Cruise Weekly Comment: Cruise West

Cruise Weekly – Comment by Roderick Eime

Adventure cruising should come with a warning: "This product is addictive"

Speaking to passengers aboard expedition vessels, it's clear that once hooked on the concept, it's very difficult to kick. Like some illicit intoxicant, you just want more.

Finding new destinations and experiences is a challenge, albeit a pleasant one. Some devotees will stick with a favourite vessel and exhaust its itineraries, while others will seek new operators in order to access previously uncharted waters. For those many passengers who are beginning to run out of possibilities in our immediate region and have done the obligatory Antarctic odyssey, one small ship cruise line is beginning to make their presence felt in our market.

CruiseWest is a long-established, US-based adventure cruise operator whose story goes back some sixty years to when a far-sighted Chuck West first operated niche adventure tours into the remote reaches of Alaska. Now with his son Dick at the helm, CruiseWest operate nine vessels with passenger capacity under 100 devoted to exploring locations that encompass almost the entire Pacific Rim and much in between. A member of the much-coveted Virtuoso network, CruiseWest supply a product that meets their demanding standards for service, comfort and importantly, enrichment. Their extensive catalogue of nature-based itineraries from Costa Rica and Mexico to the Bering Strait and Japan will keep adventure cruisers busy for a long time.

CruiseWest is represented in Australia by both Alaska Bound and Travel the World