Already a member?
Sign in
| Version | User | Scope of changes |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 15 2008, 8:29 PM EST (current) | jimglab | |
| Nov 28 2007, 4:10 PM EST | jimglab | 2 words added, 2 words deleted |
Changes
Key: Additions Deletions
by Jim Glab
December 2007
You won’t find poolside Mai Tais or shuffleboard courts on these active sea expeditions.
Shortly after midnight on May 22, 2007, an urgent call over the PA system awakened sleeping passengers aboard the little ship Spirit of Discovery, sailing off the coast of Alaska. Many of them jumped out of bed and hurried up to the deck.
Was it a fire? A call to abandon ship? No, it was a brilliant display of the aurora borealis, or Northern Lights, spotted by a crew member who spread the word to everyone on board despite the late hour. “Most people got up, and our bartender made a pot of hot chocolate for everyone,” reports Amanda McCutcheon, the ship’s exploration leader. “It was a rare and exciting moment for everyone that was outside, bundled up in their PJs watching the phenomenon.”
This sort of event is not unusual for passengers on expedition cruises, also called exploration cruises. Unlike their counterparts on the giant mainstream cruise ships, expedition cruisers can expect the unexpected. They’re never sure exactly what they’ll see or experience from one day to the next of their journey. Perhaps that element of mystery is why expedition cruising is one of the fastest-growing segments of the travel business. (Cruise West, a leading operator, says its business has doubled in the past two years, prompting it to acquire two more small ships for its fleet.) I learned about expedition cruising firsthand a couple of years ago on a small-ship cruise along the Pacific coast of Costa Rica and Panama. One day, as passengers finished up a beachside lunch on the edge of a rainforest, a troop of mischievous monkeys came howling through the area. Another day, a passenger returned from a solo kayaking trip to report that a small whale had surfaced right next to her: “It was so close, I could have touched it with the paddle,” she said. On another day, we called at a village of Embera Indians, who live in open-air, thatched-roof huts and rely on primitive agriculture for subsistence—supplemented these days by a healthy market among visiting adventure cruise tourists for their hand-woven basketry, wood carvings and other handicrafts.
From the day of departure until the ship docked in Panama City, we couldn’t go ashore without getting our feet wet. The national parks, nature preserves, animal sanctuaries and the native village the ship visited were so remote that there were no docking facilities—passengers were ferried from the ship to beach landings aboard little zodiacs (outboard motor–powered rubber rafts that serve as standard equipment on this type of adventure cruise).
Travelers who opt for an expedition cruise make some conscious tradeoffs. By foregoing a large-ship cruise, they give up luxurious onboard amenities like casinos, spas, a variety of restaurants and lounges, swimming pools, professional entertainers and so on. The luxury level on most expedition ships ranges from spartan to moderate, mainly because of their small size: generally fewer than 100 passengers. But in exchange, cruisers have the chance to visit places and see things that are off-limits to larger ships simply because they’re too big. Passengers can get up close and personal with all sorts of wildlife, and they are almost constantly accompanied by naturalists and other experts who provide detailed information about the local flora, fauna and environment.
Expedition cruising can be traced back to 1969, with the launch of the Lindblad Explorer, developed by legendary ecotourism and adventure travel pioneer Lars-Eric Lindblad, who took the first tourists to Antarctica in 1966. Today, Lindblad Expeditions is a leading expedition cruise operator, with 10 ships. Run by Lars-Eric’s son, Sven-Olof Lindblad, the company works in partnership with National Geographic. Another leading expedition line, Cruise West, has a fleet of nine ships and was founded by Chuck West, a former bush pilot who built up one of Alaska’s biggest land tour companies.
A number of other cruise companies currently specialize in expedition cruises, and a couple of mainstream cruise lines like Celebrity Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises have started testing the expedition waters as well.
Who goes on these cruises? Jeff Krida, president of Cruise West, says that instead of demographics, expedition cruisers are characterized more by their common psychographics. “What our passengers have in common is curiosity,” he explains. Exploration cruisers tend to be “well-educated, well-traveled people who want to be participants, not in the audience.” They are attracted to the world’s exotic places and want to see them close up. For instance, Krida cites Cruise West’s trips to the Bering Sea and the Aleutian and Kurile Islands. “These are very expensive, and they’re very full,” sailing at 100 percent occupancy, he notes. “People are looking for unique things like that to do.” Krida also comments that all the publicity and debate about global warming in recent years has brought more passengers to small, exploration-focused ships, because “they think the unspoiled places aren’t going to stay unspoiled much longer.”
Although cruise itineraries cover the remote corners of the globe, some regions are especially popular for these little adventure ships: Antarctica, the Galapagos Islands, Alaska and the Arctic, Mexico’s Sea of Cortes, Central America and the Amazon, for instance. Because ecotourism is the focus of such trips, including visits to indigenous cultures and lots of wildlife-viewing, they tend to visit unspoiled areas that offer an abundance of life and aren’t easily accessible by air or by road. In addition to accommodating passenger trips led by naturalists to the shore or back out (shore trips on expedition cruises are usually included in the price) to look for birds, animals and marine life, these ships are usually equipped with one- or two-person kayaks that guests can take out on their own. In warm climates, the cruise lines often provide snorkeling gear as well.
_______________________________________________________
Who goes where? For a list of expedition cruise providers, click here.
_______________________________________________________
There are no formal nights on expedition cruises, in contrast with the mega-ships; life onboard is completely casual, so you don’t have to pack as much. (Bring binoculars, Crocs and a camera, and leave your dancing shoes at home.) Meals are usually served in a single dining room with open seating at group tables, along with the occasional buffet on the sun deck in nice weather. There’s always a bar and a lounge, usually a small library stocked with books about the destination and its natural features, and frequent talks by the ship’s resident experts about what you can expect to see at the next stop. Some expedition ships have added satellite-based Internet connections, although these might be tenuous, depending on location; and if you bring your cell phone, it probably won’t get a connection in many regions where these ships go.
The interaction between passengers and crew is much greater on expedition cruises than on mainstream sailings. The captain, officers, naturalists and exploration leaders usually sit down to meals with their guests, and naturalists and other staff experts are always around for casual conversations in the lounge or out on deck. Guests sometimes take a more active role in trip activities—for instance, passengers and expedition team members on Quark Expeditions trips to the Arctic take turns standing watch for the appearance of polar wildlife.
Unsurprisingly, expedition cruises tend to be pricey. They generally last from one to three weeks, and you can easily spend $4,000–5,000 per person and up for many of them, especially Antarctic cruises. But the price includes not only lectures and observations from the naturalists and other experts aboard, but also all your meals, most of your shore trips and excursions, airport transfers, and just about all your other expenses. Another tip: You may be able to sign up on the cruise lines’ Web sites for alerts about special sales and discounts. Some sites also include trip journal entries contributed by passengers and staff, so you can get a preview of the exploration cruise experience before you decide to sign up.
_______________________________________________________
Add page