At 600 capacity, Encore and Ovation will both be considerably larger than any of Seabourn's preceding ships. But Meadows insisted the small-ship environment that loyal customers like about Seabourn (the line enjoys a 50% repeat business rate) would not be diminished.

“Yes, there are more cabins, but there is lots more public space, and plenty of quiet places where you can duck away, “ he insisted. “And in today’s world, 600 is still a very small ship.”

But new hardware is only part of the story in terms of Seabourn’s product evolution.

The past 18 months have seen the line launch an exclusive partnership with Unesco World Heritage Sites, while last summer it introduced “Ventures by Seabourn” – a series of expert-guided intimate excursions, including kayaking in Alaska and Zodiac-tours of Norway’s Lofoten Islands. The line has also tied up with acclaimed American chef Thomas Keller who is designing a new signature restaurant for Quest that will also be rolled out on Encore class ships.

For Meadows, it is as much these clever partnerships that will ensure Seabourn’s continued appeal to luxury travellers as the new ships themselves.

“The luxury traveller has changed. There was a period when luxury was about material things, but it has shifted absolutely and firmly into having authentic experiences," he claims. "And Seabourn is fortunate to operate in a world where it is truly all about experiences, whether that’s culinary, or service, or the way you interact with a destination.”

“We have to pick carefully,” he warns. “It’s as much about the people you’ll be working with as the actual brand; it has to be a case of one plus one equals three.

“But these partnerships are a critical part of our success, and there are certainly some new ones still to come.”

No partnership is as important as Seabourn’s relationship with agent partners, however. And Meadows notes that for a brand like Seabourn, travel agents can play an even bigger part than for lower-end brands.

“If you look at the kind of people who sail on brands such as Seabourn, they have professionals around them to make sure the right things get done – financial advisors, personal shoppers. Luxury consumers depend upon an agent to distil the value.”

UK agents are particularly important he notes, with many of Seabourn’s most loyal guests coming from the UK market. He promises that the UK trade will therefore be very much involved in Encore’s inaugural celebrations at the end of December.

That Encore’s first sailing is already sold out, with only limited availability on the rest of her first season remaining, suggests the excitement in the market about the new style ship.

The launch of Encore only replaces the capacity Seabourn lost in 2015, while Ovation will increase the line’s capacity by 600. But Meadows is unfazed by the prospect of such a leap, and hints he thinks the line could sustain even greater capacity in the near future.

“It depends on the assimilation of the two ships, but I am personally very optimistic,” he comments. “I think we will continue to grow.”

And having invested so much in the finest cuisine, the highest-spec hardware and the most exciting programme of enrichment and excursions in the line’s history, Seabourn has already been able to achieve the holy grail of increasing its rates this year compared to last – making Seabourn a more lucrative opportunity for agents in 2016 than ever before.