Archive for March, 2006

Posted on March 2, 2006 - by Ralph Grizzle

Surprise From Seattle

The surprising news from Seattle earlier this year came not from cruise giant Holland America Line but from tiny Cruise West. The Seattle-based company announced that it not only had acquired Clipper Cruise Line’s 138-passenger Yorktown Clipper and 102-passenger Nantucket Clipper but also expects 2006 to be its best financial year ever.

Projecting $100 million in 2006 revenues, Cruise West President and COO Jeff Krida says careful management allowed the family-owned cruise line to strengthen its balance sheet so that it could purchase the two Clipper vessels outright. Cruise West now has a fleet of 10 ships, each carrying between 70 and 138 passengers, with capacity being a key ingredient to the market position for the small ship operator. “Every time 3,000 people get off a huge ship, at least 200 of them decide they want a different experience — more intimate, more outward looking, where they can be a participant in the destination, not just the audience,” Krida says. “That’s where we come in.”

Because of its dedicated following of small ship enthusiasts, Cruise West can chart new destinations (and purchase ships to sail to those destinations) with little risk initially, Krida says. For example, 45 percent are repeat passengers on Cruise West’s first-ever South Pacific and Japan cruises, which commence in March.

Cruise West began to offer cruises between Seattle and Juneau in 1991 before expanding its reach along the West Coast as far south as Panama and across the South Pacific. The two Clipper ships will sail 2006 itineraries published by Clipper, enhancing Cruise West’s reach on the East Coast, Great Lakes and in the Caribbean. “Our new ‘bigness’ will give us efficiencies, but what we stay very drilled down on is the ‘personal’ in our ‘Up-close, Casual and Personal’ operating philosophy,” Krida says. “That’s what our guests treasure and are willing to pay for.”