent Seven Seas. Everything is included, the suites start at 307 sq ft with balconies, and the per-night cost is roughly a third of Four Seasons I after meals and drinks. Compare Regent sailings on GoCruiseTravel.com to find itineraries that overlap with Four Seasons routes.
If you want the most intimate ship with the highest staff ratio and do not mind paying a la carte for extraordinary dining, Four Seasons I delivers something no other line currently matches. It is a floating Four Seasons property, with everything that implies about service, aesthetics, and the assumption that you have already stopped reading the prices.
For travelers who want ultra-luxury but prefer knowing the total cost upfront, Regent remains the safer recommendation. Silversea offers a strong middle ground with excellent expedition options. Seabourn delivers outstanding value at the lower end of the ultra-luxury spectrum. And Explora Journeys, still finding its identity, is worth watching as the segment's most aggressively priced newcomer.
Book through a Four Seasons Preferred Partner travel advisor to receive shipboard credit that offsets dining and beverage charges. On a week-long sailing, this credit can meaningfully reduce the gap between Four Seasons I and its all-inclusive competitors.
The ship is real. The glass is real. The Michelin chefs are real. And the experience, by early accounts, is unlike anything else at sea. But at $3,000-$3,350 per night before meals and drinks, Four Seasons I is priced for travelers who view a la carte as a feature, not a limitation. For most ultra-luxury cruise shoppers, Regent Seven Seas offers a comparable caliber of experience with everything included at roughly a third of the cost. The smartest move: compare both on GoCruiseTravel.com. Know exactly what you are paying for before you board.
Four Seasons I launched March 20, 2026. Pricing based on published 2026 Mediterranean and transatlantic rates via Four Seasons Yachts and travel advisor sources. Regent Seven Seas, Silversea, Explora Journeys, and Seabourn pricing reflects published 2026 fares across multiple itineraries. All pricing is subject to change. Captain Kate McCue's appointment confirmed via Four Seasons press release, March 2025. Ship specifications from Four Seasons Yachts and Fincantieri.