Silversea Cruises

Silversea Cruises is a privately owned luxury cruise line with its headquarters in Monaco. Founded in 1994, it pioneered all-inclusive cruising with its first ship, Silver Cloud.

Silversea's co-founders, owners and operators are the Lefebvre family of Rome, Italy. As of early 2014, the company had eight boutique cruise ships, each of which carries only 100 to 540 passengers.

History

Silversea was founded in 1994 by a joint venture made up of V-Ships (previously known as Vlasov Group) of Monaco and the Lefebvre family of Rome. The joint venturers had previously been the co-owners of Sitmar Cruises. Silversea's business model was to operate ships in the small, all-suite, ultra-luxury category. According to John Bland, Silversea's President in 1993–94:

...we have a different ship design. It's larger, very seaworthy and very comfortable for ocean crossings--but small enough to do the things you want a small luxury vessel to do, to get into small islands where big ships can't go, to travel up rivers like the Thames.