Every cruise line building a second ship faces the same temptation: the first one sold, so build it again with more rooms. Four Seasons has done the opposite. Four Seasons II, revealed on 9 June 2026, will carry 79 suites — sixteen fewer than the 95 aboard Four Seasons I, which has been sailing since March. On a hull from the same yard, for the same brand, aimed at the same guest, that is a deliberate subtraction.
What replaced those sixteen suites is the actual news: a new category called Yacht Residential Suites, two to four bedrooms each, spread across the upper decks. Four Seasons is no longer selling a very good cabin. It is selling an apartment that happens to be at sea.
Four Seasons II: Key Facts
- Announced: 9 June 2026
- Builder: Fincantieri
- Debut: April 2028, Eastern Mediterranean
- Suites: 79, down from 95 on Four Seasons I
- New category: Yacht Residential Suites — two- to four-bedroom, upper decks, open-concept living, private terraces, integrated lifestyle kitchens, dining and entertainment areas
- Select Residential Suites add: private splash pools, outdoor showers, wellness amenities and a dedicated concierge
- Service: 1:1 guest-to-staff ratio, as on Four Seasons I
- On sale: inaugural-season voyages are open for booking now
The Four Seasons II Kitchen Is a Statement
The detail worth pausing on aboard Four Seasons II is the integrated lifestyle kitchen. Cruise ships do not put kitchens in cabins, for good operational reasons, and a line that installs them is saying something specific about how long it expects people to stay and how independently it expects them to live. Combine that with two-to-four bedrooms, private splash pools, outdoor showers and a dedicated concierge, and the product being described is closer to a branded residence than a suite — the same logic Four Seasons has applied on land for two decades, moved offshore.
It also quietly solves a problem that the first yacht created. Four Seasons I carries just 190 guests at double occupancy in 95 suites. Multi-bedroom inventory lets Four Seasons II carry families and travelling groups without adding hulls, which is how you fill 79 suites at a fare level this high without discounting.
What Four Seasons I Already Tells Us
Four Seasons I sailed her first voyage on 20 March 2026, Málaga to Valletta — a date chosen because it fell on the 65th anniversary of the company’s first hotel opening, on the first day of spring in 1961. She is 207 metres, roughly 34,000 gross tons, with 95 all-outside suites and no interior cabins, and she carries 190 guests at double occupancy against a crew ratio Four Seasons states as 1:1.
The scale of the top suites is genuinely unusual. The Funnel Suite runs to 929 square metres across four levels at the forward prow, with 280-degree views; the aft-facing Loft Suite is 743 square metres. Even the entry-level suite is 473 square feet before its terrace. There are 11 restaurants and lounges, including Sedna, Terrasse and the omakase counter Miuna, and a Chef-in-Residence programme that rotates five Michelin-starred chefs aboard — Christian Le Squer of Le Cinq, Luca Piscazzi of Pelagos, Guillaume Galliot of Caprice, Yoric Tièche of Le Cap and Paolo Lavezzini of Il Palagio. The yacht is commanded by Captain Kate McCue.
The marina is the feature divers and swimmers will care about: a transverse platform opening across both sides of the hull, port and starboard sections retracting to create up to 676 square metres of deck, incorporating a sea pool. Watersports include electric hydrofoils, water bikes, kayaks, paddleboards, a 10-metre Limo Tender and a 10-metre Ribeye “Beachlander” for reaching remote coves.
One Thing to Be Clear About
There is no scuba programme aboard Four Seasons I. No dive centre, no certification partner, no dive deck. Snorkelling appears once in the official materials, obliquely, as something the Beachlander tender gives access to. For a yacht with a 676-square-metre marina and a Caribbean and Mediterranean deployment, that is a real gap, and one worth knowing before you book expecting otherwise.
The second thing to know is that Four Seasons Yachts is not all-inclusive, which sets it apart from almost every competitor at this price. The fare covers breakfast in designated restaurants, a selection of non-alcoholic drinks in select venues, access to the marina watersports, group exercise classes, high-speed Wi-Fi, and taxes and port fees. Lunch and dinner venues, all alcoholic drinks, in-room dining, the spa, shore experiences and transfers are charged on top.
Why It Matters
Set against its rivals, Four Seasons I is the smallest ship of the new luxury cohort by tonnage and by some distance the emptiest. Ritz-Carlton’s Luminara is 46,750 gross tons for 452 guests. EXPLORA I is 63,900 gross tons for 922. Four Seasons I is about 34,000 gross tons for 190 — roughly 179 gross tons per guest, against 104 for Luminara and 69 for EXPLORA I. Its entry-level suite is more than 50% larger than Ritz-Carlton’s.
It is also the only one of the three that is not all-inclusive, while pricing at or above the top of Ritz-Carlton’s range. That is the real positioning: Four Seasons is selling space and exclusivity, unbundled, at a premium — and Four Seasons II, by trading sixteen suites for multi-bedroom residences, pushes further in exactly that direction rather than hedging back toward volume.
The Lens I’m Reading This Through
The closest thing in my own logbook is Le Ponant, where the appeal was never the facilities — a small sailing yacht cannot out-feature a 200-metre ship — but the fact that there were never enough people aboard for anything to feel like a queue. That is the same currency Four Seasons is trading in, bought with tonnage instead of scarcity.
Where I would want to see the numbers tested is the unbundling. On Le Bougainville, Ponant’s open bar and included daily excursion meant the quoted fare was close to the fare I actually paid. A yacht where lunch, dinner and every glass of wine sit outside the fare is a different budgeting exercise, and the honest comparison against an all-inclusive competitor is not the headline price — it is the headline price plus a week of restaurant bills.
Four Seasons II Prices and How to Book
Four Seasons publishes no fares for either yacht in its press materials, and no fare has been released for Four Seasons II. For Four Seasons I, fares are charged per suite rather than per person, and agency listings for seven-night voyages span a very wide range by category, itinerary and season — from around US$19,900 per suite at entry level to well into six figures for the largest signature suites. Inaugural-season voyages for Four Seasons II are open for booking now through Four Seasons Yachts.
Remember to budget for what the fare excludes: lunch, dinner, alcohol, in-room dining, spa and shore experiences are all additional.
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This preview is based on official announcements — I haven’t sailed aboard a Four Seasons yacht yet. Read more about how I review or visit my Work With Me page.
