Although it’s perhaps best known for its grown-up pleasures – including bars and live music – Melbourne is just as welcoming for families.
08.11.2023 - 18:55 / thepointsguy.com
For years, expedition cruising has been defined in the cruise world as a type of cruising that involves traveling to the most remote places in the world on small, hardy vessels that carry their own landing craft.
It has been a subset of cruising that mostly included trips to far-off polar regions, most notably Antarctica, but also such little-visited Arctic destinations as the glacier-lined East Coast of Greenland and the icy Northwest Passage.
It has been about going to places that few people have visited and where few people live.
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James Rodriguez, the new president and CEO of Atlas Ocean Voyages, is out to change all that.
In his first year at the helm of the fast-growing small-ship cruise operator, he's been redefining the brand as a cruise line that offers expedition-type sailings to not just remote places but all sorts of destinations around the world, including such mainstream destinations as the Mediterranean and Australia.
"We want to make sure that we're programming the experience on board for those active travelers who really want to engage in these regions of the world through an expedition lens," Rodriguez told TPG in an exclusive interview.
Speaking at length about the brand's shifting direction, Rodriguez said it would increasingly expand beyond a core focus on expedition sailings to the polar regions to offer more voyages to other parts of the world. But these new offerings will be more active trips that draw on the ethos of expedition cruising as opposed to what he calls the "passive" sort of cruise travel that most lines offer in mainstream destinations.
The new direction comes as the line prepares to roll out several more ships in quick succession. The brand on Wednesday will unveil its third ship, the 196-passenger World Voyager.
"We're going to try to create that [expedition] element that is created in the polar regions in other parts of the world, whether we're going to East Africa and doing safaris or whether we're in the Kimberley in Australia or in the South Pacific," he said.
Related: The ultimate guide to expedition cruising
Already, the line has launched what it is calling expedition sailings in the Mediterranean, which started this past summer. But they are expedition sailings with a twist. Passengers shouldn't expect expedition cruise-type landings by Zodiac boats to see unusual wildlife and scenery, as is the norm on the typical expedition cruise to remote places such as Antarctica.
Instead, they are expeditions to experience the region's culture, cuisine and wine, Rodriguez explains.
The line is calling them Epicurean Expeditions, and they incorporate such things as culinary demonstrations
Although it’s perhaps best known for its grown-up pleasures – including bars and live music – Melbourne is just as welcoming for families.
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Development includes additional amenities for passengers, new staff accommodation, new environmental infrastructure and MSC Foundation’s Marine Conservation Centre.
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