by Jason Leppert
Last updated: 12:10 AM ET, Sat February 17, 2018
Windstar Cruises is coming back to Alaska this year with new Signature Expeditions.
In honor of its return, we discussed the upcoming season with Captain James Griffiths, who developed the programming.
TravelPulse: How does it feel to be assigned to developing the Signature Expeditions program?
James Griffiths: It's a real privilege [given] my background. I started off in Cunard Line on the big ships and then I went to work for National Geographic. So, I've been in the expedition industry for ten years now actually.
It's based on a conversation I had with John Delaney who's the president here. When he joined the company, we found we had a lot in common about ambitions for expedition programs and what we felt Windstar could do. So, it felt like quite a natural move away from the ship in a command role to come into the office a little bit more and use my experience to set it up really. It's been a really fun experience.
I think what I like about it is that when I was at Lindblad National Geographic, everyone sort of new expeditions because that's sort of what they do, but in this company, it's a new thing for us. So, it's been a learning curve for everyone, and I've learned a lot about how to communicate what expeditions are. Everyone's been very enthusiastic about it, and we've had some great support internally for the program.
TP: What are you most excited about in Alaska for Windstar's return this season?
JG: I think what's going to be different for Windstar guests is the enrichment programming. We're going to have six naturalists onboard for the entire season. And we're talking absolutely top-of-the-line people-the best people you can ever hope to have in Alaska, [a] Ph.D. marine biologist, National Geographic photographers, glaciologists-just some fantastic naturalists who are going to be able to provide great commentary, great lectures, great interactions with our guests.
And then of course they're going to have the opportunity to go off with these guides, so our guests will have the chance to jump in a zodiac with a Ph.D. glaciologist and go and have a look at a glacier or go off with some excellent local Alaskan kayak guide right from the ship and go on a two-hour kayak adventure.
So, it's an immersive product, which expeditions should be I think. You can go to Alaska on a big ship certainly, but you're not going to come away with a true appreciation of it, whereas if you go with us to Alaska, you will. You're going to have some really great experiences.
Expeditions literally can give you memories of a lifetime-with a bit of a cliche phrase-but it will do that and potentially fundamentally change the way that you look at glaciers or marine biology or whales, that type of thing. We're in the business of getting people great experiences, but also perhaps sort of changing the way they look at a lot of things. It can be that transformational.
TP: Where do you foresee the expedition cruise market going and how do you think Windstar fits into that future?
JG: When I started in expeditions it was very much a niche, but it is the fastest growing section of the market in percentage terms. We've got a huge amount of new tonnage coming online that's going to really change, I think, how the industry is. It's going to transform from having a very old and sort of down-at-heel fleet to having the most modern and technologically advanced fleet. And that transformation will happen in less than five years I think.
So, the industry is really going through a fantastic period of growth and various big change. There are new competitors coming in as well. There are completely new companies entering the space which is very interesting.
In terms of where Windstar fits in, we have a very loyal passenger base. We already regularly see over 50 percent repeater rate onboard our ships, so we already have a built-in market. And we're sort of going in at soft expedition. We're not going after the heavy sort of total expedition experience. What we are going to do is try and supplement our product, which people like already, with the expedition product.
So, if you look at Alaska, we are hitting the big ports, Juneau and other places, but then we're also going to more of the ports like Wrangell. And then we've got expedition as well. We won't take anything away from what we've always done.
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