| IMO | 9862023 |
|---|---|
| Gross tonnage | 23,000 GT |
| Length | 172 m |
| Beam | 24 m |
| Passenger capacity (max) | 264 |
| Builder | T. Mariotti |
| Launched | 2021 |
| Maiden voyage | 2022 |
| Operator | Seabourn Cruise Line |
| Status | Active |
Overview
Seabourn Venture is an ultra-luxury expedition cruise ship operated by Seabourn Cruise Line, and a milestone for her parent group: she was Carnival Corporation's first expedition cruise ship. Delivered in 2022, she was purpose-built — not converted — for polar and remote-region expedition cruising in the luxury segment, to the PC6 Polar Class standard, with the expedition hardware that role requires: a large fleet of Zodiac landing craft, kayaks and two custom submarines. Her arrival, followed a year later by a sister, moved Seabourn from chartering expedition expertise on conventional ships to owning a dedicated expedition product.
The dataset row for her is unusually thin — no tonnage, dimensions, capacity or speed — so the figures in the prose below come from her own article and are identified as such.
Key specifications
The dataset records only her IMO number (9862023), builder (T. Mariotti), launch and maiden-voyage years (2022) and active status. Her Wikipedia article supplies the rest: 23,000 GT, 172 m long and 24 m in beam, PC6 Polar Class ice rating, and accommodation for 264 passengers in 132 cabins. Those article figures are consistent with Seabourn's own launch material, which described a 170-metre, 23,000-ton, 264-passenger ship. Where a figure appears only in this section and not in the spec box, it is because the dataset does not carry it — not because it is disputed.
Design and construction
Seabourn Venture was built in Italy in two places: her hull was constructed by the CIMAR shipyard at San Giorgio di Nogaro, and she was outfitted at T. Mariotti in Genoa, the yard the dataset names as builder. Her keel was laid in December 2019. In March 2021 the completed hull was towed to Genoa for fitting out. Sea trials began in April 2022 and she was delivered to Seabourn at Genoa on 28 June 2022.
The design brief was global expedition capability with a high level of autonomy — the ability to operate far from support infrastructure, farther north and south than any ship in her parent group's history to that point. Propulsion is by Azipods, complemented by three bow thrusters, for the manoeuvrability expedition landings demand. PC6 Polar Class construction qualifies her for summer and autumn operation in medium first-year ice in Antarctica, the Arctic and other polar regions.
Naming, launch and maiden voyage
She was announced under the name Seabourn Venture in March 2019, a name Seabourn said drew on its heritage of providing expedition experiences — "venture" signalling the new departure for the brand. Her article dates her launch to 2021 (the hull launch at San Giorgio di Nogaro), while the dataset records 2022, her completion and delivery year; the distinction is noted here and logged with this batch's notes. Her maiden voyage began on 27 July 2022 from Tromsø, Norway, heading for the Arctic and the Svalbard archipelago — an expedition debut rather than a conventional shakedown cruise.
Career by operator
| Period | Name | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| 2022–present | Seabourn Venture | Seabourn Cruise Line |
She has had a single name and a single operator. Her career pattern since delivery has been the seasonal migration typical of polar expedition ships: northern summer work in the Arctic and southern summer expeditions in Antarctica, with repositioning voyages — including Amazon expeditions in March and April 2023 — between the polar seasons. Those are recorded as the shape of her early career, not as an itinerary: her deployments change by season and year. A reported milestone of that Antarctic work was a record southern push for the company, crossing the Antarctic Circle into George VI Sound and landing guests on sea ice at about 69.5 degrees south.
Onboard character
The onboard character is defined by the meeting of two formats. From expedition cruising: 24 Zodiac rigid inflatables — enough to land the whole passenger complement at once — a fleet of kayaks, an expedition team, a mast-mounted long-range camera system feeding wildlife sightings to screens around the ship, and two six-passenger submarines for underwater excursions. From Seabourn's luxury tradition: just 132 suites for 264 guests, a high crew-to-guest ratio, and the line's formal dining and lounge culture transplanted onto a working expedition platform, with extensive open deck — close to 30,000 square feet — for wildlife observation. The ship is, in other words, deliberately not a research vessel with cabins: the expedition hardware is expedition-grade, and everything wrapped around it is a conventional ultra-luxury cruise ship.
Major refits and incidents
She is too young to have had a major refit: her early career shows delivery in 2022 followed by continuous expedition service, and no conversion or rebuild. No major incident is recorded in the sources used for this guide. Routine yard periods for a PC6 expedition ship are a normal part of polar operation, but none is documented prominently enough in those sources to describe here, and none is invented.
Sister ships and class
Seabourn Venture is the first of a two-ship expedition class built for Seabourn to the same design. Her sister is Seabourn Pursuit, delivered in 2023; the pair share the 23,000 GT platform, PC6 rating, suite count and expedition outfit. Between them they gave Seabourn a matched two-ship expedition fleet, able to cover both polar regions in the same season.
Fate and where she is now
She is an active Seabourn ship in the early years of what should be a long expedition career, operating under her original name for her original operator — one of the newest hulls in this batch, and the only purpose-built expedition ship among them.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cruise_ships, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seabourn_Venture