History
Founded in 1973 by Chuck West, Cruise West started out as an Alaska tour operator. It wasn't until 1990 that the company purchased its first overnight vessel, the 52-passenger Spirit of Glacier Bay. Through the 1990s the company increasingly focused on cruising and expanded its fleet and added new non-Alaskan destinations such as the Columbia & Snake Rivers, British Columbia, California's wine country, and into Mexico's Sea of Cortes.
In 2001 the line acquired its first ocean going and foreign flagged vessel, the 114-passenger Spirit of Oceanus, a former Renaissance Cruises vessel. Cruise West expanded to Central America when they joined forces with Temptress Cruise Lines of Costa Rica to offer cruises on the 100-passenger M/V Pacific Explorer in Costa Rica and Panama.
In January 2006 Cruise West purchased the US flagged half of Clipper Cruise Line's fleet, the 102-passenger Nantucket Clipper and the 138-passenger Yorktown Clipper. The line renamed the vessels "Spirit of Nantucket" and Spirit of Yorktown, respectively. The Spirit of Nantucket operated on the U.S. east coast and the Great Lakes for two seasons before the line decided that it would join the rest of the fleet on the Pacific coast and be rechristened Spirit of Glacier Bay. Clipper Cruise lines has since sold off its remaining vessels and went out of business.
The line operates nine small vessels that range in capacity from 78-138 passengers in the Americas, South Pacific and Asia. Small-ship cruising allows for up-close and personal cruising not offered by the traditional larger cruise lines.
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