June 07, 2006

My Bering Sea- Part I

The Bering Sea- A Childhood Dream becomes Reality

During my seven years here at Cruise West I have had some incredible opportunities to travel to places that people rarely think about. Those far off places you hear about as a child growing up but never in you wildest dreams imagine that you will ever get there. For me it was the Bering Sea.

I was fortunate enough to be involved in our very first foray into the area when we purchased the Spirit of Oceanus in Singapore and brought her over to the US. I had to contact US Customs and Immigrations and the US Coast Guard to facilitate the clearance of the vessel in Adak, our very first US port of call far out in the Aleutian Islands. Adak, a place I had read about when studying World War II history and could only picture in my imagination. I have a degree in history and I was thrilled to be given the opportunity to do more research on this area and to work with a vendor to build a tour for our guests when the vessel arrived. I soon learned that there isn’t much on Adak and that includes US Customs and Immigrations agents. To clear the SOO, Cruise West needed to fly the agents out to the island. This meant chartering a flight to get them there and back. There was extra space on the flight and imagine my surprise when I was invited to go along and then join the ship. I was thrilled. I was going to see our brand new ship AND be able to cruise from Adak all the way into Whittier, visiting places like Dutch Harbor, Geographic Harbor and Kodiak along the way.

To be continued next Wedneday...

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Karen Kuest is one of our Product Managers for the US Fleet. She manages several our of West Coast itineraries, so if you've traveled with us to Alaska, British Columbia, Columbia & Snake Rivers, Karen ultimately planned your trip.  Karen got her start in the travel business behind the wheel of a motorcoach in Alaska.  A woman of many talents, Karen can change a tire, route a ship or narrate on the migratory patterns of the tufted puffin with the best of them!

Posted by Karen on June 7, 2006 1:56 PM

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