| IMO | 9797371 |
|---|---|
| Gross tonnage | 17,545 GT |
| Length | 165.7 m |
| Beam | 21.4 m |
| Passenger capacity (max) | 228 |
| Crew | 176 |
| Service speed | 17.0 knots |
| Builder | Uljanik |
| Yard | Pula |
| Launched | 2018 |
| Maiden voyage | 2019-08-23 |
| Operator | Scenic Yacht Cruises |
| Status | Active |
Overview
Scenic Eclipse is the first ocean-going ship of the Scenic Group, the Australian company founded by Glen Moroney in 1986 as a touring and river-cruise operator. Marketed by Scenic as the "world's first discovery yacht", she is a 17,545 GT, 228-guest expedition ship built by the Uljanik yard at Pula, Croatia, and launched on 31 January 2018. Her arrival in service in August 2019 — late, after a construction programme badly disrupted by her builder's bankruptcy — established the template for the ultra-luxury expedition segment: a Polar Class 6 hull carrying helicopters and a submersible, wrapped around an all-suite, all-balcony hotel.
Eclipse's importance is out of proportion to her size. She demonstrated that a river-cruise company could commission a technically ambitious polar newbuild, and her equipment list — two helicopters and a seven-person submersible as standard expedition kit — reset competitors' expectations for what a luxury expedition ship should carry. A near-identical sister, Scenic Eclipse II, followed in 2023.
Key specifications
The dataset records Scenic Eclipse at 17,545 GT, 165.7 m in length and 21.4 m in beam, with a maximum capacity of 228 guests, a crew of 176 and a service speed of 17.0 knots; her IMO number is 9797371. Her own Wikipedia article gives slightly different principal dimensions — 166.1 m in length and 21.5 m in beam — a rounding-level variant logged in the batch notes; the dataset figures are used in the specification box. That article also records a maximum speed of 19.5 knots against the 17-knot service figure used here.
Guest numbers are limited to 200 on polar voyages, where a large expedition team is embarked; the 228 figure is her maximum in other service. Her propulsion is diesel-electric, with four Anglo Belgian Corporation generators driving two ABB Azipod units, and she carries Polar Class 6 notation under the Polar Code.
Design and construction
Scenic Eclipse was built at the Uljanik shipyard in Pula, Croatia. Moroney has said the decision to build her followed his experience of Paul Allen's yacht Octopus — the ambition was a yacht's equipment and finish on a hull engineered for the polar regions. Construction began in 2017. The programme was then delayed repeatedly by the financial collapse of the Uljanik group: the yard's bankruptcy in 2019 became the defining fact of the ship's build, and Scenic had to work through the yard's difficulties to get its ship completed and delivered, taking a far more direct role in finishing her than an owner normally would.
The result, when she finally emerged, was technically distinctive: an ice-strengthened hull with oversized zero-speed stabilisers, twin Azipod propulsion, two Eurocopter EC130 helicopters with hangarage, and the submersible Scenic Neptune, built by U-Boat Worx and rated to 300 m. She left the building yard for the first time on 27 July 2019 and was delivered shortly afterwards, proceeding to Valletta, Malta, for registration.
Naming, launch and maiden voyage
Eclipse was launched at Pula on 31 January 2018. Her maiden voyage embarked guests at Reykjavík, Iceland, on 15 August 2019 and ended at Québec on 27 August 2019; the dataset records her maiden voyage date as 23 August 2019, the service-entry date carried in her particulars, and that figure is retained in the specification box with the voyage dates given here from her article. She was formally named in New York City on 10 September 2019 by her godmother, the actress Helen Mirren — after, unusually, she had already carried her first paying guests, a sequence forced by the compressed delivery schedule after the yard delays.
Her registry changed early in her career: she was registered in Malta in 2019–2020 and subsequently in Nassau, Bahamas.
Career by operator
Scenic Eclipse has been operated by the Scenic Group throughout her career, under its Scenic Yacht Cruises branding (the dataset's operator string), and has carried no other name.
| Period | Name | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| 2019–present | Scenic Eclipse | Scenic Yacht Cruises (Scenic Group) |
Onboard character
Eclipse's onboard character rests on a deliberate contrast: expedition hardware outside, boutique hotel inside. The accommodation is all-suite and all-balcony — 114 suites — with butler service, and the public rooms follow the luxury-hotel pattern of multiple small dining venues and lounges rather than a single grand restaurant and show lounge. A large spa, gym and yoga/Pilates studio occupy a substantial share of the ship for a vessel of under 18,000 tons.
What made her era-defining, though, is the expedition layer treated as part of the ship's character rather than as equipment: the helicopters and the submersible are presented as guest experiences, the discovery team of specialists is part of the ship's company, and the observation spaces are designed around the landscape rather than around entertainment. Later luxury expedition ships — including her own sister — have followed that formula closely.
Major refits and incidents
The defining incident of Eclipse's career predates her service: the bankruptcy of the Uljanik yard, which delayed her delivery by roughly a year from the original 2018 target and required the owner to see the build through a failed shipyard. Trade sources record a refit in 2024. No casualty, grounding or other major operational incident for the ship was found in the sources consulted.
Sister ships and class
Scenic Eclipse II, delivered in 2023 and built in Croatia under Scenic's own MKM Yachts organisation after the Uljanik experience, is a near-identical sister: the dataset records the same 17,545 GT and the same 228-guest capacity, with detail refinements from the first ship's operating experience. The pair are the Scenic Group's ocean expedition fleet and are best treated as a two-ship class, although the dataset assigns no formal class name to either hull and none is asserted here.
Fate and where she is now
Scenic Eclipse is an active ship, recorded in the dataset with the status "Operating" for Scenic Yacht Cruises. In line with this directory's evergreen policy, no itinerary or deployment information is given. Her place in the record is secure as the ship that launched the ultra-luxury discovery-yacht segment and carried Scenic from river cruising into ocean expedition service.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scenic_Eclipse