The Spirit of Oceanus, the flagship of Cruise West, is the largest ship in the nine-ship fleet, and the only one with balconies. This oceangoing vessel, in contrast to the line's other ships, is equipped with stabilizers and can travel across the open ocean to foreign ports and countries.
The all-suite Spirit of Oceanus was built in Italy in 1991 for Renaissance Cruises as the Renaissance V. Later it was sold to the Sun Cruises line, which renamed it Sun Viva I. Within a year, the ship was acquired by the Singapore-based Star Cruises line. Next it was sold to Cruise West, which renamed the ship and retrofitted it, including the removal of a casino. The ship's first cruise, from Seattle to Anchorage, took place in spring 2001.
The Spirit of Oceanus is less than a football field in length at 295 ft. Her gross tonnage is 4,500, and she travels at a cruising speed of 14.5 knots. The passenger capacity of the Bahamas-registered but American-owned ship is 114, with a maximum of 120. Her 60 crew members, including an onboard medical doctor who accompanies the passengers on their onshore tours, are North Americans.
Passengers are typically couples in their 50s and up who enjoy the learning experience of an active cruise, visiting historical sites, and sharing similar interests on ecological issues including the preservation of native wildlife habitats. All announcements are in English. Tipping is included in the overall price of the cruise.
Since this ship is an ocean-going vessel, her local trips are from Vancouver to Anchorage or Nome, and her foreign trips are to the countries bordering the Pacific Ocean—China, Japan, eastern Russia, South Korea, Vietnam, other southeast Asian countries, and around the South Pacific islands.
Experienced tour guides sail on the ship, and they take their meals with the passengers, provide evening lectures about the next ports to be visited, and conduct all land tours. The tours take passengers to historical and picturesque sites, and frequently lunch or dinner is at a local restaurant, often with entertainment. Some of the ports do not have adequate docking facilities so the ship's six 12-passenger Zodiacs ferry guests ashore and back. Portable radio receivers are provided to ensure that passengers can hear the tour guide regardless of local noise or distance from the guide. The tours are included in the basic cruise package and thus incur no additional charges.
Typical of the interesting ports this ship visits is Nagasaki, a city noted for welcoming foreign traders during the 19th century, ending Japan's 250-year isolation period. During that time many of the traders built European-style houses on a local hill and the present-day Glover Garden is an open-air museum exhibiting these Victorian mansions and gardens. The mansions are a popular location for Japanese weddings both in the traditional and western styles, and the gardens provide a panoramic view of the city. In contrast to the gardens is the Peace Park across town, the site of the atomic bomb's destruction of the city in 1945. Today it's a pretty park with individual memorials from numerous countries and a museum.
The port of Miyajima, Japan, is noted for its bright orange gate standing in the ocean water as you pass by in a Zodiac from the ship to the beach, as there is no dock. The port is known as the entrance into the island of shrines. On this little island you'll see a five-story tall pagoda, Buddhist temples, shrines, golden prayer wheels, an aquarium, and little antler-less deer roaming the streets.
Onboard the Spirit of Oceanus are several public areas, including the Club Lounge on the Club Deck, which is the ship's meeting, theater and lecture area. Frequently, in the late afternoon or evening if still in port, local onshore performers provide entertainment here. A small shop is here, too, along with two for-a-fee laptop computers for accessing home e-mail accounts and the Internet. The Oceanus Lounge on the Oceanus Deck includes a full bar with appetizers served in the evening before dinner, a large VCR tape and book library, and a game room where the captain's reception is held, and coffee, tea and hot chocolate are available around the clock. The outdoor hot tub and indoor gym are located on the Sports Deck.
The Pacific Restaurant dining room on the Main Deck offers casual and open dining highlighting Continental and regional cuisine. The popular outdoor buffet-style dining Bistro is on the Sports Deck; it serves an early Continental breakfast and when the dining room opens for breakfast and lunch, the Bistro serves the same menu. Typical breakfast choices are eggs, bacon, French toast, cereal, fruit, juice, coffee and tea. Lunch may include sandwiches, burgers and hot dogs, soup and salads. Dinner entrees range from prime rib or veal medallions to halibut or duck. A popular dessert is chocolate pot du creme.
On-shore meals are truly local and might include sushi or tempura, tofu, miso soup, vegetables and rice. Fish, beef, chicken, pork and salads are often available, too, with tea-flavored custard or ice cream for dessert.
A small elevator serves all five decks. All suites may be configured as a king or two twin beds and have a walk-in closet or wardrobe, lounge area and large marble-clad bath. Each suite has an in-room safe, satellite phone access, and a TV with VCR. The TV displays a live forward view from the bridge, a GPS map showing the location of the ship, and a printed news channel. Standard amenities are a fresh fruit bowl, a refrigerator stocked with soft drinks and bottled water, two pairs of binoculars, two portable receivers for tours, and a pair of robes. A fee-based laundry service is available. The suites on the lower Main Deck have multiple portholes, those on the middle Club and Oceanus decks have picture windows, and those on the upper Sports and Sun decks have private teak balconies with two chairs and a table.
The Spirit of Oceanus provides a comfortable and pleasant cruising experience on a small ship that often visits small ports. These ports tend not to be overly crowded with passengers from other cruise ships as the typical ships are too large to enter them, giving this ship an edge in the Pacific Northwest and Asian Pacific cruise regions.
