Cruise West was an independent, destination focused small-ship cruise operator based in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region ...

. The line was the largest operator of U.S. flagged cruise vessels (by number of vessels) with nine currently operating. They were best known for their Alaska cruises but their reach includes destinations all around the Pacific Ocean. Cruise West announced on September 18, 2010, that it is ceasing operations.

History

Founded in 1973 by Chuck West, Cruise West started out as an Alaska

tour operator A tour operator is a business that typically combines and organizes accommodations, meals, sightseeing and transportation components, in order to create a package tour. They advertise and produce brochures to promote their products, holidays and ...

. It wasn't until 1990 that the company purchased its first overnight vessel, the 52-passenger ''Spirit of Glacier Bay''. Through the 1990s the company increasingly focused on cruising and expanded its fleet and added new non-Alaskan destinations such as the Columbia and Snake Rivers,

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, California's wine country, and into Mexico's Sea of Cortes. In 2001 the line acquired its first oceangoing and foreign-flagged vessel, the 114-passenger ''Spirit of Oceanus'', a former

Renaissance Cruises Renaissance Cruises was a cruise ship operating company that was founded in 1989 and owned by Fearnley & Eger Rederi in Oslo, Norway. It was purchased by Edward Rudner (founder of Alamo Car Rental) as the company faltered during the Gulf War. It o ...

vessel. Cruise West expanded to Central America when they joined forces with Temptress Cruise Lines of Costa Rica to offer cruises on the 100-passenger ''M/V Pacific Explorer'' in Costa Rica and Panama. In January 2006 Cruise West purchased the US-flagged-half of Clipper Cruise Line's fleet, the 102-passenger ''Nantucket Clipper'' and the 138-passenger ''Yorktown Clipper''. The line renamed the vessels "Spirit of Nantucket" and ''Spirit of Yorktown'', respectively. The ''Spirit of Nantucket'' operated on the U.S. east coast and the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lak ...

for two seasons before the line decided that it would join the rest of the fleet on the Pacific coast and be rechristened ''Spirit of Glacier Bay''. Clipper Cruise lines has since sold off its remaining vessels and went out of business. The line operated nine small vessels that range in capacity from 78 to 138 passengers in the Americas, South Pacific and Asia. Small-ship cruising allows for up-close and personal cruising not offered by the traditional larger cruise lines.

Restructuring/closing

On September 8, 2010, the line issued a press release stating that they were restructuring under new ownership, suspended all new bookings, and had temporarily closed their reservation center. On September 18, 2010, Cruise West announced that it will cease operations with the exception of the Sept 22 Danube Cruise. Six ships were sold off to other companies: ''Spirit of Oceanus'', ''Spirit of Endeavour'', ''Spirit of '98'', ''Spirit of Discovery'', ''Spirit of Alaska'', ''Spirit of Columbia'' the others are most likely still waiting to be sold. Seattle-based Un-Cruise Adventures (formerly American Safari Cruises + InnerSea Discoveries) acquired the Spirit of Endeavour, now the Safari Endeavour; and the Spirit of '98, now the S.S. Legacy. Un-Cruise Adventures offers similar small-ship cruising experiences in Alaska, Hawaiian Islands, Mexico's Sea of Cortes, the Columbia & Snake Rivers, Coastal Washington, and British Columbia.

