Un-Cruise Adventures
With Un-Cruise Adventures, it’s not about the ship, it’s about the destination.
“We’re not going port to port; we’re out in the wilderness, literally,” said John Kreilkamp, Un-Cruise’s business development director for groups and full-ship charters. “There’s no glitz, glamour, gambling on board. There’s no dressing up for dinner.”
Founded in 1996, Un-Cruise will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year. The company prides itself on being the antithesis of the mass cruise market, starting with its small ships and intimate experiences. Each ship carries only 22 to 88 passengers; the company’s largest ship is also its only river cruise vessel, the SS Legacy, a replica coastal steamship that sails the Columbia and Snake rivers through Oregon and Washington. The Legacy is a popular trip for groups, especially because it travels round-trip to and from Portland, Oregon, stopping at ports on the way back that weren’t featured on the way there.
Un-Cruises’ 84-passenger Safari Endeavour and the 64-capacity Safari Voyager work well for groups. The Endeavor operates in Mexico’s Sea of Cortez, and the Voyager will be sailing the company’s brand-new Costa Rica-Panama cruises with departures starting in 2016. The company is working on an all-Panama cruise that will be available in 2017. Each ship has a kayak launch deck so passengers can easily get into the water and easily get back on board.
The 22-guest Safari Quest and 36-passenger Safari Explorer are both all-inclusive and a bit more upscale, which makes them popular for charters, Kreilkamp said.
To ensure its travelers are immersed in destinations, Un-Cruise hires knowledgeable people to lead guided hikes and immersive outings, all of which are included. The Columbia and Snake rivers cruise focuses more on history and heritage and features step-on presenters, such as a member of the Nez Perce tribe.
AmaWaterways
Although AmaWaterways sees plenty of multigenerational travel — grandparents, parents and 20-something children — families with young children are still a rarity in river cruising. But it’s sort of a chicken-egg issue: More young families might take river cruises if more river cruise lines catered to young families.
Adventures by Disney is chartering AmaWaterways to offer seven cruises beginning in summer 2016. The cruises will run the Danube River between Budapest, Hungary, and Vilshofen, Germany, and Disney guides will be on board to lead family-friendly excursions.
“I think it will create a market [for younger families],” said Gary Murphy, AmaWaterways co-owner and vice president of sales. “Disney has the expertise in this, and they have families that have traveled with them for years. They can ensure a 10-year-old will have a good time.”
Although the trips won’t feature Disney characters, Disney Adventure Guides will lead shore excursions that are tailored to families with children. They can explore a salt mine, take archery lessons, make Austrian strudel and “go into these castles, which — no pun intended — can be quite magical,” Murphy said.
The Disney cruises will be aboard the new AmaViola, one of four new AmaWaterways ships that feature connecting cabins, another rarity in river cruising.
Backroads, a tour company that specializes in active tours, is also chartering space on AmaWaterways’ regularly scheduled departures to offer bicycle touring experiences. Although each AmaWaterways ship has its own fleet of bikes for passengers to use, “we get the casual rider; Backroads has more of the person who rides on a regular basis,” Murphy said.
Backroads will bring its own high-end bikes and guides and will have a van following along on daily treks to provide rider support. For either experience, group operators need to book through Adventures by Disney or Backroads.
Norwegian Cruise Line
Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) will celebrate its 50th year next year, and for half a century, the cruise line has been a leader in cruising concepts.
A couple of years ago, Norwegian debuted a new program for tour operators called Nettour, which is designed to meet the business model of tour operators, said Jodi Ann Danyluk, program manager, emerging markets for NCL. As the name implies, the program is a net environment, allowing operators to bundle and market one price, which “makes it nice and neat.” Nettour also allows operators to hold onto their blocks longer and make name changes, which was a “big step; it was unheard of,” Danyluk said. Initially, operators were allowed to make one double name change without paying a penalty. Just recently, the company began allowing unlimited name changes up to 30 days before sailing.
After more than a year of working with its legal, finance and information technology teams, NCL also introduced a new contract that is more favorable to tour operators, largely because tour operators said the previous contract was intimidating, she said.
NCL is also talking about ways to incorporate components of its Freestyle Choice promotion into the group market. Freestyle Choice, which was introduced in January, dabbles in the all-inclusive realm by allowing travelers to choose from four offers: a beverage, dining or Wi-Fi package or a shore excursion credit. Providing something similar in the Nettour program would mean tour operators can “be competitive,” Danyluk said.
NCL has also been busy on the ship-design front. When Norwegian Breakaway launched in 2013, it debuted The Waterfront and 678 Ocean Place, areas that mimic an elegant oceanfront boardwalk along with three decks of entertainment, dining and gaming. The concept carried over to the Norwegian Getaway and the Norwegian Escape, which will debut in November.
Emerald Waterways
Emerald Waterways is relatively new on the European river-cruising scene; the company, a division of Scenic, launched its own ships in the summer of 2014, although it had already been chartering. Two new ships were christened in August, bringing Emerald’s current fleet to four. A fifth ship will debut in 2016.
The newcomer is bringing some new innovations to the table. In Europe, all riverboats are basically the same size, even those billed as long ships, “so it’s really about what you do with that space,” said Lisa Norton, Emerald Waterways’ vice president of North American brand management, who also handles groups and charters for both Emerald Waterways and Scenic.
Emerald ships feature an indoor-outdoor pool that can be converted into a cinema or group-function space. The heated pool is located on the back of the ship one deck below the rooftop deck and has a retractable roof for year-round use. A few nights a week, the crew drains the water into a receptacle beneath the pool, brings up the floor, brings in reclining chairs and plays movies — either current releases or classics that tie in with the trip, such as “The Sound of Music” when the ship is near Salzburg, Austria.
Groups can also use the pool area for private meetings, cocktail parties or even church services, Norton said.
The ships’ standard balcony rooms feature an indoor seating area that, with the push of a button, becomes a balcony; a glass window slides down, turning the space into an open-air balcony. Emerald ships also feature a “lot of different outlets for your time on the ship,” Norton said, including a fitness center, a walking track, a rooftop putting green, an on-board salon and massages.
