At San Giorgio di Nogaro at the beginning of July 2008, twin blue-white flames in the noonday sun signalled the simultaneous welding of coins onto two steel keel blocks that will become the sleek hulls of two new, ultra luxury cruising yachts in 2010 and 2011, sisters to the Seabourn Odyssey which enters service in June 2009. The ceremony marked the beginning of the next stage in a three-vessel expansion project that will increase Seabourn’s capacity of luxury cruising accommodations by over 217 percent in the next three years.

Work is proceeding apace on Seabourn Odyssey, whose hull was delivered to Mariotti’s shipyard in Genoa, Italy at the end of May. The fore and aft sections of the hull were built separately by a new company, CI.MAR Construzioni Navali, a joint venture of Mariotti and the Cimolai Group, a firm specialising in sophisticated steel fabrication, then each of the two sections were loaded onto a semi-submersible barge by a complex roll-on/roll-off operation and taken to a floating dock in Rijeka, Croatia, a distance of about 100 nautical miles. They were positioned and aligned using special trolleys. Positioning the two hull sections, weighing about 2,800 tons for the fore section and 3,650 tons for the aft section, including 400 tons of lifting cradles, required as many as 168 four-wheel axels and eight hydraulic engines. Once aligned, the two halves were joined to form a single floating hull. From Rijeka, the sleek 17,000 GRT hull was taken in tow and travelled non-stop for 10 days from the Adriatic westward and then north around the Italian coast to Genoa, where the vessel will be fitted out over the next year.

In an unprecedented move, Seabourn have announced that their new ship will have no fewer than 450 godparents. Those fortunate enough to secure one of the few remaining spots aboard Odyssey’s maiden voyage will share the honour of being named a “godparent” of the new vessel – a distinction usually reserved for a celebrity or personality. CEO Pamela Conover announced, “Those joining Odyssey’s maiden voyage will not only be treated like a celebrity, but will become a part of the vessel’s history, representing the many guests who
have sailed with us in the past and those who will sail on her in the years to come.”

Each passenger aboard Odyssey’s maiden voyage, scheduled to depart Venice, Italy, on June 24, 2009, will have his or her name engraved on a plaque to be displayed on board the sleek yacht, and take part in the memorable naming ceremony with the beautiful Venice skyline as a backdrop.

After a maiden season in the Mediterranean and Caribbean, the Odyssey will embark on Seabourn’s first-ever World Cruise in January 2010. An exciting selection of special shoreside experiences has been announced for Full World cruise guests including a gala Bon Voyage Ball at the St. Regis hotel in Fort Lauderdale the night before departure, and five complimentary events reserved solely for guests who book the full world cruise.

The shoreside experiences include a spectacular catamaran cruise from tiny Cabo San Lucas,to seek some of the six species of whales which gather each year in the Sea of Cortez; a greeting by the haunting tones of a conch-shell salute and fragrant tiare flower leis on a candlelit path into a tropical garden at Papeete, Tahiti for an evening of cocktails, lilting Tahitian music, a sumptuous feast and rousing performance of traditional Polynesian song and dance; a private sunset dinner cruise of scenic Sydney Harbour ending alongside the city’s iconic Opera House, where guests will be escorted inside to enjoy the featured performance; an evening at the waterside Aberdeen Marina Club in Hong Kong, which will be transformed into a colourful Chinese bazaar with craftsmen’s booths, traditional fortune-tellers and calligraphers, a Chinese musical ensemble and a spectacular Lion Dance, a buffet of delectable Chinese specialities fit for an emperor, and exhibitions of Chinese Opera “face-changing,” kung fu martial arts and acrobatics; and an evening at a Phuket Thai cultural village, regaled by women in traditional Thai costumes, gaily decorated elephants, and exhibitions of classical Thai dance, traditional boxing, floral decorations and elaborate fruit and vegetable carving, not to mention demonstrations of Thai cooking, puppet carving, rubber tapping, and even chances to ride in an ox-cart or atop a decorated elephant.