Arnie Weissmann
The challenge with reviewing a ship in the same class as a sister ship that has already been well-reviewed in Travel Weekly is that, sometimes, there's not much to add. When aboard Silversea's Silver Ray shakedown cruise last week, the only difference to the year-old Silver Nova that I became aware of was the addition of a Steve McCurry photo gallery.
There was nonetheless a significant change since the Nova debuted last year: A new Silversea president was onboard the Ray.
Bert Hernandez took over from Barbara Muckermann only in April, but he is a 20-year Royal Caribbean Group veteran, having served as COO of Azamara and president of China operations and as senior vice president, international for Royal Caribbean International.
He and I were able to spend time together, and he articulated his vision and the inter-relationship he sees between operations and customer experience. There are three brand pillars, he believes, that are critical: curation and delivery of destination experience; culinary excellence and innovation; and personalized, engaging service.
I suspect that if I were to ask the leadership of any luxury cruise line, they would swear to similar commitments, but the details of how he will "lean into" those three areas are inter-related and specific. He is ready to make some changes.
Silversea ships have traditionally been wanderers, moving from region to region. Hernandez has a problem with that from both a revenue and guest experience perspective. "We had sexy itineraries, but they weren't always vetted for operational considerations," he said. "Just because it looks cool on a map doesn't mean we can provide the level of service that will meet our standards."
He believes the destination experience suffered. The more frequently one revisits a port, on the other hand, the more one can refine an experience, he said.
The other negative impact that results from peregrination is financial: Regionalizing ships will eliminate long repositioning voyages with no guests onboard.
Given the long lead times needed for itinerary planning, Hernandez is working on these changes for the 2026-2027 season.
Also regarding destination delivery, he said, "Beautiful itineraries will produce beautiful results." By "results," he is speaking broadly about customer experience, financials and strategic shifts.
As to the last of these, he'd like to lower the current average passenger age of 65 while still pleasing that demographic and plans to do it in part by introducing younger people to the brand through the line's expedition ships (which already have a lower average age), coordinating port visits with festivals that might appeal to younger people and offering more "sporty" options for shore excursions.
He believes there are also opportunities in Royal Caribbean Group's new status match program. "I'm pretty sure there are as many Sky and Star suites on Royal Caribbean International ships as there are suites in the entire Silversea fleet," he said. The yields on those top suite classes are comparable to Silversea's, but demographics on Royal Caribbean skew much younger. Cross-marketing, he said, may attract a younger clientele, as might shorter itineraries for guests still in the workforce.
Hernandez mentioned training and upgrading amenities in crew quarters as important for the guest experience. One thing I noticed was that, unlike the division of labor onboard ships where staff appears to be assigned roles based on nationality, there appeared to be much more diversity of citizenship on the Ray. I spoke with many staff from Africa, including a barman from Uganda, a server from Gambia and a chef from Malawi. I asked Hernandez if there was an intentional effort to expand recruitment sites.
"We're growing very rapidly, and we need qualified crew," Hernandez responded. "There are certain cultures that create hospitality that's very well-suited for our demographic. Some of these African countries are in that zone, and we're recruiting from there and developing those talent pools.
"Having a few countries dominate in certain areas onboard creates real problems," he continued. "It's not healthy for the brand, it's not healthy for the crew. We want to have diverse views that bring a different approach and cultural nuance. Guests learn a little bit, as well, so that's another small piece of the enrichment we're hoping people will come away with -- meeting people from all over the world and learning about their cultures. And you see the diversity infused in some of the dishes that we create."
I sent an email to Jason Liberty, CEO of Royal Caribbean Group, and simply asked him why he chose Hernandez to lead Silversea. "Besides being incredibly smart ... Bert is a customer-centric and humble leader," he responded.
The combination of depth of operational experience and customer orientation (Hernandez joked that even his kids knew the net promoter scores of the brands he works with) bodes well for the brand. Though one couldn't point a finger at what was different about the Silver Ray, the emergence of a new leader onboard suggests that much will change.