Ambassador Cruise Line chairman Gordon Wilson gives Vicky Mayer the inside story on the launch of the new line.

In early May, as the market geared up to restart domestic cruise operations, another piece of news came flying in that only reinforced the feeling of positivity circulating within the industry.

A new line, albeit with some very familiar faces. Enter Ambassador Cruise Line. “Traditional cruising with style is what we are about – we want to treat our guests like ambassadors,” says Ambassador chairman Gordon Wilson.

Ambassador Cruise Line will offer no-fly itineraries aimed primarily at the over 50s market and its first ship, Ambience – formerly known as Pacific Dawn as a P&O Australia ship, and which was set to become Cruise & Maritime Voyages’ (CMV) flagship as Amy Johnson – can carry up to 1,400 guests.

Ambassador says the ship will offer a choice of five different restaurants and two cafes, plus nine lounges, a swimming pool and a spa. Fitness and leisure facilities will be complemented by enticing enrichment and lifestyle programmes and a full schedule of day and evening entertainment.

The maiden season will start on 6 April 2022 with an inaugural short cruise to Hamburg, before Ambience embarks on a mixed itinerary programme with sailings to the Norwegian fjords and the British Isles throughout spring.

The full year programme, operating through to May 2023, will consist of 33 sailings visiting a total of 88 different ports, featuring the Baltics and St Petersburg, Greenland, the Arctic, and Iceland. During the winter months it plans to offer a range of expedition-style voyages to the Canaries, Cuba, the Caribbean, Cape Verde and Scandinavia.

“For the foreseeable future we are going to stick with no-fly cruises from Tilbury [the line’s homeport],” Wilson says. “Obviously if customers in Scotland or Ireland want to fly to Stanstead, that’s fine but they will have to make their own arrangements.”

The new CMV?

What has really got people talking is the fact that Ambassador is utilising experience from a bunch of former employees of CMV, which entered administration last summer.

Ambassador’s senior team includes chief executive Christian Verhounig, chief commercial officer Christopher Coates, chief information officer Gary Hides and chief financial officer Simon Weeks – all with previous CMV experience.

So, is Ambassador simply the new CMV? “Yes and no. It is a completely different company with a different structure and we have no debts,” Wilson says. “This is very important. We are doing things with Ambassador that CMV didn’t do.

“We are not going to be buying new ships because the waiting list is too long. There is a healthy demand for what we are supplying – ships in the 1,400-passenger range, traditional ocean-going cruises. We have money to take old ships and upgrade them. I can’t give you a specific number on how many ships we will have but clearly, our plan is more than one.

“Our major investors Njord Partners saw the opportunity to go into the cruise market when it came back. They (Njord) looked at CMV but thought it might be better to have a new cruise line.

“They were looking at this over the latter part of 2019 and contacted me and said ‘hey, would you like to be the chairman of this new cruise line we want to launch’. Then I met Christian Verhounig.

“We bought our first ship in February. It was in Panama and was going to be made into a floating hotel. But Covid stopped that, so we bought the ship and fast forward to where we are today.”

A premium-value experience

The Ambassador Cruise Line experience will be very much in the premium-value space, a decision, says Wilson, to give customers “the option of fully inclusive, [but] we also want customers to be able to pick and mix”.

“So, I don’t want a transfer, but I would like priority boarding and insurance,” he adds. “We call it premium value because we want to let customers choose what they want. We think a lot of cruise lines charge customers for things they don’t actually use. Similar to airlines, guests will be able to trade [their] way up – we want to offer value for money.”

In terms of its competition, Wilson explains that the line is not in the same market as the likes of Cunard and Silversea, but “Saga, P&O Cruises, Fred Olsen will be our main competitors and we think our product and offering has similarities to all of those; we will price accordingly”.

He adds: “We will also be doing a lot of work with the trade because that is very important to us. We welcome the trade selling our brand.”

As for what the future holds for the industry, Wilson believes “it’s going to be very healthy”.

He continues: “On the assumption the vaccination programme works, I think the future is very positive. We want to bring back style to travel. I think there is plenty of pent-up demand and underlying strong demand to travel and see the world. Cruise has a very big role in that.”