Luminara’s first Aegean season: eight ports in seven nights

Luminara left Piraeus at 6pm on 18 September 2025, bound for Lavrion, a smaller port at the far end of Attica. She took the long way round, by Santorini, Bodrum, Rhodes, Patmos, Amorgos and Milos: eight ports in seven nights, with no day at sea. It was one of four voyages in the first Aegean season of Luminara, the third and largest yacht of The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection.

From Saint-Nazaire

Chantiers de l’Atlantique handed Luminara over at Saint-Nazaire on 3 June 2025. She is 242 metres long and the third vessel the yard has built for the Collection, after Evrima in 2022 and Ilma in 2024. She is also the largest of the three by a narrow margin, with 452 guests to Ilma’s 448 and Evrima’s 298. Ernesto Fara, the Collection’s president, and Laurent Castaing, general manager of the yard, stood on the open deck for the changing of the flags. Simone Ashley christened her in Barcelona in June 2025, and on 3 July she made her maiden voyage, from Monte Carlo to Rome.

Greece came almost at once. Her Venice voyage of 17 July 2025 ran down the Dalmatian coast and on to Santorini and Chania before ending at Lavrion. She left Lavrion again for Rome on 24 July, and spent August in the western Mediterranean, sailing between Rome and Barcelona.

The Attica turnaround

Her main Aegean season came in September 2025, and it turned on two ports in Attica instead of one. She came in from Rome to Lavrion on 4 September, sailed from Lavrion to Piraeus on 11 September and from Piraeus back to Lavrion on 18 September, and left Lavrion for Venice on 25 September. That made four voyages turning on Attica in September 2025, with the two harbours trading places at either end.

The 18 September voyage is worth reading closely, because its hours make the case. Santorini came the next morning, from 8am to 6pm. On the 20th she spent a day on the Turkish coast at Bodrum, alongside until 9pm. At Rhodes on the 21st she stayed until 11pm, long enough for guests to dine inside the medieval town after the day boats had gone. Patmos followed on the 22nd, from 10am to 7pm, then Amorgos on the 23rd until 9pm and Milos on the 24th until 7pm. She reached Lavrion at 6am on the 25th.

Three of the six calls ran to 9pm or later, and Rhodes to 11pm. The schedule treats the evening ashore as the main part of the day. It also puts Amorgos and Milos on the same list as Santorini and Rhodes, which says something about where interest in the islands now lies.

Aboard

Luminara has 226 suites, each with a private terrace, for up to 452 guests. There are five restaurants. Among them are Seta su Luminara, the Italian restaurant developed with the chef Fabio Trabocchi, and Beach House, developed with Michael Mina. There are also seven bars, a wine vault and a marina at the waterline that opens out with a floating platform and a pool. The Ritz-Carlton Spa has 11 treatment rooms.

AD Associates of London designed the interiors, with creative direction from the Toronto firm Chapi Chapo Design and lighting by DPA. The Helsinki studio Aivan designed the exterior and gave it the proportions of a private yacht instead of those of a ship. Inside, the palette is soft brown oak, Calcutta marble and leather. The plan favours rounded shapes over hard edges, so passages curve instead of turning corners.

Check-in at the Cultural Center

On 18 May 2025 the Collection moved its Athens check-in out of the Piraeus cruise terminal. Since then, guests have been received at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, with its opera house, library and park. They spend a morning there while the formalities are completed on site, and transfer to the yacht once she is ready. Spyros Almpertis, the Collection’s vice president of port and destination operations, described the change at the 8th Posidonia Sea Tourism Forum in Heraklion. He suggested that check-in might one day be held at the Acropolis.

The choice of harbour follows the same thinking. Across the Collection’s 2025 Greek programme there were 12 calls at Lavrion and four at Piraeus. The smaller port took three times the share of the larger one, because the walk from the quay is shorter and the water beyond it opens straight into the Cyclades.

Who is this for

Luminara suits couples and friends who want to see several Greek islands in one week without packing and unpacking between them. Her dark-blue hull carries tiers of white terraces. On an open deck, white fabric canopies shade grey sofas, potted palms and white sculptural busts beside a glass rail. One suite has a mustard-yellow sofa and a round marble dining table. One restaurant is reached through a marble archway, over patterned tile, with banquettes laid for dinner and doors open to the sea.