Many of our passengers often ask; “what do you do in your off time?” Well, in addition to the very long “to do” list that Mrs. Kiernan prepares for me upon my return from a busy cruise season; I also have a rather extensive continuing education commitment to maintain and upgrade my USCG Master’s license. This usually involves several weeks of training away from home at my own expense. Also, I own and manage an excursion vessel business which operates in partnership with the Maine Maritime Museum and there is a significant requirement to plan for each season, analyze the last season, make marketing plans, train crew, maintain and improve the vessel and comply with numerous USCG regulations and other matters as well…
…Sometimes, I get to take some “vacation time” too.
Thanks to the help of one of our travel industry partners, Michael Geske - of Exclusive Tours in Toronto, Canada; a travel firm specializing in Small Ship cruising, I booked a cruise on the Rhine River from Basel Switzerland to Amsterdam. On this voyage, I will be able to observe the operations of a European river cruise company that provides a small ship cruise experience somewhat similar to what I do as Captain of the Blount Small Ship Adventures vessels as we cruise the inland waterways of the U.S. and Canada. I hope to learn a few things that might prove helpful in improving the experiences of my future passengers.
The booking process with Exclusive Tours was fast, easy & accurate. I elected to make my own flight arrangements and was able to fly on SWISS AIR from Boston to Zurich. I also researched and prepared my own “tour” for a couple of days prior to the cruise and an extra day in Amsterdam. I was in Switzerland back in 1984 in Montreaux , and visited a bit in France & Italy at that time too. I had not spent much time in the “German” section of the country and so elected to focus my time in Zurich on this trip.
