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Why Go?
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 Attentive service
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Interaction among passengers and crew, casual onboard atmosphere
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Lectures, slide shows and presentations by expert local naturalists
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Editor's Picks: Best Cruise Lines for Solo Travelers
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Up close encounters with scenery, natives and wildlife
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Spirit of Discovery Review
If the highlight of your last Alaska cruise was the time you spent ashore or afloat getting close to native wildlife, glaciers and people (or if you wish that during the time you did spend onboard you had sailed close enough to shore that, were that elusive moose or bear to have come down to the water's edge, you could have seen it without needing the Hubble telescope), "expedition cruising" might be a viable option for you.
Expedition cruising, eco-tourism, nature cruising and soft adventure all describe a travel niche of increasing popularity -- and one not limited to card-carrying Greenpeace members or those who were mountain goats in a prior life. The major distinction of expedition cruising is that instead of cruise directors, trained naturalists lead the voyages, providing passengers with ongoing enrichment presentations, taking them ashore or afloat -- often on inflatable rafts -- for close-up contact with scenery, natives and wildlife, and acting as a partner with the captain in determining each day's itinerary and destination. And that is a key element: The itineraries are flexible, to a point, so that the ship can target the most interesting and rewarding areas within that day's cruising range. In reality, expedition cruises are very much like a weeklong shore excursion, made possible especially by the size of these shallow draft vessels. They are tiny even by small-ship standards, displacing hundreds, not thousands, of tons. To get a perspective on size, a single lifeboat on the typical conventional cruise ship could carry a full ship of Spirit of Discovery's passengers, all the crew and staff, and 50 of their closest friends.
Guarantees are a big deal in the cruise travel industry: weather guarantees, port call guarantees; Carnival even guarantees you'll like the cruise or you can get off at the first port of call and get a prorated refund. But Cruise West has a unique guarantee for passengers on their Spirit of Discovery's "Wilderness Waterways" itineraries: they guarantee whale sightings. If you fail to sight whales they will refund you $250!
At first glance, with a crew-to-passenger ratio of one-to-four, one would expect that service would be lackluster. However, since most crewmembers on Spirit of Discovery do a little of everything, service is actually quite good. The person who serves you your eggs at breakfast may be making your bed while you're off the ship, then helping with cocktail service or folding napkins before dinner.
Atmosphere onboard is extremely casual. There really is no dress code, and people often go to dinner without having returned to their cabins to shower or to change outfits from their afternoon outdoor experiences. In a way this is the major contradictory aspect of the Spirit of Discovery experience: even though it is casual and non-pretentious, it is far from unstructured. Most of the day is given over to scheduled wildlife presentations from the "exploration leader," and wildlife, glacier or whale sightings. If there is one drawback to this ship and voyage it is that there may be "too much of a good thing," resulting in a feeling of regimentation and too little time simply to relax.
Spirit of Discovery offers one-way Inside Passage Alaska sailings during summer high season, and Columbia and Snake River Pacific Northwest sailings during spring and fall shoulder seasons (March/April, September/October).
Read Complete Spirit of Discovery Review
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Cruise West Ships: Pacific Explorer • Sheltered Seas • Spirit of '98 • Spirit of Alaska • Spirit of Columbia • Spirit of Discovery • Spirit of Endeavour • Spirit of Glacier Bay • Spirit of Oceanus • Spirit of Yorktown
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