Cruise West Timeline
1946: Chuck West founds Arctic Alaska Travel Service in Fairbanks, offering sightseeing and air tours to the Arctic Circle. Eventually adds a hotel chain and Westours, Alaska's first motorcoach line.
1971-1973: West sells Westours to Holland America Line and begins offering "cruises" using space on Alaska state ferries.
Mid-'80s: Cruise West is born, offers first yacht trips to Alaska's Inside Passage.
1990s: Acquires a 52-passenger ship, the Spirit of Glacier Bay, offering short cruises into Glacier Bay National Park. Chuck West's son Dick West becomes the chairman and CEO of the company, Chuck stays on as chairman emeritus. Cruise West acquires eight ships and expands into Columbia and Snake River cruises, then winter cruises to Mexico's Sea of Cortes and Baja peninsula.
2001: Acquires the 114-passsenger Spirit of Oceanus, its largest and most luxurious ship, as well as its first foreign-flagged vessel.
2005: Chuck West dies at age 90 in a cabin in Haines, Alaska.
2008: Dietmar Wertanzl is appointed president and CEO of Cruise West, after years with Celebrity Cruises, Crystal Cruises and Tauck.
2008-09: Plans major itinerary expansion: first trips to the Galapagos, first European river cruise, first sailing to Antarctica and a 335-day world cruise.
2010: Suspends its reservations system and says it is "restructuring"; sells the Spirit of Oceanus, cancels remainder of its U.S. river cruises.
In the three weeks since small-ship operator Cruise West stopped taking reservations, sold its flagship and laid off most of the staff in its Seattle headquarters, the only response to Travel Weekly's many requests for comment came from Dick West, the line's chairman and CEO and the son of its founder, Chuck West.
But even that one response offered no helpful information.
In a late-night email message, West wrote, "I am so SORRY. There are so many moving parts -- a press release will come early next week."
It was not clear what West was sorry for. Was it that the business his father started in 1946 was on the verge of collapse? That employees had been laid off earlier this month? The difficulty customers would face trying to recoup the cost of canceled cruises? The many thousands of dollars in commissions that travel agents might never see?
He didn't say.
But embattled Cruise West looked even less likely to survive after taking down its website and canceling its remaining U.S. cruises.
In an ominous sign, when Cruise West filed the required notice of its layoffs to the Washington Employment Security Department on Sept. 8, it stated that the layoffs were permanent and due to closure.
Information about what has happened to Cruise West over the last three weeks has trickled down from various sources: former employees, travel agents, passengers, government bodies and ship brokers.
Cruise West itself has been all but absent from the information mill.
According to the Federal Maritime Commission, Cruise West informed the commission that it had not taken any bookings since Sept. 1.
Miami-based International Shipping Partners revealed that Cruise West had sold the 120-passenger Spirit of Oceanus to a group of Danish investors that renamed it the Sea Spirit. ISP President Niels-Erik Lund said the ship was on the market for a long-term charter, with ISP as its technical and commercial manager.
Lund would not disclose the ship's price, but said it had been acquired in a "very quick purchase."
So quick, in fact, that it was sold in the midst of its 335-day world cruise, stranding passengers who were to embark in St. John's, Newfoundland, on Sept. 7.
On Sept. 8, Cruise West finally posted information on its website about the end of that cruise, but it did not say where the ship was going.
One firm involved with ship sales said that Cruise West's position was no surprise, noting that the company's debt trouble was well known and that "various investment firms were circling it like vultures."
Conflicting messages
As of the end of last week, the line continued to send conflicting messages to travel agents and the public about its status. An outgoing message on its travel agent reservations line indicated that it had canceled the Spirit of Endeavor's Sept. 18 cruise from Seattle; the Spirit of '98's Sept. 18 sailing from Portland, Ore.; and the Spirit of Discovery's Sept. 19 cruise from Portland.
But over on the company's general information line, the message stated that the sailings on the Spirit of '98 and the Spirit of Endeavor would both "operate as planned." The same message was posted on the landing page of its former website.
One cruise that had a chance of departing was in Europe.
Dick West himself apparently sent notes to some travel agents confirming that the Sept. 22 Amadeus Diamond sailing would depart as planned. But agents with passengers on that sailing were not holding their breath.
Eric Maryanov, president of All-Travel, said that clients who booked on Cruise West had all purchased TravelGuard insurance at the time of the booking, which would protect them 100% through the trip.
"In the event that anything were to disrupt their trip even midway, they would still get funds reimbursed," Maryanov said. "I sleep at night because of TravelGuard."
The extent of coverage for Cruise West passengers who were not independently insured was not entirely clear last week.
Karen Gregory, secretary of the Federal Maritime Commission, said Cruise West's performance bond would protect any passengers on canceled cruises that were scheduled to depart from U.S. ports, up to a total of $15 million.
Gregory said that amount "exceeds the fares and deposits that will need to be refunded for canceled cruises."
But passengers stranded by the Spirit of Oceanus in St. John's, Newfoundland, had been scheduled to sail around Quebec, so they would not be covered by the bond, because the ship was not scheduled to embark or disembark from a U.S. port.
The two Spirit of Oceanus cruises that were to follow that one, Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Palm Beach, Fla., and Palm Beach to Panama, would both be covered by the bond, Gregory said.
Also last week, the U.S. Tour Operators Association said that Cruise West was no longer a member of the organization and was not participating in its $1 million Travelers Assistance Program, effective Sept. 11.
The USTOA advised that Cruise West purchases made before Sept. 11 were likely protected under that program but that "client deposits and payments thereafter will not be covered by the USTOA program."
Cruise West took down all photos and information on its website on Sept. 8, posting one page of information stating that it was working toward "a restructuring of the company and its operations." It also indicated that the first move in that restructuring would be the termination of the Spirit of Oceanus sailings.
"Additional assets may be sold, and other steps are being pursued toward a restructure," the statement said.
At least one cruise line aimed to capitalize on the Cruise West situation, while at the same time save face for the expedition cruise industry.
Australia-based Orion Expedition Cruises, also a small-ship, expedition line, began offering reduced cruise prices to any passengers who were booked on Cruise West sailings that were canceled.
Sarina Bratton, founder and managing director of Orion Expedition Cruises, said that the situation was difficult for Cruise West, its passengers and the travel industry.
"There will be a significant amount of stress for passengers whose travel plans have been disrupted, which can have an effect across the whole small-ship expedition sector," Bratton said.
"Therefore, if Orion can provide a viable alternative in lieu of their original voyage, at the very least, passengers will see that the industry hasn't deserted them."
Orion said it was working with travel agents to provide Cruise West passengers discounts between 20% and 50% on a selection of Orion cruises this year and next.