Safety record

On August 19, 2007, the Spirit of Columbia ran aground in Latouche Passage in Prince William Sound. The Captain piloted the ship too close to shore while bear viewing. The US Coast Guard sent two HH-60 helicopters, a C-130 aircraft, and the Cutter Sycamore to assist the crew free the vessel. The second grounding of 2007 came on November 8 when the Spirit of Nantucket, now known as the Spirit of Glacier Bay, hit an uncharted object in the Intracoastal Waterway near Virginia Beach, Virginia. Coast Guard ships from Portsmouth, Virginia, and Elizabeth City, North Carolina, as well as police and fire units from Virginia Beach, arrived to help the distressed ship. Two additional groundings occurred in 2008, beginning with the Spirit of Alaska hitting a rock in Tracy Arm while cruising the Inside Passage of Alaska on June 4, 2008. Though the incident was minor, it did require a Coast Guard inspection and cancellation of the remainder of the cruise. The last grounding, and by far most dramatic, involved the Spirit of Glacier Bay, formerly known as the Spirit of Nantucket. On July 7, 2008, the ship was cruising Tarr Inlet in Glacier Bay National Park when it ran aground on a silt bar. The ship was stuck for over nine hours while awaiting the incoming tide. After the July 2008 grounding, the US Coast Guard released a statement revealing that Cruise West was part of a special program designed to review the company's safety procedures and maintenance records due to their recent string of incidents at sea.

Fleet

* Spirit of Yorktown - 138 passengers - currently operated by Americana Cruises * Pacific Explorer - 100 passengers - Owned by a Costa Rican company and operated with Cruise West branding. * Amadeus Diamond - 148 passengers - Chartered from Lüftner Cruises of Austria.

Former fleet

* Spirit of Oceanus - 120 passengers - was sold to a Danish company on September 14, 2010 * Spirit of Endeavour - 102 passengers - Sold, Current owner- Un-Cruise Adventures, renamed "Safari Endeavour" * Spirit of '98 - 96 passengers - Sold, Current owner- Un-Cruise Adventures, renamed "Safari Legacy"- will enter service in 2013 * Spirit of Glacier Bay - 102 passengers, Renamed Chichagof Dream, Operated by Alaskan Dream Cruises (Allen Marine). * - 84 passengers - Sold, Current owner- Un-Cruise Adventures, renamed "Wilderness Explorer" * Spirit of Alaska - 78 passengers - Renamed Admiralty Dream and Operated by Alaskan Dream Cruises (Allen Marine) * Spirit of Columbia - 78 passengers - Going to start operations with the new Alaskan Dream Cruises and is to be renamed Baranof Dream

Destinations

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

- Including the Bering Sea with stops on Russia's

Chukchi Peninsula The Chukchi Peninsula (also Chukotka Peninsula or Chukotski Peninsula; russian: Чуко́тский полуо́стров, ''Chukotskiy poluostrov'', short form russian: Чуко́тка, ''Chukotka''), at about 66° N 172° W, is the eastern ...

. *

*Columbia and Snake Rivers *Mexico's

Gulf of California The Gulf of California ( es, Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Bermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja C ...

*Central America - Including Costa Rica and

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...

*South Pacific - Including French Polynesia,

Cook Islands ) , image_map = Cook Islands on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , capital = Avarua , coordinates = , largest_city = Avarua , official_languages = , lan ...

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands ( Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands ( Manono and Apolima); ...

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

, Fiji,

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...

Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of about 2,000 small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: the Philippines to the west, Polynesia to the east, and ...

, and

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...

. *Asia - Including Japan,

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

, China, and Russia's

Kuril Islands The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands (; rus, Кури́льские острова́, r=Kuril'skiye ostrova, p=kʊˈrʲilʲskʲɪjə ɐstrɐˈva; Japanese: or ) are a volcanic archipelago currently administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the ...

and

Kamchatka Peninsula The Kamchatka Peninsula (russian: полуостров Камчатка, Poluostrov Kamchatka, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and w ...

. Cruise West has also chartered vessels allowing them to offer cruises in the Galapagos Islands,

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

, and on the

Danube River The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

though Eastern Europe.

References

External links

Cruise West's websiteCruise CriticCruiseReviews.comNiche Cruise Marketing AllianceNative Speaking
Feature article {{Coord, 47.654908, -122.380003, display=t Defunct cruise lines Defunct shipping companies of the United States Expedition cruising American companies established in 1973 Transport companies established in 1973 Transport companies disestablished in 2010 Defunct companies based in Seattle 1973 establishments in Alaska 2010 disestablishments in Washington (state)