Atlas Ocean Voyages Adds World Voyager To The Fleet A Year Early

Atlas Ocean Voyages’ newest ship, World Voyager, will join the fleet later this year. 

Sister brand Nicko Cruises is transferring the 198-passenger World Voyager to the cruise line. This move expands capacity ahead of the anticipated new build, World Seeker, which will join the fleet in late 2024. 

In October, World Voyager will be handed over in Portugal. Then, after undergoing some work, the cruise ship will join World Navigator and World Traveller for the 2023/24 season this November in Antarctica. 

“There is such a demand for Antarctica and expedition ships and expedition voyages,” said James Rodriguez, president, and CEO of Atlas Ocean Voyages, in an interview with Seatrade Cruise News.

New Air Bridge Program

• Guests can skip the Drake Passage entirely with a new air bridge program on select departures. Travelers will fly from Punta Arenas, Chile, to King George Island to board World Voyager, cutting out sailing through the Drake Passage. 
• There will be two new five-day roundtrips from King George Island and four seven-night one-way Drake expeditions from King George Island or Ushuaia, Argentina. In addition, charter flights from Punta Arenas to King George and Buenos Aires to Ushuaia are included in the one-way expeditions. 
• A complimentary pre-cruise hotel night will be available to guests on all expeditions. Additionally, if a trip ends in Punta Arenas, guests will also receive a complimentary post-cruise hotel night. 
• Atlas Ocean Voyage is also offering nine to 11-night expeditions from Ushuaia. After the Antarctica season, Svalbard and Greenland will also be added to World Voyager itineraries during the northern summer 2024.

Ship Style Update

World Voyager will return to WestSea Viana Shipyard, where it was built to update the style for consistency across all the ships in the fleet. According to Seatrade Cruise News’s interview with Rodrguez, this update includes signage and restaurant names. 

Rodriguez went on to say that despite this uniformity across all three ships, “Each ship has its own distinct personality.” With a darker palette and pops of color, World Navigator was inspired by the 1940s New York oceanliners, while according to Rodriguez, World Traveller is “more Dolce Vita” because of the lighter palette of light blues, whites, yellows, and lighter wood.

Naming Ceremony

Because of the pandemic, World Voyager did not have a naming ceremony when she was delivered in 2020. Atlas Ocean Voyages will hold a mid-October ceremony that will take place in Portugal.

Increase in Occupancy

“We started at a deficit with single-digit occupancies to now, ending our season with nearly 90% occupancy,” said Rodriguez, who took over as CEO last year. 

Atlas Ocean Voyages used the available space to work with travel advisors to learn about the brand and expedition cruising. According to the Seatrade Cruise News article, Rodriguez’s 25-year cruise industry history helped him turn things around for the brand. He used his travel advisor community relationships, helped develop strategies to resonate with guests, and brought seasoned industry members aboard to the Atlas team.

Best Of Both Worlds

According to the article, Rodriguez said Atlas Ocean Voyages aims to give guests the best of both worlds: cruise experience and expedition experience. This move is because of ‘sofa-expeditioneers’ who can now visit spaces they see on the Discovery Channel because it is accessible through less hard-core expeditions. 

Guests can now visit Europe with the line’s ‘Epicurean Expeditions,’ which will have them visiting vintners and chefs to learn and engage with the lands they’re seeing more.

“Pricing going up because of the demand” indicates that Atlas Ocean Voyages is heading in the right direction.

Will you be traveling to Antarctica this year on World Voyager? Let us know in the comments!

By Niko Balkaran