Ex-Norwegian Cruise Chair on Luxury 'Homes at Sea'

Russell Galbut, founder of Crescent Seas and Crescent Heights, joins Bloomberg Businessweek Daily to discuss his company's development of 'Homes at Sea.' Crescent Seas takes cruise ships and converts them into mobile, floating residences. Galbut discusses renovations, costs, why these units can be an attractive real estate option, and more. He speaks with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec.

Picture waking up to a tangerine dawn over the ocean, wrapped in a tangle of soft white linens. You slide into a Frette bathrobe and watch the sun rise from the whirlpool tub on your private terrace. A butler knocks and drops off mimosas.

No, you’re not at a five-star resort; you’re not even on dry land. You’re sailing on a next-generation cruise ship, one that’s smaller, more yachtlike and far more luxurious than its mass-market kin. And like the rest of the jet set, you’re obsessed.

Even though trips like this often start at $14,000 per week per couple (bottomless Champagne and caviar included), there is no shortage of takers. Big-name resort brands including Four Seasons and Aman—along with an influx of high-end concepts from billionaires such as Bernard Arnault of LVMH Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy SE and François Pinault of Groupe Artémis—are meeting the demand with new ships.

For example, Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection’s third superyacht, Luminara, with room for 452 passengers, will set sail this summer with free-flowing Moët & Chandon, “diamond dust” facials and seven restaurants. Arnault’s Orient Express brand (owned in partnership with Accor Group) will launch a hyperluxurious, 108-passenger sailing yacht next year.

Such experiences couldn’t be further from cruising’s mainstream reputation: floating cities with waterparks, roller coasters and endless buffets that can attract thousands of value-oriented passengers at once. (In other words, a hellscape for vacation snobs.) You might even call them polar opposites, especially because the destinations of these small, posh ships are uncrowded paradises that include the Arctic and Antarctica in addition to Greece’s Monemvasia and France’s Sanary-sur-Mer.

Pre-pandemic, passengers on established luxury lines like Regent Seven Seas, Silversea and Seabourn consisted mostly of big-spending baby boomers enjoying the fruits of retirement. But on Ritz-Carlton’s recent sailings in the Med, I saw a mix of wealthy millennials, Gen Xers and some families with children. Over yuzu cocktails, they compared notes on their casual-cool St.-Tropez excursions, visiting cafes for tarte tropézienne and playing rounds of boules (a boccelike game) in public parks. Sailing in the Caribbean with Explora Journeys, a brand started by the privately held MSC Group in 2023, tech executives and finance types checked the stock market from poolside cabanas with billowing curtains.

This ultra-high-end subset of cruising—where the ships typically carry 100 to 950 passengers and are defined by their level of service, spaciousness and high staff-to-guest ratio—is growing 2.5 times as fast as the overall industry. Today there’s room for 1.2 million luxury cruisers each year, but the Cruise Lines International Association estimates that by 2028, the number will exceed 1.5 million, equating to more than a dozen new ships. In fact, hotel pros are rebranding cruising entirely.

“The word ‘cruise’ does have a slight mass-market connotation,” admits Anna Nash, Explora’s new president and a former executive at Aman. She prefers to say she’s in the business of ocean travel.

Four Seasons is pushing its Rolodex of loyal guests toward the 95-suite Four Seasons 1, opening next January with weeklong Caribbean sailings from $20,000 per suite—not including all meals. For the $330,000 it costs to book the ship’s glass-enclosed, 10,000-square-foot penthouse for a week, you could charter a decent yacht, fuel and food included. Penthouse aside, that’s not even the most expensive ship coming.

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