Ilma

Ilma is what the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection built once it stopped trying to finish Evrima. She is 790 feet long against Evrima’s 624, carries 448 guests instead of 298, came from an experienced French yard on time, and in February 2026 became the first cruise ship of any description to be given a Five-Star rating by Forbes Travel Guide. The collection’s second attempt went considerably better than its first.

Built in France, on schedule

Plans to build sisters for Evrima at the Spanish yard were abandoned when that yard collapsed. In March 2022 the company ordered two much larger vessels from Chantiers de l’Atlantique at Saint-Nazaire instead. Ilma’s keel was laid in March 2023, she was floated out that September, and she was handed over on July 12, 2024, the schedule announced at contract signature. She left Monte Carlo for Civitavecchia on her maiden voyage on September 2, 2024, and was christened at Port Everglades that December.

She runs on dual-fuel engines with liquefied natural gas as the primary fuel, which made her and her sister the first small luxury ships to be built that way. For a line whose whole argument is access to quiet places, burning the cleaner fuel is not incidental; a number of the harbors these itineraries depend on have emissions rules that decide who is welcome.

The other consequence of the extra length is space per guest. Two hundred and twenty-four suites spread over a 790-foot hull gives one of the highest space ratios at sea, and the practical version of that statistic is that she has room for two full-size pools and a proper spa, which Evrima does not.

What is aboard her

Five restaurants and seven bars, and again no buffet. Beach House, by Michael Mina, does pan-Latin and Caribbean cooking; Seta su Ilma, by Fabio Trabocchi, is an eleven-course tasting menu that costs extra and needs booking; Memori is Asian; Mistral sits by the pool doing Mediterranean food. Two infinity pools, one facing aft over the wake. The Ritz-Carlton Spa has a thermal suite and treatment rooms that look at the water. There is a wine vault, a Bvlgari boutique, and a rotating art collection that has included Hockney, Warhol and Picasso.

Aft at the waterline is Aquabana, her marina: a fold-out platform for swimming, kayaks and paddleboards, usable when she is at anchor and the sea is calm.

What is missing is the same list as on the rest of the fleet: no casino, no theater, no buffet, no children’s program worth the name. The Forbes rating was awarded for service and finish, not for the number of things to do.

Where she actually sails

She works a two-season loop, and her voyages are the shortest in the fleet: the range on this site is three to thirteen nights and the median is six.

Winter is the Caribbean, turning around at San Juan and at Miami, which was added as a homeport for the 2026–27 season on the argument that the terminal is fifteen minutes from the airport. Twenty-odd itineraries of three, four and seven nights, into small harbors; Culebra and Norman Island join the list for 2027–28, and Oranjestad becomes a third turnaround. Summer is the Mediterranean from Piraeus and Civitavecchia, with four- to seven-night Greek Isles runs and week-long loops out of Rome to Trapani, Gozo, Siracusa, Lipari and Amalfi. Two transatlantic crossings a year join the two halves.

The three-night Caribbean sailings are the odd item on that list. A weekend at this price is unusual, and it exists because the line is trying to convert Ritz-Carlton hotel guests into yacht guests by giving them a short first taste. If you are going once, go for the week.

Who she suits

Anyone who wants the small-ship proposition without Evrima’s compromises. She has the deck space, the second pool and the spa that the first yacht had to do without, and she is a well-finished, quiet, adult ship with close to one crew member per guest.

She is also, per night, among the most expensive things on this site. The fare is genuinely close to all-inclusive (suite, gratuities, most dining, most drinks, Wi-Fi), but shore excursions, the tasting-menu restaurant, the spa and the better wines are all extra, and the excursion pricing in particular is a real cost that catches people out.

She is wrong for families, for anyone who wants entertainment after dinner, and for anyone whose reason to go is the remote South Pacific or Alaska; those are Evrima’s and Luminara’s beats respectively. On a three-night Caribbean run she is also a lot of yacht for very little sea, which is worth thinking about before booking the short one.