Even within its niche of small-ship cruising, American Safari Cruises offers a distinctly different product, says Capt. Dan Blanchard, president and CEO of the company whose fleet consists of four yachts: the 12-passenger Safari Escape and Safari Spirit, the 22-passenger Safari Quest, and the newly acquired, 36-passenger Safari Explorer. “I think there are a couple of items that set us apart,” he explains. “One is we’re primarily dealing with smaller numbers. Most of the small-ship cruise lines are 80 up to 500 people. We’re dealing with groups of 12 to 36. Our whole gig is, smaller more intimate. We have a 2-to-1 passenger-to-crew ratio. The cabins are quite large, much larger than on other small ships.”
“Most small ships do port calls,” he adds. “The whole thought of what we do is taking a personal yacht and bringing it to guests in an intimate setting. In Alaska, we have two of our boats that make no port calls except for their departure and arrival calls. So for us it’s not about port calls, it’s about getting out in the wild and hiking, kayaking—in the warmer climates we have sailboats. It’s about getting out and seeing what the country truly has to offer.”
Another advantage, albeit one sometimes shared by other small-ship lines, is the company’s American-flag status, which gives it an advantage against foreign-flag, big ship brands operating in Alaska and Hawaii, where in late 2008 and into 2009 American Safari will inaugurate new service on seven-night inter-island cruises between the Big Island and Maui, departing December through May. “For us, being a U.S.-flag operator means we can cruise interstate,” Blanchard says. “Most of the cruise ships that do Hawaii have to make foreign port calls. NCL has some waivers, but all the others have to travel from Canada or Mexico. For us, it allows us to go anywhere we please within the United States, including Hawaii.”
Alaska, meanwhile, remains the company’s mainstay destination, where ASC first offered its unique brand of yacht cruises in 1997 and where it continues to expand. In fact, for 2008 the brand deployed four ships in Alaska for the first time ever. “Our 2008 bookings are great,” Blanchard reports. “On our three existing vessels, we’re up 10 percent, and on the new boat we’re at 75 percent of capacity. That’s above what we projected for the first year, so we’re quite pleased. We’re really happy that there was no cannibalization of the other boats. That was a real concern.”
While Alaska and Hawaii are the anchors of American Safari’s summer and winter seasons, the line fills in its cruise calendar with itineraries to destinations in-between, Blanchard continues. “We have cruises in Washington and British Columbia of the Pacific Northwest. We also operate on the Columbia and Snake rivers system, which runs about 800 miles inland. We do the Sea of Cortes on two different itineraries,” he says. The latter includes another new-in-2008 trip for the company, one that visits islands billed as the “Galapagos of the North” due to their extraordinary abundance of birdlife and marine mammals. Also of special note are the company’s wine cruises, which are six-day, charter-only departures; in this respect, they differ from the offerings of other lines in this suddenly growing niche market, where a wide range of competitors from Cruise West to Celebrity Cruises have recently been promoting their Pacific Coast wine-country cruises.
Continuing on the theme of differences, Blanchard talks about the company’s onboard experience, from accommodations to entertainment, noting that the amenities may vary by ship. “Some of our cabins have Jacuzzi tubs,” he says, “and we have heated tile floors and heated towel-bars and iPod docking stations—a lot of the details that make an experience more luxurious. We have suite-level cabins with balconies, which you don’t see in the small-ship arena, particularly the U.S-flag fleet.”
“The entertainment for the most part is activities and lectures. We do an onboard educational series. There’s usually a minimum of one presentation per day that is optional, but people are out whale-watching or kayaking or sailing. They’re out so much that it’s pretty early evenings on our boats. Most people are calling it quits by 9:30 because they want to get up early for the next day,” he says.
“We don’t have any shows of any type,” he adds for emphasis. “We have an extensive DVD library, and we usually make the offer a few times during the trip for joint showings, but our whole entertainment is the destination. We’ll bring on guest speakers for every trip as well, be it a naturalist or a botanist or a storyteller sharing local lore.”
Cuisine is always fresh and often local: Menus might feature what the line calls ingredients of opportunity, such as fresh-caught fish, which could be salmon or halibut in Alaska. And while the emphasis may not be on food—at least not in a big-ship sort of way—no one is likely to go hungry. There is a full daily slate of meal service, beginning with early riser’s breakfast, followed by a full breakfast, a plentiful lunch, hors d’oeuvres before supper, then gourmet dinners with wines and other beverages included.
With a product so distinct, it might be hard to label it, but Blanchard manages to capture American Safari’s essence neatly and succinctly: “We have a tagline that says ‘luxury in the pursuit of adventure,’ and I think that describes us fairly. It used to be soft adventure, but as times go on it’s leaning more to an active soft adventure. As the clientele gets younger, they want to hike and kayak more.” Furthermore, he says without hesitation, “The ships are luxury yachts. Our most recent boat [the Safari Explorer] we fit under the expedition yacht category. She’s designed to go further and carry more fuel. She’s designed for longer-duration voyages.” This will be the yacht deployed for the company’s forthcoming program of Hawaii cruises.
Of course, luxury like this doesn’t come cheap, Blanchard confirms. Average per diems vary by destination, he says. “We’re going to be on the low end about $700 and on the high end about $1,500.” The fares are all-inclusive, Blanchard adds, including “everything except for air fare and gratuities, which of course are an optional thing. But all the onboard tours—in Hawaii there’s helicopter flight-seeing and in Alaska we do sport-fishing—and the use of all onboard equipment. All fine wines. The wines we serve at dinner retail for about $40 a bottle—these are great wines, not two-buck-Chucks.”
American Safari’s passengers come from the upper end of the income bracket and range in age from the late 40s to the late 60s. “Our clients for the most part make up the business community,” Blanchard says. “They make up the top half of one percent of incomes in the U.S. They tend to be very well traveled. They’ve gone to the Galapagos and they’ve often been to Antarctica, and what they don’t want is the commodity of travel in large numbers, they want intimacy and boutique. A word we hear from them is they want ‘experience.’ That’s what they want to take home.”
Agents, meanwhile, can do very well for themselves by selling American Safari Cruises, due to the inclusive nature of its pricing structure. “As far as the agents go, they’re getting their commission on the whole enchilada,” Blanchard points out. “We’re not piecemealing it and saying you get a commission on this but not on that. When they get a commission on a cruise price, it’s an all-inclusive commission. Their commission is based on one full price that includes all the different shore excursions.”
However, he cautions that it’s of utmost importance to qualify the client, not just on income but in terms of interests as well. “It’s important that when agents are selling the product they filter the prospects. Someone who’s looking for ice-sculptures and gambling won’t be happy with our product,” Blanchard says.
Agents, however, will be pleasantly surprised at how accommodating and customer-service oriented that American Safari Cruises can be. “Ultimately, our whole business is about customer service,” Blanchard concludes. “Not the branded stuff, but what we can do for every client. And when the agents come to us for charters, they’re amazed at what we can do for them: We interview the agents and their clients to custom-build a trip for each family,” which is the greatest luxury of all.
For more information
888-862-8881| www.amsafari.com