Aboard the Four Seasons I: Champagne, Stars, and a New Era of Sea Travel

The first Four Seasons hotel opened 65 years ago. This March, on that same date, the brand’s debut yacht, the Four Seasons I, began its maiden voyage in the Mediterranean. I was there days earlier when founder Isadore Sharp and his wife Rosalie christened the hull with Champagne in Málaga.

That evening, guests—among them a couple who chartered the entire ship for a future Caribbean wedding—dined under the stars. The tables were draped with peonies and oyster shells holding real pearls. The meal set a new standard for shipboard dining, courtesy of a visiting chef program that imports talent from the brand’s global properties. For the launch, that meant Christian Le Squer, the three-Michelin-star chef from Four Seasons George V in Paris. His line-caught sea bass with truffle was a masterpiece, rivaled only by executive chef Armando Toledo’s caramelized onion tart with Parmesan gelato. The wines, including a 2019 Château d'Yquem, flowed generously.

The ship carries just 95 suites, each with a private veranda, floor-to-ceiling glass, and the brand’s signature beds. My room featured a transparent Bang & Olufsen television, designed not to block the ocean view. The spa offers La Mer facials and cryotherapy; the gym has Technogym equipment in a custom sandstone hue.

Design nods to a golden age of travel, but feels distinctly forward. There’s a Martin Brudnizki-designed cigar lounge, an omakase counter, and a 4,000-year-old fossil placed casually near a restroom. The crew is led by Captain Kate McCue, celebrated as the first woman to command a mega-cruise ship.

As rivals like Ritz-Carlton and Aman launch their own vessels, Four Seasons I carves a unique path: more intimate than a cruise, more social than a private yacht. It sails the Mediterranean in summer, the Caribbean in winter, offering caviar on arrival and a pianist in the evening—an attempt to win over even the most cruise-averse traveler.